Blog Post 12

I loved looking at the PowerPoint screen shots that people had. It was really interesting to see how everyone has different creative abilities and took their own perspective on the assignment. I also enjoyed listening to every one's podcast and the stories they told.


I really want to learn how to make a website. Even though we learned about using Wikispace, I want to be able to create a website that is completely my own and I can control all aspects of it, such as a site like this (http://bellaandedward.com/) or (http://mugglenet.com/). I think it would be cool to be able to have your own website that you can create to be popular.

I've been thinking about taking some type of web designing class at FSU or for fun somewhere else. I think one of these classes could give me the tools needed to be able to create my own web page. If that doesn't work, I'm sure there is online tutorials of ways to make one.

Blog post 11

I actually never used Twitter after the day we made it in class. I went home and found my friend and celebrities to "follow" but I never logged in again after doing that. For me, Twitter was kind of confusing. It was easy to post tweets, but I had problems seeing who responded to what. I just never really grasped it.

I don't plan to use Twitter again. It's pretty much just like using Facebook status updates. Also, Twitter is good if you have a phone that supports it, but my phone doesn't have Internet on it anymore so I won't receive tweets until I log onto my computer.

Twitter could be a useful educational tool, but I think there are better ways to communicate in the classroom. Twitter allows the teacher to communicate almost instantly with their students if the children have phones that enable them to use Twitter, or allow the student to look up tweets once they log into a computer. This could be done with emails or instant messages as well. The main benefit to using Twitter is the fact that everyone can see the same information at once.

My Ballin Podcast

I'm hungry

Blog post # 10

I chose to review this website (http://www.easybib.com/) I found it to be extremely useful while citing papers in middle and high school. Every student has had to cite a paper in either MLA, APA, or Chicago formatting, and this site makes the process a lot easier. It allows you to cite almost any source imagineable, including books, websites, encyclopedias, magazines, and newspapers. Although some teachers would encourage their students to learn how to cite without using a computer resource, there's just so many little things to remember when citing sources that it would just end up causing a lot of errors to cite from memorization.

The site first allows you to pick your source from over 50 options. When you pick a source, you have to fill out a little bit of information and then the site produces a bibliography for you. This can be done for any source you have, so when you're finished, you can easily copy and paste your entire bibliography into your paper. The site is easy to use, but is kind of crowded with text and advertisements which make it hard to navigate at first. The color is simple and isn't overwhelming to look at.

I think web 2.0 tools are really useful to use in that classroom. There are so many options to choose from that any teacher could find benefit in using one. I think that the photo sharing website Flickr would be useful for teachers, because it provides them with a page to share all the pictures the students may need in doing a project, or to show all the pictures from class events.

Blog post #9

I chose to review this website (http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/default.aspx). I have used this website before, for a project I had to do for my Biology Lab class. I find it to be extremely helpful and easy to use. The website lets you create graphs that you can then save and paste onto a project. The graphs can be saved in many different formats, including pdf and jpeg.

The website allows you to create bar, line, area, XY, and pie graphs. You're allowed to change the color of each part of the graph, and allows you to use more than one line or bar (so you can graph multiple groups of data for comparative purposes). This website would be used in math or science classes, for all ages, to reflect data collected.

I don't really like using Excel, but I feel like once I practice more with it, then it will be easier to use. I would use it to make attendance charts and to record data collected from my students. It would be useful to use for grading purposes, if other methods were unavailable. The program can not only help you record grades, but to easily figure out letter grades for each student. For younger grade levels, work searches and crossword puzzles can easily be made using Excel.

Blog post 8

I'm actually really proud of my PowerPoint 2 presentation. According to the rubric from chapter 8, I excelled in all areas. The text is easy to read, and the colors compliment each other well. The navigation buttons are located in the same place on each slide, and are labelled correctly for what they're supposed to do. Every image on the screen has a purpose, and no slide is cluttered with objects. I did not use any flashing text and all transitions are consistent and appropriate. A variety of images were used, including Word Art, clip arts, and pictures from online. I tried to incorporate screen shots, but for some reason that button won't work on my laptop.

There are a lot of peripherals that can be incorporated into a classroom. Some of these include printers, digital cameras, loud speakers, microphones, and scanners. Having a digital camera in the classroom would be really cool, especially when working with younger students, because you can take pictures of the special activities that you do, and hang them up around the classroom. At the end of the year, you can put them together to make a digital scrapbook for each student. Printers are clearly important, because they're used to print out information/assignments for students and must be connected to a computer to work. Another importer non-computer audio device is an Ipod/ Ipod player. My childhood education teacher last year used to play songs for the preschoolers to teach them lessons, and for the older students when we were doing book work to keep us entertained and focused.

I absolutely loved this lesson. A girl in my Intro to Education class last semester made a Jeopardy game for our final exam, and I thought it was the coolest thing. I learned how to use hyperlinks in PowerPoint presentations which opens up a whole new set of possibilities for presentations to my students. I would use these new skills to create games and animated stories for my students, which will be a fun new way for them to experience and learn information. If my students are old enough to be able to learn these skills, I'll teach them how to create games and stories as well so that they can create presentations for other classes.

blog post 7

There's a lot of advantages to using powerpoints in the classrooms. It allows students to easily write down notes on the topic being discussed, which benefits the people who don't learn from just hearing information. It gives students a visual of what's being discussed. It also helps the teacher stay on topic with the information, and helps them stay organized. A few disadvantages are that students may not listen to the additional information provided by the instructor because they're too busy copying from the powerpoint. I know in college, that when teachers post the powerpoints online, it discourages kids from attending class (high schools may do this too.).

One of the biggest educational topics that interest me is the idea of copyright. The Internet provides so much information that it's hard to write a paper and not accidentally "copy" someone's idea. When should you cite something, and when is it considered your own words? Copyright has always confused me, which is why I hate doing research papers.