Google Website

 

Designing a classroom website has been an interesting experience. I think that a teacher having his/her own website they designed for their classroom is imperative for the classroom throughout the course of the school year. I realized that so many different things can be done on a website in order to provide students and parents alike with the maximum amount of information. The Google website is by far the most diverse tool we have learned to use during the class. Honestly, I think it will be the most useful tool we have learned as well. Unfortunately, I still do not feel extremely confident in my website making abilities. I still get confused and lost on where to find things in order to edit certain aspects of the website. I also still have a difficult time making the text and picture compliment each other on each page that has a picture inserted into it. I am hoping it was just the template of the website that I chose that made it more difficult to work with. I really hope that during my internship I will have opportunities to create a classroom website so I can gain more website experience before I get a classroom of my own. Overall I found this experience in learning how to operate a website invaluable.

Movie

 

Before this project I knew nothing about how to make a movie. Honestly, I am not tech savvy in the least bit. So at first this project really intimidated me and I was not looking forward to it. However, when I started messing around with the imovie by making the Stoney Island example, I soon realized that the program was very user friendly.The hardest part of the project was finding the pictures, information, and making the storyboard. The fun part was actually putting the movie together. It is safe to say that I now feel confident in using imovie in order to make my own production. I am pretty proud of my movie, it is the first one I have ever made and I thought it turned out pretty well. Even though I know how to make a movie through imovie it still intimidates me that I may have to produce a movie using a PC one day because I would have no clue where to start.Hopefully I will have a Mac to work with when that day comes. I am not sure how often I would use this tool in the classroom, but whenever I do decide to use a movie it will be a fun experience.

Digital Diagram

 

I really enjoyed the digital diagram activity. I had never heard of this tool or seen it used in a classroom before this week. At first it was a little difficult trying to remember where all the tools were located within the program. However, once I was able to start my project it was a really easy program to opperate. Personally I am a visual learner so I found the digital diagram to be an extremely valuable tool for students who need more visual reinforcements. I also like how it can easily be printed off as a worksheet or visual handout. I will most definitely be using this tool inside my classroom. It it perfect for visual reinforcements, summaries, work station references, or introduction material.

ActivInspire

I am really glad this class taught us how to use ActivInspire. I have heard in the past many teachers complain about using this system because they did not know how to properly use it. Therefore, they became flustered and did not utilize this resource like it should be. This course has given me the proper tools to be able and correctly and efficiently utilize this software system. I most definitely plan on using this very often in my classroom. I am a hands-on learner and plan to make my classroom as hands-on as possible. I personally feel like students learn the best in this manner. ActivInspire allows students to be able to actively engage with the material and makes learning more enjoyable for everyone. Therefore, the information is more likely to stay them.

The one thing I would change about teaching ActivInspire in this course is to make it a little longer. Even though I had the software system at home and had the book to guide me, I still struggled some with figuring out how to work it properly and in a time efficient manner. Maybe an additional class can be added in the future to go into more in-depth instruction over all the functions this board can perform.

Technology

I have learned so much about technology through this course. One useful thing that I have discovered is how to create websites and wikis. I did not have a clue how to do either one of these before the course. Now I feel confident enough to not only create a classroom website and wiki but to manage them in an efficient and useful manner. I will most definitely be using both of these tools in my future classroom.

I have also learned a lot about digital images. Now I know how to properly re-size and use images in a professional manner. Before I was used to copy and pasting onto a social network site. Now I know that tiff is not good to use on the internet because the image appears too large but jpg, gif, and png are perfectly acceptable for web use. I also learned that raster cannot be re-sized without be distorted but vector can. I also learned that for web purposes the image should be around 72 pixels.

Another important aspect on technology that I have gained from this class is about copyright issues. I learned that anything is fair game for inside the classroom as long as it stays within the walls of the class itself. I can only take 10% or 15 photos from a collection whichever one is the least amount. Learning about all the copyright issues has definitely made me more aware of the issue. I saved the slides that gave the information about fairuse, copyright, public domain, and creative commons so I can refer to it when I have my own classroom.

Digital Images

 

I have learned a lot about digital images this week. The most I knew about digital images before this week was how to copy and paste from my computer onto facebook or other sites. I also assumed that photos from google was free game and open to anyone. However, now I know that I can only take 10% or 15 photos, whichever is least, from google or other copyright photos. There are plenty of websites that have photos that are non-copyright photos that I can use for resources. I also learned that I can basically pull from wherever I want for classroom purposes only. However, if I want those resources to be able to go outside the classroom then I need to check on copyright issues and fairuse options.

I also did not know much about resizing a digital image on a computer before this week. I never really had the need to resize a photo. Now I know that photos need to be 72 resolution in order to be compatible and work properly for the internet. I also learned how to make photos smaller or larger using a tool on the computer instead of just cropping a photo.

All this knowledge is going to be extremely helpful in my future classroom. I will need to know this information about digital photos for my future classroom website, wiki page, PowerPoints, and classroom presentations. I now know the appropriate way to approach digital photos on what is ethical and most efficient.

Resource Wiki

 

 

I found the resource wiki to be extremely helpful. Doing this activity helped me learn how to better navigate and get more comfortable using wikis. Before the resource page I was still a little uncomfortable with how wikis worked and how to properly use the resource. Now I feel confident on how to opperate wikis and will definately be using them for my future classroom one day.

 

Not only did this activity make me more comfortable using wikis but it also provided me with a base resource for educational websites. I got to practice looking for websites in regards to classroom purposes and learned what kinds of sites to stay away from and which sites would be useful tools. I also learned how to work in a group while using a wiki. Everyone in the group must be cooperative in order to succeed. I plan on using group activities in my future classroom for teaching purposes. It not only gives students many different resources to learn from but it also teaches them how to cooperate in a group environment.