My experience with APSU 23 Things has been awesome, bumpy, frustrating, and educational all at the same time. I really enjoyed learning about blogging, Animoto, the web-based applications, flow charts/mind maps, the image generator, and RSS feeds. Of all the 23 Things, I feel these will be the ones that I will use the most on a regular basis. Using technology to my advantage is no longer the hardest Lifelong Learning Habit for me, it is a constantly improving and easier habit I am forming. After this experience I feel more knowledgeable and prepared for the technology I will face in the classrooms. When I first learned of completing the 23 Things, I thought it would just be "busy work"and it was, but I learned an immense amount about the different technologies that I did not know before and I am very thankful for this style of a learning experience. The biggest issue for me was Thing #15, I don't know what the glitch is, but there is one when trying to edit the page, this should either be corrected or better explained in the directions for Thing #15 for many students had the same issues when trying to post. Completing APSU 23 Things has taught me that whether I like it or not technology is going to become my new best friend and has more benefits that pitfalls. I have to stay on my toes and keep up with the times if I am going to be the best, most prepared educator I can be! And, thanks to my RSS Feeds and the different educational forums I have joined along the way on this experience, I think that I have the tools to stay informed with the newest and latest technology for education and the classrooms!
GO ME!
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Monday, November 29, 2010
Thing #22
http://feeds.feedburner.com/thetechteachers
I chose to listen to The Tech Teachers podcasts where they discuss new technologies and education...which fits perfectly with Education 3040! I found the Learn Out Loud directory to be the easiest to use, when I attempted to use the Educational Podcast Directory some of them were old or didn't load properly, or simply didn't interest me. I think there is a need for more exciting, vibrant teaching podcasts and when I have my own classroom I would like to incorporate podcasts into some of the bigger, kid friendly, and exciting projects the class will do as a documentary of the do's and don'ts of the projects. I am going to follow the Tech Teachers' podcasts because no matter where you teach technology is busting down the doors and forcing its way into the classroom benefiting the education of our children!
I chose to listen to The Tech Teachers podcasts where they discuss new technologies and education...which fits perfectly with Education 3040! I found the Learn Out Loud directory to be the easiest to use, when I attempted to use the Educational Podcast Directory some of them were old or didn't load properly, or simply didn't interest me. I think there is a need for more exciting, vibrant teaching podcasts and when I have my own classroom I would like to incorporate podcasts into some of the bigger, kid friendly, and exciting projects the class will do as a documentary of the do's and don'ts of the projects. I am going to follow the Tech Teachers' podcasts because no matter where you teach technology is busting down the doors and forcing its way into the classroom benefiting the education of our children!
Thing #21
Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
Animoto is super easy and super cool! At first I thought I was going to have to go Facebook and save some of the pictures to the desktop and upload them from there...but oh no....Animoto had a better idea and linked directly to my Facebook account and retrieved the pictures for me! Can I say wow! Wow. This site is an awesome tool for the classroom...you could take pictures of the students doing different projects or just during class time, create a quick easy video on Animoto, and share it with parents via email or better yet a blog you created for the purposes of staying connected to the parents of the students in your class. As a mom, I love seeing pictures of my babies in different environments where I am not present and with my elementary students I would like to give my parents the same experience. Animoto makes this really quick and easy to do! OH, if you don't have time to wait for the video to finish, go ahead and do what you need to do because Animoto will send you an email when they are finish...why can't the cable guy do this instead of making you wait for him for 4 hours?
Thing #20
YouTube is a very simple site to navigate and I had no problems, but of course I have visited the site on other occasions although never to look at videos that pertain to the education world. The site is simply search and go, and it even shows related videos to your search information. An excellent way to broaden some one's horizon with new information. I chose this video because it is our wonderful President Obama speaking on America's education and there isn't any more important information I would rather spread. YouTube could be used for teachers to post lesson videos for children who need a little extra help or reminders to assist them with doing their homework. It would be a lot more work for the teacher, but for the student who doesn't have educational support in their home, the videos would be priceless!
Thing #19
Visit TeacherPop
I am one of the newest member of the TeacherPop online community! I used to be a member of my high school's Ning page, but it was discontinued. :( But, I recently created an online community on Facebook as a forum for the planning of our high school class reunion next year....and where do you think I got the idea from.....of course Thing # 19! lol
I was most interested in the Bake Space community being that my husband is deployed and I will using my free time to become a better baker and cooking with the kids! Classroom 2.0 is neat too, and its cool that the site has a beginner group for those of us who are new to using the different technologies in education.
I am definitely interested in creating my own group/online community to create an environment that I am more comfortable in sharing my ups and downs of teaching with others who relate to me...not everyone is open when it comes to discussing the downs of being a first year educator and I would like a community with no judgements or sugar coated truths!
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Thing # 18
Asante Pugh
Teachers need to know how social networking works so that they socialize and communicate with their peers at the click of a button. Being able to manuever thorough the social networking world educates teachers on the do's and don't's of these types of sites and eliminate the unknown causing big mistakes. I already had a Facebook account that I use to stay in contact with friends and families that live far away, but I did learn that on Myspace it is way easier to keep up with what is going on in entertainment media all one page! When exploring the sites, Facebook was alot easier to set up and get started, opposed to myspace being a little difficult for me to setup and the page was way too busy for me...I would never be able to digest all the information that is provided on the homepage in one sitting nor would I want to. Facebook had the most useful features for communicating with others, but Myspace had more useful features for information on entertainment, videos, new topics, etc. Personally, I feel that these are personal socializing sites and prefer to keep them out of the classroom for any grades!
Teachers need to know how social networking works so that they socialize and communicate with their peers at the click of a button. Being able to manuever thorough the social networking world educates teachers on the do's and don't's of these types of sites and eliminate the unknown causing big mistakes. I already had a Facebook account that I use to stay in contact with friends and families that live far away, but I did learn that on Myspace it is way easier to keep up with what is going on in entertainment media all one page! When exploring the sites, Facebook was alot easier to set up and get started, opposed to myspace being a little difficult for me to setup and the page was way too busy for me...I would never be able to digest all the information that is provided on the homepage in one sitting nor would I want to. Facebook had the most useful features for communicating with others, but Myspace had more useful features for information on entertainment, videos, new topics, etc. Personally, I feel that these are personal socializing sites and prefer to keep them out of the classroom for any grades!
Thing # 17
Del.icio.us is a creative website and makes bookmarking a better experience and the site itself is very easy to use and navigate. Having to only remember one website is a lot better than having to remember 16, and this benefits me because I complete a lot of my work at school in the lab, which isn't my personal computer so I don't bookmark sites to those computers. I would write the web addresses down so that I could use them later, just to misplace them or throw them out by mistake, but luckily for me I don't have to do this anymore and can bookmark them using the Del.icio.us website, and have access to the websites instantly on any computer!
What's really cool is that when you are using or looking at other websites that have been bookmarked in your social network, you can see the comments and tags they used for the site, which saves you time because it helps you weed through the best sites from the not so useful websites.
This tool has great potential for use in the classrooms as well as a social bookmarking tool. When age appropriate, accounts can be set up and used for group projects allowing each student to see the research their peers have found, which eliminates each group member from using the same sources providing a broader research database for the project. It can also be used by teachers and their peers as a tool to share new and interesting student interactive websites that can be used in the classroom to help the students develop an understanding of the concepts being taught.
What's really cool is that when you are using or looking at other websites that have been bookmarked in your social network, you can see the comments and tags they used for the site, which saves you time because it helps you weed through the best sites from the not so useful websites.
This tool has great potential for use in the classrooms as well as a social bookmarking tool. When age appropriate, accounts can be set up and used for group projects allowing each student to see the research their peers have found, which eliminates each group member from using the same sources providing a broader research database for the project. It can also be used by teachers and their peers as a tool to share new and interesting student interactive websites that can be used in the classroom to help the students develop an understanding of the concepts being taught.
Thing #16
I chose iGoogle as my start page. Google is almost just too simple. I chose this start page right off the bat because it could be created it under 30 seconds...and who doesn't like quick, easy, efficient options to better organize their lives. I am definitely going to make this my homepage for one important reason: I currently have it set to AOL, but iGoogle lists the same items as AOL but it is all customized to my life plus more like my email, Clarksville's weather, local date and time, you tube, chat, recipes, and movies!
What more could a busy woman ask for?
The Hotmail Calendar I created will be useful to me in many ways. While I am in school I can use it to keep up with my assignment due dates, finals dates, class meeting times, project due dates, etc. It also allows me to make to do lists eliminating the need for a separate "ta da list"! Awesome. It's a great tool, and unlike my date book....I can't leave it at home or in the kids' diaper bag at their daycare!
I set up a Remember the Milk account and it was extremely too much work and difficult for me to navigate raising my frustration level to the point where I just quit and moved on to the next tool. And that is all I have to say about that!
I would recommend Sticky Notes and Zamzar to anyone any day of the week. Sticky notes without the clutter...Awesome! Not to mention the many options the tool has: sticky's on your desktop, send them over local networks and internet, print them, you can even customized the format and edit them...have your cake and eat it too! There has been countless times that I have saved a picture in the wrong format and became so over heated, but now the Zamzar tool lets you change the format of many files and it emails the new file to you, eliminating the need to retake the picture...who wouldn't want to know about this tool! Kawana save your comments!
What more could a busy woman ask for?
The Hotmail Calendar I created will be useful to me in many ways. While I am in school I can use it to keep up with my assignment due dates, finals dates, class meeting times, project due dates, etc. It also allows me to make to do lists eliminating the need for a separate "ta da list"! Awesome. It's a great tool, and unlike my date book....I can't leave it at home or in the kids' diaper bag at their daycare!
I set up a Remember the Milk account and it was extremely too much work and difficult for me to navigate raising my frustration level to the point where I just quit and moved on to the next tool. And that is all I have to say about that!
I would recommend Sticky Notes and Zamzar to anyone any day of the week. Sticky notes without the clutter...Awesome! Not to mention the many options the tool has: sticky's on your desktop, send them over local networks and internet, print them, you can even customized the format and edit them...have your cake and eat it too! There has been countless times that I have saved a picture in the wrong format and became so over heated, but now the Zamzar tool lets you change the format of many files and it emails the new file to you, eliminating the need to retake the picture...who wouldn't want to know about this tool! Kawana save your comments!
Thing #15
Editing APSU 23 Sandbox wiki was a real pain, which I wasn't expecting according to the tutorial, but I guess you win some and you loose some! Library wiki's are awesome, but you have to make sure your students understand the concept of wiki, so they don't believe any little thing their impressionable minds may read on a wiki. Interesting enough, I feel that there should be a "higher power" evaluating wiki sites to try to ensure the reliability of the information posted to them.
Using Wiki's can be great, but somewhat unreliable in the sense that anyone can post and make changes. Wiki's can be great starting points for research being that usually when someone makes a change they will often leave references for where they got their information and these can be used to jump start creditable research of your own! I just think it is important for the person who is doing the research or using Wiki to validate of their own work to eliminate issues of inconsistency!
Using Wiki's can be great, but somewhat unreliable in the sense that anyone can post and make changes. Wiki's can be great starting points for research being that usually when someone makes a change they will often leave references for where they got their information and these can be used to jump start creditable research of your own! I just think it is important for the person who is doing the research or using Wiki to validate of their own work to eliminate issues of inconsistency!
Friday, November 19, 2010
Thing # 14
I chose to explore Gliffy (flow chart) and Bubble us (mind map) to explore for this "Thing". Both tools are awesome, but Bubble Us was more entertaining.
Gliffy has great templates that you can use to modify your task specifically. It has everything from website/ software designs, Venn Diagrams, Floor Plans, Flow Charts, Org Charts, Business Process, to Network Diagrams, etc. It allows to create your own document from a designed template or start with a blank document and you can choose your shapes and lines from the template options. Figuring out where all the lines are and the different types was a little frustrating, but once I located where everything was on the interface the program was easier to navigate. If we were allowed to use templates to create our Classroom Drawings, this site would have been AWESOME!...maybe next time kiddos:(
Bubble Us was awesome! I used it to help me brainstorm some ideas for my scavenger hunt and webquest and it was supper easy to you use. You create your account and just click on the page to bring up your first bubble and from then on you click enter to create a child bubble or tab to create a sibling bubble. All the other controls are self explanatory and if you can't figure it out; if you put your pointer over the control a detailed description is at the bottom of the page...so don't freak out Ashley...you are OK! Oh, one more thing, when you get rid of a bubble there is an explosion, which I thought was really neat and made me laugh because I wasn't expecting it.
Overall, both tools will be extremely useful to my career as an educator and personal life. I can see myself using Bubble Us to create original, cool worksheets for my class to do their brainstorming on, or if it is age appropriate letting them set up their own accounts, especially for Bubble Us, they could use it for a variety of classes now and in their future education. Gliffy's Floor Plans can help me design my dream/retirement home when I am ready to build...I can be my own architect! Cool!
Gliffy has great templates that you can use to modify your task specifically. It has everything from website/ software designs, Venn Diagrams, Floor Plans, Flow Charts, Org Charts, Business Process, to Network Diagrams, etc. It allows to create your own document from a designed template or start with a blank document and you can choose your shapes and lines from the template options. Figuring out where all the lines are and the different types was a little frustrating, but once I located where everything was on the interface the program was easier to navigate. If we were allowed to use templates to create our Classroom Drawings, this site would have been AWESOME!...maybe next time kiddos:(
Bubble Us was awesome! I used it to help me brainstorm some ideas for my scavenger hunt and webquest and it was supper easy to you use. You create your account and just click on the page to bring up your first bubble and from then on you click enter to create a child bubble or tab to create a sibling bubble. All the other controls are self explanatory and if you can't figure it out; if you put your pointer over the control a detailed description is at the bottom of the page...so don't freak out Ashley...you are OK! Oh, one more thing, when you get rid of a bubble there is an explosion, which I thought was really neat and made me laugh because I wasn't expecting it.
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