And away we go!

Ready, set, go! or not quite that confident.... But we did go, and even though the first day was chaotic, in a controlled busy let's get at it kind of way, we accomplished what we set out to do.

The students already knew what I wanted them to do, so some were very eager to get started. Some were only excited about the netbooks. Some were hesitant, clearly thinking-what is she up to now and how much work is this going to be for me?? And of course, regardless of how many warnings they were given about being ready with their completed, corrected story, 3 were not ready at all.

After I did my introductory spiel, about comparing a 'regular' story to a 'digital' story, what was the same and what might be different, Kirk and Robert had a spiel of their own about usage of the computers. Since this is an experiment of sorts, there were/are kinks to get worked out, such as what happens when we leave the proximity of the mobile wireless? what if I spend lots of time recording, and my computer goes to sleep? where do I save my stuff? how do I find my stuff after I saved it?

The kids who had their stories ready to go were anxious to start recording. They didn't really want to hear all the little hints and suggestions being made to them, however necessary they were. It took a good half hour before they could get started. We quickly learned that more than one person recording in a room is not possible. And since this is a small school, there aren't very many places that are quiet and secluded in the middle of the school day. Hallways, entries, empty book rooms, even bathrooms became recording studios. Whatever works!!

Even though I didn't feel satisfied with the first day's accomplishments, Kirk and Rob both assured me that it was fine: we introduced the project, explained what the final product would/could be after having gone through the processes, showed them where to find it on Moodle, created folders and subfolders, entertained several possibilities of presentation, and got many kinks worked out of the system. So, I guess for a first day, although it didn't go 'linear' as I would prefer it, it was still a good blast-off.