Opposites: Scavenger Hunt

This project required us to go on a scavenger hunt, taking photos of assigned objects. My category was opposites! I was excited about this category because it left so much room for creativity. I actually used two different cameras to obtain my pictures. I used my ipod and a digital camera. I must say I think the ipod took the better pictures. I tried to be creative in my responses. Uploading my pictures from the camera and ipod was the easy part. Cropping the photos, uploading to Picassa, and renaming them was the confusing part! We moved very quickly in class and I quickly felt overwhelmed. I needed the one on one instruction to be able to complete this assignment. I am not as up to speed or intuitive as others may be, so I got a little frustrated. However, with the help from my instructor and my neighbor I was able to catch up. It is good to know how to resize photos and this was a good lesson for me. However, I was not crazy about the google slide show. I do like SmileBox! I think it is really cute and actually easy to use. I also like all the different options for newsletter, slideshow, music, collage, and so on. It seems to really have all the templates I would need for uploading pictures. It was good to know how to post my SmileBox slide show onto my blog. I just am not sure how big of a blogger I will be in the future. Blogging is a nice way to reflect on what you have read and been involved in. I could see myself blogging if other teachers at my school did as well. To take a screen shot, shift-command-4, is simple enough, I just am still a little unclear as to when I would need to take one? Technology has so many different things to offer that do similar things. It is up to me to narrow down the sites that I prefer most. Today was successful in introducing me to SmileBox. I really like it and think it will be my go to site for picture collaborations!

Smilebox Opposites!

Photo slideshow made with Smilebox

Opposites: Scavenger Hunt!

Its Delicious!

Today we were paired off into groups of two and assigned to a specific internet resource site. My partner and I were selected to make a wiki page and teach about delicious.com. I had never heard of the site and was curious to see what it offered. Delicious.com is a bookmarking site, one that you can personalize with your favorite or most important bookmarks, share with other friends who are on delicious.com, and access from any computer simply by logging on to the site with your user name and password. Delicious.com also offers categories that you can sort the link into so that you keep your bookmarks organized. Delicious.com already has "favorite" or most popular bookmarks that are good to reference. Before today, I had only minimally used bookmarks and would have never even thought of an idea like this. However, the more I explored the site, the more I realized how easy it was to use. I think it would be useful to share link with colleagues and just to send to myself to reference at a later time. Although it is not the most exciting site, I believe that it holds a fundamental purpose and can help me to stay organized when I am searching lots of websites.

Wiki

Yesterday I was introduced to Wiki's. I first learned that it means "quick" in Hawaiian. This "quickness" is translated into the speed in which you can edit, write, and share a wiki page with anyone or a select group. Wiki has many pros but also some cons. Using wiki can be beneficial in the classroom through numerous activities including virtual field trips, class scrap books, weekly newsletter, peer paper editing, group discussions, research projects, and so forth. Wiki is can also be beneficial to teachers in planning grade wide lessons, sharing ideas, drafting projects, and coordinating meetings. Wiki has also come a long way in providing reliable resources and information. It still is not recognized as a scholarly source but it can be a good starting reference for many projects. Downfalls of Wiki include its emphasis on group consensus. Wiki is not good for individual projects and those who use it for group projects or editing need to be cautious of other's feelings. That said, one should not take group input or editing personal when working on a wiki. Other cons include the inability of the wiki to allow more than one group member to edit a page at the same time. Never steal the lock from the current user, they can lose all that they had just written. It would be wise to save your individual contribution to the wiki on a word document because it is possible that someone could accidentally delete the segment during editing.

Web Site Evaluation Reflection

This activity was beneficial to introducing me to a new educational site. The beginning of the activity allowed me to search for various websites aimed at producing materials and resources for teaching elementary students. The web site I chose, Enchanted Learning, had thousands of activities on lots of different subjects. The evaluation process was useful in prompting me to think of questions I may need to ask myself when I search or use a site that I am not certain of its credibility. As a future teacher, I need to be aware that all cites are not credible and know how to check for credibility. In that respect, I think that this exercise was beneficial.

My Learning Expectations for TPTE 486

I have high expectations for this course and the benefits it will offer me. I expect that by the time this course has ended, I will have grown greatly in my experiences and knowledge about technology. I expect that I will become competent in the new and various programs that I can use as an instructor and also personally. Technology has come to encompass so much of our daily lives that I can only benefit from learning how it can best serve me. Already, I have been introduced to GoogleDocs and really like the program. It really is easy! But I probably would have never known about it, had it not been for this course. Im sure that there are many more great tools out there and I am excited to learn about them!

About Me

Hi everyone and welcome to my blog! I am new to this whole thing but excited to share with everyone how I am growing as a techie. Prior to my summer courses that have introduced me to technology, I have pretty much avoided all contact with technology. But I have always said I would like to take a class that could help me grow as a computer savvy individual. Nows my chance! I am looking forward to learning a lot about the advantages technology can offer me, both personally and professionally.