The End.
I was so happy with this course. I must admit that I didn't think I would benefit from it very much because I'm fairly experienced with technology. I was so wrong, some of the topics we discussed really broadened my horizons when it comes to technology in the classroom. I've already been able to use some ideas. A few weeks ago some of my students ask me if I would sponsor their Computer Club. I was thrilled that they wanted to start a club! We're working on a blog and I'm setting up email accounts for them and they're really interested in wikis to post information about "wrestlers, culture, religion, and chewing gum!" This is going to be great. I expected this class to be about Powerpoint, and I'm so glad we barely talked about it. Also, the class blog will be a resource that I will continue to use. I plan to spread my knowledge about Web 2.0 classrooms! Thanks for a great class!
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Slideshow - Clip from our video yearbook
My 6th grade students are making a DVD yearbook to sell as a fundraiser for the computer lab and for their class. They are documenting our school using photography, video, and audio. We are editing all of the media in iMovie. Check out what we've done so far!
If I had $2500...
I teach computers at an elementary school, it is important to me that the students are exposed to other technology than just a computer. I want them to learn how to use different cameras and scanning equipment. As a computer teacher, my classes use technology everyday so it would be very easy for me to apply for grants. All of the grants on the list I plan on applying for, especially Best Buy and Sprint. First, I'll be writing grants to get more equipment for my lab. Then I'm going to find away for the rest of our classrooms to have new computers connected to the internet that actually work. I'm very lucky to have such a nice lab full of new Macs, but when the kids leave my room they only have 2 computers in their home room which rarely work. It's very sad. The could be learning so much more about technology if they used it more than just once a week. Grant writing is going to be my summer project.
With the addition of the following materials the children could make amazing multimedia projects.
6 digital cameras - $1080
Laser color printer - $400
extra toner - $250
2 scanners - $150
The leftover $600 would be used to pay for products that we will be making (shirts, books, etc.)
I have lots of projects in mind using photography and design. I would love for the children to create a book using Blurb or iPhoto where they would photograph or draw illustrations, as well as write and layout the text. These books could be about a particular topic they're learning about in their homeroom or they could be made for the younger children to help them learn to read. It would also be fun to have the kids create a design for a t-shirt using KidPix or Word and then have them printed.
It would be great to have a laser color printer so students can have what they've made on paper. I'd like to give each student a portfolio of their work at the end of the year. Many of them don't have computers so a disc wouldn't be very good. We have several black and white laser printers, but the kids make such amazing colorful work that it doesn't do their work justice.
I'll have this ready if a wealthy patron should ever donate to our school.
With the addition of the following materials the children could make amazing multimedia projects.
6 digital cameras - $1080
Laser color printer - $400
extra toner - $250
2 scanners - $150
The leftover $600 would be used to pay for products that we will be making (shirts, books, etc.)
I have lots of projects in mind using photography and design. I would love for the children to create a book using Blurb or iPhoto where they would photograph or draw illustrations, as well as write and layout the text. These books could be about a particular topic they're learning about in their homeroom or they could be made for the younger children to help them learn to read. It would also be fun to have the kids create a design for a t-shirt using KidPix or Word and then have them printed.
It would be great to have a laser color printer so students can have what they've made on paper. I'd like to give each student a portfolio of their work at the end of the year. Many of them don't have computers so a disc wouldn't be very good. We have several black and white laser printers, but the kids make such amazing colorful work that it doesn't do their work justice.
I'll have this ready if a wealthy patron should ever donate to our school.
Copyright
This was great information to learn about copyright issues. I never really took them too seriously, but I decided to be more careful about it in the classroom. Thankfully, the fair use policy gives us a lot more leeway than other people. I never thought twice about using whatever music I wanted to in slide shows. My students are creating a video yearbook that will be sold to parents, this time we're using www.freeplaymusic.com to find our music. This site has some a huge selection of copyright free instrumental music and sound effects. The search feature allows you to get really specific results. The kids have really responded to this because we can use cool hip hop beats in our slide show and I don't have to worry about offensive language. This was a great time to learn about copyright issues because they didn't understand why we couldn't use music they listen to on the radio.
I'm also thankful for copyright laws because they protect me as a photographer from others stealing my images. A new trend in the wedding world is for brides to demand their "digital negatives." This would mean that a photographer would fork over a copyright release and all of the files to the couple and allow them to make prints and albums on their own. I hate this idea because once you hand over your work to someone else to produce the final product you sacrafice quality. I haven't been able to do this yet, but I've lost a lot of business because I don't. I'm still on the fence if I should give someone else the rights to my images.
I'm also thankful for copyright laws because they protect me as a photographer from others stealing my images. A new trend in the wedding world is for brides to demand their "digital negatives." This would mean that a photographer would fork over a copyright release and all of the files to the couple and allow them to make prints and albums on their own. I hate this idea because once you hand over your work to someone else to produce the final product you sacrafice quality. I haven't been able to do this yet, but I've lost a lot of business because I don't. I'm still on the fence if I should give someone else the rights to my images.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Google is only trying to give users exactly what they want. The acquisition of DoubleClick will create a more targeted audience for online ads. Advertisements aren't a new thing on the Internet, we see ads everywhere we look every single day. As a consumer, I appreciate a targeted ad, it makes it easy for me to find something I might be looking for, however these ads are equally as easy to ignore. Google helps me tremendously as a consumer and an advertiser. I use Google Analytics to get detailed information about who is visiting my site, how long, what pages they clicked on, etc. I can adjust my site to attract more visitors and use Analytics to see if these adjustments are working. This is a free feature for me to use and it has really helped my website a lot. I don't see a problem in collecting information from users. Even with email storage, I think that is so interesting that we have records of conversations with people. Thinking about this from a historical perspective, that database would be amazing to document our history. We've seen personal letters of the published in books and in museums and it's a great way for us to learn what life may have been like in a certain time period. As far as copyright issues, from my experience, I will use Google to find initial information, then I'll go to the source for more information. Google becomes a promoter for other sites. Google is an amazing free tool available for anyone with an Internet connection. We are so lucky to have such a great resource. There is potential evil that could happen to this information in the wrong hands, but I trust Google and will continue to take advantage of everything it has to offer.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
You Tube
The concept of You Tube is right in the title, YOU tube, and that's what makes it so great. We all have the power to publish any type of media. Of course this creates questions of validity, but so does the entire Internet. Even in television, you can be a star in a reality show. This is something we must face living in today's culture. We should embrace this shift of roles between amateur and professional and utilize the new media that results from this shift. We must question every type of media we encounter to identify accurate information. This might seem like looking for a needle in a haystack, but you'll probably find a few more needles than you were expecting.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Articles...
1. Schools should definitely follow the trends in technology to keep up with students. The NYC educator, Marc Prensky made a great point when he said “School represents the past. After-school is where they are training themselves for the future. “The danger is that as school becomes less and less relevant, it becomes more and more of a prison.” If we don’t allow these devices inside our schools we are teaching the children it’s wrong to be using them. It would be amazing to have a technology reform in schools that embraces these tools and use them as learning tools. I believe this will happen, but it will take lots of time, I agree that a lot of the veteran teachers are holding schools back from following this path. Once buildings are filled with a generation of teachers who feel confident with technology, schools will be on the move.
2. It is so frustrating when people are so concerned with censorship and the Internet, but no one seems to be making a fuss about what our children are seeing on TV. The news, music videos, sitcoms, “reality” shows… I see Schools have already blocked a large amount of content from being accessed at school. TeacherTube sounds like an excellent resource and a great alternative to YouTube. Just by developing this new site is eliminating a huge risk or seeing inappropriate material, and people are still worried. I do agree that we need to teach Internet responsibility so children don’t post too much information online. It is impossible to censor all things inappropriate and children may have access to that information after school, everyone will be exposed to something inappropriate during their lifetime. Maybe seeing it as children will discourage them from wanting be associated with certain activities when they get older.
3. Wow, the I'd really like to try out the Teachermate. It sounds like a great way to ease teachers and elementary students into the digital realm. It is amazing how inexpensive these machines are, I'm interested to find out how they're going over in the pilot schools. I could see some teachers using the Teachermate to do their job for them. It was scary to hear one of the teachers say, “If the students could use these devices all day long, they would. It gets them focused on what they should be learning, but they think they are just playing games.” Clearly the Teachermate would make a great addition to reading and math lessons, but we should be careful that they don't take over the entire class.
4. Everyone involved in this situation needs to lighten up and get over it! Administrators and school officials need to learn to take criticism just like everyone else does. It's part of life, I'm certain every person on this planet has been called a name before. Sure it's rude and uncalled for, but don't let it get to you. It's that easy, not everyone will always agree with you and some people will handle that the wrong way. The student responsible for hurting the Superintendent's feelings needs to learn to deal with the consequences of what happens when you get caught talkin' smack about authority figures. For instance, if I sent an e-mail to the teachers in my building stating my principal is a "douche bag," more than likely I would be fired. If she really feels the need to let the student body know about this person's "douche baggery" she should be smart enough to do it anonymously. We really need to teach this generation of kids about Internet etiquette and responsibility. I don't think they understand that the Internet isn't a safe place to publicly broadcast your thoughts about specific people. I remember hearing about students being arrested for posting online that they wanted to kill (insert name) usually meant as I'm so sick of this person, but this is taken as a serious threat, and now there's evidence.
2. It is so frustrating when people are so concerned with censorship and the Internet, but no one seems to be making a fuss about what our children are seeing on TV. The news, music videos, sitcoms, “reality” shows… I see Schools have already blocked a large amount of content from being accessed at school. TeacherTube sounds like an excellent resource and a great alternative to YouTube. Just by developing this new site is eliminating a huge risk or seeing inappropriate material, and people are still worried. I do agree that we need to teach Internet responsibility so children don’t post too much information online. It is impossible to censor all things inappropriate and children may have access to that information after school, everyone will be exposed to something inappropriate during their lifetime. Maybe seeing it as children will discourage them from wanting be associated with certain activities when they get older.
3. Wow, the I'd really like to try out the Teachermate. It sounds like a great way to ease teachers and elementary students into the digital realm. It is amazing how inexpensive these machines are, I'm interested to find out how they're going over in the pilot schools. I could see some teachers using the Teachermate to do their job for them. It was scary to hear one of the teachers say, “If the students could use these devices all day long, they would. It gets them focused on what they should be learning, but they think they are just playing games.” Clearly the Teachermate would make a great addition to reading and math lessons, but we should be careful that they don't take over the entire class.
4. Everyone involved in this situation needs to lighten up and get over it! Administrators and school officials need to learn to take criticism just like everyone else does. It's part of life, I'm certain every person on this planet has been called a name before. Sure it's rude and uncalled for, but don't let it get to you. It's that easy, not everyone will always agree with you and some people will handle that the wrong way. The student responsible for hurting the Superintendent's feelings needs to learn to deal with the consequences of what happens when you get caught talkin' smack about authority figures. For instance, if I sent an e-mail to the teachers in my building stating my principal is a "douche bag," more than likely I would be fired. If she really feels the need to let the student body know about this person's "douche baggery" she should be smart enough to do it anonymously. We really need to teach this generation of kids about Internet etiquette and responsibility. I don't think they understand that the Internet isn't a safe place to publicly broadcast your thoughts about specific people. I remember hearing about students being arrested for posting online that they wanted to kill (insert name) usually meant as I'm so sick of this person, but this is taken as a serious threat, and now there's evidence.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
vide-audi-o
I've been thinking about ways for students to experiment with audio and video in the classroom. I think it would be a cool project to have half of an art class shoot video with no sound and the other half of the class construct a story from the video by creating the audio. They would record narration and create sound effects using Audacity. Students will recreate sound using other objects; perhaps a music class could work with us to create a soundtrack. Then we would combine the two elements together and edit the movie as a class. We would discuss producing, directing, and editing in Hollywood films and how a tone/mood can be set using sound. If there was no access to a video camera we could use found footage from google video and take out the sound. I think this project could easily work for different grade levels by adjusting their roles.
It would be nice to finish each day by listening to a podcast from an artist or curator discussing a contemporary work of art. First we would talk about what we thought the work was about, and then we would listen to the artist. This would help the students understand interpretation.
It would be nice to finish each day by listening to a podcast from an artist or curator discussing a contemporary work of art. First we would talk about what we thought the work was about, and then we would listen to the artist. This would help the students understand interpretation.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Edublogs
"Arty Reflections"
http://mshearman.edublogs.org/
I almost didn't visit this blog because if its title. I really hate the word "artsy" but arty is even worse. Yuck. However, it was one of the only blogs I saw on the list related to art so I decided to see what it was about. To my surprise, the content was interesting and this was something that I was thinking about when we were discussing using blogs as a tool in the classroom. Ms. Hearman has created a blog to share her students' artwork with the world. The blog's purpose is not just to show their images, she is creating a dialogue between students, parents and other art classes around the world. They are learning about art criticism by using the 6 Thinking Hats Framework to construct their comments about each others' work. http://mshearman.edublogs.org/what-are-the-6-thinking-hats/ I think that is a great way to get kids to think and write creatively, when I have an art class I will definitely use this strategy.
"Voice Thread"
http://voicethread.com
The open classroom blog ( http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/ ) led me to Voice Thread, an amazing interactive blog. This allows users to create and animate video files while narrating with audio. People can leave vocal comments by using a microphone or telephone. What a great way to tell stories or give a presentation. The Open Classroom blogger posted a Voice Thread where teachers from all around the world summarized their day in one sentence. This blog could lead to really cool collaborative projects, I'll be thinking about what I want to make using this tool.
"Teacher Hacks"
http://teacherhacks.blogspot.com/
A writer from this blog made a video promoting learning for a new generation called 3 steps for 21st Century Learning. The video encourages educators to teach their students competition, cooperation, and collaboration. This blog further develops those concepts and provides examples of ways we can prepare our students for the future. Although the video itself was a little on the cheesy side, it was interesting information that I will try to incorporate when I have a classroom. It's too bad this person hasn't posted in a year.
http://mshearman.edublogs.org/
I almost didn't visit this blog because if its title. I really hate the word "artsy" but arty is even worse. Yuck. However, it was one of the only blogs I saw on the list related to art so I decided to see what it was about. To my surprise, the content was interesting and this was something that I was thinking about when we were discussing using blogs as a tool in the classroom. Ms. Hearman has created a blog to share her students' artwork with the world. The blog's purpose is not just to show their images, she is creating a dialogue between students, parents and other art classes around the world. They are learning about art criticism by using the 6 Thinking Hats Framework to construct their comments about each others' work. http://mshearman.edublogs.org/what-are-the-6-thinking-hats/ I think that is a great way to get kids to think and write creatively, when I have an art class I will definitely use this strategy.
"Voice Thread"
http://voicethread.com
The open classroom blog ( http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/ ) led me to Voice Thread, an amazing interactive blog. This allows users to create and animate video files while narrating with audio. People can leave vocal comments by using a microphone or telephone. What a great way to tell stories or give a presentation. The Open Classroom blogger posted a Voice Thread where teachers from all around the world summarized their day in one sentence. This blog could lead to really cool collaborative projects, I'll be thinking about what I want to make using this tool.
"Teacher Hacks"
http://teacherhacks.blogspot.com/
A writer from this blog made a video promoting learning for a new generation called 3 steps for 21st Century Learning. The video encourages educators to teach their students competition, cooperation, and collaboration. This blog further develops those concepts and provides examples of ways we can prepare our students for the future. Although the video itself was a little on the cheesy side, it was interesting information that I will try to incorporate when I have a classroom. It's too bad this person hasn't posted in a year.
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