I will definately participate in PD courses on-line although I do have to say that I was fortunate to share this PD experience with other teachers in my building. We helped each other when something was confusing and we didn't quite understand how or what we were doing, which is one of the advantages and disadvantages of taking a PD class on-line. I enjoy the personal interaction when I'm trying to figure out how to solve a problem which isn't necessarily available when taking an on-line class. I like the convenience of working on-line at my own pace whenever and wherever I am. Whether or not I'll continue to blog is another question. Right now, I don't thing I will continue to share my thoughts. I didn't see the advantage of blogging from this experience. People aren't interacting with the blogs. As far as this class went, I'm finding that I enjoyed it more than I thought I was going to when I first began this experience. In the beginning, I thought it was confusing, too much work, too many user names and passwords to remember. I didn't understand that everything was under the umbrella of google and that I would only need the one user name and password. I learned much more than I realized. Perhaps it was the wikis, podcasts, and vodcasts that struck a cord. It was exciting to download the video to show to the student who didn't understand what the reading was about. I told my students today that if the books they were creating came out good, they could create a podcast so that their parents or relatives could hear them read their stories over the internet. They were so excited! I'm hoping this will encourage them to put their best effort into their work and they will create something of substance. I would never have thought of doing something like that before taking this class. If someone told me to do it, I would have thought of it as one more thing to add to my impossibly long list of things to do at school.
I do have to say however, that I'm not sure I would have been as optomistic about this class had it not been for the teachers I worked with and collaborated with. It helped make the class more fun and interesting especially when we began sharing ideas. Bottom line, I would recommend this class to others and I'm looking forward to 23Things Part 2.
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Go back and read your earlier posts and you'll see the tremendous growth you've made in just a few short weeks.
I agree, it's better to work WITH someone on learning all this new stuff. And with Web 2.0 that someone doesn't have to be someone in your building (although that's still the best option) it can be someone you've never met face to face (or perhaps never will). I am currently learning from several people on Twitter. They're from all around the US and Canada. I've only met a few of them, but they are so willing to share.
And yes, I'm thinking of creating 23 MORE things! Hope you'll sign up.
And let me know if I can help with implementing any of these "things" in your classroom.
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