6 Website Reflections

May 8, 2007 by

Kerrie Olson: I really like the backgrounds, design, and colors of your website. It looks professional, but fun. I couldn’t get the link to your blog to work. I think the wrong website must have got copied and pasted. I liked your idea for the iMovie. It would a fun way to introduce the history of Hays. It might be helpful to have captions or labels to identify the places in the iMovie. Overall….very well done! J

 

Danny Grater: It was easy to identify your two passions in life…wrestling and farming! I liked the format of your podcast. I think it would even fit right in itunes with the professionals. Your email button on the home page is green when you put the cursor over it…the other buttons are black. I apologize for noticing the small things. I can be a perfectionist sometimes. You had good information on your home page. I might try to shorten it just a little and make the font bigger so it is easier to read. The music on the website was a nice edition. Good Work!

Kayla Juenemann: I liked the colors and backgrounds of your home page. I think you should find a clearer picture of you for your first page. Your kids will want to see your beautiful smile. J I thought your ABC book was really cute. This would be a good beginning of the year book to share with your students. Some of the button colors didn’t correspond with the backgrounds. You might want to try having more uniformity with your buttons. I didn’t have any problems navigating your website. All of your buttons took me where they should! Hurray! Go website!
Ashley Feldkamp: I really liked your two iMovies. You may want to make them a little smaller on your web pages. It was hard for me to see the whole movie on the screen and I think they might play a little clearer. The travel ambassador slides were great. The palm tree background went great with the theme. I also liked your ABC book with the words around the sides of the pages. It might be hard to read the bottom lines since we can’t turn the computer screen like we could a book, but still a fun idea. I liked how your FHSU and high school buttons had the mascots on them. I didn’t ever get creative enough to do this for my website. Good job! Your website looks like its on its way to being a success for your students!

 Nikki Moody: I really like the simplicity of your website. The buttons and words are easy to read and navigate. You might want to add back buttons to your podcast, iMovie, and ABC book to get back to the class projects page. I really liked the lady picture on your links page. She looks just like you! You may want to add more links for your students and parents like a class schedule or homework page. It would be fun to have class pictures as well as personal pictures, too. I was really impressed with your ABC book. This is a great way to share your study abroad experience with your students! Awesome job with your podcast as well! Even though you were just reading a book, you added fun sounds effects and used your voice really well. Mad props for the animal noises and a great website!

 

Keri Sherman: Wow! You have lots of information available on your website! I liked how you have videos of yourself teaching. This tells employers and parents you are confident in your ability to teach because you are willing to let them watch you teach on your website. Your website was easy to navigate and all the links worked well for me. You might want to add more buttons letter that would be useful for your students and parents such as a calendar, daily schedule, or a class pictures page. Information was organized and easy to find! Looks nice!

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My Website Reflection…

May 8, 2007 by

            The first thing that comes to mind about my website is DON’T PROCRASTINATE! If I started this semester over again, I would start working on my projects sooner. I would also take more time to explore the options with ezedia for creating different buttons and font effects. I would spend more time with my iMovie and add more pictures to my podcast. I would also like to add more information to my personal page.

            I really like the color scheme of my website and my background pages. If I started over on my website I would pick a theme and colors and keep them consistent throughout the website. I really like that my website is working!!!! This makes me really happy. I also like how my website is organized. I think it is easy to navigate.

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My WOW Moments…

May 8, 2007 by

My WOW moments!

            One of my more recent WOW moments happened when I was listening to the Treasure Chest podcast. For the science gem (link) it took me to the website edheads.com. The first link I clicked on was virtual hip replacement surgery. You actually get to scrub in and a help perform the surgery! I was fascinated by this interactive learning experience. I even had to pause the podcast I was listening to so I could finish my surgery.

            My second ah-ha moment was when I discovered how to get the other menu on a Mac since the mouse only has one button. This frustrated me for at least half of the semester because I used the right click menu on my pc so much. It turns out all you have to do is hold down the ctrl button and click to get the menu on the Mac. This changed my attitude about using the Mac computer. I came into the semester thinking my PC was just fine. My knowledge of the Mac computer was zero. I wasn’t even sure if I could play my PowerPoint from my PC on the Mac. I come out of TECS 390 wishing I had enough money to buy a Mac of my own.

            My third and final WOW moment this semester was discovering social bookmarking. I would always come up on so many websites I wanted to use, but I had no real way to organize them. Then, to make matters worse, every time I was on another computer I couldn’t get to my links. Thanks for portaportal and delicious my online life has become organize!!!

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HI TECS 390 CLASS!

May 7, 2007 by

Welcome to my blog! Have a great summer!

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Social Studies iMovie Idea

May 7, 2007 by

For my iMovie I looked through the Kansas Standards for History and Government; Economics and Geography to find an idea. Under the economic standards for first grade I found an indcator that talked about goods and services. The students should be able to understand that you exchange money to buy goods and services. My idea is to film different businesses around town and creat an iMovie where students have to talk about the differences in goods and services. Check out my iMovie to see how I did! My website is www.scatcat.fhsu.edu/~jrmeyer.

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WEEK 15 PODCAST REFLECTIONS

May 6, 2007 by

1. Ohio Treasure Chest
Episode Title: Sentence Sense, Rainforest Maths, Fear of Physics, Hot Shot Business, and Part 2 of how to evaluate a tech resource.
Date: 3-18-07
Episode Number: 3
Reflection: I really like this new podcast! I highly recommend it to educators K-12!
Language Arts Gem: This website has good information. It is not as interactive as I would like for an elementary student. However, it would be a great resource for middle school, high school, and college age students. You can brush up on your sentence skills in little or no time at all using this website. http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/sensen/

Math Gem: I really liked the rain forest theme of this website. I agree with Curt that this would be a great whole class activity especially if you have an interactive website. This would be a great website for individual students to check out during free computer time. www.rainforestmaths.com

Science Gem: Cool! This website would have been helpful when I was in Physics class in high school. This would be a great way to reteach students. The concepts here are a bit advanced for elementary students, but this link could be good for elementary teachers. www.fearofphysics.com

Social Studies Gem: Hmmmm! This website does require some time. However, it seems to introduce a lot of concepts about being an entrepreneur. I might find some ways to use this in the classroom.  www.disney.go.com/hotshot/hsb.html

2. Tech Chick Tips
Episode Title: ChaCha.com, Evoca, Pow-Pak, Tumblr, Memorizable, Crowd About, Nettrekker, Comic Life (sorry PC users), and integration ideas for Women’s History Month!
Date: 3-15-07
Episode Number: 21
Reflection: Do you ever get frustrated when you are trying to find information online? This website has a live guide who will help you find information. Wow! I always need help when I am searching. I will try this search engine in my future searches. chacha.com Are you using podcasting? If you are try out evoca.com. I really need this website because I have trouble learning geography. I went to http://memorizable.com/ and played a state matching game. This is a good website to suggest as a study tool for students. Do you want to blog? Go to tumblr.com. I set up my blog in about 15 seconds. Look at mine at http://jennifermeyer.tumblr.com/. I could see this as being a way for students to share their work online. Other users can not comment on posts, but this might be an advantage for the classroom. I want to use this in my class. I like how simple this blog tool is to use. TRY IT!

3. Grammar Girl
Episode Title: Title Cap Capers
Date: 9-22-06
Episode Number: 15
Reflection: I did not find this podcast very helpful, but it was only two minutes long so I didn’t waste too much time find this out!

SO I TRIED AGAIN!

 

3. Grammar Girl
Episode Title: You’ve Got Questions
Date: 9-11-06
Episode Number: 12
Reflection: This podcast was more helpful. I completely agree with the caller who called in about the people who use the phrase ‘go ahead and.’ I have a bad habit of using the word ‘like’ all of the time. My sister used to listen to my phone conversations in high school and tally my use of the word. How annoying! However, I am more conscious of the words I am using in conversation. Another useless phrase we use is ‘I just wanted to let you know that.’ JUST SAY WHAT YOU MEAN AND AVOID THE EXTRA WORDS!

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WEEK 16 PODCAST REFLECTIONS

May 5, 2007 by

1. Ohio Treasure Chest
Episode Title: Online Reading Assessments from Texas, Excel Activities for the Classroom, American Memory from the Library of Congress, EdHeads, and Part 3 of how to evaluate a tech resource.
Date: 4-1-07
Episode Number: 4
Reflection:

Reading Gem: No Child Left Behind is putting more pressure than ever before on teachers and schools. What did Texas do? They put old state assessment tests on the internet. I will remember this website when I have my own classroom. If these tests are close to the ones in Kansas, my students will be logged on. www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/resources/release

Math Gem: www.northcanton.sparcc.org/~technology/excel

Science Gem: COOL! COOL! AWESOME! COOL! WOW! I went to check out this website, and I got to help complete a hip replacement surgery. It was super fun! Some of the content was higher level, but the interactive surgery was great. I recommend this website. If a person is thinking about being an orthopedic surgeon, he or she should check out this virtual surgery. There were a few other informative videos on this website as well! www.edheads.org\

Social Studies Gem: This website was more advanced. It was not as interactive as some of the other ones, but it offered good information. It might be better for the teacher at an elementary level. memory.loc.gov/ammem

 

2. Math Factor
Episode Title: We don’t know the way out
Date: 1-8-07
Episode Number: ?
Reflection: I stumbled upon this podcast when looking for education podcasts. I like these podcasts because they would great brain teasers to begin the day. I think math educators would especially like these short podcasts. They are good to challenge the mind. This week’s puzzle is asking how to get out of a room. I went to the next week’s podcast to listen to the answer and it all made sense! Map props to the creators of Math Factor.

3. Grammar Girl
Episode Title: Don’t you dare lay down Sally!
Date: 1-17-07
Episode Number: 37
Reflection: This podcast is a lot like Math Factor except for it is about English. This would also be a great podcast to play at the beginning of English class. I like these podcasts because they are short and to the point. Today I learned the difference between lay and lie. It’s so tricky Grammar Girl had to make a chart because an acronym just wouldn’t work

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WEEK 17 PODCAST REFLECTIONS

May 5, 2007 by

1. Tech Chick Tips
Episode Title: BrainPop & BrainPop Jr., ZamZar, MyMaps, Terra Clues, Witches & Wiki, Wikipedia, Citizendium and a bunch of shout outs!
Date: 4-12-07
Episode Number: 23
Reflection: There are so many good resources in these podcasts sometime I don’t know which one to check out first. I’m glad I use delicious bookmarking to keep track of my websites. I went to brainpop.com, but I didn’t want to use up the free 14 day trial right now. It looks well organized. Ah-ha! If you need to convert files go to zamzar.com. This looks really easy to use. In fact, I might try it out later this weekend. I also learned during this podcast that google has a maps section. The maps section has a new feature. I went to try it out, and it looks pretty cool! This would be a neat way to document a vacation because you could put pictures and sound files with the map. This next website I checked out is a great Social Studies tool. You can create hunts for different places. I tried out the sample hunt and found the white house and the Statue of Liberty. This would also be a neat supplement for the classroom (terraclues.com). The tech chicks also talked about an article in the Times magazine that was an interview with Jimmy Wales the co-creator of Wikipedia.  I want to point out what he said to the question about using Wikipedia as a resource for school papers and projects. Wales says that Wikipedia is not a good resource because there is a chance something is wrong with the information. I was surprised by his answer.

 

2. Ohio Treasure Chest

Episode Title: Learn to Read at Starfall, National Library of Virtual Manipulatives, Planetfesto, and Interactive Learning Modules from the Center on Congress at Indiana University, and Part 4 of how to evaluate a tech resource.

Date: 4-16-07

Episode Number: 5

Reflection:

Language Arts Gem: starfall.com I can’t wait to use this website with my students. This website has some cool games and lessons.

Mathematics Gem: WOW! I like this website! nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html We talked a lot about using manipulatives in our math and science class. This is a great way to integrate technology and save money on manipulatives that can cost a lot of money.

Science Gem: planetfesto.org This website was really simple. It would work well for Earth Day activities. It also goes with any standards about recycling. I bookmarked this website to use at a later time.

Social Studies Gem: congress.indiana.edu/learn_about/launcher.htm When you are studying government in your classroom, you should visit this website. It has some cool videos and lesson plans to help students understand our system of government.

3. Kidcast
Episode Title: Talk to Administrators about Podcasting
Date: 12-21-06
Episode Number: 36
Reflection: This podcast addressed how a teacher talks to administrators about starting podcasting and how administrators approach teachers about podcasting. Change is uncomfortable for most people so a lot of teachers may be hesitant to jump into podcasting. One tip from this podcast is to find teachers who are better with technology to start podcasting. Then, they can show the other teachers what they have done. For teachers time is a valuable resource, and teachers already have so much content to cover in the classroom. Because of this, a lot of teachers think they have to take something out of their lessons to use podcasting. However, podcasting can fit in with any subject, and, if done right, it can be done well in a small amount of time. I would be willing to try podcasting in my classroom. I think it is a great tool with many benefits for the students!!!

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WEEK 14 PODCAST REFLECTIONS

May 4, 2007 by

1. TEDTalks
Episode Title: Philosopher Dan Dennett
Date: 5-3-07
Episode Number: ?
Reflection: I’m not really into philosophy so that is why I decided to watch a TedTalk given by a philosopher. I decided I needed to step outside of my comfort zone. This professor was trying to prove to us that our brains deceive us. He showed a lot of cool visual illusions. If you’re looking to challenge your mind, you should watch this podcast.

2. Ohio Treasure Chest
Episode Title: Writers’ Window, Dositey.com, Mr. Nussbaum’s…
Date: 5-1-07
Episode Number: 6
Reflection: WOW! WOW! WOW! This podcast is going to be my new favorite. This week’s English link is called writers window (http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/writers/). Students age 5-15 can publish their work and other students can leave comments. I checked out this website, and I liked what I saw. For math resources try dositey.com. For science try iknowthat.com. For social studies try mrnussbaum.com. These are all four great website resources for the classroom. I’m excited to keep listening! I definitely recommend this podcast.

3. Tech Chick Tips
Episode Title: Eric Curts Interview
Date: 4-21-07
Episode Number: 24
Reflection: I liked this podcast because it was short, and it gave me an awesome new podcast to listen to. It is called the Ohio Treasure Chest. Every two weeks Eric Curts gives four new resources, one in math, one in science, one in reading, and one in social studies. He also has a corresponding website (http://www.northcanton.sparcc.org/~techresources/). WOW! This teacher heard about podcasting, found out what it entailed, and started making his own. This is very exciting! It reiterates the fact that anyone can use podcasting. I’m excited to hear some of his podcasts. His website is also a wealth of cool resources for K-12 teachers.

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WEEK 17 Article Reflection #1

May 4, 2007 by

ARTICLE TITLE: The One-to-One Tsunami
AUTHOR: Pamela Livingston
THE SOURCE: tech LEARNING
WEB LINK: http://www.techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=196604373
REFLECTION: Ten or fifteen years ago a one-to-one laptop environment seemed like a dream, but it is becoming more of a reality. Fort Hays State University is one of those schools going to a one-to-one environment beginning with the 07-08 school year. There seemed to be a lot of resistance from the study body when the idea was first proposed including coming from me. Since that time I have changed my opinion in favor of a laptop university. The article gave reasons such as students have equal access to computers and programs because they can take their machines home. Computers have also cut down on testing time. Students can take a test right on their computer. The article mentioned many other benefits involving a one-to-one learning environment. I wonder how many years it will be before every classroom has at least one laptop per student. We should be prepared.

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WEEK 16 ARTICLE

May 4, 2007 by

ARTICLE TITLE: When Digital Kids Rule the Classroom
AUTHOR: Stefanie Olsen
THE SOURCE: news.com
WEB LINK: http://news.com.com/2009-1041-6065108.html?tag=tba
REFLECTION: WOW! The girl they talked to was from KANSAS! This was exciting to read because it talked about Kansas. I am proud that our state is embracing technology. I agree with the point in this article that many times the students know more about technology than the teachers do. So, why not let the students teach the teachers. If we channel our students’ skills in the classroom, we would be able to create some wonderful results. It sounds like the GENYES program got off to a great start.

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WeeK 15 ARTICLE

May 4, 2007 by

ARTICLE TITLE: If Wired Right, Computers Do Belong in Classrooms
AUTHOR: Bob Shipchen
THE SOURCE: latimes.com
WEB LINK: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_17/b4031092.htm
REFLECTION: Cool! Someone wrote a follow up article to the study that said technology was not increasing students’ test scores. I agree with the author on this one. If teachers use the right technology and know how to use it effectively students will be gaining a lot of invaluable information. I am a firm believer that students need to be involved with technology as much as possible. There are so many possibilities out there; I think we should be too careful to dismiss the great value of technology in the classroom after this one study.

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WEEK 15 ARTICLE

May 4, 2007 by

ARTICLE TITLE: The Marshall of MySpace
AUTHOR: Media
THE SOURCE: Business Week
WEB LINK:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_17/b4031092.htm
REFLECTION: In this reflection, I commend MySpace for its work to keep younger people safe while using its resources. The man they have hired seems well qualified for the job. Hopefully, the presence of this cyber cop will deter younger students from engaging in dangerous activity online. I do not have a MySpace account, but I am still excited about this patroller because he will be able to help kids who are on the internet from getting into trouble. It seems like a weird job, but who knows…someday we might hire as big of an online police force as we do in real life.

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WeeK 15 ARTICLE

May 4, 2007 by

ARTICLE TITLE: Video Helps Overhaul District’s Curriculum
AUTHOR: Laura Devaney
THE SOURCE: eSchool News online
WEB LINK: http://www.eschoolnews.org/news/showStoryts.cfm?ArticleID=7015
REFLECTION: This article about streaming videos relates directly to our class using United Streaming in our elementary technology class. It was nice to see an article about school districts that are using streaming videos in their classrooms because it verifies the skills we are learning in our class can be applied in a real classroom setting. I also liked how this school district was forming teams to help integrate videos into the classroom. This takes a lot of pressure off each individual teacher to experiment and find out the best ways to use the videos in the classroom. Before long, all of our schools will have a system like SAFARI or United Streaming to download videos.

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WEEK 15 ARTICLE

May 4, 2007 by

ARTICLE TITLE: Study Eyes Effect on Tech on Classroom
AUTHOR: Nancy Zuckerbrod
THE SOURCE: USATODAY.com
WEB LINK: http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=316&sid=1107436
REFLECTION: This study is probably the first of its kind. The question being posed is whether or not technology is effective in the classroom. The study results showed teachers who used technology had no significant learning gains in their classrooms. I was not surprised by the results because we do not measure technology skills on our assessment tests we measure math and reading skills. This study does not change my opinion about using technology in the classroom. It is important that our students have technology skills to function in this world. School is not just about learning reading and math. It is about preparing students to live and work in the real world. I will be interested to read the follow up report being done with this study.

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