I like your overall stated goal about making video technology more accessible to teachers. Perhaps you can influence campus tech policies by showing how well they support instruction. If youtube is blocked, people may not be able to see embedded videos either. It would be a good idea to test it out at a school where you know there is a problem.

The assignment asked for a detailed timeline of improvements and new features. I did see a general direction but not specific details. It would be good to flesh that out in your mind, and in writing, to help guide you as you develop your site further.

Great things are on the horizon!

Debby

Skype in the classroom… Who would have thought of that!? I mean it isn’t so far fetched considering the level on which technology has been emerged into the classroom. So many things can get done through Skype in school. Perhaps if there’s a show in school and parents may not be able to attend it can be broadcasted via the school’s Skype channel. Peer tutoring can be done via Skype should they be unable to meet in person. Group activities or projects can be done via Skype.

The opportunities are endless and having that available to students may make things a little more interesting! After coming across your site I decided to look into ways of using Skype in the classroom and I found this:
http://blog.learningtoday.com/blog/bid/41726/10-Ways-to-Use-Skype-in-the-Classroom
To my surprise an idea I mentioned in the first paragraph was listed on it! This whole idea has been very enlightening and hopefully one day when I get the opportunity to incorporate technology into my preschool classroom I can find a way to use Skype as well!

I think it is great that Moodle will allow you to make your powerpoint presentations available to students at home. This now prevents students from being able to say that they forgot their notes at home. Now they are available to your students whenever and wherever they are. That in and of itself makes Moodle worthwhile.

I also like the fact that with Moodle you can differentiate the learning for the many different learning styles that are in our classrooms. I do hope to incorporate some of these features in my classroom at some point. I have to get quite a bit more comfortable with the program though.

I think you did a great job with your blog. I have to agree with the title of your blog in that it is a love-hate relationship. I believe that it can truly be a great tool for students, but in order for it to be a great tool, teachers need to fully understand all components of it in addition to knowing how to make it the most beneficial site for students. I am still learning my way with discovering and exploring new features. I love the idea of you implementing your powerpoints into the site and allowing students to have access to them. I also like how you brought up the idea of this being a great resource for students OUTSIDE of the classroom as they can access it whenever they want. This is something that students can truly take advantage of. Great job and stay optimistic! We will figure it out and become experts! Good luck!

Nice start on the site!

After reading your post, I thought of what a great tool this would be for foreign language teachers. They could possibly partner with a class in another country that was learning English and the Skype conversations would be mutually benficial. When I was looking for further information about that, I came across this article which listed some of the other benefits of Skype in the classroom. http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/using-skype-at-school.html I really appreciated the first point about Skype being budget-friendly. All schools already have internet connections, so teachers would just need access to a webcam, which many school may have already.