April 11th Class

I thought I had posted this, but I guess I was wrong...
I am currently sitting in the second weekend of EDL 518. This weekend we have learned how to use Audacity to create podcasts. We also worked with moviemaker to create our multimedia presentations. A highlight of this weekend's class was taking time to research different websites that could be useful to teachers and administrators. A couple websites that I found fascinating were www.chacha.com and www.wordle.net. ChaCha lets you ask questions and real people respond with the answer in a matter of minutes. Wordle allows you to cut and paste text and then the program creates word art with the most common used words in the text.

Lessons learned

I have wanted to create a blog for my students for awhile but I didn't know how to do it. So, this was a perfect opportunity for me. I created a blog with different links so students can go in and read the news, watch tv, listen to radio, play educational games, etc.. I thought it would be a piece of cake to start after creating it. No, it was not.

First, only 2 of my 20 kids have blogged before. They had no idea how to start. When I sent them the invitations, it was a hassle helping them get to the site, and sign up for it. For those who didn't have the google account, it was more hassle. I have kids who are 11 years old, so we could not sign them up for a google account. So I had to contact the parents. I also had to send parents a note telling them about Blog, because I want kids to use the internet at home and blog once per week, and I want their parents to not worried about their kids using blog. Then, the accents! we don't know how to put the accents in. I am still trying to figure it out myself. I guess I can type it and copy and paste. But some computers would not let my students copy and paste. Then starting something new is just tiring.

My only concern letting students using this is I don't know how much they really write or they just use Google Translation. How do I know if students really spend time exploring? But so far, I am having fun.

Scavenger Hunt....

I think the scavenger hunt assignment has been one of the most beneficial assignments that I have worked on in the EDL program. The amount of teaching tools that are out their are amazing. I love this assignment!

I am actually looking forward to creating the Wiki page and the multi media project.  Technology is definately a weekness of mine.  I think this class will help me explore the different forms of technology and how I can use them as a teacher and when I become an administrator.

Sunday Evening

Our new supt. is very techonology oriented. I was lucky to get the last seat in a web 2.0 class, so some of what we have done LOOKS familiar. As we get wikis, smartboards, etc in our building, some people are feeling very overwhelmed. They view the school wiki as just one more thing to check. I agree, sometimes, but think that practice and use will make things easier.... email was odd when I first started to use it! We are also fortunate that our principal is working to bring more technology into the building.

I was glad we looked at the standards today -- shows us the direction we need to go!

earlier

As someone blogged earlier, I wish I would have taken this as my 3rd course instead of my 13th. I am kind of surprised at how easy most of these websites are to use and can see many real life applications in the classroom. I really don't think you need a blog, wiki, and a webpage for each class you teach, but I am glad we are covering everything so we can pick and choose which ones we want to keep and which ones we want to throw away. Good weekend overall. I learned a lot!

Podcasts and media movie

Okay...so I was really confused on what was expected on podcasts and imovie. Luckily I have a great partner, Jeff Ewing, who helps me figure everything out. It's good to be able to communicate and build off eachother. Even if Jeff is from Illinois. Lol. I am looking forward to using imovie more...I think it will be loads of fun with students!

Apparently.....

So I thought I had everything right...but seems like everytime I turn around I am screwing something. up...First I thought my IIRC was suppose to be all on one documnet...it wasn't. Luckily Dr. Closen let me turn it in anyway. The blog thing I thought we could just comment...but Nope need to create one.
Moral of this story is I am more technology handicapped more than I thought

April 10- April 11

Wow...what a big weekend. I really wish that I would have taken this class towards the beginning of my run here in the EDL program. So many valuable tech tools are presented in this class. I will admit in EDL 505 Wiki was a bad word in my mind. After today I created a new page and even added a video! I am also excited to work with Garageband. To me it seems more user friendly than imovie.

Technology in general

I feel like our school has made efforts to incorporate technology but we are still behind!  As an adult, I get excited about using the new things that we have learned so I know our students, who have grown up with technology, will be just as enthusiastic to use these tools instead of pencil and paper.  We really need to get with the times and teach to where students are at.  Right now, students are sitting through boring lectures and minimal technology experiences and we are loosing them!  I know money is the biggest factor but I think we need to look at how we can reallocate our funds to increase learning!

April 11th

Just like anything else, I am finding the more I use technology the easier it becomes. There was a lot covered today. It was much easier to use programs I have seen before. There are lots of ways students can benefit from using technology. I wish my school had wireless labs for students to use in the classroom. I am sure I will learn lots in the next three weeks using technology.

Sunday 4-11

It was interesting today to spend more time going through the NETS for teachers and administrators. It amazes me how little my administration and the district focuses on technology Although, we are in the first year of a consolidation so I hope that maybe the lack of focus this year is because of the overwhelming amount of issues, work and new stuff to fight through just to survive the consolidation process. I hope that next year we can spend more time actually working with other teachers on technology and how we can use it to improve what happens in our classroom.

Assignments

The clarification on the upcoming coursework helped a lot. I am sure all of the technology will become more clear as I spend more time with it. Plenty of work to do for the next 3 weeks.

It was interesting to go over the NETS standards for both teachers and administrators today. I was surprised to hear about the amount of people who wouldn't even rate their school a "meets" in most categories. I think so many teachers and administrators feel overwhelmed by the amount on their plate that technology is just not a priority. Unfortunately, we are choosing not to utilize tools that are so vital to the success of our students. I honestly think that no matter how much professional develoment we do, if we dont learn different ways to reach our students using technology it will be very difficult to change our scores.

Technology Support

One of the big things that struck me today was the lack of support when new technology is introduced. I like how this class works where we learn a new technology and immediately apply it and Dr Closen is there for questions and support. I am thinking if we could transfer this system to our schools how much faster technology would advance.

Blog-osphere

I feel NETS is a useful framework that allows students, teachers, and administrators to guide their development and assess progress. I'll have these posted in my office now and when I become an administrator.

I have a good feeling about my new and improved wiki page. I think the students will enjoy it as it's something they haven't been exposed to before.

4/10-4/11

I loved going through the different websites on Saturday.  I found a lot of sites that I didn't know about and appear to be very helpful, and I can't wait to put them to work.  I also liked learning about  audiacity, I've used garage band before, but don't always have my mac available, so learning a new program was really helpful.

I had never heard about the NETS standards before this class.  This is something that I think that we all (teachers and administrators) need to know about.  I wonder if my administrators even know about the standards. I think that we should be having more PD on these topics. 

Sunday, April 11th

I'm really glad I was able to start my blog today. I'm really excited to use it in my building. I think it could be very beneficial for my students.
I liked the scenario for principals. Laura is very much someone I aspire to be like when I'm an administrator. I understand it will be impossible to do that every day, but it's a wonderful goal to reach for.
I also feel like I have a better understanding of the ISTE standards for education. I didn't realize how in depth they were until today.

Getting Started

So, let's say your school really, for lack of a better word, stinks at this technology thing.  Your school doesn't use their technology equitably, use technology to monitor student progress, provide online resources for teachers, parents and students.What is step one? The possibilities of uses of technology in education is so huge, I almost don't know where to start. What do you think?


Dane

APA

It was nice to go over the APA Requirements for All Writing again this morning. I had never received a formal training on this. In college, I was taught MLA. I wonder what is the reason for changing?

New Technology

I really enjoyed having the time to look at different technology websites and trying to figure out uses for teachers and administrators. I know I have said this before in another blog, but new technology amazes me to the point of giddiness.

Saturday, April 10th

I really enjoyed class Saturday. I'm looking forward to working on my podcast and my multimedia presentation.
I also liked going over the websites. The websites I really enjoyed were wordle.net, lucidchart.com, and zamzar. I also liked all the video websites, however, I don't know how much access we'd have to those websites at school.
I'm looking forward to getting started on my blog as well.

April 10 class

Creating a blog was a pretty fun part of my day. Also, learning more about movies, music, and pictures was fun. I am excited to try some stuff out on my own just for fun.

It was great to have time to browse websites and think of ways that they could be useful for schools, learning, and school administrators. Google Earth is definitely something that I want to get used to using with my students. I really wish our schools could catch up with the available technology. It is a real shame to have so much at our fingertips but be so limited as to what we can actually put into practice. If we don't begin using what we know within 6 months or at most a year, I think we will lose what we have learned. Or, at least that is true for me.

Today really makes you realize how much is out there! I have been to confereces where so much technology that I could have access to was used and I had no idea. Free downlaods are great! I can't wait to try and use some of these in my own classroom, and of course I'll keep them in mind for whatever the next step in my career may be. I will for sure be using the animal.discovery website soon with my students.
I also enjoyed creating a blog. This is something my sister took interest in earlier this year when she started traveling through South America. What a neat tool to use both personally and in education. It makes me wish I could provide all families in my district with a computer and internet access!

Blogging

I love the idea of blogging!  I am excited to get this going with my students and parents.  I think it is a much better way of getting the information out over our newsletter.  Parents do NOT read our newsletters because they are full of information that is not useful to them.  Blogs allow the parents and students to access the information that IS useful to them!

Websites

I really enjoyed looking at the various websites today. There are many site that I know I will be using in the future, especially spacetime.com. In fact I have used tinyurl.com already today while working on my blog. I am happy that I now know about these sites and will be able to use them for my personal use since I can't professionally.

interesting websites

I really think most teachers need more time in their lives to explore and integrate new web applications to enhance their teaching. Obviously, this will never happen if we rely on teachers to do this on their own time without pay. I think principals should either make time or provide incentives to apply more technology, like any of the sites we covered this afternoon, into their daily lessons. The kids would enjoy learning much more if we taught them how to make their own learning easier through this new technology.

Ewing or you out?

Blogging is cool.


I think there are many things that could be done with a blog especially to help with your class. I had been trying to use teacherweb.com and I think that using blogspot is much easier. Formulating how to best post information that would be useful and easily findable would be the key idea. Perhaps running a Blog and a Wiki simultaneously would work best. You could link between the two.

Update: So you can create a list in Google Docs. So what I did was I created a link list on the right panel of my blog that when you click it goes to the saved and uneditable google doc.

I think that is very cool. So no wiki just google docs.

Dane

April 10th

I feel like I learned many new things today. There are so many things I still need to learn to get up to date with technology today. How can schools afford to stay up to date with the latest technology? I am sure the kids know more than many of the teachers.

I really like the idea of using blogs with students. I enjoy reading the newspaper online with blog comments. Adults often state comments that are erased once the monitor checks them. I worry about what students may do on blog sites.

There is not enough technology available to students at my school. I would love to teach my students to use movie maker. I still have many things to learn about it before I would be comfortable helping my students to use it.

I look forward to trying out many new things the next few weeks. The two goals I have by the end of the class are to know how to add music to presentations and to learn to create and connect vidoes.

Blogs and Websites

I think we need more hours in the day to be able to use all of the technology that is at our fingertips. Those websites we looked at earlier today were really good and I think many of them would be useful as a teacher or a principal, but without the time to find them, learn how to use them and teach others how to use them - it's just wasted technology. I hope that at some point in the future I can find the time (maybe this summer when I'm not teaching) to sort through everything and put together a list or toolbox of sorts that will make my life easier and enhance my classroom and my school.

Web Sites

I found the web-sites that we looked at today to be very helpful.  I like the idea of being able to find a video that you could use in the classroom.  I think it would be cool to try to make an avitar, it would be a neat way to communicate on our school web-site.  I am not going to lie, I am just a little lost with the multi media and pod cast stuff.  I am looking forwrd to figuring it out because I think they are good tools to use.

blogging

Ok so making a blog is not as bad as I had thought it would be. Up until now I have stayed away from anything that involved me having to even attempt to make a blog and was nervous about even posting to one. Like I said after actually making one in class today I would not hesitate to make another one. I think they could be very useful for numerous things in my building.

Saturday, April 10

Wow. Plenty of work for the next couple of weeks. The information on the websites was very helpful. I am looking forward to the finished products of all of the groups.

lots of stuff

I feel like my brain might explode! so, today's reflection is random in thought. It takes a lot of patience to figure out how to download, rearrange and even sign in! I appreciate the time to work and try things out. I have a lot of things to learn. Which is better -- a blog or a website?

The Audacity of Networks

In an attempt to connect with school baseball teams, youth groups, and other social organizations, I've created a laundry list of wikis, blogs, and social networks to update. I wish these personal wikis and blogs were available when I was in high school; I think they're invaluable. However, I need to somehow sync them all--or dump a couple. There's something refreshing about simplicity. Sometimes I wonder if the kids I do all of this for care the slightest bit about it. Now I need to make sure the right multimedia makes it to the right wiki pages and blogs....

Blogging

It was very interesting and enjoyable creating my own blogger page. In doing this exercise, I am relizing the potential that technology has to enhance learning. I feel like these things meet kids on a level they can identify with.

passwords...user names.....

I have been trying to keep my user names and passwords pretty uniform, but i need to do a better job of keeping track of them.... and my master list!