A Serendipity Day

I spent quite a bit of time preparing for my three lectures today. I had precedents ready to project and everything. Imagine my surprise when I walked into the classroom and there was no computer! I just couldn't believe it - I haven't taught in a classroom sans computer for years. So what could I do but wing it, tell funny stories and let the students out an hour early.

I was happy to have the extra time to continue working on the Angel course for Assignment 2. It's like the wiki pages we had to create last November - as you work away at it, the more comfortable you become and more things seem to fall into place and make sense. I was able to move content into a different folder. I made up a new crossword puzzle for Wills and Estates. I was inputting a new html page and decided to include a link to team skills. When I searched for team skills I found a very informative link to Penn State University which had an Angel tutorial and FAQ site. It also had info on Angel Team Tools! I couldn't believe it! I will be setting up 9 teams who will write the manuals for the 5 legal software we're going to learn this semester so this site will be perfect to refer to. There was also a Community Hub which is a user group's self-help blog. That's exactly what I spoke about in our School of Business meeting last Friday and I emailed our Ed Tech department about today, requesting that they allow me access to start one for the pilot group. Meanwhile, I emailed everyone on the pilot project and invited them to join a user group so we could collaborate and commiserate! No responses yet though. I watched the Gradebook Wizard video and learned how to edit the Gradebook. Now I have categories for each area of law plus a Classwork section to cover the Introductory section. There are two ways of keeping grades - by points or by percentage. I was originally mixing the grading system up by using both ways so that’s been corrected.

I panicked this morning before class as I didn't know how the students were going to access the Angel site. Either did the Ed Tech Department! We had to experiment before class! I had three students log on today and I've received such positive comments from all of them. "Yes, I find this really neat too! I like all the information that we have access to and all that we are able to accomplish with it. This will be wonderful."

When I didn't have a computer at my fingertips today, I talked about wikis and blogs. It was amazing how little they know about either of them, although they do follow Paris Hilton's blog! I wondered what type of blog my students would read. I 'm disappointed or maybe I just don't know how to change the font for the wiki and blog nor how to insert images. When I was questioning students how they would communicate/collaborate with group members and got blank stares, I suggested the virtual classroom or IM or Skype. Imagine my surprise when they asked “What is Skype??” so I can see a quick lesson coming up!

I also learned how to use the Attendance feature – students will enter a PIN which shows up on my home page every day.

At 7 pm tonight I had a really enjoyable Wimba session with Chris, Joyce, Cherry, Penelope, Fiona and Peter. Poor Peter is suffering from sciatica. It's amazing how clearly we could hear each other although there were times the audio broke up. Everyone seems to be motivated and excited about the course, and the session provided a lot of good links. I especially like the one about the growth of a wiki.

I don’t understand why I can’t access any sites, my blog won’t save and yet the music is still streaming. I don’t want to close down as my head is spinning with ideas. But it’s almost 1:30 am so it’s time to say good night.