Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Screenr!

This is my screencast!

T4T Jordan

screencasting link!

Survey on Movies

Survey
Results

We created surveys n class about any topic that we wanted, I decided to do my topic on movies. At first I screwed up the survey so I edited it and added questions and then had my boyfriend answer the survey for me so I could have results. What I got from the survey is that more people prefer comedy movies, indie movies come in second. The one and only response I got from my edited version is that the movies are a great place to go rather than just stay home just for the big screen, popcorn, and the atmosphere.

Screencast

This is an example for my screencast.

Orientation in Second Life

In this video, Orientation in Second Life, a virtual world is created for various types of things. The senior lecture at London Metropolitan University, Alan Hudson, has been using elearning and he has been doing a lot of teaching with Second Life.

Alan seems to have a problem with elearning since you already have to know how to do everything before you can use it and even learn from it. The orientation is kind of confusing and can understand why people quit before even finishing the orientation. It is not an easy thing to learn and familiarizing themselves with simulated places like London can help and can make it a lot easier to navigate.

I have never even heard of Second Life until I saw it in the video of Sam and thought it was really interesting, it seems to kind of remind me of WoW a little. I may use this in my future classroom but I would have to figure out how to make it educational in the process. Social skills and problem solving skills might be incorporated and can hep the students out in that way. It is good that so many people are trying to help everyone else out and make second life easier to use and more fun.

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Sam I Am

In the video, Digital Youth Portrait: Sam, Sam is an average 15 year old who has a brain for technology. She uses it for classroom projects, for musical purposes, and even for fun. She is probably the best example of a typical teenager of these times with the amount of texting they use and all of the new inventive technological advances that are available at their finger tips. She uses her IPod to read books instead of reading it to herself, helps college students use multi media applications, and plays World of Worldcraft often.

I feel I can relate to Sam, I was that kid that used the video camera all the time for recording and I pick up applications extremely easily. It seems playing WoW has a strong connection to smart people consdering my boyfriend plays constantly and I myself even play, just not 10 hours a week like a normal user would play. It is a problem solving game and when you are exposed to that kind of thing then you expand your knowledge and things seem to come easier. I believe no matter what kind of networking site you use or even multimedia things, technology can help you expand your mind and your thoughts to create and use something completely out of this world.



Wikis: Paulas Love!

 In the video, Parallel Play or Collaboration–Leveraging the Wiki Platform for High Quality Work, Paula White explains her love of wikis incorporated in her classroom. She gives examples of Wiki's she has done and explains that she can find subjects that she can make notes and create sentences over. There are things that teacher's have to help practice but there are no areas for students to practice or even content related to them when she searches wikis. She explains how wikis engaged students in learning and that when given choices and variety, they are more likely to be engaged.


Paula uses wikis in her fifth grade class by allowing students to create web pages and discussions. The students seem to love wikis and want to work on them outside of the classroom and gives examples of how they use their wikis for different occasions. Wikis were also used with her third grade class once and used them with math activities, conversation creators and even discussions on presidential candidates.


Paula is so passionate about using wikis in the classroom. It opens opportunities for students to become more engaged in an activity or lesson. I believe it will be a great tool to use for education and that more teachers need to step up and begin using these kinds of technological uses. Children should be able to create their own wikis and enhance their knowledge in the technological world that we live in.

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Sunday, April 11, 2010

The Digiteens Project

The concept for Digiteens: Digital Citizenship by Digital Teenagers is a great one to do for older students in secondary grades. Putting together projects and having them do their research on appropriate websites can expand their knowledge about the hazards of the internet.Every teenager should be aware of the risks and what could happen to them if they are careless about how they use their technology

Facebook is where about 80% of teenagers get online every day and the ages of facebook users is from ages 10-80, so this leaves a great barrier for sexual predators and stalkers. Bullies are also a big part, and with these social networking sites, every young person must know the risks of posting pictures and statuses that could harm their outside life. I know of some people who have gotten fired from their job for posting inappropriate pictures and statuses on facebook and to be honest, it should be both parents and schools that help practice this safe behavior.

Having students make projects for these kind of situations is what every kind needs to do. The more they know about the internet, the less likely they are to be victims of cyber bullying, stalking, and even sexual predators. These kinds of projects are great ideas to use in classrooms so these students can understand their world around them and know how to avoid those risks.


Project Learning, Better Than a Classroom

The video, Project Learning: An Overview, is exactly how I feel a classroom should be. If a school has the resources of computers and technology then they should be able to use it and allow the students to create projects of their own. It is a proven fact that children learn better when there are more hands on activities, so if there are projects involved they are more likely to absorb that knowledge and improve their learning strategies and knowledge of subject matter.

I agree 100% with the man that says they should take curriculum out and put project learning in. As you can see, these students are doing high tech things such as single cell organism studies, building electronic race cars, and even researching the ocean reefs to expand their knowledge of what they should know. If a student is just left to memorize definitions and never has a chance to really get down and dirty into the subject, they will never retain the information.

As a student, I strongly encourage teachers later on to have this kind of subject matter and involve project learning in the classroom more than just books, papers, and pencil and to expand away from testing and things that are deemed important. Students will be happier and a lot more able to expand their knowledge on the things they would like to learn.


The Wizard of Apps

"The Wizard of Apps" was a very helpful video in expanding your knowledge about different websites that can give you real information rather than bogus stuff people just post. The video is a little corny but it is a lot better way to give out this kind of information, rather than just having some educational video that can bore you to death. I like that she gives you all of the websites and links underbeath the video so you can go visit them yourselves.

Having all of these different websites can be useful when you become a teacher. You know that whenever you get on these sites it is not going to take you somewhere you do not want to go. Like for instance, you can use flirkStorm rather than google images, since google images may have copyrighted images and it would be illegal for you to use them. Plus there are no filters in the google system so you may get images and websites that you do not want to recieve that may be inappropriate or unrelated to your searches.

When I finished the video, I felt like I could use these helpful websites in my classroom someday. It would make it easier for me as a teacher and more enjoyable for my students if it is fun and safe for them. This video has helped with the resources I could use and might possibly refer to this some time in the future.