Podcast Reflection #7: Leveraging the Power Of Wikis and Blogs In Student Learning

This podcast included a lot of information.  A student talked about how he used wiki in his physics class.  He thought it was a time saver and provided fast feedback.  I think this is awesome.  Whenever a teacher can provide students with new resources and they can actually use them is great.  Another student talked about using blogging in his classroom.  Blogging is great because students are able to share their thoughts and ideas in a safe environment and teachers can look at their blogs to see what they feel and what they're grasping in class.  These resources are fun and easy ways to enhance your classroom.  The students get to work hands-on and share their thoughts with anyone who wants to see.  It is great

Reflection: Animoto in my Classroom

I worked with a new site called animoto that was very interesting.  You can make slideshows on it, and I mean REALLY good slideshows.  I liked it because it was SO easy and the end product was awesome.  It is just like a powerpoint slideshow, but so much better.  All you have to do is load the pictures you want, the song, and any text that you want displayed.. that is it.  Then the site makes the slideshow for you.  They do all the hard work (put in transitions, match picture change to music speed, ect.).  It is great.  I can really see myself using this site in my own classroom.  It is easy for children to use and fun to do.  It could add that extra something to anyones project or report.  It is just a great resource to use in and out of the classroom.

Here's a link to an animoto I made over myself!
Natalie

Reflection: Fun with Text

For this reflection i played around on a couple sites.  Wordle and Tagxedo are sites that you can generate word clouds on.  I thought they were really fun and eazy to use.  These sites are great resources to use in the classroom.  I think at the begining of the year would be a great time to teach students how to use these sites.  It would be great because I could have all my students make a word cloud with any words or phrases that discribe who they are as a person. This would be a great way to get to know my students and also teach my students how to use a great site.  Word clouds can be useful for projects or reports, just a way to make the information a little bit more exciting.  I really enjoyed using these sites and plan on using them in my own classroom.

Here's a word cloud I made about myself. Enjoy!

Podcast Reflection #6: Your name? Yeah, it's not in this podcast. So listen.

This podcast talked about a lot of available resources for teachers on the internet.  The first resource was an Education Jargon Generator.  It is available at http://www.sciencegeek.net/lingo.html  This site is great for first year teachers.  It can really help teachers out.  I probably will use this resource myself. 

I also really liked the site http://oneword.com It lets you type in a word and helps you write all about it.  The woman on the podcast typed in duck and it generated a lot of examples of what ducks do and are like.  I think this would be great in the classroom.  When students have to research items they could use this site to get ideas for their project.  This podcast was great because it listed a lot of sites that would be great for all classrooms.  They gave examples of how to get to the resources and how to use them. 

Podcast Reflection #5: K12online-Sharing: The Moral Imperative

K12online 2010 available at http://live.classroom20.com/ talked at sharing.  Every teacher wants to share their resources with other teachers.  Technology has enabled teachers to share with everyone.  Booksmarks and blogging are great ways to share resources.  Before sharing was only for the students, now teachers are able to share in a new, easy way.  I cannot image not having the internet in my classroom.  Growing up in the era that I have has given me so many opportunities that were not available to past teachers.  I listened to some educators will their testimonies of using the internet to share their resources.  I think it is great that one teacher posted a blog and that so many people around the world subscribed.  They all were interested in what he was doing in his classroom and wanted to use those resources to improve their own classrooms.  This is what I hope can happen to my own blog.  I want other teachers to not only look at what I am doing in my own classroom, but also give me ideas and comment on what they like and even the things that they did not like.  This would be a great way to see what is working in classrooms and what I might not want to use in my own classroom. 

Podcast Reflection #4: iPads with Peter Smith

ipads with Peter Smith  was about ipads in the classroom.  They talked about a school where all the students have ipads and email accounts.  The kids are learning about new technology and new responsibility.  They have the students email their homework to their teachers.  I think this is awesome.  I would love for all of my students to have ipads.  It is like their own little computers that they can take home or store in their desks.  Technology can be so helpful in the classroom.  There are so many ways you can utilize ipads in the classroom.  They can be used for many different reasons and in all classroom subjects.  I wish schools were given more money to help improve their classrooms like this. 

Podcast Reflection #3: Facebook Talk

Bullying on Facebook had a lot of great points.  The main idea of the podcast was to discuss bullying on facebook.  They talked about how it can just “blast negativity” and start fights in schools.  They used the analogy that a mean post on a facebook wall is like that school note that would get passed around class.  The main difference is that the note could get thrown away, but that wall post is now visible for the world to see.  I never really thought about it like this. 

They also talked about making fake profiles to embarrass people.  How can we get these profiles taken down?  How long is it going to take?  These are a few of the questions we have to find the answers to.  Facebook has a long process of reporting the profiles and giving evidence as to why it is fake.  Then you just have to wait until they do something about it.  They compared this is craiglist, where if something is reported they take it down immediately and then investigate it.  This made me think of the question, how can we improve these sites against spam and imposters? 

Technology is here to stay so we need to find the best ways to improve it.  Change is here and we need to ask ourselves how can we manage change.