Whitney's Adventure in Instructional Technology

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Thing 16 - My podcasting debut!

Here is my first attempt at podcasting! This episode is about how podcasting can be used in the science classroom. Enjoy!

Thing 15 - Podcast Fanatic

I enjoy listening to podcasts! I have always loved the radio and it just a talking version of the radio that I can put on my ipod!!! I already subscribed to a few podcasts, but it was fun to look for new ones to become addicted to. I wanted to start with finding a science podcast since I have nothing that relates to teaching. I found a few that I added and I have tried listening to them, but got bored rather quickly. Most of the podcasts I found sounded really good when I just listened to clips, but when I tried to listen to the whole episode, I could not! Some of the podcasts were just lectures recorded, which can sadly are boring when you can see the person, but it is 100% worse when all you can do is hear them. I did find this lecture interesting (http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_details.php?seriesid=1906978358) but I was not willing to listen to the entire lecture. I found myself fast forwarding quite often just because I could. I think I need to keep searching (maybe not science though) and hopefully I will find a professional resource out of a podcast!

For personal use I went right back to my favorite podcast place: NPR! I already was subscribing to Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, so I decide to find my other favorite NPR show that I never catch in the car: This American Life. This show picks a different topic every week and then different people narrate their stories that relate. The episode I listened to was about “Oh you shouldn’t have,” which discussed the giving and receiving of gifts, both good and bad. I really enjoyed listening to the podcast instead of music while I graded, however, I kept trying to “see” the people talking! When I got wrapped up in a student’s paper, I would click (I was listening from my Google Reader online) and go through all the windows until I realized it was just audio…I did this 5 times! I love podcasts, but podcasts + grading = NO. I have to focus and people talking to me does not help the focus.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Webquest Pre-Plan - It's Electrifying!

For my webquest, I decided to focus on Electricity. The students will be asked to design a new lab layout including the electrical designs for the electrician. Once they have submitted their designs, they will help the electrician by evaluating his plan and offering suggestions that will fix the problems he made.

Intro

Welcome future electricians! I am Principal Circuits and I need your help with the electrical design of our newest Physical Science lab. As you travel through this journey in figuring out the best electrical layout for the new lab, you will be learning about electricity and electrical circuits. Once you have made your electrical design proposals, I will still need your expertise in helping me supervise my electrician and make sure he does the best job possible.

Task

-Stage 1: Students will research the basics of electricity including vocabulary words, how electricity works, and types of electrical circuits.

Provided websites, videos, and online labs will be used to build the students’ knowledge on electricity as well as the students creating vocabulary flashcards using quizlet.com.

-Stage 2: Students will implement their knowledge of electricity by submitting electrical diagrams for the Physical Science lab-remodeling project.

Video will be used to show students how to create electrical diagrams and what the appropriate symbols are for their diagrams. They will upload their diagrams to VoiceThread where they will explain why they chose the design they did.

-Stage 3: Students will evaluate the work the of the electrician hired to do the Physical Science lab remodel (now that the best model was chosen), where they must critique his work and offer suggestions to help the electrician do the job to the best of his ability.

Students will have to explain to the principal what corrections the hired electrician needs to do and why. They will also give a new plan to help him out. Students can write a formal letter or create a podcast/audio file presentation. There will be help videos for either option showing the students how to successfully accomplish the task.

I am still working on all the pieces, trying to flush it out and make it usable. I am thinking of using this after the students have learned about electricity, but before they have learned about circuits. I am not sure though :) Everyday I think on this project, I come up with something new. My project keeps evolving!!!

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Thing 14 - not that delicious

I am on the fence on how I feel about delicious.com. Being told to just add was not something I enjoyed, since I could not think of anything to add. I tried looking for links, but I was not inspired. I did put in some generic links and added in some stuff from my folders on my personal computer (here is my delicious page: http://www.delicious.com/msbeem. What I do like about delicious is the tagging aspect. I like being able to add tags so I know all the uses of the link and why I actually tagged it in the first place. However, I prefer using Google to search and maybe just add to delicious.
I think the longer I play with delicious and add/tag, the more I will come to like it. I can see great potential for it with education. Using delicious to add/tag educational websites and articles I stumbleupon could help students and other teachers locate resources they might be interested in. It is a great way to share resources instead of trying to remember that website to other teachers, or tell your students about all the great websites out there. Add/tag them, so anyone can come to your page and see what you are reading/into these days. I also like the choice of making some links private, so I can keep up with links that are associated with my personal life that my colleagues or students may not be interested in. I think the more I play with delicious.com and use it both at home and work, the more I am sure it will grow on me. Right now, it is okay...

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Thing 12 - Fun and Scary Photos!

I made a decision to pick one type of tool and explore how it works on multiple sites, so I went on an adventure with dumper.net, befunky.com, and picnik.com using photos from my childhood. Well I am in love with all three now! dumper.net allowed me to showcase my photo in a different way, like putting it in a jigsaw puzzle or rubix cube. I chose to display my brother Chris and I at the petting zoo in a musuem.

Now all those fake people can forever observe our cuteness!

I must say that I had the most fun with befunky.com! It has more editing options that the user can control besides just putting the image in different sceneraios. befunky allows you change the style of the image (cartoon, pointillism) and color of the image. The image below is of my brother and I playing as youngins (I used Holgaart for the effect, with some color changes and a different border). I am calling it "An Out of Body Experience."

This is my favorite image out of all of the ones I tried! I even sent it to my brother and he would like a framed copy for his birthday! :)

The last free photo editor website I went to was picnik.com. I had heard of it before, but I had never gone exploring before. This site was very similar to befunky, but had slightly different choices. This time I chose to auto-fix the photo (it is from the 80's...need some help!), crop it, and to make it look like it was taken at night with the Night Vision effect. I also changed the photo slightly by making it look like it was taken with a Polaroid camera. I am calling this one "The Haunting of an embarassed 6 year old."

I showed all these images to my mother and she now thinks I watch too many horror movies! I had a blast and think that all family photos will be turned into fun soon!

I have not had many lightbulb ideas on how to use these websites in my classroom. They will make a nice addition to projects, but I cannot think of something that would spot light them. I do not really need a scary photo of matter for my lessons. I do think the students will like them and have fun, but it is not a crucial part of their education. The basic features of cropping and red eye could come in handy though. I could assign a photo project of the different types of matter and the students could take the pictures and then edit them any way they want...hmmmm.

Since I would not be using these as a whole group activity, the management of the tools would be quite simple. I had no problem figuring out how they worked, so a basic demonstration of how each website works and is different would be needed, but then the kids could go out on their own to explore. The only website that would be difficult is picnik.com since they promonately display their upgrade options (from free to fee), but having a discussion about how you do not need to pay for what is already free could help out. All three sites are accessible from school, so we could all do this in the computer lab together, which could help with the management of the tools. I think until I come up with a solid use for these sites in my classroom, I will not fully understand what I am getting myself into. Hopefully the lightbulb moment will come soon because I had way too much fun!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

HTML Code...fun fun fun!

I was extremely hesitant to learn code. It has never interested me or ever really been a tiny thought bubble in my head. However, I was told that I was going to be learning code, so I did. And I actually enjoyed the process of learning it! It was exciting to type a few keys and see my work appear on a blank webpage. Yes, I only learned the very basic code possible and I Googled the rest to make my page pink, but I still tried my hardest and I am giving myself a pat on the back!

I am not really sure how I am going to use my new found knowledge of code in my classroom though. The only thing I can think of is when my class blog acts up, I can attempt to solve the problem. I do not think I am going to be building any websites from scratch any time soon...or ever! I shall always use websites that come with templates, so all the hard work is already done for me. All I will have to do is pick some cute background and color scheme and add my content. I will most likely use Google Sites for my portfolio, but will be keeping my eyes open for another resource that I have not used before so I can go on another adventure!

Monday, February 14, 2011

Thing 11 - Let the show begin!

I chose to not use my Thing 10 photos to create a slideshow. I wanted to experiment creating a simple story of energy transfers throughout the day and a life of Albert the Pig, so I found different images. His day starts with a hearty breakfast, followed by frolicking in the mud with his brothers, teasing the chickens behind the barn, and ending in a much needed nap. I really enjoyed using slide.com! The only downside I came across was my need to use lots of words does not work with the captions. There is only limited space, so I had to do quite a few re-writes!!! Please see all attributions below the show, which includes links to the original image and author's page. I used all images that could be adapted, just in case the captions fell into that category. I hope I did not mess up the Creative Commons on the images!