Week Thirteen

IN CLASS
We looked at several teacher sites this evening:

• http://www.teacherscholastic.com/

This website provided different technology tools for teachers. Examples of resources include: lesson plan templates, classroom management tools, and technology-based activities. I would most definitely use this in my future classroom. I am all about not re-inventing the wheel, so having all of these resources available to me would be time-saving and helpful.

• www.eduref.org/virtual/lessons/index.shtml

This website provided ready made lesson plans for teachers to take advantage of. Subjects that were represented included: math, science, social studies, health, and arts. These subjects were then sub-divided into smaller, specific sections. For instance, social studies was divided into such topics as anthropology, sociology, history, etc. These lesson plans were created for all different grade levels. I would most definitely use this site again; it contained a lot of lesson plans for the secondary grade level!

• www.teachers.net/lessons

This website boasted that it contains over 4000 free lesson plans for teachers to utilize. Like the website above it provided a lot of lesson plans in all different areas of study and grade levels. I would most definitely use this site, as well!

POST CLASS
After class, we were to watch a video about how to upload a PowerPoint presentation to YouTube. The video was created by an individual named Todd Kisicki who took this course last year. It is located at this URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAISFXYFi38&NR=1

Week Twelve

IN CLASS
We visited a number of teacher sites this evening during class. They were as follows:

• http://www.studentcam.org/

This website is run by C-SPAN, which is the organization that broadcasts to the public everything that goes on in Congress. Basically, StudentCam is a program in which students record their own video documentaries on various issues that are of concern to American youth (e.g.: childhood obesity) then submit their work to be judged and win prizes if warranted. This is a great opportunity for kids to take part in; I could see myself having a major project in my future classroom where all my students break into groups and work on videos for this contest to be submitted.

• http://www.pbskids.org/

This website is provided by the Public Broadcast Station (PBS) for a young audience. There are a great deal of games and videos that students could look at that originate from PBS Kids shows like Clifford and Curious George. I found this website useless for my own professional use, since I will be teaching at the secondary level.

• www.kn-pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn

This website was not opening up in my browser.

• http://www.merlot.com/

This website was created by the Merlot Research Group that focuses on server testing. I am not exactly sure why this website was included in our teacher sites; I will not be able to use it.

• http://go.editlib.org/a/2010

This is the website for the Education and Information Technology Digital Library. The specific article that was attached to this link does not exist any longer. I browsed the website and found that it would be very useful to utilize in my studies here at ASU, since it provides access to academic journals, eBooks, professionally developed PowerPoint presentations, and many more resources for teachers and those working to become teachers.

POST CLASS

We did not have any readings this week posted on BlackBoard. We were to focus our energies on our digital storytelling projects.

Week Eleven

IN CLASS
This week in class there were two teacher sites in my field of social studies:

• www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html

This website chronicles the top 100 American speeches, providing both text and audio versions of the speech. I will most definitely use this in my future classroom. I think providing the students with the actual words that were said at the time through the use of primary source documents, contemporary literature and video/audio clips is absolutely critical in giving them the opportunity to fully understand the historical period that is being studied.

• http://www.twhistory.com/

This website is actually a blog that is set up to document historical reenactments via the use of the technology Twitter. In this respect, different individuals take on specific roles and reenact certain historical events such as the Battle of Gettysburg through "tweets". I could possibly use this in my future classroom, although I would probably think having the students do reenactment skits might be a better alternative.

POST CLASS
This week's readings revolved around how to produce videos. They were as follows:

• How to Produce Video Interviews

This website documents how to effectively prepare for and carry out a video interview. It contains links to tutorials on how to create different kinds of interviews (i.e.: studio, mobile, and remote) while also providing resources on how to organize yourself before going out to do an interview (i.e.: framing, interview structure, and composition).

• Thirteen Steps to Better Instructional Visuals for Electronic Presentation- Dave Pavlik, Allan Schmidt

This article documented thirteen pieces of advice for educators when preparing electronic presentations, such as digital stories. The two points that I found most useful were 1) don't squeeze too much information on the page, and 2) organize basic presentation outline.

Week Ten

IN CLASS
I visited the website listed under "Social Studies" since I am majoring in secondary education with an emphasis in history:

• http://www.thistory.com/

This website was created by a company that creates digital stories commemorating any aspect of life that their customer requests (i.e.: birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, graduations, etc.). Personally, I think that this would be an awesome technology to use for the aforementioned events. Professionally, I would never use this website. I would make use of other software packages, like PowerPoint or MovieMaker, if I wanted my students to do a video project. Plus, most school districts will have purchased access to PowerPoint and/or MovieMaker, so that my students could create their projects por gratis. This website, on the other hand, charges the user depending on how many photographs, videos, songs, sound effects, etc. that they want to incorporate in their overall project.

POST CLASS
This week our readings focused on digital storytelling. The articles I read are as follows:

• Understanding Digital Images- J.V. Bolkan

This article focused on digital photography and photo manipulation. It talked a great deal about photo resolution and picture editing in general. In regard to the classroom, Bolkan argues that incorporating photo editing in your classroom could be beneficial in supplementing math or geometric lessons. Personally, I do not think that this would be beneficial in my future classroom, but the knowledge could be useful for my students when they create projects for my class.

• 10 Tips for Filming-summarized by Karin Lindstrom

This document is a great reference to look at before starting to film our digital stories. It listed the top 10 tips for effective filming. They are as follows: use a big net, never rely on software, plan well, don't zoom, capture good audio, create good lighting, make use of a tripod, choose the interview conditions early on, and incorporate the thirds/ninths rule.

• Beyond Words: The Craftmanship of Digital Projects-Bernajean Porter

This article espoused the importance of digital projects in regard to nurturing student creativity and various communication skills. In this manner, digital storytelling is a very effective tool in both teaching students how to use tech tools while also giving them the chance to express themselves creatively.

Week Nine

IN CLASS

We explored many teacher sites this evening. They are as follows:

• http://www.toondoo.com/

This website allows users to create and manage their own cartoons. You have to create an account in order to access this technology. I think that this could be a great tool to use in my future classroom. For intance, I could possibly have my students create their own political cartoons when we discuss current issues.

• http://www.voki.com/

This website is host to a simulated reality. Users create their own "avatars" that represent them throughout the site, on blogs, and in email. I probably would not use this particular technology in my future classroom; I really cannot see any forseeable benefits for incorporating it in a secondary environment.

• http://www.sketch.odopod.com/

This website allows those that access it the opportunity to digitally sketch a picture and save it to their computers when they're finished. I think that this is a cool technology, but I would not be able to use it in my future classroom. I feel that it is better suited for the younger children.

• http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech005.shtml

This website is a resource for teachers. It is host to lesson planning, professional development, and numerous other resources. This particular webpage opens up an article about being techno-constructivist teachers. The main focus of the article was the idea that teachers should be facilitators only; in this respect, they should provide their students with the tools and resources that they need and basically allow them to jump in, discover, and learn things for themselves.

• http://www.flicker.com/

This website is host to free photos. This will be a great resource in the classroom because it provides images for educational use that are free from the confines of copyright.

• http://www.freetech4teachers.com/

This is a blog that provides notice of various, free technologies available for teachers. When I opened the page, the most recent entry was actually about copies of a new History Channel program on DVD being offered for free to schools, so long as they have their principals apply through the History Channel website. I wish I was a teacher now, so that I could take advantage of this opportunity!

• http://projecthelp.wikispaces.com/Music+Resources

This website offers free music files. This is a great resource for the classroom, because it allows students to take advantage of incorporating music into their projects without the concern of copyright law.

POST CLASS

This week's readings focused on digital storytelling. There were a great deal of articles but not all of them successfully opened on my computer. I have taken notes on the readings that were able to open below:

• The Flip Ultra Video Recorder- David Pogue

This was a video showcased on the New York Times website that showed some individuals testing out the Flip Ultra video camera.

• How to Use Digital Storytelling in Your Classroom- Jennifer New

This article created a list of advice for teachers to effectively incorporate digital storytelling as an educational tool within their classrooms. The gist of the list is as follows: learn from your students' creations, use the technology as a tool NOT a goal, learn through trial and error, provide student liberty simultaneous with student accountability, be a behind the scenes facilitator, and praise your students' efforts.

• Digital Storytelling Finds Its Place into the Classroom- Tom Banaszewski

This article chronicled a project that a class of fourth and fifth graders did using iMovie. The students were able to express themselves in their own independent yet structured ways. I think this is a great practice for all students. I would love to have such a project in my future classroom.

Week Eight

IN CLASS

In class today, we were able to explore three teacher sites:

• www.answers.com

This website is actually a search engine. I searched the phrase "teacher educators". A great deal of the hits that came up were on the subject of what is needed to become a teacher.

• www.kerpoof.com

This website was extremely cute and a great resource for elementary school teachers and parents alike. It offered little games for younger students to practice an array of skills such as spelling and writing in addition to expanding their fluency with technology. I would not be able to use this website in my own teaching career due to the fact that I will be a secondary educator.

• www.yolink.com

This website is used as a research tool. An individual searches a particular webpage for certain information and when they find what they need, the yolink technology provides the opportunity for the user to share the information that they found. I could most definitely use this technology in my future history class when teaching about the research process. I would provide this website as a potential tool for the students to focus their research while also giving them the chance to share their information with others for reviewing purposes.

Week Six

IN CLASS
The teacher sites for today were:

• http://www.tech4learning.com/

This website provided trial downloads for various software programs including: Frames, ImageBlender, MediaBlender, Pixie, WebBlender, Twist, Wixie, and Recipes4Success. I honestly will probably never consult this webpage again since all of these programs are more geared towards the elementary level.

• http://www.teach42.com/

This website is actually an educational technology blog. In this respect, it is a bit difficult to navigate unless you are looking for a particular topic. This blog could definitely be useful to my career if I was looking for a teacher perspective concerning technology in education. For example, one entry that I found interesting chronicled the top 10 Web 2.0 programs that could be used by teachers. Noted programs included many of those that we have actually covered in class such as Wordle, VoiceThread, and Delicious.

• http://www.freetech4teachers.com/

This website was yet another educational technology blog. I would most definitely consult this site when I am a teacher to see the new, everchanging innovations that I could possibly utilize in my classroom. When browsing this blog during class, one entry struck me as something I could use: Awesome Highlighter. This website allows students to navigate various webpages and highlight useful text and even add their own notes to a large quantity of information through an Awesome Highlighter account. I see this as being a great tool for my high schoolers to use when conducting research projects where they would be navigating innumerable webpages in search of relevant information.

POST CLASS

The selection of readings for this week focused on Web 2.0 applications and their benefits for education. Wikipedia defines Web 2.0 as "web applications that facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Examples of Web 2.0 include web-based communities, hosted services, web applications, social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, mashups, and folksonomies. A Web 2.0 site allows its users to interact with other users or to change website content, in contrast to non-interactive websites where users are limited to the passive viewing of information that is provided to them."

The first article that I read was Robert Bell's Twittering 2nd-Graders. This article chronicled a partnership of second grade teachers who use the mini-blogging site Twitter to connect their students together while also developing essential writing skills. This is a fantastic example of how social technologies can be utilized for education!

The second article that I read was Chris Riedel's Top 10 Web 2.0 Tools for Young Learners. The article presented ten websites that an education technology consultant, Gail Lovely, gathered that could be used in the classroom for collaborative and active learning majorly for elementary students. The ten websites were:

1. Kerpoof
2. Voki
3. Create-a-Graph
4. Yack Pack
5. Animoto
6. Skype
7. Glogster
8. Voicethread
9. Blogs
10. Wikis