Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Thing #11.5 evaluation

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
I enjoyed using wordle; I can see myself using this in the classroom with my active board. I also enjoyed gloster and think I will use this in my class also. Many of the other activities such as facebook, youbtube, hulu, skype and I phone I have used before. I will use youtube and hulu but I don't think I would use the others.
2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
It has made me realize how much is out there in the technical world and that I need to continue with my education to keep astride of the latest trends.
3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I guess there really wasn't any surprises. I really did not like the virtual world. I cannot see myself ever using that again but it is nice to know about it.
4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
I really like the format and the concept. I would not change a thing. I hope that this continues because I would like to partcipate again and really enjoy learning new things in the digital world.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Thing # 11 digital citizenship


I never really thought about digital citzenship until I read the articles. I liked the digram in cool cat teacher. I believe our goal is to teach all of these different catagories: literacy, safety, etiquette and learning strategies. I liked the quote "guide on the side". I see this as our role in this digital citizenship; to help guide the students through the pitfalls that face them. One big problem that I have with freshmen in my English class is getting them to see the difference between realiable and unrealiable sources. Many students think because it is on the internet, it must be true. It is my job to have them become a decerning user that same way that my teachers taught me to be a decerning reader.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Thing # 10 virtual world etc.

I was finally able to get into this website and played around in it for about four hours. It was not the easiest thing to learn how to do but was kind of fun. I really do not see how I could use this in a freshmen English class.

Friday, July 2, 2010

Thing #10 virutal world

I have tried all afternoon and cannot log in to this website. First it would not load a securtiy word then it would not accept any password that I typed in. This is very frustrating and not worth it. I would rather live in the real world.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Thing # 9 slideshare

I am not sold on slideshare. I think you can achieve many of the same results using easier and more well known apllications. The problem that I have with it is that it is very easy for students to use others work. I would rather they use something that I know that they did.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Thing #8 etc

I found screencastle easy to use but difficult to download to this blog; there are not a lot of instructions to be found. I think this can be very useful for me as a teacher for doing things such as the works cited page generator that I just made (but not edited). Instead of going through this for each class, I can just show them the video. Of course, I can do the same thing basically with my active board.

Thing #8 Screencastle

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

thing # 7 hulu etc.

I like using many of the different video sites to supplement our literature selections; just about every story in our book can be found somewhere; also, there is great background information available also. One site that I use is biography.com. The site will not let me embed it in this blog but the link is as follows:
http://www.biography.com/video.do?name=edgarallanpoe&bcpid=19658108001&bclid=1859715279&bctid=1862051847

thing # 7 hulu etc.

Hulu; Many of the Alfred Hitchcock shows are made from the short stories in our literature book. Love showing these to the students.

Thing #6 I phone

I have used I phones previously; my daughter has one and many of my co-workers do also. I find many of the apps to be very useful. My family just went on a trip and the GPS app and the weather app came in very handy; the weather app helped us avoid a major storm. I am just not sure though, about using phones in a high school classroom. I think this is a topic that someday will have to be decided on a district level. We tell the students to put them away, that they cannot be visible and then we tell them to take them out and use them. I do not see the district buying classroom sets for use in the schools so I beleive that this is something that is better left up to the colleges.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Thing #5 facebook

I have been on facebook for about a year now and enjoy using it; just recently I re-connected with some old high school friends and set up an impromptu mini reunion. I only have close friends and family members on my facebook. I do not want students or ex-students on my facebook. I have read the horror stories of teachers losing jobs because of things posted on facebook and feel that it is just not worth the risk to involve students or ex-students. If I ever was going to do this, I would set up a separate account just for that purpose. I really do not see a use for this in my classroom. I cannot see a practical use for back-channeling or twitter in a high school classroom. I can see the benefits in a college lecture class or at a symposium, but not for class use.

Thing #4 youtube

I have used youtube previously and found many helpful video clips that I have used in the classroom and for coaching as well. Many coaches do not realize that there are tons of instructional videos available for just about any sport. It is not difficult to upload videos to the sight and I find it to be very user friendly.
Some advantages of having teaching/learning videos available are that students could view videotaped lessons at home if they were absent or as a re-teaching tool. They could view a difficult lesson or a review session at their leisure.
Because of the legal issues, I am not quite sure about up-loading student work. I think that would have to be something that they would have to do on their own. I would not be comfortable from a legal standpoint of doing this, even with a signed form. I think, though, that if a student is proud of an assignment that they have completed for class and want to share it, it would be great. They would have to understand though, that sometimes comments from casual observers can be rough and to take some with "a grain of salt".

Monday, June 14, 2010

Thing 3 skype

I am very familar with Skype; my family has used it for a few years. Our neighbor moved to India for a while and we talked on Skype and video chatted about once a month. I can see uses for this in the library and classroom. It would be nice to be able to set up a conference with an expert in a field: an author or playwrite or college professor and be able to have the students interact with them. I have also used this with coaching: talking with college coaches about athletes and football strategy.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Thing 2 commentary

I found wordle to be very useful; I can see myself making things to use with my active board. I can see the students using it for a variety of things; especially literature. It would be great to use for novels, short stories and the like and even vocabulary study. I found the site to be very easy to use and user friendly.
I also liked gloster very much; again, I see myself using for many introductory units with my activeboard. I think the students would like using this more than making a traditional poster. It is faster, easier and much more convenient. I think the thinking process is a bit different also because it forces them to use technology instead of scissors and glue.
I made a video on animoto but can not figure out how to post it to the blog. I saved it and can e-mail it and post it on facebook. I found this to be very time consuming coming up with pictures and things. I think it could be used in my English class for a major assignment over a novel or play or such. Finally, the Bookr I found very difficult to use. I thought the website was not very user friendly and lacked instruction. Also, the photos that were available were not very useful or plentiful. I really don't think this is something that I would use.

thing 2 wordle

Wordle: parts of speech

Thing 2 glogster 2

I fixed it; yeah!

Glogster

thing 2 glogster

I made a glogster but only half of it showed it up; i guess that is because i did it as a side bar.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Thing 1 Summer 2010

After watching the video on connectivism, I came away with a few contrasting thoughts. I like the idea of being able to access any textbook, classroom, course etc. However, I am not quite sure about how the student is to go about finding these things. I see this as the role of the teacher: to direct the student to the correct sources. I think the teacher and or libraian's role in this connectivism is a bit more complicated than what the video shows. I see the role almost like a traffic cop; telling individuals which way to go.