My official, full name is Mary Jayne Coon-Kitt, but I like to be called MJ. I’m originally from Meadville, located in northwest PA. I moved to State College in 1969 as a freshman at Penn State and never left the area. My master’s degree is also from Penn State in Curriculum and Instruction.
I play the violin in the Nittany Valley Symphony (www.nvs.org/). We have a concert coming up this month on the 28th. If anyone is interested, student tickets are only $5. I also play percussion in the Bellefonte Community Band, which is a growing group of local musicians. We currently have over 50 members (bellefonteband.net) in our band. Other interests include cooking, biking and cross country skiing. We have an adorable 3 year old dog named Ozziemae. She’s a cross between a golden retriever and black lab/mix. My husband’s name is Bernie. He owns and operates Kitt Accounting in downtown Bellefonte. We’ve been happily married for 25 years.
I’m taking this class because it was highly recommended to me by Becci Burns. I also am interested in teacher learning and obviously this course takes a close look at a very important component of teacher learning.
Something interesting about myself is that I have walked the Susan G Komen 60 mile Walk for the Cure twice, once this past September in Washington DC and four years ago in Philadelphia. Our team raised over $15K each time we walked. (the3day.org/)
I would say my comfort level with technology is “average”. I am willing to take risks with new technologies as long as I have someone to help answer questions for me when I get stuck. I’m part of the PDA group using iPads for supervision. I’m also on a committee that is exploring ways to motivate classroom teachers in SCASD to use Studio Code to study their own practice. I’m not, however, familiar with a lot of the social networks that we are going to be using in this course.
I think technology plays a huge role in teaching and learning. I supervise interns in sixth grade at the middle school and I am amazed at what the students do on a daily basis with technology. They work extensively in google.docs, using laptop carts. I was in two classrooms just last week in which students were either setting up or adding to their own website through google. (I’m learning a lot while I’m there.) There is a definite need for meaningful professional development for teachers in using the latest technologies that are available. Although I think the district does an admirable job providing pd, the needs are continuously changing and new pd is always needed.
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Personal Introduction Blog Post
The development of a virtual community takes time … we have an entire semester, but we’d like to get it started immediately. Even though this is a face to face course, one of our goals is for us all to connect well beyond the walls of the classroom. To that end, one of the first things we need you to do is to post a personal introduction to this course site.
To do this, you must do the following:
- Go to http://blogs.psu.edu and click the log in link on the right side of the page
- Once in your dashboard use the pull down menu at the top of the page to select this blog, it will be titled, “Disruptive Technologies in Teaching and Learning.”
- Use the “Create >> Entry” link at the top of the page and start writing your post.
- Use the category, “Personal Introduction” when posting.
- When finished, click “Save” and be sure the publish status is set to “Publish”
Troubleshooting
- If you do not have personal webspace you will need to immediately complete the online quiz
- If you do not see this site in your dashboard, send both Cole and Scott and email containing your PSU Userid immediately and one of us will get you added.
Assignment
This serves two important purposes for us … one is so we can meet each of you and learn a little about you and it gets you all in the space and posting right away. All we are asking you to do is create a quick post that adresses the following:
- Your name
- Where you’re from
- What are your interests
- Why you are taking this class
- Anything interesting about you
- How would you describe your overall comfort level with the use of technology?
- Does technology interest you?
- Talk a little about how you see technology influencing teaching and learning.