At our last Saturday meeting I told some of you about a free website where you can actually create your own flash based site. It is called Wix. You can create high-quality flash based website for basically any purpose. It does not require any programming. All you have to do is drag and drop!
I actually used this website to create a digital resume. Check it out here.
Another site that I was recently informed of is Kafafa. It is also very simple to use and create based upon pre-existing templates. However, it is more of a flat website without as many animated features.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Classroom of the Future
I would love to describe my elaborate and detailed dream of a classroom of the future.
It would be stocked with tons of technology for the teachers and students to utilize. Every student would be issued a laptop to work on their assignments and to be able to collaborate with others. Since each student has this laptop, worksheets would be obsolete. Students can turn in assignments through programs like Blackboard or in other digital lockers. Their textbooks would be digital. This digital environment would consequently reduce the amount of paper being used and protect the world from deforestation. Also, since students would have access to their worksheets and textbooks via their laptops at home, it would motivate them to complete their homework every night!
Every classroom would have interactive whiteboards to engage students. This technology would allow students to participate and play a more active role in their education. In result, all students would begin to pay attention better in class and become more successful, eliminating the need for high stakes testing and monitoring.
Teachers would be provided technology that assisted in classroom management, such as the GradeCam seen here:
However, by this time the software will have advanced to grade all types of assignments including essay content submitted from the students' digital lockers. Teachers will no longer need to take home papers to grade and finally feel what it is like to come home to relax.
OK...that is enough of my sarcasm for one post. While this 'classroom of the future' would be absolutely fantastic, let's get serious and think about the reality of the education industry. MANY things need to happen before we can come close to achieving a technology infused classroom, but most importantly the following two issues.
It would be stocked with tons of technology for the teachers and students to utilize. Every student would be issued a laptop to work on their assignments and to be able to collaborate with others. Since each student has this laptop, worksheets would be obsolete. Students can turn in assignments through programs like Blackboard or in other digital lockers. Their textbooks would be digital. This digital environment would consequently reduce the amount of paper being used and protect the world from deforestation. Also, since students would have access to their worksheets and textbooks via their laptops at home, it would motivate them to complete their homework every night!
Every classroom would have interactive whiteboards to engage students. This technology would allow students to participate and play a more active role in their education. In result, all students would begin to pay attention better in class and become more successful, eliminating the need for high stakes testing and monitoring.
Teachers would be provided technology that assisted in classroom management, such as the GradeCam seen here:
However, by this time the software will have advanced to grade all types of assignments including essay content submitted from the students' digital lockers. Teachers will no longer need to take home papers to grade and finally feel what it is like to come home to relax.
OK...that is enough of my sarcasm for one post. While this 'classroom of the future' would be absolutely fantastic, let's get serious and think about the reality of the education industry. MANY things need to happen before we can come close to achieving a technology infused classroom, but most importantly the following two issues.
- Shift in mentality- The majority of teachers today are very apprehensive of new technology and do not understand the capabilities or benefits of using new technologies. School districts would need to implement a multi-year plan to train, educate, and assist teachers so that they are able to finally view the gloriousness that is technology. :)
- Change in Funding- While I do understand that the government allows a certain amount of money to provide technology for schools, it is VERY limited. Plus your school must qualify in numerous ways in order to benefit. Otherwise, you basically have to beg your PTA or write grants in order to obtain any sponsorship. This type of allocation is what leaves schools such as mine, which is middle of the road suburban, with only one desktop computer as 'technology' in each classroom. No interactive whiteboards, no cart of laptops, no student response systems, and one digital camera for the school to share. We do not qualify for additional government funding nor is our PTA able to 'gift' items to the school. Yet, the government continues to spend more money on other quite shocking things. Check out this statistic about government spending presented by Alliance for Excellent Education. (2006, August). Saving Futures, Saving Dollars: The Impact of Education on Crime Reduction and Earnings. Washington, DC.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Cyber-Safety for Kids
I am very passionate about teaching my students how to be cyber-smart. Since I have taught the students about so many great website and introduced them to blogging, I feel obligated to teach them so that they are protected. Many teachers skip over teaching the students how to be safe on the internet because the school district has a 'fantastic filter' that it used so that it never puts the children in harms way. However, what about when they go home and get onto the internet? Or what if the filter is down one day? Why not teach children from the beginning how to use it properly so that when they encounter something in the future (which they will!), they will know how to handle it.
I recently heard some DJ's on the radio station talking one morning about these new bad things going on in middle schools. One lady was describing the meeting that she had attended the night before. It was a meeting hosted by parents of current middle school girls to inform parents who have children about to be in middle school. One thing they described was how the color of the lipstick or lip gloss a girl wears tells boys what she is willing to do. They went on to describe numerous scandalous 'things' that could happen to your daughter and the DJ who attended was saying how she was so freaked out to send her daughter. Then, the other DJ pointed out that there are a million situations that could be presented to your child at school and that it would be impossible to sit your child down and go through them one by one. However, if you have raised your child with firm values in place they should be able to handle any of those situations thrown at them. So, why am I blabbering on about middle school scandals? I believe that it relates so well to the topic of cyber safety. If we can teach our children the real 'values' with using the internet then they should be able to handle anything that encounters them. We all know how vast the internet is. There is no way that we will be able to visit each website to let children know what is and isn't appropriate. Let's teach them the 'values' to protect themselves!
OK...off my rant. When I first began my class blog with my students I required each of them to watch the following video that I created. It went through the key points that I believe children should know when blogging. I even posted this as my first blog entry and asked my students what other rules we should follow.
Another great website that I had my students play with is Internet Safety with Professor Garfield. This is an interactive ‘choose your own fate’ site that allows students to act out several situations that they might encounter online. There are lessons on online safety and cyberbullying. It is very kid-friendly and presents the information in a easy to understand way.
Also, I really enjoyed the attachments that were in this module. I liked them so much that I sent shared several with the parents of my students, such as the Netiquitte Family Plan. I really hope that they take the time to create a family discussion on this topic.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Video Production
I found this assignment to be very informative. I really enjoyed getting to learn all of the different types of shots and movements. I never realized how technical it really is! Now that I have completed my video I find myself trying to recognize the camera shots in TV shows and commercials.
The actual filming was interesting to say the least. In my first attempt, I used my 1 year old niece as an actor. Numerous retakes later, I decided it might be a little easier to use someone that didn't run out of shot or stick their face into the camera. Ironically that person was easily my dog. Dog treats work wonders for sitting still.
The only real problem that I ran into was uploading the video files from my camera to Windows Movie Maker. I recently bought a new digital camera at Christmas and knew it would be perfect for this because it records videos in HD with sound. For some reason, the sound did not transfer with the video. When I play it back on my camera you can hear everything. My quick fix was to add narration in Windows Movie Maker and a background music from Soundzabound.
Looking forward to the next video, I will need to investigate my camera and how to fix the sound issue before I begin. I look forward to the video because I know it will be a blast to create.
The actual filming was interesting to say the least. In my first attempt, I used my 1 year old niece as an actor. Numerous retakes later, I decided it might be a little easier to use someone that didn't run out of shot or stick their face into the camera. Ironically that person was easily my dog. Dog treats work wonders for sitting still.
The only real problem that I ran into was uploading the video files from my camera to Windows Movie Maker. I recently bought a new digital camera at Christmas and knew it would be perfect for this because it records videos in HD with sound. For some reason, the sound did not transfer with the video. When I play it back on my camera you can hear everything. My quick fix was to add narration in Windows Movie Maker and a background music from Soundzabound.
Looking forward to the next video, I will need to investigate my camera and how to fix the sound issue before I begin. I look forward to the video because I know it will be a blast to create.
Wallwisher
Ever have one of those weeks where you keep randomly running into the same person? That has been my week with Wallwisher! I first heard about it through a tweet and thought it looked interesting. Then Dr. Smolka mentioned it in our meeting on Saturday. Now, I received a tweet with interesting ways to use wallwisher in the classroom. Anyway, I found this very helpful and wanted to share.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Geotech 2010
One of my favorite new technologies that I learned in my day at the Geotech conference was how to geotag pictures. I was very curious how it would work since it seemed to be something that I could use in both my personal life and in teaching in the classroom. I learned about several different websites that allow geotagging.
Flickr- This site was my favorite because it was very visual and easy to maneuver. It's motto is "Share your photos. Watch the world." As I am writing this post Flickr has reported '
4,390 uploads in the last minute, 558,832 things tagged with urban, 2.4 million things geotagged this month'.
Panaramio- Once I began reviewing this site I found a really neat contest that they are having involving geotagging. Check it out!!!!
Everytrail- This site also has a free iPhone app that you can download to your phone and begin geotagging by using the GPS and camera feature in your phone. I tried it out on my way home from the conference and it literally tracks your every turn and allows you to geotag pictures instantly.
A few other random things that I learned that day:
Flickr- This site was my favorite because it was very visual and easy to maneuver. It's motto is "Share your photos. Watch the world." As I am writing this post Flickr has reported '
Panaramio- Once I began reviewing this site I found a really neat contest that they are having involving geotagging. Check it out!!!!
Everytrail- This site also has a free iPhone app that you can download to your phone and begin geotagging by using the GPS and camera feature in your phone. I tried it out on my way home from the conference and it literally tracks your every turn and allows you to geotag pictures instantly.
A few other random things that I learned that day:
- do not always rely on your iphone to give perfect directions or you might end up a Lew Sterrett :(
- pressing 'ctrl' and 't' opens a new tab on your browser
- I am very uneducated about the geo-world! Who knew there was SO much information available!!!!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Teacher Tube Laughs
I have scanned through Teacher Tube on several previous occasions and each time I am amazed at the wonderful and dedicated educators that exist in the world. As I watch the different videos related to my content, I always seem to come across some crazy, zany teacher who has dressed up to teach a lesson or skill that leaves me laughing hysterically. Please don't think that I am laughing at them, but more so with them. It makes me think of my crazier moments in the classroom and the true passion that teachers really have for their students and their jobs. So, crazy, zany teachers on Teacher Tube...I applaud you and your efforts to educate the world. With this being said, I have to share the videos that I enjoyed watching tonight. In honor of the big, bad 4th grade writing TAKS test tomorrow, I have found some great teachers who created videos to motivate their students to do their best on the test.
I also LOVE watching student made videos. Here is another motivational TAKS video that some middle school students create don their own. I know that my third graders would think it was very cool. (No laughs on this one)
I also LOVE watching student made videos. Here is another motivational TAKS video that some middle school students create don their own. I know that my third graders would think it was very cool. (No laughs on this one)
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