module 2 part 2

How to Use an Interactive Whiteboard

This article is about, what I would call, the new blackboard. An interactive whiteboard is a touch screen board that is linked to the classroom computer and used to get students more engaged in the classroom experience. The whiteboard can be used for both the teacher and the student to give presentations with, and the screen can even be saved and e-mailed to students giving them assess to notes from class. I found it interesting that the whiteboard supports critical thinking, according to the article. Brainstorming as a whole class is something that has always been possible, but with the whiteboard this brainstorming can be easier, more fun, and interactive.
One quote I found interesting was, “Interactive whiteboards may be beneficial to students with special educational needs.” I thought this was interesting because, although I had seen a whiteboard, I had never thought of it being of special help to students with special needs. The article says that the large fonts would help students with vision problems and the bright colors and images would help students who have trouble focusing.
I was very happy that my group had chosen this article to write about, because I have seen an interactive whiteboard once before and thought it was one of the best piece of technology I have ever seen in a classroom setting. When my niece was in 5th grade I took her to her parent teacher night at school, this was my first experience with an interactive whiteboard. As the teacher showed the parents and me this amazing piece of technology we were all blown away. I stayed after the presentation and explained to my niece’s teacher that I was going to school to become an elementary teacher and would love if she could allow me a few minutes to try out the whiteboard for myself. She was happy to allow me this privilege and as I realized how easy it was to use the whiteboard I became even more amazed. My niece is now in 6th grade, at what is called the 6th grade academy here in the Southport area, and they don’t have an interactive whiteboard. We were both very disappointed by this, she absolutely loved using the whiteboard, and it is my hope that all school will soon have this amazing technology.
The one question/concern I about the whiteboard is whether the students like learning from them or if the just like using the technology. But I don’t feel it would be a huge problem if the students just like the technology, because it makes them pay attention, they are learning, and the world is a more technological place so learning with technology is a good thing.


25 Ways to Teach With Twitter
This article was exactly what it sounds like, a list of 25 things to help an educator stay connected to other educators and students. Some of the suggestions were to celebrate important dates in history, start a book club, post interesting facts, and link to photos of your school and classroom.
I found the title of this article amazing, because I have never been to the Twitter website and thought of it as a way for celebrities and athletes to inform their fans of their lives, contract situations, new jobs, etc. I always thought of Twitter as nothing more than the statues update feature on Facebook, having never used Twitter I can only guess that this is what its like. With that said I think that these 25 suggestions would work better on Facebook, where it would be easier to communicate with students, parents, and teachers because of features like instant messaging, private messages, and writing on their wall.
I think the best suggestion was to, “invite followers to an event.” I find this suggestion extra useful because a teacher can invite parents to parent teacher night or back to school night, instead of hoping that the students told their parents about it (which they often forget until the night of the event). One can also invite other teachers to events, or even students to study sessions.
This article brought up one major question for me, how many elementary students have a Twitter and how many are really going to follow their teachers? I know when I was an elementary student I didn’t want to have any contact with my teachers outside of school and I have to assume that many of today’s students are the same. I doubt I will ever use Twitter for and educational propose.

Emerging Technologies 2

I have chosen to use a photo editing software for my second emerging technology post, the software I am using is Picasa. I found this to be a very user friendly program, much more than the program I already had that I used for editing photos, music, and videos. I will continue to use this program for photos, but I have yet to try using it for videos (although I checked and it does have an option for editing videos). As soon as the program opened it uploaded all my photos and only took a few moments to do so. I liked the fact that you can add text to the photos and even change the font and other accepts, much like on Word. I love the fact that it even had redeye fixing. It was also simple to rotate, crop, and add effects to the photos. This program can be very useful for photos that one would use in a PowerPoint or other presentation. My only suggestion to my class mates is to give this program a try, it works perfectly.

on the right is the original on the left is the edited photo

podcast 2

This time I tried to make a podcast on yodio.com, I would suggest this website to anyone. It is easy to use and almost makes podcasting fun, never thought I would say that lol. Not only can you podcast but you can also put a picture with your podcast, something I really like. This website is very user friendly, all you have to do is click on create and than its all click and drag making it very simple to use.

Here is my first podcast, with my niece in the background lol.

http://yodio.com/yo.aspx?cardid=beEGhQcqhg6ZTioM5aFSt4

podcasting

I did my podcasting on Gcast. So it didn’t take longer for me to find out that this website is completely useless to as, as they are no longer accepting new signups and will not be accepting new uploads after February 1, 2010. With that in mind I decided to start working with gabcast. The first thing I noticed is something saying to purchase minutes and it has a dollar sign, all I know is I’m not spending money on this website and not clicking on that button. When I click on create a channel it takes me to already available channels and there’s no where for me to click to make my own channel. Then the only way I can find to get back to my homepage is by retyping in my e-mail and password, which is really annoying. I spent about 45 minutes on this website and couldn’t find out how to do almost anything on it. It’s extremely had to navigate and when you are on your homepage and click on a tab it doesn’t always take you where it says its going to and then the tabs change making you have to re-sing in to get back to your homepage. I would not suggest this website to anybody, I’m sure there are easier podcasting websites out there.

my first blog

Hello to all, my name is William Tracy, but I go by Will. As the title says this is my fist blog, first time writing one, reading one, or even going to a blog website. I always told myself blogs were dumb and I wasn’t going to make one, but I kind of have to for an online class im taking in collage. So yea here I am. I was happy to find creating the blog was easy, yet customizable. I also liked the fact that the website gave me an URL instead of making me guess whats been used and whats not been used. To the other students in my class I would say don’t spend much time creating your blog, save your energy for customizing it afterwards.
Well that’s all for now, later