Monday, April 27, 2009

Smartboard

So today, we are starting to talk about the smarboard in EDU350 I love the smartboard! i've seen it used in a classroom, in high school. It is really cool. It allows you to write on the board, and you are able to transform the writting into text. which is really cool so that way any student can write on the board, and you can transofrm the writting text, so it is more easily read by all the students. Another thing i relally like is being able to control the slide show from the board and you don't have to relay on a cliker ( whose batteries may die). or having to keep running over to a mouse to change a slide. you also can use your and to eraser or draw as long as there apporpriate eraser or marker is off of the tray. I am really excited to learn more about the software, using the smartboard, and more of what the software that comes with the program can do.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Copy right

So i learned somethings about copyrights the other week. 1st i learned that for a person it lasts your whole lifetime plus 70 years! a company it is forever!!! one cool thing i learned is that you don't need the copyright c. anything in a lasting from (books, cd, typed on a computer) is copyrighted which is really pretty cool. the tricky part with that is if you get it copyrighted (which can cost money),then you can say i worte (or whatever) this 5 years ago, before this thing came out. and you have proof.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Google books?

One of my other professors set up this lab session to help us learn and try to find information for a research prostpectus that we have to do. One thing i learned was that google has a lot books available for you to read. i knew that places like amazon.com had preview buttons so you can look at a few pages before you buy, but i didn't realize that google had done this. Most books you do have to pay for the view the whole thing, but its still pretty cool.
Another cool thing is google scholar. it is a way to narrow google's focus to be on scholarly websites and articles rather than sites that lay people update and put information on, which may or may not be true. While you still need to be carveul with where you get informatio from it is a great help in weeding out "bad" sites

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Powerpoint slides can be so boring....not to mention filled with information. i was taguht "rules" of powerpoint in high school and have tried painstaknly at times to follow them. As a result i generally have a pretty good powerpoint presentation. However i have also seen some pretty bad powerpoints. One was at a confrence. the speaker had font that was too tiny to read from far away, and most of this speech was on the slide, it wasn't just highlights or important words, but information that could have been left out, and spoken to us.
Another thing i see pretty frequently at times is font colors that blend into the background, for what ever reason. usually i see this when people are using a photograph as a backgorund, and there is no color that won't blend in so they choose the color that blends in the least. A different picture could be chosen, or you could even stick to the same solid color background.
It takes some effort to make powerpoint slide...at least interesting, with making them interactive...hopefully this week we will learn ways to make them more interactive.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Movie Maker

Movie maker is a really good tool. It allows you to edit captured video, and edit it. You can really do a lot to the video. You can add titles, and transitions, and even credits. This would be cool to use in a classroom for students when doing a rerport, or group projct....i think my brother might have used this in high school when he had to do a group report on the a particular decades, he got the 80s.

Friday, March 20, 2009

curiosity

This week in the loads of extra time i have on my hands, by not being in class i decided to check out Twitter...and lets just so as of right now.. I'm not all that impressed. I will admit, i am on a bunch of social networking, and blogging sites. Some of them I have loved, and some i've stopped using because something new and better has come along. The main purpose of Twitter is to keep in contact by answering the question what are you doing? I've been on only for two days as of right now. But there is really nothing to do. You can send updates from your cell phone, but now most websites allow you to do that. there is not much to do, you can send messages to people, and update your status. Granted it does make it easier for people to quickly check up on their friends, and people that they are following because it is all displayed on one page, and it is displayed with the most recent activity on top. There are some applications, but honestly it looks more like the same thing, a widget, for you to add to websites. It looks like some of them depend on the browser you use, and the look you like. well this will take some more browsers and searching....one thing that would be helpful, a HELP page that does more that give you information on what Twitter is about, one that tells you where you can find applications. I just feel completely lost on that website..maybe after a few more days of searching i will find what i am looking for....but i don't have the time for that. Other social networking sites have been pretty easy to navigate and find exactly what i am looking for..

but we shall see... twitter is the one of the newer social networking sites, so things could change....we shall see where they go.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

I'm A PC

So i love the AD wars going on between PC and Apple right now. And i love the new " I'm a PC" commericals. They have little kids ( the ones i have seen one is 6 and the other is 4). And they take, upload, edit and send pictures on their PC computer. I know exactly what they are showing its so easy a little kid can do it...

..but those commercials are not that far off, especially which how much this class is talking about using computers and technology in the classroom. Its not going to be too long before kids at the age of 6 are going to be pretty proficient at the computer. and its kinda cool. and scary. It scary to see how much computers have become a part of our everyday lives. I cannot go a day without access some kind of computer. If i don't check my email i feel lost. My one fear about teaching and using so much technology, is that kids are going to use it so much, it will become a permanent part of them. Its already possible to carry around hand-held computers (think iphone, PDA). How much is this generation going to use computers. maybe in addition to teaching them how to use computers we also need to teach them its good to get away from the computer from time to time. To put down that mouse (or take that finger off the mouse pad), step away from the computer and get out a board game. To turn off that PDA, and go out for a walk. We need to teach kids a balance.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Weboage

So i have to create my own webpage. it is a lot easier that i thought. The program i am using, Webnode, allows you to do a lot with it. I kind of turned it into a website, because its very easy to use and it just looked to cluttered all on one page. i tried another program and it was diffcult, to use. It kept freezing up, and i relly did not have to much choice on where things went. Webonde allows me to move sections over, and while its not a lot of choice it still is alot more than the other site. This is going to help a lot when it comes time for me to make my own webpage once i get a job.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Bookmarking

Last week, I had to wipe my computer in my dorm, because it was infected by a virus... I lost so many bookmarks. I was so angry at myself that i hadn't known about this website before hand. There are websites that allow you to bookmark website, on it. The one i am currently using is diigo.com (look on the right side for a link to my bookmarks) Now, not is diigo wipe proff. in other words if you have to wipe your commuter you can still access what you bookmarked. BUT BUT BUT!!! YOU CAN ACESSS THAT CONTENT FROM ANY COMPUTER! (as long as you know your password). You also can access other bookmarks that people have posted (so long as their public). But this allows you to collaborate at get access to so many website, and you can also check them out, and use them. Instead of everytime you need to find something going to google(or your search engine of choice) and typing in that topic, and getting 128,347,783 results reported and then having the time consuming, task of sifting through all of that information to find the website you really want, or even that is good to use.... There are draw backs such as people's definition of good, and if things are tagged properly. (tag are keyword that help you find the websites you want when there is a long list).... Luckily for me i may be able to find those website again. because i had to save them in a bibliography for a Unit (15 days worth of lesson plans and activities one 1 subject)...but it will take me so much more time, that if i had know about diigo.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Inspiration

I am a person who thinks that she knows Microsoft Word program pretty well. I took a computer application class, and learned some helpful shortcuts. How to bold, and other task from your keyboard. One cool thing that did learn was about Smart Art, it is something in the New 2008 version of Word. It allows you to organize your information into some graphic organizers, which is really cool. There are pie charts, and cycle charts (that you can use for the life cycles) and just so many other organizers, so you don't have to sit there and manually draw, the life cycle chart. Which is great for me because my artistic ability is how we say not so great.

Another cool program that i got to work with was Inspiration. That allows you to make a concept map. Which was awesome! I tried to use it last year, and got so frustrated with it that i went and found a different program. You can type in information in an outline and it will format it into a concept map, or you can work with the map on your own, and you can get an outline from that. It really allows you to make graphic organizers for you students to study from, or use as an assessment. I LOVE Inspiration. Now that i know how to use it, successfully.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

What is a blog?

A blog is basically a website, with journal entries. ANYONE can create one. ANYONE can read them. ANYONE can comment on one.

A blog can be used in the classroom. Students can read blogs that give them diffrent perspectives on current events, and comment and ask questions. Students can also keep their own blogs about what they have learned in the classroom over a period of time, or what they thought of school events, such as assemblies. In that way the teacher can treat it like an essay, but the students are gaining valuable computer skills such as typing, as well as working on their writing skills.