Four Down, Two to Go

This Thursday and Friday I'm attending the Wisconsin State Reading Association (WSRA) convention in Milwaukee. Of course, it couldn't be a week that we had class in Milwakee, so I didn't have to drive in twice. It could never work out that well.

I am thoroughly enjoying our weekly meetings. I feel like I'm in a classroom getting all of the personal interaction that I crave, but from the comfort of my own home. I think the hybrid was a success.

As for my experience with Prezi, I don't have a lot of good things to say. I understand why some people like it, but I don't think it's for me. I spent way too much time trying to place my pictures and my text. I like it when the computer does it for me. I like how in PowerPoint everything lines up. I get so frustrated with figuring out how to place and size the items. Curse my lack of spacial intelligence. Perhaps if I went to a previous Prezi and used one of the shared templates it could have been easier. I would show students how to use it, but I don't think I will be using it anytime soon. There are other programs that make more sense for me.

My Pecha Kucha is proving to be more challenging than I originally thought. I changed my topic to elements of character because it was a PowerPoint with only words and bullet points that I went over with my students. This is review information for them, and I just want to activate and remind them that they know all of these terms already. I thought the time would be perfect. What I didn't realize was how challenging it was going to be to give equal time to all of the slides. Sometimes I feel like I'm rushing through and other times I have a lot of time left over. I'm enjoying this challenge, and I'm thinking about making it one of the speeches that my students will give next year.

Topics for Week Three

This week we were asked to come up with topics for a Pecha Kucha presentation. I had a very challenging time coming up with topic ideas. Others came up with very interesting thoughts, and I think that they are going to be very interesting watch.

As with VoiceThread, Animoto was very easy to use. I think that Animoto will be easier to incorporate into my classroom. Right now I'm planning on having it be a culminating project for the students to represent a theme from To Kill a Mockingbird. That leads me to bring up the discussion on the English Companion Ning about Animoto. I think one of the benefits it that it is so easy to use. Students can create a quality and professional looking product in a short amount of time. Many of my students would gravitate towards this. It also is a challenge to give meaning in only 30 seconds. However, I can see the point that they could be used only as "something pretty." Like all tools, sometimes they can be powerful and sometimes they are not.

Two Weeks Down

I thought that using the Elluminate classroom was easy. There were a few moments when I thought I was losing the feed, but I never lost it totally. I think next week I will hard-wire my internet connection because my wireless likes to cut out at times and that might have been part of my problem.

Like Jenny commented in her post this week, I'm trying to think of ways that VoiceThread could be used in my classroom. I found it much easier to use than I thought I would (I had a very poor inservice presentation on it). Others have suggested using it to give comments on speeches or papers, but I've never seen that demonstrated. I was also thinking that if I uploaded my presentations I could post those for students who are absent. This would get me closer to creating that class environment that some students need but often miss out on due to absences.

First Night

Technology can sometimes be overwhelming, but I think that I'm getting it. I very much appreciate how well laid out everything is on the Ning. I find it very easy to use. The readings and the projects this week were interesting. It seemed like a lot at first, but it was very manageable.

I've only taken one class on-line, and I did not enjoy it very much. I'm hoping that this will be different because of how much interaction is required. It is also exciting that I will not have to drive into Milwaukee each week.

I am hoping to learning more skills. Already I have some ideas of how I can use these things in my classroom. I also hoping that we will address how to teach these skills to teachers. I don't believe that most teachers know about these tools, so what is the best way to educate them? How is the best way to teach them? Does this become a problem with the administration and resources? What are the real-life implication of these tools?