Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Love the Kinder Kids Blog!

I'm still continuing to follow the kinderkids blog! They do such cool activities with technology! I loev the way the teacher incorporates it into the curriculum!

They are using Voki, to participate in Voice Around the World, created by Sharon Tonner from Dundee,Scotland! The kids are using their own voice to communicate with people around the world listening t the different landuages and dialects! Here listen to their Voki!

They are also learning how to make patterns! Each student came up with their own pattern and then they got a partener and their partener video taped them telling about their patterns and then they swithched so everyone got to show their creative patterns! Want to see what they came up with?

My Survey on Google Doc. :)

I had to make up a survey on google docs for my Technology 4 teachers class, I made mine about your favorite holiday! This is a really cool way to find out more about your friends! You can get on google docs, click on the "create new" button and then click form. It will give opptions for you to make a multiple choice question, an essay question, or a short answer question. You can create your form/survey and then email the link to your friends and find out more about them!!

Please take MY survey, to tell me YOUR favorite holiday!!

Others took thiz survey! Find out what their favorite hoilday is!!

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Digital Youth Portrait: Sam

This video I watched is about a 13 year old girl named Sam who loves technology, she spends the majority of her days on the computer. She has firgured out many different ways to learn about different software and use different programs to do assignments for shcool. In one particular instance she had to read a book for class and she thought the book was really boring, so she got on her ipod and bought a program that read the book out loud to her, as well as being able to follow along with the text.
Sam is only 13 years old and she can do amazing things with a computer and video camera! more than i cold ever eve think about doing! She goes into a college classroom and helps college students learn how t make digital people and worlds for one of their classes!!




The thing that amazed me the most about Sam, was that she taught herself how to play the piano by going on line and finding a digital piano that sowed the notes while playing a song and she would wirte down the notes and go practice the song until she got it perfect. She looks like an amazign piano player, I have no idea how she learn to play like that by herself!
Sam has a ton of extra time to spend on the computer, figuring out and working with different computer programs, if everyone has tht much extra time to sit and play on the computer we would all be as computer savy as Sam!! But I'm ot 13 anymore I go to school and work, ahhh being a grown up!!

Monday, March 1, 2010

What I thought about people in my class's blogs!!

Andrea made a voice thread about making smores!! I absolutely loved it! I never would have thought to make a voice thread about smores! I told her about how I like to make sure the chocolate is good and melty before I put on the MOLO!! :)

Beth taught us the correct way to shoot a soccer ball in her voice thread! It was fun and creative! I told her how I've played soccer all my life and have never really broken down how to shoot the ball!! I loved It!!

Collaboration–Leveraging the Wiki Platform

This video is very informative about wiki platforms and how they can be used to better students in the classroom. Using wiki to have students described what is going on in class, what they are learning and different ways they are learning and understanding different concepts. Students can make wiki pages on things that they enjoy and like. Also other kids can comment on and change things on other students pages, therefore engaging other students and allowing students to share their interests and get excited about all different kinds of things.

Wiki also allow students to become more engaged and excited about the work they are doing in and outside of the classroom. Helping students become involved, for example how the students used wiki to create flyers for the car wash they were putting together to raise money for their school, each student wanted to be involved and help in any way they could.


Paula White used a quote that I really liked "educators often think that school is the point, when it needs to be the path, so what path are you taking your students down when using wiki in classroom?" Paths to self collaboration? Path to self directed learning? path to putting traditional school tasks online helping them learn how to create wiki and how to use them.

Wiki would be a great way to get students engaged, I might say that it might also get really frustrating for some students, but I think that with the knowledge that students have about computers these days and with the right direction wiki will really make students want to do better and be more excited about the work they are doing because they get to post and write about it on their own wiki or the class wiki!!