Diigo

I am really glad that we learned how to use Diigo because it is definitely a valuable tool I will be able to use when working on my dissertation. I am very very organized and love organization systems, however I had never really found a useful way to organize content from websites. Diigo is the perfect solution because everything I bookmark is in one place and I can search using tags, annotations, or titles.

I also love the sticky notes feature in Diigo. I often have thoughts I want to jot down when reading content online, but if I type or write it down, I usually forget what I was reading when I return to the note. Diigo is a great way to connect notes directly to websites or online content. 

Overall, I am really excited about Diigo and I am looking forward to using it to support my own research, as well as my work with my own students.

Theory Presentations

I had a great time collaborating with my peers to create our theory presentation. Google Slides was the perfect medium for the presentation because we were able to see each other's progress and never had to worry about updated versions. I am glad I had the opportunity to research cognitive apprenticeship theory because it is a concept often discussed during PDs at my school. Cognitive apprenticeship is a theory of the process where an apprentice learns a skill from a master. It uses elements of the old idea of apprenticeship incorporated with schooling.  

 

I can apply what I learned from my research directly to my own teaching practice. I particularly like learning about how cognitive apprenticeship occurs through gaming. I know Minecraft and other games are used in schools, but it was useful to learn specifically how gaming is beneficial for students.

 

I also really appreciated the thoughtful and thorough work Selena and JennyErika produced. Both of my team members did an excellent job and I learned a lot from their research and parts of our presentation. Overall, I am proud of our team and think we did a great job working together to present our theories.

I was also very impressed with the other team's presentation. I think Maryann and Betinna did a great job of explaining their theories. I loved all the video clips they included to help support their ideas. I also thought they led a very productive discussion. I supposed the bottom line of the blog post is that Cohort 5 is the best and we all kicked butt.

Presenting With Google Slides

I was excited that our class had the opportunity to present online. I think it is a valuable skill to have and while we have done MANY PowerPoint/Google Slides presentations, we have never done online presentations. I did experience some technical difficulties before I began presenting, but it turned out to be because of the browser. I am appreciative of the experience, and was even glad to run into a glitch because I know how to prepare in the future if I ever need to present online.

I also really enjoyed preparing my presentation. I care a lot about the subject and I found a lot of interesting information about women in leadership. Even after learning about the percentages of women in leadership positions and the factors contributing to the issue, I still find it so hard to believe that there is such a huge gap.

I also had fun putting together the presentation. As I mentioned earlier, we have done many PowerPoint presentations. I have always been impressed with how artistic some of my colleagues get when designing their presentations. This presentation was the first time I attempted to apply some (very basic) graphic design techniques. I was proud of the result and thought my presentation aesthetically pleasing (Although, in the future I will be sure to put the assignment guidelines above artistry because not having a picture on every slide affected my grade).