Ashley's ED 480 Blog

Final Reflection

2009-05-17T05:01:00.000-07:00

1) Did this course meet your expectations?

Yes, for the most part I am satisfied with ED 480. It was only too bad that we had problems with Elluminate and that some of the online programs we wanted to use had shut down.

2) Why do you think this course should be required for all ED students?
I definitely think this course should be a requirement. I think it should be required before some of our practicum courses so we can actually test out the technology before student teaching.

3) How will you implement technology into your future classroom?

There are so many ways and not enough space to list them all. First, I would get my students to learn how to type and do basic word processing/ presentation skills. I think this will really motivate them to do their projects and writing assignments. It will also prepare them for the real world. I would definitely used media in my classroom. I have tried using Safari Montage in my practicum and I found it very helpful. Distance learning is something I would love to try, possibly a virtual field trip to a foreign country.

OneTrueMedia - Weebly Commercial

2009-05-15T19:22:00.000-07:00

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

My group - Colleen, Myo Sook, Aggie, and Ken - and I created a commercial advertising Weebly.com using OneTrueMedia.com. Initially we wanted to use toufee.com because of all the cool features. But we found out that video can't be uploaded on free accounts so we opted for OneTrueMedia instead. OTM was easy to use and had some good basic features. More advanced features were available with a premium account. However, I got the impression that OTM would be better to use for slideshows of pictures rather than actual movies. There wasn't a lot of options when it came to adding text to your video. That made it difficult for us because we didn't have any dialogue in our commercial. Another problem was uploading our video. It took me almost half an hour to upload one video clip. Plus I kept getting kicked off the uploading process with error messages. All in all it was a pretty good experience trying out onetruemedia. And i think out commercial turned out pretty well :D

Weebly.com

2009-05-08T20:36:00.000-07:00

a) What was the assignment?
We had to create an online portfolio using Weebly.com. We added sections for experience, education, hobbies, skills and awards, references, and blog. We were also given the option to customize the layout and add pictures, slideshows, etc.

b) What did you like/dislike about the assignment and the weebly.com software?
I liked using weebly.com. It's a great idea to have an online portfolio because nowadays everybody's online and it's also a good backup incase your computer crashes or you lose you hard copies. Weebly was relatively easy to use. I had a little trouble uploading photos, however. I really didn't have the time this week to keep trying, so I didn't upload as many photos as I would have liked. However, I will try to update my weebly site. There is so much potential for it.

c) How would you compare/ contrast a webpage like this with a blog?
A blog seems to be an almost daily update of you life whereas weebly is more of a compilation of the major things you have accomplished. Some of my classmates have used weebly for their 471 practicum reflections. They say it is easier to use than a blog and it also allows you to upload files like documents and presentations rather than just picturs which Blogger only allows. I think that's a great idea and if I hadn't alread started my 471 blog, I would have definitely done one on weebly.

d) How would you use this as an educator in the future?
I would love to use weebly for my own personal use to keep track of my professional experiences. Weebly would be great to do an online portfolio of students work (writing, art, math, etc). In this way, relatives and friends far away can also take a look at students' work. It will also be a permanent (as long as Weebly.com doesn't shut down) display of each student's work. Plus, there's integration of technology.

Elluminate Live

2009-04-24T20:20:00.000-07:00

1) Describe the distance ed tool Elluminate Live.
Elluminate Live is a collaborative tool that allows people from different places to communicate through voice and chat and also to present powerpoints, pictures, and share what they are doing on their computers through a "whiteboard".

2) Explain the activity regarding listening and interacting w/ guest speakers world-wide.

We had two guest speakers, one from Spokane, WA and one from Dubai. Both of them are former residents of Saipan and teachers at NMC and Hopwood. They talked to us about how they incorporate technology in their classrooms. Bree Reynolds from Spokane is working with highschool science students and she uses blogs and PDAs for her students to record data from their experiments. Mary Ann Campo talked about her students in her teacher preparation program using their cellphones. She also shared about using Twitter which is like micro-blogging.

3) What were the pros and cons of Elluminate?
I like the fact that we can communicate with anyone anywhere in the world and that we can also see their computer screen and view their presentations. The cost of Elluminate is really staggering. But it's a good thing we have a grant for it thanks to Mary Ann.

4) How might you see yourself using that in the classroom?
I think Elluminate Live would work really well for highschool and college students, maybe even some mature jr. highers. But for the lower grades, I don't think students have enough patience to just sit and listen. So I probably wouldn't use it with elementary students. However, it would be a great tools for teachers to collaborate on projects, lesson plans, etc.

5) Comments
I had a great time using Elluminate, even though my microphone wasn't working right. I really enjoyed listening to Bree and Mary Ann's talk. They provided alot of helpful resources that I have bookmarked and will take a look at.

Blogging in the K-12 Classroom

2009-03-27T21:27:00.001-07:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Blogging in the K-12 Classroom

View more presentations from Ashley Sikayun.

Slide.com

2009-02-27T20:45:00.001-08:00

Today we worked in groups to create a slideshow of pictures to tell a story. My group (Myosook, Colleen, and Aggie) chose to do "Goldilocks and the 3 Bears". And it just so happened that Myosook had puppets for the story. :D
To create the backgrounds for our pictures, we used Powerpoint and added clip art for the house, porridge, chairs, etc. We also added speech bubbles to move the story along.
We uploaded all of our pictures to Slide to create a slideshow presentation. Then we posted our slideshow to our blogs.
I have previously used Slide to create slideshows of pictures and I found the program very easy to use. I also learned how to post the slideshow directly to my blog which is very convenient. There are also a lot of ways to customize your slideshow and post it to a variety of networking sites.
I would most definitely use this program in my classroom. I would let my students use the program to do presentations that involve pictures. And slideshows can also be created for special events like assembly, graduation, or PTSA nights. I think anything that lets kids use the computer is a great motivator for them to do their work.
As for myself, I am going to use Slide for my blog for my ED 471 Practicum. ;D

Games for the Classroom

2009-02-20T20:12:00.000-08:00

Today we went on to Discovery Education's Puzzle Maker and Crossword Puzzle Games to create a word search puzzle and a crossword puzzle about a theme we can use in the classroom. For my word search I used words from my 5th grade science unit on The Changing Earth and for the crossword puzzle I used the 5th graders' vocabulary words from their Language Arts reader StoryTown. I liked how easy it was to come up with the puzzles on these sites. The only problem I had was printing out the crossword puzzle - the box was empty. Instead I just printed out a screen shot. :D
Online puzzles can provide for quck reviews of vocabulary or key words. They are also good for concepts that just have to be drilled. Older students can make up puzzles for their classmates to solve.

XTimeline: The History of Computers

2009-02-20T01:36:00.000-08:00

Today, we created a timeline on the 10 most important events in the history of computers. We used Xtimeline to generate our timeline and my partner and I decided to focus on events that had an impact on education. I really liked using Xtimeline because it was easy to navigate and it also let you add media like pictures. You could also add as many events as you wanted and you could view other timelines that had been created. I liked Xtimeline better than Teachnology.

Timeline

2009-02-13T20:41:00.000-08:00

Today we went on to Teach-nology 's Timeline Generator to create a timeline of our life. We had to pick 8 events and produce a timelin e to share with the class. The Timeline Generator was very simple to use, however it has very limited features and there is no way to increase/decrease the number of events you want to include on your timeline. Timelines can be very useful in the classroom. You could use them on the first day of school to get students to learn about each other. They can also be used to assess students' understanding about events in history or the processes / cycles in science.

WebQuest

2009-02-13T19:37:00.001-08:00

A WebQuest is basically a kind of online scavenger hunt for students. Teachers can set up a topic with pages for an introduction , task, process, evaluation, conclusion and resources. Myosook and I created a WebQuest on puppets. Our task would span about 6 days that would take students from researching about the history of puppets to the actual putting on of their own puppet show. We included several websites for the students to take a look at.
I enjoyed experimenting with creating a WebQuest with my partner Mysook. I had seen WebQuests before, but never made my own. I enjoyed the opportunity to practice making one. One thing I didn't like about the site we used Zunal is the fact that the layout options are very minimal. Everybody's WebQuest looks the same exceept for the pictures and topics. I wish they would offer more layouts that we could customize to match our topics.
I would definately use WebQuests in my classroom. If I were working with lower grades, I would probably create the WebQuests myself and have them complete it. I liked Teresa and Chasmyn's idea of having a scavenger hunt for the different alphabets. With the upper grade students, I would have them complete a few WebQuests, but eventually I would like them to create their own WebQuests that they would share with their fellow classmates.

iNetWord, Googledocs, and Blogger

2009-01-30T21:05:00.000-08:00

Today in ED 480, I worked with Myosook, Aggie, and Colleen to try out an online word processing program called iNetWord. It is a fully functional online word and web editing program. The features are similar to Microsoft Word and all the documents and pictures are saved on iNetWord's server so you can access your documents on any computer. It also comes with predesigned documents that you can edit to make your own. Our group gave iNetWord a rating of 8 because of all the advanced editing features, but also because it was a little difficult to work with from scratch. We recommend using one of the predesigned documents to begin with and work your way up from there.

As a class we particpated in a Daily Oral Language exercise using Google Docs. We were all able to connect to one document and work on different exercises at the same time. We were also able to view the changes that were being made as they were happening. This program will be very useful for writing activities in our future classrooms. We could have the students edit a piece of writing together or do journal entries.

Finally, we did some work on our blogs through Blogger. We added a Gadget to link our blogs so each of us can access each other's blog. We learned how to add Screen Shots, but I wasn't able to upload my picture. I'll try again later.

I was finally able to upload a screen shot of iNetWord. I used a PC instead of the Mac.