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.

delicious and social networking

I can see Delicious as being a useful tool. It is a way to keep track of websites that are good resources. It is a way to share it with other teachers and students. I see it being more productive with middle school or high school students where the teacher may have more communication electronically with the students. I can see it being useful for primary teachers to share tools and information that can be applied in the classroom. I would use Delicious if I was comfortable on it and could learn how to navigate the website on my own. As with any skill or tool, the more you practice the better you get. I would like to use Delicious more often because there are so many great websites that are out there and it is hard to keep track and remember them all.

Twitter/ Blog verbage

Well, I have set up a twitter account. This is a great tool to gather information and hear the news. There is so much out there! It is hard to discriminate with all that is available. I have not set up my 20-30 person or organization list yet, but I need some more time to explore Twitter and how to use it! One thing that I will say is that after reading all these blogs and postings, I have a feeling. My feeling is that I am not as well versed as these people that are making postings. I feel like I am a fairly educated person and can carry on a good conversation. However, I feel that my terminology and knowledge is not quite up to speed with what else I have read. Maybe, I will get more proficient with it over time. Does anyone else feel this way or is it just me?

PLN's and social networking

http://https://neo.asd20.org/blog/,DanaInfo=budtheteacher.com+I enjoy meeting other people and learning ideas from other people in my field. It is very important to stay connected and always learn as many ideas that you can. This new way of resourcing and connecting will take some getting used to for me. I like to make the face to face connection. However, with how limited my time is these days, using a new resource would be a great tool to help me become a better teacher. I chose this blog because I am going to have the third graders do a research project on the history of Colorado Springs. It will be a good tool to help with research skills, using different resources and citing sources. I hope that I can learn from all the input on the blogs.

copyright information

It is interesting to read about the copyright and see how careful one needs to be even when using a site such as You Tube. Another way to go is to get permission from the creator of the information or video posted to use that material for whatever your purpose may be. This would be something that one could show to students as a safe and ethical approach to use someone else's material. I will keep doing some reading on copyright. That is all for now.

First Day Orientation

The class is starting and we are getting a lot of information! I am very excited to learn and apply the new tools and materials. It has been pretty fun to set up these accounts and create our own avatar. I hope that I can use these tools effectively and get the kids excited about it as well! I am nervous and excited about all this, but I will use this oppurtunity to the fullest potential! It is going to be a great year!