Week 3 Thing 9: Twitter

Honestly, I don't see myself as the type to make frequent updates on Twitter to let the world know what I'm doing. Time is precious and I perceived this to be just another thing to distract me from what's really important in life.
So I reluctantly signed up for a Twitter account recently for the sake of this activity. Then taking some advice I read I kept my twitter account strictly professional.
Well, it was easy to find others in the world of education to follow. I currently have 32 people I'm following. At first I felt totally disconnected to the people I was following and their post. I found some people to have many post that were very impersonal. But as the week went on I was able to learn which people I preferred to follow.
The real excitement came when I started communicating with one of my followers. I was then able to experience how Twitter provides an avenue of actual communication.
I think if I continue to use Twitter I'm going to start following people I know and care about. After all, if I'm not interested in the application then I'm not going to have a desire to find ways I could implement it into my classroom.
Obviously I'm not sold on Twitter, however, I'm going to keep an open mind.

Week 8 Thing 18: Slideshare

Slideshare provides a way to share presentations with the global community. In my previous post you will see a slideshare about the Revolutionary War. As I was searching through presentations I found many that were educational and could be used in my classroom. Since students in my class will be learning about the Revolutionary War I could use a Slideshare such as the one I've posted to either introduce or review content. I also found several slidshares with math related content. I think Slideshare is a great resource for teachers! Instead of reinventing the wheel...share the wheel! In addition, Slideshare provides a place for students to publish their presentations.

Week 8 Thing 18: Slideshare

Events Leading Up To The Revolutionary War
Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Events Leading Up To The Revolutionary War

View more presentations from Michael Doody.

Week 7 Thing 17: Podcast

I have been listening to podcast that pertain to personal interest outside of education for quite a while now. Today, however, I did a search for educational podcasts. I was most interested in finding podcasts that have been created by teachers and students to help me brainstorm some ways my students could benefit from podcasts. I found several podcasts that were student created and suscribed to the RSS feed for the Cardinal Cast podcast from West Salem Elementary School in Virgina. I found this podcast to be interesting because it appeared to be a school wide effort. The podcasts have been created by students in different grade levels and are about a variety of subjects.

Week 7 Thing 16: YouTube

I signed up for YouTube today and posted my first video which can be viewed in my previous post. I already had a Google account so signing up for YouTube was really easy. The video I uploaded took about 15 minutes to get up and running on YouTube.

I found some very educational videos on YouTube, however, the site isn't totally kid friendly. I liked how related videos appear on the right hand side because it helped in my search for my intended topic. However, I realized that it dosen't take long for the related videos to lose their relevancy to my search.

I searched the videos related to the one I posted and made a comment. In the bottom right hand corner of the video click on YouTube so you can view it on YouTube and see my comment.

Week 6 Thing 15: Adding Fractions

Today I made my very own educational video titled Adding Fractions. Students in fifth grade learn a lot about fractions so I thought a video that they could view over and over would be very helpful. After filming I created my final product using Windows Movie Maker. I found the program to be fairly easy to use, however, I think it would take the students some time to be efficient at using the program. When I uploaded my 2 videos I was suprised that Movie Maker took each of my videos and divided it up into segments varing in length from 12 seconds to 1 minute. I'm not sure why the segments were random lengths, however, the short segments made it easier during the editing process. Students will have to be able to identify one video from the next and be careful when adding segments so that they stay in the desired order. I found it really easy to add titles, credits, effects, and transitions. The variety of options was fun to experiement with. Students may find enjoyment doing the same activity. However, I can imagine them spending an incredible amount deciding which options to use, nevertheless becoming more efficient with practice.

Week 6 Thing 14: VoiceThread

VoiceThread: An application that can be used for storytelling

VoiceThread provides a visual and interactive way to tell stories. I signed up for a free account and browsed through VoiceThreads posted by others. I found many threads that have been created by students doing book talks. My students have been sharing book talks since the beginning of the year in front of their peers. I think the students would really enjoy publishing their book talks on VoiceThread. I can see the novelty of this application motivating and challenging students to excel.

I think it may be helpful for students to view some book talks that have already been created. I commented on a couple in the blog posts just before this one and I've included a link to a great book talk where the option for me to post a comment has been removed. Check it out!