Putting Educational Innovations into Practice.

2014 MERLOT Winter/Spring GRAPE Camps

Please reply to this email by introducing yourself. Please include your institution and discipline. Also tell us anything else you want people to know. This is an opportunity for you to interact with those taking the live session or the asynchronous session as well as those who are doing GRAPE Camp as a self-study.

You can also ask any questions here so others can see the answer.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kimberley Koonce on January 26, 2014 at 10:52am

I was extremely shy then and I never reached that "safe and supported" feeling at TAMU until I chose a different route. I remember vividly the first day in my Accounting class. It was in an auditorium (of what seemed like 1,000 students!) and the instructor asked how many of us had taken accounting in high school. All I could see were raised hands and I became almost paralyzed because I had not had any. After 6 weeks, I went to my enrollment counselor and switched to an architectural drawing class. I caught up in two weeks and as the class rolled along, the instructor began using some of my drawings as examples. I learned a lot about myself during that time, so it wasn't all bad. Ha!

The funny part? I ended up loving Accounting in my online classes as an older adult. I stayed in constant communication with my instructors and loved the problem solving required.

Permalink Reply by Andres Padilla Oviedo on January 25, 2014 at 11:12pm

Hello Kimberley,

Thank you very much. I hope, I will see you around in the forum. Have a great 2014.

Permalink Reply by Kimberley Koonce on January 26, 2014 at 10:57am

To all:

I have a question: besides the link to the Net Renderer website listed on the Peer Review form, are there ways to see what other technological requirements are necessary when viewing material? In my review this morning, the website had interactive components and I'm sure Flash or something like it was required, but I have no idea which one(s). The author didn't include this information either, as far as I could tell.

Thank you in advance.

Kim

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on January 26, 2014 at 6:44pm

I think that sometimes you just have to guess. I'm not sure if there is a way to do so. Would appreciate some answers from others in GRAPE Camp. That's not the best answer from me, but if the author doesn't provide it, we can really determine always what was used.

Permalink Reply by Kevin William Heller on January 27, 2014 at 3:52pm

Hi Everyone,

Kevin Heller here, typing from Santa Clara, California. I work for Scout from University of California -- we get K12 students access to a-g approved courses online. Glad for this opportunity; looking forward to contributing what I can.

Thanks!

Kevin

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on January 28, 2014 at 8:51am

Welcome, Kevin. We do have a lot of materials in the K-12 area. It will help to do an advanced search to find relevant materials. Let us know what we can do to help you.

Permalink Reply by Kevin William Heller on January 28, 2014 at 8:53am

Thanks Cathy! Though at this point, I'm not quite sure what help to ask for. I'll be in touch once I get more of a handle on how MERLOT is organized -- I'll have to do some exploring on my own first, I think. Thanks!
k

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on January 28, 2014 at 9:14am

I encourage you to attend one of our free webinars You can find them at:

http://info.merlot.org/Documents/News%20and%20Info/Free%20Webinars.pdf

Permalink Reply by Brandon Settles on February 7, 2014 at 9:32am

Hello, my name is Brandon Settles and I am taking my Masters level classes. I am currently going through Grape Camp to find various ways and methods for teaching my class new and exciting learning challenges and bringing to education what testing and budgets have taken away from students; excitement and motivation.

For so long our students have had to endure long, countless hours listening to long drawn out lectures, boring worksheets and forced to view education as a punishment because they have noting to identify with while learning. For instance, if your a student and your goal is becoming an officer then how can you identify with triangular projections using various methods daily when one is watching the news and they see differently. At that point we have lost a mind and so goes with the lectures and busy work that teachers and professors alike issue today. In a world of technology we have to make it more exciting if not better than the video games they play by allowing and exploiting their creativity towards what education is all about or should be.

That was my personal philosophy on education and I am working hard to do my part in shaping minds of today with new methods.

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on February 7, 2014 at 12:13pm

Hi, Brandon:

We're happy to have you. I agree that classes need to appeal to a different type of student. I'm sure you will find a lot of materials to help you engage your students.

Where do you teach and in what discipline?

Permalink Reply by Brandon Settles on February 11, 2014 at 7:03am

Hello Ms. Swift,

Sorry it took so long to respond but I have been so swamped with homework and many other personal tasks that Im trying to keep up. I am beginning my teaching career real soon hopefully I will teach Political Science for 10th graders, where hopefully I can show my students how politics and daily affairs affects them everyday no matter what personal worth or issues affects them.

Its good to finally be a part of this experience and I have watched many of the lectures and comments so I will take with me new ideas and methods to make my class interesting and technology rich in order to keep my students attention and motivation to learn in my class.

Permalink Reply by Cathy Swift on February 11, 2014 at 8:31am

I'm sure you will find a lot of materials in MERLOT that will help you with your students. We don't have an Editorial Board in Political Science, but we have a lot of materials. You might also find some resources that have been peer reviewed in Sociology and Psychology that might be helpful. Let me know if you have any questions.