Reflections on Dreamweaver, Part 2...

This has been an interesting week in ED 421.  We've been given workshopping time to develop our websites (which I was initially excited about) and I almost immediately became overwhelmed with the amount of time it takes to create something on Dreamweaver.  For example, I like the "Cascading Style Sheets" options, but they take FOREVER to define and apply.  Wouldn't it be so much easier if we could just highlight certain sections to change the font, colors, and background (like you would in a Microsoft Word document)?

And the end product of the Dreamweaver website is rather lackluster.  I'm a little disappointed by the lack of color choices and the blocky, basic look of everything.  I am sure, however, that if I knew more HTML code and more of the tools on Dreamweaver that I would be able to create a more sophisticated-looking website.  In the end, I'm glad to have had experience learning about code and using Dreamweaver.  In the future, I will either learn more about code so that I can create a better website or I'll (more likely) choose a website provider with templates or a flash-based program.  I want my professional website to look fancy... and someday it will. ;D

Thanks for a fun and educative term, Denvy!  I really appreciate all of your guidance and patience.

Reflections on Websites and Dreamweaver

This week in ED 421, we learned what makes a good website "good" and a bad website "bad."  It was funny to see all the awful websites that had flashing lights, weren't user friendly, and were super text- or graphics-heavy.  I think that with websites, it's a lot like advertising.  The simpler, the better... but it also has to be interesting and unique to catch people's attention.

To be honest, I was most afraid of the website project.  I made a website a LONG time ago, and it was with one of those Microsoft Office programs that look just like the website it creates (no coding).  I was terrified of using Dreamweaver, as I view code like another language.  Thank goodness there's a split screen were you can see what the website will look like, while also seeing the code (and learning a little bit about coding in the process).  After working with Dreamweaver last week, I'm becoming more confident that I'll eventually be able to create a really neat and unique teaching website.

I'm hoping to incorporate a lot of simple graphics and eye-pleasing tones into my website.  I can't wait to see what I eventually come up with... my partner is the tech-savvy one in our family, and I know he'll be so excited to see that I actually MADE a website! ;D

Reflections on Smartboards and iPads...

Today we were able to explore the various uses of Smartboards and iPads.  As part of today's activities, I was able to play with the Smartboard, which was really neat and interactive.  I'm a very hands-on person, so I really liked being able to interact with technology in a new way! 

The skill I wanted to learn most was how to move a screen down to reveal quiz questions one-by-one, much like my mentor teacher does when the students are taking reading quizzes.  I planned on asking her how to navigate the Smartboard to facilitate reading quizzes, but now I know how to.  Imagine that!  Now I'll be able to walk into the classroom with a new skill that I can use to help the students. :D

The other part of today's activities included creating a sample lesson plan utilizing Smartboard technology.  Our group's lesson plan included using an application called Popplet, which would allow students to create virtual concept maps on an iPad.  They can then mail these concept maps to themselves, their parents, or the teacher.  In our lesson plan, students were able to use concept mapping to provide reading logs in a new format, rather than traditional written logs.  This flexibility taps into multiple intelligences and allowing students to express themselves in different ways.

Because these kinds of lesson plans are what we're going to have to do for our final project, I've been a little nervous about going about them and how long they'll take to complete.  The NETS website makes it super-easy to find standards and it's a snap to create a lesson plan using technology.  I feel a lot better now about creating lesson plans for the final project... it seems much more manageable.

Reflections on Podcasting...

This week, we learned what podcasts are used for and how to create them.  While I was researching sample podcasts on iTunes, I found a really great podcast called "Education for Social Justice" (how perfect, right?!).  Created by Colgate University and Family in 2009, each of these audio-only podcasts are about 20 minutes in length, and combine mini history lessons, personal testimonies/narratives, and spoken word poetry in response to such topics as civil rights, LGBTQ political issues, and injustice/oppression.  Unfortunately, there was little discussion of the women's movements. :(  The only drawback is that the last update is from December 2009, so some of these might be a bit dated.  The podcasts would be of great value to my students, as I plan to teach novels and create curriculum which would ideally connect them to the larger issues and concerns present in society.

Which brings me to my idea for my podcast project.  Because we have an upcoming final project that requires us to create lesson plans using technology, I thought I might try to create something I would definitely use in class! My Master's thesis was on the novels of Toni Morrison, and I plan to teach her novel, Beloved, some day, so I thought a podcast about something in that novel would be a comfortable place to start.  Beloved is an historical fiction novel, largely based on the life of Margaret Garner, a slave woman who briefly escaped slavery with her children in tow only to be caught by slave-catchers after crossing the border into the North.  Instead of allowing her children to be returned to slavery, she slit the throat of her youngest daughter in an attempt to eternally save her from the atrocities and abuse at the hands of her master.  As a result of Garner's choice, many people have demonized her.  I've decided to create a podcast that reviews the mainstream depictions of Margaret Garner, while also including some contrasting pictures I took while visiting the plantation where she was held as a slave and at her living quarters.  My goal is to evoke emotions of my students through the pictures they view and to perhaps problematize some of the commonly-held notions of Garner and her infamous legacy.  Here's a sneak peek at one of my pictures... this was taken looking out of the window of the Garner's small, two-room cabin.  The view looks out upon the expansive plantation in which they were forced to work.

Reflections on the Literacy Discussion...

Last Tuesday, class was a little different than normal.  Instead of learning about a new technology tool and then creating a project using that tool, we worked collaboratively to discuss issues of literacy in the classroom.

I really enjoyed learning how to use the clicker system to do surveys in the classroom; I can see this coming in handy to not only take daily attendance, but to also get truly anonymous feedback from students.  I could ask my students a question like "How difficult was this project to complete?"  or "Did you like the book we read?"  to get some general feedback about how the students are feeling.  If I simply asked these kinds of questions in class, I'm betting that only a few students would respond, and they might not respond as truthfully as they could have in a more anonymous system, like the clickers.

If I wanted more in-depth feedback from my students, or to give them a quiz, I could definitely utilize socrative.com.  I really like all the options it gives teachers, such as a Likert Scale, multiple choice, or open-ended questioning.  The possibilities are endless with this free website, and it might even make my life easier, in terms of grading, if students could take simple quizzes online!

Reflections on the GoogleMap Tour...

This was one of my favorite assignments of the term so far!  We were asked to select 5 sites and to create a virtual tour of something educational in the state of Oregon.  I chose pretty waterfalls, as our state is full of them!  When I went home after class, I proudly showed my partner the project I had made -- he's so technologically-savvy (and I'm so not), and he's been impressed with how much I'm learning in our ED 421 course. :D

What I liked most about this project was the short amount of time it took to complete it -- I was able to complete it the very same day we were taught how to use it.  It's such an easy program to use, and I can see using GoogleMaps in my classroom to show students geographic locations of various places that might be discussed in novels we read.  I could also see my students using Google Maps in conjunction with iMovie to create scenes in particular geographic locations to re-enact parts of stories or to further illustrate the historical and geographical contexts we discuss in class.

In general, mapping is quite useful for any classroom.  One more tool for my toolkit has been added!

Reflections on the iMovie Commercial Project...

A few weeks ago, we were asked to create a thirty-second commercial (topic of our own choosing) by utilizing our newly-formed skills in iMovie.  I must admit, I was a little nervous about completing what I thought would be an extensive group project in a limited amount of time.  Luckily, I was able to work with an awesome group!  We're all non-traditional students, so we thought it might be fun to do a commercial on all the resources available to graduate students.  We called our commercial "Survival Guide for Non-Traditional Students at Western."

The most difficult part of the project was getting the commercial to be exactly 30 seconds long.  As a result, some of our shots and transititions are a little faster than we would have ideally liked them to be.  All in all, it ended up being really funny and had great, funky music in the background.  AND we all learned how to use iMovie! :D

When I was a high school student, my best friend and I LOVED making movies and short films for class assignments.  Back then, we would make primitive videos, using several takes and fast-forwarding or rewinding the video to the places where we would record -- we didn't have any fancy ways of polishing the final product -- and it usually ended up funny and choppy (it's a delight to look at these old videos now). It's wonderful that there're such easy tools, like iMovie, for students of today to create really nice video projects.  I can definitely see my students using it for class!