Week 8

Well, we’re already at week 8 of 8 and it has flown by for me.  Being my first course through University of the Cumberlands and my first course working towards my MAT, I certainly learned a LOT.  I am glad to know of all the resources that are available and when I get my certification and begin teaching I’ll be able to look back and use the resources that were introduced to me here.

This week was all about security and ethical issues.  Some I had thought about previously and some I never knew that I never knew!

I particularly liked the part in the readings about ‘netiquette’.  Netiquette is on-line etiquette.  I agree with the list of guidelines and at one time or another mentioned all of these to others, except the guideline about having tolerance for beginners.  It makes perfect sense and I wish people would have tolerance for beginners in any situation (not just on-line).  If I were a beginner in something and got embarrassed or yelled at because of a simple mistake, I probably would not want to continue learning.  I read about netiquette in our posted reading and at http://www.albion.com/netiquette/

I have had computer malware a number of times on a number of computers, unfortunately.  Each time, I cannot pinpoint where I got the virus.  Probably the funniest time was when I was working at a nature center and had been given a laptop to use.  It was already 5+ years old when I got it, so already slow and heavy (definitely not something you want to put on your lap).  It would crash periodically, but come right back up.  After a few months, it was crashing almost daily and when it crashed it would give me the blue death screen.  If you don't know the blue death screen, you're lucky.  Basically, the computer just shows a blue screen and will do nothing else, you just have to turn the entire thing off and then on again.  Suddenly, it stopped giving me the blue death screen and started with rainbow death screens.  I have never heard of anyone having this.  The screens would change colors every 5 seconds; blue, green, orange, aqua, red, yellow, fuscia, etc...  Many, many colors and it would keep going.  My boss didn't believe me, so I made him come look at it!  Well, we never did figure out what was happening and why, and with a non-profit budget I just kept using it.  At least the rainbow death screens didn't come as often as the blue death screens.  And, taking 20 minutes to start up in the morning gave me just enough time to make a pot of coffee and check in with my coworkers every morning!

At home, after losing a lot of photos from a desktop, my husband installed Carbonite from www.carbonite.com.  It works well.  Carbonite is an on-line file storage and backup software.  You can log in anytime and upload your files for backup and retrieve them whenever you want/need.  It's good for accessing files from different computers, too.

We need to do better with malware protection at home.  Just this evening when I turned on our desktop and opened Google Chrome, instead of it opening at google.com, it opened with startnowsearch.com.  It looks a lot like google (without the logo), but I’m a little bit nervous.  I don’t know if I’m more nervous about possibly having a virus of sorts on this desktop, or about telling my husband about it!

In schools security software is a must.  Even if it were not required, I hope no one would be irresponsible enough to run a computer without it.  In my opinion, whenever multiple users are using the same computer, the likely hood of receiving malware increases.  When I become a science teacher, I will be very careful about any computers in my classroom.  I would designate one computer for only teacher use, secure it with a tough password and keep that password to myself.   I hope that I would have multiple other computers available for students.  If so, I would assign certain students to certain computers, give each student an individual log-on and an individual password.  I would specify which student works on which computer so that it slims down the number of students on any one computer.  Instead of 30 people having free reign over 5 computers, by assigning them, I would have 6 people one each of 5 computers.

At home, we are very careful about our computers.  We have one desktop and one laptop.  The laptop is primarily my husbands as he uses it for work.  The desktop is used by us both along with our 4 year old son who loves to play games on Disneyjr.com.  Whenever Edward, my son, wants to be on the computer I am always sitting next to him watching and he knows very clearly that he is not to click on anything that is not his game.  I don’t think that there would be very much malware coming off of a Disney site, but I want him to know now that he can’t just click on whatever he wants.  All in all, he’s pretty good about it.

Well this has been a full course that I am glad to have experienced.

All the Best,

Chrissy

Week 7

This week we learned all about BRAINS!  Think Pinky from the Animaniacs.

I really enjoyed surfing around the dana.org website.  As a parent, I know that there is a correlation between music and art and brain development, and I was amazed to see so many articles on the subject.  From self-experience I know that listening to soft classical music relaxes me and does help me concentrate on more tedious work.  I would highly recommend any educator spend some time on the dana.org website to learn methods and tips on how to soothe any class and improve their motivation and concentration.

As an inspiring Science teacher, I would like to take a tip from the essay "Arts and Cognition: Findings Hint at Relationships" (http://www.dana.org/news/publications/detail.aspx?id=10768).  When I want students to learn about scientists who have made big differences in science, I would have the students role-play and get more into the theater arts while learning about science.  I would also take a hint from the article "Promoting Brain-Science Literacy in the K-12 Classroom" (http://www.dana.org/news/cerebrum/detail.aspx?id=28896) and have students create brain hats with labeled brain parts and visible connections to other parts.  I think that it is important for children to know how their body works.  Many children know that their hearts pump blood and their lungs help them breathe, and they need to know more than that their brain just helps them to think.

Software and File Management

We also learned about software and file management.  I am very comfortable on computers, so it comes naturally to me to use folders and removable storage devices to store and organize information.  I didn’t even think about it, but we need to teach that to students.  When they have a clearly organized system, they will be able to save, file and retrieve whatever they will need.

I was interested to read about the different kinds of educational software.  I have used many of these, but did not know that there was a term for each one.  The following seven types have been identified: drill-and-practice, problem solving, creative, tutorials, simulations, image editing and draw/paint.  When I have my own classroom, I will try to use all of these types of educational software regularly to diversify my teaching methods and help students stay engaged and motivated.

I know that I will use Microsoft PowerPoint regularly.  I will use it to make presentations and quizzes for my students.  I will also assign my students to use it to create science reports and summarize units.  I think that it may be a challenge at first to teach PowerPoint to the students who are not used to it and to allow them plenty of time to create their presentations.  I want to help my students create good presentations with PowerPoint, not just use PowerPoint to create a presentation.

Technology Explorations

19. Keeping Track of your "stuff" -  http://www.delicious.com/ & diigohttp://www.diigo.com/

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	I learned that delicious.com is a site to store and organize bookmarks for webpages that you would like to retrieve later.  By creating a free account, you can use a computer, smartphone or tablet to search the internet and save any bookmark you find interesting. Diigo.com on the other hand is an online program that allows you to store and organize bookmarks, screenshots, images, articles, documents and even notes for yourself.  You can access these stored resources from your computer, smartphone or table and is most useful for someone who uses different computers regularly.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
	As an inspiring science teacher, I could use delicious.com and/or diigo.com with students during research reports.  I could assign them to use delicious.com and/or diigo.com to find and store reference materials to use when writing a report or creating a powerpoint presentation.  It would be like a digital Reference section at the end of a report or presentation.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	I would not recommend delicious.com to other educators.  Although it is free and easy to use, I do not see much point in it.  I can easily store and organize bookmarks using any of my current internet browsers.  I feel that delicious.com is redundant and just makes you take an additional step to retrieve information that you can store elsewhere. I would recommend diigo.com to other educators.  It is particularly useful in a school setting for students who use different computers.  They would not have to store all of their information on a shared drive and only access it from school.  Students would have the ability to store, share and retrieve information from diigo.com from any computer, smartphone or tablet and share it on social networking sites.

http://www.historypin.com/ (starting up slowly)

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	I learned that historypin.com is a website for people to post, share and collaborate on history projects.  You can post old photos (scanned) of your own and fit them into any of a number of present projects, or you can create your own projects with your images and videos.  For example, you can post a picture of your family’s trip to Munich in the Europeana project file.  You can also add to a view historic photos and overlay onto current street maps.  I found it very interesting to look at photos of cars from the 1920’s transposed onto modern street maps.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
	Historypin.com is designed to be used as a history resource, so it would be most easy to use in a history class.  As an inspiring science teacher, I think it would be interesting to have students use historypin.com to research what was happening at certain times in history while scientific discoveries were occurring.  For example, what images can they find to explain what was happening in the world when Madam Curie was learning about radioactivity?
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	Historypin.com is free to use with a gmail account and does seem easy to use.  I think that I would mildly recommend the use of historypin.com to other educators.  I think that it would be most useful to a history teacher, particularly to find images of time periods to show students to capture their attention during units.  For me, this would not be a daily use website.

calculators  http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/games/calculator/ &

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Science-CAD/Big-Simple-Talking-Calculator.shtml

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	I learned about two different talking calculators.  The calculator found at http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/games/calculator/ is considered a game and runs from an internet site.  It is a basic calculator, brightly colored and the speaking voice is pleasant and clear. The calculator found at http://www.softpedia.com/get/Science-CAD/Big-Simple-Talking-Calculator.shtml is downloadable so can be used on the computer even when the internet connection is down.  This is a full screen calculator (and only viewable full screen), clear button functions and a clearly understood voice.  The voice is set to English by default, and can be set to a variety of other languages. Both calculators ‘talk’ to you when you push the buttons.  So, you can hear your math problem spoke to you as you calculate what you want.  They are also both free.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
	Calculators can easily and frequently be used in math and science classes.  As an inspiring science teacher, I could have students use either of these calculators to make calculations pertaining to science experiments.  Measuring flow rate of a river, growth population of a species, or the volume inside of an object for example. Since these calculators talk, they would also be beneficial for students who need number reinforcement, or even a way to learn numbers in a foreign language.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	If I were to choose between the two talking calculators, I would pick the one from softpedia.com.  The only reason to pick this one over the other is that it is downloadable freeware so does not require an internet browser to be open. In general, I would recommend using a talking calculator to lower elementary teachers who need to reinforce numbers or math terms or to learn numbers and math in a foreign language.  By the time students are in middle and high school, simple calculators do not need to talk and if they are needed (and approved for use by the teacher), students can use the calculator tool that already comes installed on computers.

20.  Math wiki example: http://2write4math.pbworks.com/

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	I learned that 2write4math.pbworks.com explains how to use writing in a cross-curricular fashion with math.  By incorporating writing skills into all subject matter, not only does it help strengthen the writing and comprehension skills but allows students to learn the other subject (math in this case) from an alternate perspective.  Having the students write about math is a way to assess their comprehension and allows them to restate math problems in their own words. This site was developed for a course from the University of the Cumberlands to teach teachers how to use writing in math.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
	As an inspiring science teacher, I would not use this resource to write for math, but I would use it to help student write for science.  The standard science writing is to write reports on experiment findings or write short blurbs to put up on posters and presentations.  I would like to use some of the ideas found here to have the students write science based poems and journals.  I could even work with a writing or English teacher to create more indepth projects that would cross into both classrooms.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	I would recommend this page to other educators.  It is free and easy to use and contains a lot of good information and ideas that can be transposed into any classroom.  This is a good reference to look at every so often to get a new idea of a way to freshen up non-english classes with writing.

PicLits http://www.piclits.com

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	I learned that piclits.com is a fun website that allows you to be creative with words and photos.  Piclits.com has many photos to choose from in which you can then transpose words on top of the picture.  For example, you can choose a picture of a frog, and then choose words that remind you of the picture to place on top of the photo.  When you are finished, you have a photo with words that can make a stunning visual.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
	As an inspiring science teacher, I do not see this resource being used much in my high school classes.  I could see this resource be more used in upper elementary and middle school English or art classes.  This would be a fun software to use when creating poems or short pieces meant to capture thoughts and emotions.  It could even be used with a school counselor or emotionally disabled students trying to communicate their feelings.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	I would recommend this use of piclits.com to English and art teachers for limited use.  Although fun, free and easy to use and share, I do not imagine that this software would get much use in a classroom.  I could imagine it being used once in a while for a specific project, but not regularly.  I think that there are just too many other photo-with-text software programs available, that this one just does not stand out to me.

Week 6

Blog 6

WebQuests in General

I researched a WebQuest where High School students learned about nanoscience and related it to the creation of new superhero tools.  The WebQuest can be found at http://ice.chem.wisc.edu/Nature/Nanoscience_in_Nature/Introduction.html

I think this would be a great WebQuest for 9-10^th grade science students because it allows them to introduce themselves to nanoscience. Quoted from nonoscience.com “Nanoscience is the study of atoms, molecules, and objects whose size is on the nanometer scale ( 1 - 100 nanometers ).”  One nanometer is the size of an atom’s diameter.  Nanoscience itself may not be terribly attractive to students, but using it to create an invisibility cloak for Batman or creating waterproof webbing for Spiderman to go underwater would engage students and allow them to use their creativity to come up with amazing superhero tools.

I think the difficulty with this WebQuest is that the students (like myself) would quickly jump to a product they want to create and then search through nanoscience materials until they found something relevant.  They may skim or even pass over other nanoscience processes that do not affect their superhero’s product.

Many middle and high school students, particularly boys, are currently hooked on watching “The Big Bang Theory”, a sit-com on television.  In BBT, four 20-something scientists have graduate and doctorate degrees and good professional jobs and still love debating superheros and role playing games.  I think a lot of teenagers can relate to this, particularly if they want to be scientists.  So, I could envision the students wanting to impress their television icons by creating amazing nanoscience based superhero tools.

My WebQuest:

This week we were also tasked with creating our own WebQuest. 

My WebQuest can be found at: http://questgarden.com/160/08/4/130609103454/

Since I am not yet teaching and inspiring to receive dual certifications in middle school science and high school Earth Science I decided to create a Quest for 6^th graders.

I found the Kentucky Core Academic Standards at education.ky.gov

Big Idea: Interdependence (Unifying Concepts)

Grade 6 Enduring Knowledge – Understandings

Students will understand that science can sometimes be used to inform ethical decisions by identifying the likely consequences of an action, but cannot be used to establish if taking that action would be right or wrong.

From: http://education.ky.gov/curriculum/docs/Pages/Kentucky-Core-Academic-Standards---NEW.aspx

A summary of my webquest follows:

Middlesboro, KY has an outdated power plant and needs to find a new electrical power source.

City Council Members have proposed the following options: building a new power plant along an isolated river few miles upstream from your neighborhood, installing wind turbines along the top ridge of Cumberland Gap National Park, or installing solar panels throughout a large parking lot near City Hall.

In groups, research these options, choose the one that is more meaningful to you create a mind-map and write a letter to the mayor urging him to agree with your decision.

I want students to be empowered with information that they feel they can make a difference and be able to communicate their points clearly.

I had some difficultly with the WebQuest, because the first couple of ideas I had would not fit into curriculum standards of the appropriate age range.  So, I searched the middle school standards and found the one where they need to know that decisions cannot be solely based on science.

Week 5

This week, the readings were focused on on-line communication tools.  I learned about these 7 different on-line communication tools: e-mail, chat, blog, wiki, VoIP, microblogging, virtual worlds.  I had never put much thought into synchronous vs asynchronous communications on-line.  I was already familiar with all of the suggested on-line communication tools, but was interested to think about using them in education.

One new thing to me was using virtual worlds in education.  I have always teased my brothers about playing EverQuest too much.  I had never thought about creating a virtual world where students can create avatars of themselves and communicate with students in other places.  It could be a very engaging way to learn different languages, history and culture.  Although I am not yet teaching, I would love to have my students use video chats with professional scientists, and follow science-based bloggers.

We also learned about Acceptable Use Policies.  AUP’s are written policies used in many schools and other professional organizations that clearly spell out how computers and technology should be used (or not used).  Some of the AUP’s that were posted on the discussion board seemed to be a bit overkill, but the AUP of my local school district did not really seem thorough either.

Another section that we learned about this week is Visual Literacy.  The broad meaning of visual literacy is the ability to read a message from an image.  For example, when seeing a photo of a puppy looking out of a window you may read a story of that puppy’s owner has left for the day and the puppy is sad that it cannot go along.  Again, I have never given much specific thought about visual literacy, but realize that it is all around us.  Every time that we turn on the television, watch a movie, look at newspaper or magazine photos and advertisements.  We’re constantly being bombarded with images that have meanings that the photographers or directors intended us to think. 

Learning about Visual Literacy was interesting to me this week.  I particularly enjoyed the Martin Scorsese video on  edutopia (http://www.edutopia.org/martin-scorsese-teaching-visual-literacy).  I did not realize that Scorsese and Theodore Roosevelt shared an intense childhood asthma inflection.  Roosevelt turned to study the natural sciences when he could not be outside, while Scorsese studied film and television. Both became masters of their personal studies.  As Scorsese states “There are certain tools you use, and those tools become part of a vocabulary that’s just as valid as the vocabulary used in literature.”

Without having put much thought into it previously, I realized that visual literacy is all around us all of the time.  Every time we look at a magazine, watch television, or pass a billboard messages are being conveyed to us.  Being able to train our eyes to pick out the correct messages is a valuable talent that should be encouraged.

While looking at http://visual-lit.wikispaces.com/Toolbox .  I found myself drawn to Block Posters.com, dumpr.com and magmypic.com.  Block Posters creates posters from any size image.  Capturing an image in motion can help the viewer to understand what is happening and making it a much larger or smaller scale than normal can put a sense of value..

Dumpr.com creates effects on images.  This was particularly fun to create jigsaw puzzles and rubiks cubes.  This could be effective as a review at the end of each week.  A puzzle could be created showing a photo of a piece of equipment used in a science lab that week.  Whatever student could guess the equipment correctly with the fewest puzzle pieces could get a prize.

Magmypic.com was also fun to make fake magazine covers.  This would be useful to make science fair report covers.

There are just so many tools available; teachers must use their creativity to use technology to help them teach about visual literacy in the classroom.

Technology Explorations

15.  Prezi - http://prezi.com/

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	I learned that prezi.com is a software that helps users develop slide presentations (prezis).  Prezi is similar to MS PowerPoint except that the backgrounds are like a metaphor for the presentation rather than just a color or image.  Prezi can also add different page animation that MS PowerPoint.  A unique aspect of prezi is that cloud users can collaborate on creating and presenting the prezi.  Even the prezi can be presented remotely.  As in the introduction video on www.prezi.com a prezi is a “…visualization of thoughts in motion…”
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
	Prezi could be used similarly to any other slide show software, except that the slide animation makes it seem slicker.  As an inspiring science teacher, I could use prezi to have students work in groups to create slide shows of the scientific method, or explain step by step an experiment that they recently completed.  I am a strong believer that students can help teach other students, so prezi can even be used for one student to make a presentation to teach the rest of the class.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	I would not recommend prezi to other educators.  It did seem easy to use, but seemed very similar to MS PowerPoint and Voicethread.  I think that MS PowerPoint is currently the most used, so do not see much point in teaching a new software to complete the same tasks.  If a teacher does not have MS PowerPoint and wants to do slideshows, prezi would be appropriate and can be used for free under a teacher license.

15. SpicyNodes - http://www.spicynodes.org/

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	I learned that SpicyNodes is a website creation program that allows users to make websites that use nodes to visually display their content.  SpicyNodes looks like a mind-map.  When someone views the website, they can click on each bubble, node, which then opens up new information or a new link. The nodes animate and spin around on the screen to adjust with the viewers focus and motivate viewers to look into the website further.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
	Although I am not yet teaching, I think that SpicyNodes could be valuable in a classroom.  In a high school science classroom, students can be assigned to use SpiceNodes to document the entire school year.  The central theme could be “2013 Science Class” and have each node off of the center showcasing a unit and nodes off of each unit could be each lesson or experiment completed.  SpicyNodes can be quite extensive and intriguing for students to create and surf.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	I would recommend SpicyNodes to other educators.  It is a fresh and new way to create and view websites and would be motivating for students to use.  Individual memberships are free, and I don’t currently see an education package.  I have not seen another software program that creates websites or mind-maps similar to SpicyNodes.  The movement and sound of the nodes along with the options to change colors and fonts make it easy to customize and allows creators and viewers to focus on specific information as they desire.

16. Edmodo: http://www.edmodo.com/ 

11.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	I learned that Emodo is a social networking site combining similarities of Face Book and Twitter that allows students to use it safely and without being able to be seen or see people that they don’t actually know.  I was not able to open the videos on the Emodo website describing the site, so my thoughts are from what I am observing after I have signed up for a free account.  Users can sign up for free accounts and follow subject accounts selected by their interests. As a teacher, I can set up a profile, join groups, add groups and manage tasks from a home page. I think this page is helping to teach the responsible use of social networking to students.  Since students are not allowed to e-mail directly to one another, their comments are not private so they must be well written and not harmful to others.  I also like that no outside people can contact students, so parents do not have to be afraid of cyber-stalkers.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
	Since social networking is so pervasive in today’s culture I am very glad that Emodo lets students get used to it safely.  As I am not yet teaching, I would like to think that I could use Emodo in a high school science class by setting up a group (of students) and having them make posts concerning their thoughts and results of certain lab experiments, or researching and posting current science trends.  This could be used as a digital space for current events.  Students will not have to slog through newspapers and cut out columns anymore, they can read articles on-line and post the article and a well thought out comment on Emodo.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	I would recommend the use of Emodo to other educators.  It is a free, easy and fun website that helps teach responsible use of social networking sites.  I think that Emodo would be an easy addition to most lesson plans and by reading student comments, teachers can get a grasp of learning or confusion.  Teachers posting relevant videos, articles and songs would motivate students to learn more about study units, and students posting their thoughts and more articles will showcase their understanding of the assignments.

A Maths Dictionary for Kids - http://www.amathsdictionaryforkids.com/hdictionary.tml

11.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	I learned that A Maths Dictionary for Kids is a website that defines math terms and lets the user solve simple math problems.  Mathmatical terms are listed in alphabetical order and when selected, the definition and a simple example are displayed opposite of the term list.  For example, when I clicked on ‘Day’, on the right side of the page, day was defined as “a unit of measurement for time” and a 24-hour clock was displayed as an example.  This is a free website created by an Australian Primary School teacher, Jenny Eather.  Originally created for Ms. Eather’s math students, it is available for free use to assist students in mathematics.  IN addition to the dictionary, there are also 250 printable math charts that could be useful for handouts, examples on whiteboards or SmartBoards, quizzes or displays.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
	Obviously, A Maths Dictionary for Kids, is designed to help teach and reinforce elementary school math.  If I were an elementary school math teacher, using these definitions with examples and printable math charts would be easy to include in my lessons.  As an inspiring high school science teacher, I would like to show this website to science students and challenge them to make a similar website for science terms and examples.  If they could create such a website for science, it would be an assessment tool to see if they learned the science concepts.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	I would recommend the use of A Maths Dictionary for Kids to other educators.  It is free and easy to use.  This is not a high-tech or flashy website.  It is simple and give good information.  Using this in a math class would be a no-brainer, and using it as an example for other projects in other subject areas would be beneficial as well.

17. Glogster - http://www.glogster.com/ 

11.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	I learned that Glogster is an on-line program that allows users to create multimedia posters (webpages) called glogs.  Glogs can be designed by people of all ages and display video, sound, animation, text, images, objects, and drawings.  Depending on security and permission settings, glogs can be shared via e-mail, social networking and wikis.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
	Glogster can be used for a variety of ages and subjects.  As an inspiring high school math teacher, I would like to use Glogster to assign my students to make their science project displays.  Traditionally, science projects are displayed on three-sided display boards and made with computer printed text and photos and colored with markers and construction paper.  The only people viewing the science project boards are the teachers and parents that came to look at them displayed in the school cafeteria on one evening. Using Glogster, the science project displays can be created as glogs and posted to a school wiki.  Every student, teacher and parent can have access to the projects for a longer period of time.  Students would be motivated to create glogs to be a bit competitive for the science fair.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	I would recommend Glogster to other educators.  There are a variety of plan options available; the Secondary plan includes access for 1 teacher and 125 students for a cost of $39 per year.  I do not think that that cost would be prohibitive.  Glogster is a motivational way for students to be creative and showcase their knowledge.  It also provides a new way for teachers to assess the learning levels of students.

Jing http://www.techsmith.com/jing/

11.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	I learned that Jing is a downloadable software that allows users to save images of their computer screens (screen shots) and create short 5 minute videos of what they see or are doing on their computer screen.  The Jing toolbar is always visible on the top of your computer screen.  Once the screen shots or videos are complete, they can be e-mailed, posted to social media networks or embedded into blogs.  Jing is designed to be used to make computer tutorials.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
	As an inspiring high school science teacher, I think that Jing would be very motivational for students to use.  Students always enjoy working with technology, making things and showing off to other people.  Students always LOVE showing the teacher what he/she is doing wrong on a computer!  I would like to create a science experiment that uses computers and then have the students make a video to show other students and their parents how the experiment was conducted and it’s results.  For example, if we were studying microorganisms, I would like to use a digital microscope that can display images through an LCD projector or onto a SmartBoard.  The students could use the microscope to look at streamwater samples and find zooplankton.  I would assign the students to use Ping to take multiple screen shots and videos of what they used and what they saw and then string the images together.  We would then post the finished project on out class blog.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	I would recommend Ping to other educators.  It is a free download and seems easy to use.  I think higher level students would be motivated to make tutorial videos and would enjoy viewing videos made by their teachers.  Making a tutorial would necessitate that the students pay attention to detail and notate very step of the process.  If they put serious thought into the project, they will probably remember it for a long time afterwards.  If longer videos are desired, Snagit is available and is similar to Ping, just for $49.95.

18. You Tube for Education - http://www.youtube.com/education?b=400 and SchoolTube http://www.schooltube.com and TeacherTube http://www.teachertube.com

11.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	I learned that You Tube for Education, Schooltube and Teachertube are all wiki collections of videos created by the well-known Youtube.com.  YouTube for Education is a collection of courses, lectures and presentations on a variety of subjects meant to be used for self-study and knowledge.  YouTube for Education videos can be viewed by anyone at any time.  SchoolTube is a shared collection of videos created by students and teachers. Users must register for SchoolTube and identify themselves as teacher or student and with a particular school. Videos can only be viewed by registered users.   TeacherTube is another shared collection of videos meant to provide professional development to teachers by teachers.  TeacherTube users are encouraged to comment and rate the instructional videos as throughout and thoughtful comments will only serve to increase the quality of the resource.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
	As an inspiring high school science teacher, I would initially use TeacherTube to view videos and learn new ways to teach science concpets to my students.  I would like to use TeacherTube to study examples and either complete the units similar to how someone on TeacherTube suggested, or alter their methods to fit my needs.  I would like to use YouTube for Education to have the students watch assigned videos to help reinforce a concept I am teaching them, or assign them to search YouTube for Education to pick a relevant video to a certain lesson.  Finally, I would assign my students to create a video about a unit we are studying or an experiment that we have completed and post it to SchoolTube.  I would also assign students to search SchoolTube for videos of created by students of lessons similar to what would be currently working on. By creating a quiz or game, with questions based on selected videos, I could assess their knowledge and interpret if they retained the information of the unit.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	I would definitely recommend YouTube for Education, SchoolTube and TeacherTube to other educators.  They are all free and very educationally valuable.  Most students are already familiar with YouTube, so they would easily be able to search, select and view videos from any of these sites.  Additionally, by using another software package to create a video and post it to SchoolTube, they would be motivated to create a great video because they would want to know that a high number of people viewed their video.