Other Tools

I think this website is a great resource for web tools, but it is a little overwhelming. I saved it as a favorite so that I can go back and find it, but I feel like I have learned so many new tools and technologies, that I can't possibly try to use them all. The first tool I looked at was Create A Graph. It did exactly as the name implies. It was a very easy graphing tool, but probably a little too elementary for junior high students. I would prefer them using excel, which they have already been taught to use. The second tool I looked at was Phuser, which is similar to google docs. It is basically a place to collaborate. Again, it was cool, but I don't see how it would be more useful than google docs. And, you didn't have to sign in, which I didn't really like. I don't want people outside of my class to be able to edit what the students are working on. The third tool I looked at was Bubblus, which creates a web or brainstorm. This would be great for the students to create a concept map at the end of the chapter. Overall, there are some really neat tools on this website, and I hope I get the chance to look at them all.

Wordle 2

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1942091/Types_of_Matter

This is a link to a wordle I created about the different types of matter, which we are beginning in 8th grade science. Again, I think it's a neat way to introduce my students to a new topic.

Wordle 1

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1942052/Chromosomes

The link is to my wordle about chromosomes. We are studying genetics in 7th grade science, and I thought this would be a cool way to introduce it. I used it as my title slide in my power point. It was just a neat way to get the students interested. What turned out really neat was that the picture kind of has the shape of DNA, which is in chromosomes. I'm not sure I would use this with my students, but I will probably make a wordle each time I introduce a new topic.

Photoperiod Project

Using the google docs in the photoperiod project this year has been great! Every students is more responsible for doing their own work, where as before, I felt like students were copying information from each other. Now, they are still sharing, but each student has to get their own information. I am also able to constantly check their progress and pull students aside who are not keeping up. This way, they have many reminders to get the work done before it is due.

Digital Storytelling

Here is an example of the digital storytelling I did in my communications class:
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The students loved this assignment. They really liked being able to choose their own topic and find pictures, video, etc. Each quarter that I have done this project, I have added more for the students to do and they have really taken off with it. I think they like not having many boundaries so they can be creative. I think that this will be a great project to keep adding to as technology changes. I already have some ideas for how to add stuff from this class to the project!

Diigo

I just set up an account with diigo and I love it! For my major projects this year, I have been posting all of the links that the students would need on progress book. This shouldn't be the case, but some students cannot get into progress book except on their home computer where the password is saved! This would be a great place for me to post the links and let students add other links. I also like how I can leave comments for them about my favorite links, etc. I have not tried to start a group for my classes yet, but I am going to try it next quarter for my communications project. I love finding out about these fun new websites! And it was so easy!

Digital Story

I've been working on my digital story with my communication students in movie maker. We've had a few problems with video - the only video I can add is a united streaming video (saved as .wmv) or a video that they take on their own (I think I can add this). Other than that, they can't download videos from the internet and save it in their public folder to upload into movie maker. This has been frustrating for some students who have found good videos.

Audacity is a great program, but sometimes freezes up and students lose their work. They also have trouble with the functions sometimes not working, and they have to restart the program.

We are now beginning to record our voices, and hopefully be done with the project next week!

Wiki

I looked at a few wikis created by other teachers, and I found some pretty cool ones. It seems like a lot of science teachers use them as a science journal. Everytime a student does a lab, they record their data in the wiki and then add pictures, answer questions, etc. I like the idea, but I don't know if there are really any advantages to this over using a google doc.

I created a wiki and uploaded some documents, but I can't find where they show up on the wiki. This is definitely more confusing then a google doc! But I did get the good idea to use the google doc as on online science juornal and have students keep track of everything they do in labs.

Movie Maker Project

Last week I introduced the students in communications to their movie maker project. They will be putting pictures, video, voice, music, and text into movie maker. Today each group came up with their topic and essential question for the project. This week they will be finding pictures and video and saving them to their public class folder. They will have to cite everything and each group created a google doc to easily keep track of their citations. They seem really excited about creating their movie - some of them much prefer it to talking in front of the class!

Digital Storytelling

In my communications class this year, the students have been using movie maker and audacity to create digital stories. They use music, voice, pictures, video clips, and text to create the movies. I am going to add on to it for my digital storytelling project. I think it's a great way for students to express themselves and they really enjoy making them!

Google Reader

I am becoming obsessed with google - there is so much you can do with it! Google reader is pretty cool and I also learned about google voice at a conference. One day everything you need will be found in your google account:). I like the idea of google reader because all of the up to date information about the topics I'm interested in pop up on my screen. Now I don't have to search through the same websites everyday; I can find it all in one place. The feeds that I subscribed to are: science news for kids, nasa, science friday, how stuff works, e entertainment, and cincinnati channel 9 news. Obviously a few are for my enjoyment, but the others are science sites that I look through on a weekly basis. I am always looking for current articles that are related to what I am teaching. Now I can quickly skim my google reader and see if there are any relavant articles.

Podcast

I did a podcast about my photoperiod project. I recorded what is printed on the photoperiod packet. I thought this way students can review photoperiod for whatever learning style they have - audio, visual, etc. I have used audacity a lot in my communications class, where they students add voice, pictures, sound, and video into movie maker. They produce very cool projects. I will say that audacity is very touchy, and many students have lost their work from it freezing up. I guess that's what happens when it is free software:).

ITunes U

Before today, I did not know that Itunes U existed. It's neat to find out about another resource to get podcasts from. Again, it's always helpful to take stuff from other educators. I listened to a lecture on stem cells from Stanford University. Basically the professor makes a podcast of all of his lectures and posts them here. It is so cool that a junior high or high school student could listen to a lecturn from a college, especially Stanford! Not only are these lectures able to provide useful information for both the teacher and student, but it is great for students to see what college classes are like. I think this could be a great resource. I just don't know when I will ever have the time to search all of these great resources to find stuff!

Voice Thread

This is not the first time I have seen voice thread. I offered it to my 8th graders as an option for their energy presentation. But this is the first time I have really used it myself. One major issue that I had and that my students had is that it charges you to record your voice after a certain amount of phone recording. I had a microphone to use so this wasn't a huge issue for me, but it prevented a lot of students from using it. I really liked that I could search for other voice threads. It is great when you can use presentations that people have already made. Why do the work if someone has already done it? I also like that people can make comments so I can see what people think of the presentation. It helped me find a good voice thread and weed out the bad ones. The voice thread I like was http://voicethread.com/share/444414/. It would help my students review the parts of a bacterial cell.

My voice thread is found at http://voicethread.com/share/855550/
I recorded my voice for this power point - it could help students who have trouble reading or need to review it. Students often learn better if they hear it aloud, so this would help when they are at home and reading it.

I think I would like to try to use voice thread for some of my science presentations like the energy presentation or the atom presentation. It would be a great option for students who don't like to get up and speak in front of the class. They could just click play and we would still get the same information.

Here is my embedded voice thread: