My Screencast

This is a screencast on the steps involved in enbedding a video into a blog like blogspot.com. I chose this as my topic because I have always wondered how people did this and always thought it was too difficult for me to learn. Look at me now and its soo easy.

Google Form

Because I was unable to develop my google form until today I was unable to receive feedback from my fellow students. So I asked a few of my peers from other classes to answer the questions and all of them were amazed that there was a program on the Internet where you can make your own quiz or survey and then see the results in a spreadsheet form. So for any one other then Wes is reading this you should totally check out google docs . This is something that i will definitely use in my classroom. I think its a great idea to have people take surveys or quizzes online, at their own pace and when its convenient for them.

SECOND LIFE

Wow there is a lot of information on this video. Where to start this is a screen cast that walks you through the basic idea of second life. These individuals are involved in creating tutorials on how to use second life. They have tried many types of tutorials but the one that I think would be the most useful is allowing the student to walk through the second life and having instructions and hints as they play. I think it is very interesting that they were able to create a whole city like London as a second life. They mentioned how many people find second life to be very confusing and overwhelming and I agree. I watched the video and I am confused. I also found it interesting that once a person logs into second life they stay for 7 seconds and if they are not hooked they will leave. I normally give something new at least five minutes so that was interesting, we do like in a society now that moves from one task to another at the speed of light.

Honestly I cant imagine using this in my classroom. I would be willing to learn more about the system before I make a final decision but it seems like a very unstructured social network. I am very possibly wrong about this and if so a apologize. I would love to see how we can make this educational for our students. I think that virtual words can be very motivation for our students if they have the proper training on the system.

Collaboration

Paula White is currently a teacher and is responsible for the wikithink which is a wiki all about analyzing your wikis. During her screencast she talks about not only encouraging our students to develop their own wikis but for teachers to share ideas through wikis and to motivate or engage our students with these wikis. Paula uses wikis to share lesson plans with other teachers and to get feedback about her lesson plans. I really like this idea.


As a future teacher to know that there are people out there available to give me lesson ideas and feedback on my ideas is a relief. We need to "discover the students passions" to determine whether our projects are engaging our students. If the project isn't engaging then the students aren't going to want to participate and then what is the point. I really like the block she showed of the 8 engaging qualities of work. I will definitely want a copy of that chart. I really like her ideas and I will be a on her wiki in the future as a teaching resource for my future classroom.

Our First Vacation

This is a summary of my first vacation with my fiancee. We went to Branson, MO and had a blast I recommend that everyone take a trip to Branson.

New Tools

Wow this is a long video but it is so worth watching. I was really dreading having to watch this and that is why I put it off for so long. But to my surprise it was very informative and super cute! Many people are nervous when they use materials created by others in their own work. For example the Wizard of Oz. In this video they use the music Wizard of Oz, they gave it new purpose and added value which allowed them to include the music created by another individual. Dr. Velenza mentions so many new tools and how they can be useful for our students. She talks about Digital foot prints and how they can help or hurt a person depending on what is out there. She encourages her students to search themselves to find out what is out there and what their future boss will see. The websites that she encourages are http://www.pipl.com/ and http://www.123people.com/. To see the rest of the tools she mentioned in the video go to Dr. Velenza's Wiki .

I am really interested in creating educational cartoons. This is a slide show I found on Dr. Velenza's wiki that I really liked and found useful.

Tap Into The World Of Comics

View more presentations from S. Hendy.

I love the idea of learning through cartoons. All of her apps would be useful in the classroom and I look forward to exploring them all.

Dr. Velenza shows us that there is more to Google than many people know or at least me. With google you can search topics or events and make concept maps, news time lines, see related searches, and so much more. I also enjoyed her opinion on wikipedia. So many times in school we hear " wikepedia is not a reliable source." But every time I do a personal search online I end up at wikipedia and I find my answer. Dr. Velenza believes that you should use widipedia and other sources. All educators or future educators should check out this video and her wiki because it will be incredible useful.

Digiteen Project Based Learning

I think this is a wonderful project. Students are able to select a topic, research the topic, and then share their findings with other classmates. I love the idea of students teaching each other oppose to the traditional lecture. One of the groups researched driving under the influence verses driving while texting. I really like that they are discussing this more and more these days. I know that when I was younger I would text while I drove, I felt that because I could keep my eyes on the road while I was sending a message that I was still being safe. But the problem is that the distraction is still there. Just because your eyes are on the road doesn't mean you are focused on the road. The students reported that your reaction time is the same when you are texting as when you are under an influence! WOW! They also reported that 14% of all car wrecks are due to DUI and 37% of all car wrecks are due to DWT! Another group of students researched Digital literacy and that it is important for students to be able to tell the difference between a real website and a fake one. Online safety was another topic that students selected as a risky digital behavior. They talked about how easy it is for your pictures and identity to be stolen when you post inappropriate information on the Internet. Digiteens: Digital Citizenship by Digital Teenagers is a wonderful resource to share with all people to educate them on these risky behaviors that our students and children are participating in.




I believe that it is important for both the teachers and parents to work together to make sure that our children are being safe on the Internet. We need to teach them appropriate ways to use the Internet and social networks as well as show them the dangers of using these in a inappropriate manner. This should be Incorporated in our curriculum as well as something that parent talk to their children about. The Internet and social networks can be a great tool in the classroom however they can be easily abused that is why I will make sure when I am a teacher that we discuss the dangers and how to avoid them. This project is wonderful it allows students to research and teach themselves about a topic or concept and share it with their peers. Project based learning can be so successful and motivating.