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Professional Development Feedback Received

November 25th, 2008

Hello all,

I’d like to thank everyone who submitted the feedback concerning professional development in technology.

I will draft out a schedule of workshops for after the holiday. I plan to offer them on Wednesdays, either during your conference period or after school. I fully understand the difficulty attending any additional training, so I will try something new this year to accommodate your schedules. I will be putting the training online (including video screencasts) to review at your convenience.

One of the most challenging things about offering professional development in technology is that many of the best, most engaging technologies today have odd sounding names (blogs, wikis, podcasts, social bookmarking, etc) and are unlikely to attract an audience. I will offer the usual training in “old school” technologies like Word, PowerPoint and Easy Grade Pro. and offer exposure to many of the new possibilities online. I assure you that I only recommend tools or services that are worth your time.

I’d like to invite you to view this week’s offering:
1. Using Moodle, an online course development tool
2. Using online discussion groups through Moodle.

I will be using Moodle for the technology professional development course, so you can get a sense of its usefulness.

To log in:

Go to: Technology for the 21st Century Teacher

Click on your name in the right hand corner of the screen to change your password.

Using Discussion Forums:

Once you enter the course, I have posted two discussion topics under Discussion Forum. Please respond if you feel the urge.

1. Topic #1: Last year during the online CAHSEE challenge, I heard some people were concerned that only Asian students had the top scores. Is this something we should be concerned with this year?

2. Topic #2: How might we move forward with technology at Lincoln?

Using Moodle to create an online course:

I have also posted 8 screencasts on setting up an online course of your own: (how to create a discussion group, embed video, post documents, customize, and more)

I will still offer face-to-face meetings on Wednesday, but I believe the online component will provide a useful complement to these trainings as well as a future place to refer back to.

Have a nice Thanksgiving,

Mike Skramstad, Technology Coordinator
Abraham Lincoln High School

http://www.lincolnhs.org

(323) 441-4600

skramstad Updates

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