Final Post

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?

My favorite discoveries were the netvibes or blogline, embedding HTML code into my posts, and discovering Flickr. 

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?

I think it has helped me to document what I find and how to implement what I find. Therefore, I truly think that it will affect my lifelong learning goals. I found that this project has pushed me to read more Edu Tech articles and blogs. I think I am a little better organized now with my ideas and thoughts. Plus I had to get that extra push to join Pinterest and Linkedin!

3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

My take-a-ways were the Wiki Technology Poppers, signing up for Pinterst and Linkedin, and learning more about Blogger. 

4. What could I do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?

I liked everything, except The Web 2.0 link about the best Web 2.0 tools was not very helpful. Wish they would update that site, maybe we can find a new one? Also I understood why I had to upload an iMovie to Youtube but I kind of felt like it was repetitive of what I have learned in my other tech classes. However, I think it is extremely beneficial for those students who are not in the MTT program to learn how to do this. So I was ok with it but maybe you could have an different option for MTT folks? 

Thing #16

I used Photo Peach when I was teaching. I had my 6th and 7th grade Web 2.0 students pick a web 2.0 tool that we had not used in class. They had to create a project I assigned them using the web 2.0 they picked. Photo Peach was on my list of approved web 2.0 tools. I thought the project was a success and every time a student picked Photo Peach they always gave great reviews and said that they would recommend the site to a friend.

I decided to make one about African Animals. Photo Peach is super easy I made the slideshow with in a few minutes. Plus what was great is that even though I signed up for the free version I was able to search Youtube videos for music and it even sited the music at the end of the slideshow. This is an easy way to show your student a multimedia presentation. I think it would be a great intro to a new unit. I love how easy it was to embed the HTML code so that the Photo Peach Slide Show pops up in my post. SUPER COOL!




African Animals on PhotoPeach

Thing #15.5

Setting up a Twitter and Linkedin account was relatively easy. I have been following people on Twitter but I have only posted Tweets for work and not on my own account. However, that has changed because I am now posting ed tech articles. I am following Kathy Schrock and Dr. Wilson. I only have one connection on Linkedin but hopefully my numbers will increase. 

I think that Facebook will be a thing of the past and Twitter will be the next social giant. I think Linkedin is a great site and I know a lot of people that use it. 

Thing #15

I think Skype is great for the classroom. Just a few weeks ago a student had to go to Tel Aviv to visit a sick relative. Our 8th grade English teacher was able to Skype with him a few times to make sure he was up to date on his classwork. Skype is a great resource for students to connect with out students in another part of the world. I think it is important for students to understand and have empathy for other people in the world. I have found that students realize that kids all around the world have chores! I think Skype is easy to use.

Thing #14

After exploring iTunes U for Texas I figured I could find stuff for the Texas history teacher but I found some great stuff for our 8th grade history teacher on WWII, the Civil War, and the US Constitution. I also found a few podcasts for the 5th Grade Science teacher about Texas animals like the Mexican Free-Tailed Bat and Click Beetle. 5th Grade does a Unit all about animals and the students have to create keynote presentations about the animal they were assigned. iTunes U is such a great FREE resource. 

My experience with bookmarking is with Delicious. I added the Delicious Google Chrome extension so it is even easier for me to bookmark and organize my websites. I don't know what I would do without Delicious. 

So because of this assignment I guess I am finally getting on Pinterst. I have held out because I know I will "pin" for hours. However, I do see the good in it for sharing educational ideas. I saw a new website on Edudemic called Learnist that is an educational website similar to Pinterest. I like Pinterest better though. Luckily Pinterest has a education section. 

Thing #12 and #13

After poking around Youtube I had several thoughts. I wish they would have a section of YouTube, actual Youtube that was kid friendly. It would be nice if maybe the videos could be rated like television shows are rated. I am sure this would take a lot of work on YouTube's end but it would still be nice to know in advance if you are wasting your time looking at videos for your class. I remember one incident where I found this awesome Bill Cosby clip where he teaches Theo a thing or two about finances. I used it for my Office App class. Luckily, I watched it before hand and was able to edit it but it had a curse word in the clip.

I also found their education section was kind of bland. I wish the content was a little better presented as I had a hard time finding what I wanted. When I was teaching I couldn't always use TeacherTube because I couldn't find what I wanted in terms of technology, communications, or business. I found a lot of core subjects for younger ages. Sometimes I couldn't find what I was looking for on PBS learning or Discovery Education. I like to use bits of pop culture to reference certain things as I feel like it caught my students' attention.

I found this clip from the Sandlot. This is the epitome of my childhood and growing up. My generation still continues to take quotes from this movie. The YouTube clip I have is great because I think it is fun for students as it says to follow your heart. The Sandlot.

My Short Video

I think there are many advantages to watching education videos. I think it is just another dimension for a student to better understand the concept or big idea. However, I do not know if it is ok for a student to upload a video. I think it would depend on the type and how well the information was researched. However, I would not put another student work up if it had their name, picture, or other information.

I found an article about how YouTube has a Beta version of giving multiple choice quizzes along side a video. YouTube Interactive Quizzes. 

By the way I am really bummed about not being able to convert YouTube videos on Zamzar!

Thing #11

I went to the awards website and I had a hard time navigating the website. I could never find the web 2.0 winners. I decided to check out the web 2.0 tool called "Stop Frame Animator" from Culture Street, because I read about it last Friday from an article that was posted on my Scoop. It account. I get a daily Scoop. It and the website shows me articles and blogs that they think I would be interested in. Mine is all education and technology postings. This one is from the blog Free Technology for Teachers . It is all about Stop Frame Animation .

After waiting for the site to load, I just clicked "Start." I then chose my scenery. I chose a stage with a red curtain, I chose the stick figure, and started to move his arms and legs around. I finally figured out that this is a stop motion so I can't just move it around and expect it to start moving. So every time I moved his arms or legs I clicked the "camera" and it took a picture of the stick figure. I put it props and played around with the music and the sound effects. This would be a great story telling project, however it takes patience and time to create a good looking stop motion as a student will have to be careful how the move the character and how often they take pictures. The teacher would have to come up with a detailed rubric on the details, design, and story of the project.

From what I could tell it was super easy to use. However my only cons were that I could only do a stop motion for 10 seconds and I could not email it or save it. It is still a fun website though!

Thing #10

We use Google Docs all the time at work. However, I did not know that Zoho had a productivity tool. Zoho Writer seems pretty cool as it is similar to Google Docs. I think it is great for students to explore all different types of productivity tools as it is up to the person on what they like better and what they would rather use. After exploring Zoho Writer I do like the fact that you can import/export directly into Google Docs. You can make your document a little fancier and then send it to Google Docs. I will defiantly keep this in mind when creating Google Docs I need to share with people. Thanks for this tip!

Thing #9

Today I posted on Dr. Wilson's Technology Poppers for Class. After posting my comment on the wiki I thought, why not create one of these for my middle school teachers? It is going on my to-do list RIGHT NOW! I think this is a great way for teachers to collaborate together on classroom tech ideas. This could be a great professional development project for when we have noon dismissal days. My mind is seriously churning with so many ideas. It could be organized by subject and by tech tool. Teachers could post/comment on it and then we could easily share ideas when we think of them.

This is what I posted on the wiki:
 I think it would be great if the teacher created a flipsnack and was able to share it during class and on their website for their students. They could compile PDF documents that are similiar. It is a great organizational tool for the teacher and the student. This way if they do not have Adobe Acrobate Pro, they could quickly and easily create a quick portfolio of resources for their students. It could be used as a study tool or they can create an interactive FlipSnack for their unit or for a novel they are reading in class. It could become a larger project if students created their own project portfolio of what they have learned. 

Thing #8

Wiki's are awesome. I have several of these wiki's bookmarked. The one that I visit all the time is called cooltoolsforschool.wikispaces.com. I was introduced to this website by Dr. Wilson in my Edu Tech Apps class. When I was teaching computer I created a web 2.0 class. I kept this wiki in my back pocket the entire time. At the end of each semester I would share with my students this wonderful resource and made them put it on their delicious account and they had to bookmark it on their browser tool bar. Wiki's are a great resource because it seems to be the best way to organize categories of information. One can find amazing resources and ideas. I looked at the Princeton Public Library Book Lover wiki and that was pretty cool. However, the SJCPL Library for Life wiki was a great resource. After reading the wikis provided I was able to see other viewpoints on one particular subject. We provide Harkness training at our school and I just had an euphony that our teachers could provide a wiki for their in class Harkness discussion. What a great way to continue the conversation and read different responses. Love it! I really think teachers should create their own wiki as a class pages with all of their online resources. It could continually be updated and shared with other teachers.

Thing #7

The first image generator I tried was WordSift because I have never heard of it or used it before. I decided to use the poem by Yeats called The Lake Isle of Innsfree. I love this poem and heard the words put to music this morning during church. It was super easy to use and would be great for students to dissect a story, poem, or Bible verse. 

The next image generator I decided to check out was FlipSnack because I have never heard or used it before. Before even getting started I could tell this was a great teacher resource and can't wait to share this new gem! I decided to take all the PDF files I had during my Printer Based Media Design class I took at HBU this summer. I have created a portfolio of all my PDF files. This is sooo cool! I like this better than making a PDF portfolio with Adobe Acrobate Pro. It is easy to use and you the great part is you can customize it. Our school has been talking about students creating an ongoing educational portfolio. Below is my FlipSnack PDF portfolio. I have added FlipSnack to my Delicious account! 

This is the orignal poem
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.


Blades Portfolio FlipSnack

Thing #6

I use RSS feeds at work every single day. I subscribe to our school's RSS feed on our main calendar that we provide on our website. I also taught our teachers not only how subscribe to the main calendar, but to their teaching schedule, and how students can subscribe to their assignments. I love RSS feeds because I can filter the information that I want. I need to go a subscribe to more RSS feeds for news. I love my ABC news RSS feed. My husband thinks I have a problem! I should go and subscribe to RSS feeds that educational magazines/websites provides because I hate getting daily emails from them. The formatting of the emails are hard to read and I usually end of deleting them because I can't sit there for minutes on end reading them. I think RSS feeds are a great resource for our library at school. Our student could subscribe to online articles and journals for major projects. Or just stay in the know on current events for particular subjects. I subscribed to my favorite blogs and several teaching blogs.

Techno Blades Bloglines

Thing #5

Flickr Mashup

Honestly, I was confused at first as to what the Flickr App Garden was. After much searching I finally figured out that anyone can make an app and use flickr as their host. It took me a long time to find an app that sounded interesting. The one I looked at is called Family Art Studio. I actually like it because you can type in any word and it will create cool word art that you can personalize. I made one below. I liked Mosaicr, but I was having a hard time finding anything else that I felt was outstanding. I am going to keep looking though. I feel like there is a diamond in the rough in the App Garden.

Thing #4

I am sold on flickr! I wish I would of thought of flickr early. Especially, this summer where I was trying to upload photos to an online database. I did not realize how many options I had with flickr. After taking the tour I realized I could add notes and a time and place to a photo. You can also share photos with groups of people such as just friends or just family. It will allow you to connect to Facebook and other social networking sites, which I think it a huge selling point. I like the idea of a photoblog as you can connect flickr to blogger, word press, etc. I love how you can send photos from iPhoto or other apps to flickr. That will be my next project. I need to remember that flickr commons is a great research tool for projects. I was using photobucket,  I am now a flickr fan!

My Summer Trip Photostream

Thing #3

This is a picture I took of my sister-in-law at our family ranch. I used my Nikon D-80 with a long lens and filter. I edited the picture using iPhoto. I love this picture because it displays small Texas charm. When I look at it I feel like it could be a cover to a music album, post card, or Texas Travel poster. She looks like a wanderer but really she knows where she is going. She would probably kill me if she knew I posted this picture, but I love it so. She is so pretty and relaxed in this picture, but if you really knew her she is very humble and gentle, never boastful. After hours of convincing her to let me photograph her, I took a multitude of pictures and created a book of the entire photo session. I gave it to my father-in-law as a Father's Day gift.

Thing #2

Today I set up the second blog I ever had. The first blog I had was in my freshmen political science class. It was a time when blogs were relatively new and I did not really understand the point of blogs. However, my professor made us post a new blog every week with a picture about a current event. We had to develop an opinion of that event and read other student blogs. At the time it was tedious, but looking back he was cutting edge. So I appreciate the exposure to the new tech tool.

Setting up this blog only took a few minutes and was very easy to navigate. I was able to start posting immediately. I love how there were only a few clicks from posting what you want to say. Plus, there are all these great tools now. I can add any type of media file or link. Additionally, I have different post settings. So many options! Any one can blog!

Thing #1

After reading the Seven Habits of Highly Successful People and watching the online tutorial, I discovered a few things about my self. I think that the easiest habit for me is Habit 1: Be Proactive. I am goal oriented and have a strong will. However, the hardest habit for me is Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind. I can be very enthusiastic and energized by the thought of a new idea of project. I do not always think of the steps I need to take to get there. I love this because the 7 habits are easy to remember and logical.

In regards to life long learning. I am a huge proponent for staying up to date in the lastest information. I feel it is important to continually learn something new everyday. If you decide to become a teacher, you decide that you will become a life long learner. When ask to do this learning contract, I figured it would easy. However, it took my a long time to really think about setting goals with tools and when I needed to accomplish the tasks at hand. I had to think about what I wanted to do in the next 6 months and decide what was most important to me. I think it is important for any business, including schools to set short term and long terms goals and check to see if we are meeting those goals. 

 My Learning Contract