Wiki

As I was creating my Wiki I actually had more trouble then I would have thought. I have used Wikis before but it was a whole new experience when I was the one actually making the Wiki. I think Wikis are a very good tool to use in the classroom. I had a professor who used a Wiki for our class last year and I thought it was very helpful. I really enjoyed being able to go on the Wiki and see everything that we were doing that week as well as the upcoming weeks. I can sometimes be very unorganized so it was nice to have everything in one place. I am not sure which I like better, a Wiki or a web page like Weebly. They both have good and bad points about them. I think for a classroom web page I would like to use a Wiki. I think it looks more simple and would be easier for students and parents to figure out. For my students in the future I would like to do something very similar to the practice Wiki I made. You can see this Wiki by clicking here. For this Wiki I decided to do a web page that would basically be just a big information page for my students and their parents. I think this would be very helpful and a great way to keep everyone updated and working together. I really enjoy Wikis and I definitely see myself using one in the future!

Prezi!

I decided to do some research on Prezi because up until this class I have never been taught to create presentations on anything else besides PowerPoint. I thought the idea of Prezi was very interesting. I like how they give you a completely open canvas and you are able to do whatever you want with it. Many times when I am making presentations on PowerPoint I get frustrated because I do not feel like I can get very creative. The only issue I have with Prezi is at first it is very confusing. I played around with making a presentation and I found myself getting lost with my own work. The complexity of this website is something I could see being an issue when using it in the classroom. In order to have the class use Prezi I definitely feel like there would have to be a day when the teacher would go over how to use the site and all of the different features it has. Whether or not there would be time for the students to learn about Prezi, I feel would determine if the site could be used in the classroom or not. Even though I could see this being a problem, I still feel like Prezi could be a very useful website that could be introduced in the classroom

Digital Story Telling

For my digital story I decided to do an example of a lesson I could use in a lower elementary classroom. For the lesson I would have my students use Picasa to make a web album of things they saw while at the zoo on a field trip. The students would then have to add captions to describe what they seen and why they liked it or not. This would be good for the students because not only would it be teaching them how to integrate and use different technologies, but also because it would get them thinking about their feelings and understanding how to put them into words. I liked Picasa because it was very easy to use, I had no problem uploading my photos and adding captions.

Jing!

When I first looked at the assignments for this week I got pretty intimidated when I seen we had to make a vlog using Jing. I thought it was going to be really confusing and I pretty much put this part of the weeks assignment off until the very end. After completing my vlog I think it is pretty safe to say I was completely wrong about Jing. It was actually very easy for me to use, I would actually say it was one of the easiest programs we have to use in this course. I decided to play around with Jing a little bit before I made my actually vlog and I found it quite amusing. Usually I do not like hearing my voice when it is recorded but after I made my vlog and I was watching it, I was very satisfied with how it turned out. Click here to view my vlog, hope you enjoy!

Technology Integration

So I just finished up my technology integration section of the midterm. It was a little harder then I had expected it to be. I had some trouble at first trying to decide what technology to use, what grade to pick, what subject I wanted to do, and how to work all of these things into one lesson. I decided to do a lesson involving group work in Google Docs. I knew I would have to do a higher grade level, so I first started off by just looking at the Language Arts GLCEs for grades four and up. I found a fifth grade standard that involved developing a research paper and another that involved editing and revising work. I decided to use these two and then a Social Studies GLCE that would give my students something to actually research. Once I was able to choose these standards developing the lesson became much easier. Now that it is all said and done I can honestly say that I am very pleased with how my lesson turned out. You can click here to look at my lesson!

Lesson with Audio

This is my finished version of my punctuation lesson after adding audio in Voice Thread. You can click here to veiw the actual version on Voice Thread

Google Docs Mini Lesson

Google Docs

There are a few ways I can think of that I could use Google Docs in my classroom. The first would be to use as a web page where I could keep in contact with parents. This could be a place where class activities and parties could be planned out, with all parents being able to add to the discussion. Another way I could use Google Docs with parents is to keep them updated on what is happening with the classroom. They would be able to comment right on the page and right where the info they are talking about is presented. This would be a much simpler form of a class web page, that some parents might find too difficult to navigate. Ways I could use Google Docs with my students during group work. They would be able to have one document with all of the groups information that they could all keep adding too without forming a whole bunch of separate documents that then need to be added together. Google Docs would also be a good resource for me to be able to share class assignments with the students as well as extra information about what we are learning in class. I really do feel as if Google Docs is a good resource to use in the classroom and I wish I would have known about it sooner!

TPACK

The technology I decided to look at is an add on for Firefox called Click-Speak. I wanted to find a technology that would actually be of use for me in the future, and I feel like this is definitely something I could use with my Deaf and hard of hearing students. Once turned on Click-Speak will actually read everything that is on your browser. You can have it read the whole page or have it read just certain selected items. Click-Speak will have its own toolbar on your browser as well, here you will be able to start and stop the reading as well as use the option to select only small portions to be read. The toolbar is not necessary, but I feel like it would be the best option when using the program with children.
I feel like this would be a good technology to use with Deaf and hard of hearing children because these children usually struggle with reading and understanding spoken english. I have seen many teachers of the Deaf use such things as Google Images to pull of pictures of words they are trying to teach their children, whether it be in ASL or in spoken english. By having the resource for children to be able to be online on their own and not only be reading what pictures are themselves but also being able to hear what the word actually sounds like without always having to have the teacher around would be very helpful.

Twitter

Before this class I was 100% against Twitter. I just thought it was completely useless and a waste of time. I had never known that Twitter could have benefits for other reasons then telling other people mundane facts about your life that no one really cares about in the first place. After having Twitter for a couple weeks I am not sure if my opinion of it has changed much. I did take time to look for people to follow who would be able to give me insights to the education and technology world, I also did some research into the Deaf community considering I am going into Deaf Education. I was able to find people to follow but I still do not believe that they are giving me any information that is that helpful. Most of the people I am following hardly ever update, and the ones that do hardly say anything that is of any use to me. Maybe I am doing something wrong, or I haven't found the right people, I am not sure. But I think it is easy to say, I am still not that big of a fan.

This is a photo of my two dogs that I licensed with Creative Commons

Photo Attribution

Original Image: "rox&lex"
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50737509@NO4/4661492242/sizes/m/
By: Craftda1

Released under an Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/deed.en

Photo Attribution

Original Image: "Fish Lips"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/2157738185/sizes/s/

By: Jurvetson

Released under an Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.ed

I believe using photos in the classroom is very important. Throughout my schooling I have always been a person who learns better with pictures, charts, and other visual aids. I feel as if a picture says so many things that a teacher could never be able to explain to his/her students. Speaking of the picture posted above, their are many children who will never get to experience the ocean or what a school of fish is. This picture would be able to give those children the necessary information for them to understand this concept better, without actually having to have them go to an ocean or lake to see it for themselves. I think pictures are an awesome way to help children learn and I am definitely going to use them in my own teachings.