Time for Introductions!!!

Welcome (again) to EDC922 - eBooks and Digital Content

This is our class blog. It will serve as our discussion forum, connection to each other, and the main webpage you will be accessing. If this is your first visit, then please first read the entry below (titled, 'Practice Session') and follow the instructions there--- then return to this spot and continue reading.

 The content here should keep you pretty busy for the next few days until Session 2 is posted--for now you only need to know a few things.

This blog can be viewed by anyone, but will only allow the participants of EDC922 to interact with it. When you would like to respond to someone or comment upon a session, just click on the 'comment' link below each of my postings (you should sign up for a Blogger account ASAP and choose a 'User Name' that is easily identifiable. Blogger is owned by Google, so if you already have a user account with Google for something like: gmail, gdocs,picassa..., then use that user name) until you've done that, choose the 'anonymous' button under 'choose an identity'; I'm sure some of you have already begun to practice a little.  If you run into any trouble and need to contact me, then please email me at DaveFontaine1@gmail.com.

In the left-hand margin you will see links to individual lessons (accessible every Monday evening).



This blog, in addition to its use as an interactive communication tool, will also be where you can access and download your weekly sessions. The presentation links to the left will be accessible on a week-to-week basis (Mon.  evenings). I've said it before, but it bears repeating---When attempting to download always choose 'save' rather than 'open.'

The syllabus is also linked to the left. Google has a free service (gDocs, gDrive) that allows you to just upload any Word document and with one additional click it gets published online with its own URL. The course syllabus is an example of how easy it is to use, and we'll practice with this tool.

One more aspect that will be unique about this course is that I support a completely collaborative teaching philosophy. Following that mindset, I will keep your assignments, comments, and reflections viewable and accessible to future participants of this course. The 'goal' of that is:

1. For future participants to gain from the collective knowledge of your experiences;
2. Benefit from what you have done; and
3. Incorporate new ideas into their classroom.

The bonus for you, of course, is that this information will also always be accessible to you. This way, in the future (many semesters from now) you may revisit this site and benefit from the ideas of all the participants that took it 'after' you. In this way---YOU will gain from all the 'learning speed bumps' of those that have come after you--even though they are not currently enrolled in this course.
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Some of the content for our sessions is also covered in my "Blogs and Wikis" course. Where that is the case I'll also give you a link to the 'comments' of past participants about that topic.

Before we go any further I would like each of you to practice using this forum and introduce yourself. We will be spending the semester together, so it is important to learn as much about each other as possible. Click on the 'comment' link below this posting, then you may click the 'anonymous' button and write a few paragraphs about yourself. (If you are feeling bold you may sign up for a Blogger account now and use the 'user name' that you create when you 'comment' rather than choosing 'anonymous.')

Please include:
-your name
-email address (so that you may contact each other directly if needed),
-your educational background,
-teaching history,
-current teaching position with location, and lastly
-what you hope to come away with when this semester is over, along with any additional information about you that you wish to share, like your motivation for choosing this course...

After you have finished posting this profile, come back to this page and read the '922-Session 1' posting (below this one), then find the 'Session 1' link (along the left-hand margin), download it, and view it. When you are finished with the session please click on the 'comment' link again and add any comments, insights, or reflections you have for Session 1, under this "Time for Introductions" posting.

Sometimes it takes a little while to get the hang of using this forum. I have taken this into consideration by reducing the workload of the first session. (Of course, if you get distracted easily, then you could spend hours exploring.)

Week 1's primary goal is to make sure everyone is on the same page and skill level before we sink our teeth into the meat of this course,  however, if you run into any 'techno-speed bumps' then please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Everything here is licensed by Creative Commons. This means that you have complete authority to download, save, share, and use all of the lessons in your classroom, but are prohibited from any commercial uses.

You will notice that each slide of the PowerPoint presentation has the narration transcribed in the 'notes section' of each slide. This is because each semester we have teachers from around the world taking this course. We've had teachers from Canada, China, Alaska, California, Phillipines, Sudan, Singapore...taking my courses (And they may need help understanding my "Ro-diland" accent) but more importantly, the transcribed narration allows you to take these slides and use them in your own classroom. (or, if you find my voice putting you to sleep, you can just read the slides instead)

Good luck this semester! I look forward to working and collaborating with you.

Dave Fontaine
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STOP--DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER UNTIL YOU HAVE FOLLOWED THE INSTRUCTIONS ABOVE.

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922-Session 1 "eBooks-What They Are and What Do They Look Like!!!"

This semester will take us onto a new path!

A path that leads to more collaboration--

more cooperative learning---

and more opportunities to create differentiated instruction and visual learning---all with the goal of helping foster literacy, and learning, for our students.

 Here is a taste of the excitement that awaits you when you download our first session.

Good luck and take plenty of notes because I don't want to miss any of your ideas, excitement, and insights when you post your comments!

You may also read past participants' comments:
Spring '13 participants and older semesters'  here and here. Some people find reading them before the session helps with their perspective.

Have fun!

Dave

Practice Session

Welcome to EDC922---"eBooks and Digital Content"


Throughout these 10-13 weeks we will be covering a vast amount of information (but don't be too intimidated). Information and new developments about this content are exploding exponentially, so it's challenging even for me to stay current.


New sessions will be posted once a week (by the end of the day on Monday). 


Please keep in mind that there are new developments and trends in online information every day, therefore we may have to be flexible when interpreting the syllabus. This may mean some modifications, changes and condensing of information. I've already made changes to our first session's content.  

To ensure that we are covering the most current skills and content, I will be assimilating and collating information right up until the moment I post a session. This means that each session's link (over in the left-hand margin) will not be accessible until its respective Monday. Even so, there may be times during a session when a cited link is dead. If that is the case, I will try to keep saved copies of all the information. Just email me (davefontaine1@gmail.com) and I will forward the data to you.

During the first few sessions we will be covering foundational skills. This is to ensure that we all have the basic essentials ‘down pat’. Once this is covered, we will pick up the pace and begin to delve into the mechanics, nuances, and meat of our course.

To ensure continuous accessibility to the information within these presentations I suggest you immediately download, and save the sessions, to your computer.  Not every session will be downloadable, but many will be. I cannot emphasize this enough. Along the left-hand margin, there will be a link for each session. When you click on this link you may be prompted to 'save' or 'open' the session.

Always ‘save’ it to your desktop (or in a folder somewhere on your computer). Previous class participants have found it easiest to organize if they create a folder and store all the sessions in one place. Another option would be to right-click on the link and choose, 'save target as.'

‘Saving’ the sessions will decrease problems relating to your bandwidth. Also, although it may take a while for a presentation to download (up to 10 min. or more depending upon the speed of your connection) it will be much easier to toggle between a PowerPoint and the Internet if you have it saved to your hard drive. Weekly sessions will also become portable if you save them to a thumb drive, so if you want to take them from home to work, or vice-versa that will be easiest.

Additionally, you will need to have access to a computer that has PowerPoint version ’97 or above to view the presentations. (As a last resort I will also upload a copy each week's session to an online service where you can stream it live. You will find that link at the bottom of each weekly posting.) If you cannot hear the sound on them it is possible that the “wave” element of your volume is either on ‘mute’ or not turned up enough. 

Some of you may have already noticed that I teach this course completely from a blog.  This will help those of you who have little, to no, experience with blogs.  You get to practice, participate, and maybe even create your own after this class is finished. I'll give you all 24 hours to practice with this a little and contact you Sat. night with our first official weekly session, so look for an email from me.

Please remember that we are all educators, and that this is a collaborative course. So, as you post your reflections and comments we will all be responding to you. Therefore, timely responses are imperative. After you have posted your weekly assignment, make an effort to return again later to read and comment about other participants’ assignments.

Once again remember that we are all perpetual learners; constantly growing. I hope to learn as much from you---as you will from me.

Now I would like you to try a practice download. Saturday evening I will update this page with information about our first session. Along the left-hand margin you will see the words "PRACTICE SESSION." Please try to download this session to your computer, strictly following the directions above.

Once you have been successful with this process, you may also download the syllabus, but truthfully, I will be updating it weekly, so it might be a better idea if you just save a shortcut to the live version.   There isn't a required, purchasable text, but for those of you that want more depth on blogs and wikis then I recommend Will Richardson's book.  Don't worry if it takes a week to arrive.

You may order it from most online book sellers. Until then you may want to read it online (not ideal and you usually can't access the entire text), but here is the link: Wikis, Blogs, and Podcasts

You could also check your local library here.

If you run into problems, please review the directions again. It is not uncommon for participants to 'stumble' a little getting used to this forum.


If you run into any trouble after that, then please feel free to email me or call.


Thank you and please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have along the way.

Dave Fontaine
eBook, eLearning, and eContent Specialist
National Board Certified Educator
DaveFontaine1@gmail.com
401-835-3782

End of the semester recap

Well, it has been a pleasure working and collaborating with all of you this past semester.  You've made considerable progress with your digital textbooks and I'm sure with some more time they will grow into more than just classroom supplements.

For those of you that are visiting for the first time, I've put together a short video to summarize what this semester was all about.

You'll find links to all of the teachers' screencasts and eTextbooks along the left-hand margin.

Dave Fontaine
eBook, eLearning, and eContent Specialist
http://visualcv.com/davefontaine

Final Projects--due by midnight--5/10/13

This has been a unique pilot project, so thank you for your willingness to experiment in this 21st century endeavor.


On the 15th expect to present your completed work (aka 'Final Project') to me, your course peers, Mr. Ruscito, the Superintendent, and any other interested parties.

I have made lots of personalized changes this semester to suit the needs of this cohort, so don't focus upon the Final Project requirements on the syllabus. Instead use the information below for this semester.

Your Final Projects will be due by Midnight on Friday, May 10th.

You will create a new screencast and place its link (please triple-check to make sure it works) under the Final Projects posting on this blog.  Additionally, you will prepare a 6-8 minute presentation that will be given live on 5/15/13 in the WHS Library from 4-6.

The live presentation will be very similar to the Final Project screencast, but will provide more opportunity for discussion, demonstration, and Q & A from the audience (Principal, Superintendent, URI representatives...).

Both the screencast and the live presentation should include the following:

• A demonstration of your finished project (at least finished for the time-being b/c most of these projects will continue to develop over the next year)
• The practical uses you foresee for your students and yourself.
• How you envision this project will evolve over the next school year and over the next 5 years.
• The potential benefit to teaching and learning, as well as the financial benefit to the district or state, as a whole.
• Include directions for anyone watching about how to find your project on their own.  (what is the url, site it was uploaded to, saved location...), so that the world can benefit from your work.
• Lastly, please add any other important details that you feel should be mentioned or shared.

Additionally, for anyone that may be interested, there may be several opportunities to continue to share your experiences, after the semester closes.  


Holly Walsh, the Instructional Technology and eLearning staff member at RIDE, has expressed some interest in seeing your finished projects and possibly having some of you present them with me at the next "Innovations through Technology" conference that RIDE sponsors on October 5th, 2013.

Also, Senator O'Neill, the Chairman of the Joint Legislative Commission to Study the Use of eTextbooks in RI, has expressed interest in hearing about the Final Projects that you have developed.

I would like to thank all who participated for allowing me to lead you through this process and I look forward to continuing our collaboration in the future.

Once again, I our last face-to-face class is scheduled at WHS, in the Library, on May 15th from 4-6pm.  



Please double check all links to ensure that they are working.  Once I review your Final Projects, I will send you a confirmation and grade.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.  I've been fielding questions as they come in.

Good Luck!