Writing Process Audio

Ok, so this task was a bit confusing, but I did end up figuring it out! YIPEE :) I know my audio is less than 5 seconds, but it's there! I also know that there is a voice in there other than mine, which was added because of the conversion program that I used.

When I recorded my voice on my computer it was a WAV file so I had to convert it to an mp3 file, which meant that I needed to download a program. The program I downloaded was free and claimed that this ad voice was going to be added to the beginning of my audio??...Maybe I did this the hard way, but I'm just happy I actually did it...and If you're laughing at me, It's ok because I'm laughing at myself!! :)

I am definitely going to play around with this a bit and learn some more about it because it is quite helpful. In college classrooms the teacher could post an entire lecture using slideshare and audio, which is neat. I wouldn't advise doing this all of the time, but it could be ok to use once in a while. Maybe instead of an entire lecture you could post a study session before a test so the students could access it for help in studying. Once you become familiar with adding audio I am sure it is very easy to work with and I know there are effects and things that can also be done..that's a bit advanced for me just yet!

Writingprocess

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Writingprocess

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URL: http://show.zoho.com/public/bucklerd/writingprocess_ppt

One of the basic essentials for working through your writing journey is to understand the writing process...this process will allow you to make sense of all of your ideas and lay them out in an orderly, effective fashion. Each step is essential in publishing your best work possible and it is important to realize that you can ALWAYS make a paper better...so really the process is never ending! My slides are very simple, yet jam packed. There is not a whole lot on each side, but there is a lot to say about each one, which in essence means that there is a lot to take away from each. As the BBP approach states, we can most definitely steer away from the traditional bullet point layout with a consistent background throughout and the 6 by 6 rule...(six words per line, with no more than 6 lines per slide) while keeping in mind the importance of the audience's ability to make sense of it all! (beginning, middle and end is always nice in helping to accomplish this!) Another thing I did while constructing this slide show was to import images that explained the headline, which clearly states the main idea for the particular slide...in other words, I could understand the topic presented just as easily if all words were deleted, leaving just the pictures...This may be more difficult for different topics, but certainly doable and quite effective as well because I am sure we can all agree that plain, wordy paragraph slides are a bit overwhelming, stressful and confusing. This slide show could really be used for any age group, but due to the simplicity I would use it for elementary aged students...it could easily be modified to fit older students and or adults as well!

Network Games

Just a little something that I want to put in everyone's brain...

Today I heard that over $5billion dollars is estimated to be generated in one year from social networking games such as FARMVILLE for Facebook. You can actually give real money to these applications to better your farm, or whatever it may be...

Google Docs

After exploring Google Docs I can say so long to e-mail attachments! I am so excited that we were given the opportunity to explore this application because I don't know that I would have discovered it on my own! There have been so many times throughout my educational career that I have e-mailed an attachment to myself so that I could pick up where I left off on another computer. There have also been times that I have transferred that same document or a presentation to a USB drive so that I could carry it with me wherever I went. Just the other day I sent a portion of a project to a group member and she text messaged me saying she couldn't view the document because of the format...due to the fact that I typed this document on a library computer, and was no longer at the library, I was unable to resend it in a format that was suitable for her computer...thankfully, I sent the document to my e-mail, but my friend's computer would only open my document as "read only." After bouncing around from computer to computer I was quite stressed out and all of this could have been avoided with Google Docs.
Google Docs makes sharing a document so much easier and clearly erases any confusions about updates and versions!! Another benefit is that Google Docs is available from ANY computer ANYwhere in the world at ANY time! How convenient! Google Docs is Internet based, which saves resources and time as well. One drawback that I faced while becoming familiar with Google Docs was saving a document as a PDF...this was a bit stressful because my formatting got a bit messy, which forced me to go through by hand and fix it.
Google Docs can absolutely be incorporated into a classroom and I would highly recommend it. I like the idea of using Google Docs when editing papers...collaborators can edit and save the document online and when one editor makes changes/suggestions they are saved for the other editors to see...your past versions of the document are also saved so you can see your progress and include this in a end of the year portfolio, for example.

Exploring Google Earth

After taking a deeper look into Google Earth I can definitely say that there are several purposes that one could have for teaching with this application. There are also many different content areas that could be focused on, and enhanced, with the use of this program. I thought Google Earth would be especially useful in Science and History...If you are teaching about astronauts and their trips to the moon there are tours that show landing sites, 3D models of landed space craft, 360 degree photos and rare TV showing footage of actual Apollo missions. If you are focusing on global advancements and how things such as buildings, clothes, food, etc have changed throughout time you can check out older imagery of the earth to see just how it looked in the past and be able to compare and contrast this view with today's. Back to a science concept...there is a time slider that allows you to watch the sunrise and sunset from anywhere...this may help with the concept of time, seasons, etc...If you are studying the continents you can access Google Earth for a better idea of the location and surrounding areas of each...also which states lie where and what bodies of water surround them.. (if you scroll the mouse on any location the latitude and longitude are revealed..so is elevation!) I am sure you all get my drift here...this application can change the manner in which subject matter is taught! By allowing students to navigate through and play with Google Earth the nature of their learning about different concepts is changing! It is a great interactive tool that enhances knowledge! It is important that as a teacher I am aware of the many ways in which students acquire knowledge and I truly think that for those who are hands on learners, this application is PERFECT! Even for those who aren't there is plenty for them too!
Other neat features of Google Earth include, finding your house, flying under the surface of oceans and exploring underwater terrain!(useful in an oceanography lesson perhaps), marking locations(which can be shared with others) using place marks, flying into and navigating high resolution photos...There is also something known as Google Earth Outreach which I thought was really cool! It helps organizations promote public awareness about different issues happening around the world...oh, you can also record and customize your own tours that you can share with others...this could be an interesting assignment for students...Everyone should download Google Earth..It is free, takes only a couple of minutes and could be beneficial to you for the rest of your life! :)

New Cellphone Available in Japan

Something I learned this week, which I thought was unreal is that Sharp showed a cell phone that gets its power from the closest star...every 10 minutes spent in the sun charges the phone for one minute of talk time...the phone has been available in Japan since last month...What does this mean for the future? Can you imagine what the world will be like in terms of technological advancements in 5, 10, 15,....100 years??!! Just think of how many advancement our parents have seen in their lifetime, our grandparents, great grandparents, etc...and look at how many even we have seen in ours! It is crazy to think of how advanced we have become and how much quicker these advancements are appearing now!

OMG I'm LMAO, BRB!!

Today in my field placement for TE401 a 2nd grader caught my attention in a way that I wasn't expecting! The class was outside for recess for about 2 minutes before it started to rain, which ended recess early...when the students heard the whistle they all came running for the line, but one kid didn't only do that...he frantically ran up to me and said, "O.M.G! are we really lining up already??!!" I couldn't help but laugh, but it also got me to thinking...
First, I thought back to my childhood...I remember playing with dolls, getting excited about hide and go seek, playing outside, etc...(kid things!), but today there is a new breed of "kids toys"...laptops and cellphones (which have benefits dont get me wrong), but what about downfalls? There is so much talk about parents begining, if they havent already, to learn text lingo so they know what their children are saying during text messaging and chatroom conversations because it seems that these children are learning adult language when playing with "adult toys." Kids are really taking their creativity to the internet by inventing some pretty clever ways of avoiding derogitory terms, but still getting across the message!
Second, I began wondering if this lingo was effecting their academics in any way...There are many students that are in upper elementary classrooms, even high school classrooms, lacking the ability to spell... do you think that being exposed to text lingo is introducing them to an incorrect way that will want to stick?? (similar to misconceptions, which are difficult to correct?)
Or do you think that text messaging has advantages? I can think of one way in which text may actually help with academics (specifically spelling). On some phones a mispelled word shows as a red link that brings up correctly spelt words...also, there is T9 on some phones which recognizes the words you are typing and finishes them for you...this could actually be a great way for people to learn about their mispellings and fix them or begin to recognize them! YAY or NAY? Also, when thinking about academics...do you really think children would write an essay in text lingo if they knew the penalties of doing this? Or do you think the problem is that they are so accustomed to using TXT lingo that they don't realize they're doing it? A student doing it in the classroom may just be corrected or marked down, but think about someone accidentally doing it on a job application!!??
This is a ontroversial topic and I am eager to see how it is addressed in the future, but I am also interested in your thoughts!
While on the topic, one thing I will agree with is... PLEASE

My Slideshow

My Flickr Account

Photo Attribution:

Original Image: "Smartest Person in the Room"
Image URL: http://static.flickr.com/2609/3867578091_40c0f0ded6_m.jpg
By: Peter Shanks

Released under an Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike License
License URL:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/


WHY I CHOSE THIS PHOTO:
I really enjoy seeing posters in classrooms that send a positive message to the students, which I think this particular image does a great job of! It may clear any misconceptions that students may have coming in and place everyone on an equal playing field, which is extremely important in order to have an effective community of learners! Incorporating images and other decorations into your classroom is important for many reasons, one being that it sets up an environment in which students can relate to and feel safe and secure in, and should be carefully thought out in order to accommodate everyone! One great way to incorporate images is to consider symbolic identification...What does the classroom tell others about the student's interests, activities, backgrounds, accomplishments, etc...and what does the classroom tell others about the teacher's interests, goals, values and beliefs about education??!

It's a Tweet, Tweet World...

It has been a few weeks now since I've become a part of the Twitter phenomena and I can still say that I'm not very fond of it...I suppose I haven't given it a valiant effort, but I don't have an interest in doing so...maybe my views will change in time, but for now they are frozen at this state...some may say that Twitter is beneficial because it is lightweight (limiting you to 140 characters) compared to blogging in which such a quick statement wouldn't be worth the effort...but the problem is that it seems too often people are posting mindless comments about their day... I suppose one could argue that friends and family do care about these "mindless" statements (especially if a parent/child is out of town and can't ask how their day went or what they are going to be doing...)
I think a huge part of my problem is that all of these social networks are getting to be too much...it is like reality television...a new show will come out, but it is so much like one that is already airing and after a while they get to be obnoxious! You can use Facebook to post a short status update, so why have Twitter? You can use Twitter to access links to websites, but you can do this on Facebook as well...Facebook allows you to stay in touch with friends, family members and coworkers through chat, pictures, videos, groups, etc...so why is Twitter necessary? This is just one example... I guess my question is, "WHAT THE HECK WILL BE NEXT?...will it be something a bit more unique than what we already have?"
When I think about how Twitter could be implemented into a classroom, ideas do come to mind but I don't think these ideas are anything to brag about...Twitter could be used as a homework help space or a class poll space (like we often use it for CEP)...it could also be used as a way for students to follow statements made by public figures in regards to current events....parents could use it as a message board too, but then I feel as though too much time is being taken away from face to face interaction...we already have text messaging, which can be frustrating even when you are face to face with someone because your conversation becomes interrupted...I think it is important to utilize technology, but to a certain extent. One downfall to Twitter in the classroom is that it encourages abbreviations (much like text messaging, which is bad enough) which lead to poor spelling and grammar...Kids are trying to say something, but they are limited to the amount of words they can use so they are becoming more and more familiar with, or inventing, text lingo which shows when they go to sit down and write a paper...
"That's all I've got to say about that!" Forest Gump

Future Technology 2009...Did You KNOW??

This video REALLY gets you thinking and is completely appropriate to share with this course! I saw it in one of my TE courses, but think that for those of you who have not seen this now is the perfect time! Post your comments :) I thought that this was almost too much to even process...scary, but extremely interesting!!

A Class Divided

One of my classmates told be about an interesting video to check out on YouTube, and that it was! In this video a teacher tries to help her students understand race relations and the strict divide between races. In doing this, she splits her classroom into brown eyes and blue eyes...the brown eyes were inferior and blue superior (similar to blacks and whites before civil war --in the south black slaves were property and in the north whites opposed slavery, but believed blacks should be put in a lower class and kept separate from whites). While watching this video I think about what an impact a lesson like this could have on children learning about this...it is one thing to read about things like Jim Crow laws provided for disenfranchisement, "whites only" signs, segregation in hospitals, separate schools for blacks and whites, but it is a whole different experience to actually live through it day after day...This seems great when you think about the importance of giving students several experiences to better understand the many explanations (laws and patterns to memorize) they are handed (with experiences children have a lesser chance of being left with isolated facts that seem to account for nothing in particular), but would this be allowed in schools today? Do you think lessons to this extreme should be allowed in schools today and in the future? Could lessons like this lead to misconception amongst the students? In the video the teacher is giving rationale for why the blue eye students get more privileges...she says things like, they are smarter...could this stick in a child's mind as being true? I found the video to be quite interesting, but I would like to see what everyone else thinks...