Digital Portfolio's

I really liked doing the digital portfolio project to sum up our time in EDU 350. We had previous knowledge of putting a website together through our teacher websites so that made the project a little easier to grasp and allowed us to continue to familiarize ourselves with building websites. It was nice to compile everything that we have done and for me, I realized how much I did not know about using technology in the classroom (or in general) and how I am going to use it in the future!

http://jlkurtz.webnode.com//

Smartboard

I really enjoyed learning about Smartboard. I've only seen it used in a few classes and haven't actually used it myself in a methods course. I think it is a great tool to use in the classroom and allows interaction in your lessons. It can be used in almost every subject area and seems to be filled with a lot of great templates, photo's, etc. I definitely could see a lot of items utilized for review games. It's also great that the software is free for download, especially when student teaching and your school district has a Smartboard in your classroom. Hopefully, I'll be lucky enough to have one in my classroom!

PowerPoint Lesson Plans

I thought that everyone did a fantastic job with the lesson plans this past week. They all were fun and inter-active. I was a little concerned at first on how I would use PowerPoint in the classroom without lecturing; that is all I have ever seen it used for. I especially liked how several people used it when specifically teaching how to write a letter and the points involved.

Copyright

While we were covering copyright last week, I learned so much. I would like to actually download the PowerPoint from Blackboard when it is posted.

I think that the earlier we educate students on copyright: what it is, how it works, etc. the easier it will be in the future, whether that would be on a paper, downloading music, etc.

I thought that the video we watched was fantastic and could easily be integrated into the classroom and for copyright. It got the point across and was interesting. The fact that it used Disney characters was something that elementary students would be interested in.
http://dotsub.com/view/4918f3c8-8f04-4aa1-b300-39048dca6822

PSA Video's

I really liked doing the PSA video project. At first I was a little hesitant about using Audacity and Moviemaker since I have never used either and thought it was going to have disastrous results. Oddly enough, I think Consuelo and I did a great job on the project. The only issue we had was that there was something wrong with the tape and the first day of filming was lost on the tape and could not be recovered. Other than that it was fun and took a lot less time than I had expected. I definitely think that this would be a great project to use in the classroom. It was good to see the other videos too, I think everyone did great!

Social Bookmarking

I'm not going to lie, I was quite skeptic about Diigo when I first learned about the social bookmarking project. I was confused at first with the tool bar when I downloaded it but it really has been helpful. I am still learning the naviagtions of it. I am currently working on my N-6 Science Unit and it has made my life so much easier! I wish I had had it sooner for other past projects. I am currently in the process of pulling everything I had bookmarked and converting it to Diigo. This is definitely something I will continue to use and keep updated for the classroom!

Teacher websites

I used webnode for my teacher website and the only problem that I faced was when I went to upload pictures. I thought that webnode was fairly easy to use and navigate. Overall, I thought it was a great project to prepare us for when we are in the classroom. I know when I was in school, teachers did not utilize websites for a communication link between school and home. I think its great for parents who may not have the time to sort through the backpacks at night and could access it in the morning before work or even during work to keep up with their children's classroom.