Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Final Day of Class

I think that the most important thing that I learned this week was that adding a piece of technology to a lesson isn't creating a 21st century learning experience! I will need to add some web 2.0 tools to my lessons to accomplish this. (The challenge will be how to do this with 200+ students. I will be exploring blogs and wikis more fully in the next few weeks!) Also, through the reading and development of my project, I realized that I need to connect more of what I teach to the real world the children live in and give them more control of their learning.

Final Day of Class - Tuesday

What is the top concept or most relevant piece of information you are taking away from this week of class or online class discussions? Will anything you have learned this week, change your classroom and if so, what? Explain your thoughts on technology integration and how you plan to incorporate it into your classroom or learning environment.
Have a good remaining summer and feel free to contact Joanne and I if you have questions after class is out.
Thanks for a wonderful learning environment.
Lisa & Joanne

Monday, July 19, 2010

"Top Secret" Chocolate Chip Cookies

"Top Secret" Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 sticks butter (softened)
1 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
Mix ingredients together.
Add:
2 cups flour
2 1/2 cups oatmeal
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
Mix together.
Add:
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 ounces milk chocolate (chopped or chunks)
Bake@ 375 for 9-13 minutes. Do not overcook - just until beginning to brown.

Fair Use/Copyright

Somehow I haven't been able to post a comment -- it keeps telling me that it couldn't complete the request. Anyway, so here is my comment as a post... I've been thinking a lot about fair use/copyright issues, and have done some reading over the weekend to clarify things for myself. One of the cool lists I have found at the Center for Media Studies at Stanford contains lots of tools to help you with this question.

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/charts_tools/

Post for Monday - Day 4

Well, I can't believe that we only have one more day of class. Please share how the format the class has been for you? Has there been the right amount of instruction and time to work on your project? Do you feel you have had enough time to develop your project. How did the Wed-Th-Fri-Mon-Tue format work for you? Would you suggest keeping this type of schedule? Any other comments.... Thanks - Joanne and Lisa

Friday, July 16, 2010

wordle.net

Wordle is a way to create visual images of words. A piece of text is used to create the image.
It is possible to change fonts, colors, and placement of words (directions). The image can be changed quickly and words reorganized in a variety of ways. Within the wordle the words that are used most often in the text are larger. The "wordle" you create can be printed. It can also be posted online. Wordle is available at no cost. In the classroom wordles could be created to share political speeches, poetry, personal responses, and collective student descriptions in science, etc.

Shorten your URL's

WHY would I want to shorten URL's??

1. Posting a long URL in email can cause it to break when sent. The recipient then has to cut and paste it back together.

2. Are you posting something that you don't want people to know what the URL is because it might give away that it's an affiliate link?

3. Make life easier for yourself and your students by shortening the characters typed in for the URL. Less errors, less time!

4. Join one of these services and manage your URL's. Track how often people are clicking on them.

TinyURL.com

With TinyURL, you can make a smaller URL that will work for any page on your site. You can customize the name of your URL. You do not need an account.

What is 21st Century Education?

http://www.21stcenturyschools.com/What_is_21st_Century_Education.htm

or

http://tinyurl.com/6y7h9d or http://tinyurl.com/21stcenturyed

bit.ly

With bit.ly shorten, share, and manage your URL's. You have to sign up for this site, but it will keep track of the sites you have shortened and show you how many times your shortened links have been clicked on. You can customize the name of your URL.

What is 21st Century Education?

http://www.21stcenturyschools.com/What_is_21st_Century_Education.htm

or

http://bit.ly/c0bYao or http://bit.ly/21stcenturyed

TiNY

TINY will shorten, share, and manage your URL's. You need to create an account with this service. You can customize, but must write the custom name before you shrink your URL.

What is 21st Century Education?

http://www.21stcenturyschools.com/What_is_21st_Century_Education.htm

or

http://tiny.cc/dul2m or http://tiny.cc/21stcenturyed

Friday - Please respond

Whew...... We have made it three days. Thank you for great discussions and being such amazing learners and soaking up some many of the new technologies and learning we have shared with you. Please respond and let us know if there is anything we haven't covered or heard us mention that you were hoping to get during class. Have a great weekend and relax and enjoy some time away from the technology. Share any other thoughts you may have about technology and your curriculum. Lisa & Joanne

Smart Board

So...I am very excited about seeing how a Smart Board works. I feel that the only way to become proficient with it is to have on e in the classroom! I am going to look for grant writing opportunities/ find monies to purchase one for the classroom.
Besides the multitude of features it offers, I especially like the almost complete elimination for using chart paper or the dusty chalkboard. I also like that you can save what has been written on the board for future references and calling up pages saved to the computer. Wish me luck!

Xtranormal?

So, I attempted to make an Xtranormal animation...The program is free to sign-up and has many options for scenarios including 1 or 2 characters and voice options. You can also customize features like camera angles (though I didn't try), actions, faces, etc. It seems a little complicated to use (multiple steps) for younger kids, but those with advanced tech skills, older students, or those interested in videography might get a kick out it.

I initially thought this would work well to review social situations (problems/issues) that arose in the classroom to present them to the students to analyze in a non-confrontational way. I still think it could work, but it would take some finesse.


Thanks for the birthday wishes yesterday! I had a fun day!
Janet

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Organizing our thoughts.....

Hi, Gang!
Decided to be brave and dive into a new program last night....tried bubbl.us and found that it was pretty neat. I tried an example, which I'm going to attempt to share with you in class on Friday. We'll see how it goes... It's free, just need to sign in. It's a pretty straight forward brainstorming format - the advantage is that you can share on-line and post your work. It's open for edits within your friend groups, and I can see that this would be helpful in many possible ways. It could be used to plan projects among students and/or teachers, used to map stories, create stories, and extend overall thinking in just about any subject area. I know that I didn't discover all of the possibilities for this program, and would love to know if anyone else has used it, and how. Have a nice Friday!

:)mb

http://blog.bubbl.us








Article on peer editing/collaboration options


Article on online collaboration/peer editing with discussion of Buzzword, Google Docs, Office Live.

Day 2 - Thursday


What excellent WEb 2.0 presentations this morning. Joanne and I really picked up some new things during them. Share something you are really interested in pursuing around Web 2.0 tools. Remember to start small and build on it. Great discussions about the many issues around the use of these tools and examples today. Please share any other questions you may have or comments about class today.

Happy Birthday, Janet!

Lisa
SHELFARI

Group 4
Shelfari http://www.shelfari.com/
You must create an account to use this site, but it is free!
Personal use:
Keep track of your personal reading, journal/review, join groups of like minded readers.

For educational purposes:
Create a group and invite all your students. Keep track of what is read in the classroom as a group (with each student commenting) or have students keep track of their reading over the course of a year.

Mountains

"Mountains" Animoto Example

Voicethread

Group 3 - Ileen Gilbar, Bryant Pless, Laurie Forsman. Voicethread.com and ed.Voicethread.com. Summary: This is a collaborative space where people can have conversations on different media: pictures, math problems, digital stories, documentaries, geography exploration. Sharing can be done with specific groups or people, or it can be made public. Comments can be made in 5 ways: by phone, webcam, text (typing on a computer), file upload. You can even draw (doodle) as you make comments on your work. Voicethread has no cost; Ed.voicethread does, however. There is no cost for a single educator, but to sign up a classroom, the cost is $60/year or $10/month. School subscriptions are about $1/student. Ed.Voicethread is a closed and safer community in which students do not need to have email accounts to access it.

Overview

Video Demonstration


Getting Started Document


Link to pricing and features

This is Smilebox

Click to play this Smilebox collage
Create your own collage - Powered by Smilebox
Another picture collage by Smilebox

blabberize demo



This is a demo of a web 2.0 technology: Blabberize.com...

Uses: Students would need to write a script and rehearse prior to recording to practice what they are going to say. The website will allow you to edit your blabber, but ONLY after completing the entire sequence. Teaches students to import photos and prepare a script. Could be a fun way to prepare a report. Helpful for students who are nervous about speaking in front of peers...


Weaknesses: Can only have one character speaking at a time, but can string "scenes" together into one presentation. The program itself has a few glitches and isn't very intuitive to work. Placement of the mouth is difficult, possibly causing issues with two mouths, etc. More of a toy than an educational tool. More of a tech literacy or adapting tool rather than transforming. Doesn't interface with other programs easily...more self-contained.

Resources: You Tube links to student tutorials are linked on delicious. Can "tweet" them...
Here's a link to another user's "blabber."

Good luck making your own blabbers!

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Monday - Welcome to Teaching with Technology - Levels 1 and 2

We will be asking you to reflect on each day in the blog so that you can get comfortable with blogs and how they are used. Wow!!! So much new material... So much to learn..... Share your thoughts on what worked well for you and suggestions for the rest of the week.