Last two exercises

I explored Google Earth and that was pretty cool. It was fun to see where my house, our neighborhood and other locations looked like. I think this could be a useful tool to use for Social Studies and as a geography tool in the classroom. Working at a school that is on a military base, we have students that move here from all over. We also have students that have parents that are deployed. Thsi would be good for them to locate where their parents are serving.

I did not find a whole lot of interest or intrigue with the Ning networks. I like to use a website that is user friendly and easy to navigate to find what I need. I really did not find that on those websites. Maybe it would just take some more exploring on my part, but I did not really get past the first few layers. I am amazed at all the tools that are available to us as educators and students. Some of these tools I would like to use right away. Some may take some more work, but this has been a great experience.

slideshare

I explored around on Slideshare and it is a very user friendly tool. It is very easy to use to save on an RSS feeder, Delicious, Facebook or whatever. I did not find many slideshows that I would like to share. There were a lot of business slideshows but not many that I could find that I would like to use in the classroom. It would be fun to tie this in with a podcast and pictures, but I think that I need more time to explore and feel comfortable using.

podcasts

I was introduced to podcasts last year. We did not get very far using podcasts, but we spent a lot of time exploring and listening to different types of podcasts. I love the idea of using podcasts in many areas of school. Students can recite poetry, talk about what they learned in Social Studies or Science and create their own stories. Podcasts help students work on their writing, oral fluency and voice. It also teaches them how to listen, edit and critique their own and other students podcasts. Students also have to be organized, clear and precise about their podcasts. It is a learning tool that can be used from primary through secondary grades.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxmKRyLdBho

You tube can be a valuable tool to use in the classroom. I have used it to show students the Schoolhouse Rock videos about multiplication. I have also used You Tube to show the students a video about the Pioneer Museum before we went there on a field trip. Problems that I see with You tube is finding clips that are safe for the students to use. There are some inappropriate areas on the website. Another problem is getting approval every time you would like to access You Tube. It is necessary, but just another step to complete.

week 6 activities

I have tried for the past two days to get logged onto Voicethread, but it will not load. I will continue to try. I have enjoyed using the Flip camera and working on Moviemaker. The problems that I have encountered with Moviemaker are the video clips not downloading in the program. It is fun to add in music or audio and editing the film how you would like it to be. I like the idea of using the storyboards because it is easy to use and it gives the students a direction to follow. I would like to use the Flip camera and moviemaker in Social Studies to go along with our Colorado and geography topics. It would also be fun to use with themes in reading units. One other problem that I foresee is having enough Flip cameras for the students to use as well as headphones with microphones to use with Audacity. Projects like these excite me and the students love them as well.

week 5 activities

I like using the glogster website. It is easy and very user friendly. I would like to use it as a communication tools for students and parents in our grade level. I know that Google docs is a user friendly and a unique tool to use. I see it being more applicable for older students at the high school level to use. I think that I would still revert back to sending an email with an attachment. Again for me, exposure and experience makes it easier for me to use.

wordle and tagcrowd

Okay, I spent a lot of time trying to navigate these websites and I did not have much luck. Wordle seems a lot more user friendly than tagcrowd. It also seems like a website that would be more appealing to students to use because of the examples it shows. Wordle seems like a good tool to use to help students be more active and aware of the words they are using when they are writing. It will lend them to more creative and use their vocabulary skills as well. I think that this could be a good web tool that could be incorporated with Thinking Maps to help organize students thought process and writing process. I need to have a personal tutorial to show me and help me navigate and understand the websites better.