Week 4 - Part two - other's videos

These are the videos that I watched:
http://brittlayton.blogspot.com
http://rpeektechnology.blogspot.com
http://queenoftheworld-stephalumpagus.blogspot.com
http://ipt287sec5.blogspot.com
http://eduffieldipt.blogspot.com
http://meaganmilleript287.blogspot.com/

I thought this was a great project. However, it definitely would have its difficulties in a classroom. It would be easy enough to have students to write out a storyboard. Finding/creating pictures and writing out the narration would be do-able. I think actually digitizing it would be more difficult, especially if you only have an hour in the computer lab each week. Not only would the students need to put all their pictures on the computer, put them in the program AND narrate it, but they would also need to learn how to work the different programs and equipment that are required to do the project. It would be do-able, but it would take a lot of computer time.

Week 4 Part One - My Video

Here is my video for the digital storytelling challenge. The audio is a little fuzzy, I guess something was off with my microphone, please don't let it bother you.

Week 3 Part 2 - My Story Board

I am making an Africa ABC book using photos from my summer trip to Africa. Here is my storyboard:

Week 3 Part 1 - TPACK

What is TPACK? It is an acronym that stands for Technological Pedagogical And Content Knowledge. So it is basically combining your knowledge of technology, pedagogy and a certain content and applying that to your teaching, all at once. So if I was teaching let's say, history, I could have my students work in groups to create a documentary using a movie maker on the school computers. In the documentary students will not only present facts they know, but their views on that figure. This is essentially TPACK.

I believe it is important for a teacher to have this sort of knowledge for a few reasons. For one, using technology makes learning more exciting, and often makes the learning more personal. It allows the students to internalize their learning. Another reason is that the world is getting more and more technological. I have babysat for 2 year olds who can do certain activities on a computer. 7 year olds have cell phones. Technology is quickly entering into all aspects of our lives and is growing. Teachers need to know how to take advantage of this trend and help to engage their students in whatever content they teach by using technology.

Milleniata!

Cool name huh? Well, the actual item is just as cool, and was created by some faculty here at BYU! I read this article in the Daily Universe the other day and thought it was amazing. A milleniata is essentially a CD that is made to last a LOOOOONG time. So unlike CD's today, you won't have to worry about your pictures, or movies, or music, being lost in 5 years! I am excited to see what happens with these Milleniata (or is it Milleniati?) But don't take my word for it! Read the article HERE

Week 2 - Creating my Website

I really liked the assignment this week. There was a lot of good resources and sites that I learned about that I will definitely use in the future. I think that the most valuable thing that I learned this week was how to embed various items into my posts. The reason I chose embedding is because I know it is something that I will use often, and I would not have known how to do it otherwise. I can't make my class website as convenient as it is right now if I had not been able to embed the videos and lists and pictures. I love it!

Here is the picture of my synchronous chat with Stephanie:

And here is the picture of my asynchronous message to Brooke via Facebook:

yes, this picture is posed

YAY! My Webcam works!

So I got this webcam for my birthday a couple of years ago, and I was really excited about it. BUT when I installed it, I could only get it to work with Windows Messenger... because that was the software it was made for. So I rarely used the camera for the past two years until this class. My husband and I refused to buy a new webcam just for this class so we looked into the updated software and installed it and voila! it works! with any program! And the update was FREE!

It is possible that the problem wasn't the webcam, or the software, but me.... However, I spoke with multiple other webcam users and talked with a few people from India and it wouldn't work.... until I got the update. And I got the update because of this class. So thank you IP&T class, for getting my webcam to work!

My Experience With Technology

I would say I have a pretty average experience with technology.

I have my own laptop and do pretty much live on it. I don't know what I would do without it. I can usually figure out how to fix my computer if something goes wrong, and if I don't... I send it in to Dell.

I take great pride in being able to work pretty much any TV/DVD/complicated home entertainment system. I can thank babysitting for that.

I also can work any techno gadget you throw at me... just give me a few minutes with it to figure it out. (I am not trying to brag... I am just stating the facts.)

There is one aspect of my life that makes me slightly more tech-savy than most... and that is my husband. His future career is with computers and technology so he is always updating me on the latest nerdy inventions that emanate from the computer world.