11/27: Technology Creation Phase

My creation phase is coming to an end now. I have completed my digital story on the Battle of Lexington Green to show the panel in my oral defense presentation. I will also be creating a power point presentation to show during my presentation. The presentation will show the panel all of the necessary steps to complete a digital story. Those steps are 1) writing a story 2) writing a character list 3) taking/finding pictures 4) making a storyboard 5) writing a script for each slide and finally 6) creating the digital story. The digital story itself also entails several steps. The steps are 1) importing pictures 2) adding audio and/or text 3) setting the time limit for each photo 4) adding background music and then 5) saving your story. It was kindof an intense process, but it was very helpful for me as a teacher to think through the steps I would need to have my students go through leading up to their own digital stories.

11/14: Technology Presentations

Today in class we are discussing our presentations for our technology integration plans. It will be important for us to make our presentations thorough enough so that an educator fully understands and feels comfortable with our technology we intend to implement. For the presentation, it is recommended to make a power point and visual aid to show the panel. This presentation is incredibly important because the panel could possibly include people who could write letters of recommendations and provide useful insight and comments that will help us in our journey towards a career.

11/7: Organizing the Internet

In class a couple weeks ago we learned about ways to organize on the Internet. The coolest application we learned about was social bookmarking, specifically the del.icio.us accounts. The del.icio.us accounts have a user set up an account with them and then you can add your favorite websites to your own personal list. This way if you didn't have your own personal computer you can still access your favorite websites through your del.icio.us account. This can be used in elementary classrooms if the class is doing a research project and you as the teacher have specific websites you want your students to visit. This could save time and alleviate students from visiting inappropriate sites. Another great organization tool is Google calendars. Google calendars also require a Google account, but provide online calendars that can be viewed by the public or by specific users you choose. The calendars can be color coordinated and can be organized daily, weekly, or monthly. In a school setting the calendar could be used as a way to post when assignments are due or upcoming special events. Students could also create their own calendar to keep track of their homework and projects, sports schedules, and any other appointments, etc. needed to be logged.

11/7: Technology Integration Plans

In our CEP class we are developing technology integration plans. This is a written out plan of how I will implement the uses of technology in my future classroom. I wrote about how I would use digital storytelling to teach an American history lesson to 5th graders. I took a lesson, which I and a group from my TE 401 class already designed to teach the Battle at Lexington Green, the starting point of the American Revolution and elaborated on it to incorporate a digital story project. You can look at my technology integration plan on my website!

Although I didn't include it in my official technology integration plan for class, I also have many other ideas of how I will use technology in my classroom. I know that I want to use blogging as a source of organization, communication, and journaling. I think blogs can be utilized in so many ways that would foster to education. First of all, I would keep my own blog, "the teacher's blog," where I could post announcements, and provide a means of communication to parents and students. This would be especially helpful when students are absent, or when a parent asks, "what did you do in school today?" I also would like to see students use blogs as a way to journal. Instead of journaling in a notebook everyday, a couple times a week, or even once a week, like I used to when I was a kid, I would have students journal in the "classroom blog." This would be a blog set up for student access under my account. Each student could sign in and post to the same blog with their journal entry for the day. I would give journal prompts such as: WHAT DID YOU DO THIS WEEKEND? or WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH A MILLION DOLLARS? This would give students the chance to practice their typing skills and practice writing.

I also would like to create a class website. I haven't thought about long-term, in other words, if I would make a new website each year or just edit the same one each year. That would be something I would handle when the time comes. But I know that I would like to see a class website, where I could also post announcements, newsletters, assignments in PDF format for students who lose them or who were absent. This would also give parents a closer look at what their kids are doing in class. This could also be the place where I publish their digital stories I mentioned earlier and any other "publishable" work done by the students.

10/24: Podcasting

In class last week we learned about podcasting. Podcasting is a form of technology to record sounds and post the recordings onto the internet. Podcasting can be used in all subject areas and grade levels, you just have to get creative. In our class, everyone recorded group presentations onto a podcast to use at a later time. If you would like to hear an example of a podcast, you can hear the one our class made tonight. Podcasting could also be used in history classes to record a radio piece from a certain time period. Lastly, I think podcasting could be useful to record class lectures and presentations for absent students or students who need to return to the material as a form of review. When I attended the technology conference at MSU one presenter showed us how she used podcasting in her foriegn language classes. She would record herself saying certain phrases or words and the kids could repeat her. Also, if the students in the foriegn languag class wanted to go back and here the pronounciations, they could go online and hear the podcast any time they wanted. I am very excited to learn even more about podcasting and hopefully use it in my future classroom to enhance my students learning.

10/10: Adding Images

Photo Attribution:

Original image: "Erickson Hall"
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/211/521366682_a6d488c52e_m.jpg
by: Joe Freidhoff

Released under an Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Today in class we learned about adding images while being respectful to copyright laws. Creative Commons is a great place to start. Creative Commons is a copyright program, which allows a user to reserve some of their rights, but with allowance to share and collaborate with others. With "copyright," all rights are reserved. With Creative Commons, some rights are reserved, and the creator can chose which rights they wish to reserve, and which they wish to share or give away. In class today we also learned how to do "map mashing". Using the Google Maps applications I created my own map on Google. You can also post your maps created on Google Maps with Google Earth, which is a map of the earth used with satellite imagery. I believe that the use of maps would be very useful in a social studies classroom, when students are finding their way through a city using roads and familiar landmarks. Google Earth would also allow a class to take a trip across the world without even leaving the classroom! However there may be some challenges faced by students and teachers when it comes to thinking about adding images more critically. For example, students may forget to copy an image without the correct Creative Commons and may run into implications with copyright laws. It is the teacher's responsibility to monitor students and guide them through these processes, or provide the students with the needed tools to complete these processes on their own.

9/19: Personalizing the Internet

Today in class we learned about personalizing the internet. This is a method of finding information you want, and knowing how to search specific information. We learned about the difference between directories and search engines, each of which have advantages and disadvantages. Directories have fewer pages than search engines, and are mostly easier for students to use when looking up information. Directories will retrieve information that is relevant and the search does not require exact key words. A search engine can retrieve LOTS of pages to one single search, however the relevancy fluctuates depending on the quality of your method of search on the topic. With my google account I was able to add "Google Alerts" to my e-mail account. Google Alerts are a way of searching a topic and having those searches sent directly to your e-mail. This way, if a new article, etc. is added to the internet under your special search topic, these articles will be sent directly to your e-mail daily, weekly, or monthly depending on your personal preference. With my google account I also added the "Google Reader" feature which allows me to read and organize specific websites I like, which I have subscribed to through the RSS feeds and share these items with other users. For example I subscribed to all of my CEP 416 classmates' blogs and I have shared some of those blogs publicly with an aggregator on our course wiki. Personalizing the internet is an interesting tool I will be able to use with my future students on research projects and finding information online.