Final Reflection

When starting this ePortfolio, I was not quite sure what the end product would look like or even what I was filling out to be honest. I would ask myself, why would someone need something such as this to only put one or two sites on here that I, as a teacher might hardly use? Well now that it is finally come to an end, I realize what this ePortfolio is all about. It is not something you whip up in an hour or a site just to have because we had to, it was a site that organized all the assignments, projects, blogs, and even other web sites and applications we used throughout the class into one place; my ePortfolio.
I organized my ePortfolio by first filling in all the information I knew right off the top of my head. Of course my name, where I went and where I attend school now, the places of where I held a job and where I still do, and just a little bit about myself. Once I filled this out I realized that I needed to organize it more because if I were to be showing this portfolio to a school or administration it would need to be a neat and filled out fully to show that I am a rounded person, not just in the classroom setting, but outside the education field. I consider being creative to be one of the strengths of my work because I enjoy coming up with new things and making them my own. I think being creative, whether it is for a portfolio like this or just teaching a class full of seven year olds, having creativity helps in the process of being a better teacher and or person. If I had time, I might change where I am employed. I will most likely keep this portfolio or something like this for the future when I become a teacher and if I do, I would most definitely put in under where I am employed which grade and school I am teaching at.
While working on all these projects in W200, I found that working at my own pace and getting the main idea and objective complete ahead of time is the most effective technique in creating my projects. I say this because once I had a project almost fully complete, I would have the weekend or at least a few days to tweak it the way I wanted it and could make it even better than I had the first draft. That is what I like about working on computers when a project is assigned. You can always go back and change what you have first put down. I learned how to write blogs and create my own website while working on the projects which you can see in all the projects that I have done for this class. At first I was hesitant on writing blogs because I had never done them before, only read them. But once I got the hang on them, I was eager to write about what happened in class. I was also hesitant on creating my own web lesson plan site. I had no clue there was such thing that teachers use. It became my favorite project to work on and to add to my ePortfolio for others to see and use. Something new I tried in working on this project was actually writing the last two blogs from the word processor instead of the actual blog site. I wish I would have done that from the beginning because sometimes when writing a blog on the actual site, you make mistakes, and I had a habit of submitting it then reading a few mistakes that were already published then going back in and trying to find and fix them. With the word processor, it underlines what you have spelled wrong or a fragment. This new technique should have been used at the very beginning because it ended up to work a lot smoother and easier to copy and paste my work and thoughts knowing that everything was good to go.

Group Project-Digital Divide Movie

Our group did a movie on the digital divide to help inform and give a little bit more of an understanding of what this actually means. The digital divide is the divide between individuals who are still have a mind set of using books and other non technological things to get them through their everyday life such as home, school, or the work place. One that other side of the divide their are the individuals who have the open mind of using or at least trying our technology and using it for the first time. In today's society technology is growing and being used more and more as an everyday tool.
Our group decided to inform others about the digital divide and its importance in today's society. Our movie not only has sound and pictures to go along with it, but important facts and statistics showing how widely used this technology is used today. At first we created a mind map to get our ideas flowing. Then it all branched out from there. I think it was a little bit easier because we already did a slide show on the digital divide and now all we are doing is brings it to life.


Resources we used:
ccMixter.org
wikipedia.org
Apple iMovie
Apple iPhoto

Digital Footprints...What do YOU leave behind?

When I first heard of digital footprints, I can honestly say I did not know what it was. I knew what digital was and what footprints were, but digital footprints, not a clue. When our group decided to work on this podcast using digital footprints, I was excited to find out more about this term they use on the web. Most people do not know what they leave online. What do I mean? I mean that when individuals are on the web, they leave can leave what they have been searching or researching online, some can be good or bad. This term mostly comes from people who leave their personal or work related information on the Internet for others to see and quickly find out. In order to clean up these footprints, people need to watch what they put up on the web, whether it be personal or not.
Our group used garage band to produce this podcast about digital footprints. I am sad to say that I was not able to record this podcast with my group but did other things to help complete this project. I was able to find different sound effects that fit the criteria of this podcast. At first it was difficult for me to find different sounds and music clips because once I found something I liked I was either unable to download it or even use it due to copyright issues.
Once these items were all complete our project podcast seemed ready to go. Our FATP, mind map and flow chart guided us through the assignment from start to finish. I think using a mind map in big assignments like this helps groups or even individuals get a good grip on what the final product is going to look like.
I am grateful that I was in a group with people that worked very hard at every point in this podcast. I am also grateful that I got to be in a group with members that worked with me while I was gone and lead me the information needed to complete this project with them.

Resources we used:
ccmixter.org
http://h2w2.blogspot.com/2007/12/how-to-manage-your-online-profiles-3p.html
www.webopedia.com

Project 5 - sound

I found it difficult to find sound clips to fit our project 5 podcast. I shared many clips I found with my group but they were unable to open them and use them. I was very frustrated when searching for theses items and almost wanted to give up. It seemed like it took me forever to come up with a clip that I thought would fit, but once I found one, I was unable to use it or it would not download. I guess I have bad luck in that department. Hopefully when it comes down to it, I can retrieve some clips that make this podcast sound like it should. I hate the feeling of working so hard to find something and then not being able to use it. My part in this group has been a simple task, but I seem to be making it harder than it really is. All in all our project 5 has been going as planned and should turn out well, even if my sound effects aren't.

The Digital Divide Slideshow

I have done slide shows or power points like this before and was excited to get started, but the only thing that I was worried about was finding the information and pictures to put into the slide. I did not want the slide to be to overloaded with tons of information that the viewer would not understand anything we were trying to inform them about or too less information that they had no clue what anything was about. Our group decided to just start at it. Once we had our mind map and flow chart done, we all started to work on the project. It was interesting to see all of us working at once because we all had different ideas on how to go about getting this started. I think it was a good idea to just let all three of us do our own tweaking and see what we came up with as we went along, plus it went by faster. As it got towards the end and final product of our project, we made sure that each one of us looked back to make final changes and anymore add ins before we sent it in. I like that fact that the group I was working with was responsible and we all communicated through the whole thing, whether it had been in class or outside of it. We all had a good work ethic and open to all the tools and applications that were available to us to help us make this project that others can learn off of. Hopefully others who look at this will be able to get something out of our hard work.

Podcasts

Podcasts are more than a person or a group of people talking abut certain events or subjects. They come across to me as a radio talk show. I was browsing through many of the websites given to find podcasts on education, and I came across this one in particular.Leisure Podcasting, from the website Twenty Minutes for Tech. Scott Hertzog, a high school English teacher talks about how he got started with podcasts for his own personal use, then when it was time to come back in the fall to start classes back up, he decided to incorporate podcasts in his teachings. He thought it would be a great way for absent students to listen to a lecture or even study before a test by listening to it. This caught my attention because when I was first introduced to podcasts, that was the first thing that came to my mind. It is a great way for students and even other teachers or parents to listen to a lecture. Most of the time, when I listen to something more than once, I miss something I did not hear earlier. I think it is a good idea to have podcasts in the classroom, especially is the secondary and up level. If more and more teachers start using podcasts it may be useful to their students and their students may start showing signs of high grade improvements.

Information Communication Website

When I was in elementary school, none of the teachers, that I knew of, had a website that was directed towards their class. Now more and more teachers have a website that their students, parents, faculty, and even the public can reach and see. As I was searching other elementary teachers websites to get an idea of what mine should look like, I came across many that had the same content, such as meet the teacher, a parents page, and homework links. I scanned over many teachers websites all the way from 1st grade to the 5th grade to see how they collaborate their sites to make it student and parent friendly. Finally, I had the ideas and points I thought were important and started working on the class website.
When I started, I used the mind mapping to get all my ideas out on paper. This helped me because I was able to create my website from there and could edit in or out more details if I needed to. Mind mapping is a good way to get all ideas out before working on the final product. It is almost like a outline, but in web form. From there I started on my site. I knew I wanted to have something so when anyone who visited would remember it. I chose to use bright and cheerful colors that were inviting to not only the parents and students, but other teachers in the building also. I used images that reflected on what was being said on a specific page that would grab the readers attention. Some people are more visual readers than actually word readers, so I figured putting visual aids on each page would help others see what they were about to read about.
All and all I was excited about creating this website. Once I got going and knew how to work with the site, I sat and worked on it for hours. I think it is a great idea to have a website like one of these to share with students, parents, and the faculty of your school. It is a good way to get ahold of the teacher, see announcements, and just be updated with new information whether it be about a student or what is going on in the school for that week or month. When I finally have my own classroom, I will defiently have some sort of site like the one I have just made.

A Whole New Mind

I have always thought of the United States being the biggest and most powerful country in the world. We have amazing universities that send remarkable people into the world of business, teaching, advertising, and more. Some of the best made vehicles have been produced here. Famous people such as Frank Sinatra, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Jordan are all well known when people think of the United States. But this thought of the United States is disappearing. Why? Why is the United States being out run by its neighboring countries such as China and India? I think it is because of the technology used in today's society. In 1947 the start of the cellular phone was started. Now look where it has gone. In 1981 the laptop was invented. Now it seems like each household has at least one. But the United States is going nowhere with this technology. It seems like they have reached a point of satisfaction, and have stopped and the rest of the world keeps producing more and more ways of making life easier through technology.

If you were to ask someone from a neighboring country that was your age to name one person or thing that comes from the United States what do you think they would say? They probably would not say Frank Sinatra or Neil Armstrong, but replace those names with Britney Spears or Paris Hilton. They might even bring up the issue of automobiles going bankrupt.

But these issues are just half of what the United States is being looked upon as. The other half is technology. People and inventors have met their limit and try not to go any further on keeping up with the neighboring countries. It will only be a matter of time that the United States will be towards the bottom of the food chain and countries such as China and India will be thriving in industrial technology. We as a country still have a chance. We need to get it into everyone's head that in order to survive and compete with the rest of the world, we also need to step up and bring to the table our technological ideas, and it all starts now and with the new generation.

Useful Site-PinkMonkey.com

In high school and even elementary school, my teachers would give us a book or an assignment to read and it would be very hard for me to read and comprehend what I just read. There were hardly any worksheets that dealt with the book or any exercises that were related to a topic that we were reading. It was frustrating to be reading these stories in my English class and when done reading, only remember the last few pages I had read.
I have heard of sparknotes in high school and used it a couple of times, but some of the stories and books I was reading in high school I could never find on that site. It was frustrating because I did not fully understand what I was reading and in class all we did was read and do other assignments and never go and review what we read.
I came upon this website PinkMonkey.com and there are things on there such as study guides, outlines chapter by chapter, gives you tips on how to study more efficiently, and even a digital library that helps you find the book you are looking for a little bit faster.
This website is good for students who have problems with reading a chapter and remembering what was in that chapter. There are many ways to study for an upcoming quiz or even learn the lingo of the book. It opens up more doors into learning the story you are reading instead of just reading it because you have to. All students can have the opportunity to know a book well after using this site because it engages the student to do more than review, it gives a lot more options and a variety to learn.

Things I "didnt" know

When I thought of the Internet, the first thing that came to mind was email, facebook, and browsing through sites that I thought were interesting. My daily or somewhat daily routine of visiting the web was checking my email, my facebook account, whatever messages I had through the schools website, and occasionally visiting sport pages or checking up on the weather. Well now its totally different. All of these still exist, but are more towards the end of my agenda.
I did not know that there were websites specifically for compacting all the websites you visit or that you have made into one page. Now that I have an eportfolio, I can put all the websites I belong to or that I have background information on all in once space so it is more accessible.
Also, I like the idea of having a netvibes page. It is similar to a eportfolio, but it has more than just information of yourself on there and it is a website for only you to see. I can put everything from facebook to my classmates blogs to the whether all on one website.
These websites are easy to work with, and I was never aware that these types of sites existed. Whenever I got online, I would always open up a new tab and have a dozen of tabs up at the top and loose my spot on where everything is. Now that I have specific webpages to go to where everything is in one spot, it makes it a lot easier to find things.
Now that I have learned how to use all these different pages, I will not only use them in this class, but use them for my own use and hopefully in a classroom in the future.

A new learning method, a new wave of technology

When you think of a classroom and all the materials there is needed to be inside that classroom in order to learn, you might think of text books, loose leaf paper, big hefty binders, folders and pencils and pens. All these materials take up space and even make your back hurt when carrying all of them in your backpack at the end of the day. But what if there was a new way that all of that material was compacted into one? If all the text books and hefty binders were all in one space? There is a new wave of learning going on with the new way of using technology in the classroom. Now a days, technology is used throughout our lives, so why not put it to use in the way we learn? Not only will technology be at our fingertips while in the classroom, it will also be a good resource when getting a class discussion together or reaching out to the parents and faculty of the students and school. Technology is a great way for being hands on. I think students learn more effectively when learning by doing rather than reading a chapter in a text book and answering questions in the back of that chapter. If a student can be hands on with a computer, by looking up creditable information and research and understanding it, then I think technology will be a good step in helping the students of the future learn by this new wave of technology.
Keeping up with today's society and the technology it presents is going to be a big part in the culture and lifestyle of many here to come. Everyday something new is changing, and if education in the classroom does not change with the rest of society, then the students could be more behind when it comes to learning the new ways of technology being present.

Wikipedia; What good is it?

Wikipedia is not only an encyclopedia, but a good starter block for students or people in general to research a topic. For example, by typing in the "Indiana" as a topic, Wikipedia will bring up numerious ideas a facts about the state. But also at the same time it will lead you to more accountable sources and links on the web that an individual can work upon. I think that wikipedia should only be used as a starter block and not as a solid creditable souce because many people can go onto this site and change information on any topic. It is though and good site to go to to find out where other sites are that are linked to the topic you are researching. Therefore, wikipedia is a good souce in order to find other better sources to better your research.

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is a higher level of information that individuals can use to communicate, develope, design, share,etc. new ideas that is going on in this lifestyle today. Everyday the world of technology is changing and Web 2.0 can help people change their lifestyles with the world.

Here is a website that may help you understand and see what different types of tools can be used with Web 2.0 here

Blogging: What is it?

My first time working or even seeing a blog was on a myspace account. I thought that the individuals posting blogs wanted everyone to read their life stories or what they did that day. I believe that blogs in that sense are personal and for individuals to write what they do every second of the day is a need of attention. But that is my opinion. Also I have read or seen blogs that individuals have written to ask for advice or even ask questions. Blogs should be more for this type of work or for discussion. I have even seen blogs that students put up to ask questions about which topics they should write about in a English class they have or even ask help to a math problem they are having trouble with. All in all, a blog to me is a personal journal that individuals can go and write anything they want to, and receive comments or advice from that can either help or not help them.