I LOVE YOUTUBE! I love, love, love this site. I use it with my school family meetings, I use it for personal use (how to use the IPAD, show my children an episode of the Smurfs, etc). I love the ease of use, and how many amazing videos there are for not only curriculum topics, technology topics, but also for personal topics. My daughter is into gymnastics and they have floor routines for each level. I can see myself utilizing not only YouTube, but Teacher Tube as well. If you haven't seen that yet, please take a moment to check it out, it filters a bit of the inappropriate videos and allows students more freedom. It is not blocked in the district although YouTube is.
For all of the IPAD owners out there...
http://www.youtube.com/user/Apple?feature=pyv&ad=4586558836&kw=ipad#p/u/0/1-YAQ1wfNqc
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Item #6-Blog and Flickr comes together
Flickr Reflection
The one picture I chose to discuss that I posted on Flickr was one of my son at my daughter's
Girl Scout activity at Build a Bear. At first I was going to try and find a picture of both of my children, but this one caught my attention on a few levels. First of all, I think it's just a cute picture of Kyle, but it shows his silliness as well. He was two seconds away from making that silly face for the camera, and even though that drives me crazy at times, that's who Kyle is...and I love him for it. He makes me laugh and see life in a very simple way, a very real and loving way. He has a huge heart and the simplicity of this pictures makes me think of all those wonderful thoughts. It makes me smile and I hope you enjoy it too.
As far as Flickr in education, I definitely see a use for it as a computer teacher. I'm always trying to find pictures for students and this is a very easy way for me to find those pictures and organize them in an easy, consistent manner where students can navigate to one site and utilize the pictures I have for them. The only question in my mind, is how do students reference those pictures....it's not a Google Image anymore, so who gets the credit in the reference area? Hmmmmm....
Item #5-Flickr
Hmmmm, conflicted on this one a little bit. I really like the concept and the ease of use of this site. I like the fact that I can invite people into look at these pictures, but at the same time, once again, I already do this on Facebook. I do see the value of Flickr in the educational arena, with parents consent, but what happens when you have a parent who does not consent to their child's picture being posted online. Does that child just get excluded from that site? Will that child feel left out?
I like that the site seems to understand the needs of diverse learners. I can see students uploading pictures easily, as we as people who have not grown up with technology. It's easy to get to, in, and navigate, so I understand the popularity of the site. I like that you can make things with your pictures, but I can do with that with the Kodak software that came with my camera.
Here is a link to my Flickr pictures.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/52243046@N02/.
I like that the site seems to understand the needs of diverse learners. I can see students uploading pictures easily, as we as people who have not grown up with technology. It's easy to get to, in, and navigate, so I understand the popularity of the site. I like that you can make things with your pictures, but I can do with that with the Kodak software that came with my camera.
Here is a link to my Flickr pictures.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/52243046@N02/.
Item #4 Homepages
Well, I went to the link for Netvibes, and created my own homepage. It was fairly easy in terms of what I wanted to keep on there (there was a basic page created for you), and what links/items I wanted to delete or change. It was an interesting hour or so of playing with the page and I came out with a few thoughts on the matter.
1. The page is wayyy to busy, and I now respect Google for using so much white space on their homepage. I understand why I'm attracted to that search engine over Yahoo and other search engines. I also feel as though maintaining my own personal page would be a lot of work, when I post items on social networking sites like Facebook for myself and my family.
2. In terms of the educational system and using a personal homepage for my classroom, I can see the benefit of having everything in one place, all of the calendar information, homework information and other important notes that could be lost in transit. I do think, however, that the school has a great website for many of those items that have to do with the general population. I could see setting up a basic webpage, but not with any of those sites that have been listed below. They are a great starting place, and a great place to learn about the options you have, but I would not choose to do this type of webpage for my students or their parents/guardians.
1. The page is wayyy to busy, and I now respect Google for using so much white space on their homepage. I understand why I'm attracted to that search engine over Yahoo and other search engines. I also feel as though maintaining my own personal page would be a lot of work, when I post items on social networking sites like Facebook for myself and my family.
2. In terms of the educational system and using a personal homepage for my classroom, I can see the benefit of having everything in one place, all of the calendar information, homework information and other important notes that could be lost in transit. I do think, however, that the school has a great website for many of those items that have to do with the general population. I could see setting up a basic webpage, but not with any of those sites that have been listed below. They are a great starting place, and a great place to learn about the options you have, but I would not choose to do this type of webpage for my students or their parents/guardians.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Item #2 and 3-Blogs in Education
After reviewing other blogs, some in education and some on my own web search, I can see the benefit to utilizing them within the curriculum. The benefit I can see is within the language arts curriculum. I can see the benefit of having students read a chapter or an entire book, then post responses to certain questions. From there, other students can respond to those posts, with their thoughts or feelings in regards to the characters, setting, etc. You could get a lively discussion going on even the most difficult reading material such as Shakespeare or Socrates.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Item #1
After reading "A Day in the Life" and watching the video, I stopped and reflected on my own education. What about my learning experience did I enjoy, what did I gain the most learning from? What did I take away from my learning that I wanted to pass on to future students? The answers to those questions are probably the same answers that many other educators would say. I enjoyed the learning that was fun or interesting to me (of course). I enjoyed subjects that came easier to me versus math or other subjects I had to work harder in. Once again, a big "of course" there.
I would have to say my students are no different. We enjoy being entertained, and doing activities that we succeed in. We build self esteem, self confidence, and learn from that moment. For these reasons I can completely understand why students love using technology in the classroom. Technology is a hands on tool that enables a child to be creative, expand on classroom content, and give them a chance to learn and grow independently, as a group. What's not to love.
Our students are growing up with technology in almost every facet of their daily lives. We wake up to our favorite Itunes, coffee is set on a timer and there for us when we go downstairs, my car has a remote starter on those cold mornings so I can get my children to school in comfort, my cell phone gives me my updated emails and weather conditions, and that list goes on and on. Technology is a powerful entity in our lives. Not only is it not going away, that entity is getting stronger, smarter and faster, everyday...and I LOVE IT!
As an educator, a mom and a person, there is one main rule I live my life by. That rule is "everything in moderation". Too many apples will make you sick. Too much time in the sun will hurt you, but not enough time outside running around isn't good either. A little bit of everything makes life work. That is what I tell my children and that is the message I try to convey in my teaching. I believe that using technology is a must with our 21st century learners, but I also believe in the power of books, memorizing facts (math facts, grammar rules, spelling, etc) and that education today should be a mix of both styles.
In terms of learning, the same rules apply...a healthy amount of paper and pencil learning, rote memorization, and technology education will make a well rounded, articulate, intelligent person that is ready to take on the challenges that lie ahead.
I would have to say my students are no different. We enjoy being entertained, and doing activities that we succeed in. We build self esteem, self confidence, and learn from that moment. For these reasons I can completely understand why students love using technology in the classroom. Technology is a hands on tool that enables a child to be creative, expand on classroom content, and give them a chance to learn and grow independently, as a group. What's not to love.
Our students are growing up with technology in almost every facet of their daily lives. We wake up to our favorite Itunes, coffee is set on a timer and there for us when we go downstairs, my car has a remote starter on those cold mornings so I can get my children to school in comfort, my cell phone gives me my updated emails and weather conditions, and that list goes on and on. Technology is a powerful entity in our lives. Not only is it not going away, that entity is getting stronger, smarter and faster, everyday...and I LOVE IT!
As an educator, a mom and a person, there is one main rule I live my life by. That rule is "everything in moderation". Too many apples will make you sick. Too much time in the sun will hurt you, but not enough time outside running around isn't good either. A little bit of everything makes life work. That is what I tell my children and that is the message I try to convey in my teaching. I believe that using technology is a must with our 21st century learners, but I also believe in the power of books, memorizing facts (math facts, grammar rules, spelling, etc) and that education today should be a mix of both styles.
In terms of learning, the same rules apply...a healthy amount of paper and pencil learning, rote memorization, and technology education will make a well rounded, articulate, intelligent person that is ready to take on the challenges that lie ahead.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Item #1
OK, I made it through the Google setup system. It only took a few hours to get the right verification code to work. Phew, we're up and running. The kids are at camp, maybe I will venture on.
Happy summer everyone,
Rachel Pac
Happy summer everyone,
Rachel Pac
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