Podcasting

I learned that podcasting is very mobile! There are all sorts of things you can do with podcasting. I could use it in my classroom by pre-recording lectures, songs or poems for kids to listen to on a day to day basis. Interesting enough I had to do a lesson this semester of which I wrote a song on piano and sang a song called needs and wants. Since I have a recording program where I can sing and add tracks I decided to write a song in order for my kids to learn about socials studies needs vs wants! I had a real neat time doing it and playing it for them! They really loved it because each of their 22 names were in the song some way!  I put it on a cd to play! I think that if IPODs and other devices were available for first grade students at the school that I am an aide at, then they could listen to this song anywhere!

I think Podcasting  and web 2.0 is similar in a sense that they both require recordings and voices. THey both can get a point across and is useful for saving something you said where you can play it later at a different time. A way that it is different is that Podcasting can be uploaded to any portable device. I am not sure about the web 2.0. I think you have to only access by web. 

I do not own an ipod or mp3 player and I have no idea why because I love portable devices!! But I think I take my laptop everywhere and there is no need for any of those devices. I would use it in my classroom. For instance I would read a book that I recorded and add it to an ipod or mp3 and open it up as a center for my first graders. 

The advantages of using online tools is that it allows students to be able to access it online anywhere. The disadvantages would be that everyone may not have access. In closing I think that podcasting is very useful in education.

WEb 2.0

As a teacher I would use wikis in my classroom as an extra talking voice. This summer I took a  class, and my partner and I created a wiki to sing a song called “If you’re a foot long and you know it,” We recorded three stanzas and did the motions. I would use this in my classroom to get the students engaged in an activity with singing and chanting. I would also add blogs. Although I want to teach grades pre-k-1, if I had older kids I would post upcoming spelling words on the blog and have the word of the week where students would have to look up the word see what it means and submit it with a picture. Then with all my entries I would put those students in a drawing to win something cool each week!

      I think social bookmarking is a great way to save your sites! It is organized and it opens up the floor for more teachers to give you more sites and for you to give them more sites as well! It would be very useful for students and teachers because it gives more options and ideas for teaching a subject. More ideas are available and you can easily share amongst peers and teacher peers your information and findings. As far as a voice thread I really don’t think I would want to create one because its easier to just blog and type what I wanted people to know rather than vocalize it.

      I have not really explored tapped in but from research I think that it could possibly be useful for teachers. It would be great to share experiences, learning information and sources to create a better educational community!

E-Portfolio

Why do you use assessment activities? Using assessment activities is a great way for you to track your learner’s performance. As you teach you need some sort of feedback to see where your students needs improvement. You use them to help assess how much your students really know. Once you teach something you definitely want to know how much of the information is attained. The way you assess a student can vary. You can assess them orally or on paper. If you assess several times you can keep track on how well a student is doing.

      An e-portfolio is a hypermedia document of many things that a person has learned over time. It helps teacher’s and students know what to do and where to go. A teacher can keep up with the students progress and the students can keep up with what is coming in the future. A computer based test is a test that is given on computer. And due to certain circumstances it could impact validity and reliability.

I think that e-portfolios are a great source for students and teachers. More people should use them!

Copyright and Fair Use Policy

In today's society you would want to respect copy rights and fair use rules for many different reasons. One you could get in trouble if you don't and two it's like stealing. And in America we know how we dishonor thieves. But to be honest if I wrote something, and I plan to in the future, I would want people to know to whom it belonged to. I worked in a newspaper office for a year and I wrote articles for the town's paper. I interviewed people and wrote some really interesting stories. I would be very hurt to find that someone used my article without giving me credit for it. So I think these laws are very beneficial and helpful to maintain proper accreditation. 

Safety online? Where? Sometimes I think that even though there is so much "Protection" out there we still aren't fully protected. What about the people who create the protection? They know the kinks and holes. Well when it comes to online safety I think of this. "Protection for the most part until there is a hole."  So is online safety different from cyberbullying? Well online safety is suppose to promote  safe browsing and safety for kids. Cyberbullying is really a way to bully others. We can try to protect our kids by talking to them and explaining to them some things about the sites. You would also want to allow them to upload certain unimportant information about your whereabouts and life. And I just had to mention this, people on Facebook have been known to explain their whereabouts in a message link. This is a bad thing to do when considering safety. So if you say on the link you are at aunt Joan's with just you and your sister, how can you expect a predator not to look up aunt Joan's address, because maybe she has a Facebook too, browse through the information, take down her town and address, drive there, spy to see if someone's around and later kidnap you. We have to be better at keeping ourselves safer. 

The activities that were given this week were very interesting and I always learn things that are new. I enjoyed learning things I didn't know and I frowned upon the fact that I didn't really know some things I should have known. Sadly, I scored in the 60% on the quiz and I really thought I knew more than what my brain had emptied out, but I think if I continue to read and  research I can know a lot more. Thanks to the cheat sheet I'm on my way!