Week #8

If you have ever been the lucky receiver of a malicious virus or spyware, then you know how frustrating these nasty little things can be. Most people think it will never happen to me, or someone can’t hack into my banking information and email. I just recently had the unfortunate problem of having an 18 year old hack into my email and start up a porn account with my address. I was able to recover my account, but now have the daily privilege of receiving dirty pictures and emails from individuals looking for a good time. I know this doesn’t seem that bad, but I am married woman with a toddler and this I had to explain to my husband…not a fun conversation. 

Security for your personal computer and education is a definite must. There are way too many people out there who just want to mess up people’s lives and bank accounts for fun or to steal their identity and make their live a complete nightmare. I am not teaching at this time and unfortunately have never thought to ask about the security system for computers at the school that I observe at since I don’t touch any of their computers.  I currently have Norton running on my home computers including my cell phone and kindle. I don’t take any chances. My husband is an IT in the US Navy so he has set up our system quite well. All of our Wi-Fi has passwords so nobody can get into our system. The hubby taught me that all passwords to anything you have need to be long and complicated and shouldn’t contain anything with your name, birthdate, family, children etc. It should be a combination of letters, numbers, characters, and upper/lower case if applicable. You never give personal information over email or on your social media page. You lock your doors at night to protect your house from intruders, it is the same thing but this time you are locking up your identity from thieves. 

When I start my student teaching, hopefully this fall, I will definitely ask about computer security since I will be using my personal laptop computer to handle the classroom. Not only should teachers be educated in this matter but students as well. Students use computers at school as well as home and may not necessarily know what to look for when they are surfing the web for new music or attachments from emails. All it takes is one click of a mouse and boom you have a nasty virus that wipes your hard drive clean and crashes the computer. When it comes to educational technology, students should be educated in how to use the technology prospering as well and informed of security risks.

Week 7

If you type in the word Web 2.0 tools into any search engine, you will be amazed at how many you come across. Trust me, choosing just one is a lot harder than you would imagine since there are so many to choose from. I am not currently teaching a class at the time, but I have been observing with a Science teacher at the local high school. This school is a rural school so resources are very limited at best with little technology usage unless it is by the teacher herself. The library is antiquated and ill furnished. There are looking to build another school soon, but of course that comes down to levies and if they pass around here. She uses PowerPoint to present her lectures, videos from reliable resources to engage her students, and the computers in the library if students need help with a report or research. Other than the items mentioned the usage of Web 2.0 tools is very limited at best. Between the information gained from this course and observation from the high school, I chose Educational Wikis.  

Wikis for me are a new thing to use. I was taught in college to not trust anything from Wikipedia and we were even warned if we used any of the information for our research we would automatically fail the paper and the class. At first I was skeptical to even look at them since I had been trained to stay away, but to my surprise I found them incredibly beneficial for my future students. When it comes to standards, I want to use the standards from Washington State and the NETs for teachers. NETS for Teachers are the standards for evaluating the skills and knowledge educators need to teach, work, and learn in an every changing digital age. As teachers, we need to be able to keep up with these through regular training and staying up on the times. Facilitating and inspiring student learning and creativity, design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments, model digital age work and learning, promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility, and engage in professional growth and leadership are all very important standards that today’s students need to meet to be successful in school and for life after school.

I want to develop a wiki where students can go for further learning. Here they can post to class discussions, find a calendar of assignments and due dates, as well as collaborate with other students from my other classes for research and projects. When I was researching Wikis I found a teachers site where he actually post questions for parents to ask their children at dinner and students the next day after an open discussion in class over the questions. You can even use this to involve the parents as well. This is an environment where students and parents can be involved in the class more with open communication. Parents can look at what the students are learning. I wish I could show this to students for the course of the year, but I just did a run through with the local students that I observe and they liked the idea! They thought it would be a great way to keep up with assignments and be able to post questions.  

I plan on teaching high school biology which can be challenging to present to students. This biggest challenge will be the ability to keep them motivated. I also plan on teaching at a rural school, where the budget may be very small for hands on classroom resources. Any time you implement technology into the classroom, you run into challenges from operation error to mechanical issues that nobody can control as well as monetary issues. I plan on using my knowledge I have gained from this university as well as the advice from veteran teachers to be able to overcome these challenges and be able to have a successful classroom. Working through my degree is a work in progress.

We finished up this week with our last technology explorations, Delicious.com, HistoryPin, Diigo, two math calculators, Math Wiki, and PicLit.

Resources

From that I could see, Delicious.com seems to be a more controlled version of Facebook. Here you can post/save your likes and interests from the web such as pictures, videos, blogs, or music. Here you can network with others who share the same interest you have as well.

I have to admit I have an addiction to Pinterest. I have been able to find good recipes for my family, DIY projects for my house, and cute crafts that are inexpensive. HistoryPin is along this line. Here you can pin pieces of history so people can see it, add to it, learn from it, and become worldlier. It is a way for people from all over the world with different cultures and backgrounds to help people see things from the past and build upon our knowledge of history. This is a great resource for schools and universities! This was created by a non-profit and based in London. According to the website, “It is currently made up of photographic images, videos, audio clips and descriptive and narrative text”. There are currently working to upload diaries, letters, and records at a later time. If you have ever used this Pinterest, then this will  be easy for you to use. Like many sites, this has a mobile application you can use as well.

Diigo, which is an abbreviation for Digest of Internet Information, Groups, and Other Stuff, I find really useful since I spend quite a bit of time researching a host of different things and sometimes I forget to bookmark a  page and then I can’t remember where I found an article that I really liked. I know we have all done this at least once. With the use of their downloaded browser, instead of just bookmarking the page, you can highlight portions of webpages, attach sticky notes, and when you return back to the webpage, their items you highlighted will still be there. Then you can take what you find and highlighted and share with other people. Diigo is a social information network, beneficial in the fact of collecting, organizing, and discovering information.

The other two resources are talking calculators. One of them is from PBSkids and the other is a softpedia talking calculator that can be downloaded directly from the website. The PBS is for the smaller children and adds numbers up to a trillion. The Softpedia calculator is another talking calculator that can be used in different languages, takes care of basic math functions, and the ability to save the work you do.

In the Classroom

I am not currently a teacher, but these could be useful in the classroom. You could use Delicious.com as a get to know me about your students project, where they can post classroom friendly interests they have.  You could also use this as a place to students to network with others in response to research or a project. 

HistoryPin would be a very beneficial site for the students. Here students can search and upload their family history as well as research for photos or videos they can use for their projects making sure they properly site the information. This would be a fun site to just sit and browse through for rare photos and videos.

Diigo would be another beneficial resource for students. This would be a great resource to research for group projects as well as extended learning with independent projects or supplement their textbook with information with all this information available to be shared with others on the website.

The talking calculators would be useful for students who have visual impairments. With the talking calculator, they can hear when numbers and operations are conducted. This would also be good for really any grade to use in the classroom.

Recommendations

I don’t think I would recommend Delicious.com to educators since it is not moderated for content. I am not sure this site wouldn’t be blocked by the school. It is free to use and if you have ever used Facebook, you will be just fine.

HistoryPin I would recommend for educators, it is easy to use, free, and if you have ever used Pinterest, you will have no problem playing with this. 

Diigo I would recommend for educators. It can be free for educators unless you need more stuff then it can cost money. The plan offers unlimited number of bookmarks and highlights, with free mobile or IPad application, limited ads and a teacher console. The only upgrade plan is $40 a year and completed unlimited add ons for everything. If you know how to highlight using PDF files and post information, then this should be a piece of cake.

Both calculators are free with the softpedia one able to be downloaded to your computer. There are very easy to use.

Resources

Now this is new and innovative to me! This Math Wiki provides information to use writing in mathematics. Math is definitely one of my weaker subjects. I struggled through grade school and through college trying to understand simple concepts with no such luck. This site is helping teachers integrate writing into mathematics to help with literacy skills. It emphasizes the five types of writing that should be included, three ways of how teachers can assess how the students are doing, implementing with use of framework, and how to devise new plans for future classrooms.

PicLit is another fun resource site. It is a creative writing site where you match images with selected words in order to inspire and motivate. You just drag and drop words to create an interesting image that tells a story or you can even freestyle. Then you can take your images and save, share them, or email them to whoever you want.

In the Classroom

I am not currently a teacher, but this could be useful in the classroom. Any time a student can incorporate fun writing into a math class, everybody wins. This could be used in everyday class. Students could construct a poem to remember how to use geometry or give a daily log of how mathematics plays a role in their daily life, such as buying a sandwich at Dairy Queen or buying Groceries at Safeway. 

The PicLit would be a fun project to use to get to know your students. They could construct images of their interests and use as an introduction to get to know your students. This would also be fun to use in a creative writing class, I am not completely sure of how it could be used since it has been over a decade since I took such a class, but it would interesting.

Recommendations

I highly recommend this Math Wiki for educators, it’s free and very easy to use. It helps introduce math teachers and even other content teachers to incorporate fun writing activities in daily lessons.

PicLit would be fun to use in the classroom. It is free and pretty easy to use. Drag and drop or enter words to make an image.  

Week 6

This week we had to create a WebQuest suitable for our students. Since I am not teaching, I turned to the teacher I was observing for help and she gave me some ideas to run with. I actually was able to take some of her ideas and my interest in forensic science to introduce something new and fun to the classroom. Forensic science is a very interesting and important job today to help solve crimes where the science and the body do the talking for the investigators. 

 Here is the link to my WebQuest
http://questgarden.com/154/30/9/130204093258/

I choose to do one over Forensic Anthropology. Students are given a skeleton with information to help them determine the age, sex, and stature of the individual. Not only will it help the students with the identification of the human bones, but also incorporating an important science career so that students are introduced to forensic science and how a human skeleton can tell a story. It can be advanced for more advanced classes such as anatomy, but I kept this very basis for high school biology classes. I have a passion for forensic science and am hoping to one day to be able to teach a course in this in the high school level. Since I had never created a WebQuest before, it took me awhile since I wanted to plan out exactly how I wanted it to be constructed it. I spent a long time browsing through examples on various websites, but found Quest Garden to be the most beneficial since this is where I was going to construct mine. After I started, it got a whole lot easier and when I finished it I actually was relieved it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it was going to be. 

The WebQuest I looked at this week for the discussion and blog was http://questgarden.com/152/15/2/121204132717/. This is to construct a 3D Cell model webquest. Students research organelles, then take what they find and construct a 3D Cell Model. I think this would be very beneficial for my students. Instead of the students staring at a picture, they research the organelles, and then construct a visually stimulating 3D model. I think this is a very good idea! I think the weakest point for me is that this is an indirect instruction. The teacher needs to make sure they have a good base knowledge to start with or assess the students through the WebQuest to make sure the students are understanding what they are suppose to look at and know for the summarization that is to accommodate the model.

Week 5

This week focused on looking at visual literacy. I have to admit at first I wasn’t quite sure what that meant. I knew visual meant relating to seeing or sight and literacy is to read, write, and understand written word, but how do they tie in together. My definition of visual literacy was being able to understand and critically think about what we see in images and video. We know people think and understand differently from each other, but how do they see something in an image that I don’t and vice versus. This boils down to peoples different perceptions on what they see in images. Truth is there are many factors that play into that from our chemical makeup to our environment. No two people will see something the exact same way.

Watching the Martin Scorese Video helped me to understand visual literacy a little bit more. He put it so plainly, basically telling a story with images. He was raised in a family where reading wasn't emphasized, but he had the opportunity to go to the movies. He goes to tell this is how he fell in love with being a director or a story teller. I remember in my gifted and talented class, our teachers would present to use pictures and tell us to make a story from what we see. You would be surprised how 10 different kids would come up with 10 different stories from a picture of an owl on a tree in the night.

This definitely ties into 21st century skills and technological resources, since we are individuals are bombarded daily with images from books, presentations, videos, etc. We present videos to our students and images to help learn content. As teachers we have to make sure these are appropriate for the age and engaging in the classroom. Scorese said it right that our kids are exposed to visual language sooner than verbal and if visual isn't used correctly can leave a lasting effect. We can't protect our students from the real world, but educate them about it as best as possible. As I am not yet teaching, I want to make sure I pay better attention to the videos and images I present and scrutinize them well, before I present them to the classroom. I was want to have a discussion session afterwards to get the students perspective on what they watched and learned.

We looked at four different technology explorations Prezi and SpicyNodes, Edmondo and a math dictionary, Glogster and Jing, and YouTube Education, School Tube, and Teacher Tube.

Prezi and SpicyNodes

You could definitely call Prezi the alternative to the traditional PP. I think PP gets overused quite a bit and becomes boring and unengaging if utilized daily. There is nothing worse than reading tons of words on a slideshow as the presenter reads them word for word for you. Prezi is changing all that. This technology is even used by TED. This allows teachers to present information with interactivity and engage students in active learning. Instead of breaking apart information on numerous slides to make a point, Prezi has a zoom feature that allows you to show the big picture and then zoom in on the details. This is also a useful tool for interactive classroom sessions or group projects. Collaborate with up to 10 others, whether in the classroom or at home, to brainstorm and create your presentation on a shared whiteboard. You can also help the students’ resumes and portfolios. This resource has a lot to offer the classroom. You can create, edit, and present from any computer and if your presentation is already PP, they have a feature where you can upload and convert to Prezi. Of course there is an app available for Apple products and you can share on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

SpicyNodes is a pretty cool name and actually a pretty helpful resource. It uses a tree structure which organizes information in a logical way. It gives individuals the ability to look at large amounts of information and how each piece relates to others. It’s nonlinear and is useful in organizing information that can be presented that makes sense and in a layout. It can also be used in multiple languages. With the education version students can integrate media such as images, YouTube videos, and music, while also providing text and headlines which then can be shared with others. Students can use their creativity to make it their own by learning breadth and depth of knowledge.

I am not currently a teacher, but this is something that is definitely beneficial to all my students. Where do I begin on the usage of Prezi? Instead of making your students watch the same boring unmotivating PP lectures, you can upload them and make them fun and interesting with interactivity. Any classroom and subject could use this. You could also use the Prezi meeting part to have student collaborate on projects, post information for students to read in case there is bad weather that keeps students from attending, and even use it make resumes or portfolios for class.

These SpicyNode maps would be useful in the science classroom to help organize the information from taxonomy groups to weather to physics. Here students could physically see the relationship between ideas instead of knowing they occur. This could also be used to help organize research for a report, showing the big picture and how all the little pictures relate back to it.

I would recommend Prezi for educators to use in the classroom. It seems very easy to use if you have ever constructed a PP presentation. You can get this for free with private presentations, the use of your own logo, and 500 MB of storage of your presentations. You can go Pro Edu which is $59 a year, which allows you the utilization of the Prezi desktop where you can work securely offline, premium support and 2 GB of storage. I have already bookmarked this site for myself to use in my classroom. 

SpicyNodes seems easy to use, if you have every used a brainstorming map before. I would recommend for the education world, but I am not sure if it is something I would use enough to purchase it. Individual memberships are free but the premium service offers an organization package for $24 where the maps are more customizable with the ability to share them with people. For something like a business you would use the enterprise since it is meant for heavy internet traffic which is $149 a month.

Edmonds and Math Dictionary

Edmonds is pretty much the equivalent to how LinkedIn & Google+ work, but it pulls together teachers, students, administrators, parents, and published all to help out the students. The layout is very Facebook like. This allows students to work in a familiar environment. You can make posts, add to your wall feed, communicate with your students, and their parents. Teachers can continue discussions online, check for student understanding, and even reward their achievements. Edmonds brings the classroom to life with the best resources and tools. We can get the feel of how students are learning through the students’ reaction to quizzed, assignments, and discussions. This also allows tracking of students’ progress. You can even personalize with apps to increase motivation in your lesson. This can be used to bring together schools and districts as well for collaboration.

A math dictionary for kids is exactly what it states. The list the alphabet over to the left and you click on the letter you need which displays a list of words in which you click on the word and it shows you the definition. They also added 200 printable math charts with definitions and examples. You can resize and print off any definitions as well. 

I am not currently a teacher, but this is something that is definitely beneficial to all my students. Edmonds really allows for the collaboration outside of the classroom. Students could post to discussion questions posted by me in regards to the content that we studied for the week for more in depth discussion since we know as teachers there is never enough time in the classroom. Here students could work on projects with other students in other classes and be able to use the resources of other teachers and publishers online for questions and advice.

The math dictionary would be useful in the classroom and at home. This could be used alongside your lesson plan so students can have definitions to words they may not understand. This would also be a good resource to complete homework. 

I would recommend Edmonds for educators to use in the classroom. It seems very easy to use if you have played around with Facebook. It seems like signing up is free, but to add applications cost money. The math dictionary would be a good resource for teachers. It is easy to use and free so it’s a win/win for everybody. 

Glogster and Jing

I have to admit in this class, I learn new things everyday like Glogster. At first the name completely through me for a loop. After I got to the site, I realized it a form of a blog, but instead of words you use media. A Glog is an interactive visual stage where students and teachers create a poster or webpage containing text, audio, video, images, graphics, drawings, and data. It uses a drag and drop interface that workable for students of all ages and learning styles. According to their website “Glogster EDU enables public or private schools, districts, states, and education institutions of all kinds, to meet and exceed educational technology and content area standards for creativity and innovation, communication and collaboration, research and information fluency, critical thinking, problem solving and decision making, and digital citizenship”. It helps a teacher with differentiated instruction, promote independent problem solving, and express creative thought and learning. This is a private and safe learning environment. Once these are created they can shared with whomever you think should see it.

Now Jing allows you to capture what you see on your computer as well as record videos and share them with anyone. Basically it will take a screenshot of what you are looking at and save it for later use whether to put it on a blog or upload to Facebook. You can also take a screencast of what you see which is just like a screenshot, but instead of taking a picture you are recording what you see. You can narrate what you see, share it with others, or embed where needed. 

I am not currently a teacher, but this is something that is definitely beneficial to all my students. With Glogster, you could use this to make posters for projects, illustrates to a book report, presentations, help student creativity in the classroom, distance learning, exploration etc. The possibilities are really endless. Not only are you teaching your students how to be creativity, but also to use this as a technological resource while learning about their topic of study. 

When it comes to Jing, you could use this to record online lessons and then shared with your students. You students could record themselves giving a presentation or project and then share it where it is an appropriate. You could use this feature if you wanted to upload certain images and videos for students to watch outside the classroom. 

I would recommend Glogster for educators to use in the classroom. It seems very easy to use if you have ever constructed a PP presentation. You can get this for free but it only offers 10 students and very limited extras. For the educator light which is $30 a year, you get 50 student accounts, but the ability to student manage and use the glogpedia. For the educator premium which is $100 a year, you get 200 student accounts and the ability to project/class manage. They also offer more licenses for schools and districts.

Jing seems very easy to use if you have taken a screenshot or recorded a video. It is a free service so it would be a good tool to play with to see if it will work for your classroom. 

YouTube Education and SchoolTube and TeacherTube

I don’t know anybody who hasn’t heard of YouTube or watched a video someone posted there for fun. Here you have YouTube Education which weeds out all the questionable videos and focuses on lectures, speeches, and anything you can image. Here you can create, learn, and teach your students. There is even a break down for called YouTube for schools where you can access thousands of videos with your school account.

Every time I tried to look at School tube it was down for maintenance, but after the third try I was lucky to have it finally be back online. School Tube is just like the YouTube Education except with this, it is more school related. It’s produced by students and teachers with everything from sports videos to projects and lessons as well as community service projects. This site is directly moderated by teachers so no funny business can show up. Students can create their own videos and share them with teachers and students, while teachers can use this as another technological resource in the classroom since it is approved for access in schools.

Teachertube is along the same lines of YouTube Education. Here you can also upload educational videos for teachers and students to see. The site also allows you to upload documents, audio, and photos and create groups and classrooms for others to join in on the fun. It is a good resource for other teachers, students, and home school learners. You can make constructive comments and even rate the videos so that others will watch them as well.

I am not currently a teacher, but this is something that is definitely beneficial to all my students. How can you not think of a good reason to use YouTube Education? The teacher I current observes uses all the time in her lesson plans to add dimension and interesting information for her classes. Here you could also record your own videos to upload to share such as in giving presentations or preforming experiments.

Teachertube and SchoolTube can both be used the same way as YouTube Education. I have not seen anybody use this before, but it could be incorporated into lessons, projects, and presentations.

I would recommend this for educators to use in the classroom. The YouTube education, SchoolTube, and TeacherTube are easy to use and free. If you have ever uploaded anything to Facebook, this will be nothing to figure out quick.