Overall I enjoyed the class. What I loved the most is learning how to create websites, blogs, and podcasts. I could not believe how easy it was for me. Now I have the technological skills that employers would like to hear about in interviews. I cannot wait to graduate and actually implement these skills (see below) into my classrooms. Thank you Garth for giving us the resources and instructing us how to use them. I can't thank you enough!
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Cut and Paste this in your browser: http://lnc8.wikispaces.com/
I will be writing about 1.) how to record Skype video conversations, 2.) make a voki and explain what it is, and 3.) how to make digital plays online with xtranormal.com. Recording Skype videos The best way to record your skype video conversations is to use Quicktime Pro on a Mac. IF you don’t have this you can use Jing.com. With Quicktime Pro you first go to Quicktime Player from your Applications Folder. Then go to “File” and “New screen recording.” Then click on the triangle to indicate you want a sound recording too. Then click the “built in microphone” Then click “start recording” and then to stop recording his the stop button on the top right corner. You can save this to your desktop and then email it as an attachment. Awesome isn’t it!! Now if you don’t have a Mac you can use Jing. Click here http://www.techsmith.com/jing/ and download it. Then sign up. Once you sign up the the bright yellow sun shows up at the top right corner! Click the sun and with your mouse as a cross like symbol, drag over the screen to choose what you want. Then see the small options you have. The first button in the options is “to take a photo” and the next one to the right is “to record a movie.” This is the one you want! When your done you can go back to the sun and click on the button that stores your recording. All of your recordings are stored online automatically. From here you can share it! Awesome isn’t it! I can use this to assess students in almost any content. Lets say my students are using a math program, they can record everything they do and later I can check up, randomly, who is following directions and who is on track. I can also have my students record themselves to teach other students how to make, develop something online, such as how to develop a balance sheet using Microsoft excel. What is a Voki and how can i use it in my class? “Voki is a free service that allows you to create personalized speaking avatars and use them on your blog, profile, and in email messages.There are endless ways of using Voki in your classroom! You can use Voki for any subject and any grade. Our users upload their lesson plans for your convenience. Additionally, we encourage you to visit the Teacher's Corner to learn and get inspired by our community of educators” (voki.com) What I learned from this is that kids will want to learn the lesson if they get to use a voki. It is fun to listen and watch and it is also fun to make! It is a great movator and is relatively simple. You don’t need to create an account and you can save it and make changes later. I cannot wait to make one that explains directions to my kids at to what to do, or what they assignment is that day. how to make digital plays online with xtranormal.com first google “xtranormal.” Then click on “make movies”. Then choose a collection to get started. I chose 2 actors. Then scroll over to “don’t’ have an account” then create an account. Then you see the “success” screen. Then go to your email and activate your account. In your inbox, like on “account activation on www.xtranormal.com” then click on the link provided in step one. See Picture. And follow the directions. Log back in. Now click on the movie to learn more about it. Now click on make movies!!! Choose what you want and follow the directions. Awesome isn’t it!! The reason why this is so valuable is that students get an emotional attachment to it. They want to make a great movie! And they want to be respected- so they research the content they want their actors to talk about. The end result is students learning a lot more than simply having students research and write a paragraph about what they learned. They have to figure out if “it sounds correct” and how to rewrite it in their words so that their students can understand it better. What I learned. After learning all of these programs I must say that I am pretty confident in my ability to teach them. They are not that difficult to use or download and they are all free. In my one of my other graduate level courses, I am actually using Quicktime to assessment project. My colleagues are very interested when they read my assessment draft that deals with Quicktime. They seem very excited. That makes me happy because if future teachers are excited to learn then their future students will be too! I will be writing today about the "Digital Divide", physical accessibility, universal design, Alan November, turnitin.com, and one laptop per child project. What is the Digital Divide? This is the gap between people with computers and internet and those do do not or have limited access to it. The wikipedia definition is refers to the gap between people with effective access to digital and information technology and those with very limited or no access at all. It includes the imbalance both in physical access to technology and the resources and skills needed to effectively participate as a digital citizen. Knowledge divide reflects the access of various social groupings to information and knowledge, typically gender, income, race, and by location.[1] The term global digital divide refers to differences in access between countries in regards to the internet and its' means of information flow. Do you know what Physical Accessibility means- really? It has to do with the learning environment. A physical accessible environment is one that wheelchair uses can get to and navigate within, according http://www.washington.edu/accessit/it-checklist/. Good signs for people with visual impairments and adjustable lighting and noise levels for those who need it is also a must. It is also said that distractions are to be minimized and speech recognition technology needs to be available to those who need it. What is Universal Design? In short Universal Design refers to how accessible a product or environment is to a variety of individuals. Some examples are automatic door openers for those that have a wheelchair, sidewalk curb cuts for those who are blind and television displays in airports that are captioned for those who are deaf. To adapt UD there to a product or environment there are 8 steps to follow. These are found here. The UD principles are also found here. Alan November Alan November is an interesting guy. He thinks we have do not have enough independent thinkers in this world- and this is why young adults live with their parents during and after college. He thinks that figuring out "the escape plan" for young adults to get out of the house and grow is the solution. And i think he is right. We do need to teach students the skills they REALLY need. We need to teach them practical business skills, and how to compete globally and how to process large amounts of informaiton efficiently and effectively. I also agreed with him saying that, "when you change the audience and you change the results." I know that when I know my teammates are going to view my work- I try to make it the best work I can- with that being a written assignment or research project- it doesn't matter. turnitin.com Turnitin.com is a website that is designed to improve your students writing by preventing plagiarism and proving rich feedback to students. I absolutely love this website! One Laptop Per Child Project The Mission Statement: To create educational opportunities for the world's poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning. When children have access to this type of tool they get engaged in their own education. They learn, share, create, and collaborate. They become connected to each other, to the world and to a brighter future. They are not all talk. They are really doing what they say they want to. Please visit their website to see more photos and proof here. Reflection Time I learned a lot from these resources. I know that Alan November is a man I will never forget. His great presentation skills and passion to make changes happen in our education system is just awesome. Not only does he tell his audiance what the problems are in our education system, but he also gives solutions. I remember that one of his main objectives to get across his audience was to give the students more control over in their learning. This is something I am going to have to think more about. One this is for sure is that I will use the knowledge of physical accessibility as a future educator.
For a great example of CSS please click below to download.
Interesting enough when i Googled Content Specific Software.....this is what came up: "We conclude that, far from being neutral, content-specific software is found to be deeply caught up in cultural politics and to be a potential vehicle for social control." If you would like to read more please click here. It is a document from 1994. What is Skype and Why should i care? Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice calls, video calls, or instant messages over the internet. It is Internet Telephony System. It is Free! The negatives include that It is aimed to individual users and doesn't have the quality control or features that business users demand. Skype is an easy way for teachers to open up their classroom to a world beyond their campus. Students can learn from other students, connect with other cultures and expand their knowledge in amazing ways. Ultimately it is a way to engage students in the learning process. For 50 Awesome Ways to Use Skype in the Classroom click here! A couple of ideas my partner and I came up with to utilize skype in our future classrooms are as follows (We actually discussed these ideas using Skype- we did not meet up and discuss them in person. We did it from the comfort of our homes. For me it was the 2nd time ever using Skype and it was super easy): 1. Conduct Parent and Teacher Conferences 2. Collaborate with different school teachers around the country or even the globe 3. Offer tutoring to students ( click here for more) 4. Conduct facility meetings after school 5. Distance learning 6. Make learning more interesting and humorous. When you can see/hear emotions the learning process becomes much more interesting and increase the motivation to learn. 7. If class was canceled due to sickness (if the teacher or the student(s) are sick, a teacher could have the students engage with a pre-made podcast, during that class period instead of doing nothing or some activity that is useless. Teachers could conduct a whole lesson using Skype if they really had to. Below is a great example of teaching through Skype!Podcasting made easy Please click on the file below to listen to my Podcast. I made it to teach viewers about inquiry learning.
What is Podcasting? Pod casting allows virtually anyone with a computer to become a radio disc jockey, talk show host or recording artist. Sounds like good motivation to get students to learn, isn't it? It is a free service (to listen to and to make) that allows internet users to pull audio files (typically MP3s) from a website ( or itune store) to listen to ones computer or personal digital audio players (itouch, ipod, iphone, ipad). The term comes from a combination of the words iPod (a personal digital audio player made by Apple) and broadcasting. For more information please click here. There are three kinds of podcasts. 1.) Audio podcasts - they are usually an MP3 file and are most commonly what one will find online. 2.) Enhanced podcasts- they have images that go along with the audio and most of these are AAC files that are not supported by all devices. 3.) Video podcasts- that can be in a variety of formats, but MPEG-4 is that most popular and is the only format that will play on iPod and iPads. Below is a video that explains the benefits of implementing podcasting into the classroom. In The Classroom How can this be implemented in the classroom? Teachers can find pod cast episodes for students to listen to or watch. They can also have students make their own based on what they learned in class. "Our City Podcast" is a website for kids by kids where students from around the globe are invited to submit a recording all about the city they live in (how cool!) For more information please click here. What I learned I learned how to actually make a podcast. it is quite easy if you follow these steps below in the video. I learned that I can engage students by my voice and pictures online. I learned that I can use this on a weekly basis to give my future students an idea of what we will be studying during the week. I also learned that i can connect this to a webquest. For more information please visit this great website! How do we make students better prepared for the future economy? Well it's by understanding and implementing: Inquiry Learning, Open Learning, Constructivism, Webquests, critical thinking lessons, cooperative learning, technology integrated, and more specifically -- learning that has the characteristics of engagement, investigation, collaboration, sharing & building. All of these are very important. To provide you an over view an idea of why these are important i have taken pictures of my post-it notes mind-map. I did this to sort through my ideas and to better engrave it in my mind. Simply reading something- doesn't put it in my long-term mind usually. So here is it. I didn't have much light in the room to take a great picture of it. But- i think you will get the idea of what i was achieving. Please take the time to read through the following Questions. Why you ask? Well because these concepts are what educators will use, or already using, to more effectively teach students for the 21st century. What is Inquiry Learning? In simple terms it means "Tell me and I forget, SHOW ME and I remember, INVOLVE ME and I understand." It implies involvement that leads to understanding. Our traditional educational system has worked in a way that discourages the natural process of inquiry. Students become less prone to ask questions as they move through the grade levels. Click here to find out why. An important aspect to it is the use of Open Learning. Open Learning is when there is no prescribed target or result which students have to achieve. In many conventional traditional science experiences, students are told what the outcome of an experiment will be, or is expected to be, and the student is simply expected to 'confirm this. For more on this topic please click here. What is Constructivism?It is a theory of knowledge (epistemology) [1] that argues that humans generate knowledge and meaning from an interaction between their experiences and their ideas. During infancy, it is an interaction between their experiences and their reflexes or behavior-patterns. Piaget called these systems of knowledge schemata. Constructivism is not a specific pedagogy, although it is often confused with constructionism, an educational theory developed by Seymour Papert, inspired by constructivist and experiential learning ideas of Jean Piaget. Piaget's theory of constructivist learning has had wide ranging impact on learning theories and teaching methods in education and is an underlying theme of many education reform movements. Research support for constructivist teaching techniques has been mixed, with some research supporting these techniques and other research contradicting those results. In past centuries, constructivist ideas were not widely valued due to the perception that children's play was seen as aimless and of little importance. Jean Piaget did not agree with these traditional views, however. He saw play as an important and necessary part of the student's cognitive development and provided scientific evidence for his views. Today, constructivist theories are influential throughout much of the non-formal learning sector. Please visit here for more info. A constructivist perspective views learners as actively engaged in making meaning, and teaching with that approach looks for what students can analyse, investigate, collaborate, share, build and generate based on what they already know, rather than what facts, skills, and processes they can parrot. To do this effectively, a teacher needs to be a learner and a researcher, to strive for greater awareness of the environments and the participants in a given teaching situation in order to continually adjust their actions to engage students in learning, using constructivism as a referent. click here for more. Constructivism is a philosophical position that views knowledge as the outcome of experience mediated by one's own prior knowledge and the experience of others. In contrast to objectivism (e.g. Ayn Rand, 1957) which embraces a static reality that is independent of human cognition, constructivism (e.g. Immanuel Kant, 1781/1787) holds that the only reality we can know is that which is represented by human thought. Each new conception of the world is mediated by prior-constructed realities that we take for granted. Human cognitive development is a continually adaptive process of assimilation, accommodation, and correction (Piaget, 1968). Click here for more. What is a WebQuest? They are among the most fascinating applications on the Internet for K-12 educators. Student centered and inquiry based, a WebQuest challenges students to explore the web for information and it is an excellent way to integrate the Internet into the classroom. Traditionally WebQuests have an introduction, a process, a task, a list of resources, a conclusion, and an evaluation. Click here for more. A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web. The model was developed by Bernie Dodge at San Diego State University in February, 1995 with early input from SDSU/Pacific Bell Fellow Tom March, the Educational Technology staff at San Diego Unified School District, and waves of participants each summer at the Teach the Teachers Consortium. Did you know Tens of thousands of teachers have embraced WebQuests? Why, because they use it in a way to make good use of the internet while engaging their students in the kinds of thinking that the 21st century requires. The model has spread around the world, with special enthusiasm in Brazil, Spain, China, Australia and Holland. Click here for more. The above picture is an example of a WebQuest. Cut and Paste this: http://www.rblewis.net/technology/EDU506/WebQuests/dogstories/dogstories.html: into your browser to check it out! You might also like this website. It teaches website designers how accommodate a WebQuest to enable students with disabilities to better use the WebQuest. http://www.colleenkennedy.com/UofU/TL5140-02Sp03/disability_webquest.htm What are the Steps to make a WebQuest? It's easy! Simply follow the steps provided in the screen caption photo and/or visit this website. Do you know what Google Docs is? If I would have to estimate- most college students, and professors know what Google Docs is and half know how to make one. . . However, when it comes to K-12 grade levels, I don’t think most children or teachers know what Google Docs is. So this blog will be dedicated to explaining what Google Docs has to offer to make education align with technology of the 21st century. Above is an example of educators and students within the K-12 level using Google Docs. Google Docs is free. It is an editor that enables any number of individuals to work on one word document, excel spreadsheet, power point presentation from multiple computers, while saving the changes almost instantly online. There is no need to save documents on jump drives anymore with this, nor is there no reason to email regular documents (that do not present itself as a Google Doc) to individuals. Don’t believe me? Check this out. What is also awesome about this is that there is no downloading needed. You don't need to download the software. It's already available to you online- all you have to do is use it! To get started all you do is go to your email and find the Google Docs or Documents button. Please see below slide show side one. Once you do that you see slide show side two. Then you click on either "upload" a file or "Create New" document. Under the “Create new” button choose when type of document you would like to create. Once you have made you document the you go to the upper right corner of your screen that says "Share." This is when you make the settings to share the document to your team member or who ever you want to see and/or make changes to the document. Awesome isn't it?!?! The Slide Show Presentation to get you started NOW using Google Docs. The Application & Conclusions of Google Docs Here's two application example: 1. ) students can upload a power point presentation and have the entire team work with make necessary changes to it, while having them talk things out on the phone, using AOL or in a chat room. 2.) Teachers can create forms for students to take quizzes/ assessments online. (see below) Once created teachers get feedback in an orderly fashion to be able to analyze results and give feedback to students faster! Thus, making the learning process faster! Describe Google Docs again please.. Google Docs is an easy-to-use online word processor, spreadsheet and presentation editor that enables you and your students to create, store and share instantly and securely, and collaborate online in real time. You can create new documents from scratch or upload existing documents, spreadsheets and presentations. There's no software to download, and all your work is stored safely online and can be accessed from any computer. For more information please visit this link. The reason why this is important you, as an educator and to your students. 1.) All students can easily participate in group work. One student is not going to do all the writing work- everyone is. Everyone adds his or her part. Then as a group they discuss the whole document to make necessary changes before turning it in.
2.) One student in the USA can interview to another student across the globe, using Google Docs, for Free then keep it for later for a end of the year project. International education. 3.) It creates synergy! Taking one idea and asking others to comment or expand on it can lead to greater- ideas! 4.) Allows students to become publishers on a world wide level- students see their work online and want to improve it- they see that others see it- so they naturally want it to be very good! It raises the level of their work! 5.) It motivates students to learn. They are motivated because they are engaged- not just listening- not just writing- they are each doing at least three things at the same time- thinking- writing- editing- expanding- publishing 6.) Overall makes your classroom more efficient & effective in the learning process! Did you know that 40-50% of students in classrooms are visual learners? yeah- it's true. I have another question for you. Can you name at the types of learners? Well, lets see. There are many types, But there are four primary types that include visual, auditory, read-write, and kinesthetic. Visual learners tend to be fast talkers, exhibit impatience and have a tendency to interrupt. They also use words and phrases that evoke visual images. The way they learn is by seeing and visualizing, not hearing. For an overview of the other types please click here. The focus of this blog is on visual learners. These learners will say, “show me and I’ll understand” and tend to benefit from diagrams, charts, pictures, films and written directions. Two ways to reach visual learners through technology are using Wordle/ Tagxedo and Inspiration. What the heck is Wordle & Tagxedo? Wordle is a graphic containing many words in different sizes. The words that appear larger are the words that are more frequently used. Here’s an example of one on the left. Now Tagxedo is similar to Wordle. What’s different is when one chooses to place his/her curser on a word in the graphic; it says how many times it was used. What is also different is the overall shape of the graphic. Tagxedo can for the words in a specific shape such a Abraham Lincoln. Below is a video for your convenience if you have any more questions. Now the reason why I mention these is because teachers can use these in a number of ways. One way is to have student type in, the provided text box of these websites, the main word/ideas they remember from a project, chapter or field trip, and then assess them. Teachers can see very quickly, in a creative way if I might mention, if their students are on track. From here the teacher can make changes in their lesson plans as necessary to help the students reach their academic standard. Another way teachers can use this is by assessing students on the first day of class. By seeing what student know and don’t know teachers can better understand the students, thus meeting them on their readiness level and quickly beginning the year on a great start. Inspiration Software The next strategy teachers can use to reach visual learners is software that most schools already have, but teachers hardly use, called Inspiration. Inspiration is a learning tool that inspires students to develop and organize their ideas. It is a mind mapping too. Students can learn how to become better writers especially with this tool. Here is an example. Within this software you have a capability to change a word into a picture, thus helping the student retain the information for a longer period of time (because we thinking in pictures- not words) and also helping the child who is just learning to read. What neat about this is that teachers can make a mind map without the words in it and then have the students fill it out for hw. The Importance |
AuthorMs. Cooley- Future Teacher in the field of Technical Business Education. Archives
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