The End

What: This week’s topic of choice is tool of choice, but I really want to go over all the different technologies the class has cover over this semester. I will highlight how they have changed my attitude toward the Internet and its uses in the classroom.

Now What: The first one was Google Docs. It is a free, online word processing program. Though the program has potential it is far from perfect. The program is very difficult to use. I did like that you could collaborate with others in a team by inviting them to your documents. However, inserting pictures was complex and frustrating. I realize this product may come in handy as I move forward with my education, but I hope Google will fix some of the problems in an update.

Another tech opportunity for teachers is the Utah Education Network’s website. It’s a little complicated at first, but once I got the hang of the public and private sides of the site I really enjoy using the site. The site also helped keep all of my work organized. I can see how a website could help a teacher make lesson plan and find interactive. I got an opportunity to see how a real educator use the UEN website when my eight year old brought home an UEN URL that said her teacher had a site. We went on it together and she was about to play fun, educational games. I think this website is very useful for teachers and students alike.

So What: All of the different technologies I learned about have brought a new understand of the ever changing and shrinking world around me. As a person who does not like change this can sometime be difficult for me. Just when I get use to one program a new one come along and I need to learn that one. I need to get out of my comfort zone and embrace the new and understand that my student will be leaps and bond a head of me.

Video:I have to start by saying "I love School House Rock" Being a child of the Eighties I remember I Just a Bill and Conjunction Junction from my Saturday morning cartoons. I learned the Preamble to the Constitution from those cute little guys and so did my son. These cartoons have spanned the decades and now kids are watching them on DVD and YouTube. We need more playful and fun educational videos.

How to Pick a Podcast

What: Picking the perfect video podcast.
Now What: This week I was instructed to pick a video from the vast sources on the Internet. I could from YouTube, Teacher Tube or another website. If I choose YouTube I will have to carefully wade through the sea of homemade videos with inaccuracies. I will also student appropriate videos. Then I need to see if the content matches the core curriculum I am teaching. All this while making sure that the video does not contain anything dangerous that the children might repeat at home. There is so much to think about when picking the right internet video for the classroom. Hopefully I will be able to find the right clips.
So What: When I think of using video of any kind I need to remember the danger of over uses. I can’t play videos from the history channel and say I’m teaching history. Whoever made the video is teaching my students. The children could be home watching television or on YouTube. I then become a babysitter not a teacher. The videos lose their novelty and therefore their educational power. I will use them in my classroom, but not let them takeover.
Video: Millennial Generation
This video is a good example of what not to show in the classroom. It is a thinly veiled commercial for Motorola Phones. I did not like how the students said their parents turned to them when they need help with computers or phones. Also how their parents did things the hard way. While this is sometimes true, the young adults will soon be parents and their children will think they are stupid too. They need to get a clue and start paying for their own phones. Then maybe they won’t want so many unnecessary gadgets. They said that they wanted to be able to take everything with them. I think what they need is to get unplugged. Then go camping or hiking with their parent and friend. If they go far enough up in the mountain their phones will not work and that is a good thing.

Podcasts

What: The technology of the week is podcast and vidcasts. Wikipidia says, "A podcast is a series of digital media files (either audio or video) that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication". They are also called , vidcast and vodcast. Many are homemade, but they can also be new event clips from tv and movie. To watch some check out YouTube or Teacher tube.
Now What: Both of these technologies came with great warnings, especially vidcasts. Like everything there is good and bad video podcast, you can learn everything from math formulas to science concepts, but these are mix in with porn and violence. Another problem is that many of the vidcast are homemade. How do you know the person making the video knows anything about the subject matter? Careful Internet surfing and an understanding of subject matter are important before using any vidcast found online.
I have not used these technologies in my life as a student much. I may have use YouTube once to get a video clip for a class, but that about it. When I think about YouTube vidcasts I do not think educational. When someone says YouTube images of Fail Blog, Harry Potter Puppet Pals, “Charlie Bit My Finger”, and Fred flash through my heads. If you have never heard of these, ask a ten year old. These are not exactly videos for the classroom. I know there must be some informative videos a the site, because my twelve year old was able to learn everything about the care and feeding of Chinese Water Dragons from watching YouTube and for the most part the info was accurate. I guess it is not completely useless.
So What: Though there might be educational material on YouTube. As a teacher I will have to be very careful to wade through the muck to find educational and accurate videos for my class. I guess I could make my own. That is my assignment for this week. My team and I have to teach a concept with a podcast or vidcast. Then post it on YouTube. This assignment could be a good one for an upper elementary grade to try. They might make short news casts, teach a scientific concept, or record an oral book report. The possibilities are endless. I “WOULD NOT” have them post it online, because of liability and safety issues. But by acting out the information they have learned it will become embedded deeper in they brains for ease of recall later on.
Video: Why Let Our Students Blog?
I like how she said that students should blog for their digital future. Children today live in a computer age from the time their born they are playing on some form of computer. The IPhone even has apps for babies to use as rattles. This makes for an ever changing classroom, with new technologies popping-up every day. As a future teacher I need to stay informed about all of them. Will I let my students’ blog? I do not know. Like most things attached to the Internet there is good and bad in blogging. If I can give the children good round rules to keep them safe then maybe then will my students blog.

More Than Just SlideShows

What: This week I explored Microsoft PowerPoint and the book 50 Quick and Easy PowerPoint Activities by Tammy Worcester.
Now What: PowerPoint is by far my favorite Microsoft products. I’ve been a fan for many years now. With the exception of Microsoft Word it is the one computer program I have used the most in my college career. I have made my share of slideshows and taught many different subjects using the wonderful program. I have also used PowerPoint to help my son make both a book report and a Spanish Mi familia slideshows. I was getting bored with, you guess it slideshows.
So What: Until now I have never utilized PowerPoint for any but slideshows. Again with the slideshows, I guess I could not think outside the box. Thankfully I found Tammy Worcester’s book 50 Quick and Easy Power Point Activities. In the book the author gives new and different ideas for use with PowerPoint. Some of my favorite ideas were the accordion books, bookmarks and flash card made from the printed slide notes. I can see implementing many of these ideas in my classroom. The book helped me go beyond the normal and explore the unexpected.
Video: “I Believe in Me”
The little boy in the video just wants his school teachers to believe he can grow-up be something great. Teachers should believe that every child has the capability to do and be their best. They just need to guide them, love them, care and teach them. This can be overwhelming in a day and age of overcrowded schools and budget cuts. I guess that why they say you need to have enthusiasm, drive passion, eagerness, patience to become a teacher. I hope I have what it takes.

Picassa 3.0 Part 2

What: This week I will go over more uses for Google's Picassa 3.0. When I'm done I will have barely scratched the surface of the possibilities of photo editing with Picassa.

Now What: The first time I heard about Picassa was when friend of mine took professional like photo of my daughter for her Baptism. She used the program to edit the picture before she gave them to me. The pictures were beautiful and not just because they were of my little girl. My friend had turned some black and white, other were sepia toned. She also tinted a few and made a collage that she framed as a special gift. She was able to high light the most important parts of the photo, all using the free, Picassa 3.0.

In the last week I found so many more uses for the digital photo editing program. My son and daughter needed to make books for a literature fair. We used Picassa to edit photos for illustrate the books. My son book was a picture book about a buffalo, so we went and took picture of buffalo that live near our house. Then we took them and were able to write on one to make the title page for the book. The ability to write on my photos is one of my favorite features of Picassa 3.0. We also use the Saturate Effects in Picassa to add color to the photos. This green-up the dead grass under the Buffalos and added interest and texture to the pictures. I was also about to Soft Focus a picture of my son. This was the eye would be drawn only to him and not the busy background. With all of the effects and coloring tools the possibilities are endless.

So what: As I said last week the program is free. And free is a very good thing for a poor student or teacher. The more useful items I can get for free or cheaply the better. With Picassa it isn’t a matter of getting what you pay for. Picassa 3.0 is a wonderful, user friendly program that I will use in my future classroom. Another thing I can use Picassa for is to send Picture to Blogger of use in my 4^th Grade Rush blog. The ability to store and retrieve my photos online is something that will come in handy when I become a teacher.

For all the nice things I’ve said about the program you would think that it is perfect. There were however a few problems with it. Such as, it downloaded every picture from my computer’s hard drive including those for the game Zuma. I don’t think I need to edit pictures of a cartoon, stone frog. Picassa also load duplicate photos even though I told it not to. This might just be me getting use to the program. All in all I would recommend Picassa to anyone who owns a digital camera.

Video: I understand what they are saying. We as future teachers need to think globally. We need to implement new technology into our classroom to complete with an ever changing world. Children today are use to instantly getting ever thing they want. How can teachers keep up the Ipods, Iphones, Ipads, Itv and all the other gadgets Apple has invented. Maybe we should have them teach the children. Oh wait they are trying with Podcasts. Maybe if we can't beat we could use some of the technology in the classroom. By thinking creatively we can bring our classroom into the twenty-first century.

Picassa

What: Google has many products, my opinions of them runs from excellent their search engine, maps, and images, to needs improvement, Google Docs and Presentations. This week I downloaded Google's Picassa. It is by far their best product. Picassa is a digital picture editing program. It is kind of like a scaled down, free version of Photo Shop. Did I mention it is free? There are two sides of the program one stores pictures on a computer hard drive and the other stores pictures on the internet. I have not worked with the web side much.

Now What? The uses for Google Picassa are limitless. I downloaded all my photos into the program. I was amazed at all the different effects I could do. I also used Picassa to email the digitals pictures we took in class to the other students on my 4^th Grade Rush team. With just the click of a button the picture were emailed. I did not have to attach and wait twenty minutes for an overloaded email to be sent. I also used the program to resize my photos, so they would fit in to our Google Presentation. As a student I am sure I will use this program a lot.

Another feature of Picassa I love was the photo collages. I could see this feature being used for so many different assignments. Like a photo scavenger hunt. Not to take pictures, but to find the item around school. Or use it to make a “what or where is this” quiz? When studying a state or country. The uses are innumerable for just this one feature.

Now What: There are many other features on Picassa and hundreds ways I could use them in a classroom. The program gives me the ability to write on my photos. I could use this for memorization. When the class needs to remember a poem, I would take a picture that goes along with it. Then write the poem on the photo. This could help the more visual learns. Also it will help the student understand the meaning of the poem.

Picassa did this strange thing, all by itself, that I could use in so many ways. It took all of my pictures and gave me head only shots of everyone. This would be great for first day of school. I could take pictures of all the students and use the close–ups for name tags. This would help me and the children learn everyone’s names. Picassa has so many uses I could go on for days, but I know I will be using it in the future in my home and school life.

Video: Death by Power Point it is called. Doing too much or too little can make you look silly and stupid in front of a large group. Too many slides and the audience will get bored and start throwing things at you. Too few and you won’t get you point across. I have made and seen many a Power Point in my days as a student. I think people assume they look smart just because they have put their information onto a slide show. This is only true if you know how to correctly use the program.

A Digital Snapshot

What? This week the question was posed. How can teachers use digital cameras in the classroom?

Now What? I have had a digital camera for six years now. I can honestly say I have never, until now, used it in my career as a student. This is not to say I don’t love my camera, because I do. As a mother of two children it has been a wonderful tool to document every step in their lives. With its instant viewing and the expandable memory digital cameras are so much better their film counterparts. Needless to say digital cameras are almost fool proof.

There can be a few problems with the cameras. The one that haunt me most is batteries. Digital cameras eat them. Some have their own rechargeable batteries and others, like mine, take double A’s. I need to make sure I always bring extras. It is so sad to miss a prefect shot because the camera’s battery is dead. Another problem can be resolution. Make sure the camera is set at the highest resolution for the best photos. I will need to remember these when I have digital photography as part of a lesson plan.

So What? There are hundreds of ways digital cameras could be used in a classroom setting. My children have come home with a few assignments that involved camera use. One that comes to mind was when my daughter had to go on a photo scavenger hunt. The subject was science and she had to take pictures to represent things like evaporation, condensation, and dew. Another was a Power Point my son did for Spanish class. He had to take picture of family members and list what they would be called in Spanish. Both assignments are ways that I could use photography in my classroom of the future.

I can think of a few more ways to use digital cameras. I could document the entire year and give each student a binder of memories. Okay that might be too much, but I might have one student be a class photographer and the picture could be used in the school’s yearbook. The students could switch off each week. That way everyone gets a turn. I can just imagine the pride they will have when they see their photos published.

There are also problems with children using the cameras. First digital cameras are expensive and care needs to be given so they do not get broken. Also the children need to know what they can and can photo. They need to remember others privacy and personal space. I will have to supervise my students when they are using the camera. Even with these problems I can see how digital cameras could be used to enrich the learning process.

Video: Mashups

The video of the band formed from people around the world shows us how small the world can be when the internet is used for good. People can bring their collective talent together and make wonderful music. Problem is how can I use this in my teaching career? I could use prescreened mashups in lesson plans, but I do not think I could make my own.