Word Clouds

I have actually used Wordle for classroom activities. I usually like to use this activity for a get to know you activity where the students list characteristics and interests that they have. They can also include their birthdays, age, brother/sister names, parent names, pet names, favorite color, favorite sport, favorite music, and the list can continue. I do ask that the student leave out their actual name so that when I read them the students can try to guess who it is. This activity can by used for a variety of activities, subjects, and concepts. The students also enjoy seeing their creations posted in the classroom.

Here is my Wordle Creation of the famous speech addressing the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Here is my World Creation for the subject Math.

I feel as if this activity would best match up with Standard #2: Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments. Wordle is a contemporary tool that allows students to maximize their learning and development of skills and tasks. This tool encourages creativity in their learning process. Here they can manage their own words, colors, direction of words, and font size. They can clearly see their own progress and what they have created. I can quickly connect this to an assessment on say the Scientific Method. Here they could be asked to create a word cloud that includes the steps to the Scientific Method. They could easily be assessed say on the scientific equipment that they will be using during lab. I could easily have the equipment laying out and they would have to come up with their scientific names. Then create a word cloud that contains all of their lab equipment names. See my example.

Voice Thread

I found this activity to be very neat and fun! Here my voice thread that I have created. Voice Thread is definitely something that I can see myself not only using in the classroom but with my little boy as well. This is a wonderful way to help me create and catch some of his first phrases and statements. I have never used Voice Thread before so this was a new experience for me. It was very easy for me to register and sign up. It was not difficult at all to upload my picture(s). It was very easy for me to set up my voice recording with the picture. I used the microphone to do this. I did run into a little trouble with thinking that my voice would cover all the slides that I chose. I realized that I would have to do my comments per picture and that they would not rotate during one comment. It basically does one comment/voice thread per picture. I also had some difficulty getting my Voice Thread link to work correctly. I forgot my blog username, I changed my password, and finally when I went to copy and paste the link it worked!

This activity would closely match ISTE NETS T number 3: Model Digital - Age Work and Learning. This activity will allow teachers to demonstrate content and concepts with the use of a technology tool within a digital society. This would show that the teacher understands new technologies and knows how to use them. This also allows students, teachers, parents, and peers work together and participate in this activity. It is important that this tool is used appropriately and the content is applicable to the content standards and objectives. We were given a wonderful source of lessons that used Voice Thread in effective ways. Here is where you can go to view the Voice Thread usage ideas.

Jing Graphic

Here is my screen cast of my Jing Image. This activity was much easier than I thought it was going to be. There are so many wonderful options and Jing could be used in the classroom on a daily basis. I chose the image of a microscope. With this being linked to the Interwrite board my student could be able to directly see what specific part of the microscope we are to identify. This could be used as an introduction to the microscope, where the teacher would model and demonstrate. Jing could be used as practice where the students are to complete in groups or individuals to label the different parts. Then as the final assessment the students would have to label the  parts with Jing.

This activity goes along with Standard #2. The subject of a microscope is now adapted to relevant student learning with the incorporation of Jing. This helps promote student learning and their creativity. With the students conducting this process themselves not only are they understanding a new technology concept but they are learning the parts of a microscope without realizing it. They are able to assess their own progress by actually seeing what they have labeled and what they have not. They are also able to see what they are quickly to identify and what parts cause them some difficulty. These would be the areas they would have to work harder in recognizing. The final assessment would be a true test of their knowledge of a new technology and the the individual parts of a microscope.

Picasso Head and Snipping Tool

This is how I look and feel after a day of school and working on material for this class. I'm just kidding. I enjoyed this activity. It took me a while to understand how the color process worked. Once I finally realized that I had to click on the particular feature then choose its color, I was good to go. I liked the fact I could make the features bigger and then also make others smaller. When it came time to save it somehow I realized that there was not a save option. I tried right click and searching the page for some type of hidden feature to save it and could not find anything. Then it clicked that maybe I could use the snipping tool. Hence the fact that the snipping tool was paired up with this assignment and on the same day.  When I went to make my box I forgot that I could move the option box of the snipping tool. I kept getting only part of my art work. Then once I played around with it and realized that I could move it I was able to get my whole picture. 

I could link this Picassohead with Elementary Students. This would be ideal for demonstrating emotions, what those emotions mean, what causes these types of feelings and how to represent them. Emotions and emotion recognition is important in the development of young children. There are so many different situations that even young students go through and they do not know how to show their real feelings or even what it is that they are feeling. 

Standard #1 would best match up with this activity. With the above activity teachers would help promote, support and model creative and innovative thinking. Once I completed mine I would discuss it with my students and discuss why certain features were the way they were. This also links students to real-world issues that happen daily and uses a digital tool to express themselves. This would allow students to reflect their feelings, situations, and understand why they feel the way the do. They may even find another student that is going through the same things they may be and now feel as if they have someone to talk to about their emotions and feelings.

Snipping Tool

I used the snipping tool for this graph. I used this graph to compare and contrast my students Pretest to their Post Test during an Action Research Project for my student teaching. I had a very difficult time copying and pasting it into my electronic portfolio. My school's Technology Integration Specialist introduced me to the snipping tool and by doing so I was able to insert it into my portfolio. I was to show my student's growth from the beginning of my lessons to the end of my lessons. The snipping tool was extremely easy to use and easy to apply within my page! I feel as if this activity relates best with NETS T Standard #2: Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments. Using the snipping tool, especially in my particular case, I am able to evaluate the assessment growth of my students. (and possible assessments in which the students did not show growth.)This uses contemporary tool with the design of the graph and then the snipping tool to place where needed. This can also help my students to physically see their personal grade incline or decline and do some personal evaluation on why their scores went up or down. Then once that is determined they can identify what they could do next time to improve.

The link to my electronic portfolio is: https://sites.google.com/site/teachingportfoliomrsreed/home/four

Diigo Film Questions and Answers

1. Describe the 3 steps to recommend in the film to get started social bookmarking.
 
    I could not narrow it down to just three simple steps. First you need to go to the Diigo site register and install Diigolet. Once that has been established then locate a document of interest from the web. Now that you have found what you are looking for you can highlight the information of importance, add a comment about it, bookmark it and then display and share it. These bookmarks will be placed in your Library with Diigo.

2. Describe the Web 2.0, and how it differs from previous stages of the web.

   http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/webbuilding/archives/page9344.cfm

   This above link was one of the best ones to help me understand what exactly Web 2.0 is. With the information provided by this link and the activities that we have done so far in this class; the most important this about this is that this gives technology human compatible functions. Web 2.0 offers the use of technology in blogging, tagging, RSS, social bookmarking, and AJAX by keeping focus on the individual need of the reader and researchers. This allows users to create communities and customize their findings throughout the web. The article above had a great statement that describes the differences between Web 2.0 and Web 1.0. "This philosophy contrasts sharply with the old "Web 1.0" methodology, in which news was provided by a handful of large corporations, Web pages were static and rarely updated, and only the tech-savvy could contribute to the development of the World Wide Web."  

3. What is social bookmarking and what advantages does social bookmarking offer that traditional storage and retrieval of web sites does not?

       Social Bookmarking is a way for people who use the internet share, organize, store, search, and manage pieces of resources/information from online. It is also a way to locate others who have common interests and communicate findings and discussions. The advantages of social bookmarking is that fact that it can be personalized and you can focus on a particular part of a document rather than the entire piece. Not all of it may be of interest to you or to others. Traditional storage and retrieval was just that nothing else. Highlighting, tagging, and bookmarking was not used to personalize it. You had to take the document as a whole and that was it.

Browser Add Ons and My Experience

What is a browser add on?
       A browser add on are sites that you can place in your tool bar.

Why they are useful.
       This allows you locate the sites quickly and efficiently. By adding it to your tool bar you do not have to type in the site's address each time. You are able to locate them by clicking the name of the site and it brings you right to your site.

Give examples, which ones have I used/ are using, and my experience with them?
        My school TIS has already added on our School Home Page, Educators Handbook, WVEIS Home page, WVDE Web mail page, and I included the West Virginia Department of Education home page. I use these on a daily basis and are able to access them quickly through my tool bar as add ons. For example with our WVEIS home page; this is used to document and send our students absences every day first period. Mornings are hectic and by having this as an add on reduces time accessing this site. I have only "added on" two sites ever. One being the WVDE home page and the other being the Diigo add on today. They both went smoothly. I am sure that I may possibly run into other that I would not be so lucky.

Which ISTE NETS T standard would this activity most closely matches and why?
      I would have to go with Standard 5: Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership. This standard focuses on participating in local and global learning communities to use and apply technology to improve student learning. I feel that this is the purpose of Diigo. This also meets this standard by means of being able to reflect and evaluate current research and professional practice with the incorporation of technological tools to support student learning. Diigo also helps educators be more effective and vital by using the bookmarked sites to reflect and become better teachers.

My first posting!

Hey there everyone. This is my very first post and I hope that I am doing this correctly. My name is Jessica Reed. For my current education class my name is under Jessica Weese. I have been married for 5 years this October (to my wonderful husband Billy) and I have not made it through the name changing process. I currently live in Lost Creek, WV. I teach in Upshur County at Buckhannon Upshur Middle School. I graduated Fairmont State University in 2004 with my Elementary Education Degree and am currently working on my masters in Special Education. I have a little boy named Brody who will be 2 in December.