Saturday, July 13, 2013





     Well, I have finally completed all of the requirements for my Instructional Applications of the Internet grad class.  Between this course and my other summer grad course, I’ve learned about a lot of new pieces of technology and how to incorporate them within my classroom!  I am very excited about adding more technological components to my classroom this coming school year (especially ones geared towards communication).
     As for the Instructional Apps. of the Internet course, some of the things that surprised me the most during the course was how my thoughts about Twitter and blogging changed.  Before this course, I had pretty much sworn off Twitter and never actually acquired an account because I saw it as a purely social tool that people used to share information that’s usually irrelevant.  However, over the course of this class, I really came to like using Twitter as a communication tool with the rest of my classmates.  Most classmates made purely class-related tweets, and it was a great communication tool.  I now see how helpful Twitter can be if used effectively.
    Just like Twitter, I had also avoided blogging before this course because I saw it as a personal journal that’s open to the world to read; I felt like “who wants to read my personal thoughts and ideas about things in my life?”  However, I now see that blogs can be used as a means of sharing important information (beyond just personal stuff).  For example, I made quite a few blogs about interesting technology topics that sparked my interest over the past couple of months and received comments from others who read my posts and were interested in the topics.  I definitely think blogging would be a good way to communicate with parents within my classroom; it’s a quick way to provide parents with information and tips in a format that’s easy to follow.          

     I can’t wait to utilize these new pieces of technology next school year!

Monday, July 8, 2013

Discovering New Technologies

   
    I have to admit that one of my favorite things to do now is to discover new technologies that I can use within my classroom.  Even though this can be frustrating at times (we know how technology can be), it usually pays off in the long run.  You just have to be prepared to accept that fact that things are not always going to go exactly the way that you planned.  I have found quite a few pieces of technology through the text book for the Instructional Apps of the Internet grad class this summer and am excited to use them in my classroom next school year.  I have also discovered some programs through exploring and researching for my summer grad courses.  Two of my favorite programs that I've found this summer are Padlet and BiteSlide (as I've mentioned in previous blog entries).  I have recently discovered that you can embed the BiteSlide slidebooks that are created (if you enable this feature).  Here's a sample slidebook that I created about Dolphins.  

     I'd also like to share a program that I found at the beginning of last school year and have been using since then.  Animoto is a great program that makes it super easy to turn a collection of photographs and short video clips into a professional-looking video to share.  It's a great way to share photographs and videos online!  I used it last school year to help parents see what we were doing in class.  I would simply take pictures of the activities with my camera, upload them to my computer, upload them to the Animoto website, quickly produce a video with music, captions, and effects, and then post the link to the video on our class website for the families to view.  I received a lot of positive feedback from the students and families!  The students were excited to show off what they were doing in school, and families were excited to actually see what their children were doing at school.  I feel like it brought the two environments (home and school) closer together. 

     Here's an example of an Animoto video I made about a family reunion (I didn't want to post one of the videoes that I created of/with my students for privacy reasons).  It's so quick and easy!  If you are interested, there is a free account available but it is limited.  However, if you are an educator, you can register for a free "Animoto for Education" account which is not as limited - that's what I use. 


Sunday, July 7, 2013

Instructional Tools: Podcasts and Screencasts

     Well, I successfully finished both a podcast and a screencast in the past few days.  The podcast, which I mentioned in my previous blog entry, was created to assist students with reviewing content and completing a homework assignment; I think this is a practical use of podcasts in education and can be very helpful for students.  Just as our textbook suggest, I like to use Audacity to create my podcasts.  For the screencast, I created a tutorial for how to use BiteSlide to complete an assignment that I created for a graduate class.  I hadn't made a screencast in quite some time, so I was a little rusty with Camtasia Studio.  However, Camtasia Studio was just as great as I remembered it being!  I was able to whip out the screencast tutorial (with editing) in a reasonable amount of time.

     All in all, I think both podcasts and screencasts can be very helpful.  I think screencasts are more helpful for creating computer tutorials because it is usually easier to explain and demonstrate how to use programs by actually showing people (as opposed to audio-only instructional podcasts).  On the other hand, podcasts are more helpful for recording and sharing personal thoughts, informational reviews, interviews, and other material that only requires only audio transmission to be helpful.   

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Practice with Podcasting

     So, I finally finished creating my second podcast with Audacity, and I have to admit that I think I like creating them.  I've decided that podcasts could be a good way to provide extra help for students and reviews of the content that was explored in class.  I can see myself creating such "Homework Helper" podcasts for use within my classroom and posting them on our class website for students to access from home.  I created my "Homework Helper: Water Cycle" podcast with the thought that it could be accessed by students at home for a quick review of water cycle information and for further clarification of their homework (a water cycle experiment).   

     All in all, I think podcasts are a quick and easy way for teachers to share information on the web so students can access it at home.  Students can play the podcasts as many times as needed in order to sufficiently review the content matter.  The short amount of time that it takes to record and edit podcasts is well worth it when it benefits student learning!  I encourage you to give podcasting a try!