DIP July 2008 Institute

Our Digital Immersion Project (DIP) participants had our July Institute last Tues. and Wed. (July 29 and 30). Seventeen of us attended and we taught ourselves! Fortunately, I had purchased Christopher Shamburg’s book, English Language Arts: Units for Grades 9-12 from the Bringing Technology into the Classroom series published by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). I blogged earlier about our attending ISTE’s National Education Computing Convention (NECC) in San Antonio. Visit iste.org and www.chrisshamburg.com
During the two-day workshop, we covered the following topics:
National Education Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S)
Bringing Technology into the Classroom: sample syllabus
Copyright, fair use and www.creativecommons.org
Setting up Gmail and Airset accounts for all students
Google Document, iGoogle, Google Groups, Google Sites, Google Reader
Creating a virtual museum template
Tips for using our new equipment (laptops and projectors)
Project-based learning planning templates and deadlines
Mock lesson for using Airset, Google docs., and the Interne
Learning so many new things in such a short time has been frustrating for all of us. (Working with teachers can be more challenging than working with students.) Yet, we remain dedicated to helping our students and ourselves be prepared for the future. We have become a family of brothers and sisters, sometimes fighting but always coming together to help one another. Another lesson we learned was to be more empathetic towards our own students. Sometimes, we use words that are foreign, our instructions are vague, and our desired outcomes are unclear.
On August 11, our students will arrive. I anticipate that we will have lots of problems; however, we will work things out. I’ll have to remember the advice below from Brian Adams:
“ Learn the art of patience. Apply discipline to your thoughts when they become anxious over the outcome of a goal. Impatience breeds anxiety, fear, discouragement and failure. Patience creates confidence, decisiveness, and a rational outlook, which eventually leads to success.”
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