Wikis

I didn't really think that I would like the wiki assignment, but I think that it is probably one of easiest and coolest technologies that we have learned. A lot of people liked the website the most, but I think that having a class wiki would be awesome! Everyone could contribute something of their own and its REALLY easy to do. I would totally use this in my class to have students post reflections on assignments or, have them post something cool they found that relates to the class discussion...the possibilities are endless.

My Number 1!

I am most pleased with my work on the video that I made with iMovie. It was A LOT of fun to do, which I wasn't expecting, and I am really pleased with the work that I did.

Internet Safety

1. What were the most important things I learned from the readings?
That there are ways to try and prevent bad things from happening to you on the internet; there are ways to be safe, but nothing is a guarantee.

2. How will what I have read influence my actions as a parent and/or teacher of children and youth?
I don't remember where I first heard or read about being safe on the internet, but I feel like a lot of what I read or saw were things that I already knew. So, I definitely feel that the earlier you understand how to be safe, and that its important to be safe on the internet the better. My children will definitely have strict rules about internet use.

3. How can I use what I have learned from the reading to have a positive influence on family and friends?
They have already heard about what I have learned, so I hope that it will help them with their understanding their efforts to be safe on the internet.

4. Am I aware of the benefits and dangers children face when online with cyber bullying and online predators? Do I know how to prevent cyberbullying?
Yes. There have been a lot of news stories about kids committing suicide because of cyberbullying. The only thing that I can think of is DO NOT let kids meet strangers on the internet and DO NOT let kids join social networking programs until they're old enough to discern their friends from bullies.

5. Where can I go for information and resources that can be used to teach internet safety?
There were quite a few sites like iSafe and PBS videos that can help teach internet safety.

6. What internet safety issues am I likely to face as a teacher and how will I address them?
Well, kids might use the internet at school to look up bad websites, or to connect with people online. Giving students assignments that use the internet will also give them more exposure and time online.

7. How can I leverage the power of the Internet so students can learn, but in a safe way?
Have assignments where students use internet sites that teach safety. Using secure sites for assignments.

IIC Competition

My favorite pitch for the IIC competition was Teaching Persuasive Essay: Diigomeister (Lit Video 4). This pitch was among one of the most explicit, clear, and focused of all of the pitches that I saw. They proposed that their students be introduced to writing persuasive essays with the technologies of Diigo and Mindmeister. Diigo is a collaborative resource that will provide opportunities for students to write essays while providing a receiving feedback from their peers. This will be extremely helpful to students because feedback and multiple drafts are very important in helping students improve their persuasive writing skills. Mindmeister is another collaborative tool, but this one provides a forum where students can outline their ideas and map their essays. This has lots of space and can be changed, and edited easily.

I thought that this group was very logical in the way that they presented their goal and their tools for accomplishing their goal. Many of the other pitches had way to much information and materials to model. It was difficult to remember what their objective was, and what technology you were learning about. The technologies this group presented were simple and had a specific task that would help the students accomplish their goals.

Video

My video is about the Nile, Tigras, and Euphrates Rivers. It is pretty cool, check it out...

Interactive

Since we are talking a lot about interactive technology for our students I have been keeping an eye out for some cool ideas. I ran across this on a blog and I think it is pretty cool. It is a timeline of healthcare reform called "A History of Overhauling Healthcare" by the New York Times. How cool is that? What a great way to make the present applicable to a study of history, not to mention it could be related to a great many overall themes throughout the history of America like reform.

Storyboard

I added my storyboard to the word document on the Teaching with Technology Blog. I hope that I did it right. I could not get the pictures to paste into any kind of document in Google Documents or in the word document on the blog. I can e-mail the word document that I originally wrote if that would be better. Thanks!

Copyright

Video from TeacherTube

This video, though well done, does not properly use copyright law. It does not give credit or tell the viewer where the pictures, or the songs were found. The song is not 10%, it seems that they have played the song twice in the same video.



Video from TeacherTube

I am guessing that much of this video's information because it is about forty years old is still not in the public domain, but once again there is no citation for any of the videos displayed. However, I wonder if less than 10% of these video and audio clips are being shown here. I don't know how I could tell if that information was true or not without looking up the videos myself.

Personal Technology Project-Virtual Field Trip

My virtual field trip is located on my class website. Its about the pyramids and it has links to the assignments that the students will be doing along with their tour.

P.S. My artifact and my Lesson Activity Plan are the same thing. I am not sure if that is acceptable, but they seemed so similar to me for my particular assignment that that is what I decided to do.

Using New Technologies

New technologies scare me. Sad, but true, and this class has stretched my limits! One of the reasons that I find new technology intimidating is because I rarely feel like I will need to use any technology that is not intuitive. Today I found a new technology that I think is amazing, not only for use in a classroom, but for me personally. This, of course, translates into the fact that I will actually learn it and use it. It is a website called the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History.

Reasons this website is cool:
1. It integrates geography along with history. Which, in my opinion are completely inseparable.
2. It also integrate artwork and pictures (thus the "Art History-ness" of the website)

Virtual Reality

What I have decided to do for my project is virtual field trips. I think that this is such a great idea for social studies because the places and events that you are teaching your students are REAL, and this seems like such a great way to let your students know that fact. I am especially excited to create virtual field trips for the places that I have been and the periods of history that I think are exciting. A lot of history can seem boring, but a virtual field trip would be an excellent way to make it come to life.

Class Website

My class website is http://sites.google.com/site/suzieshistoryclass/home.

Ideas for the classroom

A lot of what I have been learning about teaching is not specifically tied to technology. I however, did take a history class at BYU called History on Film (which is kind of technological) where we discussed the value of film as a way to analyze and discuss history. We spent the whole semester reading history texts and then comparing them against history films about the same subject. Recently I read on this website that besides textbooks, films are the most popular way to learn about history in the classroom. So the question is, are films a good way to represent and learn history?

I guess the conclusion that I have come to is that every film, just like every text, needs to be evaluated on an individual basis. As a teacher I need to be scrutenizing what I expose my students to as FACTUAL history, this includes film and text.

If I had the money...

Okay, if I had the money I would buy all of the books on this website, but I would especially buy this book, The Rutledge Atlas of Jewish History. Four thousand years of Jewish history...maps included. I am geeking out here. I spent a semester in Jerusalem and fell in love with both Jewish and Islamic history, so I have a small excuse for loving the idea of this book. Someday...when I have the money...sigh.

PLN

1. NHEC- Is the National History Education Clearinghouse. It has history content, practices, and materials listed for teachers. It gives collaborative ideas and reasons for using the sources it lists.

2. History Engine: Tools for Collaborative Education and Research- This is a database of historical synopsys along with sources that can be used to help teachers prepare for these lessons.

3. History Education- This is a blog that, much like the previous website gives synopsys of historical topics that can be used in the classroom. They stay current, for example, they have done a post concerning Black History month and citations posted at the end of the blogpost.

4. Free Technology for Teachers- This blog has free technology for teachers that an be given to students and integrated into classroom instruction.

5. A History Teacher- This is blog of a history teacher sharing her experiences teacher her students. It shares more of the personal and real life experience of teaching history.

Technology

Oh boy. That is about all that I have to say about technology. I have never been very technologically savvy; I still remember learning what the internet was, and using a search engine. That was in Junior High and not a whole lot has changed since. I do know how to use the internet, use a search engine, and have an e-mail account, but my most marketable computer skill might be that I can type fast. These next four months are definitely going to be a crash course in technology...woopie!