Time Management

I am a relative newbie when it comes to using the latest forms of technology in the classroom. Of course, I am comfortable with using my laptop and projector, but I am only now just beginning to dip my toe into newer things like podcasting, videocasting, social networking, moodle, etc.

A general question I have is, given that presentations need to be relatively polished and seamless (i.e., systems not hanging, devices not crashing, etc.) in order to keep students engaged [by the way, I teach high school math], where do people find the time to a) learn enough about a technology to risk using it in the classroom and b) develop content?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

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Permalink Reply by Lindsey @SmartEd Services on November 23, 2009 at 9:59am

Become a fan of SmartEd Services on Facebook for updated articles, ideas to implement technology in the classroom, teacher tools and resources: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?

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Permalink Reply by Julie Baird on November 27, 2009 at 6:11am

Because the link above was broken, I was only taken to my groups page. I did a search for SmartEd Services and that didn't yield any usable results. It was only after I copied the entire link from http:// to ?ref=nf" and pasted that in the address bar was I able to get to the group.

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Permalink Reply by Tammy Moore on November 23, 2009 at 11:03am

Summer break is a great time for developing your skills and creating course content.

If you find that you need to be developing and learning during the school year, them making and holding yourself to a schedule for development can be good. I don't get summers off, so I develop and work on my own professional and course development year-round.

I get excited about new technologies pretty easily, so I really have to hold the reins in to try to assess them quickly and prioritize what seems to be the most useful to serve the kids or our community as a whole. If I can, I try to find others teaching the same subjects/levels that I am that already use the tools and fish for stability and application information before digging in too deep to a particular program. It helps you get below the surface layers of hype and advertising down to the nitty-gitty of everyday use. Our budget is pretty tight too, so if it costs too much to keep it I might as well not have the temptation generated by exploring it.

For project/time management, I use Cmap (really a free concept map tool, but I use it for project management) to keep a semester/week at a time big picture view combined with Outlook 2007 for the detailed steps. I add the steps in to Outlook whenever I get in to the two week window of projects being scheduled in the Cmaps. The Outlook having the steps broken out means that even when I have an idle 5-minutes, I can whittle away at a big task by looking at my to-do list and getting something done while I wait. I can easily see exactly what steps are finished, current, and yet to be done in the project. I don't really have a way to share my Outlook view with you but I can share the Cmap. The link is http://cmapspublic2.ihmc.us/rid=1GGZV8PKL-16D5KLV-2B5K/Projects%202.... You won't be able to zoom in and out in the web view like I can in the program view, but maybe it will give you some ideas.

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Permalink Reply by Julie Baird on November 27, 2009 at 6:18am

Learning technology definitely takes time. I recommend starting slowly and working on part of a lesson that you think will be better presented through technology. Unfortunately you always need to have a back-up plan, in case the technology isn't working on that day.

If you are thinking of having your students create something with technology, learn enough of the basics to get them started and then tell them that they are to help each other learn the other components of technology since you're alsio learning this yourself. I recently did this with PhotoStory 3. After a quick view of the basics, I gave them a class period to play with the program. The next few days we spent the hour working on their projects. It was great hearing the class help others when someone was stuck.