PLN

I believe that building a personal learning network so far is very overwhelming. It is very hard for me to keep up with everything that I have created accounts with so far. I struggle with using technology, and I don’t fully understand the use of having such a diverse PLN. I don’t enjoy tweeting my thoughts, but I can see how Twitter can be useful. I enjoy creating blog posts though. I also am very proud of my website that I have created. I believe that my website has potential for when I get into the working world and have my own classroom. I think I can potentially turn my website into a classroom website. It can still contain my about me and my experiences with teaching. I would just add tabs where I can post parent news letter, important test dates, and homework assignments.  I think I can maintain my website and continue to add to it and reference to it throughout my career.

Presentation: Compound Words

What I have noticed so far...

Since I started my placement for my TE 401 class I have noticed the use of technology to teach lessons more and more. My CT begins each of her science lessons with an interactive website that she displays on the SMART board. The children love it because they can go up to the board and do whatever activity is being displayed at the time. I also noticed that the class goes to the computer lab a lot to type assignments or interact on websites talked about in class. Take home assignments also involve interacting with technology as well. A lot of times my CT's assignments require her students to visit a website to complete the homework task. I guess text books are no longer needed!

RockYou

I tired to use the site RockYou to create my digital story prior to using Slide. RockYou was very easy to use and I created a great digital story in seconds. I was really happy with what I created until the story disappeared. I saved my slideshow and then I couldn't find it. After this happened I tried to recreate it five more times. Each time I would save it, I couldn't find it. This was very frustrating and I would not recommend RockYou. I believe the site is flawed. I even created an account and couldn't find any of the slideshows I made.

Integrated Technology Lesson Plan

For my first formal lesson plan I think I would like to use "Slide" which I used to create my digital story. Slide is easy to use and I think it is a useful way to display images and text on any subject. I would like to do a lesson for first graders on Nouns. After this lesson and viewing the slideshow students will be able to identify what nouns are. Slide goes well with the content I would like to teach because it will allow me to give students a visual of a person, place, or thing, which is a noun. Some students are unfamiliar with what a noun is and how nouns are important words that can help them make sentences.

Digital Storytelling

I decided to make a digital story about Brazil. My parents moved to Sao Paulo, Brazil several years ago and I have been there often to visit. In my digital story I incorporated pictures of the different places I have been. I included several pictures of Rio de Janeiro and of the beach. Juquehy Praia Beach is my favorite place to go to when I'm in Brazil. My slide show ends with a picture that I took of Sao Paulo, Brazil at nighttime. It is a cool place to visit and there is so much to see! Here is the digital story I created: http://www.slide.com/r/Ncu_yart6T_-23Lq_9aR1xh4rvSJw4QN

Digital storytelling can be a very useful teaching tool. For example, as stated in the reading, "it can help engage students in a project by having them all tell a story of their own." This sort of project can help make learning personal which is important. Digital stories and slideshows help give students a visual of what is being taught to them. It can be a great tool to display images for any subject. It can show images on how to do a math problem step by step or a science experiment. It is a creative way to display any lesson. I used Slide to create my digital story. It was very easy to use and upload my own photos. It allowed me to customize my slidshow by having a variety of styles, themes, and backgrounds to choose from.

SMART Board

About three weeks ago I saw my first SMART board in a 5^th grade classroom and I was fascinated by it. No more chalk no more dry-erase markers. SMART boards have been around for a while now but I have just now been seeing them more and more inside schools. I don’t know where I have been. I guess it’s not the latest technology but it sure is cool. A SMART board is an electronic white board that has so many pros. I was reading in an article and it stated, “If you can use a computer you can use a SMART board.” When looking at a SMART board one would think it is a dry erase board but actually it is a touch sensitive screen that connects to a computer and projector. It contains digital pens that are black, blue, red and green. These pens do not contain ink! They are programmed to make the board functional. A SMART board is interactive and great for demonstrations. It is colorful and allows students to visually see what is being taught to them. A SMART board contains a program called Notebook which is used by most teachers. This program lets teachers type with their keyboard and write with their digital pens on the board. I would for sure use this piece of technology in my classroom. I believe it is a great way to display images, notes, and worksheets. For example, as a class we could work on a math worksheet together. I could open the document that contains the worksheet on my computer then display it on the SMART board. I could then have my students use digital pens to solve the problems step by step. I believe a SMART board would be a beneficial addition to any classroom. It allows educators to incorporate different learning strategies. It a useful way to visually display what is being taught and it is interactive. A SMART board has multiple purposes. Instead of rolling in a television on a cart to show a movie you can just show it on the SMART board. Instead of writing directions on a chalkboard you can clearly display them typed on the SMART board. It is another piece of technology that makes learning and teaching fun. It is a great tool for teachers.

Picnik

One topic I read about last week was web based image editing applications. I took a look at Picnik and Adobe photo-shop express. I love Picnik! I think it is a great application to edit photos, and it is very easy to use. Once the photo of choice is uploaded on the app there are so many things that can be done to it with just the click of a mouse pad. The colors of a photo can be enhanced, changed to black and white, or even sepia. Not only that cool effects can be added to a photo to give it a completely different look. Such as, making a picture look like a pencil sketch, movie screen, poster, or even set back in the 60's. It's a great application and I love editing my photos now. It makes them look so much better, and it is fun!

Flickr Slideshow