Google Earth

We played around with Google Earth this week. I really enjoyed how Carmen used it in her educational video about greetings from around the world. Instead of just putting a map up of each area studies she used Google Earths tour feature. When you type in a location the world spins and zooms in on that spot. It then shows a 3-D image of what the landscape or cityscape would look like. Cool option for a social studies lesson. It's great to get new ideas to help update old lesson plans. I will be looking more into Google Earth projects.

A Color of His Own

Podcast 1

Tweet

Children are born plugged in. It only seems natural then to teach them how to safely use the tools they are given. There are some, like Twitter, that I still not sure about. I have heard of some classes using Tweets to keep attendance, get more student participation, and keep up to date with news. These were all successful experiences but I can see Twitter also being a large distraction, especially in middle and secondary classes. Networking and socializing is the meaning of life at this age. By having free use of cell phones, blackberries and the internet while in class might seem like a good idea to incorporate technology I think there are better programs.
RSS feeds are an amazing way to keep up with news and blogs are also a wonderful way to have classroom participation and collaboration. Instead of Tweeting during class students could write a post reflecting on what they learned.
Don't get me wrong, Twitter could be great in the classroom setting, it is still a very new technology to me and I am always a bit tentative to jump on the wagon.

G.Docs

We just wrapped up a collaborative prroject using Google Docs and I was blown away. When I first learned about this program I was skeptical; was it really easier to work together using this program? Throughout the program features different features kept me pleasantly surprised. The form function, where you can make a survey/form to email and the results are automatically organized into a spreadsheat was so handy. We used it to take a poll but it easily could become an online pop-quiz, permission slip or any number of other ideas.
The best part of Docs was how easy it is to share and collaborate on papers. Just by 'sharing' your document with someone else they then have power to edit and leave comments on the document. It great not having to sort through emails and sharing USBs. It was instant and accessable anywhere. Highly recomend this program. Thanks Google.

Wiki

Today we finished up work on our class wiki about digital footprints. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this project. The way that it gets people to work collaboratively on a project is great. You do need to be cautious about how much freedom is given or else things look sloppy. Until our pages were pasted together and had a theme everything was looked very jumbled and unorganized. Having the same colors and layout for each page helped.

I could see myself using these for classroom research projects, portfolios and book reports. There is no reason not to now that I understand the technology. I am hooked. The more we explore in my class the more excited I am to explore these technologies and incorporate them into my future class agenda.

Here is a link to our classroom wiki.

Attempt to post from my phone. I cant believe im actually doing this.

The Machine Is Using Us

My Take on Type

I wasn't sure what I was supposed to post for my first image, so I picked sketch I did this fall when I was getting into type and fonts.

Geek Out

I stumbled on the Dynamic Periodic Table right after I finished my second semester of college biology and chemistry. Life could have been so much easier if I had found it sooner! What I love is how much information it contains and how easy it is to use. It starts with a colour coded layout of the elements of the periodic table, based on which group they belong to and their physical state.

From here you can select what information you want to see. It has different tabs for properties, orbitals and isotopes. The orbitals tab was awesome. When in this tab you can click on an element to see the amount of electrons in each orbital and how they are arranged by using a great 3-D model. Such a wonderful tool for learning orbitals.

There is also a cool feature that breaks the table into the respective groups. When clicked on it opens a link to Wikipedia's definition of those elements and how they collectively respond and react.

This is a great site for first interactions with the periodic table and all the way to the college level. Easy to navigate and no pop-ups or distractions. I love it.

Educational Site

I wanted to post the link for National Geographic for the Educational portion of my blog for many reasons. I grew in anticipation of the magazine. I didn't always read the articles, but the pictures were enough. They captured my imagination and took me to places I never imagined were real. To this day I am still amazed by the images and stories they publish and think it is a good source for educators. There is even a link to National Geographic Kids now. I was searching this site and there is some good info., but a lot of distractions as well. A good place for free exploration but maybe not for assignments. Here is the link.

First Post Ever

Well, here it is. My first blog post. Never did I think I would be maintaining a blog. It seemed like more work to post and maintain the site. There are a few art and illustration blogs that I follow and all are wonderfully designed and frequently updated. It makes starting one a little intimidating but I am more excited for the experience. I'm going into this with only positive thoughts and a desire to take something from this experience that I could use in my classroom someday.