Sunday, October 14, 2007

Week Five

I just finished listening to a podcast from San Jose State and realized a couple of things. One, there is so much out there that I have never heard of that it makes this mission seemed doomed to failure.
Second, I'm going to keep plugging away at it.
I have used Unitedstreaming in my classroom in past years. I no longer have access to it, but I do have CA streaming. I have not used it as of today. I asked myself why? The best I can come up with is disappointment and familiarity. I was used to US and I liked the way it worked and was excited enough about it to become a Discovery Educator. Then it was gone. So when I watched the Water Buffalo video I was jolted back to the reality of how powerful short clips can be. It is also more work to find suitable short clips than to just show a full video and expect the students to retain all of the information supplied.
Bottom line: Get on CA Streaming and get back to the program I had started and used very successfully.
I tried to access most of the links to other videos and did not have success with most. They either did not recognize my Quicktime or wanted me to download something else and when I tried I got a message that it could not be found. This type of message makes it easy to get discouraged from trying to use their sites.

3 comments:

Markal said...

Failure is not an option, Edie. Practice is key to success and I know you know this to be the truth. I would say that you are ahead of the pack because of your previous experience with using Unitedstreaming in your classes. One point that I would agree with is its easy to be discouraged if you are unable to access a site. I tend to give up and move on to something else. There is so many programs and computer systems that it can be difficult at times.

RicoSal said...

Nice work with your blog, have have really included some nice eye-catching graphics. One question though, how did it get your blog you open up in a new page?

Janice Stearns said...

You becoming discouraged! I can't believe it. We all become discouraged, but like Markal quoted, failure is not an option. This class offered so many tools, that sometimes it can become quite frustrating, like when videos don't play. You do have lots of support close by, so please don't hesitate to ask. Between the ed tech folks at your school to me, we will get your questions answered and hopefully your problems solved.

I know how uncomfortable it is to have to change tools, like from US to California Streaming. You get used to one thing, and then need to change. There are some great videos in California Streaming, and they are adding more all the time.