Braineos is a website that was recommend by a fellow student (thanks Rachel!)and was one that I wrote down as needing to check-out. It is a website where you can make your own flash cards.
It was an interesting website and some of the things I liked about it were you could easily make your own flashcards or use some of the ones that had been saved to the site. My daughter had just finished learning the European countries and their capitals and those flashcards were already on line...should have looked at this site last week :) Making my own flashcards were quick and easy. I liked the fact that it gave you several different options for playing with them ie: flip, reverse flip, multi-guess and a video game.
I did see two down sides. The first being that I never found a way to print the flashcards. I don't know that this is critical but I should would be nice to use them when you aren't near a computer. The second is that you were limited in the number of characters you could type. For many flashcards it wouldn't be a problem. I tried making my daughter some flashcards for her Awana verses and did not have enough room to type the entire verse.
I do think this is a nice little program for simple memorization of math, capitals or definitions. The student could make their own flashcards to help with the memorization and then use them to play the games.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
Jing!
Another week...another new app!
I have never used Jing before but it was pretty easy to use....once I realized that I kept clicking on the Cancel button instead of the Stop button at the end of the recording. It was odd that it was so easy to share or embed the video. The fact that it automatically copied the info or link on to the clipboard is unusual and I felt like it was almost too easy. The hardest thing about Jing is only having 5 min....as a trainer, I need a lot more time then that. :)
Toodledo is the web 2.0 app that I choose to talk about in the video. I am terrible at making a to-do list. I can make a list but prioritizing and not loosing the list is always a challenge. This little app would keep everything in one place and it helps prioritize for me.
I couple of other sites that I found that seemed with interesting or fun were: Mindmeister for mind mapping, TravBuddy for finding out about location you will be traveling too or restaurants in your own backyard and finally Game Classroom all different kinds of math and language art games for K-6.
Here is my Jing upload:
I have never used Jing before but it was pretty easy to use....once I realized that I kept clicking on the Cancel button instead of the Stop button at the end of the recording. It was odd that it was so easy to share or embed the video. The fact that it automatically copied the info or link on to the clipboard is unusual and I felt like it was almost too easy. The hardest thing about Jing is only having 5 min....as a trainer, I need a lot more time then that. :)
Toodledo is the web 2.0 app that I choose to talk about in the video. I am terrible at making a to-do list. I can make a list but prioritizing and not loosing the list is always a challenge. This little app would keep everything in one place and it helps prioritize for me.
I couple of other sites that I found that seemed with interesting or fun were: Mindmeister for mind mapping, TravBuddy for finding out about location you will be traveling too or restaurants in your own backyard and finally Game Classroom all different kinds of math and language art games for K-6.
Here is my Jing upload:
Cloud Computing...a little cloudy???
After watching this video, I had to chuckle. Here are the tech guru's and I am not sure they agree on how to describe Cloud Computing. By the end I was almost more confused than when I started.
I do believe that I like the lady's version of cloud computing the best; if there is no hardware or software for you to own or download than it is in the clouds, simple and straightforward.
Now Web 2.0 is different because it can require a download and sometimes you can manipulate the software. Two things that you can't or don't have to worry about in cloud computing.
My first experience with cloud computing was with Google Docs. I love it that I don't have to have my laptop or remember by flash drive every time I want to access a document. If there is Internet available then my document is available.
My daughter's social studies/comm arts teacher is now having them do assignments on Google Docs and submitting there assignments via sharing them with her. I think it is great idea. Leaves out the whole, "dog at my homework," excuse. Plus she can track how long or often they worked on the assignment.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Photo Story vs Animoto
Well....there was no comparison in my mind. Photo Story was the one I started with and after so many options and easy of use I was really disappointed with Animoto. I mean was that it? all it had to offer? There was no doubt it might be easier to drop the pictures and share but I didn't find it very user friendly and not many options. Photo Story is the way to go! I had fun and can't wait to make more. I think would also be a great way to involve the girl's in makeing memories of our vacation.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Podcasting--Customer Service
Getting this posted took me awhile but I think I finally figured it out. The music I referenced at the end but here it is again: Musopen by Georg Philipp Telemann.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Copyright, Fair Use and all the jazz
So, this time I decide to just start with the US Copyright Office and see what they had to say, here are their definitions:
Copyright—is a form of protection that is grounded in the Constitution and is available for both published and unpublished works.
Fair Use—a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.
There are also four things to consider with fair use; the purpose of the use, the nature of the work, the amount used and the effect on the copyrighted material.
Now when it came to creative common license I couldn’t find a whole lot besides court cases and responses.
Creative Common License—a way to copyright your own works but still allow others to use it in a non-commercial way while giving credit to the source.
When it comes to students and copyright laws I think the ones that they are most likely to violate are the music and videos. It is still too easy to rip a CD and share it with everyone. Universities have really tried to crack down on students downloading copyrighted music over the internet and some have been expelled for infractions.
For educator’s I think it is easiest/safest would be to just use information with creative common license but I am not sure that is what we all do. I believe most just bank on the fact that it is for educational purposes that will cover them in a lawsuit.
Creative Commons License, http://creativecommons.org/
US Copyright Office, http://www.copyright.gov/
Friday, January 28, 2011
The Basics of RSS
“The Basics of RSS,” simply because just a little over a week ago, I had no idea what RSS meant. I can now tell you that RSS means “Really Simple Syndication” and is a method of providing website content such as news or software updates in a standard XML format. Basically, if you follow a variety of news sources, magazines or blogs you can have them all in one location, therefore saving time because you do not need to go to each individual site. Forget about bookmarking sites in your web browser, email updates or visiting your favorite sites — these all take time and time is precious.
I choose to use both Google Reader and RSS Owl when experimenting to see how online versus download RSS differed. I didn’t have a problem setting up or loading either of the software programs. I think both programs are very user friendly.
Because the easy of set-up with both programs I think this is something anyone could do. In a school setting I would probably lean towards an online program because many times students will not always be at the same computer or may want to keep up over the weekend/summer and an online reader would certainly make it easier.
I think the most obvious use of RSS in the classroom is to track one another’s blogs and to then to make comments. It is an easy way to engage the entire class, especially if some of the students are a little more reserved, everyone gets a chance to read and comment without feeling intimidated. One blog I found concerning RSS, which ironically was written in 2006, I had no idea RSS had been around that long, indicated that RSS was important because it was teaching students how to write for the internet and how to read bits of information. Writing a research paper and writing for a blog are vastly different styles. It helps if students can easily see and track how things of written for the digital media. When it comes to reading, can you imagine standing the library visually scanning a variety of magazines, journal or newspapers for the topic you are looking for? It is much easier with a reader to scan quickly or search for keywords.
Some of the websites that I have found to follow are 21st Century Ed Tech and Master New Media. Now sometimes the articles from Master New Media, or actually more times than not, the articles from Master New Media are over my head. But I do find them fascinating and enjoy learning about the possibilities out there even if it isn’t something that I could use in my career. There have been several articles in the 21st Century Ed Tech feed that I have enjoyed and debating using myself. Recently there was an article concerning resources available online from the Library of Congress and also a free professional development opportunity from the Discovery Channel.
I have learned an enormous amount of information on RSS and it is certainly something that I will continue to use. I am not sure I have committed to one reader over another just yet, but I will certainly use one to save time and manage my resources.
I choose to use both Google Reader and RSS Owl when experimenting to see how online versus download RSS differed. I didn’t have a problem setting up or loading either of the software programs. I think both programs are very user friendly.
I have used Google Docs before so the look and feel was very similar for the Reader. The big advantage that I see with Google Reader is that it doesn’t matter where I am or which computer I am on, I have easy access to the blogs that I follow. Everything is always updated and just waiting for me to come to the Reader to view the latest news.
In RSS Owl the look and feel reminded me of some of the Micro Soft programs such as Outlook, with the larger icons across the top to navigate through the program. I must admit that I like the layout and easy use of this software better than the Google Reader. It was a cleaner look and easier to read the different articles. Switching between magazines or blogs was easier than with Google Reader as well.
Because the easy of set-up with both programs I think this is something anyone could do. In a school setting I would probably lean towards an online program because many times students will not always be at the same computer or may want to keep up over the weekend/summer and an online reader would certainly make it easier.
I think the most obvious use of RSS in the classroom is to track one another’s blogs and to then to make comments. It is an easy way to engage the entire class, especially if some of the students are a little more reserved, everyone gets a chance to read and comment without feeling intimidated. One blog I found concerning RSS, which ironically was written in 2006, I had no idea RSS had been around that long, indicated that RSS was important because it was teaching students how to write for the internet and how to read bits of information. Writing a research paper and writing for a blog are vastly different styles. It helps if students can easily see and track how things of written for the digital media. When it comes to reading, can you imagine standing the library visually scanning a variety of magazines, journal or newspapers for the topic you are looking for? It is much easier with a reader to scan quickly or search for keywords.
Some of the websites that I have found to follow are 21st Century Ed Tech and Master New Media. Now sometimes the articles from Master New Media, or actually more times than not, the articles from Master New Media are over my head. But I do find them fascinating and enjoy learning about the possibilities out there even if it isn’t something that I could use in my career. There have been several articles in the 21st Century Ed Tech feed that I have enjoyed and debating using myself. Recently there was an article concerning resources available online from the Library of Congress and also a free professional development opportunity from the Discovery Channel.
I have learned an enormous amount of information on RSS and it is certainly something that I will continue to use. I am not sure I have committed to one reader over another just yet, but I will certainly use one to save time and manage my resources.
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