Class End

I would like to take a minute to reflect on the class as a whole. Many of the projects and topics in this class will greatly benefit my future career as a teacher. When someone takes this class, they should be understanding that the class is ever changing due to the fact that technology is constantly changing and improving. There were times when I think it would have been more helpful to have the sections of this class divided into to their respective areas of certifications. There are many technologies and web 2.0 tools that are applicable to elementary education and those students with that certification deserve more time dedicated to those topics. At the same time there are tools more applicable to secondary education and therefore should have focus on instead of being introduced tools that could not be used for an older crowd.

My favorites of the projects were creating the ActivInspire flipchart and our own website. I think they are most relevant to a secondary math classroom. Some of the things like the iMovie or certain web 2.0 tools are not as useful in a math class due to the connection to the content.

I would have like to see more of an introduction to technologies that would help us teach students with special needs or English language learners. Since schools cannot always provide additional helpers to assist these students we need to have tools we can use to reach out to these students giving them the opportunity to learn more in our classes.

Creating a Website

My website: https://sites.google.com/site/mslyonsmathclass/

I have really enjoyed creating my own classroom website. This is project that I will definitely use in the future. I will probably continue to use the website I have created, then change it to cater to the class will be teaching. I have used Google sites before to create a site for the parents and students access my tutoring schedule and get in contact with me. I like using Google sites, mainly because it is free, but also because it is easy to use. If I do happen to run into difficulties, I can do a Google search to find instructions on how to do it.

It was helpful to imagine you had your own classroom in order to create the website with an audience in mind. It will be easier to edit the website if I actually had a classroom with more information to provide (that will come with time). I have realized through this project that you must keep who your audience is in mind while authoring your website. I feel as though students and parents will really enjoy having access to a teacher's website especially with today's technological time. For my class in the future, I would change the tech projects page to include student examples along with my, the teacher's, examples in order to display nice work.

I have every intention of using websites in my professional career. It is a tools that boosts sharing of information and communication between the class community. Websites through Google are easy to keep up with and share with others. They can be a source of information and can include interactivity. I can also see myself making sure there is a website for the math department at the school I work at so students and parents can gain access to all of the teachers websites.

Creating a Digital Story using iMovie

This was the first time I have every had the chance of using iMovie. We used the program to create a digital story. I had trouble using iMovie, possibly because of my unfamiliarity with the program. Even after using it to create my digital story, I still do not feel completely comfortable using all of its features and tools. I did find that it was easy to upload the pictures and audio to your project. This program really takes advantage of the drag and drop tool.

Completing this digital story also taught me the importance of having high resolution images in order to keep from having fuzzy or poor quality photos. I believe that if I were to do this story over again, I would take more time to make sure my camera is set up to take better pictures. I believe that it is either not a nice enough camera to have high quality pictures or it has been set up in correctly. I also would have liked have more accessibility to the program. Since I do not own a Mac, I was not able to interact as frequently with iMovie and become more versatile with the program.

I could see iMovie be useful for broadcasting student projects or activities to other people in the school or to parents or community. If you were trying to engage the audience in a topic or content, creating a digital story could tap into their interests and be more appealing because of the audio and neat features involved in an iMovie.

Video Sharing with Animoto

Interactive White Board Project using ActivInspire

Out of all of the tech projects that I have completed this semester, this project seemed to be the most beneficial. Since there has been a shift recently for classrooms to have Interactive White Boards. I personally have seen SMART Boards in 3 out of the
4 field experience placements I have been to.

I have enjoyed working with ActivInspire to create my first, but I'm sure it won't be my last, flipchart. Creating flipcharts steps away from the traditional strategy of presenting in a classroom by lecturing, copying notes, etc. and incorporates interactivity in to the instruction. I plan on using the ActivInspire software, or the SMART Notebook software, in my classroom in order to gain the students' attention and interest. There are so many aspects within ActivInspire that will be useful and easy to use, with more experience, as I create lessons for my students.

I found that when I downloaded ActivInspire on my laptop which runs on Windows, that some of the features went away or were different than when I used it on the iMac. It may have been the version that I had to download due to my system configurations, but it did cause some problems with some of the plans I had for my flipchart.

It would have been nice to do some work with SMART software, such as SMART Notebook for the SMART Board. That way we could interact with the SMART software and then compare it to ActivInspire. I know now that you can use either SMART Notebook or ActivInspire when using SMART Boards, which are in so many of the classrooms that I have visited.

Please take a moment to take my Math Questionaire created using Google Forms!

Digital Diagrams using Inspiration!

I enjoyed working with Inspiration creating a digital diagram. Inspiration can be used to create graphic organizers, concept mapping, outlining, and plots and graphs. You can try the software free for 30 days by downloading from http://www.inspiration.com/. The software was pretty easy to use. I liked using the outline mode to input the concepts in the order of priority before seeing it in the diagram mode. The program was pretty easy to navigate while creating a diagram, similar to using Microsoft office just with different features.

I am taken back due to the fact that if you wanted to use it on a daily basis you would have buy the software either as an individual license or volume license for multiple users. I decided to download the free trial which was easy and quick. When I decide to use this the next time I would like to make a digital diagram, I plan to make sure the concepts are able to be simplified into single words or very short phrases in order to be compatible with a diagram.

I would use this as a teacher in order to make graphic organizers to hand or send out to the class. Also the students can create the diagrams themselves in order to promote higher level thinking within the students. They can learn how to prioritize ideas and concepts. It would be great if there was a web 2.0 tool that blended digital diagrams in to a wiki environment so that multiple students or contributors can incorporation their thoughts into the diagram.

Check out my digital diagram on Quadratics!

Smilebox is so fun and easy!

Smilebox is great tool for personal use and for teachers to use in the classroom. You can download Smilebox to your computer or iPhone for free. This tool is very easy to use, where it is even possible to let students make Smilebox creations that they can share with their family and peers.  

Teachers can apply to get a free annual subscription to its premium Club Smilebox service  with unlimited access to more than 900 Smilebox designs and newsletters with ideas how to use Smilebox in the classroom. Teacher’s Toolbox gives full-time teachers at all grade levels an easy and creative way to safely share photos, videos and classroom updates to students and parents. Since communicating with other teachers, administration and parents is so vital to the education world, I really find this tool to be fun and useful for teachers.

  

Please check it out at http://www.smilebox.com, where I am sure you will find lots of great designs and ideas to complement the great pictures you want to share with others!

Digital Picture Scavenger Hunt using Picasa Web Albums and Google Presentation

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Get your own

Using Picasa Web Albums by Google, I was able to make this slide show which includes pictures that represent examples of science in the real world. Slide shows can be used to present photos or information possibly for a class assignment, presentation or just for fun!

While learning how to use Picasa Web Albums, I also learned the correct size to make photos when you plan to share them online. You want the pictures you present online to be the correct size so the reader can easily access the photos, preventing a lengthy download or low quality picture.

Picasa Web Albums makes it easy to keep and organize your photos so you can always have access to them no matter where you are! It is linked to your Google account so you don't have to sign up for separate account. 

Also, we used Google Presentation to create a presentation similar to a PowerPoint presentation. I like Google Presentation because it was easy to access and easy to use. It is so nice to have one Google account that allows you to access so many different web tools. Google has really done their homework! 


One thing that I have realized through this project is the care you need to take of your digital photos. Making sure you have a good camera makes a world of a difference, so next time I will be sure to chose a better camera that creates pictures that better resemble the colors and qualities of real life.

Glogster....so cute!

 

Check out my creation on http://edu.glogster.com/! Great scrap-booking tool!