Week 5

No assignment this week, but with the substitute teacher we talked about PowerPoint, which we will have to use for a future assignment. I love PowerPoint! It's one of those programs that I just enjoy playing around with. I worked for the Church a few years ago on a custodial crew and was asked to create presentations for the safety committee. I had fun with them and learned a ton about PowerPoint as I messed around with those projects. I don't know how much I'd actually use PowerPoints in the classroom though unless it was to show pictures or lyrics or something like that. I just can't imagine that form of teaching would be very interesting to children. But, I'm sure using the right media and other catching things you could use them effectively.

I will have to be careful though because I do have a tendancy to get a little carried away with my presentations and they become more of a movie then anything else, and apparently that's not really an appropriate use of PowerPoint. I don't like all the annoying transistions and animations that are available and think those are definately overused, but then again, kids might LOVE them!

Week 4

First off, I have to apologize for my "little" outburst last week. I pretty frustrated, but getting the video up wasn't the point of the assignment. The fact is, overall, I had a wonderful, very positive experienence using the UEN site along with other resource sites like eMedia and Thinkfinity, researching information on my chosen core topic. In fact, I've already used these sources for other classes and also in helping my own kids with assignments. So I apologize for the rant.

This week's assignment has been lots of fun exploring the Pioneer Online Library. I love having access to all the articles, videos and music. I don't know how much I would actually have the kids work with these site unless I was requiring them to do research themselves, but I would definately use this as a resource with my own research in preparation to teach something specific. Some of the sites seem to be a bit too "grown-up" for children in elementary school and as I've been surfing I've come across articles that I'd be concerned about my own children just happening upon without me there. Both my girls love travel, culture and animals so we really enjoyed the World Book Kids site to learn about new places, people and animals. I think in this digital age and the kids being so consumed by media it would be a great idea to use videos in your lessons and eMedia is full of educational experiences! I was fun to see how many videos I could find about Utah (my daughter is currently studying the land formations of Utah, lakes, rivers and geographical history).

Week 3

This week's assignment was a little bit tougher than the previous ones. I really didn't like the bookmark and document manager at first, they both were giving me a really hard time. I think I've finally mastered it, though. Now, I can't figure out why it was so hard to begin with! Well, first off, our assingment was to make basically a resource page for a core topicon our UEN page. It needed to state the core objective and initiative we chose. I chose to do 4th grade science on the water cycle (I've always been so fascinated by it!) and that's Standard 1, Objective 2, Initiative b. Then we were to include two links for lesson plans, two links for interactive activities, two links for further exploration and two images. For extra credit we could link a video, too! Well for the links we were suppose to use the bookmark and document managers. For some reason I could not get my links to work! Still can't figure it. I had to clean the whole thing off and start over. After I did that I was able to get my bookmarks to work. So I started in on finding the perfect video. Well all the videos I wanted to use weren't .wmv files...darn it... so I went searching for others. I found a list on emedia that could be downloaded as .wmv files, so I picked one. Bill Nye the Science Guy! I was excited about that. So I clicked the download button. I searched for it on my computer for THREE hours!! Finally pulled my husband in just so he could tell me it didn't download an actually file, but a link to Window's Media Player. RRRRG. So we messed around with it a bit and finally figured out to right click on the download button and save it the "long way" : Save Target As, blah, blah, blah. So we finally get an actual file. I go to upload it to my "Document Manager", browsed for the file, named the file, wrote a description and clicked "UPLOAD". I waited and waited and waited.... and waited and waited and waited... watched the green arrow go around and around and around. After an hour of that I decided to try a different video, thinking Bill was corrupted or something. Found a Magic School Bus episode - and who doesn't like Magic School Bus???!! - so right clicked, save target as... ya ya ya... UPLOAD... and wait and wait and wait... wait and wait and wait... watched the green arrow go around and around and around. Clicked stop. This time it gives me an error message that my request could not be completed because I ran out of storage!!!! WHAT??! I have a whoppin' eight bookmarks - how much room can those take??? So, oh well, I say and went on a search for a smaller - MUCH smaller - video file. Found one (a full 15 seconds long). And it worked. And now I'm done.

Week 2

This past week in class we've focused on our All About Me UEN page. It's been a fun little project, but I don't really like to talk about myself that much so that part has been hard. I'm hoping we'll be graded more on the technical stuff like creating the links, adding pictures and formating the portlets rather than the content so much. I was wondering though if all webpage hosts are the same when it comes to that. Just like how in Blogger you just click the add picture, browse and upload; to create a link you just click the highlight what you want linked, copy the URL, click the Link button, paste the URL and wha-la! It's pretty much the same thing on UEN. Is it a pretty standard procedure or do these websites just make it easy? I don't like how you can't wrap text around images in UEN, though.

Anyway my UEN page assignment was to create an All About Me tab. I love to dabble in digital design so I implented some of that into my page. We were asked to create 5 portlets (About Me, Family, Education, Schools and Favorites), insert 5 images and create 3 links. I'm pretty sure I met the requirements using 5 portlets, 20 images and 14 links. I really enjoyed doing this project and being able to make it my own. I just wish we weren't limited in some formatting techniques like wrapping the text and being able to manipulate images (i.e. rotating, minor editing). Also I would have appreciated more font choices.

Week 1

I think I'm going to L-O-V-E this class!! As if I need a reason to blog, now I'll HAVE to! I'll admit I'm not a great blogger - I usually don't have the time - but I do love the chance to write down my thoughts once in awhile. I'm currently managing four blogs: my family's blog, my parent's mission blog, my design blog and this blog for class. I know the design is slightly boring as of right now, but I'll play around with it and make it super. In the past I have messed around a bit with the HTML to manipulate the design of my blog. I know this isn't an "HTML class," but I'd love to learn a bit more to really be able to make it more personal. Also, I've tried to import new fonts, create a signature, customize sidebar titles and create buttons but haven't had much luck. So, if you have any tips that might help me out in those areas, I'd love to try them!

As you can see, I'm fairly comfortable and familiar with using a computer, but I realize I have a lot to learn. I'm excited to see what I can do! And after reading the assigned articles for our Technology Reflection Paper, "Maine’s Laptop Initiative Improves Student Writing" by Anne Miller, "The 21st-Century Digital Learner" by Marc Prensky, "Risks Involved in Integrating the Internet into the K-12 Curriculum" by Bernie Poole, and "How a New Generation of Teachers Will Change Schools" by Monica Martin, I have decided that using technology in the classroom is essential in order to be able to reach today's students. I am constantly amazed at how my daughters instinctively know how to turn on a computer, navigate the internet, text on my phone, take digital pictures, upload music to their ipods and everything else that, for me, usually requires at least an hours' worth of step-by-step instructions. I must have missed that class in the life before!

Anyhow, I can't wait to learn more! Bring it on.