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.