Week 4 PowerPoint

PowerPoint presentations can be a very useful tool in today's classroom.  If you use it correctly, it can help students learn and stay engaged in the lesson.  I created a PowerPoint presentation for a fifth grade Language Arts class.  The lesson covered interjections and how to use them correctly in their writing.  I compared the interjections to chicken wings, mild and spicy.  The presentation allowed me to have visuals of chicken wings, spicy on the slide with spicy interjections- 'Stop!' and mild wings with mild interjections- 'Hey, blah, blah, blah'.  This comparison allowed students to associate how the interjections should be used.  The students really liked the lesson.  I introduced a Shel Silverstein poem 'Boa Constrictor' in the presentation.  This allowed the students to see a real writer use different kinds of interjections.  They were also able to see how punctuation can change the way you read things.  The students were then assigned to write their own poem with multiple interjections using the Silverstein poem as a template.  One thing I might change if I used the PowerPoint again would be to put more examples of different kinds of interjections.  The kids loved writing and sharing their own poems reading the interjections in mild and spicy ways.  
This week I had the opportunity to explore four different websites through tech explorations.  The first site was ispeech.  It is a high quality text to speech and speech recognition provider.  The basic plans are free, but to upgrade the price increases.  When you pay for it, you can more hours of recording.  This site was easy to use, but it's not much different from many other text to speech sites.  
The next site is voicethread; this is a cloud app so there is no software to download.  You can upload and share and discuss documents or presentations, images, audiofiles, and videos.  This can be used in online classrooms or after school tutoring.  For a teacher to purchase with up to 50 student accounts, the price is $79 a year or $15 a month.  There is a digital library on the site that has all kinds of articles about successful voice thread uses.  I would recommend this site to teachers if they didn't already use gmail or something like that to communicate with their students outside the classroom.  
The next site was really cool.  Story bird Scribblar is an online tutoring platform.  You can use it for online tutoring, revising documents, brainstorming, demonstrations, and tests.  They have free and paid plans, and each upgrade to a new plan is only $9.  This would be great at my school as an after school tutoring program.  Some students can't stay after school because they have to get the bus.  They could log on to scribblar to join in on the tutoring.  
The last website was buncee.  This site is a new way of creating and sharing online and mobile greetings.  This site is very user friendly.  You can search different topics or create your own.  Teachers can use this site to send information to parents.  Students can create short stories and then the class can go online to comment.  Students can watch pieces of art from other schools.  I would recommend this site to other teachers.  A teacher in my school who teaches special education uses a site like this already to create short stories with her students.  She loves it. 
Though it wasn't a tech exploration, I got to explore the TED site.  Like youtube, this site is full of videos.  These videos are informative and interesting.  I found myself watching hours of videos of differing topics.  If you find the right video, it could be used in you classroom as a resource tool.  
This advanced technology class is already half way through.  I have learned so much already, and I'm excited to see what the next four weeks include.        

Lesson 3: Desktop Publishing

This week was BUSY, to say the least.  My school just started March Madness, in the classroom, and in the gym.  Each class has been practicing their basketball skills.  This week, each grade level will compete against other classes in the same grade.  In the classroom, each student is preparing for dreaded K-Prep.  In the gym, they are preparing for BASKETBALL!! I had to create a flyer to hang around the school informing students of when March Madness (in the gym) would begin.  The first one I created was boring.  It was just typed in black letters, same font in a boring word document.  There really wasn't anything visually appealing about this flyer.  Just a boring piece of paper hanging on a school hallway, not attracting anyone's attention.  I believe the boring-ness of the flyer distracted from the message because who would stop to read it?  It had no flare, no special features, it was boring.  I re-created it to make it a little more visually appealing.  

 

I feel like this flyer will catch students' eyes.  There is color on this flyer and I used different fonts and sizes.  It was difficult for me at first to come up with this flyer because I don't have much experience in this area.  I was lucky because the principal didn't want any more information on the flyer since it was just hanging in the hallways of an elementary school; it is just supposed to get the students ready for the games.  

Visual images are important because it attracts the person to look at what ever the visual image is on.  It helps people put a picture to what they are reading.  Visual images help people understand and connect to what they are reading, whether it be in a flyer or book.  

Now, on to the tech explorations! There were many this week that I really enjoyed learning about, and I feel like I can use many of these websites (or at least pass them along to the right teachers at my school).  There were other websites that I did not particularly enjoy, and I found them difficult to look at.  
     Zoho is a free site, any one can sign up for an account.  You can use zoho for many things.  They have different applications to assist many different people and activities.  They have collaboration applications, and these can be used in the classroom.  Students can use these for projects.  Productivity applications can be used for keeping up with calendars or grades.  I feel like this site is like google (gmail).  It provides e-mail and a way to save things on the browser so you can access it from any internet friendly computer.  This website was a little hard to understand what all it could offer.  I wouldn't recommend this to teachers because it was a bit overwhelming for me.  
     GPAT is a website that helped me learn a lot about assistive technology.  Though this website is for the Georgia Department of Education, it has many links regarding assistive technology.  This site is completely free, but as far as I could tell, it would only be helpful if you are looking for ways to gain assistive technology in your district.  In a school setting I would use this website as a resource.  There are many pages regarding legal mandates and how to implement the program in the school district.  
     The next website is called 4teachers.  I loved this site! On this website there were links that connects you to many different websites, I explored three.  
          Quizstar is a free web based quiz maker.  It allows you to administer and grade quizzes online.  With the quiz, you can attach multimedia files, put it in multiple languages, and access the quiz from any computer.  I would totally use this in the classroom!  Teachers at the school I work at already utilize this great site.  From what I have heard from them, and the website, making the quiz is easy.  Students login and click on the class and the quiz is right there! This would be good for little pop-quizzes or long multiple choice tests.  I would recommend this to teachers because it's easy to use and it's FREE!!  Quizstar is great because it also can keep track of the grades and report student progress if you use it on a regular basis.  
          Trackstar is a free website.  It has online lessons and activities.  Teachers can create their own tracks.  Tracks are a collection of websites and information regarding a particular lesson/subject.  Teachers can make their own or they can browse others.  This site is easy to use.  It allows you to search by grade, subject, or theme.  There are also fun lessons made for everyday of the year.  If I was a teacher, I would try to utilize this website by having an interactive lesson during morning work.  They could get on the computer and complete a lesson using trackstar.  The students would kinda be in charge of their own learning with each lesson.  I would recommend this to other teachers because it is free and easy to use. 
          Arcademicskillbuilders is a website that has educational video games, arcade style.  You can get online and play for free, but it does talk about terms of service, 3% of the proceeds go to the Boys and Girls Club.  The games are separated by skill level and grade.  You can pick the games relating to what you are working on in class.  The games focused on math, at least the ones I was interested in.  I actually did recommend this website to one of the teachers at my school because she was having a time teaching fractions.  Students were just not grasping the concept.  I would use this website in the classroom during centers, to give students a choice between dreambox or this.  Both have math games, but it would be something different.  
     Dimio was a website that I did not particularly enjoy.  Powertalk is a free website that tries to explain how to install text to speech programs on the computer.  I think the site was difficult to figure out.  I could not find a price for any of the programs, but it does attempt to explain several.  The program allows you to select different voices and combine them to create dialogue.  They could also be translated in to different languages.  You could use this in the classroom if you have students with seeing disabilities or major problems reading.  Instead of having paras read tests to students maybe they could use a program like this.  I would not recommend this site to colleagues because as I said it was difficult to figure out.  I didn't even like looking at the layout of it.  
     Fullmeasure-powertalk is a free website.  It can speak any presentation or slide show running on Microsoft Powepoint for Windows.  It can speak text as it appears on the screen and hidden text attached to images.  It has directions on how to use/install right on the web page, so I think this site is pretty user friendly.  I think you could use this in a classroom in elementary school or high school.  Imagine losing your voice, but have an important topic to teach before a test.  This program would allow the teacher to still get their point across with out straining their voice.  It could also be useful for students who, again, are visually impaired.  I would recommend this site to other teachers because it is free and all you have to do it download it.  The instructions are right on the website, and I feel like it would be a fairly easy program to use in the classroom.  
     Webquest- I have never heard of this site, but there is a bunch of information about it on the webpage.  This is an inquiry oriented lesson format- the information comes from the internet.  This is a good use of internet while engaging students.  It allows the use of google and other search sites that yield the most appropriate search results.  Students could use this on research projects and group projects.  I would recommend this site to other teachers.  I believe it is free, I couldn't find anything that stated otherwise.  It was also fairly easy to navigate and learn about.  
     Readthewords is a site that can convert any document in to a speech recording.  You can do some things for free, but if you want to do anything elaborate, you may need to purchase a package.  They have 3 different packages and a teacher package.  They all include different things like number of hours you can record, save, broadcast, and so on.  I don't know that I would recommend this particular website because I feel like there are other websites that can do the same thing for free.  This can be used to teach pronunciation to students, specifically younger students.  If teachers purchase the teacher package, they could use this site to document events that happened in their room through out the year.  You could also send students/parents pre-recorded messages via phone. 
  

Lesson 2: WIKIS

This week, I got the opportunity to explore many websites using databases and spreadsheets.  I feel like I am more familiar with the spreadsheets than the databases.  I have at least used Microsoft excel, which if you don't know is an example of a spreadsheet.  I feel like these can be useful in the classroom if they are implemented in an appropriate manner.  They are great for organizing a large amount of information.  Tools like excel can be used to make tables, charts, or graphs.  Just like in "The Machine that Goes Ping", it is important to know how to use the shiny new technology, and not just have it in your classroom because it is new and shiny.  So many teachers have the latest technology, but don't really utilize in their classroom.  This doesn't help the students when it comes to learning how to use any technology. 
Another exploration I did this week was learning all about Wiki.  I've never really knew what these were before, with the exception of wikipedia.  A wiki is a website created so that multiple people can have acess to it, not just to read, but to add to.  Wiki can be used in a classroom for group projects, discussion boards, or as ways for teachers to get information out.  A specific Wiki I looked at was one made by Vicki Davis, a Georgia school teacher.  She uses Wiki in her classroom.  The website is used for her and her students.  You could say it is administrative and educational.  It gets information to parents/students while allowing students to share on their class projects.  The website is being used to post and compile information.  It is also being used for the construction of new knowledge.  I think the use of Wiki in a classroom is a great use of technology.  However, what about those students that don't have computers at their house.  For anyone that works in a school system where many students are low-income, this may be a problem.  Students without computers may feel left out or like that can't contribute.  Then, you couldn't make the use of the Wiki mandatory because not every student has access to computers.  
I also completed three tech explorations this week.  Online mapping tools are used to organize your data.  Your classroom can use these for brainstorming and organizing what they come up with.  This resource would be good for science and math classes.  It allows the student to see what their work got them.  Another website was google docs.  This is a great way to share information from student to student or student to teacher! It is free and extremely easy to use.  Bonus: you won't have to keep up with a flash drive.  You just upload your assignment to the doc then go to school and get on any computer sign in to your google account and it's there! Animoto is one of the last sites I explored.  It does cost money to use, but only five bucks a month (or $30 a year).  For some teachers this may be worth the cost.  It allows students to be creative and create 30 second videos (if you have the free version).  Students could use animoto when making presentations.  There are great attention grabbing tools.  Teachers could also use it for their presentations.    

Lesson 1 Reflection

I have begun my Educational Technology class.  At first, I was a bit overwhelmed.  Once I got in to the assignments a little bit, it wasn't so bad.  

First, I explored the Educational Technology Standards and Indicators.  I chose to discuss the first one, facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity.  I talked about a teacher I observed at Silver Creek Ele. utilizing a virtual classroom.  

Next, I explored three different online resources: pbworks, tumble books, and podcasts.  Pbworks helps engage students in an online workspace.  It would be very helpful if students were assigned a lot of group assignments.  If you use the basic model, it does not cost any money.  Tumblebooks is a great resource.  My school uses this resource during their reading centers.  It allows the students to work on the computer and improve their literacy levels.  It does cost $799 dollars a year for an elementary school.  Podcasts are also a useful resource for educators.  Because of the attention span of younger students and the availability of technology, podcasts may be more beneficial for students in high school or college.  

The first week in this class has already been very informative.  The definition and information about technology alone has taught me something.  Technology is anything that seeks to apply science to practical human endeavors for the benefit of people (Eisle and Eisle, 3).

References

Eisele, J. E., & Eisele, M. E. (1990). Educational technology: A planning and resource guide supporting curriculum. New York: Garland