Thursday, July 31, 2008

Day 3 - MMME

Whoops! I forgot to do my blog last night. I got wrapped up in my kitchen remodeling project and forgot. So here I am getting up early to send it in (5:30).

Yesterday I thought the field trip experience was worth the time. My experience at PLACON was excellent and worth a visit by everyone. They had a very heavy emphasis on the engineering and technical education end of things, but there were a fair number of jobs at the entry level requiring less than a high school diploma - that surprised me. Apparently, they could no longer hold to their old standard of having a high school education. I wish I had asked if workers were less prepared (lower educ. level) or if there was a low number of available worker. 

 During the Q&A session following the tour employee turnover was a topic. One of the main reasons for dismissal results from employees having greater than 4.5 absences a year. They sounded pretty strict about it, all I could think of were my students were in for a real shock. A great number of them working at the entry level would violate the attendance policy in short order. OUCH!

From the multi-media point of view - The Discovery Education Site is great. My district subscribes to it and I use it fairly regularly each year. I like the flexibility of being able to show the entire video or a short sequence. This is a great resource.

The wiki video by Common Craft was interesting. I had always thought of wikis as a huge evolving dictionary. I guess the wikipedia thing is too ingrained into my brain. The video put a more every-man, everyday spin on it. I may be able to actually find a use for that angle on the concept.

Voice threads looked like a cool way to do a class project. I didn't notice, but I hope there is a security/accountability piece to this technology. I can see students leaving some undesired comments if its too anonymous.

That's all for now

Ken Francis

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