Friday, July 9, 2010
CEdO 599 Post#1
It is hard to believe that I am embarking on the last class in this graduate program. With that said, the focus has shifted to my culminating project. Along with that, I want to make sure that my portfolio is a solid representation of what I accomplished throughout the program. My final project involves the study and implementation of Google Wave at my school. I have been occupying my time of late getting reacquainted with Wave and all it has to offer. My goals for the project involve teaching the members in my department how to use Wave and to utilize this tool for curriculum development. A secondary goal is to lead two in-service offerings for all staff members at my school. I think that both objectives can be accomplished, but there are factors outside of my control that may limit the scope of my effort. If my department isn't comfortable with the functionality of Wave for curriculum development, it will be a hard sell to get the group to use it as the vehicle to get class offerings in order for the following school year. Also, if none of the faculty members at my school sign up for the in-service concerning Wave, then I will be presenting to empty chairs. At the same time, the attention spans at some of the in-service offerings are the equivalent of speaking to empty chairs. Regardless of what happens outside my control, I know that it is imperative to improve my knowledge of Wave. I am feeling more comfortable with Wave the more that I study what it can do, but I know that my work has just begun. So off I go to improve my initial plans for my project. Whereas I don't want to tinker too much with the plans, I do want to make sure that I am specific with my goals and that the scope of my effort is reasonable and achievable.
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OK, so I feel dumb asking but I'll go ahead... what's Wave? (For lack of my logging on myself to find out!) I too am a little concerned about the factors beyond my control...I also have a plan for some staff development. I think that if we plan the presentation with elements of digital storytelling and a hands on approach, that the if the chairs are full, the attention span issue will take care of itself. Now, how to fill the chairs in the first place. How does your school/district do sign ups? Would this be for a breakout session at a building wide in-service or are you asking people to sign up for a stand alone session on a non in-service day?
ReplyDeleteAnn,
ReplyDeleteAccording to the designers of Wave, it is what email would look like if it was developed today. Anyone can sign into Wave if they have a Google account. You basically create a document and invite people to join the document. It can be a great collaboration tool because people come to the document rather than the document coming to them. Even if you invited me to a document created a month ago, I would be able to see the progression of the document over time. The fact that the document stays in one place eliminates the email chain that normally occurs within shared documents. Everyone can see what has been done to the document, but you can also restrict who can see what. I think it is a cool tool, but it will be interesting to see how Wave develops in the future. Hope that helps. :)
Cool! So if I understand it's also somewhat like etherpad + email...
ReplyDeleteRyan- I think your project sounds awesome. I understand your concerns about presenting to empty chairs. Is there any way you could also present for your district? I'm sure that there would be quite a few people interested in this topic.
ReplyDeleteHuh. I had never heard of Wave before, so I took a look at it. It almost seems like an evolved combination of instant chat/email combination. I am very interested to see how you implement it in a class. Thanks for the knowledge! :)
ReplyDelete