A fun test of the Prezi tool for presentations!
Prezi Presentation!
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Weekly Question #2 - Chapter review
Reading the chapter on presentation design I found it to be pretty interesting. Many of the thing I've already learned, such as the ideas that when giving presentations you want them to be visually stimulating, to make something that will stick in the mind of the viewer, rather than just slide after slide of boring text and bullet points (which is fairly humorous because I have seen a few teachers and even professors do this, seemingly unaware of the boring effect it has on viewers). It's still nice to read and review however, and there are smaller points that it makes - such as to avoid 3D images and other distracting visualizations - that make you go "Mmhmm, makes sense..." while you read.
One of the more interesting parts was towards the end where it goes over "The Big Four." While these are more things that many people (although obviously not all) are typically aware of in the back of their minds, it's still very useful to have actually spelled out for you, especially the relationship between contrast and repetition, which if used together correctly I can imagine could yield some fantastic results.
Overall I wouldn't say that there was anything in the chapter that was a real mind-blower, but it is very nice having something like this actually written out, with main points and everything. It helps to understand EXACTLY what sort of effect you might be looking for with something and allows to to create a sort of check-off list or a sort of "presentation palette" for when you do create a presentation of your own.
One of the more interesting parts was towards the end where it goes over "The Big Four." While these are more things that many people (although obviously not all) are typically aware of in the back of their minds, it's still very useful to have actually spelled out for you, especially the relationship between contrast and repetition, which if used together correctly I can imagine could yield some fantastic results.
Overall I wouldn't say that there was anything in the chapter that was a real mind-blower, but it is very nice having something like this actually written out, with main points and everything. It helps to understand EXACTLY what sort of effect you might be looking for with something and allows to to create a sort of check-off list or a sort of "presentation palette" for when you do create a presentation of your own.
Weekly Question - Why will it be important for future teachers to cite their sources and seek permission to use copyrighted work?
To me this is a fairly simple question, although there are multiple answers.
The first answer is simple; EVERYONE should do this, at least legally. I'm not saying that teachers are wrong in not doing so (as it is a difficult thing to have enough content for your students and yet be able to keep up with copyright laws), but it's something that everyone should at least TRY to do. If a person gets in the habit of simply using copyrighted work or not citing their sources on a regular basis then not only is it dishonest to the people who see his or her work (thinking that the work is original to that person), but it may jeopardize another person's claim to something (such as monetary factors if someone were to photocopy their textbooks) as well as even put the violator at an increasing risk of being tried on copyright infringement. And that's something that nobody wants.
Every person should try to make it second-nature to follow copyright rules, for not only others' sake but also for their own.
This brings me to my second point. Every person should have copyright awareness on their minds at all times while working with intellectual or commercial property (especially in this day and age), and the best way to do this is to learn at a young age and do it through your whole life. And what's one of the best ways to learn about this at a young age?
By example.
If teacher's in the classrooms are constantly citing their sources when they bring something to class, or make sure that the students know that he or she got permission to show a movie a reprint a book, then the students will become more aware of it themselves. I personally have little awareness of this in the classroom, as teachers have always shown movies or said facts without citing the source or acknowledging that it was OK for them to show the copyrighted material. And now that I have only really become aware of this now, I am going to have to be extra cautious not to step on any toes in the future, because who knows what I might do by habit!
So let's not raise the chances of our future students "shafting" some company or person by failing to follow copyright laws, by making sure that we all do it properly.
The first answer is simple; EVERYONE should do this, at least legally. I'm not saying that teachers are wrong in not doing so (as it is a difficult thing to have enough content for your students and yet be able to keep up with copyright laws), but it's something that everyone should at least TRY to do. If a person gets in the habit of simply using copyrighted work or not citing their sources on a regular basis then not only is it dishonest to the people who see his or her work (thinking that the work is original to that person), but it may jeopardize another person's claim to something (such as monetary factors if someone were to photocopy their textbooks) as well as even put the violator at an increasing risk of being tried on copyright infringement. And that's something that nobody wants.
Every person should try to make it second-nature to follow copyright rules, for not only others' sake but also for their own.
This brings me to my second point. Every person should have copyright awareness on their minds at all times while working with intellectual or commercial property (especially in this day and age), and the best way to do this is to learn at a young age and do it through your whole life. And what's one of the best ways to learn about this at a young age?
By example.
If teacher's in the classrooms are constantly citing their sources when they bring something to class, or make sure that the students know that he or she got permission to show a movie a reprint a book, then the students will become more aware of it themselves. I personally have little awareness of this in the classroom, as teachers have always shown movies or said facts without citing the source or acknowledging that it was OK for them to show the copyrighted material. And now that I have only really become aware of this now, I am going to have to be extra cautious not to step on any toes in the future, because who knows what I might do by habit!
So let's not raise the chances of our future students "shafting" some company or person by failing to follow copyright laws, by making sure that we all do it properly.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Experiencing Web 2.0
Using the website GO2WEB20 I tested 3 different "online applications" in three different areas that I could see as being useful in some way or another. I chose one website for reading/writing, another for music creation, and a third for video creation. Here's my brief review on each:
BookRix - The reading/writing site that I tested out. It is a site made for independent writers and readers to reach out to one another to have their stories read. You are able to read almost all of the books for free, with some exceptions, and if you sign up you can download the stories, comment on them, favorite them, etc. While reading a story, you could also read people's comments about the story, which would mostly include reader feedback. This seems like an incredibly useful site for younger adults who wish to start dabbling in the arts of literature creation.
At first I was unsure about the site, compared to my expectations. The stories seemed over-simplified and incredibly short. Yet after thinking on it I realized that was the good thing about the website. If the writers were putting their heart and soul into a work, then why would they put it up on the internet for free, rather than attempt to get it published? And if every story was a long read, then it'd be difficult for every person to have their story read as there simply wouldn't be enough "reader" time to go around. The site was made so that people could post a story they made, out of pure leisure, onto the internet to be enjoyed and/or critiqued. The stories are either just for fun, such as a hobby, or as a means of gaining experience for bigger -and better- things down the road. This means that the website could be for young writers/readers, still in elementary school even, to the most experienced of literature enthusiasts, who wish to become critics themselves.
The largest complaint that I have with the site is the flash book-reader thing, as it simply complicates reading the materiel and adds in an unnecessary complication that makes it difficult to read at times.
I could use this website (after looking through it more to verify that it would be age-appropriate) in what I hope to be my fifth-grade class.* Each students would sign up for the website and submit a story of their own to be read by the world. This would be a great way to reach the creative side of the students (with them working harder due to the image of having a world-wide audience), as well as possibly jump-start any students who have a natural talent for writing literature.
*My views on this website would work for not just younger grades (such as fifth grade), but I believe could be expressed for all grades in K-12 schools, even high school kids,
JamStudio - The music website that I investigated. The website allows users to create their own songs from scratch my using easy-to-use instrument sounds that can be matched up with any chord or key as they desire. The instruments to choose from are acoustic guitar, bass, drums, electric guitar(x3), piano, and electric piano. The tool for making the music is very simplified, yet there's still plenty to it in order to allow a person the ability to make a good, original song.
The site delivered very well in what I expecting, although I was a little disappointed that you were unable to actually create the rhythms/sounds for the instruments themselves, yet I know this is in order to keep the program simple and to allow any person to be able to make what sounds like good music no matter their musical background. And either way there's still plenty of sounds to choose from that a person will be able to stay occupied on the website for a long time before exhausting all of the "resources" given to them.
I think this wold be a very fun thing to do in a classroom (mostly just for younger kids, however), and could introduce two things that most would never even have the ability to combine into one activity in their entire lives; music and creativity. It would be fun for students to be taken down to the computer lab, have a set of headphones, and be given time to make their own songs. And due to the ease of making music, I doubt many kids would find themselves in over their heads immediately, as a student could just fool around with a single instrument for maybe even 30 minutes without getting bored. This would be an fun and exciting new way for students to interact with music, and after a day or two in the lab, if a student desired, he or she could go home and start using the program there to make what they want. It could be a great new experience.
ANIMOTO - The video website that I looked into. Reluctant to sign up for things right now if I don't know that I'm going to try and use them (if I start signing up for everything right now I'd lose track of my accounts everywhere immediately and would probably get bombarded with emails from every website) it was difficult for me to truly see everything in this site. Yet I took a small tour and was able to find out enough to make a decent assumption about the site, I believe. The website is made as a new method of giving presentations, it combines the feel of a video with the pictures/movies of a slideshow or power-point presentation, while adding a song to go over everything. It has the quality of a full-blown marketing video to attract buying customers but is made for a family sending out a video to friends and other relatives about a trip they had recently gone on. Yet it does all of this without the need for a trained visual effects person (can't remember what they're officially called at the moment), by setting up what seems to be something similar to the JamStudio (see above) website, where everything is made for you and you just move the pieces in places where you want them.
Originally I thought that the website was going to be something similar to Prezi (which is another site that is made to show presentations in a new light), but it is much more a video, rather than a visual show to go with an actual oral presentation.
This tool (if it could be accessed by students without having to make them all pay) would be a great way for students to have a fun way to summarize something that happened to them up. Perhaps groups give presentations after a group science project, or friends have fun at the end of the year (if this is done it couldn't be assigned to the whole class, as certain individuals may be singled out), or maybe their dreams for the future. In any case it would be a fun way to introduce kids to different types of presentations they could give, as well as the preparation that would be required of them.
I can't be certain of what the best ways to use this website would be (as I haven't been able to do much inside of it myself yet), but after further probing I'm sure that I could find a way for students, of all ages, to be able to use this site for themselves.
BookRix - The reading/writing site that I tested out. It is a site made for independent writers and readers to reach out to one another to have their stories read. You are able to read almost all of the books for free, with some exceptions, and if you sign up you can download the stories, comment on them, favorite them, etc. While reading a story, you could also read people's comments about the story, which would mostly include reader feedback. This seems like an incredibly useful site for younger adults who wish to start dabbling in the arts of literature creation.
At first I was unsure about the site, compared to my expectations. The stories seemed over-simplified and incredibly short. Yet after thinking on it I realized that was the good thing about the website. If the writers were putting their heart and soul into a work, then why would they put it up on the internet for free, rather than attempt to get it published? And if every story was a long read, then it'd be difficult for every person to have their story read as there simply wouldn't be enough "reader" time to go around. The site was made so that people could post a story they made, out of pure leisure, onto the internet to be enjoyed and/or critiqued. The stories are either just for fun, such as a hobby, or as a means of gaining experience for bigger -and better- things down the road. This means that the website could be for young writers/readers, still in elementary school even, to the most experienced of literature enthusiasts, who wish to become critics themselves.
The largest complaint that I have with the site is the flash book-reader thing, as it simply complicates reading the materiel and adds in an unnecessary complication that makes it difficult to read at times.
I could use this website (after looking through it more to verify that it would be age-appropriate) in what I hope to be my fifth-grade class.* Each students would sign up for the website and submit a story of their own to be read by the world. This would be a great way to reach the creative side of the students (with them working harder due to the image of having a world-wide audience), as well as possibly jump-start any students who have a natural talent for writing literature.
*My views on this website would work for not just younger grades (such as fifth grade), but I believe could be expressed for all grades in K-12 schools, even high school kids,
JamStudio - The music website that I investigated. The website allows users to create their own songs from scratch my using easy-to-use instrument sounds that can be matched up with any chord or key as they desire. The instruments to choose from are acoustic guitar, bass, drums, electric guitar(x3), piano, and electric piano. The tool for making the music is very simplified, yet there's still plenty to it in order to allow a person the ability to make a good, original song.
The site delivered very well in what I expecting, although I was a little disappointed that you were unable to actually create the rhythms/sounds for the instruments themselves, yet I know this is in order to keep the program simple and to allow any person to be able to make what sounds like good music no matter their musical background. And either way there's still plenty of sounds to choose from that a person will be able to stay occupied on the website for a long time before exhausting all of the "resources" given to them.
I think this wold be a very fun thing to do in a classroom (mostly just for younger kids, however), and could introduce two things that most would never even have the ability to combine into one activity in their entire lives; music and creativity. It would be fun for students to be taken down to the computer lab, have a set of headphones, and be given time to make their own songs. And due to the ease of making music, I doubt many kids would find themselves in over their heads immediately, as a student could just fool around with a single instrument for maybe even 30 minutes without getting bored. This would be an fun and exciting new way for students to interact with music, and after a day or two in the lab, if a student desired, he or she could go home and start using the program there to make what they want. It could be a great new experience.
ANIMOTO - The video website that I looked into. Reluctant to sign up for things right now if I don't know that I'm going to try and use them (if I start signing up for everything right now I'd lose track of my accounts everywhere immediately and would probably get bombarded with emails from every website) it was difficult for me to truly see everything in this site. Yet I took a small tour and was able to find out enough to make a decent assumption about the site, I believe. The website is made as a new method of giving presentations, it combines the feel of a video with the pictures/movies of a slideshow or power-point presentation, while adding a song to go over everything. It has the quality of a full-blown marketing video to attract buying customers but is made for a family sending out a video to friends and other relatives about a trip they had recently gone on. Yet it does all of this without the need for a trained visual effects person (can't remember what they're officially called at the moment), by setting up what seems to be something similar to the JamStudio (see above) website, where everything is made for you and you just move the pieces in places where you want them.
Originally I thought that the website was going to be something similar to Prezi (which is another site that is made to show presentations in a new light), but it is much more a video, rather than a visual show to go with an actual oral presentation.
This tool (if it could be accessed by students without having to make them all pay) would be a great way for students to have a fun way to summarize something that happened to them up. Perhaps groups give presentations after a group science project, or friends have fun at the end of the year (if this is done it couldn't be assigned to the whole class, as certain individuals may be singled out), or maybe their dreams for the future. In any case it would be a fun way to introduce kids to different types of presentations they could give, as well as the preparation that would be required of them.
I can't be certain of what the best ways to use this website would be (as I haven't been able to do much inside of it myself yet), but after further probing I'm sure that I could find a way for students, of all ages, to be able to use this site for themselves.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Internet Resources
-Technorati - A blog/site evaluator for legitimacy/validity
-tinyurl - A website to shorten a web address to give to others
-Top 20 Teacher Blogs - a source of different blogs for teachers
-wikispaces - a website for creating and managing wiki pages
-Prezi - An imaginative website for a different style of presentations
-Google Reader - A Google search engine that allows you to subscribe to any topic you wish
-Wall Wisher - A site for creating an online "bulletin board"
-Survey Monkey - A website allowing you to create surveys
-tinyurl - A website to shorten a web address to give to others
-Top 20 Teacher Blogs - a source of different blogs for teachers
-wikispaces - a website for creating and managing wiki pages
-Prezi - An imaginative website for a different style of presentations
-Google Reader - A Google search engine that allows you to subscribe to any topic you wish
-Wall Wisher - A site for creating an online "bulletin board"
-Survey Monkey - A website allowing you to create surveys
Monday, January 16, 2012
Blogging with Students - week 1
1. To be honest I've never really thought of using a blog for students. To do so seems to me to be much more of a conversational method of conducting lessons, in a sense. Maybe I just need a better understanding of how a blog could be used in a classroom. To me a blog is a way for someone to be a sort of journalist from their own home or office. Students, on the other hand, aren't exactly playing the journalist role. Instead, I see students more as official "authors." The work that they make are edited to a final version ready to be turned in, or "published," into a well-thought-out paper. This paper could be a research paper or a story, not an ongoing report of something taking place.
Yet perhaps that is why a blog would be used. Rather than make students out to be working on paper after paper at home assignments, they can have an assignment that is done from their house on a continuing basis. A blog could be used to show a student's progress in a science project, or -even better- could be a way for a student to every night reflect on what they had learned at school.
What the blog could be used for would vary depending on whether other students could see each others' blogs as well. If they could see each others' blogs then it would be better suited for them to use them for specific projects or for a class-wide assignment. If not, it would be a terrific way for a teacher to keep in touch with students about the lessons, as a way for the teachers or students to ask questions without the students feeling vulnerable in front of everyone else.
Considering these ideas, I would make sure the first and foremost, students were not to put any information that is private about themselves. This means where they live, their phone numbers, try to avoid listing after-school activities, or personal matters that they wouldn't want others to see. I would also make sure that each student had access to the internet, either at a public place like a library close by (which would also mean a means to access said library), or at home. Then I would make sure that each students is aware of how to use a computer and the internet, if it were OK with their parents. Then I would make sure that each student understood the risks of using the internet and safety precautions to take with it.
2. While using blogs doesn't cover many of the national and state standards for technology, there are several different ones that it does help out with. An example of this is number 3 of the Standards: Research and Information Fluency. A teacher can have students conduct research on a topic and post their research results, as well as their opinion, online on a blog. This would cover the various requirements of using digital tools. Another standard is number 2: Communication and Collaboration. By using a blog students could communicate with one another via digital posts, and stay in contact for an ongoing project, or could use a blog to share an assignment with an audience.
3. For my Google apps lesson plan I chose Historical Novel from Carol LaRow. The lesson objective is to have the entire class read a historical novel about an era in history, and to have the students understand the meaning and main ideas of the book, and reflect it on the time period. The lesson plan utilizes several different tools in Google, such as Google blogger (as a means of creating a class discussion online), Google Earth (to show students specific places described in the book), Google Docs (to set up a presentation in order to summarize a part of the book for other students), and other tools. These tools would be used not only by the teacher, but also by the students in order to create presentations and points about the book on their own. This would mean that students would be using digital technology as a resource for information as well as a means of creativity towards understanding the historical time period.
I actually think it is a well thought-out lesson and I would have never thought to have used the tools the way that this teacher outlined the lesson to. I could possibly see myself using a lesson like this one in the future.
Yet perhaps that is why a blog would be used. Rather than make students out to be working on paper after paper at home assignments, they can have an assignment that is done from their house on a continuing basis. A blog could be used to show a student's progress in a science project, or -even better- could be a way for a student to every night reflect on what they had learned at school.
What the blog could be used for would vary depending on whether other students could see each others' blogs as well. If they could see each others' blogs then it would be better suited for them to use them for specific projects or for a class-wide assignment. If not, it would be a terrific way for a teacher to keep in touch with students about the lessons, as a way for the teachers or students to ask questions without the students feeling vulnerable in front of everyone else.
Considering these ideas, I would make sure the first and foremost, students were not to put any information that is private about themselves. This means where they live, their phone numbers, try to avoid listing after-school activities, or personal matters that they wouldn't want others to see. I would also make sure that each student had access to the internet, either at a public place like a library close by (which would also mean a means to access said library), or at home. Then I would make sure that each students is aware of how to use a computer and the internet, if it were OK with their parents. Then I would make sure that each student understood the risks of using the internet and safety precautions to take with it.
2. While using blogs doesn't cover many of the national and state standards for technology, there are several different ones that it does help out with. An example of this is number 3 of the Standards: Research and Information Fluency. A teacher can have students conduct research on a topic and post their research results, as well as their opinion, online on a blog. This would cover the various requirements of using digital tools. Another standard is number 2: Communication and Collaboration. By using a blog students could communicate with one another via digital posts, and stay in contact for an ongoing project, or could use a blog to share an assignment with an audience.
3. For my Google apps lesson plan I chose Historical Novel from Carol LaRow. The lesson objective is to have the entire class read a historical novel about an era in history, and to have the students understand the meaning and main ideas of the book, and reflect it on the time period. The lesson plan utilizes several different tools in Google, such as Google blogger (as a means of creating a class discussion online), Google Earth (to show students specific places described in the book), Google Docs (to set up a presentation in order to summarize a part of the book for other students), and other tools. These tools would be used not only by the teacher, but also by the students in order to create presentations and points about the book on their own. This would mean that students would be using digital technology as a resource for information as well as a means of creativity towards understanding the historical time period.
I actually think it is a well thought-out lesson and I would have never thought to have used the tools the way that this teacher outlined the lesson to. I could possibly see myself using a lesson like this one in the future.
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