stats Week 2

Well I must say that this week seems to be going better than last. I think that an opportunity to do research is helpful since we are now looking at survey sites. I learned a lot this week about these different sites out there and about what they have to offer. I personally chose a site called survey Gizmo as my pick of the week.
I have done a little thinking over the last week and decided that out of all of the classes that I have took so far, I need a book with this one the most. Something like "Statistics for Dummies" would suit me. I hope the rest of the class does not kill me for bringing that up! It is just that the PowerPoints became difficult to work off of and something with substance such as a book could have helped me more. It is something to think about for the next group!

Stats Week 1

Well, it has been a long time since I have put my feel into the statistics pool. What little I remember! I think that this past week has been a good refresher however, I have much ore to recover. I have spoke with a couple of classmates and have discovered that they too are having some issues. All though I feel bad for them, it is good to know that I am not alone in this sinking ship. I am sure that with a couple of weeks of practice I will be able to get back into the swing of things. Until next week!....

Week 4 Web 2.0

This week I have to reflect on Podcasts and screencasts. At this point I cannot say to much. I have watched the screencasts that were done by fellow students in my class. I think that they are great. I love how they are interactive and that you can actually "see" what is going on. The "voice" part however was rather dull and boring. I guess that more excitement and pazazz can be added as the used gets more comfortable. When it came to me using the screencast I have had nothing but trouble. I can't even utilize the screencast website. I will continue to look for other options.

Week 3 Web 2.0

This week I worked with RSS feeds. I have to say that personally I am unimpressed. I can easily see the use of this tool for some people. There are a lot of people out there who need updates and important information that changes quickly. I, however, am not one of those people. I have a couple of sites on there that I check occasionally but I do not see the need to check them that often that I would require this tool.
I also have been playing with my Twitter account. I must say, and excuse me for being blunt, what a stupid concept. It is like an IM but even more annoying! I don't expect anyone to care what I'm doing and on the other hand I don't care about what anyone else is doing. If you have something important to tell me... for Gods sake... pick up the phone.

Week 1 Web 2.0

This week I did a blog comparison. On one hand I did learn a lot but on the other I did not. All blogs seems to be pretty similar with slight differences that clearly impact others more than myself. I use blogs for the purposes of this class and for that reason only. Occasionally, I will read a blog online but honestly not that often. I personally do not care much for the opinions of others. Id rather use the internet for research on factual information. Some people use blogs regularly and/or for business and rely on the content. For those people the technical applications are important. I guess these tools are similar to anything in life. Some things are suitable for some and others are not.

Week 2 Web 2.0

The number one topic that I could utilize the most this week is the nice list of photo sharing sites. I recently took upon the job of yearbook coordinator at work. This has proven to be a bigger job than I could have ever imagined. To make my job easier I have created a panel of students to help take pictures and organize the yearbook. They also get the privilege of editing the photos before they actually paste them into the yearbook. I personally work with Picasa to do this however I am not that impressed with it. My students seem to like the Photobucket site and another introduced me to a site called Picknic. This site serves as an editing site as well as an online storage site. Overall I am impressed with a lot of the online photo sites.

Week 5 Story

This week I really enjoyed making the Petcha Kutcha. I have learned that 20 seconds is actually a reasonable amount of time to explain a slide. I found that it was actually more time that I initially needed. I found myself going back so that I could fill in the slides with more of my voice. I believe that Petcha Kutcha was an excellent way to create my presentation: an autobiography. However, I teach science and I feel that 4 minutes is just not enough time to explain some things. I believe that it is effective only of used at the right time. 

As far as the rubric is concerned, I decided to use Rubistar. I use this site a lot because it is free and I can customize the rubrics as needed. Although, generally I find that I do not need to make many changes. 

Week 4 Story

I can go on and on forever about how great Prezi is. The concept is great! It is not like PowerPoint where we would have 58 slides. Everything is located on one page! It is interactive for both the teacher and the students. It was very simple to create and the navigation is easy. The one downfall that I can see is that there is not much offered to make the presentation more aesthetically engaging. What I mean by that is there is a lack of background designs and the text feature is seriously bland. Why are there only three fonts available for this feature? Other than these two quirks, I think the program is great. I can't wait to use it in my classroom.

Week 3 Story

This week I learned about a lot of new programs. My personal favorite was animoto. This is a great way to make quick presentations that can easily be personalized. Too bad the site is not free!

I also leaned about presentation principles that make the presentations more aesthetically pleasing and more importantly more manageable to teach and learn. While reviewing these principles I learned a lot about myself. All along I though that my presentations were done well when in actuality they could use some work. My slides need to be slimmed down a bit and I could include handouts for my students. My issue is that my students will not utilize the handouts nor will they pay attention to me if they are not required to follow along. Any ideas, please share. ..

Week 2 Story

I must say that the reading this week has given me new insight to the way that I create my presentations. It has also required me to evaluate the ones that I have already created. I have found that my presentations, that I thought were not too bad, actually are. They are too long and more importantly give the students no emotion while viewing them. I am already educated enough to know that teaching has to be relevant and has to connect to real life examples in order for it to be meaningful for the students. I have never stopped to think that it has to be emotional as well. It might be easy to forget that President Kennedy is dead but one will never forget how they felt when getting the news. Learning can be temporary but emotions will last a lifetime.

Week 1 Story

Well, I have not a an opportunity to strongly attack the week's homework. Actually I've only done the picture project. I have to say that I am excited to see the end results of this project and even more excited to hear Louie's purpose of this project!!!!! :) So far I think that this might be the most exciting class for me. It is right up my alley as far as creativity and uniqueness. I also think that it is a great break from the boring technical components that we have recently covered. Anxious to learn much more in the next weeks.

Week Three

The first site that I chose to review was Inspiration. I am very familiar with this site because the district that I work for uses it along with Kidspiration. This program is very similar to Inspiration except the targeted audience is a lot younger. These programs overall are aesthetically pleasing and are easy to use.
Bubbl.us was very similar to Inspiration as they were both easy to use and looked very nice. Like Inspiration, Bubbl.us allows the students to organize information in a way that is not confusing and is fun at the same time. This is important in the classroom because organization plays a key role. With that said both of these programs would be an asset to any district or school. The only addition benefit that Bubbl.us offers is the fact that there is not a charge.
The last program that I viewed was Education Oasis. This program offered many templates that would be functional for the students. On the other hand it is not nearly as aestetically pleasing as the others. Another gripe that I have is the fact that the templates are not functional online. In order to word process them they would have to be copied and pasted to a program such as Word or a Google Doc. All in all, I was not impressed.

Week 2

Rubistar and Quizstar are great tools for any classroom and for all grade levels. I personally have worked with Rubistar. This tool is great because it automatically creates objectives and assigns them a point value. This is simply done by clicking on a subject area and a topic. The tool also allows the user to copy and past onto a document and revise the areas to make them more specific.

Quizstart on the other hand, is not a tool that I am familiar with. I briefly looked over the website and noticed a lot of similarities. Quizstar operates in the same way that Rubistar works except for the fact that it creates quizes instead of rubrics. I also noticed that there is a charge for the Quizstar. It is relitively inexpensive though.

All in all, both tools are beneficial to my classroom. They are easy to use and they are adaptable to different subject ares and levels. They are flexible with the content and can be used cross curricular.

Week One

Out of the two articles I really enjoyed reading the Principles of Teaching and Learning. This article sums up a lot of the important information that I learned throughout college. The format is also exceptional being that all major ideas are summed up into 7 points for teaching skills and into 8 points for learning skills. These ideas include the topics of motivation, prior knowledge, organization and engagement. These are all important skills that both the teacher and the students need to learn. The more practice each has with these skills the better they will become. This is beneficial to the facilitator because he/she can use these tools effectively to engage students into the curriculum while the student can use these same skills to evaluate themselves which will in turn make them more efficient learners.

Week 4

Wow I'm a little late. This week was yet another hectic one. Ending one school year and getting ready for summer school seemed to pose a problem along with my Master's Program. I think I have more on my plate than I can handle. But gotta keep movin' on huh? Anyway, I did not seem to gain a lot this week in class. The safe internet essentials were something that I was already aware of and the Second Life deal was a joke. I did learn a little about the privacy laws on the other hand that were interesting. Most importantly I learned that I am not doing anything illegal when I borrow or use stuff on the internet.

ED 520 Blog 3

This week I had a lot of fun working with my group again. It is very interesting to see where we all agree and disagree. For the most part we are all on the same page. For our group project we had the opportunity to investigate many different web sites which have potential to be useful in the classroom. Most of the tools we looked at were interesting and include: 280 slides, poll everywhere and Google forms. Others were unimpressive (Ta-da lists)... honestly what a waste of time.

Not much else to say this week. I am trying to close out the end of the school year and am exhausted!

ED 520 Blog 2

This weeks learning was a little on the uneventful side. Because we covered search engines in the last class in such detail the thought of it alone is enough to bore me. (Not you fault John, Louie was excessive with it!) Also, as far as the Wikipedia debate is concerned... I really could care less. I have no personal peference to the site at all. Yes I do use it however I would not use it as a credible source for a meaningful assignment. I would also not let my students use it as a research reference. Wikipedia like global warming, is something that can be dabated on for days. Personally, it is not worth my time. Till next week!

ED 520 blog 1

This week was not very new to me. I have had to evaluate websites before so the concept was old. However, it was interesting to look at all of the different types of evaluation tools out there. With that said I look forward to introducing these tools to my students so that they can do some of the leg work for me. It takes a lot of time to find credible resources out there. They students will also learn responsibility of finding what is credible and what is not.

Thank God... The Last Blog!

A light at the end of the tunnel. These last few weeks have been straight from hell! I have had no idea of where I was going or what I was doing. With each project came a big headache and a lot of beer. (The headache was not from the beer!)

With that said.... I have learned a lot! I know how to protect myself from potential disasters and I even know how to purchase my own computer without the help of a sales representative. All of a sudden I feel so grown up!

Blog 2 - Future of Desktop Computing

The future of desktop computing can go a few different ways. As I looked at the Linux system I began to wonder why I was spending so much money on programs that were free online. I also wondered why I have such an expensive computer when I do virtually nothing on it that does not pertain to the internet. I have come to the conclusion that I do not need a fancy computer. I can spend a very little amount of money on it and still accomplish the same tasks that I do now. All I need is a link to the internet.

I may or may not be the exception to the computer industry. There may be plenty of people out there like me who do not rely on the computer itself but on an internet connection specifically. On the other hand there are more creative and artistic people out there who enjoy music, gaming, and aesthetic programs that allow for creations and design. These people would have a difficult time functioning on a minimal computer.

With that said.... I am not sure where our future lies. Everyday there are more and more programs out there online that are free. The internet is everywhere which makes it easy to access these programs. On the flip side the programs come out as software generally before they make it to the online world. The deciding factor could very well be "can the internet incorporate online programs faster than the companies can produce the software?"

Blog 3- What would I lose?

MY MUSIC! That is it. This is all that I would lose. Not because I do the right thing and backup my computer but because I do not store anything on it. My photos are on an online photo gallery and my important information for work is on a flashdrive. That is all I need. It sadly makes my wonder why I paid so much money for my laptop...

Computer History

I can sit back and specifically remember my first time using a computer. I was in first grade and was writing a story in class. The teacher brought us to the computer lab to type our papers and then print them. We used this new neat form to create our own books. I thought that it was the greatest thing in the world! Up until that day at school I had never even seen or heard of a computer before. Soon after that I was introduced to video games such as Oregon Trail, then to chatting, emailing and the internet itself. Computers went from zero to sixty in a matter of ten years. I can't keep up anymore.

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Well, well, well, it is finally over. I have to say that this was an extremely long class. I think that the book added to the long feeling however there were high points. All in all I am enjoying the program overall. Louie is a great instructor who is very understanding and knowledgeable. He is also just as enjoyable as Les Nessman. As far as the content is concerned, I feel fulfilled. I think that I learned a lot of useful information regarding spreadsheets, software, and technology in general. I also enjoyed the group work. I think that I got as much out of it as I would have if we all met in person. We were able to collaborate together all in the comfort of our PJ's. Collaboration while comfortable is better than any classroom could ever be!!

Software evaluation... where to begin?

During week five I had the opportiunity to evaluate some software with the help of several tools. Most of the tools had similarities while others had subtle but yet critical differences. Before I had the opportunity to work with these tools I wouldn't have the first clue on how to tackle such a large task. I personally am a very simplistic thinker. . . I would simply "play" with the program and determine if it was interesting, creative, and unique. If I enjoy it then sure it's a go. If not, then "no." This is obviously a very poor way to evaluate instructional software however I will say that the more fun it is the more the students will enjoy themselves. I am also surprised that the evaluation tools did not place much emphasis on creativity. After all, we all try to make learning fun.

In Time or Waste of Time?

The specific video that I pulled up was called "Water Quality in the Greenhills Stream." The video was about a science teacher who used the scientific method to help the students answer a question...who didn't know that? She integrated technology by having the students create a PowerPoint presentation of which they would have to present to the class.
All in all the video was lacking information. The specifics about the content were vague as was the "technology" part of the project. The video primarily covered the process of the scientific method. This information comes second nature to me and does not need to be reinvented. If the video were to focus on the importance that technology played in the project it would have been more useful and insightful for me. Hopefully others had better luck with their pick:)

Oh so Easy Excel

I love Microsoft Excel. It is interesting, organized and very simplistic to use. The problem with Excel is that it is expensive. When I found out that I can do the same stuff on Google Spreadsheets I was thrilled. All of the same features are there that I would normally use from Excel but more importantly I can access it from anywhere as I can my Google Docs. This is a great tool for me to use personally and in the classroom. It would be nice for my students to not only share their ideas but their data from labs as well.

Search Engine Hell

Let me be the first to say that I am terrible at searching the internet. What takes me hours can take others only minutes. Yes, I know the standard tricks to the trade such as using quotations and the word "AND" however, this is not always the answer. While researching the search engines I learned rather quickly that the "advanced search" is a very useful tool.

I am an avid Googler. I Google everything. Most of the time I do not even type the URL into the address bar because for me it is easier to go to Google, type the name of what I am searching for, and then click the link. I always assumed that the same websites that show up on Google will show up and all of the other search engines. This is not the case. While playing around I found that there are a lot of difference among search engines and that the top 20 site that show up while searching are also different. I have learned that I need to used at least a couple of search engines while researching in the future.

Call me Mrs. Stick Man o->-<

If there is one thing in this world that I cannot do besides pee while standing, it is drawing. I am not good at it which makes the task impossible. I am actually so bad at it that even my graphic is a stick man. It is really sad when my two year old makes better creations than I do.

The graphics programs that I researched this weekend now supply me with a handicap for my lack of artistic creations. With these programs I can create creatures that look terrible but professional all at the same time. Even my students who fear pencils would not object to this form of technology.

The presentation programs are a great way for my students to share information with classmates in a way that does not involve passing notes. Not only can they present information they can also share it which is a benefit during group work. These programs allow my students to be creative in the classroom instead of on the bathroom stalls. :)

The text on the other hand is not to my liking. I think that it is uneventful and repetitive. Some of the information is useful, however I prefer to learn by doing as we have been the last few weeks.

Round Two

No matter how hard we try there is no escaping technology. No matter where we look there it is staring us in the face, in the forms of computers, cell phones, pda's, i pods, mp3 players, and of course video games. Now I love all of these devises just as much as much as my students love theirs. I own the new Blackberry storm, a laptop, an i pod, an XBox 360, a Nintendo DS, and a PSP among others. Technology operates me better than I can operate it.

That said, technology is something that is applicable in my classroom and out. Because technology has obviously captured the attention of my students (and is not letting up), it can be my best friend when it comes to teaching...

Blogs are a great way for students to read each others work and to communicate in ways other than passing notes in my class and talking to each other in some form of sign language that I am apparently oblivious to...

Skype could be used to communicate with important figures in the community. This way the studnents will have a way to interact with an imperative adult instead of torturing them as they are doing our X - Mayor of Racine by playing ding dong ditch at hi house because the community just found out that he was a pediphile.

Google Docs is an excellent way to post papers and messages to classmates and others in the school. Perhaps this will eliminate the need to write on bathroom stalls (or not).

Not only can technology improve the learning of my students it might actually improve behavior.

It's all a pipe dream I know... wishful thinking. :)

Square One

My long journey to achieving a masters degree is just beginning. I feel a sense of excitement followed by a sense of being overwhelmed. This path so far has started off a bit bumpy for my liking. However, the funny thing is that this would not be a technology degree if it ran smoothly! Despite a few bumps and bruises along the way, I am sure that this degree will be beneficial to the way that I teach everyday. In today's world I am being "out-smartted" by my students when it comes to technology. On one hand I am trilled at the amount of intelligence that they possess and on the other it worries me that I will not be able to teach effectively with times moving so quickly. My hope is that this degree will allow me to teach using methods other than PowerPoint. I love to teach science and my students enjoy it even more when technology is part of class. I would like to learn to pass the keyboard into their hands.