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This week in technology in education, we viewed all of our classmates' PSA's. I particulary enjoyed watching what other people came up with, and the result of their editing styles and creative ideas. It was fun to watch our final product of our PSA that took us two class periods to complete...and it was only thirty seconds. Thursday, we listened to a podcast about online learning and the importance for preservice teachers to be prepared for the changes that will come about in today's school systems.

This week in educational technology, we proceeded working on our PSA's. On Tuesday, we went around campus and recorded our PSA. We decided to go outside and video tape in some places around campus. Thursday, we loaded our clips onto the laptops and began editing. It was my first time ever using iMovie, and I personally really enjoyed it.. I wasn't sure how to operate the program, however once we started experimenting and trying to navigate around the program, I realized that it is actually very user friendly. We were able to edit out background noise, and add some transitions. It turned out well and I'm happy with my group member's participation in the project.

Week of March 24

As the semester wears on, we are now into our final few projects. Jena and I are working away on our powerpoint that is on the 5 senses and observation. I personally really like creating links and different options kids can click on to explore the powerpoint. I remember doing something similar to this in middle school and it really gives students an out for expressing themselves. I think our powerpoint is going to turn out well, and could maybe even be used in one of our classrooms one day.
Also, we have created our script for our PSA and are ready to record it on Thursday. We are doing a psa about not using drugs. we are comparing 3 people who have found success because they have avoided drugs, and one who has nothing because of his use of drugs. I'm looking forward to editing out psa and making it a great commercial.

Week of March 17

This week at Pine Island went much more smoothly than last week. The student i worked with, Aaron was very excited to use this program. It seemed that most of the kids in the class were really excited to explore with photo story. I was very impressed with Aaron's story about what his life would be like if he was a dog. It seemed that he was very confident when it came to navigating around the internet. He knew how to find pictures on the web, and how to save them. I think he really liked hearing his own voice on the head phones once he had recorded. I think it was a really good experience for us to see how this program can be used with a different group of kids.

This week in ed 205 we did a webquest on webquests. I found out that each webquest can cater to different learning styles for individual students. I also saw that these webquests can be very helpful and useful in the classroom. These sites force kids to put themselves into someone else's shoes to explore and learn about something. On thursday, we went to Pine Island again to help the students create a photo story. Getting images went pretty smoothly, but when it came to recording sound, the child became easily frustrated and distracted. However, i feel it was worth it when she could hear her own voice talking. I think it was a positive experience.

Feb. 26-28

This week in ed 205 we worked on our interactive poowerpoint idea and we also visited Pine Island. I've discovered a few things about doing internet research with kids. Primarily, things need to be very well labled. Our Delicious website is slighly unorganized and it makes it difficult to navigate through the loops to find information. I've also discovered that the teacher needs to explain exactly what the child needs to look for. When the kids are looking at websites, they see everything as being important, when really not everything is. The kids should have a specific goal like: find information about 2 animals from the Tundra. Tell what they eat, where they live, where they are found, etc. The internet is too wide and complicated for them to just look at a webpage and try to pull information from it. I will keep this in mind if i ever create a Delicious page for my class.

This week, we had time in the lab to work on our podcasts, and to work on our interractive powerpoint. My partner and I did our podcast about podcasts. We explored why they can be useful in the classroom and across all areas of education. We also added a small clip of a kindergarterner talking to her teacher about why she likes kindergarten. I have begun working on my interactive powerpoint
Thursday, we attended Pine Island Elementary School. It was a great experience to be in the classroom along side of many small minds that do not have much experience working with the internet. It was helpful to hear the kids' questions and to help them navigate through the internet while they researched binomes. I'm looking forward to going back to Pine Island next week.

Week #6

This week in Computers in Education, we were introduced to our topic in technology that we will be creating as a podcast with a partner using Audacity. Jena and I have recorded our findings about using podcasts in the classroom. There are many uses for podcasts across all ages and grades. Kids can learn and hear different material from all across the world. This is an intreresting way to introduce kids to technology and to promote the use of technology in education. Not only are podcasts used in elementary schools, but also colleges, like Grand Valley. Also, we were introduced to the idea of linear powerpoint. It makes powerpoint much more interesting and engaging for kids to view a linear powerpoint with extra charts, videos, pictures, webpages, etc. so that the instructor is not just flipping through slides and lecturing like in college. I'm looking forward to helping the students at pine island with using linear power point as well.

Week #5

This week in Ed. 205 we spent some time working on our digital stories. I found some trouble when I was organizing my images because I didn't know what order to put them in since I do not yet have the recording done. However, once I made notes for what I was going to say for my recording, it was much easier to move the images around. Today, Thursday we used Audacity. It was my first time encountering this program, and I'm glad we approached it in a constructive manner because it was much easier for me to remember once I discovered things on my own. I thought the program was neat, and I'm sure I will be using it often, especially for our partner podcast project. I thought it was neat that you can import mp3 files and then adjust them so that they play at certain portions of your audio. I am interested in this new program, and I hope to become more familiar with it.

Week #4

This week i'm very excited for what we are working on. I have never heard of a digital story before but now that i have seen examples i'm very excited to create my own. I am looking forward to putting my ideas for why i want to be a teacher into something productive and long lasting. It is a great idea to use when looking for a placement in student teaching. I am slightly worried about the images because i don't have very many personal ones, and i want the story to have my personal touch.

Today, Thursday, I have been introduced to the social bookmarking site of Delicious. It is a great way to locate and organize many different websites so that it is easy to navigate around the web for kids. The sites I found mostly contained animals about certain biomes such as deserts and marine life. I'm looking forward to using this site in the classroom of third graders when we attend Pine Island in order to help the students locate and research an animal from a specific biome.

Week #3

This week I was introduced to the idea of a digital story. I'm so excited to learn more about this program, and to explore different options for using it. I really like that we are telling the story of why we want to be teachers as an option to show to our teachers when we begin student teaching. I liked the examples we saw in class, and amoung many challenges i encountered when creating my own story with the given poem and pictures, i still am pleased with the end product. I am looking forward to creating my story, and i hope that it will turn out as well as the examples did.

Week #2

This week I worked with Kidspiration which was a first for me. I am absolutely fascinated with this program, and I feel the oppurtunities are endless for what I will be able to create when I am a teacher. This program can be used to present specific information such as parts of speech like nouns, verbs, etc. It could also be used to present processes such as the water cycle, photosynthesis, the digestion system. It can be used to show how germs get spread, or which activities kids can participate in during different seasons. The possibilities are so endless. I think I could also use this to label different things around my classroom, because of the variations of clipart.
Also this week, I created a pageflake. This was also a first time experience with me. I really like that I can add my own personal preferences onto the page, and I can also link my blog and my podcasts. Everything on this page is very user-friendly, and makes navigating the internet very easy.

Week #1

This week, I have encountered many new things I have never used before. The podcast was a new experience for me that I found very interesting. It is neat that I can create podcasts on my own and it's as simple as picking up my telephone. Also, Skype is new to me and very convenient. I never knew that people could communicate through a line on the computer, without using any type of phone. Additionally, when taking the survey, I feel that in this course I will be able to do some things on my own, but also I will be learning many new useful skills on the computer as well. I hope that everything I learn can be a positive influence on me as I continue to study to be an elementary school teacher.

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