RenWeb and Future Possiblities for English Techie

I have been teaching 10th grade English for the past several months and have not had much opportunity for English Techie. 

RenWeb is our school management system. On the plus side, everything is web based, so I can access grades, lesson plans, etc. from home. The best feature is the homework calendar, which shows a specific student's homework for every class on each day. On the down side, I often have copy + paste errors where a day's worth of lesson plans or attendance may be deleted. Navigating this system is unnecessarily complicated for me as a teacher and as a parent, and there are no template options to spice up the web page option. I have experimented with web documents, but there are some flaws in this, as well. I hope to spend some more time working on RenWeb to conquer some of my issues; however, my schedule has been insanely full since I started my new job.

I am still interested in pursuing podcasting and attended a convention recently that offered two technology seminars. One was on podcasting and the other was on connecting your classroom to the world via the Internet. There were several possibilities in the second class concerning web field trips and classroom swaps. I'm going to purchase a mic for my ipod and try to create a podcast before spring. I'm optimistic about it because so many of the students have ipods. The school also has a fairly advanced learning strategies program that pursues technological assistance for students with special learning needs. Another possibility that may arise is that of an instructional technology committee. I've emailed the headmaster to know I'd be interested in participating, but I've not heard any more about the possibility of it.

iTunes U

The college has been creating podcasts for a couple of semesters now, but media services has been distributing them through their website. Today a small committee met for the first time to begin the process of establishing PBCC on iTunes U. Even though I will be leaving my full time position at the college, I plan to remain as an adjunct, so I will still be able to participate in this project.

Many prominent universities and colleges have already begun using iTunes U and freely distribute lectures, speeches, tours, videos, and other items to the public. Some colleges have decided to only give partial access to the public. For instance, some items like class lectures are only available to students, but a tour of the campus is available to the public. I got very excited about some of these podcasts and downloaded an entire World Literature course from NJIT. To see an article in Forbes magazine about Stanford providing free access to education via podcasts, click here.

My First Web CT Class

I took Contemporary Literature last semester for two reasons: I wanted a refresher in studying literature before I began grad school and I was curious about taking an online course. It was very enjoyable. I especially enjoyed the long discussion threads. The class was not taught in a traditional lecture method. The instructor really used the medium to his advantage by promoting student discussions as the predominant method of instruction. He offered occasional insights, but most learning and teaching was done by the students. It was very Socratic.

The only problem I had was with the group project. It was hard to collaborate with people of varying computer knowledge. There was also quite a lot of miscommunication that would not probably have occurred had we been meeting face to face. It was a learning experience for me on several levels.

Turning Point II

I've used the Turning Point software in several situations now, and I do not feel like it enhanced the learning process enough to deal with the added work of creating these presentations. Turning Point works in conjunction with Power Point, so I create a presentatation in Power Point and then open it with Turning Point to create my questions. The students would be able to interact with the program by using the Student Response Systems ( or clickers). From their responses, I could tell who was participating and could monitor their progress. Unfortunately, every time I used this program, I encountered some sort of technical problem. The system seems great in theory, but the practice left much to be desired. Invariably half the clickers would not work, or I would open the presentation in Power Point rather than Turning Point, or the classroom computer wouldn't register the clickers. These little things could be ironed out with time, but taking into consideration how long it took me to make each of these presentations, I don't think it's worth the effort.

Ingeniux V

I am responsible for managing the content of the following PBCC web pages:

• Student Learning Center Staff Resources
• Student Learning Center Student Resources (English and Reading sections)
• Belle Glade Student Learning Center page and child pages
• Belle Glade location page and child pages
• Belle Glade Professional Teaching and Learning Center
• Belle Glade Student Activities page and child page

While it's been fun working on some of these pages, I do have a tendency to get a little "tech- happy."  My maze of pages is getting a little out of control. Since I'm leaving PBCC in August, I'm working on distributing the responsibility of these pages, as well as reigning them in a little so they're a little easier to manage.

I'm chairing a subcommittee for the Student Learning Center to make our pages more student friendly, and I hope to finish with that major project before I leave. Ingeniux is set up a lot like an outline. There are major pages with detail pages underneath them. We've met to discuss our main SLC page and the second tier of pages which includes our four location pages along with student resources and staff resources. In the midst of these changes, Ingeniux has received some major updates. Overall, the updates make the CMS easier to use and a little more visually appealing, but it's still something new to learn. To see what the pages look like now, go to www.pbcc.edu/slc.xml. Of course, when you check this site out in July, it will look much different.