Final Reflection

I was very upset to have missed our last class. I feel a lack of closure, and I like closure. The blog will help me with this issue. What have a learned from this class?? Where should I start? The first thing that I learned is that....I was getting bored with what I was doing in the classroom. I notice that my students are getting bored as well. By learning these new technologies, I have found a new sense of excitement in my teaching. I am hoping to share this with my students.

I have learned how to blog, what the difference is between a MOV, WMV and more, I have been introduced to what a Maven is, learned about smart note book, flickr, movie maker, digital camera use connection, visual communicator...I learned about different types of computer or technology terms.

I fell that I have gained so much knowledge from this class. The way the class was set up for us to explore and be the leaner was very engaging for me. I liked the freedom to explore....and not really be told what to do in my exploration. I would be eager to sign up for this class again if I could take it.

Draw backs and disappointments...not from the class. But on how technology and politics within the schools are fused or not. Feeling that I might not be able to try new things with tech and my students due to the restrictions and funding through Internet or equipment. Feeling that my excitement can not be used with my students. I can tell them about it, but they might not be able to use the full applications. Not the classes fault....just the dynamics of the technology.
world.

Overall, Dr. Mullane, a great "hands on class".

Microsoft Movie Maker

I did not get to see Rob's presentation, but I did get to look up information on his unit plan. I viewed a few short videos on Movie Maker to see what the program is about. To me this program seems relatively easy to use. I like how he has the students create an autobiography and create a story with pictures, text, and special effects such as transition. His students are combining many different areas of instruction. I like how you are able to publish the finished creations in multiple formats. The finished projects are able to be shared with the class

Flicker

I was not able to see Bernadette and Dan's presentation. I was able to go to the Flickr website to see how the program works. After seeing their unit plan of the foods lesson, I was upset that I missed their talk. Flickr is a program that would work great in my courses, especially since I teach photography. Flickr would be a great tool for my students to use, to share and post their digital or shot images. We have a scanner in our classroom and my students do traditional black and white photography. They could scan their printed photographs. This program would be a great tool for the students to share their work with the class and the world. I like that Dan and Bernadette incorporated to critique tool within the unit. I think that Flickr would be a great tool for teaching "how to critique" artwork as well.

REDO

adding campus update video again....noticed while watching the first video post of campus update,that there is double audio.. lets try this again.

Smart Board and Smart Notebook

This is in reflection from Tim, Francis and Pat's presentation on the authoring tool. Smart board and Smart Notebook. I have used this software, so for myself, I was familiar with this tool. I like the way that Francis incorporated the use of the Smart board to show her students the roots of language for her classes. It is nice that she allows the students to interact with the board in class. I also learned about some of the features such as the change the written word to a typed word.... I will finish this post after Pat presents her 1/2 of the talk.

Healthy Living

This is in response to Dana, Danielle and Carol's Healthy Living presentation. They had great information to share with the class via handouts and through the talk. The video that they created to show healthy living choices reinforced the overall theme of the lesson. I can see how the students would benefit from creating a video on this subject matter. This would make this a fun lesson. The food samples to show actual size of food and calorie intake was a good "real life example" To show us what we are eating. As an overall presentation...they did a great job, and used a variety of authoring tools to convey their topic. (video and PowerPoint)

Short Video

Sharing Videos

things to share...how much research we went through to publish our video project via many hosts!

How to publish or “share” your Visual Communicator video??
1) Finish your video.
2) Publish as a Window Media Video (WMV) for internet and email use. Not a huge file, for Windows Media Player…(fast & dirty a compressed file)
3) Publish as an AVI uncompressed video, burn project to a DVD as an AVI file. Good quality.
4) You can publish to a blog as a WMV, MOV and many other formats.
5) Publish to an IPOD. First publish as AVI file, open AVI file in Quick Time (Apple) and save as a MOV file. Next, open MOV file in Itunes. File import into Itunes. Plug in your Ipod, and drag and drop into your playlist. Update Ipod. You now have a video podcast in your Ipod.

Project Issues

Today we were able to finish our Visual Communicator project for class. It was a challenge for me....trying a new program that requires video. I am used to shooting video footage to edit. This program works best while organizing your elements for the video first. Your record is shot in "real time" therefore...this leaves problems such as if you mess up you have to re record it. In my video world, you can mess up or edit a certain part out. This was a challenge for me to use video in a new way. I am also not to fond of the prerecorded video footage. This is great for students creating a quick video for a class...I can see how some of the prerecorded footage can get boring to use after a while.
Overall, I found this program fun.

Visual Communciator Project

Transitions

I learned today..how to add a transition to my video in Visual Communicator. A transition goes between video stills or moving video. A transition might be a fade up from black or a fade down to a scence. There are many different types to pick from the make a video more visually interesting to look at.

Using the Microphone

Today I am learning how to use an audio device (hand held microphone) to input sound into the computer for our presentation. This will be added to our final video (a vocie over). The trick is to set your levels and record our sript in for the correct amount of time. Timing is a crucial phase of creating any type of video. This will take awhile to adjust and get the voice over to be timed with our picture scenes that we created.

Using VC

Although I teach video graphics...we use a seperate editing station or computer that is not a pc or mac platform it is called an AVIO..used only for video production. I am learning how to use a pc based software for editing called Visual Communicator. Things are created differently in both programs....I do understand most of the concepts...but it is hard to learn a new program, I am figuring it out...and once I understand this new platform it should be easy to use. Visual Communicator seems very user friendly. Today I learned how to upload our digital photos that we will be using in our video into the program..it was pretty quick.

Video Podcast

Heather and I wanted to create a video podcast for our presentation. Since we do not have a mac platform here at the school we found that it was difficult to create a podcast. We also found out that it takes a few steps to create a video podcast and at time various authoring tools are used to create one. We picked visual communicator to create our video podcast. Visual communicator is an Adobe product this is what it does: " Adobe® Visual Communicator® software offers hundreds of customizable graphics, music clips, and special effects to create video presentations that look like a television newscast". We are hoping that this will be a good tool for us to create our podcast.

What is SETI@home? SETI@home is a scientific experiment that uses Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). You can participate by running a free program that downloads and analyzes radio telescope data. This was inspired by the mavin that we talked about in class...I am pretty sure that the group that started seti is not the same as .

Gameing (X-box ettc.)

Xbox.com
ign.com
bungie.net (halo3)
gamespot.com

These sites are windows for gamers to link their gaming system together with other players around the world. People can mic or instant message to each other while participating in the game. You can have up to 16 players in a game scenario all at one time. These sites are very graphic in "violence" category and anything can pretty much said...unless your profile is set up for under 18. I was talking to some of my students and they were describing this to me..I was completely facinated.

Webkins

I am fascinated by the social networking tool Webkinzs. My daughter received a Webkinz for her 2nd birthday. At first glance I thought that it was just a stuffed pink animal puppy. My neighbors daughter had to tell me what it was. The pink puppy (plush toy) comes with a tag...that has information to register the puppy on the online site. Children use this code and tag to sign up their animal. Actually the adopt the animal. They animal comes with a small house/room that they can decorate and arrange for the animal. Children can set up information to manage and take care of their animals, such as feeding, cleaning and clothing, etc. Children can play educational games in webkinz. They can also give their code to a friend and if their friend is logged on while another child is logged on they can communicate to each other. So it is a small social networking site. Their are many restriction on the site...words that can not be used..such as bad language and phone numbers and street addresses. Children can also earn kinzcash to buy things for the animal. The site is marketed to parents. Parents can sign on to manage their child's profile. Kids love it, and it cost about. There are many webkinz or lilkinz to collect and add to the child's profile. It is a "safe" and educational site! check it our www.webkinz.com.

Working on Project 2

Since, we did not have class on Wed. My partner (Heather) and I started to shoot digital pictures for our presentation. We used a digital camera to photography our project demo. The demo that we are doing is "how to make a slab, Doiley bowl". This is a ceramics project. We photographed a student, going through all of the steps to make a bowl. We made sure that when we photographed our student that only her hands were photographed...due to the Internet posting restrictions regarding pictures of students. We used the digital camera to photograph and then we uploaded the pictures to our computer. We will use these pictures as part of our created podcast.

Prensky

I was reading an article by Presnky from 1996 (I did not realize this until 1/2 way through reading the article.) He was talking about my generation (gen x). He was saying how we a such a visual generation...seeing thousands of images daily. Watching MTV, Going on the computer and growing up with video games. That as adults we will get bored in our jobs if we are not constantly busy...the term multi tasking. It seems that a lot of the same issues he is addressing today as well as 10 plus years ago. I think that with the advancement of the computer. I strongly multi task daily.. I feel that while being bombarded with many things...images, sounds, students, teachers etc...that I personally am used to this way of life. It seems like he is saying that if we are in a lecture...we are the first ones to get bored. That's why all of these new types of technologies are being created. For example..today's social networking sites. In reality, have things changed so much from 10 years ago. Yes..but some of the same issues are still here.
I also watched a TV report of children and video gaming. He reported that gaming is good for young children through teenage years. The games must be educational for the learning to take place. He mentioned that it is also important for the parent to know what games and play with the children as well. Without monitoring kids could be playing games for non educational means. Monitoring is important and that children learn well with the viewing and interaction of visuals , music and some kind of interaction/challenge.
I read Presnsky's last blog entry and he said that he was getting tired of blogging. That he would rather use his words to create books. He had some heat from some of his blog followers. Presnsky also said that he is getting tired of blogging and having to deal with all of the pop up advertisements. He wants to just write and not respond to the extra stuff on the blog today!

Check out these sites

Some of my students told me to check out some of the following sites....I am listing them here, so I do not lose them.
World of Warcraft, Runescape, Moonbase, Marinsworld, Sherwood, Stickman, Mapplestory, Toontown. I am not sure if all of these sites are "social-networking sites...I will try to check some of these out!

Second LIfe

I was asking my junior high and high school students today if any of them use this web site. Many did not even know what it is. Some kind of heard about it or know someone that uses it. Some of them referred to Second Life being like SIMS. A few of my students do use it. One girl is a 7th grader, her friend gave her a password so she can use the site. I I wonder if parents know what there kids are doing.

Second Life

Wow! A complete virtual everything. Not only can you create a avatar or online identity, but you can rent land (for starting at $10.00) per month. Not only can you create living spaces and people...you can also buy, buy, buy. The site has its own money. This is not a free site, every area that you want to go into you can purchase things. You can buy lingerie for your avatar, you can buy you can almost anything in the various shops on the site. The whole thing seems to be based on the buck. It concerns me that people spend a bunch of time here. When it started in 2003 there was 65 acres of land now it is up to 65, 000 plus acres. Its definitely an interesting site....and I can see how it can be very creative especially for the person making the items for this space. Is it all about money...well I guess so. I am concerned that people are losing their "real life" social networking skills. I can see how a lot of people can get in trouble or financial debt with a site like this. I am a bit overwhelmed with second life right now ...I think that I will research more and blog tomorrow.

Ecto

This is in response to Dan's presentation on social networking. I think its great that like Dan my viewpoint is changing daily about social networking. It was nice to hear that he had such a strong opinion that social networking sites....should stay out of the classroom. As he is becoming aware of the possibilities of these tools within the classroom..he is starting to change his viewpoint. Maybe they are needed within the classroom I felt that way too but as I am researching the various social networking sites my views are changing. I feel that they can be worked into the curriculum. I feel that my students would accept these tools with enthusiasm. Ecto sounds like a great site, what type of support would my district give for this site. What school...not mine...has laptops for each student. I am not sure that we would be able to support this site in the full way that it was represented without major funds for new laptops etc.....

Gameing

http://www.educause.edu/ELIResources/10220?tab=4#tab_links

http://www.educause.edu/GamesandSimulations/11263

I was searching info on gaming and I found the exact questions listed on the handout. I was able to watch some of the video's posted on the educause website. The thing that I was interested in the most was the controversial nature of the games. Because games or simulations are associated with fun and "play" people consider this noneducational. According to my research...games are a hands on colorful experience. Learning appeals and motivates the students...a fun way to transfer learning. Since the learner uses so many different types of skill in gaming, the outcome is them using higher order of thinking. I feel that being an art teacher gaming would be a great option for students. It might spark their interest to create or participate.

Chapter 2

There are different types of e-learning to create learning content or experiences. There are learner-led, facilitated, instructor-led, embedded, telemonitoring and e-coaching. The areas that I can relate to the most is the embedded
e-learning. I tend to use the help menu with various programs that I use throughout the day to assist me with any issues that I might have with a particular program. I use this often in Photoshop Elements. I am learning this program as well as introducing it to my students. Sometimes the students have a question of how to do something and I use the help bar for reference. We (my student and I) look at the help menu together and if we find the answerer we practice together and learn together. I find the help menus very easy to use in most programs. I am familiar with instructor led e-learning..but have not had to opportunity to take a class. I find it interesting that the instructor is not actually in the classroom...the distance thing is kind of strange. But the benefit is that you can take the class from anywhere in the world. The benefit is more of convenience.

Chapter 3

What types of tools do you use for e-learning. Well...I feel that this Chapter is open ended. Of course depending what you are creating will effect what you create. It could be a small element to create or use or it could be large scale learning task. It all depends on what types of tools you are comfortable with. It also depends on what might fit into your curriculum.

Chapter 1

You need people in order to partake in e-learning. Participants are need to get through this technology process. Someone needs to create/produce an e-learning product. They have to offer the too (usually by a host on the Internet). Finally you need a person/participant/leaner to use or access the product. There are many different steps in the process. The whole activity starts and it can lead back to the creator as well. There are many different types of technology hardware that the Creator and uses have to consider while creating or using computers. Things to consider for example: processor speed, monitor displays, memory size. Software is also important to help the user store or install data. Examples are external storage devices, CD-ROM or DVD. Operating systems depending on what computer platform you use is also important to consider and how do you connect to the Internet. There is a lot of things to think about while creating an e-learning tool and it is important to consider all areas of using the computer as stated above. If you do not consider these area as a Creator...your learners might not be able to use the product that you create. Also, everything in technology changes so fast...you have to keep up to date on the daily changes in technology while creating as well.

Chapter 4

This chapter focused on all of the different types of hardware that e-leaners or creators need to have at home. You have to know about what kind of authoring tools that you might be using or creating..and make sure that you have the correct computer hardware to service your needs. Each person might need to look to purchase certain types of hardware for their own personal or maybe even a work computer. There are so many different types of hardware devices that you could have. Things to think about..processor speed, memory, hard drive capacity, are you playing/inputting video or even photos or audio. You will need ports on your computer to handle using these different components. Cameras video or USB ports, microphones (audio ports). Not only do you need these devices on the computer...but you will have to purchase video camera, cables, digital cameras, microphones etc. There is a lot to picking hardware....I would like the chapter to talk about the cost of the various components. It could be quite expensive to purchase (depending on what you are creating) a computer with all the "hardware" that comes with it.

Social Networking Class Slides

All the presentations by my colleagues went very well. All seemed to share how great some of the various social networking sites and gave some great examples. We seem though to get back to the same issue regarding social networking sites. "they are great" but you can not always use them in the school districts. There is also quite of few negative impacts that might effect to learner or content sharer. There is such an excitement about using the tools, but we seem to get frustrated with the safety concerns and board policy's to follow. I guess we have to learn how to work with the tools provided as well to work with the school boards.

Impact of Cyber-bullying

The difference between cyber-bullying and traditional bullying is that cyber-bullying takes place at any time or place or even in the comfort of the home. Traditional bullying usually takes place within a schools boundaries. Physical as well as mental aliments can be caused from cyber-bullying which is a type of online harassment. This can happen to anyone..child and adult. Cyber-bullying seems to do more damage to the youth (according research by Willard) low self esteem, anger, anxiety and depression are just a few effects. Because cyber-bullying is "written words" the victim can read the words over and over again to relive the experience. This negative experience can happen at anytime...there is no way to stop it. Education about cyber-bullying...can help your students or children become more aware. To educate about caring and respectful behaviors, to teach tolerance and impartiality are just some ways to help to promote awareness of this issue.

Schools and Online Social Networking

Willard discusses three basic factors that exist for students using social networking sites. These factors are that parents do not pay attention to child, teens make bad choice while on the sites, sexual predators are on the prowl. She talks about how filters can help within the district although students can find their way around that at times. ..Schools should as I mentioned in earlier blogs have a policy for students to follow related to educational needs. Students need to be educated and responsible for online Internet safety, students must be monitored and appropriate consequences must be enforced.

Creating and Connecting

ok....what is a tween??? thank you for the urban dictionary...I did a search it means not a teen yet, the group of children between the ages of 10 and 15. "not yet really a teen. The most interesting fact that I read is that today teens spend aprox 10 hours watching tv and 9 hours using social networking sites. In comparison to TV...although we park our selves down in front of the computer as well as the TV. The article says that teens are more interactive and use more communications skills and engage in higher order of thinking while on the computer. Students are using (sharing content) with music, words, pictures, videos, and graphics. I was surprised that a genera of students using social networking in a more "aggressive, cutting edge, breaking boundries etc....were called nonconformist. It surprised me that although these students are spending a lot of time and possibly breaking the rules...the nonconformist are more in tough with their parents. (are they more in touch via these devices or via the old school in person way) the article did not say. Nonconformist..a least the ones that I know...never got along with their parents...wow are times changing. Safety policies are part of the rules that school districts must deal with. Most districts do not allow social networking, and their is a high percentage of districts that have students sign a safety policy. It seems like the circle is here again. We have these great sites to share with our students...and most schools do not or will not support the Internet use with social networking. I feel that it is important to educate the student, teacher, parent and administrators about the safety importance and value to use social networking sites. Policy's need to be in place and students need to know what rules to follow while using the schools computers. I feel that we need to embrace this technology especially since it has been found that students actually learn better while using social networking sites. I am not sure that the schools are ready to take on this vast area...although it could benefit their student body.

Blogging 101

I found this article interesting especially that the elementary level student liked the blogging experience. And why not. It seems like Cassidy presented the student blog in a positive a fun way to learn. They are learning to reflect and share their experiences online. The blog even helped with cross continent learning with students in other countries. It helped them learn about different cultures in the world. An all around learning experience for the students connecting all different types of content including different subject areas and cultures. I was also surprised that the school system seemed to sponsor or support her use of a blog within the classroom with children so young. Parents and other people could respond. I am having difficulty trying to have a class blog. My school is concerned about using web based programs...rules to follow and safety concerns. The school seemed to be open about the whole thing. I wish that I new how she set this up and if their were problems or concerns about the "safety" issues that come with people using this type of social networking site.

Chapter 11

Collaboration tools help people learn information or talk/work together. This can be a nice feature especially if you live far away from someone or maybe you can't make a meeting. When I was in college in the mid 1990's my class was on a listserv. We all had to email our thought for online discussion. Every time you sent an email it was sent to every one the list and if you replied it was sent to everyone on the list. I liked this share feature at first...but as more people emailed it was hard to follow at times. I feel that it is great to be able to learn via distance and use of various programs...to discuss, learn or even teach info.

Chapter 9 & 10

Learning Management systems...I remember working at a certain "home improvement" center. I had to go through these computer based lessons and be tested of each area after I went through the "computer course". If you passed the test at the end of each section you would get a certificate. I really did not get to much out of it. Most of the experience that I needed was out in the store doing "hands on learning" out in the store! Although I did well, I did not feel that this was an accurate way to assess someone. Since there are so many employees, I guess that this type of learning is a great way to track the employees knowledge. I am a bit confused about the difference between LMS and LCMS. Is it that the basics are already set up for you...that you use what they have, to create your personal content??

Social Networking Slide

Here the slide that I worked on with Carol and Heather, it is not complete. I just wanted to see if I was able to figure out how to add a PowerPoint slide to my blog. It took me awhile to figure it out but I did. I had to save the slide as a JPEG and bring it in via the compose add photo menu in blogger. I had to upload it and accept bloggers conditions...here it is. I am glad that it worked. I would like to learn how to enter a whole presentation.

Chapter 7

Media players are used to have then learner experience more than a web browser. Media players are sometimes within the web browser. Media players are devices/software that enable the viewer/browser to listen to audio or watch video. As well as the combination of both. There are many different types that you can use, this might depend on a personal preference or what your computer is compatible with. I use Itunes almost every day to download or listen to music files. I prefer not to download or watch videos at this time it uses to much space on my Ipod. I enjoy listening to music while surfing or blogging. I find myself becoming more and more of a multitasker while using the computer. I also use Windows media player and You Tube(adobe flash) to borrow commercials to show my video students. I think that I will start using more video examples from these sources to share with my students. It is to the commercials off the computer, it takes me more time to record them to tape or DVD at home.

Chapter 6

This chapter was about web browsers which are just a means for people to view and find or be provided with information. They are pretty much similar although they might share different types of content. Internet Explorer is the web browser that I use most often. I am starting to like Mozilla fire fox, I am having some problems at home using Explorer on my home computer to access my web mail via my phone service. They told me to try FireFox and for some reason I am not having problems with FireFox as my browser. To sum it up you may choose the browser that you prefer to use..maybe its the graphics that interest you, or the content that the browser provides. Used mostly for learning of info....is it accurate info....not always.

Technology Forgotten

I was using PowerPoint today...and although I use it often...I can't believe how quick I forget to use certain functions. It took me awhile to figure our how to use custom animation on some of the text and images. I use it primarily for presenting information and usually it is not to fancy. I had a student help me..we both forgot how to use the timing feature, but within minutes we had it working. Without practice I and I know my students as well tend to forget how to do certain things in a particular program. Most of the time you can sit and figure or re practice your what you forget and it comes relatively easy.

http://www.weblogg-ed.com/ Reflection

I like the fact that within a blog you can add so many other types of functions besides text. I was looking at the http://www.weblogg-ed.com/ and I noticed the other types of authoring tools that are on this blog. There are podcast to listen to and photos to look at. I think that this blog is more interesting to look at. I also noticed advertisements or links to advertisers...it makes you wonder if the creater is sponsored by or has contacts in the business...a free way to advertise???We are such a visual society...I personally prefer the blogs with more visual or interactive features.

ThinkQuest

I was interested to explore the ThinkQuest website, after one of the students in class were discussing it. I was a bit overwhelmed with the amount of information that the site has to share. I definitely has a lot to offer regarding sharing of information. It is nice that there is a variety of subjects that students can explore. I like that with the rules content should be original...and produced solely by the students. This could also be a great website...to use not only for the creation of a website...but to use the website project samples as a research to share with your students. I also like the fact that the website has tons of examples...I think that it is important to show students other students work...it helps them relate to other kids...and maybe motivate them to want to create a website. I might want to try this site in my technology class.

Educational Blogging

Even though the article was about "educational blogging" I was more interested in the section about how blogging became important or used more. I did not realize that an event like 9-11 created a better way for people to communicate news or thoughts in response to the unfolding events. Because it was difficult to find out what was happening in the news..this gave people the experience to share "what happened or what is currently happening" with a blog this type of information is shared instantly. Although it might not be authentic. People became part of the event happening instead of watching it on the news. As for the educational factor, it is a great tool if you are willing to embrace technology. It might give students a chance to voice their own opinions on line instead of speaking in class. This I feel can be a positive and negative issue. A blog is a great way for a student to reflect or speak about issues in a subject area. It can even help them improve on writing skills. But at the same time...are we starting to become less personal..what happened to having to speak about our thoughts in class. Is our verbal communication skills/person to person interaction declining and are our computer skills improving??? Or do I have to think of a blog as just being a tool to work on certain skills.

Sharing Reflection Week Two

I really did not get to share to much with what I learned to my classmates. I was helping Danielle and Dana create a blog. They were both very hesitant. I told them that it was very easy and that I actually had fun creating it. I never enjoy writing and this I found to be a fun tool to use to help me write. They were afraid to use their names...I told them that you can make up a fictitious name if they wanted to feel anonymous. I helped them through the steps of setting up their blogs...they both thought it was easy and fun. What I shared with them was my experience of setting up a blog. As for reflection on class discussions...it made me think "how am I going to be able to use some of the authoring tools mentioned within my classroom??" How will I get permission to use some of the tools. Will I be supported at my school??

YouTube & Video Class

I was talking to my intro to video 1 students. I was teaching them how to use the video camera and we will be practicing how to shoot video. We were talking about good video vs bad video (regarding the shots). Somehow we got on the topic of YouTube. The students were telling me that they can recognize that some of the video work ---shots and editing---is not necessarily the best footage that is put out on the web. I am not talking about content but about the quality of producing good video shots. My students see videos on YouTube all the time. It would be great to maybe use this as a critique tool. Also, it was nice that they could understand the difference between good quality and bad quality. My goal is to have them work on their shooting skills for the entire year. As well as developing video productions. If their shot work is better by the end of the year. My goals and objectives will be met. I never thought about using YouTube for examples! Just a thought.......

NETS Continued....

I did not get to finish my last thoughts regarding how NETS and the current NJCCCS in technology compare/contrast. It seems that the tech standards from NJ are more generalized. Not as specific and detailed as the NETS. The nj standards (8.1) focus more on using the computer to gather information or create work such as presentation or about using the computer applications. It does not really focus on the other uses of tech within the classroom for example use of a digital camera or use of scanner etc. The 8.2 standards relate to design and problem solving as well as the impact of technology the w0rld today. The NETS do focus on design and problem solving as well..but there seems to be so many other areas addressed, such as how to operate tech systems and equip (maybe using tech as more) working in collaboration also appears to be strong.

To sum up my random thoughts....the NETS standards are more specific than the NJ tech standards.

Podcasting

Tonight I went on to ITUNES to download some music to put on my IPOD. While I was there I started viewing podcasts. I was amazed. I am a video teacher and I was thinking...what am I missing..why aren't my students creating one of these. I always thought for some reason that you had to have an IPOD to create a podcast. I did not realize that you could create a video or audio...in almost any video program or window media player etc. and post your podcast to itunes. At that point it becomes available for people to download. And some people choose to download podcasts to their IPODs. A podcast is just a video or audio file created and posted on Itunes to share you information to the world. You can also share info via video through YouTube another internet based program. I am excited to try to make a podcast or youtube clip for a project in one of my classes this year.

NETS

Today I started reading about NETS, the National Education Technology Standards. NETS seems to focus on design, development and problem solving for students. There are six different areas for students to learn while being a studnet in grades K-8. The focus of NETS is to have the students survive in todays "Digital World". I was surpriesed to read the word "digital" all over the place. Digital Citizenship, Digital Media, Digital Resources, Digital Presentations, Digital Technology, Digital Instruments. Digital means storing information...it was just interesting to see the word all over the place. I teach video, photography and technology...we do use the word digital often in class with regards to maybe a picture or signal..I never really thought of learning about the tools that I use every day. These tools that are digital. Digital Citizenship we talk about all the time in class, especially since my students use cameras and video camera " having them with cameras brings up a lot of ethical issues". I never realized that I was teaching to the NETS until I read them. I guess the word "digital" surprised me because we use things from this digital world. I might not call or name things digital (digital citizenship, digital presentations etcs. I think the word is just becoming understood without having to say it.

9/5/07

Wow! I am really psyched to learn about different types of authoring tools. I did not realize how many I do use daily and how some of them have become...boring or habitual. I am inspired to find some "new to me" authoring tools to learn and most important to share with my students. I am getting tired of using powerpoint or the smartboard all the time. I am hoping to learn from my colleagues new ideas or techniques with the use of various authoring programs. I am also not one to that likes to write or keep a journal, so this will be a challenge for me. I am finding it easy to set up and use the blog. Maybe I will learn how to enjoy keeping a journal for my thoughts!