aerogirl83_EDTS_blog

So it’s the end of the semester and my brain is fried..

I am sadly and surprisingly going to miss this class. I really truly enjoyed learning everything we could, and cramming it all into just one semester. I know that it is going to take lots of practice to continue to remember how to use all that we have learned this semester, but I think I will have more fun practicing and not feeling any time constraints on how to use all the programs that we learned, that it will make it much easier to play and learn all over again.

I know that in some cases I am very much glad that I am done for the semester, as I am sure that most of my classmates are as well, but yes, sadly I will miss it. Well to some degree anyways.

I would have so say that my favorite project was the PowerPoint. To some it was probably the easiest one, and even probably not the majority of the classes favorite. But I consider it an answer to prayer that I learned it. I had always wanted to learn it but never could get the school that I work for to allow me to take it. so, here I am, I’ve learned it. Sure I don’t know everything that there is to know about it, but I do consider myself a lot more knowledgeable about this software having taken the class. Who knows, maybe if my school (job) had paid for me to take it, I probably would not have learned half of the things that I did learn about PowerPoint.

This past semester in class was a tough one. I have always thought of myself as pretty good at computers, but after taking this course I realized how much that I still do not know. As I have mentioned before, I only hope that I can remember all that I have learned and use it, but more importantly, use it properly. I can honestly and definitely say that I truly tried my hardest in this class. I don’t always pick up on things very easily, so this was challenging for me. Do I think I’ll get an A, doubt it, but do I hope to… most definitely.

Computers are fun, but can also be confusing. I thoroughly enjoyed taking this class. It was definitely not what I expected I can honestly say that. I actually thought I would learn about other technologies such as, Elmo’s (sp?) or Projectors, DVD players, Smart Boards and those type of AV things, definitely not these types of things. I think that’s what made this class fun. Had it been to learn the other AV type of things, I would most likely not have done half the work or put in half the effort.

To the classmates:

To quote Melissa and her quote that she used from another source “He who learns from someone who is learning, drinks from a flowing river” I learned a lot from you guys. listening to everyone’s suggestions and even looking at your projects gave me a lot of ideas and allowed me to see things from a different perspective on how to use a topic or in even a doing a project.
Thanks for putting up with my repetitive questions. I appreciate that a lot…
To Melissa who sat next to me and helped me with all my questions THANK YOU!! (I’m not yelling)
To Lisa my PPP (PowerPoint partner) GREAT JOB!! You were great to work with, it was lots of fun!!
To Steve it was good to work with you on the Wiki page. You had great sources and ideas. Thanks it was fun!!

Finally to Dr. Ransom:
Thank you, Dr. Ransom. You challenged me to be more smart in the technological sense. For that I will be grateful. Now if I forget about how to use it, well then you may just get an email in the future… “help how do we do that again?” Just kidding.

PS… I know my title has nothing to do with this topic perse (or however you spell that word) but I like how it was technologically based. I know this class is not going to be forgotten, so this class will not bite or byte the dust… but it is definitely one out of the way and closer to the end of a new beginning.

Ok so I was trying to imbed a picture and it won’t work.. oh well..

H A P P Y   T H A N K S G I V I N G !!!! 

I hope that everyone had a great one and was able to eat their share of turkey!!  
So i was going to attempt this whole black friday thing.  My intentions were to get up early at the butt crack of dawn and get to best buy at 3 am and then wait in line and get good deals, and well that just didn’t happen.  I decided to enjoy my time and sleep in!   But now there is black Monday where all the online sales happen.  I wonder how much difference in price you can save if you buy your stuff today compared to Monday?   So this Thanksgiving what were you thankful for?  I of course thankful for the usual family, friends, food, a safe place to sleep and stay and etc… but I wonder how many were actually thankful for thankful for technology?  Yeah I know some of you reading this are probably think I am pulling this blog post out of my you know where to make it about technology.. but seriously?  How many people are actually thankful for technology?   I think in a way technology has become kinda like an appendage and it’s just now a part of us.   My mom and I were talking about how technology isn’t always a bad thing and also how it can be a bad thing and how people can be come addicted to it.  (like I posted in a previous blog)  We were mentioning about how some kids today can’t live without their cell phones or ipods or even the video players in the cars.  It is ok for kids not to have so much… there is something to say about teaching our children that they don’t have to have everything, or it is ok to not have things to do, because it forces them to use their brain…. which in my opinion is something that is lacking in today’s youth.   When I was younger we didnt’ have iPods or even the video players in cars.  We were forced to read or even heaven forbid… talk and make conversation with your parents.  I am not saying that technology is bad but I am saying that I think there are somethings that we can do without, but then again I do like my iPod and cell phone so that’s besides the point.. but still.  I think there is something to say for using our brains and allowing us to make conversation insted, and even easy for the parents to avoid parenting (i know bad use of words) but keeping kids distracted so they can have a break.  Yes I know that’s good and I’m sure that when I become a parent I’ll probably do the same thing.. but I hope I can also teach my kids to use their brains and think for themselves, or make conversation when with the family,  insted of using iPods or even video games to consume them.

Enjoyed learning software programs….

I really enjoyed learning PowerPoint.   I had a lot of fun working on a project and learning all the aspects and cool things that can be done with such a simple but not so simple piece of technological software.  It was fun!!  I had a vision in my head of what I thought I could do with the presentation that Lisa and I did, and for the most part we came pretty close.  I have seen other websites about the Underground Railroad and got lots of our ideas from those sites.  I am sure we were not the only ones in class who used ideas from other sites.   I agree with Dr. Ransom, if used effectively PowerPoint can be a great learning tool.    I tried to think of our PowerPoint presentation as a kind of “maze” that students can go and “travel” through to learn new and different things.   Like I keep saying over and over again, it was fun!!  I also enjoyed learning and looking at what my other peers did in their projects.  Some really great ideas guys!! 

Doing our Podcast project with Garage Band was also fun!!  Getting over the initial shock of recording your voice and having to hear it is probably the biggest hurtle that one would have to get over, but once that’s done it’s a lot of fun! I’m sure there are lots of other challenges to get over besides the whole voice thing, but that in my opinion has to be the biggest.  Like Dr. Ransom said, we are the only ones who will be very critical of our own voices.  No one else will care.   It was cool.  I am not very familiar with it, as I am sure some people out there are, so really the only thing that I would complain about is the lack of the sounds. There are so many sound effects out there that can be put as some of the default sound effects.  I think I am using the correct term?  You know the sounds that come with the program… all the ones we had to choose from… aren’t those considered default?  Well anyways, I was disappointed that it was lacking in the sound of a train.  I know how stupid and anal I am in that one sound, but I could have really used it. To think that all the sound effects that it did have, it did not have the sound of a train.   Most sound effects that are in programs and even kids toys… the sound of the is almost always one of the “given” choices.    Well anyways… enough about the train,  I really enjoyed using this software.  It is definitely a great learning tool that can be used in the classroom and allow kids to create stories.  Great idea GARAGE BAND!! (not yelling)

I am lost…

It is so true that we need to just keep remembering to practice what we learn.  I am a true believer that our brains will get dried up if we don’t.  Maybe I am not the only one who had this problem, but last night when we were allowed to practice dream weaver to put up our webpage for class, I was completely lost, and that was with the directions STILL (not yelling) in front of me.  I feel like one of those 80 year olds (no offense against them) that do not know anything about technology or how to do things.  With all the technology that is coming out there is no way that everyone will know everything.  I highly doubt that one person can know EVERYTHING (not yelling) that there is know about all technology aspects.  I mean it is constantly changing and upgrading and becoming new that it is probably mentally possible to know everything.     So developing this website and page was a little bit complicated for me.  I do not even know what to put on it, to make it worthwhile or looking good.  I want it to be cool and even ideal for a real website that I would someday want to have for my classroom.   It is a great way to keep people informed about what you’re doing in you classes as well as network with other classes/ classroom across the globe.     Playing with garage band was another cool thing that we learned.  Wow, the possibilities that can be shared with students are endless.   Students with severe learning disabilities can use this program to express themselves in telling stories and even increase their learning potential and self esteem. That is so amazing.  Where was this program when I was in school?  As I keep saying, in almost every blog I post, I am so looking forward to one day using this program in my classroom, or at least having the possible chance of using it to create and encourage learning, as well as use it for many lessons that will hopefully provoke learning and thought.

Almost late.

So here I sit at like 11:34 pm in the morning practically freakin’ out because I almost forgot that I had a blog due for class. Geez with all this technology that we have out there, you would think I would of remembered.  But at least I am not la

So this week in class we learned about how we can download podcast to our iPods.  I actually worte about this in my research paper.  i think it is a great tool to use for any classroom. Teachers can find all sorts of information for topic and subjects and share them with their students.  Students can download inforamation and interivews and review them on their iPod and use them in papers and all sorts of other things. It can even make being absent in a class or for a topic in class extinct.    Students can’t say that they don’t have the information that the teacher was talking about anymore… because all the teacher has to do is say… get it from podcast you have no excuse.  What a great tool!!!

Even more exciting was the Dreamweaver software.  I had so much fun playing with this new technology.  Not only can you use it to design webpages, homepages and all sorts of other things, but you can use it to design menus and even your yearly Christmas letter.

I am beginning to really enjoy all this new technology that we are learning, and I am getting excited to learn more.  As I keep saying, let’s just hope I can remember it all and be able to use it and even teach it to my future students.

My research paper was about making history come alive through the use of technology.    Many educators don’t always think of using technology to make subjects come alive.   When I was younger technology mainly consisted of using movie projectors, or VHS tapes.  That is how technology was used.   Today there is a plethora of technologies out there that are that our finger tips; I do not know why schools or even teachers don’t use them? 

In my paper I had mentioned about how a teacher from Rockland, New York was using a virtual world called “Second Life” to allow her students to recreate and reconstruct Ellis Island.  Reading about this, I couldn’t help but think, why couldn’t we of had this program or advanced technology when I was in school.  History wasn’t always my favorite subject, but today it is.   I think because all that was required for us was writing reports and learning about famous “dead people” as we used to say.  It was just that… boring.  But being able to build our own virtual/ interactive world that we can use to communicate with other students around the globe would have been fun and made learning about History more interesting and definitely would of made History come more alive that’s for sure. 

 As educators in schools we don’t always need to have money to get our students involved, all we need is a little creativity.  Having an internet connects is sometimes all it takes.   Encouraging students to dig deeper to find facts, or information about a particular person gives students the opportunity to become the “reporter”,  “detective” or even the “voyeur” and allows students  to learn and makes History become more personal and alive.  In one class that I researched, students used the internet to look at video podcasts, and listen to audio podcast that were posted by Historical societies.  The podcast had interviews and even recreations of particular events in history; students were able to see how and what made History happen.  I am the type of learner that needs to learn by doing and seeing. I know that when I have a lot of facts to learn, I have to put them on note cards and just memorize; however if I see something on a video or listen to things, I can pick up the information very easily.  I wish I would have had video and audio podcasts when I was in school, I know that learning and remembering information would have been a lot easier for me.

 Taking on tasks is another great way for students to learn.  In another article I read, students were using video cameras to conduct interviews with survivors of the Holocaust.  What a great opportunity, and if a teacher or educator is worried about the money it costs, in a lot of cases, video equipment can be donated or even allocated in the budget.  Students did the whole project themselves, including editing and splicing the video clips, and even implementing them onto Internet websites to that people can watch and interact with the students who made the project.  If they needed help the teacher was there guide them, but most of the time the students did their own work.  Take pride in work is important for students.  Giving students the freedom to come up with a project gives them the drive to do a great job.  I think interviewing people is a great tool for learning.  It breaks down barriers and also prejudices.  Finding out information on people, in particular people who helped create or took part in history is a great learning tool. Students don’t always realize how “real” things are, but when a student can talk to someone who had a part in history or had “history happen to them”, such as the case with a Holocaust survivor, it brings History to a whole new level and allows students to see it definitely makes History come alive.  

                As mentioned before, I learn better by seeing and doing.  In most cases in my undergrad I put things on note cards (as previously mentioned) but I also always had music playing in the background.  I learn best with music playing, I do not know why but I can concentrate so much better. I think I know just about every song on the radio.  I think it is the receptiveness of a song or a beat that allows me to pick things up so easily.  Music or putting things to music is a great tool for teaching. An article written my Glen Bull and Joe Garafalo talks about how students can take a familiar song, omit the words, and implement their own words and facts. This process is called Remixing.  I have seen this first hand.  Working in Spencerport Middle School, I used to work in a special end classroom. In order for the students to remember facts about the Presidents we made up a silly song with a cool beat, and in about 5 minutes every student knew the information that we were trying to teach, even those who had serve learning problems compared with the others in the class.  Great tool to use, I just wish I had that, or had thought more about doing that when I was in school.

                I really enjoyed learning about all the many technologies that are out there at our finger tips.  I just hope that I can remember to use them when I am a teacher.  Anything that I can use to make my teaching experience easy, but more importantly fun and educational for the students and gets them to learn, know , and understand, I am all for trying it out.   

                As I mentioned in the last sentences of my paper… making History come alive, not an easy task.  Making history come alive with the use of interactive technologies, costly.  But making History fun, educational, and giving it the ability to come alive with the use of interactive technologies… priceless, everything else is just teaching.

article.aspx?cp-documentid=11256762 Technologically Obsessed.

Are you out of a job? Do you lack the skills necessary to obtain a good job? If so, then you need to call… sorry I had a moment there, remembering an old commercial.   So have you ever thought about how Technology could be a hindrance to your job, or even your personal life?  Well I saw and interesting article today on Yahoo while I was checking my email and it was about how technology can be consuming our lives.  The article was entitled Tech Addicts and talked about how people have become obsessed with checking email, blogs, MySpace, Facebook, and even playing games online.  It’s not just at work that people are doing this, but they are also using their cell phones so that they can access this information from anywhere that they might be.  People have lost touch with their friends and have even lost jobs because of becoming obsessed with all that is out there.   As the article mentioned people have been asked what the hardest thing to give up on, and their answers were their cell phone and Internet access.  People have even become addicted to online games, such as Poker, Black Jack, Tetris, and Peggle.  It’s not just online technology that people become obsessed with; I think its technology in general.  Having the next best things becomes obsessive and compulsive.  People who have addictive behaviors often will retract themselves from their friends and family and become consumed with a false world that is around them.  Video games or even online virtual worlds are becoming part of people and are becoming their livelihood.  I knew some people in my undergrad class that were so obsessed with the  game of Dungeons and Dragons that they literally played it out in their daily lives.  I my opinion people cross the line when they can’t realize the difference between fantasy and real life and it become a cult and obsession, but now I’m getting into a whole different topic and another discussion.

  I will admit that I love Facebook, MySpace, and I check my email maybe 2 or 3 times a day, but I do not let it consume my life.  I have other things in my life right now to become consumed with, such as school and this lovely EDTS 523 class that I am taking.  I use the sites such as Facebook and MySpace to communicate with my friends in other states, and I check my email for the same reasons as well as to communicate with professors.  The only time I become obsessed with checking these sites or sources are when I am completely and utterly bored.   I will admit that if these things were taken away from me I would probably get frustrated, but I would hope that I could be smart enough to find other useful, intelligent, and meaningful things to consume my life.   

I think it is important not to lose site of the important things I life.  The Internet world is a real world but can also be a fantasy world.  We need to keep important the people and things in our lives, like friends, family, jobs, that  make us who we are, and not become so obsessed with the tools that we use to keep us informed.  Am I making sense here?

PowerPoint, WOW, how confusing.  Last nights class was actually a step in a good direction for me.  I actually had fun learning about something that I am somewhat familiar with and becoming better at it.  I have always been one of those students who would watch a PowerPoint presentation and think to myself, “Wow, I wish my presentation looked like that”, or “I bet they got a better grade because of all the cool graphics”.  Sure I know now a little bit more on how to do all those cool things, but does that mean that I will even use them or even better yet… remember HOW (not yelling here) to use them.  Like Dr. Ransom said, PowerPoint presentations can be informative if done properly.   I have seen my share of PowerPoint presentations in the past and with lots of them, walked away not even knowing anything about what the person was speaking of, but instead walking away wishing I knew how to get that cool graphic on my presentation.    I want to be one of those presenters who can use PowerPoint as an effective teaching tool.  I don’t want to use all the hoopla and special effects if they aren’t necessary.  During last nights class as he was showing us how to make graphics and sounds, I was also playing with different backgrounds.  I am partial to the beach, ocean and anything dealing with those kinds of things; and found the cool beach background.  I loved it, but of course that wouldn’t go well if I was doing a presentation on the presidents.  So finding the right background, graphic, sound, or effect is very important to me.  Like I mentioned before, I just want to make sure that my PowerPoint presentations are effective and do not distract the learner from what I am trying to convey in my lesson.  Hey I know, maybe I can do a PowerPoint presentation about all the past presidents who lived near the beach or ocean… then maybe I can use the beach background for my Presentation; now there’s a great idea.

Sometimes we don’t think of the obvious

Isn’t it funny how in today’s day and age with all of our technology we sometimes just don’t think of the obvious? I mean come on… how hard is it to think of an obvious thing to do? I think for the most part we are so used to having all these complicated answers to things when dealing with technology and having all this complicated technology that when it comes to solving a problem we tend to look beyond the obvious simple answer. I also think that we have become prone to being lazy and looking for an easy way out to find the answer to “our question” because we don’t really want to do the work that it requires to find an answer. Researching a topic and getting and answer to a simple question, and all we have to do is Google it. I fall into this category a lot as well, in fact I think a lot of parents who lack the knowledge or know how are subconsciously teaching their children these bad habits as well. I work in at Spencerport Middle School, as a Teacher’s Aide and I work in the ISS room. (In school suspension/ detention room) I love my job, but too many kids come in my room on a daily basis without even trying or giving and effort in their work. They look for the easy way out, or just don’t know where or even how to find and look for an answer. The main request that I get in my little room (without windows I might add ) ) is how to spell a word. My first reaction used to be to give the spelling to the word, but now I’ve learned to say… “look it up, there’s a dictionary right there” and of course the students complain, but if we can teach them that they have to work for their answers it might just make thinking and digging for an answer to a question a little easier and even, heaven forbid, a little more fun. Children/ students now days have gotten so lazy in this technologically advance world and don’t want to do the work that it might take to find answer. So they try to take the easy way out and ask whoever is nearest them for the answer. I know I definitely fall into this category lot of time. This is not a slam against people who have looked, or just don’t know where to start to look or just don’t have a clue, by no means is this directed towards them, but I just find it frustrating sometimes that students and even some adults just don’t always think of the obvious before asking a question. I’ve found myself doing my best to look for answers to questions. Yesterday, I was researching for my paper and “Googled” my topic and came up with all kinds of things that just were not what I wanted and a lot that was as well, but I guess it just goes to show that you never know unless we try. So when in doubt… Google it. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again, and when you really can’t do it anymore then I suggest asking questions, because at least you’ve allocated all your resources and you can say that you gave it an effort.

So much to blog, so much to blog, so much to blog… (taken from a Dave Mathews song… “So Much To Say”)

Today we continued our discussion about Web 2.0 and boy am I still confused on what exactly it is. Can I just have a definition please? We started our Wiki projects (last week) and continued our talk about how teachers all over the world are using Wiki’s and Blogs to connect to various schools all around the world to collaborate together to exchange work and work together. This is the cool part of technology; using something such as a Blog or a Wiki to come together, if only we can come together more often to do good and learn about each other rather than do bad… but that’s another discussion for another time. I would hope that when I become a teacher I can remember how to use Blogs. Blogs are a great way to share information and to remain involved in the world around us. There is so much blogging out there that is it impossible not to find something to say. As Dave Mathews said in his song, “So Much to Say, So Much to say, So Much to Say, So Much to Say”. Yes, there is so much to say. Blogging is a great way to allow your students to post information, express themselves individually, as well as getting parents involved in their student’s learning, and allow parents to see their student in a different light. I think if I had, had a Blog I would of most likely been more vocabulary and technologically savvy. Using Blogs is a great exercise for the brain too. When a student knows that if they post information on the internet can have the possibility of being seen by millions of people, they tend to take things a little more seriously, or so we hope. The students’ value their work more and care about how much time and effort they put into their assignments and Blog posts. I think if we can teach our students and children that when they post information it can be seen by millions of people they hopefully will think twice about what they put out there. There is a collaboration of video’s on You Tube about Internet safety, and deals with this subject. One video that struck me was the video about “Think Before You Post”. That is such a powerful video clip. It’s about a girl who posted a picture or something on the Internet, and then all of a sudden people knew she was and all about her. She was mortified, and obviously did not intend for her personal information to be seen. I do not think that is something that students out there are thinking about, and I will admit I do not always think about that either, it’s so easy to post something innocently and to think nothing of it, and then boom… you’re out there and people can do whatever they want with your picture or any information that you post. This is not to say that everything we post is bad. Take for instance Mrs. Cassidy’s class blog. I really enjoyed watching the video about Mrs. Cassidy’s classroom blog. She and her class developed a blog and developed it so that it can be interactive with people around the world. I hope that I can do that as well. I feel just like her, I know next to nothing about all this new technology that is out there and definitely do not know what to do with it, but I you can start off slow then sooner or later things can develop and before you know it you may just have a frequent visitor from another part of the world or having a class collaboration from Australia or something cool and amazing as that. I hope I am able to take all this information in and use it for the greater good of the classroom and teach my students the positive and negative things about posting information, as well as to be able to have fun and allow my students to learn and have fun in process too.