Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
May 26, 2015 - Week 9
HAVE YOUR STUDENTS MAKE A WEBSITE!
Websites can be really fun to make, and it is a great way to better understand a subject. A great way to do this is on a free website such as WordPress or Wix. It can be used as a blog, or it can be made into a website by changing the default home page. There are also programs, such as DreamWeaver that you can use to create websites outside of a blog site. I prefer, though, using WordPress to create my websites.
With WordPress, and Wix, you can pay to have your domain (URL) to be whatever you want. Originally, the domain will be yourdomain.wordpress.com, but this can be changed! For a fee. :)
Websites can be really fun to make, and it is a great way to better understand a subject. A great way to do this is on a free website such as WordPress or Wix. It can be used as a blog, or it can be made into a website by changing the default home page. There are also programs, such as DreamWeaver that you can use to create websites outside of a blog site. I prefer, though, using WordPress to create my websites.
With WordPress, and Wix, you can pay to have your domain (URL) to be whatever you want. Originally, the domain will be yourdomain.wordpress.com, but this can be changed! For a fee. :)
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
May 19, 2015 - Week 8
How many of you have used a program called Hour of Code? This initiative is to educate more people in the coding of programs. Today, I helped Ana and Elsa make snowflakes by building blocks of code. Your students can use this new found skill to build an app with a program I mentioned last week. AppInventor.com allows the students to learn about coding as well, and uses the same format as Hour of Code.
To carry on with the coding theme of the week, take a look at Dream Weaver. Dream Weaver is an Adobe program that allows you to build a website from scratch, and it shows you how it is coding the website. It uses the HTML format of coding, which is different from Java or the building block format. The code below is for my test website Minced Monkey Meat.
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
<title>Minced Monkey Meat</title>
<style type="text/css">
.CS {
font-family: "Lucida Console", Monaco, monospace;
font-size: 16px;
font-style: normal;
font-weight: bold;
font-variant: normal;
text-transform: capitalize;
color: #F00;
background-color: #000;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<table width="1000" border="1">
<caption class="CS">
<span class="CS"> Minced Meats
</span>
</caption>
<tr>
<td width="109" height="92" class="CS"> </td>
<td width="709" class="CS">Monkey Meat</td>
<td width="160" class="CS"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="128" class="CS"> </td>
<td class="CS">Birdy Feet</td>
<td class="CS"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="118" class="CS"> </td>
<td class="CS">Gopher Guts</td>
<td class="CS"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="196" class="CS"> </td>
<td class="CS">Eyeballs in Puss</td>
<td class="CS"> </td>
</tr>
</table>
<p class="CS"> </p>
<p class="CS"> </p>
</body>
</html>
To carry on with the coding theme of the week, take a look at Dream Weaver. Dream Weaver is an Adobe program that allows you to build a website from scratch, and it shows you how it is coding the website. It uses the HTML format of coding, which is different from Java or the building block format. The code below is for my test website Minced Monkey Meat.
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
<title>Minced Monkey Meat</title>
<style type="text/css">
.CS {
font-family: "Lucida Console", Monaco, monospace;
font-size: 16px;
font-style: normal;
font-weight: bold;
font-variant: normal;
text-transform: capitalize;
color: #F00;
background-color: #000;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<table width="1000" border="1">
<caption class="CS">
<span class="CS"> Minced Meats
</span>
</caption>
<tr>
<td width="109" height="92" class="CS"> </td>
<td width="709" class="CS">Monkey Meat</td>
<td width="160" class="CS"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="128" class="CS"> </td>
<td class="CS">Birdy Feet</td>
<td class="CS"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="118" class="CS"> </td>
<td class="CS">Gopher Guts</td>
<td class="CS"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="196" class="CS"> </td>
<td class="CS">Eyeballs in Puss</td>
<td class="CS"> </td>
</tr>
</table>
<p class="CS"> </p>
<p class="CS"> </p>
</body>
</html>
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
May 12, 2015 - Week 7
There are many educational apps in the app store for both Apple and Android products. Students can use websites and programs to create apps for their cell phones that help them better understand the material they are learning. Today we built apps using ibuildapp.com. It is very simple, but it is slightly frustrating to me. I prefer to use a program called App Inventor. Unfortunately, App Inventor is only compatible with Android devices. The nice part about it though, is whoever has the link can download it for eternity. ibuildapp.com is compatible with both Apple and Android, but you do have to pay in order to have it installed for more than 24 hours. Building an app seems difficult, but students will get the hang of it quickly using these two programs.
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
May 5, 2015 - Week 6
Looking at a website, how can you tell if it is a real website or if it is a hoax? This can become a big challenge for students who need accurate information for projects and/or papers. Can you imagine if a student was mislead thinking they needed three cups of acid to mix in with their chlorine? This would end in a disaster if it got into the wrong hands, or the student didn't know how dangerous it was and began drinking it (this is way out there, I know). As a teacher, you should not only ask your students to explore for answers, but also provide them with a couple accurate websites. They should also be shown that not all websites are real, and that some people create fake ones. Not all websites ending in .edu, .org, or .net are considered accurate websites anymore. Anyone can purchase that ending for their domain.
After looking at the websites, we explored some podcasts. Making a podcast is easy. You can make a video and upload it to YouTube, or you can do a voice recording like we did in class. For our podcasts we used Garage Band where many of us read a book that teaches students how to do something. Your students can do this as well, whether create a video or an audible podcast. For mine, I read a book on why it is important to brush your teeth, starting at a young age.
After looking at the websites, we explored some podcasts. Making a podcast is easy. You can make a video and upload it to YouTube, or you can do a voice recording like we did in class. For our podcasts we used Garage Band where many of us read a book that teaches students how to do something. Your students can do this as well, whether create a video or an audible podcast. For mine, I read a book on why it is important to brush your teeth, starting at a young age.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
April 28, 2015 - Week 5
Tyler Ciscell, a fourth grade teacher for Elkton Grade School came in today to present on Web 2.0. He showed us many websites that he uses in the classroom. Those highlighted in pink are the links we used in class, and the others are on his website for his students to use. Each has a brief description of what the website does.
After Tyler left, we took a look at the ISTE Standards for Teachers. It is important for teachers to know the standards that they are expected to teach at as well as what their students are expected to know.
- Story Bird
- Create a Story or Poem
- Prezi
- Powerpoint type program
- Popplet
- less clean than prezi
- Wordpress
- Website
- Socrative
- Quizzing Website
- Google Docs/Slides/Spreadsheet
- Online Docs w/ Groups
- Hippo Campus
- Math
- Easel.ly
- infographics
- Games for Change
- Contemporary Social Issues
- Vocaroo
- Voice Recorder
- Timeglider
- Timeline Creator
After Tyler left, we took a look at the ISTE Standards for Teachers. It is important for teachers to know the standards that they are expected to teach at as well as what their students are expected to know.
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
April 21, 2015 - Week 4
Today's lesson was about using the iPads to create a movie trailer. We were given 30 minutes to plan out and create a movie trailer using iMovie. This is a great way to get your students excited about what they are learning, and allowing them to be creative about it. It also allows the students to be a part of the video, or be the camera-person.
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
April 14, 2015 - Week 3
Today, we learned how/why to use video in the classroom. Video is something that engages students in their learning. Think about being in school again. We all had a teacher who started to sound like Charlie Brown's after 20 minutes, give or take. Would you have been more active in the conversation, or more engaged in the topic had the teacher put on a documentary or video? When you watch a movie, when are you most engaged? Is it when there is a car chase, or when there is a conversation happening between the characters? Students learn in different ways. Some need a visual and an audible lesson, others only need an audible lesson. A video allows the students who learn in different ways the ability to learn the material better.
The students could also use iMovie to make a commercial about/for their project.
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
April 7, 2015 - Week 2
For class today, we worked with Photoshop. Did you know more often than not photos online are photo shopped? Why must people Photoshop photos, you ask? People use Photoshop to get their point across. We looked at photos with a polar bear in the south pole. Sadly, polar bears are not found in the south pole. The point, though, of this photo is to demonstrate to your students that polar bears live in the cold climate.
One way to tell if a photo has undergone Photoshop is by looking at the light and shadows cast on or by the objects in the photo. In one picture we looked at, the man on the left had a reflection on a flash on his forehead. That same reflection was copied onto the figure to the right's forehead and was given a lighter feel.
You can also tell the photo underwent Photoshop by looking at the grain of the picture, and the contrast of a photo. If, in the same picture as referenced above, the man to the left's suit was zoomed into, you couldn't see very well because it was so blurry, and you zoomed in the same amount to the suit of the man on the right, a sign that the photo went through Photoshop would be that the right man's suit was crisper and not as blurry.
Photoshop is a useful tool because it helps teachers get their point across, but it is also good to know when a photo has undergone Photoshop to help your students understand what is true and what is not true.
One way to tell if a photo has undergone Photoshop is by looking at the light and shadows cast on or by the objects in the photo. In one picture we looked at, the man on the left had a reflection on a flash on his forehead. That same reflection was copied onto the figure to the right's forehead and was given a lighter feel.
You can also tell the photo underwent Photoshop by looking at the grain of the picture, and the contrast of a photo. If, in the same picture as referenced above, the man to the left's suit was zoomed into, you couldn't see very well because it was so blurry, and you zoomed in the same amount to the suit of the man on the right, a sign that the photo went through Photoshop would be that the right man's suit was crisper and not as blurry.
Photoshop is a useful tool because it helps teachers get their point across, but it is also good to know when a photo has undergone Photoshop to help your students understand what is true and what is not true.
Monday, March 30, 2015
March 30, 2015 - Week 1
Welcome to ED270, Technology in Education. My name is Christina Sekafetz, and I am a freshman at Western Oregon University. Throughout this course, we will be learning about different aspects of technology and how to use it in the classroom. To start off, we were asked to introduce our neighbors. Alyssa was mine, and she wants to be a kindergarten teacher. Her experience with technology is a lot like mine, as we both have grown up in the technological age.
Technology is a useful tool as well as a large part of our lives. It has evolved in its 70+ years of existence from having to code in order to use the computer to being able to get onto the internet at any point in time within seconds. We subscribe to RSS systems to receive newsletters in our emails, contribute to wikkis for accurate information, and have an over abundance of social media. This is the Web 2.0, and it can be a useful tool in the classroom.
Today, we learned how to create jigsaw puzzles online, as well as how to make them for free. We also created a few accounts that will be needed for later use, including a flickr account. Lastly, we made a BLOG! This class is going to be so much fun!
PS - Find me on Flickr! CS_Minnie
Technology is a useful tool as well as a large part of our lives. It has evolved in its 70+ years of existence from having to code in order to use the computer to being able to get onto the internet at any point in time within seconds. We subscribe to RSS systems to receive newsletters in our emails, contribute to wikkis for accurate information, and have an over abundance of social media. This is the Web 2.0, and it can be a useful tool in the classroom.
Today, we learned how to create jigsaw puzzles online, as well as how to make them for free. We also created a few accounts that will be needed for later use, including a flickr account. Lastly, we made a BLOG! This class is going to be so much fun!
PS - Find me on Flickr! CS_Minnie
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