Sunday, January 29, 2012

Tool #3: Finding Online Video and Image Resources



1. After visiting several of the sites, I found Blinkx to be very helpful. It allowed me to search for videos on several sites, so it was a great time saver.

2. The above YouTube clip is the movie trailer for "Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story." We are going to watch this video in my classroom as part of our non-fiction unit, so I thought it would be great to show this to the students to get them interested in his story.


The above video is an excerpt from one of Dr. Ben Carson's speeches. I think I may show this to my students after we've watched the movie. I will have them watch it and then analyze it for rhetorical devices, etc. I may also try to find a transcript of the speech so that they can easily refer back to the speech as they write and discuss.

3. In regards to copyright and fair use, I learned that it is always best to err on the side of caution...give credit where credit is due!

4. I can see how Dropbox would be very useful in my classroom, especially once I receive my iPads. I can save documents to my Dropbox account, and they will be instantly accessible to students using the iPads. This will make group work a breeze! Groups of students can complete assignments and activities, save them to the Dropbox account, and then view and comments on each other's work.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Tool #2: Personal Learning Networks

1. Share you thoughts about building and participating in an online community and participating in a PLN. What points stood out to you from the commenting advice? Were you able to apply any of the advice in your comments? How did you feel about sharing your thoughts publicly? Was it different than when you're sharing your successes/challenges with your teammate?


Building and participating in an online community can be a very valuable tool for educators. We are involved in a profession that requires us to create meaningful connections with our colleagues and students, and in the 21st century, that must involve the use of technology. I decided to visit and comment on five of my colleagues blogs. I made sure to adhere to the commenting advice, especially #9 - "reward" comments. I know that we are all extremely busy, and that makes 11 Tools seem like a burden sometimes. So, I tried to post encouraging comments, which was easy because I was so impressed with everyone's blogs! I had no idea that some of my colleagues were so technologically savvy. I now know who to turn to for help! At this point, I didn't mind sharing my thoughts publicly because they were mostly words of encouragement. The only thing different about it is the delay in a response. I would prefer to discuss successes/challenges with my teammates face-to-face because it is a faster exchange of ideas. 

2. Share the URL or name of a website or social network that you plan to visit in the future. What does that site have to offer?

In the future, I plan to visit Diigo. I am still learning about all that it has to offer, but I think it could be a valuable tool for me and my students to use when researching certain topics. It could help to ensure that students are only accessing information from reputable web pages. It could also be used as a way to teach annotating to my students.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Tool #1: Write a brief post about your experience to date. Did you find the experience fairly easy? Did you face any challenges?

Creating the blog went more smoothly than I thought it would. I don't consider myself to be technologically advanced, so I was a bit worried that I would have problems getting everything set up. However, the directions were relatively easy to follow, so I did not have too many problems. The biggest challenge I faced was finding the time to get it done!