CEdO535 Week 4

The chapter on social networking couldn't have come at a better time! I'm am sooo excited about learning about Twitter, RSS, etc. I've become addicted to my Google Reader! I've always felt that social networking is probably one of the great professional development opportunities for teachers, but it was always difficult to find time to meet with other teachers from other districts. Now, Twitter, Plurk, blogs, wikis, etc. bring the networking to me...I could be sitting at school in from of my computer or at home in my pajamas with my laptop. How perfect is it that I can control where, when and who I collaborate. I am just blown away by all the links to ideas that I have found in just the past few weeks of being on Twitter. I'm following so many tech integration gurus that my mind is swimming with new ideas! I liked the digital storytelling class, but this is by far the most productive and useful class...I love it! And I love the book, too!

CEdO535 Week 3

Sorry it's a little late! RSS feeds are my new favorite web 2.0 tool! I know I should already have known about it and been using it, but it's always seemed very confusing to me. I have to admit, when I set up my Google Reader account and started finding feeds, it was a little overwhelming. But, then I decided to go to my favorite blogs and click on the RSS icon...that was easy. Then, what was actually pretty cool is that the reader found more suggestions I might like, and I found lots of other sites to follow as well! I really like the idea of using RSS with student blogs. I was wondering what the most efficient way would be to check each of their blogs, what a great tool RSS will add to this part of my classroom blogging experience! Another idea, I could have my teachers check my RSS feeds for their professional development opportunities.

CEDO535 Week 2

It's been great learning more about blogs and wikis! Not only are the examples I've found in Richardson's book really good, but further research and links from these sites have given me even more great examples. I just created a twitter account and have found several tech educators to follow. In regard to wiki's, I have to admit that after reading the book, I think I may let go of the reigns a little bit when it comes to my students using Wikipedia. I like the idea of having them make an update to wikipedia and maybe putting in some false information. I'm curious as to how quickly the "wikipedia guru's" will find the false info and fix it.

CEDO535 Week 1

What I learned this week is that my blog needs help! It needs updating. As usual, finding the time to keep it fine-tuned is difficult. In Chapter 3, Barbara Ganley is quoted as saying that a teacher who is confident in their tools is bound to rub off that excitement to their students. She is so right. If I can get myself excited about blogging and use is on a daily basis, then I think I can have real success with teaching it to my students. I really want to teach blogging to my students this year, so this class is coming to me at the perfect time. If I can get a good blogging schedule down in the next few weeks, I think I'll be prepared to teach it to my students beginning second semester.

CEDO530 - Post #5 - Creating Pecha Kucha

Okay, so in my last post I was pretty excited about creating my Pecha Kucha. Now, not so much. I have to say, while it is a good concept for presentations, it takes way too long to create! In my previous blog entry, I stated that the storyboard was easy to create from my handout. My handout only took about 30 minutes to create. The handout was what I would originally do my presentation from during the board meeting. However, the Pecha Kucha has taken me over 10 hours to do and I'm not even finished yet! There is no way I could or would spend 10+ hours for a presentation that only lasts 6 minutes when a simple report would be just as effective. I understand that digital storytelling is a great way to present, but in this situation, when reporting to a school board who has limited time, I just don't have that kind of time to put into a "quick" presentation. However, not all is negative. I could definitely see students using a Pecha Kucha for different presentations, but typically, students are given several classtime hours to work on their projects, unlike teachers who have very little time to try anything new.

CEDO530 - Post #4 - Creating Storyboards

Sorry this is late guys...

I just finished a draft of my storyboard and I have to say what worked best for me was to organize the presentation around the handout. My Pecha Kucha is my technology/LMC updates presentation to our school board meeting...which works out really well since I only get approx. 10 minutes to speak...the Pecha Kucha (6+ min.) design fits in nicely in my alotted timeslot. Anyway, I had a handout already created. So, I went off the handout and pulled out the pieces that I would attached pix to. Much of the voiceover text comes directly from the handout. This process worked great for me - first, create handout; second, create storyboard; third, create presentation. Much easier than I was expecting!

CEDO530 - Post #3 - Picture Superiority Effect

In the book Presentation Zen, I really liked the chapter on Design and Techniques. The image examples on pp. 133-152 were fantastic! It really hit home with me how less is more. I would have to say that 99% of presentations that I have viewed are not good. Too many words, too many graphics, just plain out too busy looking. The book gave me great ideas on what types of graphs are visually attractive and yet get the point across. I also like how many of the examples showed images taking up the entire slide and putting only short phrases over the image...again very powerful.