End of semester

Well finally, here is the end of the semester. On one hand it feels like this semester has flown by and on the other it couldn't have come soon enough. At the beginning it was hard to gauge how much I really thought I would learn. As far as the tools and projects, I feel like its really hit or miss. Some of them I will definitely use in my real life and others I doubt I'll remember next year. I've already made two additional google sites (for my rugby team, and a personal one) and started a travel blog for my summer backpacking trip in Hawaii. Not to mention, I use google docs for EVERYTHING. These are valuable tools that have forever changed the ease and experience of my academic and non academic life. Now it's hard to even imagine life before google docs. The one thing I expected to learn from the course and didn't was Prezi. I guess I know older education students who learned Prezi through the education dept and figured this is where. Not that its hard to pick up, but going through a "practice project" with the new tools was definitely helpful. The best part of this class has really been the level of authenticity in assessment. It's been such a relief to be "working" towards good grades vs merely "studying."

Website

I loooooved learning how to use google sites! I have since made two others and will definitely continue to utilize this tool. For the most part, it's user friendly (especially compared to html sites.) Once you figure out how to use it, the possibilities are endless! I hope it will be appropriate in my classroom one day to make a project for students, where they create their own google site. It's too useful to do otherwise, really. I especially like the idea of using a website as a portfolio of your work. I really can't stress enough how helpful project especially has been.

Digital Story: The San Diego Zoo

Using iMovie took a few moments of learning to do the basic tasks (wasn't really self-explanatory), but after this it was really easy to use. I think the only downside has been that I didn't know how to do everything that the program is capable of. I think for the next project I would learn more about further capabilities and add more video to my presentation instead of just photos. This is a great way for students to present photo/video projects as opposed to now I think most students just take the video straight from the camera to present.

IWB

When viewing the examples before we started the project I thought it was neat and could be really useful, especially for a review. After using the software, I thought it was hard to use and took a long time to create for the product I got out of it. The software also had some weird quirks in it. For some reason I couldn't manipulate the tools/graphics the way I should have been able to. (ie when using the arrows it kept just disappearing.) In my classroom I'm really not sure how much I would use this software beyond just making pretty basic powerpoints. For the next time I use an IWB, I would make the graphics/diagrams outside the software and just import them in as an image, rather than trying to create them inside Inspire.

answer questions

Inspiration

This project went really smoothly and the tool was easy to use. My biggest complaint is just the speed of the program. There was a fairly large lag time whenever I changed the font type. Once I changed the font it also didn't stay set as the default, which would be convenient. For me as a teacher I think this program would be most convenient as a tool to help categorize topics and items. Next time I would use pictures differently. I don't think they are very useful in the example above. I think there are other subjects/topics where they would be more useful. I also think the layout could be improved. There is to much extra space on the top left corner.

Scavenger Hunt: in Picasa and Google Presentation

For this project, it was really easy to use Picasa and Google Presentation. It was also really easy to embed each of those things. It's also nice how easy it is to change the resolution of a picture on an apple computer. The hardest part of the project was honestly finding things to match the descriptions for the scavenger hunt in 40 minutes.
I instantly thought this project would be a great summary of physics concepts. Students could take pictures of things illustrating various physical principles (fluid dynamics, angular momentum, friction, etc.) I would also ask students to explain the principle and demonstrate how each thing illustrates its associated principle.
If I were doing this project I would allow more time for students to think/find the objects to photograph. It could be a week-long take home project rather than having one class period to complete all the photos.

Smilebox

Free photo collage made with Smilebox

I think I would use this tool more for decorating my own, not as a student project. It's really user friendly and I think it would be a good header on a website page introducing a chapter.

Pixler

TimeToast

I didn't think this tool was the most user-friendly, but I do like the idea of having a self- created timeline. A really good project idea!

DELICIOUS

Here is the link to my delicious webpage: http://www.delicious.com/lagle


I wish I used this more often. It's a great idea! The main reason I don't use it more often is because I've really gotten into google chrome, and it saves all your bookmarks, settings, etc in the browser. The main advantage this has over the other one is the social aspect- which would be more useful if a had a group to utilize it with.

Glogster

Wordle

Just a coincidence, but I did the I Have a Dream Speech!

I really liked this tool,  and I will definitely use it in my future classrooms. It's such a fun way to decorate websites, study guides, the syllabus, or just about anything!

GLOGSTERRRRRR

My Web 2.0 tool to present is Glogster. My partner and I have been really utilizing google docs in collaborating on this project. There were a lot of examples on the website on what sort of projects Glogster could be used for.
     One of the things I'm still working through is the customizability of Glogster. I'm hoping to find out if I can add my own backgrounds and themes.  Where I can put the text boxes isn't also as free. So far, I think I would use Glogster with a younger group of kids. For older children, I think their are better tools with more options available that can provide simliar uses. I think it would be a good tool to use for creative projects. (About me, history posters, collages)

to Wiki or not to Wiki

My favorite thing about using the wiki was is the students' ability to collaborate and share their work.  Say, if someone starts their project really early they can continue to change and make it better as they see ideas from other people's pages. It's also a good way to make the project a long-term resource for everyone in the class.
I wouldn't overuse wikis but I think it would be most useful as a posting place for a project or for an ongoing formula sheet. I could assign each chapter to a group of students and that group would make a study guide/ formula sheet to put on the wiki. That way, everyone would contribute to a course study guide that they can reference even after that school year is over.
Next time, I would definitely change my font styles more to show creativity and emphasis. One thing I did do though, that some others did not, was to at least make the post centered.

Website Evaluation

During this activity I learned what things to look for that would make a website legitimate/useful. Before I don't think I would've thought to check the copyright date. Of all criteria though, I don't think the copyright is the most important because some information does expire or need to be changed. This activity definitely gave me experience in evaluating websites.  I even think it helped picking a legitimate website like I had (nobelprize.org) because I know all the information I was looking for existed somewhere. That also almost made it too easy though. I will probably practice these skills more when looking at websites so I can gain the experience in recognizing illegitimate websites. I also think one difficulty in the activity could've been (had i had a illegit website) weighing the good/bad and being forced to make the decision when it would still be appropriate to use an expired/ unreliable website.

Hello, World

I'm in my fourth year and UT and I couldn't be happier. Before the first day of class I wasn't sure what to expect, thinking it might be a course on how to use Microsoft office. I have quickly found out how useful this class really will be. I'm a huge fan of web based applications and actually considered getting a chromebook. What am I looking to get out of this course? I guess exactly that, furthering my use of the web to be an effective teacher. I'm really looking forward to this semester and especially learning how to use prezi, which I've heard so much about. By the way, did you know the world wide web was invented for particle physicist to share data at CERN? (which is now home to the world's largest particle accelerator!)