ITEC 7430: Thing 14

Delicious! What a great way to keep up with my bookmarks. I downloaded my bookmarks from home and tomorrow I will download my bookmarks from school that I use daily. This is a great way to share my math and social studies links with the teachers I work with. This could be the place where teachers go first to find helpful online links. I can also inform my students of helpful tutorial/practice/informative links they can use to study or get further information on a topic. This is also a place students can use to get to links used most in school on a daily basis such as StudyIsland, OAS, the CMS homepage, etc... I've just begun using delicious and I've already sent several links to math teachers I work with telling them of the site and how to easily find the links we use most often. Here is my delicious site...http://www.delicious.com/achuppteaches

ITEC 7430: Thing 12

I created a wall at wallwisher.com. Here is my wall... http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/achuppteaches
The site uses post-its to create an online bulletin board to post announcements, keep notes or ask questions. 
I posted a question that students can answer to sum up the unit we are currently on. The site could also be used as a TOD or parking lot. It could also be a place to post announcements, upcoming dates, field trips, etc... If I wanted students to respond, they could use the "Open ID" selection and post their comments. I need to check to make sure the site is available at my school (it could be blocked as almost everything else is...).

Thing 11: Slide Shows!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Here are the URL's:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsannino/5201927787/#/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/road_less_trvled/2507126451/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/road_less_trvled/2507128217/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dexxus/3559036856/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/georgikeith/122872433/

I used animoto for my slide show. I wanted my text to show up on my pictures but, I could only figure out how to get the text slide to come before the picture. I may try to do the slide show in slide.com as I saw several others slide shows with text on the photos. This was fun to do and a great idea as an option for my architectural design project my students will do in the geometry unit coming up!

 

ITEC 7430: Thing 10

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsannino/5201927787/

Created by: Maria Rosaria Sannino

 

Getting to know Flickr was interesting...I used the maps feature to type in my city and state to find pictures posted from my area. It was really cool as I saw several places I recognized and it was cool to see how the photos were edited/used. I do see several uses for Flickr in the classroom however, my school has the site blocked. I liked the idea of searching for random photos and then having students write a story based on the photo. I mentioned this to my ELA teacher and she is the one that pointed out the fact that Flickr is blocked. Guess we will have to see how we can get around the blocked feature to implement in the classroom. I'm hoping that as technology in education progresses, many of the sites that are blocked now will soon be unblocked for educational purposes. I know our school system wants to protect our students however, many of the sites we want to use for educational purposes are hindering us from moving forward.

I found the above picture by typing in "architectural_styles" into the search option of Flickr. I tried this search as our students will be doing an architectural design project coming up in our geometry unit. The project focuses on the student becoming the architect and creating a bridge, building, etc...using the concepts they learned in the geometry unit. The students must use at least 8 concepts learned in the unit and show their use in the architectural design.

ITEC 7445: HTML?

Learning about HTML code was definitely fun last Thursday. I've used a little bit of HTML code before but it was basically to change color and text. I see how it is useful for fixing small glitches or changing certain looks on websites however, I do not see myself creating a website from scratch using HTML code. I do see how this can be useful for me as a teacher when creating webpages, webquests, etc... I know this is something I will probably not need to show my students unless I have students that are interested in learning.

I also enjoyed learning about layouts and how they can impact a webpage, letter, newsletter, etc... The look of a webpage is very important to me. Having a webpage that is easy to look at and find information on is important for users to get what they want quickly. Jumbled webpages with too much information on the homepage is a turn off and can get very frustrating. Knowing just a little bit about HTML code will help me get the kinds of layouts and looks I want.

Thing Nine: Creative Commons

I have not seen the CC logo on any sites. Now that I now about it, I will begin looking! I think many of our students do not understand copyright and learning about CC may help them understand what copyright is.  I think if students create something of their own and then go to CC to get copyright information, they may understand the whole point of fair use of others materials. Students could create a poem, song, video and then go to CC to get the kind of protection they want for their work. 

To learn about copyright, students could search for photos on Flickr and view the kinds of protections set on the pictures they like. Students can click and on the picture and it will explain what the symbols mean beside the picture. 

 Knowing about CC and the possibility of adapting other peoples work will allow students to work together to improve on a presentation, song, movie, poem, story, etc... 

I really do not share content on the web but, I hope to as these classes are helping me venture out and do what I've never done before in my classroom.

ITEC 7430: Thing 7

 I liked the "Code Blue" wiki about a medial clinic created by 6th graders. The information is fun and interesting. Students take on an adult role and specialize in different medical fields based on their interests. Classes were separated by Blocks in the left hand margin and many links on the main page to aid in medical knowledge. I think the point of the wiki is to get students to post information on their medical specialty which are functions of the human body.

I also like the  "Salute to Seuss" wiki. It seems to be more for educators to utilize in the own classrooms. There was an activities page that had a lot of good information/lessons/activities for students. There was also a link to a webquest teachers can use with their students.

The wiki "Grazing for Digital Natives" was a bit overwhelming for me. It had a lot of information on the main page that makes me want to click off ASAP. I did like the side bar that had Workshop Resources for technology such as Ning, Podcasting, Networks, Google Tools, etc... They have almost anything you can think of. The wiki also linked to blogs that included relevant information. I think it is a wiki with great information, just not pleasing to the eye and stressful for me to look at.

There may be wikis in my future. I will need to get used to wikis. At first glance (for the ones I've seen) wikis are not pleasing to the eye and sometimes I find it difficult to take in all of the information given on the page.

I have a few ideas of how I might use a wiki in my Math and Social Studies classrooms. For math, it may be useful to have a wiki to post unit information for student access, math tutorials, games, etc... In Social Studies, I could use a wiki for classroom projects/lessons. In our Native American unit, I could have students create a wiki on the 6 different Native American groups we study. All the information can be found on one site and students can be responsible for posting correct and relevant information. I'm still trying to figure out what the best way to incorporate wikis in the classroom.

ITEC 7430: Thing 5

The item I found most interesting in my Google Reader was the Teacher Zone:Ten Marks website (http://teacher.tenmarks.com/). The reason it popped out to me was because I saw the word MATH! I'm always looking for ways to make math more interesting and to find ways to incorporate technology. I like this site because it has relevant 8th grade material that I can use. There are videos explaining many of the topics covered in 8th grade math. I could use this site with students who were out the day new material was taught or I can use it to help those that did not understand the material the first time it was taught. A sub could also show a video for material needed when I am out. There are also other grade level videos available that I can use for my students that need lower or higher ability work. This is definitely a site I can share with the math department at my school.