A Week After My Technology Class: ♪ ♪All You Need Is Google ♪ ♪

My computer savvy husband was so excited that I learned a few things he didn't know, that we had a date last Friday night and sat at Panera Bread for three hours while I showed him what I learned. We created  a video together and he set up and Ipadio account so he, too, could make podcasts! The video of our dogs turned out to be a real hit with one of the children at our church! His parents kept Facebooking us to relay how many times the tike watched our video! :)

Then my husband enthusiastically set up an iGoogle page for me! What a wonder.  Imagine in one spot:  my blog reader info, gmail, weather info, access to posting on my blog, NPR news links AND a common calendar we can both add information to!  How did I ever function before Google?

Up until this class, I only thought Google was a tool for searching. These enterprizing people have found a way to catch you hook, line and sinker into believing that you can organize and manage your entire life on one website! Who would have imagined that just a few short years ago?  What will technology look like for our children when they are my age??

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image: www.flickr.com/photos/clf/84743916/

Great VIdeo About Impact of Social Media

Puppy Video- by billbert

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
 My First video attempt. Dedicated to my husband, Bill.

The Tangled Web

Today my mind is spinning with terms like curriculum pages that include weblinks, making your own videos using web based tools, scavenger hunts based on website info, virtual field trips and tours of websites or web based information. Now, tonight, I am supposed to contemplate how I plan to used these in my classroom.  Hopefully a few of these tools will stick to my web knowledge and I can foster a student centered learning atmosphere that will engage students in the learning process. This is going to be a web crawling learning experience!
You know, back in the old days of using books for information, it was pretty hard to delete a page of information- unless you tore out the page......not so on the web! Crl Z is my new best- web- friend!

My First Pod Cast. Is it Live or is it Ipadio?

Well, who would have thought that you would be hearing my voice over the internet, of all places!
This is the result of two hours' work in class! Try not to be too impressed! :)

Technology Class at Malone: Day Two - A Shift in Technology

Well, today has certainly shifted my outlook on teaching, especially Wikis. One, I know what it means- quick- in Hawaiian. Creating a Wiki is ANYTHING but quick! However, I guess it is much easier than learning the code to make a website. A big thank you to the wonderful HTML creators, who are infinitely more intelligent than I.
I am still trying to figure out the differences between the uses for a blog and a Wiki, but I have successfully created both. I guess success is in the eyes of the beholder.
Also, today, we looked at podcasts and learned how to navigate itunes. For
those under twenty years old I am sure this is as natural as breathing. For me it was a lesson in patience and perseverance. I have never explored itunes personally. Since everyone in my family, with the exception of me, has downloaded something to his ipod or Blackberry, I usually invoke the helpless female role and persuade one of my children or my husband to do it for me.
As far as teaching goes, it seems that the need for teacher collaboration is even more crucial when working with content and technology. As I begin to imagine the uses of Wikis and blogs in the classroom,  I see the need to involve the computer teacher and/or other teachers to help students learn to use these skills together to create and generate information that they have learned and make it meaningful to them. Tomorrow we are going to make our own podcasts. Now that is intimidating!  Whatever happend to reading a book outloud?

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Technology Class at Malone: Day 1 -The Afternoon and Evening

The rest of today's afternoon class went by a lot more smoothly. Well, after the college tech guy came and fixed the screen projector that wasn't cooperating! We learned about educational blogs and were encouraged to find one that we would like to follow, discussed how we could incorporate blogs into the classroom, read articles on line and watched videos.

When the instructor told us we could get out our headphones to listen to the videos online, I realized how out of technological touch I was. Last night I excitedly purchased a new notebook to take notes during class; little did I know headphones had become a staple of class materials. Boy did I feel like I was tottering out of my learning paradigm. But, wouldn't you know it, I rummaged around in my purse only to find the rarely used set of earbuds my husband had given me to listen to music on my cell phone. I plugged them into the computer and instantly appeared techno savvy!

Later this evening, as I was doing my homework to find an interesting educational blog, I became so engrossed in reading the material that I completely forgot my simmering pan of rhubarb on the stove. One hour later I emerged upstairs from working on the computer desk top only to wonder what "that smell was". Smelling the remnants of caramelized rhubarb and sugar, I realized I had let the rhubarb simmer to the point of evaporation, leaving burned, caramelized sugar blackened to the bottom of the pan. Who knows how long it will take to clean. I may even have to replace the pan.

Why do tell you this? Well, it is just another example of how technology can suck you in to spending more time than you anticipate. A book, unlike a computer desktop, is portable. If I had had a reading assignment from a book, I could have plopped myself down at the kitchen table, read and kept an eye on the simmering rhubarb. In all likelihood, it would not have burned and ruined the pan.

On the bright side, I did find some great educational blogs to share in class tomorrow AND I may get a new pan out of the deal!

A Shift In Technology: Day One Class Response

Technology has extended classroom teaching past the three "Rs" and forces teachers to ask the question what it means to be literate in this age of technology. With information immediately available to students, teachers now need to help students become literate in whether the knowledge they are accessing is good or bad. Since anyone can put information online, students need to learn how to discern credible sources and information that is a value to them. Educators must also helps students to understand the ethics of using the information: crediting sources, evaluating what is appropriate or in appropriate.

Students are able to take the information they are absorbing and repackage it into teachable content through podcasts, vidcasts and screen casts.

After watching the videos in the Thinking about Teaching section and hearing how digitally bombarded kids are these days, it really impressed on me the importance of relating education to a way in which the kids are interacting- digital media. I especially liked the idea of using cell phone to gain information to use in the classroom! I think I will try it!

Technology Class at Malone: Day One - The Morning Session

OK, so the first three hours we spent logging onto various accounts: google, gmail, blogger and wiki.....Nothing ever goes as it should;hence my frustration with technology and lack of willingness to spend enormous amounts of wasted time (when I could be reading an engaging novel) to figure out all this stuff. Consequently, I have decided to pay $350 to pay for this frustrating experience and learn how to do this in order to get credit towards renewing my certificate and to maybe, just maybe, incorporate something into my class room. I, however, did bring a good book to read on my down time....just in case there was some! HA!