WEEK 2 (Jan 25): Re-Welcome to EDSS 530

Welcome again to our—the Day Cohort—EDSS 530 course. You have found what will be the blog for the class. It is here where you will find the most up-to-date information regarding the course, due dates, assignments in progress, reflection topics, and maybe even a cheesy joke or two.

Not only is this the first time you have taken this course, it is also the first time that I will be teaching it with such an intentional effort to interact in ways the digital native might, so I hope that we will go on this educational journey together!!

In our first class meeting, it was my intent to give a sense of the direction of the course, the goals, and how we may interact in some new ways. It is my hope that you feel this course is a place for you to learn much about your role as a teaching professional—to embrace a defining characteristic of today: change, to be flexible, and to develop a professional learning agenda.

Shortly after each meeting, I will try to summarize some thoughts and key things to remember from class that day. You will see a second blog with the weekly “Reading Response” assignment.

A quick review of Day 1 topics:

• Course introductions through Second to None - video & discussion
• Course introductions through syllabus
• Introduction of Best Practices High School and the “jigsaw” assignment
• Use of Technology in this course – Lawler’s course blog, own gmail account, own blog, Twitter, ning homepage “CSUSM Educators” (GoogleDocs, iGoogle, RSS, Embedit, Delicious.com, Skype, drop.io/edss530, Facebook, etc.)
• Brief Introduction of Ethnography Assignment

To restate the week's homework: Complete Assignment #2: Web-Based Jigsaw on Text Rethinking High Schools. Part I should be completed by noon on Monday, Feb 1. I suggest beginning Part II Monday afternoon, certainly to be completed prior to class Feb 8. Also, you must complete this week's Reading Reflection, for which more careful instructions will be posted above. Recall that this gets written to your own course blog. Finally, send out one tweet this week, the next thought that connects with our class.

I will also leave you with a question at the end of each weekly blog post to build community and to ensure you have read the blog. Answer by leaving a brief "comment" just below (not on your own blog).

This week's question: What is your fast food guilty pleasure? (What do you eat that you know you probably shouldn't but do anyway... like a Chalupa from Taco Bell... "Not that there's anything wrong with that." ;)