It has been a long time since I've created a PowerPoint. I've never created one using Microsoft Office 2010 before this one. There were a lot of new features to play with! I found the required reading to be helpful with this project. Some of the tips I found most valuable were create an outline, use transitions wisely, and use master layouts. I also used a built in theme, but ended up changing many of the features. When creating a PowerPoint I think it is crucial to keep your audience in mind. My audience will be elementary children. With this in mind I changed many features of the built in theme. To begin with, I changed the font. I think it is important to use a font that is representative of the way we write. I actually had a student ask me what a letter was, it was a g, and ever since then I've been very mindful of font. I also changed the placement of text. My theme defaulted the text to align from right to left. Obviously we write from left to right, so I wanted my PowerPoint to be representative of that. Also, when presenting this I don't think I would build in slide transitions. I'd rather do it manually to allow for questions and discussion. Here is my slide show.
I did have a few issues with SlideShare. Each time I tried to use the website my computer would crash. It didn't seem to matter if I was using IE or Firefox. After several tries I uploaded my slide show. I used two animations during my slide show for emphasis, but they do not work on SlideShare. Also, when I used SlideShare to upload my slide show to my blog none of the transitions worked. NETS/ISTE 3c. communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats. PowerPoint is a great way to communicate information, provided it is used correctly. 2a. design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity. Using PowerPoint to adapt lessons to be more visual will help promote student learning. Also, students creating their own power points will promote both learning and creativity. 2c customize and personalize learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources. Students using PowerPoint can utilize their personal learning styles and abilities.
I had a hard time choosing what to create a screencast about. At first, I thought I would do it on Glogster. But then I realized I wouldn't really be teaching anything because everyone used audio,video, images, and text. Then, I considered Diigo, but there are so many features that I'm not very familiar with, I don't think I could do it justice. I finally decided on creating a screencast that shows how to embed a Glog into a Blog. This isn't anything that is too difficult to do, but it does require changing the scale of the Glog. Here is my screencast. I had trouble with Jing dropping pieces of my audio. I will try using a different browser in the future to see if that helps.
Learning Outcomes: These are the test questions related to this activity.
1.What file types come out of Jing? .png files are used for screen capture and Flash (.swf) files are used for Jing videos.
2.Where might we save these files? Where are the files stored? We can save the files anywhere on our computer. Jing files are stored in Jing history. If you share your media to screencast.com a unique URL is generated, thus storing your files online as well.
3.How do you link to a Screencast? In order to link to a screencast you need the URL that Jing gives to all media that is uploaded. You can also go into your Jing history and hit share and the URL will be placed on your clipboard.
4.How do you save and retrieve Jing objects from the History area? Jing has a save button that allows you to save. Jing keeps a history of all screen captures and videos you have made. You can filter your saved media by image, video captures, or both. Thumbnails and/or videos are sorted by date or size of file. Click the share button to have the URL put on your clipboard.
5.How to import Jing objects into our blog posts? You can import Jing objects into blog posts by using the embed code provided. Here is a great tutorial I found that shows you how!
6.What file type is a Jing screencast. A Jing screencast is a Flash or .swf file.
7.Can we convert the Jing objects including images and videos? This one I'm still working on. I can't find any information that confirms one way or another. I did find that videos are always .swf files.
ISTE/NETS 3c.communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats. Jing is a wonderful tool to use for communication! It is great for making tutorials, and would also be great for giving students feedback on assignments. Screen captures can be used for creating posters, fliers, and a number of other helpful tools. 1a.promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness. The assignment we did, "teaching a computer activity", is a great way to promote and model creative thinking. I'm excited to see what my classmates choose to teach. 4b.address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner-centered strategies providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources. I think creating Jing videos to aid students in learning is definitely a learner-centered strategy.
This is my screencast. It is 1/3 the original size so it isn't the best quality. Also, you may have to click on it for it to show up.
I'm not really sure what there is to say about the self assessment we were required to do. I posted a question on the discussion board and hopefully someone will respond! Until then, I guess I'll just write this as any other post. I think that reflection and self assessment are vital to both students and teachers. As a teacher, I know I have improved on many techniques due to reflection and self assessment. As a student, I am always assessing myself. I have no problems with honestly determining if I have done my best or if I need to step it up a notch. As far as this class is concerned, I am proud of the way I answered most questions on the self assessment. The only question I need to address is having someone else check my links for me. I've always logged out of everything to check the links, but that is probably not the most sure way of making sure they all work.
This class has caused me to reflect on my entire outlook concerning integrating technology in the classroom. I've always thought I had done a good job. I can create interactive power points and have had my students create documents on data processing applications. I effectively used email to communicate with peers and parents. I booked extra time in the computer lab almost weekly and used the computers in my room for a learning station. But, reassessing myself I've realized that I've kind of missed the mark. My intentions were good, but my focus wasn't in the right place. I did a decent job at modeling technology. I need to make technology more prominent and interactive. I need to let my students get their hands dirty! When I return to the classroom I will not teach computers, I will teach subjects while effectively using different technologies. I will not ask what technology will help me to teach, I will instead ask what technology will engage my students, and get them excited about learning. I've also realized that there are so many different tools and applications available that I knew nothing about! I'm still not sure of a good way to stay informed about all of the new resources that come available. Social bookmarking will help with that to an extent. The blogs I subscribe to may also help. ISTE/NETS 2 b.develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress. The way this class is designed, and this assignment in particular, allows me as a student to assess my own progress and manage my own learning. 5c.evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice on a regular basis to make effective use of existing and emerging digital tools and resources in support of student learning. I included this standard because each assignment has allowed me to reflect on my own practices of using digital tools and resources effectively as both a teacher and a student.
I created this image using Jing. Jing was easy to download and easy to use. I shared my screenshot and here it is! The more I learn about Jing the more excited I get. What a great tool for teachers. I'm envisioning all of the images and videos I can make so that my students can have access to information at any time.
I initially had a little trouble with this assignment. To begin with, I could not use the Google Draw Tool in Internet Explorer. Even when I downloaded Google Chrome the draw tool did not work. I tried from Firefox and had no problems. Then, when I tried to embed the image (again in Internet Explorer) all I was getting was a box with a red x. It finally dawned on me to try it in Firefox, and sure enough, I had no issues. I'm curious to see if it can be viewed in Internet Explorer. You can see my computer session chart here. I've never used an online drawing tool before. In fact, the only drawing tool I've ever used was in Microsoft Word, and that was very minimal. I think this is another great example of a tool in which all students could have access to. ISTE/NETS 2c customize and personalize learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources. I think using the drawing tool would be a very customized activity that would demonstrate each students understanding of an activity as well as the drawing tool itself. 2a.design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity. I think this tool could be used to create charts for different concepts such as life cycles, the water cycle, or any graphical representation of data that would promote student learning. 3a.demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations. Because I had to use multiple browsers, and I had a little prior knowledge, I thought this standard was appropriate.
I had so much fun creating my self introductory Glog! Click here to learn more about me.
Learning Outcomes: 1. A Glog is a graphic blog. Glogster allows you to create interactive posters using images, video, audio, and text. You can also link images or text to the Internet. 2. There are many ways to use a Glog in the classroom. To begin with, I think it would be a fun way to replace interest surveys at the beginning of the school year. Students could create glogs answering questions such as their favorite subject, sport, and hobby. I also think it would be a great tool to use for reader response activities, history and science reports, and art projects. This would also be a great tool for teacher to use to create learning posters that students could access at any time. 3. ISTE/NETS 2a design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity. Glogs are a digital tool that would help promote student learning and creativity when used for any subject area. 3c.communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats. Teacher cans use Glogs to help communicate with students and parents. 2c.customize and personalize learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources. I think using glogs in the classroom would be a great way to customize learning for individual abilities, learning styles, and work strategies. Glogs address many learning styles since audio,video, and text are used. Each student would have the opportunity to create individual Glogs addressing different abilities. 4. My only concern about using Glogster is the possibility that some public Glogs other people create may not be appropriate for students of all grade levels.
Picassohead is a unique site that allows you to create images using predetermined shapes. Most everyone creates likenesses of people, but in the gallery I did see someone who created a bird. I am not an abstract person so this was a bit challenging for me. I created more than one self-portrait before I was satisfied. To begin with, I hated all of the options for hair! So I made my own using masses of eyebrows. After adding twenty or so eyebrows I discovered that I could scale up each eyebrow to cover more space and give the appearance of thicker hair. Also, the noses seemed too bulbous or too angular. I don’t have a petite nose, but I don’t have a hefty nose either. Here I used the scale down option to create a more appealing nose. I guess I am too literal a person for Picassohead. Making the portrait itself was stirring after I had a vision of what I wanted to achieve. Trying to share the image has proven to be difficult.
I clicked on the share button on the web site and it gave me several options. First, I shared to Facebook, just for fun. Then I shared to my blog. All this accomplished was sharing a link to the image, not the image itself. I went back to see if there was a way to download the image, or copy it. I finally used the snipping tool to save the image so that I could share it here. I posted a question to the discussion board so hopefully someone else knows how to share from the website without snipping.
The more I look at it the more it looks like Michael Jackson to me. I don't look like Michael Jackson in real life! :)
ISTE/NETS
2a. design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity. If this assignment doesn't promote creativity I don't know what would!
3a.demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations. Because I had to use the snipping tool to share my image in this blog post I consider that the transfer of current knowledge to new situations.
I must say that the results of my test surprised me! And to be honest, I'm not really sure I agree with them. Or maybe the test results are accurate, but the descriptions of the learning styles don't coincide with the test very well. Maybe my interpretation of the different learning styles is wrong. And of course, it is possible that I am wrong about how I learn. It distresses me that my predictions and my test results were so different. My results were as follows:
I have a mild Aural Learning Preference. (This is what my results said.)
Aural: 8
Read/Write: 6
Kinesthetic: 4
Visual: 3
Being a social learner was not an option on this test. But I would have never labeled myself as a Aural learner. Even though I enjoy music very much, I have very little musical talent. The description of an Aural learner does not sound like me at all.
This was so disturbing to me I decided to do more investigating. I went back to the original site that described the different learning styles. They had their own free inventory to take. (Although, taking their test signs you up for a newsletter, you can unsubscribe to it at any time.) I went ahead and took their test. Here are my results.
The results of their test were much closer to my self assessment. Which makes sense to me since I was using their descriptions of learning styles. They rated me as follows:
Verbal: 18
Social: 17
Physical: 12
Aural: 8
Visual / Solitary / Logical all ranked 7
Maybe I'm a total dork for doing this, but I was really disturbed to think that I didn't know myself well enough to predict my styles of learning. I'm not really sure what that would say about me as an educator.
I think it is important to be aware of your learning style. Knowing how I learn best, obviously helps me to learn. Since I am a verbal, social learner taking online classes is difficult for me. That is why I try to allow myself plenty of time to complete assignments. I love the discussion board, it makes me feel more comfortable knowing I can ask questions if I need to. I think it is even more important as a teacher to be aware of your students' styles of learning, or at least be consciously aware that everyone learns differently. If a teacher is conscious of this they are more apt to design lessons that reach every learner.
Learning Outcomes:
The learning styles are verbal, social, physical, aural, visual, solitary, and logical.
Being aware of learning styles can improve performance in a learning environment because they influence both the teacher and the student. As I mentioned earlier teachers must be aware of different learning styles so they can design lessons that reach all learners. If a student is aware of their learning style they can assist their own learning. For example, a visual learner can find pictures or diagrams to help them learn and retain information.
For the first time a standard came to mind as I was completing this assignment! The standard that I immediately thought of was 2c.customize and personalize learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources. This activity also addresses 2a.design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity. Nothing is more relevant than learning about oneself!
I have never taken a learning styles test. I'm anxious to take this one and see the results. I've always considered myself a kinesthetic learner because I've always learned best by doing things. After reading the descriptions of the different learning styles, I'm not sure!
According to the descriptions I'm definitely a Social learner. I've always liked working with others. (As long as they actually want to work.) I'm going to say that social is my dominant learning style. Before reading these descriptions I'd have never pegged myself as a Verbal learner. I'm not a fan of sitting and listening to someone talk. However, I do find it easy to express myself verbally and in writing. I do love word play, and I love reading. Because of this I'm ranking Verbal as my number two style of learning. I'm ranking Kinesthetic as number three because parts of it sound like me, although not as much as I had originally thought.
What to snip? What to snip? I decided to go with something that reinforces something
I've learned. I snipped from an article called Technology for 21st Century Learning: Part 1.
I have this article in my Diigo Library and you can follow the link if you want to read it in its entirety.
I think this is a good reminder that we shouldn't teach at our students. Learning is an experience!
Using the snipping tool was fast and simple. And I learned how to insert an image on my blog! I can see how this could be very useful for teaching. I think it would be especially useful when creating step by step directions. You could include snips of each step along with directions or annotations. It would also be great for students to use for reports or presentations. ISTE/NETS 2a.design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity. Using the snipping tool gives students plenty of opportunities to express creativity while promoting student learning. 3d.model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning. The snipping tool is a tool students could use to supplement their research projects with both images and annotation. 4a.advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources. Using the snipping tool would provide a great opportunity to discuss copyright laws.
I had never had any experience with VoiceThread until this assignment. I started checking out the site last night before bed and it kept me up! It was so neat to see all of the different voice threads that had been created, and explore the ways this could be used in a classroom. Some of the great ideas I found were to use VoiceThread for students to create brochures for different countries, and using VoiceThread in place of science boards for science or social studies fairs.
Leaving a comment on VoiceThread was not as simple as it should have been for me. I decided that I wanted to comment using a microphone. I have never done anything with audio before so I wanted to try. After realizing I didn't have a built in microphone I got an external one and plugged it in. After several trips to the control panel I got it to work. I left a few practice comments on other VoiceThreads before responding to the question "Who are you?" I rerecorded my response to that question more than once! (A great feature of VoiceThread!) It is hard to get used to hearing yourself on audio. But happily, I completed the task and am satisfied with my response.
Learning Outcomes:
A VoiceThread is a tool for having conversations around media. Anyone can upload a picture, video, document, or an entire presentation. The author can narrate what they uploaded and others can respond. There are five ways to respond including text, telephone, microphone, file upload, or webcam. Therefore, VoiceThread can capture and hold group discussions.
VoiceThread can be used in any learning enterprise in several ways. Teachers could use this tool for introducing any topic, creating a tutorial, or for group work. Teachers could ask students to reflect on their learning or to respond to specific questions as an assessment tool. It would be so easy to use this tool for reading responses or for creative writing.
When I was teaching second grade we did "Bio Bags." Each student would pick someone and fill their bag with items that related to that person. (They could draw, print pictures, or put actual items into their bags.)They would then give an oral report using the items in the bag as props. VoiceThread would make this assignment so much fun! I imagine many students would prefer to record their presentation rather than give it in front of the class, and the images they could use would be endless!
ISTE/NETS
I think that this activity relates to all of the standards! It most closely relate to: 1c. promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students' conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes. As I mentioned earlier, teachers can use VoiceThread as a way for students to reflect on their learning. Using this tool would also help teachers to understand the student's thinking, planning, and creative processes. 2a.design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity. This tool obviously promotes creativity and student learning! It could be used for book reviews, weather forecasts, or any lesson. 3c.communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats. I think that VoiceThread would be a great tool for introducing a new topic, communicating to parents about school events, and communicating with other teachers.
I enjoyed looking through the Educblogs 2009 list of award winning blogs. There are so many to pick from! I started with the Best Resource Sharing blog list. I figured it would be nice to have resources sent to me instead of me hunting and gathering! After looking at a few I chose to follow Doug Off The Record. He had a lot of different resources listed, all of them linked up of course. Most of which I had never heard of. Then I looked at the Best Teacher blog category. I picked Learn Me Good because the name made me smile. After reading several posts it reminded me of my school in Virginia. Too funny! Jack Woodson, the author, also lists some resources, but mostly I subscribed to his blog for comic relief!
I set up my google profile to be public. Here is where you can find me. And I shared a few posts from my new found blogs. Here are my shared items. The first post has a link about small group routines. I've always taught reading small group, but never math, so I found this interesting. The second post is about a free "utility" to help you organize your desktop.
Learning Outcomes:
1. Blog syndication is the use of a blog's feed to deliver the blog's content to other blogs, feed readers, and aggregators. Some people relate it to an updated newsletter. (Taken from: Blogging Tips, What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging ) I have been following blogs for awhile, but I usually follow through e-mail. Mostly because I didn't know what a RSS feed was. This will sure help to keep my inbox cleaned up. I like how reader is set up. It will be nice to easily see what I haven't yet read.
2. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. A family of web formats to publish frequently updated works. Can be used for blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video in a standardized format. (Wikipedia)
ISTE/NETS Standards: 5a.participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning. By subscribing to a teacher resource blog it will be easy to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning! 3d.model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning. By using Reader to subscribe to educational Blogs I can model use of current digital tools that help me locate information resources. I can facilitate the use of this tool to help students with research and learning. I think it would be especially pertinent to subscribe to news headlines. They can often be used for social studies, science, math, language arts lessons, character education, art and physical education. 5d. contribute to the effectiveness, vitality, and self-renewal of the teaching profession and of their school and community. By having a wealth of education resources being sent to me daily I will be able to address this standard on a regular basis!
