My Website!!!!!

This past week I finished my website. I was so proud of it that I showed everyone : ) Even though it was a little tough at first, I really started to get the hang of it after creating a few pages. This was a long process and a little frustrating at time, but I really enjoyed myself and I am satisfied with the product. I took the challenge of creating my website on a wiki and did find it to be very easy. It took a very short time to complete. I think what made it the easiest, other than being able to copy and paste all of my content, was that I did not have to keep linking my pages. I have really enjoyed this course and have gotten much more out of it than I expected. I plan to use what I have learned in the future in my own classroom.

Web Authoring

This week we started creating our websites. Like I said before, I was really nervous. When we first starte, everything was confusing and I was not sure why we were doing certain things. Once we got to fill in our content and customize our site, I really started feeling more comfortable. I have two pages up and am looking forward to finishing the others. My favorinte part was going to the site and seeing it actually on the internet. I even called my husband to have him look at him : ) I am really excited about finishing my site.

Tying up loose ends

This week I spent most of my time finishing up projects and tying up loose ends. Since I had my multimedia presentation almost completed last week, I just spent a little time making some corrections and then presented my work to the class. I also finished up posting my 5 sites on the wiki and made a few changes to my PLP bio. I really enjoyed browsing through some websites to select the ones I wanted to post on the wiki. I found several high quality sites that I believe will be very useful to me in the future. I feel very comfortable editing the wiki as well as importing images. I look forward to creating my web page next week, although I am a little nervous.

Multimedia Presentations

I have really enjoyed this past week of class. I have used Power Point for several presentation; however, I have never used it as an interactive tool. My tutorial is based on animal classifications. I believe I could and intend to use this type of tool in my own classroom. This would be a wonderful introduction to a unit of study as well as a review before formal assessments. I enjoy participating in interactive tutorials myself. I like the fact that I can go at my own pace and I feel I master the material through these types of tutorials. Although the process has been time consuming and work intensive, I have really enjoyed myself.

Storyboards for Power Point

I have use Power Point several times to create visuals for leading discussions and making presentation. I am sure I have been using it inappropriately. I have never used it as an interactive activity. I am looking forward to completing this lesson. Another aspect of the process that is new to me is the creation of a storyboard. I really like this concept and think it will be very beneficial. I am a planner and like to map out what I expect to do. I also benefit from visuals. Creating my own storyboard allows me to visualize the process of working through the tutorial. I also feel I put more into my work this way. I am looking forward to the finished product : )

Interactive Spreadsheets

I've already said that I enjoy working with Excel. This last week I learned a lot about making interactive spreadsheets. By making my own, I was able to work my way through it and learn from my own mistakes. If I had not been able to learn by doing I would not have seen that I needed to choose a date setting or that numbers and letters automatically justify to opposite sides. I believe I would use this type of program in my classroom.

Graphic Web and Spreadsheets

Last week we finished up our work on Inspiration. I was really pleased with how mine turned out. I felt very comfortable using this program and trying new things out. I think this program would be very useful in the classroom. Both by use of teachers and students.

We also began learning about Excel. I have had some experience using this program in a stats course. I enjoy working with this program. I love math and organization. I look forward to learning new ways of using the Excel in the classroom.

I Movie and Inspiration

Last week was great because we got to do a lot of hands-on work. Monday we looked at I Movie and got to make our own movie. This was really fun. I had always thought this would be something I could never use. It was very intimidating and I did not think I had the skills to work with it. Once I got to mess around with it on my own and not worry about messing it up I really enjoyed it. There were so many ways to customize my own movie and it was not difficult at all. I could see me using it again, especially since it was so easy.

We also used Inspiration to make a web. I wanted to use similar information as my webquest to see our similar information can be displayed. This would be a wonderful tool for students to use to demonstrate their knowledge instead of filling out a sheet. I also like the order and organization.

Digital Images

This week we looked at digital images. I have had many experiences using digital cameras. I have a few of my own and upload them to my computer for storage. I have also saved pictures from the internet as well. I have not done much work using picture editing programs. I have enjoyed cropping and reformatting pictures. I also did not know how to take a screenshot. This was an interesting tool and is something I will use again. I really enjoyed the digital scavenger hunt. It included all of the aspect of working with pictures (taking them, cropping them, reformatting them, and uploading them to the computer). I also benefited from the extra practice using Power Point.

Lesson Plan

I have had a great deal of experience writing lesson plans to implement in early childhood classrooms. However, I have never written one that included the use of the Internet. I enjoyed working on the lesson plan and getting more practice linking my objectives and assessment to both state and national standards. I did get really frustrated with the layout of the lesson plan. It was missing several sections that are extremely important. Another plus of making a webquest is that I have found several high quality websites that I can use in my own classroom. I look forward to the coming week, it supposed to be a fun one : )

Blogs, Wikis, and WebQuest

Coming into this course I was very intimidated. I did not feel I was very experienced with many technology ideas and applications. Over the past week I have been introduced to many new ideas and have become very excited. I really enjoyed creating my own blog and wiki. To my surprise, it was very easy. I am looking forward to using these tools throughout the semester and in my own classroom. I also enjoyed evaluating WebQuests. The site I evaluated seemed fairly difficult for early childhood education. I am interested to see how this technology in a kindergarten or first grade classroom. I have already learned a great deal of useful information and I look forward to continuing my journey through this class.

Class

My test blog!!