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!