What?
This week we were given our final project. The assignment is to create 2 documents and we can choose out of a flyer, newsletter, and/or brochure. We can also choose which program we want to use to do the assignment.
So What?
Best assignment ever. There was no question in my mind which program I would use. Illustrator, of course. I love Illustrator, I use it a lot. I have used it to create my own visual for lessons. I used it to make my newsletter for the practicum class. I use it for everything.
I liked creating these documents because I know it's something I will definitely do in my career as an early childhood educator. I'm sure I'll continue to use Illustrator to create visuals and graphics throughout my school classes. I also use it for personal things like designing my wedding announcements.
Now What?
I'm sure I won't be giving out any assignments to my students to use Illustrator - it seems a bit advanced for a preschooler. But it will affect my children by the visuals and activities I create through Illustrator. It will also affect them by the brochures, newsletters and flyers I can create through this program. Yay Illustrator, let's hear it for Adobe! Wahoo!
Video
Oh how I love Schoolhouse Rock - takes me back. The one that I still remember is the "I'm just a bill on Capitol Hill" but I'm sure I've watched a million during my elementary years. And now having watched this I'm sure it'll be in my head for the rest of the day. Yipee.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Weekly Post - Videos
What?
This week we learned about videos - particularly videos on the web. Our assignment was to find two educational videos, convert them to MP4 files, and post them on our UEN site.
So What?
I think the use of videos is very effective. I am a very visual person so actually seeing things helps me learn much better. I can use videos in presentations in my classes right now - there are so many videos available on the web. Web videos are also for entertainment - I like to share funny videos I find with family and friends.
This will help me in my future career as a teacher because it helps me practice implementing different technologies for different uses. I'm sure there are instructional videos of how to make crafts or create projects that I could use in my preschool class. I could also share these helpful videos with other teachers. By sharing ideas and collaborating with other teachers, everyone benefits from each individuals contribution - this saves a lot of time.
Now What?
Before this assignment I had never heard of Zamzar which is a really awesome thing. Zamzar allows you to rip videos on the internet to a downloadable file. This will be really helpful for me if there's any videos I want to keep and save that are on the internet now because chances are they won't be on the internet forever or at least not have the same link.
This would also be a great way to share and keep vidcasts. I have found that it's hard for me to send video files to other people because my files are usually larger than what's allowed to send. By uploading it to youtube, other people can rip your files through Zamzar and get the file that way. This would also be great for the parents of my students. If we watched a web video in class I could share the URL and then the parents could rip and save it to their own computer with Zamzar.
Video
I thought the video brought up some good point about the rising generation of technology. I am very impressed with how far technology has come just in my short life and am very excited to see what the future holds. Everyday it seems there is a new product with new technology coming out, it baffles me to think how things will be in 10 years. I love technology, I'm all about making things easier, simpler, more efficient, but sometimes I wonder if the world will turn out like the movie Surrogates where everyone is so removed from the real world because of increasing technology. Hmmm.
This week we learned about videos - particularly videos on the web. Our assignment was to find two educational videos, convert them to MP4 files, and post them on our UEN site.
So What?
I think the use of videos is very effective. I am a very visual person so actually seeing things helps me learn much better. I can use videos in presentations in my classes right now - there are so many videos available on the web. Web videos are also for entertainment - I like to share funny videos I find with family and friends.
This will help me in my future career as a teacher because it helps me practice implementing different technologies for different uses. I'm sure there are instructional videos of how to make crafts or create projects that I could use in my preschool class. I could also share these helpful videos with other teachers. By sharing ideas and collaborating with other teachers, everyone benefits from each individuals contribution - this saves a lot of time.
Now What?
Before this assignment I had never heard of Zamzar which is a really awesome thing. Zamzar allows you to rip videos on the internet to a downloadable file. This will be really helpful for me if there's any videos I want to keep and save that are on the internet now because chances are they won't be on the internet forever or at least not have the same link.
This would also be a great way to share and keep vidcasts. I have found that it's hard for me to send video files to other people because my files are usually larger than what's allowed to send. By uploading it to youtube, other people can rip your files through Zamzar and get the file that way. This would also be great for the parents of my students. If we watched a web video in class I could share the URL and then the parents could rip and save it to their own computer with Zamzar.
Video
I thought the video brought up some good point about the rising generation of technology. I am very impressed with how far technology has come just in my short life and am very excited to see what the future holds. Everyday it seems there is a new product with new technology coming out, it baffles me to think how things will be in 10 years. I love technology, I'm all about making things easier, simpler, more efficient, but sometimes I wonder if the world will turn out like the movie Surrogates where everyone is so removed from the real world because of increasing technology. Hmmm.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Weekly Post - Podcast & Vidcasts
What?
This week we learned about Podcasts and Vidcasts. Our assignment is to use either of these two forms of media to teach a concept in our teams. For our team we are making a Vidcast of animal signs to be used when singing Old MacDonald Had a Farm.
So What?
I think Podcasts and Vidcasts are great, especially Vidcasts. Right now in my life I could use Vidcasts to make videos of cooking new meals to share with family or how to make crafts/visuals to share with my fellow student teachers. I could also use Vidcasts if I had a presentation that included some type of demonstration - I could make a Vidcast of the demonstration at home and just show it during class.
If everyone had access to equipment to make a Podcast, I think it would be a good tool to collaborate anecdotal notes in the practicum class in the Early Childhood Education Program. Right now in class we use sticky notes - 1 sticky note per child, per observation, handwritten - which is very time consuming. If everyone could record themselves and speak their notes and share them through a podcast that would save us all carpal tunnel syndrome in a few years.
Now What?
In my future, I think making Vidcasts would be an excellent way of doing demonstrations for projects. Children love guests and new faces to teach them something new - I think it would be fun to make Vidcasts of "guests" doing demonstrations for the class. This way they could do it on their own time and their own home or maybe even at a special location.
This might also be a great tool to use for a sub. If you had to stay home sick one day, you could make a Vidcast of an explanation of why you are gone for the sub to show the kids or even demonstrate activities that the kids would be doing that day. This would be very helpful for the sub because most students don't treat subs as well as they treat teachers because the sub doesn't really know how things are run. This would be fun for the kids to see their teacher on the computer even though they weren't going to be in class.
Video
I thought the video addressed many good points. The world is ever becoming a digital place and we need to keep up with the times. I'm not saying we should eliminate basic skills like writing (with hands) and penmanship, but there is definitely more to add when it comes to expressing yourself with written words. Blogging provides many great benefits such as literacy, engagement, sharing, etc. which are important for all ages.
This week we learned about Podcasts and Vidcasts. Our assignment is to use either of these two forms of media to teach a concept in our teams. For our team we are making a Vidcast of animal signs to be used when singing Old MacDonald Had a Farm.
So What?
I think Podcasts and Vidcasts are great, especially Vidcasts. Right now in my life I could use Vidcasts to make videos of cooking new meals to share with family or how to make crafts/visuals to share with my fellow student teachers. I could also use Vidcasts if I had a presentation that included some type of demonstration - I could make a Vidcast of the demonstration at home and just show it during class.
If everyone had access to equipment to make a Podcast, I think it would be a good tool to collaborate anecdotal notes in the practicum class in the Early Childhood Education Program. Right now in class we use sticky notes - 1 sticky note per child, per observation, handwritten - which is very time consuming. If everyone could record themselves and speak their notes and share them through a podcast that would save us all carpal tunnel syndrome in a few years.
Now What?
In my future, I think making Vidcasts would be an excellent way of doing demonstrations for projects. Children love guests and new faces to teach them something new - I think it would be fun to make Vidcasts of "guests" doing demonstrations for the class. This way they could do it on their own time and their own home or maybe even at a special location.
This might also be a great tool to use for a sub. If you had to stay home sick one day, you could make a Vidcast of an explanation of why you are gone for the sub to show the kids or even demonstrate activities that the kids would be doing that day. This would be very helpful for the sub because most students don't treat subs as well as they treat teachers because the sub doesn't really know how things are run. This would be fun for the kids to see their teacher on the computer even though they weren't going to be in class.
Video
I thought the video addressed many good points. The world is ever becoming a digital place and we need to keep up with the times. I'm not saying we should eliminate basic skills like writing (with hands) and penmanship, but there is definitely more to add when it comes to expressing yourself with written words. Blogging provides many great benefits such as literacy, engagement, sharing, etc. which are important for all ages.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Weekly Post - PowerPoint Activities
What?
This week we learned about PowerPoint activities. Our assignment is to get together with our team and create a PowerPoint activity of our own. For our team project we are creating a PowerPoint activity that teaches how to create and print your own matching game.
So What?
With this new skill, I can utilize PowerPoint to make learning activities. This would be a fun way to do an in class presentation in my classes this semester. Most of my presentations involve some sort of activity, and by using PowerPoint it would be a new interactive way of implementing an activity. I've never seen PowerPoint activities done before learning this and I think if I presented this it would excite the other students in the classroom.
Because I am in the practicum class this semester, I am grouped with a bunch of student teachers creating their own lesson plans. I would like to benefit from their hard work and share lesson plans to build my curriculum. I know that I make a lot of visuals for my lessons and activities, and if everyone created PowerPoint activities of how to make their visuals everyone could easily get that file to save for future use. By collaborating with each other it would save a lot of time collecting visuals and other elements of lesson plans.
Now What?
By using PowerPoint, I can start creating learning activities now that I could use in my future career as an early childhood educator. I think this would also be a great collaborative tool as well. If several different teachers came up with their own PowerPoint activities then shared them with each other, each teacher would benefit from the other teachers by sharing these activities.
This could also benefit the parents of students as well. Since I'm going into early childhood education, particularly preschool, I know that a lot of parents want learning activities to do outside of class with their children. By creating a PowerPoint activity that allows parents to learn to create their own activity, it allows parents to create activities of their choosing and gets parents involved in their child's education.
Video
I liked how this girl related her knowledge of chickens to all of the major cores of education: math, science, language, social studies. I liked this video because she liked chickens - not anything grandiose or anything. Just a simple dream of raising chickens that might one day lead to being a veterinarian or something else. It tells me that you can have any kind of dreams, whether big or small, having a small dream is better than no dream at all. I didn't mean to be cheesy and make that rhyme.
This week we learned about PowerPoint activities. Our assignment is to get together with our team and create a PowerPoint activity of our own. For our team project we are creating a PowerPoint activity that teaches how to create and print your own matching game.
So What?
With this new skill, I can utilize PowerPoint to make learning activities. This would be a fun way to do an in class presentation in my classes this semester. Most of my presentations involve some sort of activity, and by using PowerPoint it would be a new interactive way of implementing an activity. I've never seen PowerPoint activities done before learning this and I think if I presented this it would excite the other students in the classroom.
Because I am in the practicum class this semester, I am grouped with a bunch of student teachers creating their own lesson plans. I would like to benefit from their hard work and share lesson plans to build my curriculum. I know that I make a lot of visuals for my lessons and activities, and if everyone created PowerPoint activities of how to make their visuals everyone could easily get that file to save for future use. By collaborating with each other it would save a lot of time collecting visuals and other elements of lesson plans.
Now What?
By using PowerPoint, I can start creating learning activities now that I could use in my future career as an early childhood educator. I think this would also be a great collaborative tool as well. If several different teachers came up with their own PowerPoint activities then shared them with each other, each teacher would benefit from the other teachers by sharing these activities.
This could also benefit the parents of students as well. Since I'm going into early childhood education, particularly preschool, I know that a lot of parents want learning activities to do outside of class with their children. By creating a PowerPoint activity that allows parents to learn to create their own activity, it allows parents to create activities of their choosing and gets parents involved in their child's education.
Video
I liked how this girl related her knowledge of chickens to all of the major cores of education: math, science, language, social studies. I liked this video because she liked chickens - not anything grandiose or anything. Just a simple dream of raising chickens that might one day lead to being a veterinarian or something else. It tells me that you can have any kind of dreams, whether big or small, having a small dream is better than no dream at all. I didn't mean to be cheesy and make that rhyme.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Weekly Post - a little bit of everything
What?
Because our teacher was out sick last week, she taught us about Picasa this week. However, I already explored Picasa and blogged about it so this post will be about the different photo editors I use - Picasa, Picnik, iPhoto, and PhotoShop.
So What?
There is another online picture editing program that I wanted to blog about. It's www.picnik.com. I love Picnik because it has a lot more fun effects than Picasa, but Picasa is definitely better in some ways. The free portion of Picnik.com is fun to use, but you have to subscribe to the premium version to have access to ALL it's wonderful features. Also, on Picnik, you can only upload and work on one picture at a time whereas in Picasa all of your pictures can be saved in the program to be used at a moment's notice.
Picnik allows you to edit your pictures in more extravagant ways, which is fun, but I don't necessarily think you would want to edit your pictures to the extreme for everyday classroom use. It definitely wouldn't be efficient to use Picnik for a whole batch of photos either since you can only upload one at a time - it would take way too long.
Now What?
I can see the advantages of Picasa and Picnik, but for me, I will stick to iPhoto for now - photoshop when my work gets more extensive. I think it's most important to know all your available resources so you know which ones to use in different situations. If I needed to do a certain photo edit on an entire batch of pictures I would use Adobe Bridge. If I wanted a quick fun edit on a few pictures I would use Picnik. If I wanted to share entire albums I would use Picasa and if I wanted to do everyday minor edits (on my own computer) I would stick to iPhoto.
Lucky for me, I'm more knowledgeable about photo editing than the average teacher because I have studied photography. I can see myself using all of these different programs in my teaching. I am glad there are free online photo editors like Picasa and Picnik because keeping updated with Adobe programs gets expensive - especially when I won't be able to buy student editions anymore.
Video
Since I've already watched and blogged about all the videos I chose found one of my own
This video is a tour of iPhoto '09.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl8OZXh52RE
I'm not really familiar with iPhoto '09, I'm still in the '06 version, which is when I bought my Mac. After watching this video it is now on my wishlist - along with many other Apple products. One thing I thought was pretty awesome about Picasa is it's face recognition tool. Now iPhoto has the same kind of tool. I'm pretty jazzed. It also has more organizing features, which I really like because I have a lot of pictures between my photography and normal snapshots. For now I will stick to what I have and when I become rich I will blow my money on every Apple product out there.
Because our teacher was out sick last week, she taught us about Picasa this week. However, I already explored Picasa and blogged about it so this post will be about the different photo editors I use - Picasa, Picnik, iPhoto, and PhotoShop.
So What?
There is another online picture editing program that I wanted to blog about. It's www.picnik.com. I love Picnik because it has a lot more fun effects than Picasa, but Picasa is definitely better in some ways. The free portion of Picnik.com is fun to use, but you have to subscribe to the premium version to have access to ALL it's wonderful features. Also, on Picnik, you can only upload and work on one picture at a time whereas in Picasa all of your pictures can be saved in the program to be used at a moment's notice.
Picnik allows you to edit your pictures in more extravagant ways, which is fun, but I don't necessarily think you would want to edit your pictures to the extreme for everyday classroom use. It definitely wouldn't be efficient to use Picnik for a whole batch of photos either since you can only upload one at a time - it would take way too long.
Now What?
I can see the advantages of Picasa and Picnik, but for me, I will stick to iPhoto for now - photoshop when my work gets more extensive. I think it's most important to know all your available resources so you know which ones to use in different situations. If I needed to do a certain photo edit on an entire batch of pictures I would use Adobe Bridge. If I wanted a quick fun edit on a few pictures I would use Picnik. If I wanted to share entire albums I would use Picasa and if I wanted to do everyday minor edits (on my own computer) I would stick to iPhoto.
Lucky for me, I'm more knowledgeable about photo editing than the average teacher because I have studied photography. I can see myself using all of these different programs in my teaching. I am glad there are free online photo editors like Picasa and Picnik because keeping updated with Adobe programs gets expensive - especially when I won't be able to buy student editions anymore.
Video
Since I've already watched and blogged about all the videos I chose found one of my own
This video is a tour of iPhoto '09.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl8OZXh52RE
I'm not really familiar with iPhoto '09, I'm still in the '06 version, which is when I bought my Mac. After watching this video it is now on my wishlist - along with many other Apple products. One thing I thought was pretty awesome about Picasa is it's face recognition tool. Now iPhoto has the same kind of tool. I'm pretty jazzed. It also has more organizing features, which I really like because I have a lot of pictures between my photography and normal snapshots. For now I will stick to what I have and when I become rich I will blow my money on every Apple product out there.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Weekly Post - Picasa
What?
This week we had to explore Picasa - a picture editing program - on our own. We didn't really have an assignment to go with it because the teacher was out sick and we were just supposed to mess around with it.
So What?
Picasa, like other Google programs, is a great way to share documents over the internet. This will make it easier for me as a student when I work on group projects that involve pictures. I have found that it is really hard to share pictures if you have a lot of pictures that are big file sizes. By uploading them and inviting people to view your web album, they can just copy the pictures they want to their computer whenever they want.
Because I am in the practicum class, I have been taking a lot of pictures that need to be shared with the other teachers. By uploading the web album to Picasa I can share all of these pictures without having to burn them to CDs or copy them to flashdrives. This will make it easier on me and all of the other student teachers. If we share pictures through Picasa everyone can get the pictures they need a whole lot faster and more efficiently.
Now What?
Picasa wil be a great tool for me as a preschool teacher. I'm sure I will take so many pictures and they can't all fit onto a newsletter. By creating a web album and inviting the students parents to view they can see pictures of what we do in class and copy pictures of their own kids to have for their own. This saves from printing pictures which can get expensive when you take so many.
I could also create a "Show and Teach" album, for the pictures that the kids take at home to share with the class. By doing this, the kids could have their parents go to the web album and then the kids could tell the parents about the "Show and Teach" pictures and teach their parents the things they learned in class. This would be a great way to develop language skills at home.
Video
I liked this video. It was funny because it is so true. I think people tend to get carried away when making PowerPoint presentations because of all the exciting things you can do. Less is more when it comes to PowerPoints. I don't mean that you should make 4 slides with a white background and 12 pt. times new roman font, I just mean that it's too overwhelming to choose a theme for each slide and a different crazy font. Make it interesting, but keep it simple.
This week we had to explore Picasa - a picture editing program - on our own. We didn't really have an assignment to go with it because the teacher was out sick and we were just supposed to mess around with it.
So What?
Picasa, like other Google programs, is a great way to share documents over the internet. This will make it easier for me as a student when I work on group projects that involve pictures. I have found that it is really hard to share pictures if you have a lot of pictures that are big file sizes. By uploading them and inviting people to view your web album, they can just copy the pictures they want to their computer whenever they want.
Because I am in the practicum class, I have been taking a lot of pictures that need to be shared with the other teachers. By uploading the web album to Picasa I can share all of these pictures without having to burn them to CDs or copy them to flashdrives. This will make it easier on me and all of the other student teachers. If we share pictures through Picasa everyone can get the pictures they need a whole lot faster and more efficiently.
Now What?
Picasa wil be a great tool for me as a preschool teacher. I'm sure I will take so many pictures and they can't all fit onto a newsletter. By creating a web album and inviting the students parents to view they can see pictures of what we do in class and copy pictures of their own kids to have for their own. This saves from printing pictures which can get expensive when you take so many.
I could also create a "Show and Teach" album, for the pictures that the kids take at home to share with the class. By doing this, the kids could have their parents go to the web album and then the kids could tell the parents about the "Show and Teach" pictures and teach their parents the things they learned in class. This would be a great way to develop language skills at home.
Video
I liked this video. It was funny because it is so true. I think people tend to get carried away when making PowerPoint presentations because of all the exciting things you can do. Less is more when it comes to PowerPoints. I don't mean that you should make 4 slides with a white background and 12 pt. times new roman font, I just mean that it's too overwhelming to choose a theme for each slide and a different crazy font. Make it interesting, but keep it simple.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Weekly Post - Digital Cameras
What?
This week we learned about digital cameras. Our assignment was to get together with our team, come up with a concept to teach, and take pictures to teach that concept that will eventually turn into a presentation.
So what?
I love taking pictures, and I'm sure I will take a lot of pictures as a teacher. I think this assignment opened up my eyes to how I can use my camera for teaching! I usually take pictures to document and assess, but now I can teach by taking pictures too. I think this assignment opened my mind to come up with creative ways to teach concepts.
I think pictures will be a great tool in my teaching career. Not only are pictures fun to look at, but they are especially important for visual learners. I know because I'm a very visual learner - I have to see to learn. I don't really gain anything by just hearing the information. It is important for me to use a lot of visuals because I want to teach preschool and most preschoolers can't read yet. With the access to a digital camera, a computer, and a printer, I have a great tool to create my own visuals.
Now what?
Instead of trying to find clipart on the internet, I'm going to try and make more of my own visuals by using my camera. I love pictures and taking pictures (I pursued a photography last year) so why wouldn't I think to incorporate photographs into my teaching. I would love to cover the walls in my classroom with pictures of teaching concepts that are fun for the kids as well as the kids in the classroom and the activities we do.
I would also, if I had the resources, invest in a kid's digital camera that students could take turns taking home and taking pictures. Kind of like show and tell - they could take a picture of something they wanted to teach the class or share with the class, and when they would come to class the next day we would look at it on the computer ( and eventually print it out and hang it up) and the child could talk about it; this is a great activity for language development, which is important in preschool, because kids are excited to share what they know.
Video Reflection
The mashup was amazing - for lack of a better word. I wish I was so musically inclined that I could put together a bunch of different musical clips and make it sound like an actual song. Incredible. I also wish I had the computer technical skills to edit and compile all of those videos - that is something I would love to do (actually what I originally started going to college for - Computer Information Technology with an emphasis in Visual Technology.) I also enjoyed Letterman's Top Ten - all of them are so true. My favorite one is believe your students when they say they need to go to the bathroom - very relevant when teaching preschoolers.
This week we learned about digital cameras. Our assignment was to get together with our team, come up with a concept to teach, and take pictures to teach that concept that will eventually turn into a presentation.
So what?
I love taking pictures, and I'm sure I will take a lot of pictures as a teacher. I think this assignment opened up my eyes to how I can use my camera for teaching! I usually take pictures to document and assess, but now I can teach by taking pictures too. I think this assignment opened my mind to come up with creative ways to teach concepts.
I think pictures will be a great tool in my teaching career. Not only are pictures fun to look at, but they are especially important for visual learners. I know because I'm a very visual learner - I have to see to learn. I don't really gain anything by just hearing the information. It is important for me to use a lot of visuals because I want to teach preschool and most preschoolers can't read yet. With the access to a digital camera, a computer, and a printer, I have a great tool to create my own visuals.
Now what?
Instead of trying to find clipart on the internet, I'm going to try and make more of my own visuals by using my camera. I love pictures and taking pictures (I pursued a photography last year) so why wouldn't I think to incorporate photographs into my teaching. I would love to cover the walls in my classroom with pictures of teaching concepts that are fun for the kids as well as the kids in the classroom and the activities we do.
I would also, if I had the resources, invest in a kid's digital camera that students could take turns taking home and taking pictures. Kind of like show and tell - they could take a picture of something they wanted to teach the class or share with the class, and when they would come to class the next day we would look at it on the computer ( and eventually print it out and hang it up) and the child could talk about it; this is a great activity for language development, which is important in preschool, because kids are excited to share what they know.
Video Reflection
The mashup was amazing - for lack of a better word. I wish I was so musically inclined that I could put together a bunch of different musical clips and make it sound like an actual song. Incredible. I also wish I had the computer technical skills to edit and compile all of those videos - that is something I would love to do (actually what I originally started going to college for - Computer Information Technology with an emphasis in Visual Technology.) I also enjoyed Letterman's Top Ten - all of them are so true. My favorite one is believe your students when they say they need to go to the bathroom - very relevant when teaching preschoolers.
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