Cool Tools #2 - Prezi

Hello everybody! I have checked out the next cool tool review and I must say I impress myself sometimes. I have chosen to use prezi this week. I have used this tool before but not like this and there is so much more to do with it that I didn't have time for. It's an interesting, fun way to present something without the bore of a traditional slide show presentation. Prezi is an interactive presenter that anyone can use given the right direction. You are able to insert pictures, text (as much or little as you need or want), URL's, etc. You are able to change the backgrounds, the coloring of text, the position of anything. Everything you do in this presentation tool is up to you how it is done. You start by picking a starting point in the presentation and then add the first thing you want to be it words, picture, or frame. After you pick a starting point you pick the next place to put another thing and then that would be slide number 2. Once you have more than one slide, you now have a "path" started, and then you keep going with slides until you have finished your presentation. Slides are limitless and you can change them around just like you do in a normal power point presentation. You are able to add music to make it more appealing and you add as much as you want in the presentation itself. The free edition is limited but you have a lot of space to do what you want and the paid version is way better, but if you have an edu email to log in with, you get more space for free.

To use this tool in the classroom, I would present anything to the students because it's more interactive than traditional power point as I said earlier. If I were trying to get across a story that my class wasn't understanding, I would have them make the slides with me and maybe add their own drawings or pictures so it was more personal to them. Students might have a hard time using this at a lower grade level but definitely could figure it out in mid to higher grades. For higher grades they are able to look up or research something they enjoy or something that is pointed out by the teacher, then turn the information into a moving slideshow (prezi). This would be a challenge to students because there is a lot that goes into it and you are using and clicking on a lot of buttons to get things were you want them, how you want them. I hope to allow someone knowledge of this fantastic tool as I think it's one of the best out there! Here is the link to my prezi I made.


http://prezi.com/-wfpxbzoxbmt/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

PLN #3 voicethread

Hi everybody,
This was a totally new experience for me as I've never used voice thread before. It was a great experience and hope to use it in the future in my classes. This resource is new to me, but the planning and making of the power point slide wasn't. Some of it came easy, and some not so much, but I figured it out with time. I have made power point slides before so that part was easy, including the adding pictures and text.I simply looked up pictures of what I wanted on the internet using google and used my snipit tool on my computer to copy the images that I wanted. I saved those images to my computer under whatever name of the slide they were going to be used for, then inserted them into the power point one at a time on each slide. The hard part for me was to figure out how to "publish" the slides to make them into pictures. I went through several different ideas before I finally saw publish slides and decided to give it a try. Then another thing I was unfamiliar with and a little uncomfortable with was making the actual voice thread for the pictures. I am not comfortable with audiences, and this was just like that. I don't like being recorded so it was a challenge to sit and actually do it. Luckily nobody in my house was judging me. When I finally got the slides published, I was able to upload the pictures into voice thread with no problem. After that I couldn't get my microphone on my computer to record so this was a computer glitch. I fixed it by going into my settings and enabling my microphone which can you believe it I haven't used since I bought the computer 5 months ago almost. So after enabling the microphone, I was able to record one slide at a time and give speaking directions on how to make my product. Then I was able to go into my settings and copy my link to get to my voice thread for all of you to watch.

I do think this could be used in a great way in any classroom. I see younger kids using it with teachers watching and helping along the way.You could use this while reading a book or making a story up with a class and having them be the artists and draw the pictures for the story. Also, they could do this for simple routines throughout their day for individual projects. I was very impressed with how much you could add in the free edition. For older grades through high school, the students could research something they enjoy doing and give directions on how to do it, for example; learning how to work on cars, painting a certain way, crafting something, etc. Anything could be done with this type of tool in the classroom as long as there is supervision because things could also go wrong in the classroom where students unload inappropriate things because that's what high schoolers do. I plan to do more research on how this type of tool can be used in a classroom as I am not sure what else I would do, but it would be a great tool. With that said, here is the link to my voice thread.

http://voicethread.com/new/share/6905686/

Cool Tool Review #1

The tool I chose for this week was Loupe collage. It is a website/application that you can make picture collages into just about any shape. You can make and download a collage picture, make a card for any occasion, or play a game of "where's waldo" with different picture collages. It's quite an interesting application/website that I would have never thought to look for let alone use. To make a collage you have to upload pictures or use preloaded pictures from the website itself. Then you pick the shape or word that you wish to use for the pictures to form, then you name your collage. For example I used pictures of my family and friends and named it family love and made it into a heart. The more pictures you use, the better the shape will come out. It can also make am actual collage with your images by just adding the pictures that you want in the collage so it's a good way to create an easy collage for someone "like teachers" that are always busy. You are able to download whatever works you create and then print them off or do what you would like with the collage, however, it isn't as good if you don't upgrade to the pro version for which you have to pay.

I would use this tool in the classroom to create collages of each students name or make the name of the class or class number out of all of the pictures throughout the year of the students in the class. I would also use this tool for sight words or pictures for matching and play a where's waldo game with it. I would start by making words on a piece of paper and having a student pick a word or sentence from a pile or jar and then have them find that word or sentence in the collage that I pre-make for that days lesson. I would use this tool in the classroom because it's an easy way for students to get involved and allow them to be the teacher for a moment.

The students could use this in the classroom and out because it's something that can be downloaded to apple products or just used on the computer as a website. It could easily be turned into an assignment for homework where each student had to put pictures together and come up with their own collage to show to their classmates as a presentation piece for a get to know you activity. Parents might have to help with this unless the class had full access to computers to use one on one at least a few times a week. the challenge is that students would have to know how to use the website and have basic computer skills where you can upload or download files and pictures. This would be a lot easier for older students in grades 3 and up without help or supervision. It is not something you can supervise easily in a computer lab unless the teacher can see every screen at once. Also there is no way to block anything from being uploaded, so if students wanted they could do something inappropriate to try to be funny. As a teacher I can only hope that it wouldn't happen.

http://www.getloupe.com/ is the website you need and from there you can download the application or just start your loupe.

PLN's post #2 Transliteracy 2015

When I think about what a PLN is I think that it is a way for anybody to connect to anybody else professionally or in a non professional sense. It is collaborating or connecting through technology, social networks, learning communities, etc. A PLN  is starting a conversation as something small and being able to make the conversation grow into something bigger given more people or more information. Networking is key when talking about PLN's.  Others define PLN's as making connections and building relationships with teachers, schools, etc in order to develop global perspectives, and taking the time to do so. A good reason to have a PLN is to share resources and information that is harder to get to for some groups or individuals.
   
Using a PLN in a classroom would be more challenging than not doing it, however, the students would get a lot more from using this type of instruction. For example, years ago we weren't able to just tweet to the author about a book that we were reading and it amazed me that it is possible now. Instead of writing a letter to your favorite author or singer or movie star for that matter, you can tweet them with 1 or 2 sentences and possibly get a response in no time. It's so cool that the students of today are interested in doing this although it isn't incorporated like it should be. To implement PLN's into the classroom I would use different websites such as weebly, or dipity in order to connect to parents and students outside of the classroom as well as in the classroom because it's important for constant communication. I shared a photo above that I found to show the ways to connect through PLN's.



http://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/pln-challenge-1-what-the-heck-is-a-pln/

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/how-do-i-get-a-pln-tom-whitby

http://www.thetechclassroom.com/about/pln

http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2011/05/19/5-personal-learning-networks-plns-for-educators/

Post #1 Transliteracy summer 2015

I am a teacher during the school year who just quit my summer camp job so I can concentrate on school and other things that matter a little more. I have a three and a half year old who I am adopting because of an underlying family issue. I chose to do kinship for him (Luke) when he was first born because I didn't want him going into the system and I knew I could provide a much better life for him. Anybody that meets him tells us that he looks and acts exactly like me so you would never know he isn't mine. I live with my boyfriend in a little house in Medina and am very comfy where I am at now compared to over a year ago. Anyway, I am always connected through technology somehow, it's just hard to find the time to actually do things that involve technology, such as post every day about what is happening. I have taught in a Kindergarten class for the last year and am hoping to find something that suits me better as an educator. The experience I had with teaching that kindergarten class was not a positive one because I wasn't supported by many other people. It was a charter school inside of a day care and I didn't have the resources that I needed to help my kindergarteners reach their full potential. I was lucky to substitute teacher in some amazing places where I learned a lot about what I truly wanted to do. Thank fully I can go back to substitute teaching if I don't get hired into a school district and it's something that I love doing because I get to meet all kinds of people and the students are all exciting to see me when I come into a classroom. There is a little about me, now onto the other stuff.
     
The social media I currently use consists of facebook, twitter, pinterest, and parascope. Facebook is the one that most people know and I use it for status updates as well as garage sale sites that are easy and efficient to use. I use twitter mostly for staying updated on current events and following certain celebrities that I wouldn't otherwise come in contact with. It's pretty cool when you can talk to someone you would never have dreamed of talking to through the internet because we have the capability to be more connected. Pinterest is something I use for ideas, I believe I have made one post to pinterest and love that fact that you can find anything you are looking for (for the more part) without trying because other people are generous enough to take time out of their busy schedules to give information needed for everyone else to use at their own discretion. Parascope is a newer video blog type of site. It allows people to record or do live videos of whatever they want to allow other people to enjoy it. I think of it like a virtual field trip because if you wanted to see something like the Eiffel tower but could never make it there, somebody could record a tour of it and put it up on parascope for everyone to see. It isn't an interactive site as much as it is a video blog site. Those are the only social media that I participate in to date.

For the question of agreeing on the author's perspective on social media, yes I do to an extent. I think it's important for students to have the means necessary to grow with everyone else as the technology grows and gets more advanced and in depth. I think there needs to be a limit on what students can do in and out of the classroom because the devises used and given to students are not always monitored and that's when things can start to go wrong. As long as it is controlled, I see no issue with students being able to post on social media, but that is where the problem lies. Student now are able to access the internet via cell phone, tablet, etc. and if parents aren't hanging over their shoulders at all times, they really don't know what their child is doing on that device. Parental controls have the ability to prevent certain websites or apps from being produced on such devices. However, are we going to tell our children that they aren't allowed to do something such as a blogging site even though it is requested for a class they might be in? If so, then there is an issue but that is something that we as educators have to learn to work around and evolve with. There is a safe way to go about social media, but students have to be educated on these topics just like when they are in 5th grade they get
"the talk." Couldn't we as educators incorporate the technology based talk into our curriculum in order to safely incorporate it into their every learning lives. My initial thoughts are posted here as well as the author's perspective.

I choose to keep my life as private as possible when it comes to social media, because the way I see it is you never know who is watching and it can ruin your reputation in the blink of an eye. The past year I have cleaned up my facebook to where nothing negative gets posted and if it's something that is nobodies business, then it doesn't get put on facebook. I go by the "dirty laundry" motto. You don't want to show off your dirty laundry so don't intentionally put it out there for the world to see. Even in texts and emails, when it is sent out it is out for good and anybody can access it within a matter of time so watch yourself because you never know who is watching you.

I have learned from personal experience the good, the bad, and the ugly side of social media and I have also learned to protect myself from social media. There are always consequences to your actions, good or bad. My family is my world and I am very connected to them distant and close relatives and friends. I am one that keeps her friends close but enemies closer because it is important to look out for yourself. I have very few people in this world that I do not get along with and the most important thing to me is for my son and future children to grow up without questions unanswered. These classes I have taken have really made me think about what I am doing with my life and made me realize what is important. They have helped mold me into what I am today, although there are many other factors.