Blog Four

The following technology explorations are about different means of presentation.  This week we were asked to discuss TED talks as well.   I have watched a few TED talks, and I have listened to even more on the TED Radio Hour, which brings together talks from TED events around the country. This is where to access them:

http://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/

I like to listen in the car to the podcasts.
In the discussion board, I talked about Jill Bolte Taylor's My Stroke of Insight:

http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight

I did not have access to students this week, but I will add a presentation that I have made in the past that addresses how literacy can be enhanced or improved using a particular content area.  I wrote this presentation about technology courses.  The theoretical audience was school administrators/school board members.  The presentation was intended to argue that technology classes can be used to improve reading skills in students.

I think the content within the presentation is still quite valid, but the graphics could be improved.  There are no pictures to get the audience thinking of specific examples.  If I were to do this presentation over, I would need to imbed more graphics and add video clips and more examples. The content of the presentation is more relevant than ever for me personally because the technology department was REMOVED from my school, and replaced with another math or reading position. 

Here is the presentation, hosted by slideshare.net:

Dr. Goldberg will be pleased that I learned how to embed this presentation on this blog, and began using slideshare.net as well!

Here are my technology explorations:

Comic Life

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	Comic life is online software that lets users transform their pictures into comic strips or graphic novels.  The software can be purchased for $30, but educators can buy single copies for $20, and site licenses are available.   Comic life's creators consider it "the word processor for digital graphic writing".  Any kind of digital images can be incorporated into a comic.
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.
	The program is appropriate for all grade levels and subjects.  The teacher could start out by making comics to illustrate lessons, then the students could make their own. The comics can be used anywhere that content need to be explained or displayed.  The level of help required would decrease with the age group.  Any image found on the internet (or uploaded) can be incorporated quickly.  The site has many suggestions for ways to use Comic Life in the classroom.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	There's a free trial available so teachers can experiment with the way the software works before committing to a purchase.

VoiceThread

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	VoiceThread is complicated to explain.  I offer the following definition from the article, "Seven things you should know about Voicethread," which sounds like it could be straight from Voicethread's branding department, but is actually from a higher education consortium for educational technology: "VoiceThread is a media aggregator that allows people to post media artifacts for community feedback. The application, developed  at the University of North Carolina, makes it easy for users to add voice those who disconnected will to an artifact, which might be a document, a slide presentation, a video, or a collection of photos. Commentators can add remarks by means of microphone, webcam, keyboard, or telephone. The resulting Flash-based animation contains the original artifact and the commentary on it. In educational settings,  students can post visual media, instructors can comment, and peers can offer verbal or text-based assessments..." The article can be found here: https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7050.pdf
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.
	Students can collaborate using text, voice and video.   The teacher can start with a file, such as a document with a research topic, and students can add other media as they discuss it, and add their comments to make a complete 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 need more experience personally with this technology before recommending it.   I do have concerns about the fact that the site uses Adobe Flash to create the Voice Threads, and flash is no longer supported for android or iOS devices.  VoiceThread Mobile makes VoiceThread media files available for Ipad and Iphone, but there is no mention of support for Android phones and tablets.  I would not personally buy any software for a school setting that is strictly tied to Apple because I have as many or more students using android devices.

Storybird

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	Storybird lets users create their own stories using illustrations and art from the site.   They say, "Your words, our art."  Students build storybooks by selecting art from the site, and its compiled.   Examples of work created in storybird are here: https://storybird.com/read/
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.
	Students can illustrate their stories, poems or essays, or even non-fiction writing for other content areas. Teachers can create presentations of content for use in class, and monitor, score and comment on students' work on the site.  The teacher maintains a class with student accounts.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	Storybird is entirely free, and is already in use by a lot of people, so there is no risk in signing up to see if it works for your own needs.

Kidblog.org

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	Kidblog.org is a blogging site with educators in mind.  Teachers control the classroom blogs and the student accounts.  The idea is to keep the content appropriate for kids.  Other media files created with"web 2.0" programs can be embedded into log posts.
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.
	I think that blogging for students could be effective at any age group with reading and writing skills.  I am interested to see how blogging develops in the future, and if there are schools that are participating in blogging school-wide, not just classroom-wide.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	Kidblog.org's basic program is free, and is doable at this level. Teachers or schools that are really using the blog model across disciplines would likely want to upgrade.

Read the Words

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	Readthewords.com is a site that will convert any document into speech, and you can download the speech files for later use.  The site also has custom animated avatars that read the texts.
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.
	This site is appropriate for creating audio files from any printed document or webpage, so its uses correspond to any need for a custom audio file.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	The free account only allows audio recordings up to 30 seconds in length.  The $10/mo. /$40/yr plan allows recordings up to one hour in length.   The $15 mo/$70/yr plan allows audio recordings up to 8 hrs in length and more features .   The free package will allow you to see if this is the right text-to-speech program before purchasing.

Blog Three

For my example of desktop publishing, I decided to include a brochure I did when I was working to promote my sister's business a few years ago.  This was before smartphones when people still wore watches. (yes, I know, they still wear watches, a few of them, anyway.)  This isn't something I would use in a classroom, but it is a good example.  We printed thousands of these from home and mailed them all over the country. Outside and inside pages:

 Here are my tech explorations:

Assistive Technologies

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	Gpat.org is the site for the Georgia Department of Education’s Project for Assistive Technologies which aims to define Assistive Technology devices and aid schools in implementing them.  The site’s focus is primarily informing educators about the laws and definitions, and what is available to assist students.
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.
	The site could be used as a resource for discovering what technology exists for assisting students with disabilities or special needs in a classroom setting.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	There is a long list of available devices and information about the process involved in obtaining devices, but I would recommend teachers also look at their own state’s information if they live outside of Georgia.

Zoho

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	Zoho is a CRM software company.  CRM stands for Customer Relations Management, and Zoho offers a suite of applications that can be accessed online to manage sales contacts, sales campaigns and other projects.  There are also applications for enhancing collaboration,such as file sharing, and wiki creation.
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.
	The collaboration programs could be beneficial in a school setting. Teachers could set up wikis and online forums for students to use that are strictly monitored, and protected from public view.
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 am pleased to see that the program is entirely online and integrates well with Google Apps, which is free and universally available.  Teachers could have students set up google accounts and have one main login for all of the programs and projects.

4teachers.org

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	The 4teachers.org website provides online tools to assist teachers with classroom tasks, such as assignment calendars, rubrics, quizzes, classroom floor plans.  Rubistar is likely the most well-known program from the site.
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.
	Rubistar is a wizard for creating rubrics. Teachers can use the online forms to type the criteria for an assignment at different levels of performance, so students have a strong understanding of expectation for that assignment. As students get used to working with rubrics, they can have input on what criteria are included. Classroom Architect allows the teacher to design a floor plan for their classroom using premade shapes on a grid.  The plan can be saved as a cookie on the site and printed for later use.  Web Poster Wizard lets teachers produce and publish a web page on a topic very quickly.  The tool lets teachers or students produce worksheets or poster documents with text, pictures, and links.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	There are several tools on this site that teachers will find helpful, and it’s easy to create a class and student logins for that class.  A teacher can create a class and assign projects, with the instructions published immediately, then students log in and work at their own pace, and their work is saved online.

Dimio

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	Dimio is a computer programmer that has developed tools for converting text to speech and exporting it in a number of audio formats. Teacher can use the software to create audio files from printed material using text to speech technology.  Users can customize the scripts to use different voices to simulate dialogue.   Dimio does not distribute the voices directly, but has links for downloading them from various sources.
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.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?

PowerTalk

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	The site fullmeasure.co.uk has a free program, Powertalk, that will automatically speak the text of a powerpoint presentation (or other slide show).  It uses the computer voices that come with Winsdows Xp/Vista/7/8 or other high quality voices from third party software companies. It is interesting to note that the program was written in reponse to an open letter from a person with Asphasia who wanted better access and use of technology for persons who cannot speak.
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.
	The site offers dozens of general uses for the program, but there are some more specific uses in a classroom: Teachers could allow the students to review powerpoints on their own at a computer with headphones without disturbing others. They can use it present a slideshow when they have lost their voice, as this inevitably happens sometimes!
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	Powertalk is free so anyone can download it and use it for their own individual needs.

Webquest

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	The site WebQuest.org claims to be the" most complete and current source of information about Webquest model," which is an inquiry-oriented lesson format where most of the information that the learner works with comes from the internet.  Webquests are still available on this site and elsewhere, but  Webquest.org looks like it is no longer being maintained.  The founder's blog does not have a post since 2007, and the latest news section does not have any posts past 2008.  The online webquest creation software Questgarden is still running, and the founder, Bernie Dodge, is still involved in its development.  www.questgarden.com The software is available for a 2-year subscription for $20, but there is a free trial for one month.
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.
	The site could be used to develop new web quests, or find ones that already exist.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	This may be from the creator of the Webquest model, but there are many other free sites for creating webquests that also do not require any knowledge of html.

Read the Words

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	Readthewords.com is a site that will convert any document into speech, and you can download the speech files for later use.  The site also has custom animated avatars that read the texts.
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.
	This site is appropriate for creating audio files from any printed document or webpage, so its uses correspond to any need for a custom audio file.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	The free account only allows audio recordings up to 30 seconds in length.  The $10/mo. /$40/yr plan allows recordings up to one hour in length.   The $15 mo/$70/yr plan allows audio recordings up to 8 hrs in length and more features .   The free package will allow you to see if this is the right text-to-speech program before purchasing.

Blog Two

First, a word about spreadsheets and databases - I haven't used them too much in class, other than for my own organizing. I use spreadsheets for rosters and record-keeping. If you consider the world wide web as composed of millions of databases, then I access them many times a day, as do most of my students. We are mostly users at this point, and not creators.

I am planning to get certified to teach Biology, so I imagine there will be many uses for spreadsheets/databases in a Biology course.  Students will be asked to observe data over a series of time intervals and record their findings.  Quantifiable changes can be recorded in a spreadsheet and a chart/graph can be produced to give a graphical display of their work.    

Now that many spreadsheet and databases functions can be performed online, they are even easier to use in a classroom setting.   Students can maintain their own files without expensive software thanks to programs like Google drive, and they can collaborate from anywhere using whatever computer platform they have access to. 

For teachers looking to add more computational thinking and modeling activities to their classes, I recommend a visit to www.shodor.org, and I am specifically linking the page for educator activities:

http://shodor.org/educators/activities/

Shodor.org is a organization that develops modeling and simulation apps for computers to aid in math and science instruction.  There are literally hundreds of online tools and activities on this site.

Interactivate (from the Shodor.org site) is a set of free, online courseware for exploration in science and mathematics. It is comprised of activities, lessons, and discussions.   They have apps arranged by grade level and by subject area and are run from the web browser.

The main page:

http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/

And the simulations/apps:

http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/activities/

And, now, on to the technology explorations:

Concept Mapping

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	First, I will include a concept map about concept maps, from the daddy of concept maps: http://cmap.ihmc.us/publications/researchpapers/theorycmaps/Fig1CmapAboutCmaps-large.png This image is contained in the paper cited as: Novak, J. D. & A. J. Cañas, The Theory Underlying Concept Maps and How to Construct Them, Technical Report IHMC CmapTools, 2006-01 Rev 01-2008, Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, 2008 And is available to read here: http://cmap.ihmc.us/publications/researchpapers/theorycmaps/theoryunderlyingconceptmaps.htm What I have learned about concept mapping is better explained in an answer to question #2 as well.
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.
	Novak explains the merits of concept mapping as a way to achieve any or all of the following in a learning environment: Assess students' prior knowledge identifying unfamiliar relationships among familiar concepts aid the learning process by helping students incorporate new meanings with prior knowledge (meaningfully) identifying students' valid and invalid ideas modifying misconceptions in a learned idea (particularly problematic in science) I am sharing this entire paragraph for an example of how concept mapping could help solve science misconceptions because I found his research to be very enlightening here: " To illustrate how difficult it can be for individuals to modify their ideas, especially if they learn primarily by rote, we cite the example of interviews done by the Private Universe Project (PUP) at Harvard University (Schneps, 1989). The staff of PUP interviewed 23 Harvard graduates, alumni and faculty, asking each “Why do we have seasons?” Only eleven concepts, properly organized are needed to understand why we have seasons, and one arrangement of these concepts is shown in Figure 5. The PUP interviewers found that 21 of the 23 interviewed could not explain why we have seasons, a topic that is taught repeatedly in school. Included in this group was a graduate who had recently taken a course in the Physics of Planetary Motion, who also believed erroneously that seasons were caused by the earth moving closer to the sun in summer and further away in the winter. In fact, the earth is slightly closer to the sun when it is winter in Massachusetts, rather than in summer. The primary reason we have seasons in latitudes away from the equator is due to the tilt of the earth on its axis toward the sun in summer resulting in longer days and more direct radiation, thus greater heating. In winter, the axis of the earth points away from the sun, thus resulting in shorter days and less intense radiation. What is interfering with these 21 Harvard people is confusion with the common experience that when we are closer to a fire or lamp, the heat is more intense than when we are further away. Thus, these people have failed to recognize that this same phenomenon is not operating to give seasons on Earth. They are transferring knowledge from one context to another, but incorrectly. This is commonly observed in many, many examples of “misconceptions” in every field of study. The only solution to the problem of overcoming misconceptions is to help learners learn meaningfully, and using concept maps can be very helpful. (For more information on misconceptions in science and mathematics see Novak (2002), and: www.mlrg.org)." Figure 5. One representation of the knowledge structure required required for understanding why we have seasons. The paragraph and image are both available in the paper cited above.  I feel  Novak's explanation would far exceed any paraphrasing I could do, and I want to give credit where its due.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	There are loads of concept mapping programs available.   I have tried coggle.it, and I found it somewhat easy to use to create, edit and share concept maps. Cmap tools is the software from Novak that originated concept maps, and it is free as well: http://cmap.ihmc.us/download/ Wisemapping.com is a free site and has a strong interface similar to coggle.it.  I would recommend that a teacher get familiar with the process of concept/mindmapping before purchasing a software package because there are many good free ones available. I found this article to be helpful, as it lists several tools and lists of concept map software, but mostly because it explains the differences between concept maps and mind maps, the latter of which we discussed more in class. http://ltlatnd.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/best-tools-and-practices-for-concept-mapping/

Animoto 

   

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	Animoto.com is a site that allows users to create short videos with professional-looking transitions and music.    I was familiar with the site from other teachers.  I am pleased that Animoto has all the major photo managing sites connected for uploading.  I had trouble with getting Animoto to load my Facebook albums, but I was able to upload pictures individuallyand through Picasa web albums.
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.
	In a classroom, high quality images are valuable, and a good lesson is complemented by slideshows, animation, and pictures in a professional presentation.  The Animoto blog provides a number of ways to implement video into the curriculum, one of which is a teacher introduction video. I like the ideas of virtual field trip, and moving flashcards as well.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	Animoto is very easy to learn and is highly customizable, and the user's expertise increases with time.  I am somewhat concerned with costs because there are lots of resources out there, and most are free.  For the ones who asking a nominal fee, that is acceptable, but when you consider that teachers need dozens of tools at their disposal, paying even a small fee becomes too much. Fortunately, educators can get an Animoto Plus account.  You can have an existing account or not, it doesn't matter.  You apply for an education account using your school's email, and they give you a promo code.  You can enter that promo code under the account settings of your existing account, and it applies the pro services for six months, you can use that code again to get a full year.

Google Docs/Google Drive

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	I have used Google Docs for years as an individual, but I have not used it as a collaborative tool.  It allows you to access your uploaded files from any computer connected to the internet. Word processing documents, PDFs, spreadsheets, and presentations can be edited directly from Google Drive in the web browser.  This was previously called Google Docs, but they have combined the cloud storage and editing software into one package called Google Drive.  You can quickly bring up documents you are working on at docs.google.com, but to see everything, you go to drive.google.com. Editing directly in the browser is a major advantage because Microsoft office is not needed, although you can keep documents saved as Microsoft Office formats, so that when you download them, they can be opened by office.
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.
	Students can work from a web browser on computers that do not have Office software installed, their work is auto saved, and they can access it from home as well. There is no need for flash drives to be assigned or specific stations in the computer lab. It stores all sorts of files, even ones that it can't edit, so it is truly a cloud storage device. Several individuals can work on a shared file, and still have separate google accounts, and this feature would be helpful in the classroom.
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 love Google Drive for its many features and flexibility, and I used it for years.  It is available to anyone with a web browser, and works across computers, tablets and phones. I don't use it as much now because I have more space in my Dropbox account, but I have both Dropbox and Google drive installed on my PCs as well as mobile devices.

PhotoPeach

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	http://www.photopeach.com/ PhotoPeach is a Web-based slideshow builder. The program directs you to upload your photos, either from your computer or an online service. Once your photos are uploaded, you can set the time interval for photos and the music you’d like to accompany your slideshow. If you haven’t opted for a premium account, you’re limited to PhotoPeach’s selection of music. It offers limited customization options, and no support for transitions in the free version.
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.
	Uses for a slideshow/video with photopeach are similar to any use of video in a classroom.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	PhotoPeach is limited to Facebook and Picasa, whereas other slideshow builders have more online services available, and this could be a drawback for those who are using a different photo sharing service. If you’re using the free version of PhotoPeach, you’ll be limited to 30 photos in your presentation; any more and you have to subscribe to the $3-per-month Premium version. The Premium account also lets you upload your own music to accompany your slideshow, burn your slideshows to disc, and customize the transitions between photos. Animoto offers similar services, and the service is free for teachers.