Melody McCloud

This technology is a new take on the formerly boring flash cards. It uses visual supports to enable learning for students. The program algorithm is based on the Sebastian Leitner Cardbox principles. Teachers can insert pictures, sounds, and video to customize for the child to learn vocabulary. This tool can not only be used by students but also by adults who want to better their memorization of things.

As you can see below, it is very helpful when teaching students foreign languages. The possiblities are endless with this software. Anything you can teach or learn can be utilized by this program.

http://www.memorylifter.com/home.html

This software is not only easy to use but free to download. In just a couple minutes you can be up and running making learning fun and enjoyable for all.

In the age when taking digital pictures is an every day occurrence, it is important for these photos to appear perfect. While most of us are not professional photographers, the ads for digital cameras make it look like taking beautiful pictures is effortless. Digital cameras have helped reduce the amount of unwanted poorly taken pictures, but what about the pictures that are almost perfect?

Photo editing software is becoming a very fast growing seller. Many tools however can be very costly. In high school I was taught on Macromedia Fireworks which is a wonderful program. Being in college, I do not have the money to go out and buy this program. Photo editing software ranges in price the lowest being around seventy dollars. Thanks to reading Alvin’s Educational Technology Blog, I was informed about GIMP. It is a free downloadable program that runs similar to PhotoShop. If you are not familiar with that, than GIMP also offers many tutorials on the different tasks to perform. Not only does it allow for photo retouching but also for creating graphics and numerous other tasks like manipulation of images.

This technology could be useful in education in many ways. Students are often times asked to put graphics in a project and many times can not find a decent one out there. With this program they can create their own and do not have to deal with plagiarism. For the students who are in classes like I was in high school, we used a lot of photos. I always wanted my pictures to look great, but taking that perfect picture was hard. At my school I turned to Fireworks, but many schools can’t afford it so this would be a great alternative.

Nancy Welsh has a very unique classroom.  She is located on the a military base and in her classroom, 14 of 17 students have one or more parents deployed in Iraq Afghanistan.  Not only is this tough on the students, but she must learn to focus and adapt to the students current situation.  Each students needs are different; some want to talk about it, others are quiet, some draw about it.  Some of the children come to her in tears wanting to miss them, but she encourages the child to talk about loving the parent and not about missing or being away from them.  She finds that singing songs helps the children deal with the situation they have been put in.  Some of the students come to class sad, to which she has to let them know it is ok to be sad, but tries to get them to be a child and be happy.  Many of the children are having trouble sleeping and it is affecting the child’s school.  So, the teacher has the children draw pictures of what the students want to dream about thinking good things.  It is important for Welsh to have a good parent-teacher relationship in this difficult setting.  That way she knows how to deal with certain situations because some of the children know more about what is going on than others.

She is forced to deal with tough questions like:
                -Will my daddy get killed?
Although she cannot guarantee that he won’t so she responds, “I hope not.” (She reminds the child that many soliders are there protecting each other and since he is with others and had good training).  Also, she has to be honest, put information at their level, answer away from the group, because of the different levels of awareness about the war. 

When you ask her class what the definition of Iraq is, they say “Freedom.”  Hearing that from kindergarten students runs a chill up my spine.  Knowing that they understand the real meaning of why their parent cannot be with them.  They view this war through eyes that we all should, without the political outstepping. 

Having children in her classroom that are dealing with military life is difficult.  The children do not get to choose to have a parent in the Armed Forces.  They are put into the situation unlike the parent who chooses the military life or the spouse who chooses to marry into it. 

The most important thing Nancy Welsh must remember is to not take a stand on the war.  She can neither support it, hate it, or ignore it.  She must deal with the affects every day in her classroom. 

http://johnmerrow.blogspot.com/

http://www.pbs.org/merrow/tv/newshour/lessons_of_war.html

I as a visual learning have great admiration for professors and teachers using the technology available to create and distribute well thought out visual aides.  This advancement has been long in the process.  Starting out it may have been just adding pictures to handouts, then slide shows with pictures, and now in the multimedia time warp it is podcasts, videos, or “Youtubing” information.

As I watched Dean Shareski’s video entitled “Design Matters,”  I was really inspired but some of the ideas he put forth.  The major points that Dean emphasized were; planning, imagery, whitespace/transitions, constraints, and innovation.  All of these points are very informational but I would like to talk about the one that influenced me the most.

Constraints:  to limit or place boundaries on.
Key points:
o   Focusing ideas
o   Design learning that is attainable
o   Requires more planning & saves time in post production
o   Editing for elimination

And finally, my favorite of them all.   
  o   The 4 slide presentation
          Chicago Graduate School of Business
               ·   How to sell yourself in 4 slides
                     o   No audio and or video is allowed
               ·   Evoke the viewer
               ·   Do several times & keep as portfolio item

http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=307

We have to change the way we teach instead of saying all the information and having the students recall it.  Classrooms are about collaboration between students within the school, teachers, and international students.  Relationships are important and how they all correlate with one another.  You must teach to the curriculum however the way you teach to that curriculum must reflect what the students need. 

Addition of internet tools throughout the school year is very influential. He uses the free tools like wikis, podcasting, flickr, blogs, and voice thread.  Teachers must establish importance of relationships and internet safety.  Changing peoples ideas towards their opinion on the classroom and what happens or think should happen in the classroom.  Having “studios” instead of classrooms so that there are more interactions. There is the idea that learning is networking that we all do together and making connections rather than the small things.  He points out the informatics is important in tracking where students are going and what blogs they are reading so that you know what is changing they way they look at things.

http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=150

     A tool that can help children learn the daunting task of math facts.  That is what this tool brings forth.  Not only does it allow students to practice with a flash card style, but it also allows them to play math games, and includes printable worksheets.  Then it allows teachers to test the students complete with session reports.

http://www.mathcompass.com/

Collaborative Technology

Dictionary.com defines:

Collaborate:

Technology:

Although some of you may be thinking, what does YouTube have to to with collaborative technology.  I have found this site very useful in my researching for a recent English paper.  This site proves useful because everyday thousands of new videos are uploaded.  Thus giving access to more up to date information that can not be found in books.

Created in February 2005 by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, this site lets users upload and watch numerous videos.  Some of these videos are more like online personal journals, while others are news coverage of recent events.  It is those news reporting clippings that provide major sources for my paper.  Not only are the people who record collaborating with others to provide the video feed, but I as a future teacher can use this site to possibly provide online lectures for a student who may be unable to make it to class. 

I will be in collaboration with our technology coordinator and the parents of the student to make sure that the student has all the material and can successfully learn.

http://www.youtube.com/

From the makers of Inspiration for grades 6 – adult, comes the newer version created for students K-5. This tool helps students organize their thoughts, make stories, comprehend ideas and concepts, and also allows them an easy way to express and share those thoughts. It lets students use both their written and visual creativity, by not only say writing their notes but putting pictures with it so that they make a connection.

My personal experience in using Inspiration as high school student for my French course, has made me aware at how wonderful this software can be.

http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/techskil/prodtls/inspire.html

What if you could be sitting in a class room in North America, while experiencing walking through the Louvre in Paris France?  Seeing the famous works of art as if you were actually there.

  Technological advances and developments are bringing this somewhat fantasy to a reality.  With the help of PBS, IED (Interculture Education Alliance) and many teachers along with technology directors students that are in areas without tools that are needed can use this “K-Web” as they call it to interact with different situations, some of which they might never get to actually encounter in real life.

http://k-web.org/

The newest generation of SMART Board.  Long were the days of chalk and chalk boards, while some classrooms still thrive with a dry erase board, others with ample funds look to the newest technological advances in educational projection and presentation. 

Not only does this board allow the teacher to present power points, notes, and other miscellaneous items; it let the students and teacher make use of the computers capabilities.

The teacher can write on this board and even have students come up and write either using the pens provided or just a fingertip.  Literally this technology is at the fingertips of many.

The only problem is funding for this technology.  Some school districts are not capable of providing the amount of money needed to purchase such items.  The fact is that both the students and the teachers need technology like this to keep up.  If you would like more information on the SMART board please visit the site below.

http://www.ivci.com/videoconferencing_smart_board_600i_interactive_whiteboard.html