The One Where She Gets Too Far Ahead of Herself

I can't wait until tomorrow evening.  That's when I'll officially get to dig into my portfolios.  They have until tomorrow to be done with them, so I'm antsy.  I've been stalking their portfolios since I gave the assignment and things are looking good.  That, in itself, makes me happy.  I wasn't sure how this was going to go when I launched this just a few short weeks ago.

Most of my learners have completed their portfolios and I think that they will have been successful with this assignment.  I'm hoping that they remembered to edit and refine their work; I can see this being the 'weak spot' for many.  I tried to be as clear as possible when I did that piece.

Otherwise, I'm seeing good things.  Learners have done, by and large, what I asked them to.  They have noted that they learned something through this revision process.  I am also happy to say that they even enjoyed (at least some of them) the Wiki pages.

I'm almost done.  They're almost done.  But in the words of the musical Hamilton....

Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy?

Too Good to be True?

The class I teach is a blended course, so we only meet four times in a given semester.  Since we are now in the process of wrapping up the term, we have gathered again to give final presentations.  (I love these presentations--they are the highlight of my semester!)

As part of the conversation I had with students when we met last Thursday, I encouraged them to make their Wiki accounts if they hadn't already (so I had a flood of six during class) and asked how things were going.

One of my students said, "It's easy."

This makes me understandably nervous.  Understandably, because this is one of my most technologically resistant students.  

I'm also optimistic that by working through the semester the way we have, she has allayed some of her nervousness and become more confident when tackling new technologies.  

During the conversation, it does appear that the video was helpful.  At the very least, they watched it. Because it outlines the assignment, I am very thankful for that.  I do hope that building their portfolios is 'easy.'

The assignment is still 'in process,' so I'll peek at the wikis shortly.  I want to give them as much room as possible so that they can do the work they need to do.

They've Started!

I am happy to say that I was correct in why my students had taken so long to 'get started' on their wiki sites: Thanksgiving.  It was really nice to start receiving messages with students requesting access to their respective sites over the break.  All of the groups have now at least started working on their wikis and while I've only taken brief looks at the sites, they seem to be following my video directions well.

I've had a handful of questions come my way.  I use Google Voice to provide them with a text contact number for responses to 'quick questions.'  I had three or four questions come my way over the break with questions from students (ok...the same student), asking for clarification about a piece of the content she was including.  The nice thing about the Google Voice option is that it allows me to put out small fires while also maintaining a boundary of not giving out an actual phone number (something I am quite certain I will never do.)

Turkeys & Tick Tocks

Happy Thanksgiving!  Once the tryptophan coursed its way through my system, I took a look at the progress my students have been making toward their online portfolios and I am encouraged to see that three of my five groups have requested access to their Wiki site.  I've gone through and given them the access they need to build the Wiki.  One of the groups has started making progress on uploading portfolio requirements.  The other two are at the access-only stage. 

There are two groups, however, who I see have not requested any sort of access.  I will likely follow up with them once we all get back on Monday.  I do hope that they avoid too much of the procrastination.  It could get scary with this project!

Patience

I will be patient--I will be patient--I will be patient.

I have had only one student ask to have permission to their wiki site.  I asked them to have these requests made by tonight--perhaps tomorrow I will have a boatload of student requests in my inbox.

I worry about my students falling behind--they only have a short window of time to do this project.  Then again, I know that I do tend to wait until the last minute to get started on projects.

Ok!  This will work out and they will get their work done on time.  They will!

My Proposal

I am officially in a holding pattern with my project simply due to the fact that I will not see my learners for two full weeks.  It's like sending a balloon up into the air...I'll only really hear from them if it pops.

I've had one of my twenty-three learners request access to their Wiki sites.  If I don't hear from them in the next couple of days, I'll send up an alert to the students reminding them to accomplish this step as a way to encourage them to start dipping their toes into the Wiki.

That is really the extent to my update. As we get closer to the due date, I anticipate having a good handful of questions come my way.

Until then, the balloon is floating along.

The Project Is Launched

I've officially launched the project this afternoon by posting the content of the project and the instructional video on the course's D2L site.  I find that I have a love/hate relationship with Screen Cast-O-Matic: I love being able to actually present content to my students and walk them through new content and procedures.  I HATE listening to myself.  My voice grates my nerves.

In theory, this was a fairly straightforward conversion of the portfolio project.  My students are (to me) surprisingly technology resistant, so it will be interesting to see how they adapt to the challenge of building their wiki sites.

Technically, they have until December 12th to turn in their projects.  I know this deadline conflicts with the course end, but I am confident that at least some of the groups will have sufficient content developed/uploaded in their wiki that I will be able to do the evaluation component of this project.

Fingers crossed!

Proposal

Inspired by the work that we have done in class, I spoke briefly with Dr. Larson about any concerns he might have with what I am planning on doing with my students.  This is how I started the project.  

I teach a healthcare informatics course at Methodist College.  Each semester, they work on building a specialty clinic or healthcare non-profit as a means of integrating the curriculum into projects they can get their hands on.  I love this project!

One of their final assignments is the submission of a comprehensive portfolio of all of the work they have done during the entirety of the term.  Each member of each group will also be asked to write a (one page maximum) reflection.  All of this content will be build into a Wiki.  

With this assignment on deck and coupled with the fact that I was looking to do something different this term (the portfolios can get bulky), I am going to have the students build their end of term portfolios in a Wiki site. 

I will start the assignment by using Screen Cast-o-matic software to record my working them through an example and then I will turn the work over to them.  

By the time the final report in the assignment is due, I will have been able to see all of the portfolios!

I'm excited to introduce this to my students!