Twitter Thoughts...

After having a twitter account now for a couple weeks, I am starting to get the hang of it more. I think it is a good way to post links and such that you can recommend to others, and I like having groups or networks to search out specific materials, such as "edtech". I will admit though I do find it more difficult to follow actual conversations since they do not stay in chronological order and you have to do a lot of switching between pages. So for longer messages or discussion oriented posts, I do prefer reading blogs but that doesn't mean I won't be reading your tweets!

Flickr Slideshow :)

Creative Commons Image

This is the image I found when searching through creative commons. I like incorporating images into a blog or the classroom, because it makes what you are discussing seem more real. When students can imagine what they're learning about, I believe they are more intrigued to try harder or feel more inquisitive about the topic. I thought I could have my classroom do a project where they research a country and some of the important characteristics that distinguish the country. This would give them the freedom to chose their own point of interest and find a lot of fun images to represent their country. So in this case I did an example of Italy and chose a photo of the Roman Colosseum.

Photo Attribution:Piazza del Colosseo Colleseum, Rome, Italy
By: Eustaquio Santimano

Released under an Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike License
http://search.creativecommons.org/?q=rome%2C+italy&sourceid=Mozilla-search

flickr account

Tweets for tweet deck!

So I downloaded tweet deck this week and think it is a very useful and interesting application! I didn't realize it was going to involve pop-up notifications and all that, but it is quite entertaining for this class. Especially for people that follow hundreds or thousands of twitter accounts, it is a great way to locate people and search for specific topics.
I like how you can just type "#edtech" and then you are instantly given tons of great resources. It makes searching the net so much easier, and you have a network of other teachers :). Overall, I am intrigued by tweet deck and like following conversations better now.

Technology Integration

I haven't been placed in an actual classroom yet, but in high school I did a practicum where I "interned" in a 3rd grade classroom to gain hands on experience. This was already 3 years ago now, but the smart board technology was something that really stood out to me. I loved how my mentor teacher incorporated the majority of her lessons on the board. It was neat because it allows the teacher to use the internet but also write comments on the board and add additional notes to assist the students.
Now I know many teachers are integrating the smart boards to use with syllabuses and a lot more things to avoid passing out handouts and help the "go green" efforts. This class will definitely give us a leg up when we begin our teaching careers, because I'm sure all the educational technology can be very overwhelming to learn (especially for teachers that have been there a while).

Going about Blogging

http://ideasandthoughts.org/2008/07/17/student-and-teacher-blogging-that-succeeds/
This was a link that Greg told us to look into and I thought it really helped me understand the goal of blogging. I liked how it talks about reading blogs first and feeling comfortable enough to actually publish a post. This would be a good skill for students to use even at a lower elementary grade, because it inspires reading in an interesting online setting and then allows them to respond and work on writing as well.
The making friends part was also a cute metaphor, comparing making blog "friends"and making friends on a playground. It is a mutual process, so in order to get people to read your blog you also have to comment on other blogs to show your personal interest. This was a nice way of thinking of blogging in my opinoin, so I was glad we were directed to that blog.

Laptops Allowed yay or nay?

I just read an interesting article about college professors banning laptops in their classroom. This seems so ironic because laptops seem like such a "college" thing, where students have access to the internet on hand, but maybe it has taken a turn for the worst. At University of Chicago Law School classroom wifi was turned off, so that students are forced to focus and reject the internet distractions.
While I can see both sides of this argument it seems a bit intense. I feel that since students and parents are paying so much money for college tuition, it should be up to the student to act responsibly and focus in class. If someone cannot handle a lecture without checking facebook, tweeting, or playing solitaire, GOOD LUCK in the real world. This is one little temptation students have to fight in order to put the effort in to succeed.
I wanted to see what you guys have to say on this topic, yay or nay on laptops?

Response to Bloggers

After reading many of our classmates blogs, it seems a lot of people are commenting on how we love the teacher-student and student-student interaction in this course. It makes taking an online class so much more engaging, and I honestly really do look forward to learning the labs, because I want to use this material in the next couple years when I am starting my own class. I have been telling my mom about all this new technology and she was saying she wished as a parent she would have had access to all this when I was in school.
Also, once our websites are done they are going to make great links to add to a resume. We've got bright looking futures now thanks to this class :) hehe...

Welcome to my blog!

This is my first time ever blogging, so I'm pretty excited about it! In general, my background with technology has been pretty standard. In high school, I worked with Microsoft word, excel and power point quite frequently, but was never taught about making websites or using wikis. I am familiar with facebook and twitter, but blogging is new to me. In this class I hope to become very confident with many new technologies, and learn how to incorporate technology in my classroom as a future teacher. Just from reading through the syllabus it seems like there are so many technology options that I want to learn about. I believe everything is going to be very useful, so I am ready to become more tech savvy :)!