Week of June 15th--to Nampa and Home

This has been a busy week so far. At the beginning of the week I traveled to Nampa/NNU (the small picture is of Fairfield Inn in Nampa) for a class/conference on online learning. We received instruction from our curriculum directors and were given a demo class to practice using a software program called Blackboard. The class will continue with an eight-week online extension; this is VERY good--I feel like I know just enough to be dangerous! I played some with this program tonight--wrote my instructor bio/introduction and practiced with setting dates on units. During the conference I also took a class on using a Wimba, a virtual classroom where you can do synchronous learning without being in the same space geographically via the wonders of technology. Also, we received a nice (noise canceling) microphone to use in our "Idaho Live" classroom. I think it will be an interesting way to teach, but there is quite a bit to learn just on the logistics of the technology. I'm teaching one class this fall along with my regular Skyline job and seeing what I think. We also had a neat speaker Dr. Mark David Milliron at the conference who is "an award-winning leader, author, speaker, and consultant" on learning and technology. He was a professor at Arizona State for awhile, which I found interesting because my sister and family live in Arizona. Some of my instructors at this conference were stressing the importance of developing the habit of logging in daily and checking on students--I told them (only half-jokingly) that the Farming application on Facebook was good prep for this. Onions wilting from not being harvested would be like neglected on-line students. I think I'll write a paper with this metaphorical comparison and see if I can get it published. The opening line will be "It all started when Kristi, my niece, sent me a lonely digital cow..." :) Today I was just tired--even took a nap. Tomorrow I take mom to the foot doctor and then I think we'll head up to Island Park for awhile and relax. Lindsey should be having her little baby boy soon, which is exciting--another baby in the family!!!