540 wk 2

Ok! so I feel better now. I was worked up last week with all of the math that we had to do. I was not eager to do pages of stats homework, I thought that I was done with all of that math. This week I am glad to see us looking for survey tools on the web, this is more what I envisioned when we started this class. I do not use surveys currently, but after discovering a few new tools on the web, I might find a use for them. One thing I may use them for is student feedback. I have to collect data for my PDP anyways and what better way than using a web based electronic survey. I have used survey monkey in the past and know it to be useful in small surveys. I was really excited to find esurveyspro which allows for the creation and distribution of larger surveys. This could be useful for larger data collection. I currently assess student feedback at the end of each semester, but after finding more of these data collection tools, I should start collecting feedback More often. These tools will grow on me at some point, just like everything else, it may take time.

540 wk 1

Wow! I hate stats. I am not a big fan of math even though my grades in the past have not been bad, but it does not come quickly to me at all. I took an accelerated stats class in college, got like a B+ or A- and hated it. I am not sure what the correlation is between this class and the rest of the program, but I am eager to find out. I do not collect any data or use a lot of stats in my life or classroom. I will from time to time review a statistical finding that interests me, but I could definitely live without it. I have had my doubts about other classes over that last 10 months, but I will find it difficult to make this useful in my daily life. I will keep an open mind because I do view myself as a lifelong learner, but the outlook is bleak.

535 WK 5

This week there are a few things that I can translate into my professional and personal life. I have found myself slightly enjoying Richardson's book and agreeing with a lot of what he says. There were a lot of good points in chapter 9 that made me reflect upon what we have learned. One of the bennefits of using web education is that not only are these great tools to enhance education, but mastery of these technologies comes as a byproduct of that education. Students that use technology in school become even more comfortable with it in life.
I also took some time to explore other web 2.0 tools that we didn't necessarily cover in class. Social bookmarking sites like Diigo and Delicious are very useful for myself and my students. Media sharing and storing sites like Flickr, Zoto, and Pixorial make it easy to share, edit and store pictures and video. These tools are things that I plan to put to use in my technology classes. Any tool that I can use that is web based that allows for easy storage and access of materials.
As we progress through this program I am pleasantly surprised to find more and more useful tools for myself and my students. Web 2.0 tools will not only enhance my information delivery systems, but excite students about technology tools and the content that I teach.

535 wk 4

This is kind of an interesting week for me. I am crazy busy right now at school and with my personal life and I was dreading even starting our homework this week. As you may notice I always post my blog by at the latest Friday afternoon and here we are Saturday morning. Might not seem like a big deal, but for me its crazy. I am excited to start my Ning, I finally made the desicion and I am ready to get started. I also found screencasting to be really cool. It is something that I had done once a long, long time ago and forgot how to even do. I used ScreenCastle and it was AWESOME! Really easy to use and I recorded the steps to setting up a blogger account. I plan to use this screencast shortly when I get my kids ready to start blogging. I also thought the conversation about crowdsourcing was interesting and I was really interested in the R&D innocentive site. This week was very busy, but very useful for me.

535 wk 3

This week we did a few things that I find useful. The RSS reader is a new concept to me and I related it to the google alerts we used previously. I signed up for Google Reader because I wanted to be able to access it from any computer or even my Ipod. I will use reader to monitor the class blogs to see when others post and I also added some blog searches for the packers and a general automotive repair topic, this will allow me to start following other blogs. Also I know that I can use reader to follow a specific topic and filter the internet to find information on that topic from the sources I choose, that could be useful.
I enjoyed reading more about Ning and putting some thought into if I am going to design a Ning or Wiki down the road. I am still not sure, but it was nice to see how others in education are using Nings.
I also started a Flickr account to manage my professional pictures. I thought I had an account already, but I actually use Shutterfly for my personal pictures and I was confused. With Flickr I will be able to back up all of my pictures as well as share them with others.
This has been a very useful week and I look forward to using these tools more in the future.

535 wk 2

I enjoyed the discussion on micro blogging. I am not all that thrilled to have made a twitter account because I am not sure it is useful in my busy life. If I had a phone that had the internet, maybe it would be more fun, but I don't. Blogging for class does interest me however, I think it is a great way to communicate with students and also give them a forum to express themselves and maybe be more creative than they are in a live classroom. I also found a number of educational blogs to model. I did not find any blogs in my content area, but that does not surprise me. When I start my blog, maybe others in the automotive industry will follow.

535 wk 1

What did we do this week that I can use in my job? Well, I never thought that I would say this, but I am interested in using blogs in my classes. Teaching automotive and collision repair is rare. No one in the state does anything like I do in the classroom, and sometimes I have trouble being creative enough to put ideas to use in my classroom. Blogging was one of those things that I thought I could never put to use in my classroom. After reviewing some of the resources this week I have been inspired to at least try blogging. I am going to start by adding an automotive blog to my school website and TRY to post once a week. Once I get established in my own schedule, I will require students to occasionally post a response to my discussion. This will be a great place to start in my classes and I know that I can grow from there!

530 wk 6

Well here we are, 15 credits down and I dont know how many to go. I am glad to see that we are at the half way point. 530 was a great class and I am glad we got to use tools like animoto, voicethread, and prezi. I have enjoyed seeing the work that I was able to create and I am looking forward to including these tools in my classroom. I may begin to use these tools as soon as next week and I will have my students using some of them soon. My only complaint seems to be a common theme for me during this program and that is that we cover too many of these tools too quickly and I don't feel like I get enough of a chance to master any of them. I am looking forward to the next class and I am glad that I can begin to see the fruits of my labors in the classroom.

530 wk 5

Things are starting to get crazy for me! I am busy coaching everyday and I don't have anytime to do anything. I feel like I am falling behind on my work, but as far as I can tell I am keeping my head above water. I had a bit of fun making the pecha ketcha, but it didnt turn out as cool as I hoped. When I started on it I lost some momentum and lacked a really good theme. I used a topic that I know would be useful to me and I am satisfied with how it came out. Its not quite as cool as my prezi (which I really enjoyed after I figured out how to use the program). The group work will be trouble for me as I will be out of town the next two weekends so I hope I can still do my part and be fair to my group members. Finding even an hour in my schedule can be pretty impossible!
I have enjoyed this class and I feel like we have learned some things that will be useful to me in the classroom and will develop into great learning experiences for my students. I am looking forward to starting our next class and I am glad Louis is teaching!

530 wk 4

I continue to be impressed by Gar and his presentations. I have really enjoyed watching the videos and even the book has proved useful and interesting. I was not quick to buy into his principles, but the more I listen and read, the more I like it. This week for once I felt like I was on the same level as Gar when it came to the dicussion about presenting. I agreed with his ideas of being a natural, understaning your time and place, and so on. I have always been a natural presenter, so at least this week I didnt feel blown away by his ideas.
I was also interested in Prezi. I have stated before that I don't feel like I get a chance to master any of the tools we use and that I wish we would experience less tools and go more in depth. Prezi took me a really long time to get through all of the instructions and for quite some time I was sure that I didnt get them all. Once I got the hang of it (and it took a long time) I kind of enjoyed it. I dont know that I will ever use Prezi to present an idea, but I could make an assignment for the kids and I am sure that they would enjoy it! I think it is a cool way to storyboard or share pictures to tell a story and I will keep it in mind in the future!

530 wk 3

This is a very interesting week. As I get further into presentation Zen I become frustrated. This is a great tool that I think we need to focus more on. I have stated earlier that I feel like a jack of all trades and a master of none in this program, and presentation Zen is no different. I really have enjoyed reading the book and especially watching the videos with Garr, but I don't feel like I will master any of these techniques without more practice. I need to focus more on these topics to really get good.

On a more positive note, I have really enjoyed voicethread and I see a lot of potential there. After working with animoto, I am really excited to use this in the future. I could easily make short videos for introduction of topics in class and I can see my students using animoto for a digital storytelling assignment. This is a great tool that is easy to use and really fast. I also like that they have free music for you to use, because sometimes that can be a hassle.

530 wk 2

This class is interesting to me and I feel like we are working on stuff that I can use in the classroom. These tools could even be taught in the future if I needed to teach a computer class. The Zen approach is more interesting than I thought it was going to be and I think that I will keep this book when the class is done. This is a good reference and I can use it in the future to continue to remind myself how to make a good presentation. I was glad to see that the analog approach is not frowned upon because that is always the way I have done things. The voicethread tool is interesting to me, but it has been pretty clunky thus far. Once I figure out how to use it and really get comfortable, I think I can make use of it in the classroom. Its really neat that they offer a pro version for educators for free. I look forward to learning more about this tool and to continue working on my presentations.

530 WK 1

I should have blogged earlier, things are already a little fuzzy. One thing that I can tell you is that I am interested to see where this class takes us. I have never done any digital story telling, but I have seen it done and I know that I could find a use for it. I think that I could use it in the classroom and also use it as an assignment in almost every class that I teach. I the Zen method of presentations seems interesting as well. I took into consideration what we learned this week and already began to apply it to my presentations. I am looking forward to continuing to learn about these techniques and how I can apply digital story telling in the classroom. I think this will be one of the more useful and interesting classes yet.

525 WK 6 final blog

The strategies that I will incorporate most in my classroom are advanced organizers and objectives. I use objectives right now, but I do not always share them with the students. Objectives are often something that I graze over in the beginning of a lesson and never clearly refer to them. If I began to share the objectives of the lesson and unit I can communicate a more clear purpose to my students.

Advanced organizers are also something that could be more useful than I origionally anticipated. The more structure and organization I can add to my lessons, the more learning will take place. If I start the lesson with a good question or someting else to prime the pump, I will have students that are more involved and hopefully more interested students. These stratagies alone will improve my lessons and incorporating more technology a long with them will help too.

525 WK 5

This week has been crazy for me, I had two weddings of two good friends standing up and everything took a lot of time for me. I have had a chance for reflection on some of the things we discovered this week. The most interesting thing for me was "homework and practice". I know that "practice makes perfect" and that is one of the guiding principles in my teaching. However, I do not like to beat a dead hoarse either. When introducing a new topic in class, I try to relay the information in many different ways. I often use multiple classroom and lab activities to practice the topic or information. This being said, I hate homework and try to avoid it at all costs. No teenager in their right mind will put in as much effort outside of class as they do in class, so I try to get the most out of class time. There are a number of ways to look at this technique, I guess this is how I look at it.

525 WK 4

This class is really flying by. We started in my favorite month (June) and are now almost through July. I really enjoyed the techniques we discussed this week and it made me feel good because a lot of it was stuff that I already do. I can think of a ton of lessons that are project based that I would love to share across the curriculum in my school. I also enjoyed the group discussion about reinforcement with our group. That is one thing I really try to focus on in my classroom, being positive even when the feedback may be negative. If I can maintain a positive learning environment in the classroom, students learn better and I teach better. It also means that we all can have a bit more enjoyable time!

525 Wk 3

Wow! Week three already! Not good that means summer is half over. I had never used or heard of bubble.us before this week. I was really impressed with its ease of use. I was able to just click and type to make a brainstorming web. This tool would be very useful for brainstorming ideas in the classroom as I cannot draw or write very well. This also would be easier than adding a web to a power point presentation. Education oasis also provided a ton of useful templates for educators. I could have used any of them in the classroom and it would be much easier and faster than creating my own and re-inventing the wheel. Exploratree also had a ton of thinking maps and organizers that could be used in the classroom. These maps could be shared with students so that they could choose the organizer that works best for them. With Exploratree students could organize thoughts and ideas with graphics that they choose versus just using a thinking map that I provide. The students would have more ownership in the learning process. I think all of these learning tools explored this week can be very useful to the learning process, some of these tools I can put to use right away in the classroom and others will have to be put away for another day!

525 Wk 2 Rubric V quizstar

If you google rubric makers, you can find some tools to make rubrics online. In the past I have used one or two different rubric makers and they are a life saver. When I was in college I made my rubrics on word and wasted all kinds of time formatting and spacing. Tools like rubristar make life a lot easier. With drop down menus and prompts you are able to create whatever type of rubric you need. Even for a rare discipline like mine, I am able to adapt many of the templates to meet my needs. With quizstar, you can create online quizes which provide automatic feedback. No more paper quizes that take so much time to create, copy, correct, and handback. With quizstar you can create online quizes for students and provide immediate feedback. This is a tool that I could use in my classroom. I currently operate with old paper quizes, but this could be a useful tool in the future. With the graphics and design possibilities, students may even be more successful. The only drawback to this tool currently is that I don't teach in a computer lab and not all of my students have internet access. If I used this tool, students would have to complete these assessments on their own time. While quizstar does'nt fit perfectly into my current classes, it may be useful in the future and I will surely give it a try.

525 wk 1

This course sounds like what I signed up for. What I am looking for in this program is ways to enhance my lessons with technology. The article on principles of teaching and learning covered a lot of stuff that we all learned in college. I do like to review that stuff because I forget it. The journal article was a bit heavy but it was important and it made sense. I agree that a lesson can not be based on technology. Technology should be used along with a well planed lesson in order to increase student interest and success. A perfect example is a power point presentation. If a power point is designed well, the lesson will be full of content, but more interactive with the power point and a follow along guide. This is much better than just having the teacher stand up front and talk or worse yet, having the students hand write notes. Technology can be a great tool when used in conjunction with a great lesson.

520 wk 4

This week has a number of interesting topics. Child internet safety is something that is important to me. I do not have kids but if I did I would be very cautious of when they were online and what they were doing. There is a lot of dangers out there and we need to be vigilant of our childrens internet usage. (to catch a predator is a scary show!) Copyright laws are also interesting. I never used to really even be aware of this topic until downloading music became an option and then illegal. With the ease of file sharing and the amount of good information on the internet, teachers must be careful not to infringe copyright laws even in the name of education. It is important for us to educate our students on copyright laws and also set an example by following them!

520 wk 3

Well I found some great stuff this week. My blog was flagged for spam and I almost lost this account. I don't know how but that almost happened. The part of this week I enjoyed the most was the 280slides review. This tool is great! I used empressr before and it did not do what I wanted, but 280slides did. I could actually upload a ppt and make it available online. This means I can work with my familiar power point and then share it through 280slides. Also I enjoyed looking at google for educators. There is not much there for a person that teaches automechanics and collision repair but I still found it useful. I have enjoyed working with these different tools and I hope that I can keep track of them all. If I am able to incorporate these things into my teaching and my life I will be much more effective and efficient!

520 wk 2

Well summer is coming and I am excited! I always seem happier when the weather gets nice. So far I have enjoyed this class and I have appreciated the assignments. I enjoyed the internet based learning assignment because I found a lot of great articles in support of it. I think that what we are doing in this program is very useful for our profession. I want to be a leader in my school and a good example of a technology literate teacher. These articles would be good ammo for a budget, faculty, or school board meeting in order to support educational technology. I have always been in support of using the internet for teaching and I go as far as using youtube in many of my classes to show videos and google images for pictures. I could not be as effective or interesting without the support of technology. Not to mention all of the good ideas I get from the web. I was not all that suprised to also find articles about people and teachers that do not support educational technology and do not use any either. I hope to change the minds of those people in my school and keep growing in my "techKnowledgeY"

520 wk 1

This course has started off pretty well. I missed most of the first class because I was attending an awards dinner with my students. I did catch the end and was able to get a pretty good picture of the assignments for this week. The focus on evaluating internet resources is a great activity. Using the forms provided in the wiki and creating my own really allowed me some time to think about how I evaluate web information. These tools will be very useful when assigning course work that students can use the internet as a resource. Many people may not be aware when they are doing internet research that some sites have a bias or an agenda that skews the information they provide. These types of influences can prevent students from doing effective internet research. It is the same as when we used books and magazines as our only sources. If I was writing a paper on gun control, the NRA would definitely have something to say, and their information may be valid, but you can bet that it will have a pro-gun slant. Being able to determine the validity of the source is important no matter what type of media you are using.

510 Blog 4

I am a person that is always willing to learn. I do not know a lot about computers and their parts so all of this info is new and useful to me. I don't know if I will ever use a lot of this information but that doesn't mean that it is useless. I will never build my own computer, nor will I probably ever do my own upgrades or major troubleshooting. I do find this information useful when it comes to buying a computer. As we begin to talk about computer components and how to build the perfect computer, understanding what certain parts do and how they work makes it easier to make an educated decision when buying. I understand RAM and memory pretty well, but in this class I have learned about things like motherboards, processors, and virus software. When we are done with this class, if I can discuss computer parts more intelligently and make good buying decisions then it is worth it. The only addition I might make to this class is a resource listing full of links and information on the topics we research just to make finding quality information a little easier.

510 WK 3 what would I lose?

My laptop and I have not been getting a long for about 3 months now. When we started this program, my laptop often decided not to boot up or would not turn on at all. That computer has all of my music and about 4 years worth of college and work related files. Most of that stuff I have backed up on an external hard drive, so I am okay if it decides to die. The computer I am using now works great but all of my work is web based so I do not have to worry about it. If my work computer at school died, I could have issues. I have done a lot of work on that computer in the last two years. At the end of the year I backed it all up on my external hard drive and all year this year I have been meaning to do it again. If it crashed over the weekend I would be lost. I have a ton of files on there right now that are not backed up. I have letters, curriculum, power points, and pictures all saved on that computer. I have been thinking that I need to have an external hard drive at school at all times so that I am more likely to back up on a regular basis. Online storage is also an option, but not one that I prefer. I like the external hard drive because I know right where all of my info is, but if we had a fire or if someone stole it I would again be out of luck. This weeks data recovery assignment really made me think about what I am going to do for my school computer. I am glad all of my course work to date is done online and I have really begun to love google docs. I will probably end up backing up again at the end of the year and kicking myself if anything happens again. This is one of those problems that is easy to fix if you can just get yourself to do it!

510 wk 2 microsoft desktop future

I think this is an interesting topic. This blog is going to end up being a lot like my response to triumph of the nerds. No one can tell where this industry will be in one year much less five or ten, but the one thing I do know is that it will be constantly changing. When you talk about PC's and desktop computers, I think we are already seeing the change with PDA's, Iphones, and blackberrys. These types of mobile devices are quickly replacing many forms of computers that we currently use. As for Microsoft, I don't believe that they will fall out of favor with the world becuase if nothing less they will be able to provide services to business for many years to come. But for the general public, I think software as we know it will change. In the future I think that cell phone companies will provide all of our internet service because we will want to be mobile and have access all the time. As this new technology (mobile access) develops that will give opportunities to other companies to come in and supply the customer with the software and operating systems that we need. The consumer will always be looking for something newer, better, faster, and easier. That type of demand will always provide customers for business like Microsoft and any others that want a piece of the pie.

510 week 1 my computer history!

If you want to get technical, my first computer was a Nintendo. haha! As far as a PC is concerned, our first was an apple 2E and then an apple GS (I think). I was about 6 at this time and the year was somewhere around 1987-89. The first thing I remember on those computers where the games. Oregon trail was a favorite at home and school. We also had army games like Howitzer and Parachute. Howitzer worked kind of like battle ship, you put in coordinates trying to blow up the other persons tank. Parachute was the game where little men parachuted out of the sky and you had to shoot them as they fell before they blew up your gun. These games were really simple, but at the time very entertaining. I refused to type or do anything constructive on the computer, at that age it was purely entertainment.

When I was in middle school (1996) we started to use the internet. I mainly learned to type so that I could instant message my friends, it was a big thing back then. During that time, many of our teachers began requiring typed reports and papers over hand written. I still could not type very well and I often paid my older sister to type everything for me! If you would have told me then twelve years ago that I would be using a computer for a good portion of my daily life I would have laughed at you. I never would have dreamed that I would become so dependant on a computer and the internet. Years ago I could have gone weeks or months without turning on a computer and now I rarely go more than a few hours. Boy how the times have changed!

Week 6

Well, we are all done with 515 and I feel pretty good about it. This class is called technology tools and I feel like that is exactly what we covered. We started with the graphics and presentation programs which for me was a bit of a slow start. I had no use for the graphics program, but I did find it fun to play with and thought it could be used on a free day or as a introductory activity. The presentation programs like Empressor however, I did find useful. I thought the slide design was useful and easy and I played with adding music and links which I thought was easier than using power point. Next we got into search engines and the Boolean techniques. I had never compared search engines before and I just used whatever came on my computer. I soon began to like foxfire a lot more than before and through the use of our Ning and the evaluations, I found some issues with Internet explorer. It was also nice to be reminded of Boolean techniques, because that is something that I had been taught years ago and forgot about. Week three got us further into google docs with spreadsheets and again I was pleasantly surprised. I have used Excel quite a bit and had also used some simple formulas. I was impressed with google docs again by the ease of use, access, and collaboration. Being able to share and access information from any computer hooked up to the web is a lot better than having years worth of spreadsheets backed up on one computer. The recipe formula also made me think about different and creative ways to use a spreadsheet that maybe I haven't done before. The most valuable and useful information for me was probably the software evaluation. I found that the software evaluation tool we used (Sun Prairie) was pretty much everything I would consider on my own and somethings that I never thought of. This was very useful to me because I have just begun to process of purchasing some new automotive software and I was able to evaluate it and share it with others to get a second opinion or two. This class was pertinent to what I am trying to do in my classroom, it opened me up to some new technologies and ideas, and even made me a little more open minded and creative with things I already use. I am looking forward to see how the next class will help me improve my teaching.

Week 5

This week I am really happy with what we are working on. The software evaluation was the most important thing we have done thus far. I reviewed a web-based software program for my automotive classes called Modern Automotive Technology Suite. This program allows for the instructor to teach from web-based power point presentations that include interactive learning modules and activities and assessment tools. This is really exciting for me because instead of creating all of these presentations and activities, all I have to do is log on to this website and deliver the information. The information is updated every six months instead of having a text book that is out dated by the time it hits the shelf. The presentations are better than anything that I have every created on my own and my students will love it. I use a similar program for my autobody classes and I have had great success with it. This is a perfect example of how I want to use technology in my classroom. I am so greatful that my district sends me to these conferences so that I can learn about great teaching tools like the Modern Automotive Technology Suite. This will increase student learning and interest as well as making my job easier and more fun!

Week 4

I used "In time" and found an aviation lesson that will work well for my middle school class next year. We actually have a flight simulator in one of our tech classrooms and the only thing it is used for right now is a toy. This lesson includes ideas like using the simulator to teach the parts of the plane during which I could also include minor physics and principles of flight. The students could also develop a flight plan and learn how to use flight controls. This type of lesson could be done in small groups or individually. I am excited to see that others still have simulators like this and actually make useful lessons out of them. During the preparation process for this class I will explore the flight simulator and its capabilities so that I can use it to its fullest extent. I can also incorperate other technology like computer and internet usage to have students do some research on different types of planes and aviation.

Week 3

This week I found our activities rather useful. Not that the last two weeks have not been, but I have yet to find something that I could directly use in my classroom. This week I found that something with the google docs spreadsheets. I use Xcell in my personal life for organizing my massive golf club collection, organizing expenses, and at my second job for managing shipping and sales. I am not an expert in this program, but I use it pretty well. I have used formulas before simpel A1+A2=A3 type stuff, so the recipe one was alittle more complex, but it worked. For me the google aplication worked just as well or even better given the web based format and easy access from anywhere. The only problem I had was that it didnt display the formula of the cell in a header at the top of the screen. Other than that I thought it was a good program and I will implement it in my own life and in the computer class that I am going to teach next fall. I hope this marks the beginning of some really useful technology tools!

Ced0515 wk 2

Boy February seems like it is flying for me! Its fun to look ahead on our schedule and see that we are almost done in one year even though we are just starting. Thus far I have found most of our activities to be very useful. I was wondering going in to this program what I would learn. I have already gained from activities like online word processing and bookmarking. Both of these are tools that I haven't used before and now I don't see myself ever working without them. The online word processing has been great for these classes, allowing me to collaborate with others and share documents, as well as being able to work easily from one computer to another. The Delicious bookmarking has done a lot of the same things for me and has made keeping track of all of these different websites we are using a lot easier. I don't currently have a lot of use for some of our exercises in the classes I teach, but they are all things that I find useful in my life and in preparation for my classes. I also think that in the future the use of presentation programs like empressr will be something useful for me. A lot of what I am working on in my professional development is the updating of my curriculum and the use of technology that goes along with that. I am excited about what we have learned thus far and am looking forward to including it in future classroom presentations and lessons. I am satisfied with what we have done so far and I hope that the rest of the program will build on many of these same ideas and tools that will help me better relay information to my students!

CEDO515 week 1

The programs we used for class this week were interesting. I found the graphic programs roxik and offtype to be kind of fun. I started by using roxik, but then realized that I can never draw people or anything like that so the template that looked like a scarecrow did not work for me. I then switched to offtype and found myself faced with a blank canvas and a complete lack of inspiration, which is why I could never be an artist. So putting aside cabin fever I drew a nice golf montage that you can see on my profile page. This was kind of fun but I dont see any use for it in the classroom.

The presentation programs were different. I veiewed quite a few of them and I didnt know what to make of it, they kind of reminded me of youtube. I had alot to look at, but I didnt really see the point. Finally I made a account for empressr which I found to be like power point at first. Then I began to use it and found that I had a lot of other functions than I would with power point like the share button and the ease at which you can embed music files. I have made power points with music a few times and it never seems to work out easily. Empressr had a menu that dropped down and you controlled the audio file from there. Sweet! EASY! I could find myself using that in the future as soon as I figure out how to make those slide shows private.(if you can)

Using technology in the classroom wk 2

Since I am a technology education teacher, you would think that all of this is second nature to me, but its not. I have been working to update my curriculum and scatter in technology where I can for the last two years. I have come a long way and I and my co-workers are proud of my progress.
The things we have begun working with in class may also prove to be valuable additions to my classroom. The social bookmarking has already paid off, since I have had two computers crash this week and delicious has enabled me to still access all of the sites I needed for class. AWESOME! I have also enjoyed the ease of accessing these websites from home and work on multiple computers. I will share this with my students for sure.
Online storage is another issue. I have used moxy while in college in order to share large files with classmates. It was very beneficial then and still would be today. I do take video of some class projects and online storage would be an easier way to share those videos than burning copies for every student!
The discussion on how to use the web cam last night during class was interesting to me as well. Being able to share the classroom and do distant learning with a student who is sick or maybe even with someone in a different school would be really neat. The best thing that I thought of for my students is to record class discussions and post them on the internet for students who miss class, not doing things live, but using the web cam to record and share later.
I did also find some personal interest in the browser comparison. The last two weeks I had trouble logging on to our classroom and accessing my email on my brand new laptop. This was frustrating as you can imagine at 8:00 when class starts and the new computer with web cam doesn't work! I found that by switching from Internet Explorer to Firefox, I was able to access all the sites and everything went smoothly from there. So in the future I will share different browsers with my students so that they know they have options.

week one

I have had a rough start to this program! I'm not overwhelmed by the technology, but it is a lot of new information at once. I was confused about how to log in both this week and last week. Once I figured it out this week, I had computer issues. Last night at 8:05 I was running two laptops, neither of which were logging on to the ning. My brand new laptop has a web cam on it and it wouldn't load the site, while my three year old laptop was just plain having a melt down. When I finally logged on I was so mad, I don't know if I picked anything up from class. It was very nice to be able to watch the recording of class from start to finish again today. As far as my experience with this techy stuff, my degree is in Technology Education, but my expertise is not in computers or communications, it is automotives. This will be a learning experience for me, but I have been updating my curriculum and adding the things we learn in this program will fit very well with the direction I am heading in. I'm not sure what is meant by a web link, but I do have a prior blog on the website of the company I work for part-time Bob Burns Golf. (www.bobburnsgolf.com) and the blog is (http://bobburnsgolf.wordpress.com/behind-the-blogger/). We just revamped our website and our blog and I am not even listed as an author yet, but the new website is an improvement. That's all for now here's to hoping my technical difficulties don't continue next week!