Thoughts on Technology of the week and Imovie project so far

So far I am every pleased with the Technology of the week topics.  Getting to know all of these different tools which can me used in the classroom is really neat.  The examples that each presenter has posted on the website seem to demonstrate the technology very well.  Not only that but also the ability that that certain technology has to cover all content areas. 

            Also it is very cool to learn how all of these different technologies work.  For example I have always wondered about java flash animations and applets and how they work.  Now I know thanks to tech of the week!!

            Another thing that I am very excited about is the Imovie project.  It seems to be a very cool idea and one that can be used for all subjects.  Being a math major the obvious uses for math are not necessarily teaching math, but teaching the history of math and key concepts such as applications to everyday life. 

            With such a simple program to use and create lessons I wonder why I have never been introduced to this technology before.  It seems very advantages in all aspects of teaching.  

Photo Story Project

I am really excited about the photo story project! I have so many ideas of what I want to do, the only thing I am struggling with is how to get all the information in that I want to, in around 3 minutes. The other thing I am worried about is using the moviemaker software. I hahve never used it before so it'll be a learning experience. Luckily I do have an idea of what I want to do so I am really happy about that! It will be cool to see and hear everyones stories!

Photo Story

I too am excited for this Photo Story project. The samples we viewed in class made by past students turned out very well in my opinion and will be a great teaching tool in the future. The Photo Story program seems like a great way to either introduce a new topic or provide a quick summery at the end of a unit.

For my project I was assigned Social Studies at the elementary level. I am planning on outlining my presentation as a virtual field trip to see different geographic regions of the United States. It is starting to come together well and I am excited for the finished product. I am a little concerned about the amount of time that we have to complete this project, especially since I do not have this program on my laptop to be able to really work on it outside of class. I also can't wait to see the projects of my classmates. Good luck and have fun everyone!

Project 2

After being introduced to Photo Story, I am very excited about how our projects will turn out. As we viewed and listened to sample projects, I could already tell that this is another project that will come in handy in the future when we become educators. I can picture myself using photo stories to add variety in the classroom and to introduce topics in a fun and interesting manner.

I am a little concerned about my own project, however, because I haven't thought of any great ideas yet. I have a general idea of what I want to do, but I am having trouble being creative with it. My content area is elementary math, and I am thinking about doing something related to comparing whole numbers (greater than, less than, equal to) and comparing the number of objects in different groups. Hopefully it will come together for me soon!

I do believe, however, that this project will be very beneficial to us in the future, and I can't wait to see how they turn out!

Project 2 Thoughts

This past Tuesday in class, we finished putting together our contributions to our wiki site. It was good to see everyone had collaborated and put some useful information on the site. This is definitely a good resource to use if we ever need help with Smart Board in the future. We also were introduced to Photo Stories. As a class we used our headphones (these make me feel like I am a pilot, by the way) and listened to some stories done by local high schoolers. These were interesting to listen to because they discussed local histories of the surrounding areas in Bloomington, Normal, and Eureka. I enjoyed the ones about local theater and woman's athletics. We also got assigned subjects to compose our own photo story. The topic I am doing is related to physical education and the state of the body for elementary students. Personally, I find the body more interesting so I am gearing my story towards hygiene, drug use, and healthy eating. So far, those are the broad ideas. I also downloaded songs from Yo Gabba Gabba and The Wiggles on iTunes that pertain to these topics...AWESOME! I am interested in starting this project because I have never worked with the program before and am excited to see the final result. Happy blogging everyone!

Technologies of the Week

I have really enjoyed the technology of the week presentations we have had in class so far. The google earth presentation was cool because I never knew how many programs there were that went along with the initial program. The different programs will be very useful in a history or geography class since you can show different progressions, and 20 years from now when they have 20 years of pictures it will be good to show the students how much areas have changes in the past 20 years and it will give some prespective on how much the world has changed in the thousands of years of human history. I also have found a lot of help from the podcast presentation. Podcasts are also very useful for history, since many news sources are producing podcasts now and these will be good to use for current event issues, and it will also be good to show students how people were assessing history as it is being made now compared to how things end up in the future. I have even used the search engines provided with this presentation to help my smart board project. The Flickr presentation was also useful to me since I never realized how much you could actually use Flickr for educational purposes rather than just entertainment.

Podcasts, flickr...technology!

I did not know much about podcasts before having to research them for my presentation. I knew they were broadcasts you could download and listen to, but that was about it. While researching for my project I realized they were actually much more than that. Podcasts can really be utilized to be extremely important in the classroom. If your class has its own podcast, it is a great way to keep everyone on the same page and creates much less work for the you (the teacher) in being able to keep absent students up to date and struggling students more repetition. I know I mentioned it in my presentation, but I think it would really help take some stress off the teacher. Finding podcasts is fairly easy and therefore makes them accessible to everyday lessons. I had no idea podcasts could also come in video format, which is great for foreign language. Not only can the students hear about new stuff, but they can watch it as well. I know I found a great podcast on a specific vocabulary unit and showed images of the vocabulary words as it was said out loud. Also, the one posted on the website with Tulum is a great representation of the cultural possibilities. I never had much culture incorporated into my Spanish learning, and I think that in school today culture has a much bigger emphasis. Therefore, it is important in not only telling students about these cultural places and events but also being able to show them.

Flickr was also very interesting to me. I had never even heard of it before, but I think it can also be a great tool to use in the classroom. I can definitely see myself using it in the foreign language classroom.

I'm excited to learn about all of the future technologies of the week, because just with the past 3 I have learned so much and I feel like I am really expanding the possibilities of my teaching. I am really excited about that, because I love feeling like I can use all of the technologies to put in lesson plans that I know my students will react well too. I'm ready to use the technologies...now all I need is a class!