Loved this Class

I LOVED this class, and learned so much from it. Six months ago I wasn't even considering high-speed internet, now I couldn't live without it!

e-portfolio

Uggghh! I can remember dragging around my art portfolio back when I was in high school. It was so cumbersome and clumsy. If flashdrives would have existed when I was in school, life would have been so much easier!

e-portfolio's are so much easier and more efficient than a hard-copy portfolio of anything. And...it looks so much cleaner and professional. In my reading, I found a percentage that 89% of the nation's schools departments of education are using portfolios in some capacity.

"Trust the Kids with Technology"

"Introducing the kids to technology begins in the first grade...", and "trust the kids with technology", these are two of the best quotes from this video and are from teachers in the Hawaii schools. The theory is that you can't just let kids who already know how to use computers use them. You can't just let the kids who are more advanced use them. Computers are hands-on and by using them can take them around the world, or be useful in their own communities. In a local harbor, they collected seaweed to test "specimens" and then share their findings with the rest of the school. They then make a film, and post on the schools website. This is one example of many different projects that are shared on websites for the school classes to share and learn.

Another cool project that was featured was the researching of their own family trees and creating pictures symbolic of their families.

I printed the article that listed 20 ways to incorporate technology in the classroom to use for the future! I loved all of the painless, easy ways and ideas that can be done to learn technology as well as spelling, math, science, etc... Great article!

Copyright

Who knew there were so many rules?? I always thought that anything on the internet was public domain. Now I know that even postings of any kind are protected just the same as published printed works. Soon copyright owners selling digital rights for reasonable prices will argue before courts inclined to view "making copies" as unjustified under fair use that activities we all consider normal, are actually infringements. How will we respond? If this peek into the future is even close to accurate, we need to get busy right now negotiating with copyright owners for the rights we want for as cheap as we can get .

Interactive White Boards

I LOVE the smartboard!! I thought I used it in another class, but whatever that was - wasn't nearly as cool! Looking forward to learning more about it...I only hope I'm in a school where they have them.

I think students will really enjoy being a part of the lesson and using the tools. It's so different than when I used the overhead projector in third grade and thought that was high-tech!

Editing

I am eager to continue learning about editing and importing music into videos. I love the royalty free website where I can find music and beats to tie into my videos. In researching, I have come across a lot of other websites that are a lot of fun too.

Week of the Water Buffalo

Alright, so I can't deny it...I really did like the Water Buffalo movie. It left me wondering though, did they continue that project to continue "donating" Water Buffalo, or did they stop doing it after that one? I wished they would have concluded with what the future intentions were. It was really a great idea. I tried to focus on the actual movie and techniques that were used, but I did become more interested in the content.

I think that we read the Podcasting article in an earlier class. Since the first time we read it, I have seen Podcasting in several lesson plans for El Ed. I've never done Podcasting/ or listened to it, (whichever is the correct way to say it) but I'm interested in learning. I do want to be a cool and hip teacher who knows technology.

I love this class, and I can't wait to do the video project. My thought was to somehow encorporate a PSA to the Risky Business movie and have my pregnant partner play the role, but I don't think she's going for it?? Anyway, can't wait to see how it turns out!!

Who knew??

Alright, so I'm one step further to being a techie (by my definition anyway). I find that I don't get papers written nearly as fast as I used to, I don't get readings done as quick as I used to, and I don't have projects completed quite as timely as I used to. When I say "used to", that means pre-google page, pre-high-speed, pre-bookmarks, and pre-anything that I didn't know before this class. I find myself going straight to email first before anything else, or I go to the google page, or I play around with some of the websites that we've learned about. Once I've finished doing all of these things, an hour has passed... and like right now, I still need to write a paper!

News Aggregator

Holy Cow!! If it weren't for this class, I would never have created my own personalized homepage...that I go into every day now! I love how I can add all my favorite bookmarks and sites right there on one page to check all the time. I'm still working on finding better blogs that have a lot of activity. Every day I'm more amazed at how much I've been missing out on with my computer because I just didn't know what exists. Thanks to this class, I'm learning. I really do feel like a kid in a candy store!

PowerPoint

It feels so good to have learned the newest version of PowerPoint in class. Not that I was a master at the first version but I could muddle my way through, get done what I needed to with a fairly decent end result. The newest version has so many shortcuts and enhancements that it actually makes it fun to use.

I look forward to using PowerPoint in the classroom as an interactive took, and also teaching the children to use PowerPoint for various activities (depending on the grade).

Link to my Diigo

http://www.diigo.com/dashboard/prich23

RSS

I wish all classes had reading assignments in video form! It was a good follow up after reading the RSS article on problogger.net. Most people are probably picking out certain item that they learned about RSS that they didn't already know. I have to say, I didn't know any of it, so I really did learn a lot from it. After seeing the video, I did recognize the logic/theory behind RSS and am anxious to see how long it takes me to figure it out!

Social Bookmarking

When I read that social bookmarking is for amateurs, I laughed because clearly I am no amateur...social bookmarking isn't for me! In reality, I think it must be perfect for me. After reading the article, I would be sure to be very specific with the tagging and try to make it as simple as possible. I have not yet socially bookmarked anything, but look forward to learning.

When I was reading Library 2.0 Theory: Web 2.0 and it's Implications for Libraries, I thought to myself, "if today is web 2.0, when did the first generation end? Was I in the first generation when online library instruction was provided via tex-based tutorials? Or, was my era in Undergrad not even the first generation, was I even before that?" I remember web based card catalogs just coming to the library and we all still used the card catalog because we were comfortable with it and still a little afraid of computers. Either way, technology has evolved since..."then". Library 2.0 is virtual and IM'ing has changed and is now multi-media. In the second reading, I loved the very last page that listed the various streaming media resources. It had many websites for teachers to utililize to find videography, audio, student-geared newscasts, and other lessons for classroom use.

Alright, so I'm not a techie...yet.

I LOVED the article "Digital Native, Digital Immigrants"! I even ended up reading most of it to my husband-both of which are Digital Immigrants...or at least we are working on it. We related to so many of the points made in this article, for example; we turn to the internet second if we need directions...yes, we still go to a map. This class for instance, I printed the first couple weeks of reading...mostly because I do a lot reading on the fly when I have the opportunity. I have made the "did you get my email call?" and after reading these articles I'm really laughing at myself.

BUT, times are about to change. I think some of the resistance that I've had with technology has to do with the fact that I'm probably one of the few people left on earth to still have dial-up. Technology, look out... we are actually going high-speed this weekend! Actually, it's DSL...is there a difference?? All that wasted time, waiting and waiting for the computer to "think" is over. In addition to our computer that we rarely use, I've had this laptop for months that I've only used for writing papers. Now, it will really get it's money's worth!

Today's student, the Gen N'ers or the Gen D'ers amaze me...they give multi-tasking a different meaning! When I was growing up, multi-tasking for me meant; doing school-work, working a job, after-school activities and worrying about my social life. While the Gen N'ers and D'ers still juggle those same things, they also play computer games, use computers, digital music players, video cams, cell phones and so much more, often all at the same time! This class in a matter of 1 week has opened my eyes to the fact that that is how my kids will grow up, and they will be able to learn while watching tv!

As a result of this class, this is my first time ever blogging. I wasn't ever afraid to do it, just didn't really have a need or curiosity to do it. I'm glad to learn it though, I will do it someday as a teacher with my students. As "Tools for the TEKS"has mentioned, it can be used for "posting classroom notes, homework assignments, web links for extension activities, etc..." As a teacher of Elementary students, I can take the students all over the world! They can see things they would never otherwise experience. They can do any kind of science experiement known to man, win spelling bees and so, so much more.

My goal, at the end of this class is to be like Ms. Mislevy (alright, so it may take a little more than weeks-but I'll get there) and really be a techie.

A blog is a way to communicate with others, it's fast, easy, organized, instant and for anyone...even the worst of "techie wizards".

I was really excited about this class, and am even more so now. I'm looking forward to blogging for this class and sharing ideas with classmates. It will be our way of journaling ideas and for the instructor to see if students are actually doing what they are supposed to be doing and also understanding what they do.