Tech Tools for Critical Thinking

This week we were introduced to a bunch of new sites dealing with technology tools. We discussed mind-mapping and looked at some websites for those. This is a cool idea that used anyway but now I do it virtually and with more ease. We also talked about social bookmarking which is awesome. The old way of this concept is in saving favorite or most used websites like you would on a "favorites" or "bookmark" menu using your internet provider. However, those are only tied to one computer. The new way is using a site like delicious where you can post your favorite websites to a host website. Using the website, you can add relevant tags to these so that people trying to search a topic similar can find those common websites that actually help with their topic. Essentially, you can search through everyone's "favorites" to find reliable websites that other people use for a particular topic.

In education, mind-mapping can be used for brainstorming as a class or individually. It would be really great when it comes time for 5-paragraph essays. Yes, these things could be done on paper. However, doing them over the internet is great for sharing ideas and sending your mind-map to someone else. These are neat for lesson plans and are very user-friendly. Social bookmarking can be used in education to share websites based on interests. It would be easy for teachers to share other useful education websites with their colleagues. It could also be good for parent-teacher-student relations. The teacher could suggest websites dealing with material that the class is learning as supplemental information or as a compliment to something already taught. By making a tag such as "Ms.Walburn'sclass", it makes things easy to find and more exclusive because no one else would search that.


This video walks you through how to use Delicious as well as another social bookmarking page Diigo. I found it very useful.

Concept map of Folksonomies in Education

Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing is a pretty cool concept. This is where more than one computer can use the same expensive programs over the internet for much less cost. These basically have a database over the cloud (internet usually) that everything is stored into. This is really great because you don't have to worry about your computer crashing and losing all the info. Also, many people can access one tool so you can work on the same project or use the same program. Examples are Google Docs/Presentations, YouTube, and Blogger.

This cloud computing tools can be used in education to provide unlimited information storage as well as give all kinds of kids an advantage of using expensive programs over the internet by sharing a connection. Also, it can really help the kids on group projects because they are all using the same database. So, just in case they can't meet up, each person can log on, work on their respective part, and save to a remote database. This way they don't lose information in the event of a computer crash.


I chose this video because it explains cloud computing and makes it a clearer concept.

Sounds

Sounds can be useful in many different ways. Sounds can be applied to PowerPoint presentations to make them more effective. Sounds can also be edited as we did this week to be many different sounds in one track. These can make it way more personal and individualized. These can also be used for digital storytelling in that maybe one song is not appropriate for the entire presentation. However, with these skills, we can mix the sounds and make the audio actually match what is being presented. This is also great because people learn in different ways. Instead of a presentation or a lesson being strictly visual, we can make it appeal to the auditory learners and make it more interactive.

Leslies Podcast - mp3 - Walburn,Leslie F
My sound is the aftermath of a car crash. It gives more of a personal account of what goes on in someone's head after the accident.

Week 7 - Digital Storytelling

This week, we learned about digital storytelling. Digital storytelling is using computer based technologies to create a short story. These include text, pictures, videos, and audio. There are many ways that one can go about this. You can use iMovie or Windows Movie Maker. These can take some time to learn how to use and put together but these are the most individual and show more personality of the maker. Easier ways include PowerPoint and even websites such as animoto.com that will make it for you. Using PowerPoint, you can change the transitions between slides, add sounds, and include text easily! The down fall of those though is that it doesn't have as much personality or flexibility like the other ones.

This could have many different uses in education. Digital storytelling could come in handy when just trying to keep the kids interested in the material you are covering. This could work well for just adding variety to your instruction to mix things up and keep kids' minds stimulated. These could also be a great way for introduction of material or people. Earlier in the school year, it could be a great way for kids to open up to each other and to the teacher. It seems like it could be a great way for the teacher to introduce themselves and their lives on the first day. Kids might respond better to teachers and other students knowing that they maybe have something in common. It might also be good for younger kids to see how teachers are a lot like their parents (have a spouse, have kids, have pets, etc.). This could help with kids' separation anxiety. It could be cool to have an assignment in the beginning of the school year where all students make a short video that shows their family and maybe hobbies they have. This could be a great way for kids to open up to other students they might never have before because they see that they have things in common even though they may look different.


This video from YouTube helps to show how students need new stimulation and new ways to think. It's neat because it shows the student perspective on digital storytelling.

Week 5 - Information and Media Literacy

This week dealt with how to present information that is both effective and visually pleasing. We looked at PowerPoint, Hypermedia, and Multimedia. We covered what Multimedia and Hypermedia are and how they can be effective. They are both really great for stimulating different parts of the brain. These can be great for people with different learning styles. Combinations of different types of media together can be educationally pleasing to the greatest number of people. This week also shows how to use PowerPoint more effectively. It showed the importance of consistancy, contrast, proximity and repetition in presentations.

This information will be really great in the future. I know that it will be very useful for teaching. Elementary School students may not respond well to PowerPoint generally. However, with the use of multimedia, I can make learning more fun for them. When learning is fun, kids want to learn more. Also, it's much easier to disguise to the kids that they are actually learning if it's in a fun movie or cartoon. Multimedia makes this more possible. If I chose to teach kids that are a little bit older (so that they can handle more information at once), I now know how to set up an effective PowerPoint. I know that just because the presentation may have pizazz, doesn't make it easier to comprehend the content presented. It can actually hinder the learning process. When in doubt, simple is better and more effective.


This YouTube video just shows a lot of very common multimedia examples. It shows how multimedia is used everyday.

Week 4 - Copyright, Plagiarism, and Ethical Issues

This week, we learned a lot about copyright and plagiarism as well as the ethical issues behind using someone else's information and thoughts. Copyright applies to all tangible and creative works including literary, dramatic, musical, choreography, artistic, video,text, pictorial, architectural, and certain other works. There are ways to get around the copyright laws such as it's not valid in countries that didn't sign the copyright treaty, works published before Dec 31, 1922 are fair game, copyright only exists for 70 years after the death of the author, and the Fair Use Act which allows limed usage of copyrighted work without permission from the copyright owner. We also learned about Creative Commons, a new kid of copyright. Creative Commons allows the copyright owner to put conditions on their copyright agreement. This week was really informative.

In education, teaching on these topics are essential (maybe not so much at the Early Education Level). It becomes more important as the students get older. These topics are huge. Plagiarism is going to be brought up in every class as they go through their education. Also, it becomes increasingly important after they are done with school because at the later age it has more consequences than just a bad grade on a paper. They can be sued and fined and mess up their life just from something stupid like forgetting to give credit to the person who actually made the things they are presenting. It is important to educate students on the proper uses of sources and citations and well as deciphering which sources are reliable. It's also important to show these kids examples of what can happen if they improperly use something that is copyrighted or plagiarize. Students need to see that their action can have serious consequences so they understand the importance. You can do this by showing them a news story or something where someone got in serious trouble for copyright infringement. This makes the topic more pressing and real for students.



I chose this YouTube video because it is a quick overview of a lot of information that we went over this week. It talks about practical uses of Fair Use and copyright.