Tuesday, March 31, 2009

My Adventures in Technology

These past few days I have been focusing on improving my blog and course wiki. I have been adding pictures and links. This has been much easier than I had anticipated. Today I also listened to my first podcast - The EdTech Posse 5.3 from Winston's Pub. I really enjoyed it. It was as if I was sitting right there at the table listening to the conversation. (It probably helps that I have been to Winston's a time or two so it was easy to imagine the setting). I learned a lot so I will likely listen to more podcasts in the future.

P.S. I cannot wait to have an excuse and a little time to try out Skype.

Monday, March 30, 2009

March 30 - Media

I watched the TeacherTube video Pay Attention. Here is the link:
http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=40c570a322f1b0b65909 .
This video really had an impact on me. Students are growing up in a different world than I did. I am 28 years old and like to consider myself "current", but in many ways I am not. I have previously thought that the way I learned was the "right" way. It now seems apparent that some of those ways need to be discarded if I truly want to engage students. Technology is here to stay and nothing I do in my classroom is going to change that. If I do not want to be left behind I will have to embrace technology.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

March 29 - Media

I just watched the video The Machine is Us/ing Us http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g. In the first scene someone is writing and erasing with a paper and pencil. They are trying to edit their writing and re-arrange words. I could not help but think they should be using a computer. Then I started thinking of how often I have students write out assignments by hand. The inefficiency of it struck me at that moment. Unfortunately a computer is not available for every student at all times but in the future I believe it will be. The video went on to show that a computer is so much more than just a word processor. The Internet is more than just a research tool. Technology links us together as citizens of the world. By collaborating on-line we will redefine the world. This is web 2.0.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

My Adventures in Technology

I continue to have a love hate relationship with technology. I am learning more about Twitter. My husband set up Tweetdeck on my computer which is neat. It really helps manage my Twitter account. When I was on Twitter Alec emailed a u-stream video link and I got to watch his experience at Chuck E. Cheese which was very funny. I continued to work on my digital project using Wikispaces. It really went well yesterday, but today I ran into a few problems. I somehow started redirecting pages and ended up losing some information and had to delete some pages. Then I started accidentally combining links. After some time I solved my problem by redoing some work. I know all of these problems are operator errors but they still frustrate me.

P.S. Tweetdeck is like an intercom system in our house. My husband works on his paper downstairs while I work on mine upstairs. If we need to talk while we are working we just Twitter back and forth.

P.P.S. I helped my husband set up his wiki and was amazed that he was teaching me things about the program only minutes later. He showed me how to customize the text and link videos.

March 28 - Twitter Video

I was reading my husband's blog and watched an excellent video about Twitter he had found on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN2HAroA12w. It is called Twouble with Twitters. It is hilarious and right on the money when it describes people's addiction to social networking sights like Twitter (or Facebook). Some people are obsessed with having people know what they are doing at all times via status updating. These sights seem to bring out people's exhibitionist side. I thought it was funny when Craig, the character in the video, stated that he did not care what other people were doing he just wanted everyone else to know what he was doing. In my case I am also curious about what other people are doing, although I really cannot explain why. Perhaps I am a lurker after all. For the most part, the people on my social networking accounts are not really close friends, rather they are just acquaintances. How trivial I have made these sites. Oh well, as the video shows, I am definitely not alone.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

My Adventures in Technology

I am currently working on my digital project, which is developing a course wiki for the grade 5 health unit nutrition. Wikispaces is a fairly user friendly sight. I find it easy to edit and I have successfully incorporated many links to my page. What I appreciate most about this project is that I am actually going to use it in my classroom. Many times throughout this Masters course I have found projects interesting but wondered how I would incorporate them into my teaching. I really believe that my students are going to enjoy this wiki. Using it will also help me incorporate technology into my unit in a meaningful way. I am going to get the students to develop their own blogs to complete a variety of assignments. Here is a link to my wiki http://gradefivenutrition.wikispaces.com/. Keep in mind it is a work in progress.

March 24 Lecture

We watched the EdTech Talk program Women and Web 2.0. Frankly, it made me appreciate our weekly sessions with Dr. Couros. To begin with it took me over ten minutes to get sound. Once we could hear the discussion the amount of information that was presented was overwhelming. There were so many links popping up that after one or two we decided to give up on following them and just listen to the dialogue. The main speaker Jackie Gerstein seemed quite arrogant and I found her "expertise" in every area a little irritating. I appreciate that I learned about a new way of Internet communication but I prefer our Tuesday Illuminate sessions.

Monday, March 23, 2009

My Adventures in Technology

I have began my digital project. I am just setting up my Wikispace page. Here is a link to Wikispaces: http://www.wikispaces.com. The tutorials on the help page have been very useful. I have been experimenting with color and design - look and feel- of the page. Right now it is a hideous shade of pink and purple. I will have to change that. I also successfully uploaded a picture (the trick was having it in jpeg. format). I have invited a few individuals to be members of my wiki. What I am really struggling with is what content to put in it. Right now my page contains only one line of text. I will have to work on that.

I have been looking around to see the way technology impacts our lives. I was at a restaurant in Saskatoon this week and I noticed someone at another table showing pictures of her trip to a friend. Instead of flipping through pictures in a photo album she was clicking through images on her laptop. Times are changing.

March 17 Lecture

I really enjoyed this particular class. I liked the fact that it was closed. I felt more comfortable speaking to the group and participating in the discussion. I was also relieved that others are experiencing many of the same issues that I am pertaining to this class. The lack of time seems to be a problem for everyone. I always feel that my time management skills are inadequate. I feel guilty taking too much time on homework because it means I am away from my two young children. I feel guilty when I am spending time on everyday tasks and not able to dedicate enough time to completing my Masters homework. There never seems to be enough hours in a day to accomplish what I hope to.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

My Adventures in Technology - Twitter Part 2

I have finally had time to explore Twitter further. It amazes me that some people, like Dr. Couros, are following over 1000 people (or groups). How can a person keep up with that many entities? It is even more amazing that over 2000 people are following him. Is there a point where technology becomes unmanageable? I only have a few people following me... I guess I am not that interesting... so this won't be a problem for me anytime in the future :).

P.S. My repeated attempts to download a picture on Twitter were a failure. I am not really sure why??

P.P.S. I successfully downloaded a picture to Twitter.

March 10 Lecture

Unfortunately, I have lost the notes I made on our last lecture. (I blame my husband). There is one topic that Mr. Richardson discussed that stuck with me. Someone asked him a question about what makes a good blog. He responded that a good blogger will invite responses from others. An entry that makes people think will likely have multiple comments beneath it. Judging by the few comments my blog entries elicit I think my blogging skills could improve.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

March 3 Lecture

I enjoyed hearing from previous students of this class and also from fellow classmates about the impact of on-line education in their lives. I am enjoying this course and have learned to use many new on-line tools while participating in it. I am not sure if I feel the strong sense of on-line community that some of them have expressed. I need to make more of an effort in this area.

My Adventures in Technology- Twitter

My husband signed up for Twitter and seeing as I did not want to be left in his technological dust I decided to join too. It really reminds me of Facebook status updates, which I check multiple times a day, except that you can get tweets from celebrities. This could be addictive for a person such as myself who loves celebrity gossip. Will more of my day be wasted away on the computer?

Here is the link for Twitter: http://twitter.com/.

P.S. I also finally learned what phishing means. There was an article about it in the S'toon Star Phoenix, complete with a definition. I can feel my tech I.Q. rising.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

March 1 - Technology in Popular Culture

I was reading through an issue of US Weekly and was amazed at how celebrity worship is driven by technology. (I am embarrassed to admit that celebrity worship is one of my hobbies.) In this magazine you can text to say which star's outfit you like the most, check out more stories online, subscribe to celebrity Twitters, and see how a celebrity responded to the 25 things you may not know about me Facebook survey. In the world of celebrity technology is obviously of utmost importance, it is how they advertise themselves.

February 24 - The Amazing Barack Obama

I was very impressed that Dr. Couros let us use the last part of Tuesday night's class to watch Obama's address to the senate. The President is an amazing speaker. His message was hopeful yet sensible, America can get out of the recession by working hard. He is truly a man of all people. I appreciated when he commended the CEO of a major corporation for sharing his bonus with all of his employees and also recognized a young girl from an inner-city school for writing a letter asking for help. He represents the weakest and mightiest American citizen. This man is going to change the world. WOW!