Where do I go from here?...

The two days of Emerging Technologies workshop are now done so the big question is what am I going to do with this new knowledge.  I am pleased with what I learned in the workshop; it allowed each student to "tailor make" their own program in a way. 

My goal in learning about 2.0 was to find new tools to motivate and engage the learning of my adult basic education students.  I feel this was accomplised.  My own comfort level grew exponentially in the past few weeks; I am excited about my learning and am eager to pass this on.

I am in the process of setting up a classroom wiki.  I want to use this as a way to maintain communication with my students.  I also look forward to using Blogger with them.  I am going to have them all set up a blog of their own. My students need to spend more time reading and writing but pencil and paper is monotonous so I look forward to using technology to teach, motivate, and learn with my adult learners.

embedding a video

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/0LzQIUANnHc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

icon scrabble

http://iconscrabble.com/

This is neat!
I am going to have students use this for spelling.

So much inspiration on the website Ideas to Inspire

This site has endless possiblitites for teachers!  Once I started looking around at the site itself, as well as all the links that are included in it, I realized what a goldmine this is.  Here is the link to the site: http://www.ideastoinspire.co.uk/index.html#1.  I really like the organization of the homepage.  Once I clicked onto the Curiculum Ideas tab I was instantly taken to all the categories and links that a teacher would be looking for without having to sort them and categorize them myself.

I spent the most time looking at the writing section.  I am interested in finding new ideas in technology to help my students to express themselves.  I found so many interesting ideas.  Some of my favorites are: 
http://blabberize.com/   and http://www.wordle.net/.

This is definitly a site to put into my Web2.0 toolbox. I look forward to using ideas and links form it with my students.

Educational Videos

As an Adult Basic Education Instructor I am always looking for interesting videos to show my students.  I find that my students are very connected technologically and are much more motivated to learn through technology.  My classroom is not equipped with a Smarboard but I do have a data projector.  The data projector allows me to easily show videos that all the students can see on the screen instead of all trying to gather around one computer.

In the past I have found and used many videos off a site called teacher tube.  http://www1.teachertube.com/
It is a useful site which is well organized and easy to navigate around.  The other thing I like about teachertube is that the videos are free to use (at least I have never come across one that wasn't).

Today, in quest of building a larger Web2.0 toolbox, I researched a site called MindBites.http://www.mindbites.com/
It had a lot of interesting videos and they were organized in a way that I found was very easy to navigate through.  The one major downside is that there is a cost to use most of the videos.  When you click on the preview you get the video and after watching about the first 40seconds a screen pops up to tell you that watching the whole thing will cost $1.98.  This payment can easily be arranged through Paypal.  All very wonderful.  However, I am a teacher (we are known to be cheap!) and I feel that the cost of watching the MindBite videos would very quickly add up.   There was a section in each category that was FREE videos.  I was able to find some interesting things in there but obviously, the selection reduces greatly in the FREE section.

Both of these sites are worth looking at if you are looking for educational videos to learn anything from crafts and cooking, to algebra and biology... even videos on knife throwing!

Shrinking online!

With everything that grows bigger and better on the internet; believe it or not, you can be shrinking with the help of this website:http://shrinkingapp.com/
I signed up for it this morning.  It allows users to chart their daily weights, food intake and exercise.  It looks like it will break down daily intakes of food into calories, fat, protein, and carbs.  Like I said, this is day one so I am still learning how it will look and work.  If this interests you you might want to check it our for yourself.

Cartoon your Posters

Here is a link that I worked on today.http://www.comicstripgenerator.com/

There were literally thousands of choices of cartoon characters to choose from.  As a teacher,I
am always looking for ways to get a message out to students and spend many hours trying to desktop publish Word documents that I have created and can be used in my classroom.  I see endless possibilites here for my use as well as my students.  Finding a way to express themselves creatively is invaluable.  This is another tool to assist in that skill development.

Today I checked out Flickr

Yesterday, I created this blog.  In the past 24 hours I realized that it is so much more than a blog.  The blog is the chronicle of my findings in Web 2.0 (my toolbox, right Jordan).  I guess I should have given it another name.  At the time I started I was thinking I was going to create a blog explaining how to create a blog. Since this is all new to me, I thought it would have straight forward instructions that I would be able to share with my Adult Basic Education students.  Initially, I thought I would like to see them blogging to increase their writing time and medium of doing so.  This still is a professional goal for me.  Firstly, however, I need to learn more and become comfortable in this element, so as today's title says, today the topic was Flickr.

I had thought that Flickr may be a good way for me to store and organize my photos.  After working on that site I do not see it being any better than what I presently use.  Right now I organize, edit, save and print my photos with the Kodak Easy Share software that came with my camera.  Granted, this is what I have been using for 5 years it it is quite easy for me to use.  I don't see the reason to change.  I already save photos on the web to share with family and friends through Facebook and Flickr could not offer me any better options with storage and editing.
I am curious, do any of my followers us Flickr to store and edit your own photos?

Web 2.0 tool

Doing some looking around at Web 2.0 tools.  I found this site that allows you to upload a photo onto a "fake" magazine cover.  The site is called MagMyPic.  http://www.magmypic.com/
This intrigued me because I have many sport and activity pictures of my kids.  Last spring I purchased a photo, obviously done on a similar program, from the business who did my daughters dance photos. The photo was pricey but I now see that it is something I could create on my own.


Here is another; this is actually very easy.  This is one of my favorite pictures of my son.  He just finished his cross country classic ski race at the Provincials this past February.  What a look of relief.  This is a great way to remember and chronicle those special memories and all I did was cut and paste the image to here.  High resolution prints can be ordered from the site.
I like this tool.  I can see myself using it.
I am always looking for ways to organize my photos.  Now I think I will look into some photo collages that bring many images together on one page.  This magazine cover page does not allow for that.  My search continues...

I would rather be sitting in the sun...

I think this is enough for one day. I have managed to post a few items.  I successfully added some links and imported a picture from my facebook page.  Feeling pretty good about everything I learned and accomplished today.  Looks like I have some work to do this week.

Following the blog of my fellow workshop attenders

We are moving right along.  I have now become a follower of the blogs my classmates are creating.  Looking forward to checking these out.

Let's try adding a link

Here is a link I found that tells how to begin blogging
how to blog

Another link on how to begin a blog
http://www.wikihow.com/Start-a-Blog

Day 1 - at Emerging Technologies Workshop

At the workshop, Emerging Technologies.  The morning has gone well.  Now the real work begins...