This past week, we’ve been discovering the COETAIL community’s favorite blog posts from COETAIL courses 4 and 5 during the #COETAILBlogTour! Read on for a selection of favorites shared to our social media pages.

 

Course 4:

 

Remember to Cover Your Eggs With Rocks@mrabunting discusses gamification in an education setting. “Gamification has been shown to have benefits to teaching and learning, such as helping low achieving students access the curriculum more easily, or naturally building scaffolding into the content you want students to learn due to the stages nature of video games.”

 

BlendEd – In this blog, @pandiononline compares technology in the classroom to a good smoothie – mix the right amount of technology “in the blender with our daily objectives, content, instruction, investigation, creating, and evaluation and press the button. Oh! You should remember to put a lid on it too or else it might explode. If you have added the right mix you will get a desirable result.”

 

T3S, TPACKS AND SAMRS… OH MY@troyXwhite offers his opinion on SAMR, TPACK, and the T3 framework. “T3 is logical and more so applicable to many of the challenging technologically integrated tasks that we are currently asking our students to perform.”

 

Course 5:

 

How Do You Eat an Elephant?@kngodbout discusses the big task of Course 5, putting all you’ve learned throughout your COETAIL courses together to create the final project. “The more I thought about what I had or hadn’t done in regards to redefinition the more I began to think that maybe we shift the way we think about “previously inconceivable.”  It is about pushing the bar and trying out new ideas, but instead of thinking about what has been already conceived out there on a global scale, consider what was previously inconceivable for YOU! Yes, it would be nice to redefine technology in the classroom as compared to what others are doing, have done or tried before, BUT that is where the overwhelming part comes in. I think redefining what YOU do with technology is a huge win.”

 

Community Starts at Home@almccloskey shares how COETAIL has broadened her community and her personal learning network (PLN). “The articles shared, conversations, connections and learning experiences I have encountered due to my expanding PLN are incredible. I strongly urge all educators to take the time each week to reach out globally.”

Building My Educational Philosophy Within a PLN@mrseanwalmsley reflects how building his PLN has helped him in COETAIL and beyond. “I know for certain that being engaged within a PLN has been paramount to my successes. I have been able to be a passive observer to gain ideas about how people are integrating technology. I have been able to dialogue with people when I need to troubleshoot something. I have been inspired. I have been motivated to try something new. I feel that I have also become a conscious creator and contributor to my PLN in an effort to complete by professional learning cycles and engage in the community discussions about education. I think that participating in the community engagement of a PLN has been one of the most effective forms of professional learning ever and I will always value the support that my PLN offers to me!”