Diigo vs Delicious

I was used to bookmarking my favorite sites the traditional way on my favorites bar on Mozilla, but I loved Diigo. I liked it more than Delicious because it was easier to use. It has very easy access..all you need is internet access. Diigo is great with finding websites that are more group oriented with social networking, whereas Delicious is more focused on individuals and their blogs. I really liked being able to find sites from different locations and then finding them at home on my Diigo account. It's really cool how accessible it is. 


Delicious is very similar but a little harder to use. This application lets you follow people and their comments and bookmarks. Delicious was a little harder to sign up with and I had to mess with it for awhile. I didn't like that it was powered by a Yahoo server. I just don't like yahoo too much. 


I loved both sites but I think I would stick with Diigo. I would like to use it for bookmarking my schoolwork and social networking. I liked that I could find people with the same interests as mine on Diigo. That would come in handy with educational purposes! 

Second Life

            I played around a lot with Second Life and found Vassar Island. Vassar Island is meant for a liberal arts environment. It’s educational and people can use it to communicate as well. The island and environment is very user friendly and welcoming. I talked to a few people while I was there on the island and in the museum, and they were all pretty friendly. Some people were just playing for fun while others were using it for assignments like me. Some people had little pieces of advice and information to use in the future, while others were pretty clueless.  
           I found the Sistine Chapel and it's so awesome! I would use this environment for professional development by communicating with other teachers here at the museum. I would have the other teachers that I was planning with meet me at the museum so we could observe the Island and talk about what we could take from it and incorporate into our lesson planning. Second Life at the Sistine Chapel Museum is very informative and helpful for lesson planning. You can learn a lot about the inside of the museum and the many different paintings inside by exploring with Second Life. You can also talk to many people for more information and facts.

             I can envision a huge project for a sixth grade history class after using Second Life to communicate with other teachers there. The project would involve the sixth graders to use art supplies and a lot of research to create their very own Sistine Chapel. We would spend a few weeks researching the Sistine Chapel with our students after meeting as collaborative teachers on Second Life. The teachers would get together online to collaborate and plan what aspects of the Sistine Chapel they want to incorporate into their lesson plans based on what Second Life has to offer.

Here's a pic of me at Selmo Park. 

Technology in the Classroom

• What are portable device's limitations? 

I think that phones offer sooo much these days and there are so many great apps we can download for various reasons, but there are also limitations with phones. I think that one thing is the cost of some of the apps. Some apps are free, whereas some cost $5. That doesn't seem like much but if you buy a bunch that adds up! Another limitation is the size of your phone screen. Sometimes it's hard for me to touch something the right way or access it correctly because of the tiny screen. 

• Look at the pros and cons of Android/Apple type of tablets with a small portable computer, like the Asus for example. What can you do and not do on each? If there's something you can't do on the iPad/Android for example is there a work around it? 

Not knowing much about the Asus, I had to look up information on the product to learn more about it. I read that Asus will soon offer a motion sensing device like Xbox Kinect. You can actually operate the computer from your tv this way. All you have to do is use hand gestures and you can fully operate the Asus this way. I looked up what people said about the Asus and many said the pros were that the quality was great and best in price range. I found that the biggest con was the battery life..it's also hard to find replacement batteries.

I did a little research on the Ipad, since I don't have one, and read that the quality and design was excellent on it. The Ipad has great apps and video conferencing. I read that the battery life and price is pretty reasonable as well. The cons were related to the extra features it doesn't offer such as no USB, no SD card reader and no removable battery. 

• How can you use portable devices IN the classroom? Give at least three examples of apps that you can use in the classroom. Don't forget to share how these apps can be used. 

I think a simple tape recorder offers great resources for in the classroom. You can use it for read along books and also just for listening to your favorite story. I have seen this done with slower reading classes and they love it. It's great because they are improving their reading while following along in their book, and they are enjoying it! 

Laptops are great in the classroom as well. There are unlimited activities you can do with a laptop. I have seen it used for various reasons while subbing and student teaching and the students love having their own individual computer to work on. I have seen a social studies class use it to write their papers on Word and then google image pictures related to their assignment. 

You can also use an Ipod in class..there are several educational apps that can be used in class. For example a great app is Vocabology. You can pull up this app for English classes and the kids would love it. Basically what it is .. is you can pull up a word you don't know well and listen to how it is supposed to be pronounced.. read the definition and how it's used in a sentence. The kids would love using this over a dictionary any day. Plus the app is free! Can't beat that. 

Blackboard vs. Moodle

I played with both Course Managements Systems this week and I prefer Blackboard. Even though I love Moodle and it has some great options to it, I like the feel of Blackboard better. It's probably just because I'm so used to it after taking 5 years of online classes with it. I spent a lot of time playing around with Moodle and I just felt like it was easier to get around in Blackboard. I like how they both offer the same tools like the calendar and discussion boards..etc but I like the look of Blackboard better. They both allow a lot of the same things to upload and play around with which I really liked. I did like the quiz tools on Moodle as well...that was one plus with Moodle  I really liked. 


Another thing I like about Moodle is the cost and that will draw a lot of people to it instead of Blackboard. I'm sure if I spent a lot more time playing around on Moodle or had a lot of experience with it I would enjoy it better. I really enjoyed playing around with it and seeing what my opportunities could be with it though.


I loved seeing Blackboard from the teachers perspective. At first it looks a little complex and overwhelming, but it was very easy to navigate and play with. Of course I am much more familiar with Blackboard, so that's probably why. Either way I enjoyed Blackboard much more than Moodle, but I look forward to using Moodle in the future and getting more familiar with it because it is a great tool to have and be familiar with in education. 

Camtasia vs. Camstudio

Ok.. so I had problems with both programs but I definitely, DEFINITELY prefer Camtasia..as does everyone else. I couldn't figure out how to add title pages after I recorded my video. It was very frustrating and I spent hours trying to figure it out through Youtube and google. I'm sure it's something very simple but it just wouldn't let me add that as an option. I also couldn't figure out the HD situation. =(  Oh well. So here's my not so great Camtasia video. Hope you enjoy!


PS..since I couldn't reference my music in the video..here's the info:


freeplaymusic.com
Nightflight 
Composed by:Pierre Langer, SESAC (50%), Scott P. Schreer, BMI (50%)

IT College grads not ready for graduation

I found this article and found it to be very interesting. The article is located at eschoolnews.com and the article is called Survey: It College grads not ready to go. The article is so short so I'll copy and paste it here for you. 


"Many companies and college IT departments are ready to hire as the economy thaws, but more than nine in 10 college graduates who majored in information technology (IT) aren’t prepared for life in the workforce, according to a national survey.Eight percent of new IT hires are “well trained” and “ready to go,” while 44 percent are “well trained” but have “gaps” in their skill set, according to respondents to a survey conducted by SHARE, an association of IT industry professionals, including colleges and universities.Three in 10 IT companies said new hires were “severely deficient” business skills and are often in need of remedial training from superiors.IT know-how wasn’t the problem for many recent IT college graduates, according to the report and a SHARE official, but rather interpersonal skills that proved lacking." 


I was a little surprised when I read this article. I know that being great at your career comes with time and experience but still the recent grads don't sound NEAR ready for their new field! It's kind of scary and makes you wonder why they're not ready. Are the courses not teaching what they should be? Or is it just that they aren't getting enough hands on learning with what they need to know. 


I went on to read the full article on another website and it kind of answered my question. It said that colleges needed to provide a learning environment where students can practice and be coached. They also mentioned that it doesn't come with standing up and lecturing to your students. I totally agree and that was exactly what I was thinking was happening before I even read the rest of the article. 


There are certain majors and fields where you can't just lecture. You must have a lot of hands on in order for students to feel ready for graduation! They aren't going to feel confident after they graduate and people won't be impressed or eager to hire them if they don't know what they should know after going to school for 4-10 years. 

web 2.0

I love that we can use web 2.0 apps in the classroom. It makes learning so much more fun and valuable for everyone. I strongly believe that the more we are excited about our lesson, the more our students are engaged. It's easier to make elementary students excited than high school. For those who can get high school students excited to learn you are amazing! That would be a true test for me.

I think that web 2.0 apps can be utilized in the classroom so everyone is engaged and excited to learn. That is to me,the coolest thing about incorporating technology into your lessons. I love that we get to play with all these apps and learn something new every week. I have really enjoyed using Jing and Photostory. I can't wait to see what else we will discover in this class.

I think that blogs can be really useful for journaling ideas after class as homework assignments. I remember having to keep journals in my English classes and I think that it would have been so much cooler if we had used Blogs back then to journal our thoughts. That way we could share with others if we wanted.

I also think that being able to upload pictures and videos on apps such as Photostory and Animoto is amazing! It makes students want to actually get involved and do something more creative with their assignment. Creativity can really be taken to a whole new level with the new and everchanging technology we have at our fingertips.

Museum Box- 2.0 application

 I chose Museum Box as my Web 2.0 application. This is a fantastic site that offers students the chance to create their own virtual museum box on any topic, person, or historical date they wish to present. I think this would be so wonderful for any age of students, it even looks fun for our class! =) It's very easy to get around on the site, very user friendly program for any age. I uploaded my video to screencast.com ..I hope you enjoy it!

I discovered three other sites that were amazing for classrooms! The first I found was called BusyTeacher and I love it because it has a ton of great resources for busy teachers! The second app was smart.fm... it offers a schedule for learners with a busy schedule and works around their needs. The third app I also really enjoyed is correctmytext.com and it basically fixes your grammar problems if you speak another language or if you just struggle with your English.

Cloud Computing

I really liked the explanation of the woman at 3:28. She had a great definition or explanation of Cloud Computing by saying if you need software or hardware it's not cloud computing. She said all you need is an internet connection. She really helped me understand it for the first time, I wasn't really catching what the other guys were saying before her. I think Cloud Computing doesn't require extra work, from what I gathered from this video. The man in the video at 5:35 argues that it's web 2.0. I gather that it's the new next big thing in computing. According to Wikipedia, cloud computing is not something that requires knowledge of a physical location of your system. It is a current, updated form of web 2.0 where you don't need expertise in the technology infrastructure. I think I would do well with it if it doesn't require much. lol I also learned that the term cloud is a metaphor used for the internet.


Here is a defintiion from the National Instittue of Standards and Technology (NIST):"Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction."


So basically cloud computing is saved data into a database that is accessible via the internet, while web 2.0 is essentially the same thing with interactive shared software. It's still confusing to me. =)

Photo Story 3

I preferred Photo Story 3 more than Animoto. Although I really enjoyed using Animoto, it was just easier for me to put the story together in Photo Story. I had a lot of fun with both programs! I really enjoyed this assignment..I wish they were all this easy to put together, but I'm still learning. =) I think if I were to use these programs in the classroom the Photo Story would be more appropriate for Elementary students and I think Animoto would be great to use for 6-12 grade. I think the older kids would like the flow of Animoto better anyway. Here's my video from Animoto on how to make a spice cake.

My Podcast

Here is my podcast on what my future goals are for after graduation.

Copyright

I found a great website called 10 big myths about copyright. I think it kind of takes the stress out of a lot of people's worries. I feel like we are always so concerned that we might get in trouble or that we are copying something without even knowing about it! I enjoyed looking at this website and what it had to say. But on the other hand the website also warns about people that are too carefree with their work. There are many rules and regulations we need to pay attention to out there. 

Us Copyright Office is another great resource for understanding the rules and regulations of copyright. According to this website, copyright protects original works of authorship of expression. It covers published and unpublished works. You don't have to register for your work to be copyrighted either. This link, Copyright Basics was attached to the article. It gives great detail as to what the Copyright basics are. Needless to say, there are a LOT of details to this topic. 

Using RSS in Education

At first I had no idea what RSS even stood for, but the more I looked into it I realized I was more familiar with it than I thought. When we were first assigned to subscribe to several blogs, I found so many that I was interested in within a matter of minutes. I was actually surprised at how many I was interested in and how frequently I wanted to read the latest information on the blogs. 

I have learned that RSS, otherwise known as ‘Really Simple Syndication’, is a major time saver! If you are interested in a certain subject or issue in the news all you have to do is subscribe to a blog that follows what you’re interested in. I obviously knew what blogs were before this class, but I really had never looked into RSS and blogs other than the ones my friends write. I am almost addicted now to checking my blogs in the morning to see what’s new.

In Darren Rowse’s blog called What is RSS?, he makes it very clear why RSS is so great and the advantages it can have over bookmarking. I have to admit I used to be a bookmark junkie but after reading his blog I realized there is a simpler way of keeping track of blogs. He mentions that with bookmarking you have to do all the hard work, and you can miss information when you don’t check your bookmarks consistently.

Google Reader was very easy to set up, I had no problems with it at all. On the other hand, installing a program was a little trickier. I chose to download myFeedDemon as my RSS reader. Even though it was trickier, it wasn’t totally impossible for me to figure out. It took a little extra time and research on how to subscribe to links with myFeedDemon. I used Google Reader to automatically link all my feeds through myFeedDemon and it was easy from there on out. Although both were great RSS feeds, I prefer Google Reader. It’s less hassle and easier to access if I’m in a hurry. Plus I’m just more comfortable with Google Reader.

Based on my experience, I don’t think students and teachers will have a problem with setting up an RSS reader. I think the Google Reader account is much easier to set up and use for those with less technology experience. I think that teachers and administrators that don’t know about RSS readers would love it if they found out how to use it. It might take a few minutes of tutoring from a student or a colleague who is experienced with readers to help them set it up, but it’s not completely impossible to figure out on their own.

RSS could be used in education in so many ways! It could be used for students, teachers, and administrators. First off I see students using RSS to journal thoughts in classes such as language arts, foreign language classes, and even other classes such as history or science. The assignment would be to go to the their blog and comment on others in the class, just like our class does. I could also see a teacher assigning homework to figure out about a topic through RSS. I think most students are familiar with RSS anyway, so it would be pretty simple for them.

I can also see teachers using RSS for their own educational reasons. They could track blogs from other teachers to share information or get ideas from other teachers in their classroom. I can also see it being used from teachers to comment on their students blogs for classes.

I see administrators using RSS to keep up with their teachers and students. I can see it being used in meetings and put up on the projector for all to follow along with the presenter. The meetings could be led using RSS and administrators could stay in touch with other teachers through their blogs. Will Richardson gives great ideas in his article Blogging and RSS about how administrators could use RSS in their school district. “.. as more and more people get on the blog bandwagon, more and more teachers and schools are starting to experiment with the technology as a way to communicate with students and parents, archive and publish student work, learn with far-flung collaborators, and "manage" the knowledge that members of the school community create. In fact, many are seeing Weblogs as a cheaper alternative to course management systems.” I think that RSS is fabulous and I’m glad I learned more about it because it will save me so much time and trouble in the future.

Works Cited


Richardson, Will. (Jan/Feb 2004).Blogging and RSS— The "What's It?" and "How To" of Powerful New Web Tools for Educators, Vol. 11 No. 1. Information Today, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/jan04/richardson.shtml

Rowse, Darren. (1 November 2010). What is RSS? Problogger.net 2011. Retrieved from http://www.problogger.net/what-is-rss/

Open Source Software

I am not too familiar with Open Source so I had to do a little research on it to figure it out. Open Source Software is a source that provides source codes that are usually not available due to copyright holders. But with OSS there is a software license that allows people to use this software. So that makes this different than just other ordinary free apps and propietary apps. The OS is usually licensed under free software licenses and open source licenses such as GNU the General Public License. I really enjoyed learning about OS because I really didn't know very much about this topic.


 I found some great resources that could be used with education. I found a free science software that incoprorates many things, but the one I found interesting was called Celestia. This program is a 3D astronomy program that allows the student to travel through the universe at any speed and at any time in any direction. I think this is amazing for science teachers! Students would love this both in a live classroom and an online class. Celestia can be used if you have Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows. This program is licensed under GNU. Here is the link where you can learn more. http://www.shatters.net/celestia/


Another great program I found is Big Daddy's Math Drills. This is great for math teachers out there! It makes learning about math fun and enjoyable. Here is the link: http://www.dicarlolaw.com/shareware.html. This helps with basic addition, subtraction, and multiplication tables. This helps with the students speed and accuracy in learning math skills. It should work with any dos, MS Windows, or Linux machine. They too are licensed under GNU. 


Enjoy! 

Intro-Katie Kellogg

Hi everyone, 

My name is Katie Kellogg and I am in my second semester of masters classes. I graduated from UCM with Elementary Education in May 2010. These classes will help me achieve my goal of obtaining a Masters degree in Educational Technology. I have a son who is the joy of my life. He just turned one and started crawling! My husband works at KU Medical Center in the burn unit. We are both so excited to be done with schooling here in the next couple of years. Here is a picture of us at Crown Center this Christmas. 

As far as reading goes, I hope that Steve Jobs is wrong about people not reading anymore! The last good book I read was a few weeks ago, I reread To Kill A Mockingbird. I love this story because the moral of it is so great and uplifting, if you haven't read it I would highly suggest you do. Here is an Amazon link to the synopsis of the book. http://www.amazon.com/Kill-Mockingbird-50th-Anniversary/dp/0061743526/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1294692697&sr=8-1