Teachers and Principals Talk about Google Docs

I'm so excited to learn about Google Doc!! It will come in handy now that I don't need to bring along my zipdrive and I don't have to worry about if a document format will be able to open or not.

Clustr Maps

No child left behind comic - Irony?

<3

Embed a Video- Walt Disney WWII Propaganda Film

<iframe width="960" height="720" src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/l14WDZCnz-w" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

You Tube

I love watching old music videos and YouTube is where I go to search online for videos! I watched some old Madonna and Pink Floyd videos. Reading the comments are usually comical to me and interacting online today is wonderful in being quick and active communication. Sharing ideas and telling memories are fun to read  because good ideas are born every day!

Youtube was not allowed at my school last year and that is for a good reason. Engaging students for 8 hours a day doesn't need to always include online activity. Students are showing today they know the uses of technonogy and how to use specific websites. I can only forsee in my teaching future using youtube for introductory purposes and to engage students in getting exctied about something. Students shouldn't have easy access (at school) to YouTube.

Flicker, continued

I opened up my flicker account and uploaded some photos off my computer. Conveniently, my harddrive was reaching maximum capacity so I deleted some photos off, I uploaded to flicker where the pictures were saved and I know data cannot be lost.  Additionally, I love the feature to print them off and how funny that WALMART is the place snapfish sents their prints (flicker print resource). Facebook is a life saver in that all these different websites required an email but facebook is everywhere and is an option when logging in.  Facebook is   excellent to be able to sync all these "data rich websites" with an email or phone number.

But back to Flicker..

Flicker

I was actually frustrated with attempting to copy a picture from flicker and post on my blog. It couldn't be accomplished due to the copyright issues of the persons flicker site. I explored the commons but was unable to save the picture to my hard drive. Flicker is great in that people can save their photos so they cannot disappear unlike a computer that crashes.  The New Zealand tag pictures were just beautiful!  I guess I will copy the url since that will work but I'm still confused on how to actually save a photo (commons) to my harddrive as a jpg.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cubagallery/4058971405/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cubagallery/4058971405/

Create a poster

RSS continued

RSS can be a difficult concept for some to grasp right away - what questions do you have? It's easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of blogs out there - how do you handle information overload and how do you think RSS might help with that? Find anything in your searching that you'd recommend to others?


My understanding is that RSS stands for Rich Site Summary.

Instead of searching online for my favorite personal or company blog, Google Reader sends them to my account when a new post is added. Blogs can be organized into different files to help the list be easier to navigate. I could even delete subscriptions to blogs when necessary. Since I'm going to use my blog for both personal and professional reasons; being organized is key with the many blogs I've subscribed to. My RSS subscriptions are in two folders. Personal Interests and Teaching.

Many features on google are wonderful in that it can be bookmarked onto different websites. I have my blogger website linked with my google + account. This way I can share and post videos easily on multiple websites to increase the volume of my readers online.

RSS - Subscription

The subscription method that was easiest for me was the copy/paste url. What was awesome to learn about is the Google reader - settings- subscribe as you serf option. This is convenient and easy to set up which will save time in the long run! At the click of a button it can be fed into my Google reader where I could "save" it for later reading.
I will use RSS in both my personal and professional life. Learning can be achieved by searching online while sorting through the riff-raff of possibly tainted material is another challenge. These tips about tools that bring information to us are vital in in today’s tech(ie) age. Learning about RSS can be a cool skill to teach students in technology class. It is a tool they can use outside of school when they are online.

Importance of Blogging

A blog can support my teaching and learning experience in many ways. It is an excellent way to document my learning experience about teaching!

 

I would use a blog with my students in a year long assignment. This would be flexible and self paced. This would be most appropriate for high school students but could be used at the middle school level. They would be able to upload and import photos, class writing assignments and be creative in their blog layout.

Some writing assignments could include: Autobiography, designing a family tree, creative writing, science fiction/horror etc. This would be personal to them and they would need to demonstrate researching skills for some of the assignments. They would need to correctly site photos and quotes they find online. I would observe their individual blogs periodically and grade on content that is posted.

My concerns about educational blogging are the privacy and confidentiality factors. I know stories of people posting on Facebook about certain students and parents finding out. That would be an awkward and uncomfortable situation!! Being discrete and respectful is crucial in the educational blog world!

Cell phones only way to teach?

The YouTube clip was empowering in Thing 1 but didn’t convince me completely that cell phones are the improved way to teach to our students. I feel cell phones are a research tool but that it will soon be replaced with something “Better, Faster, and Easier to Use!”

The importance of teaching the use of higher level thinking skills and applications cannot be understated. With that in mind, I feel technology in some ways has “dumbed” us down to accept the information we gather quickly as factual. Cell phones are a wonderful advantage in our time, but face to face conversations and interactions are more effective in maintaining the unique experience of learning. A person can remember what their computer screen looks like but when communicating face to face with a human, is a dramatically different experience. The  places and people you communicate with and learn from are more personal.  Technonlogy is a double edged sword. Isn’t it funny that we use our senses less on a computer than when talking with someone in person?

 Somehow, we must bridge these two ideas not only for effectiveness and keeping up with the times but for using the abilities we have available the best way possible. To  further strive to enhance educational knowledge through technology.