With Thanksgiving finally here, the time has come for my online class on instructional technologies to come to a close. Some weeks have been long and exhausting while others have flown right by. I have had exposure to some truly exciting and engaging technologies I hope to implement in my own classroom but also experienced a few mediocre technologies that I probably won't try to implement.
One of the technologies I know I will be implementing is Google Docs...both the Spreadsheet and Form applications hold some very clear benefits to me, as the teacher, and my students. For this reason, I incorporated a Google Spreadsheet into my webquest which allowed students to discover the magic of the Golden Ratio through the webquest and report their findings through the spreadsheet link. I feel students would enjoy this added interactive component to the webquest.
Lastly, this final week allowed me to tie everything together into an electronic portfolio that displayed all technologies that I tinkered with over the semester. I was proud upon completing the portfolio because it was something I developed entirely on my own. Furthermore, it is a great reference tool that I now manage and can share or utilize at any point in the future.
Overall, this was a very beneficial class that provided me with some tangible tools in becoming a better teacher. Now get me into the classroom!...but first, please pass the turkey.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Trick-or-Treat me to some new technology!
The ghosts and ghouls of Halloween came out to try and scare me away from investigating some emerging technology, but they did not prevail. This last week I had the opportunity to explore some up-and-coming technological tools and write up some reviews via my own wiki page that I created. The tools I investigated where Qtopia.com: a platform that offers activities, games, avatars, homework access, and online grading and Visual.ly: a portal for creating and sharing infographics and data visualizations. Both technologies had their purposes. Qtopia was setup to hit the ground running today for a teacher which was great. Lesson plans and activities where easy to search for and download. Visual.ly, on the other hand, has wonderful potential to be a great tool for a teacher, but it needs a little bit of time to develop it's technology so the common teacher can create some visually stunning infographics. To see the thorough write-up go to the following link:
http://squelette.wikispaces.com/Mr.+Quelette%27s+Homepage
Prior to this past week, I was able to assemble an interactive Powerpoint presentation and develop my own movie which I uploaded to Youtube.
Powerpoints I had done in the past but this was no normal Powerpoint presentation. This one required the incorporation of non-linear links, web links, and animations. It was a great way to expand my understanding of the capabilities that hide within the Powerpoint software. I believe Powerpoint will become one of the more popular tools for me to create my instructions. In my recent field experience, my mentor teacher composed every lesson on Powerpoint and uploaded the file to Smart Notebook for use on the Smart Board. I imagine I may take a similar approach if I have access to and wish to leverage the benefits of a Smart Board.
The movie making experience proved to be an interesting one. I'm not going to provide a link to the movie for good reason...I'm not really that proud of it. I quickly discovered from the start that it is not easy to create a respectable movie with an older, slower computer which runs an outdated version of iMovie. In addition, when you lack certain peripherals that aid in the movie making process like webcams, microphones, and external video cameras or do not possess screen capture software, the movie making process becomes a genuine challenge. I pulled something together, but the production quality was poor at best. Movie making can be a great tool to engage your students, especially if you have them create the movies, but again, they would have to have access to the right tools to make it work. In the future, I will only attempt to create a movie if I hold those proper tools and have a guaranteed successful plan in place. Otherwise, I'll simply search the web to find a similar movie created by someone else. Chances are I will find something that fulfills most of my expectations and in the process spare a ton of brain cells and save money on Ibuprofen.
Is it Thanksgiving yet? I need a break...and some turkey.
http://squelette.wikispaces.com/Mr.+Quelette%27s+Homepage
Prior to this past week, I was able to assemble an interactive Powerpoint presentation and develop my own movie which I uploaded to Youtube.
Powerpoints I had done in the past but this was no normal Powerpoint presentation. This one required the incorporation of non-linear links, web links, and animations. It was a great way to expand my understanding of the capabilities that hide within the Powerpoint software. I believe Powerpoint will become one of the more popular tools for me to create my instructions. In my recent field experience, my mentor teacher composed every lesson on Powerpoint and uploaded the file to Smart Notebook for use on the Smart Board. I imagine I may take a similar approach if I have access to and wish to leverage the benefits of a Smart Board.
The movie making experience proved to be an interesting one. I'm not going to provide a link to the movie for good reason...I'm not really that proud of it. I quickly discovered from the start that it is not easy to create a respectable movie with an older, slower computer which runs an outdated version of iMovie. In addition, when you lack certain peripherals that aid in the movie making process like webcams, microphones, and external video cameras or do not possess screen capture software, the movie making process becomes a genuine challenge. I pulled something together, but the production quality was poor at best. Movie making can be a great tool to engage your students, especially if you have them create the movies, but again, they would have to have access to the right tools to make it work. In the future, I will only attempt to create a movie if I hold those proper tools and have a guaranteed successful plan in place. Otherwise, I'll simply search the web to find a similar movie created by someone else. Chances are I will find something that fulfills most of my expectations and in the process spare a ton of brain cells and save money on Ibuprofen.
Is it Thanksgiving yet? I need a break...and some turkey.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Google is the Best Platform Ever Created!
Indian summer has finally arrived... 80 degrees in October just doesn't sound right but I think I speak for everyone when I say "We'll take it!" If only it stayed daylight until 9pm once again.
The last few weeks we have really explored some fun technology to incorporate in a classroom. I am officially in love with Google and their Doc offerings! Having had a personal Gmail account for the past several years, I periodically would catch wind of applications Google was creating. I have experimented in the past with Google Spreadsheets and the sharing option. The wonderful thing about it is the simplicity of the application. Spreadsheets doesn't have quite the functionality or options of MS Excel but it has the base functions to effectively create a working and visually appealing spreadsheet. The best component by far has to be the automatic save feature that I wish Excel had.
I had never built a form to administer a quiz or poll. Even if I had, I wouldn't have thought to leverage Google to manage that form. What a great idea! As I was looking through the tutorials and creating my "quiz", I imagined myself creating polls in my school to collect school-wide opinions on particular matters. After I get settled in a school, I have a vision to start a cycling club with a math component that examines the geometry of a bicycle. Using a Google Form such as the one we used would be a great tool to gauge the interest level of such a club. The summary feature within the forms application is a wonderful add-on. The summary was well formatted and provided a great snapshot of the form's data at a single click of the mouse. The automatic grading script, Flubaroo, was much easier to use than I anticipated and the grading was flawless. This is something I would have never thought to seek out on my own. I'm glad I know about it now. Overall, I can't wait to explore more with Google Docs...and I know the applications will only improve in functionality over time. Very exciting!
The Inspiration software was fun to use too and was beneficial in assembling diagrams although I wasn't crazy about downloading in onto my computer. I like the web-based media at this point where I can save and access everything online. I wonder if Google Drawing can perform the same type of diagramming as Inspiration? ...there's only one way to find out!
Seeing that I officially have one follower, even if it is my girlfriend, I think I need to post this on my Protopage :)
The last few weeks we have really explored some fun technology to incorporate in a classroom. I am officially in love with Google and their Doc offerings! Having had a personal Gmail account for the past several years, I periodically would catch wind of applications Google was creating. I have experimented in the past with Google Spreadsheets and the sharing option. The wonderful thing about it is the simplicity of the application. Spreadsheets doesn't have quite the functionality or options of MS Excel but it has the base functions to effectively create a working and visually appealing spreadsheet. The best component by far has to be the automatic save feature that I wish Excel had.
I had never built a form to administer a quiz or poll. Even if I had, I wouldn't have thought to leverage Google to manage that form. What a great idea! As I was looking through the tutorials and creating my "quiz", I imagined myself creating polls in my school to collect school-wide opinions on particular matters. After I get settled in a school, I have a vision to start a cycling club with a math component that examines the geometry of a bicycle. Using a Google Form such as the one we used would be a great tool to gauge the interest level of such a club. The summary feature within the forms application is a wonderful add-on. The summary was well formatted and provided a great snapshot of the form's data at a single click of the mouse. The automatic grading script, Flubaroo, was much easier to use than I anticipated and the grading was flawless. This is something I would have never thought to seek out on my own. I'm glad I know about it now. Overall, I can't wait to explore more with Google Docs...and I know the applications will only improve in functionality over time. Very exciting!
The Inspiration software was fun to use too and was beneficial in assembling diagrams although I wasn't crazy about downloading in onto my computer. I like the web-based media at this point where I can save and access everything online. I wonder if Google Drawing can perform the same type of diagramming as Inspiration? ...there's only one way to find out!
Seeing that I officially have one follower, even if it is my girlfriend, I think I need to post this on my Protopage :)
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Feeling the September Chill
It's the middle of September and things seem to really be in full swing centered around the school year. Coaching high school soccer has its daily time-consuming demands (but I love it!), Ashland courses have their weekly demands, a Math class at Ohio Dominican requires my attention from time to time, and occasionally I get to substitute teach when a teacher in the 12 districts I'm enrolled in decides to play hookie.
Oh...and let's not forget about football fever on the weekends...although I'm currently too busy to really care about football. I'd rather be out cycling. In fact, the middle of a home OSU game is the best time to be out on the road...the streets are free and clear of everything scarlet, grey, and intoxicated. Strongly recommended!
As luck would have it, I'm currently working on fulfilling one of my Ashland obligations...the weekly "Get it Done by Midnight" routine that I seem to entertain every Thursday night. I don't mind this week's duties one bit...starting my own blog is something I have always thought about but never had the impetus to really start. Maybe that's because I feel an audience is necessary to maintain a blog...otherwise, it's just a journal...which is another thing I've thought about doing but haven't followed through with. It's kind of fun sharing all the random thoughts that circulate in my head with ALL of you...even if "ALL of you" amounts to just my teacher.
It's been great working with a different technology tool each week for this class. As I have discovered already, there are going to be some tools that I feel have some great features, capture my imagination, are engaging, and appear to be wonderful educational tools that I hope to utilize in my classroom...while other tools just aren't going to be for me...and what I realize is that is perfectly fine. There are so many technological resources out there to incorporate into a teaching curriculum...it's not possible to use every medium and some simply aren't tailored to particular content areas.
I will eventually be spending my days in high school math classrooms. The web portal Protopage concept is wonderful for high school students to access information pertaining to their math class, view embedded videos, be provided with numerous links to further their understanding in a particular area, and provide them with lessons to complete online. The concept of dividing the content up into various tabs is a great organizational feature. I definitely plan on using this tool to create a class webpage. On the other hand, I did not have as much praise for the Glogster application. I can see its benefit, especially in lower grade levels where facts are the focus, but in upper level grades where concepts and processes are the focus, this tool falls a little short. Protopage, in my opinion, is multiple Glogster posters compiled into one central depository, exhausting half the effort.
And now I have a blog.
If I get more than one follower, I might just have to provide a link to this on my Protopage!
Oh...and let's not forget about football fever on the weekends...although I'm currently too busy to really care about football. I'd rather be out cycling. In fact, the middle of a home OSU game is the best time to be out on the road...the streets are free and clear of everything scarlet, grey, and intoxicated. Strongly recommended!
As luck would have it, I'm currently working on fulfilling one of my Ashland obligations...the weekly "Get it Done by Midnight" routine that I seem to entertain every Thursday night. I don't mind this week's duties one bit...starting my own blog is something I have always thought about but never had the impetus to really start. Maybe that's because I feel an audience is necessary to maintain a blog...otherwise, it's just a journal...which is another thing I've thought about doing but haven't followed through with. It's kind of fun sharing all the random thoughts that circulate in my head with ALL of you...even if "ALL of you" amounts to just my teacher.
It's been great working with a different technology tool each week for this class. As I have discovered already, there are going to be some tools that I feel have some great features, capture my imagination, are engaging, and appear to be wonderful educational tools that I hope to utilize in my classroom...while other tools just aren't going to be for me...and what I realize is that is perfectly fine. There are so many technological resources out there to incorporate into a teaching curriculum...it's not possible to use every medium and some simply aren't tailored to particular content areas.
I will eventually be spending my days in high school math classrooms. The web portal Protopage concept is wonderful for high school students to access information pertaining to their math class, view embedded videos, be provided with numerous links to further their understanding in a particular area, and provide them with lessons to complete online. The concept of dividing the content up into various tabs is a great organizational feature. I definitely plan on using this tool to create a class webpage. On the other hand, I did not have as much praise for the Glogster application. I can see its benefit, especially in lower grade levels where facts are the focus, but in upper level grades where concepts and processes are the focus, this tool falls a little short. Protopage, in my opinion, is multiple Glogster posters compiled into one central depository, exhausting half the effort.
And now I have a blog.
If I get more than one follower, I might just have to provide a link to this on my Protopage!
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