VoiceThread

A voicethread is a way of having conversation with someone using media to help explain what they are talking about. People can use this for business ideas and meetings. You can draw while you talk to explain yourself...so if you have to circle items your talking about you can. I don't know if I would want to use VoiceThread in my classroom...it seems like it could be usefull but at the same time it can be complicated or it will be abused.

Publisher

The activities from this week were very interesting to me because I did not know what publisher was really used for. I have never known how to make a resume or even what one would remotely look like but now I have an idea. Now that I have, it will help me make one when I need to. The brochure was fun...I did not know really what to do with that either until I saw an example and then I realized it wasn't as hard as it looked. I think that I overlooked a few things that I needed to add to the brochure and resume. I think I need a little more experience with making one before I'm ready for the real thing. The Desktop Publisher was a fu ntool to use. You can also create business cards by using Publisher. I'd probably make banners or signs for my classroom just to give it some spunk or enthusiasm. I'm going to teach high school health...hopefully...but this kind of program would be good to make banners using many facts about health.

Classroom Tech

Educators should go as far as they can to match the technology used in instruction as long as it is effective. The first sign of it not being effective then it should be taught differently. i believe that there is no way possible you could have instant messaging in a classroom...it is abused very easily. It is a complete distraction to what they are trying to learn. Some learners may be more interested in something new and fun like text-based communication but I don't believe it is effective. Face-to-face learning is by far the safest way to ensure learning. I also believe that podcasts are not very effective either. Sometimes as teachers we try to do too much and should focus on the things that are gauranteed. Now, video games I can believe can work in studying. When I was in the fourth grade our teacher brought in a Playstation...it was new to me but I was excited to use it. We did an educational video game but to all the kids in the class it wasn't looked at as being educational. We saw all the designs and graphics and thought they were cool so we were more likely to pay attention. One of the skills you can gain from video games is attention to deatil, once you play video games you tend to be able to see the little things that most people wouldn't recognize. I would let my child play a video game everyday but it would be limited to a certain amount of time. To me video games aren't bad for you...unless you sit too close to the TV or you play for 8 hours a day so I have no problem with the video games.

Delicious

Delicious is a good idea and is one of those advances in technology that make life easier. The only way I would have ever known about it was if it was literally put in my face. All it is to me is a quicker way of going to different places on the internet. It probably is helpful but I honestly don't know how much I'd use it.

Spreadsheet

Spreadsheet is different from the other programs..it is very detailed. It is a good tool to use for students grades. Making the timeline wasn't too hard so I believe many teachers would be able to use this in the classroom. I would definitely use it in my classroom.

Inspiration

I found in the Inspiration program that it kind of reminds me of Adobe Photoshop in the sense that you have all these ways of creating what you want to see and use. The options on this program are very detailed and looks to be very useful. The program looked colorful so where it will catch your eye...perfect for use in the classroom. It would be a great tool for brainstorming or showing students how to brainstorm effectively and how to keep them in order and you don't have to worry about mistakes like writing down on paper would. The way you can transfer a document is amazing because it is so easy to use.

You could do a writing activity that involved brainstorming for topics on an english paper. Once you come up with an idea you can just type it in to one of the boxes and link up other subjects you could write about. There was a good example on the website that showed a diagram of MacBeth and a word that was associated with the story. Students could blog about there ideas and share these ideas outside of the classroom when they want to...so that would be a good way of stretching a class period. You as a teacher can use the program to see how the students are doing and to make sure they are on the right track.

Assignment #1

When I think about using blogs, I think of people sharing ideas and the internet. I do not know much about them other than you write in them...From my point of view, blogs would probably be successful for education even though I do not know much about them. I see how far technology has gotten us so to me this is another one of those things that makes our lives easier or something like that. I can see how educational it could be if me as a teacher would post some things on my blog that students could view from home. When you have a lot of information on the internet, you type it once for everyone to see instead of having to print off paper after paper after paper...so I see how easy it could be. It would be a waste of time if you do not know what you are doing, or if you had bad information on the blog. Blogs may take up time that can be used in other ways. Once I know the best way of reaching the minds of my students through blogging then I will probably use it.