No lecturecast for Week 15

About 20 minutes into our first T4T class yesterday something went wrong with my microphone setup or configuration for the lecturecast. As a result, a lecturecast is NOT available for week 15. My apologies. The online curriculum for week 15 is very thorough, however, so hopefully that will assist you if you missed class or have questions.


photo credit: Wesley Fryer

As always do not hesitate to message me through WebCT if you have questions.

My Week 14 Class Summary

This week in Technology for Teachers we talked about new course assessments and assignments that are due. All the submissions to date have been graded. If we did not get full credit for one of the assessments we can go back and view Professor Fryer's comments on how to correct our assignment. Then we can resubmit our assessment after our corrections were made to get full credit. Professor Fryer reminded us to turn on our comment moderation on our blogger accounts. He showed some examples of assignments that were submitted by fellow classmates. They included a voice thread, two Google Maps, a couple of blog reflections over videos, and an outsider's comment on a classmates blog. Next, we discussed our Pecha Kucha project. The presentations will take place this coming week as well as during finals week. We were then introduced to Synchronous Conferencing. Using Skype we were able to have a conversation with an international teacher in Bangkok, Thailand. His name was Jeff. He talked about the benefits of being an international teacher. One of my peers asked Jeff about the weather in Bangkok. We finished class filling out our course evaluations.

Week 6

At the beginning of class we went over some of the complaints we all had about the class. One of the things Mr. Fryer said he would do to help us would be to not put videos in our assignments that are no longer than twenty minutes except for this week. We watched two videos this week. The first video called Digital Nation (pruning) channel asked the question “Do you think students brains are different today because of media and technology?” We spent some time answering that question and one of the responses were “yes, it’s a new way of learning and communication.” The second video we watched was called Old School, New School and it talked about how we need to be entertainers to our students. More students are unable to focus because everything is at their fingertips with technology. There was a suggestion that we need to be the bridges between the two ways of teaching. We then went over how to post your voicethread on Blogger. Professor Fryer then gave a presentation on how to use search on Google. We went over some key words and what they mean in internet terms such as URL, and Quiry. We went over the steps on how to find something on a Google search page. At the end of class he set up a digital newspaper coarse learning portal called aggregator located on class blogger site. These were the main topics we covered in class this week.

Week 14 Summary

This week in Technology for Teachers we started with an overview of the grading process. We were brought up to date on all assignments that should be completed. All grades from submitted assignments have been completed and should be available for viewing. There should be a comment on all assignments submitted if your grade does not meet the required point total. You may make corrections and resubmit assignments for full credit.Next, we were shown assignments which had been turned in. The assignments presented were examples of exemplary work. WE viewed a voicethread, a blog over The Wizard of Apps, and a google map. We also were informed of a website http://www.pipl.com This is a pretty scary site which allows you to find all the information you need about anyone. Next, we discussed our presentations over our Pecha Kucha project. The presentations will cover our final exam. Should you opt not to do a presentation, you may do a voicethread in its place.Our main topic for the day involved Synchronous Conferencing. We were introduced to Skype. We had a conversation with a teacher in Bangkok, Thailand named Jeff. He informed us about international teaching opportunities. This was really interesting. We were able to see Jeff, on screen, as he discussed his job in Bangkok.The class ended with a course evaluation.

Week14: Synchronous Conferencing

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Today we'll discuss the status of pending course assessments, demonstrate how to embed your Unit Plan Google Doc, view some Pecha Kucha examples, and discuss options for synchronous conferencing.

Week 13 Class Scribe

In-class overview of blogs and video

The first blog we discussed was created by Wesley it covered Maria Knee’s New Hampshire classroom and their use of technology in her Kindergarten classroom. Two different blogs were covered iPad magic? and Race to the Top?

The class watched a DJ Spooky's "Rebirth of a Nation" and discussed the video:

Q: Would this content be relevant in a classroom? What are the issues raised with historical videos like these?

A: The importance of these videos are to teach students to become critical thinking.

Steps of the Pecha Kutcha model presentation:

What is a Pecha Kutcha?

-The presentation will reflect upon the student, instructor, and the university. These will be posted on our blogs.

*Pick a topic – Will need 20 slides (20 seconds per slide) You will have 6:40 for the presentation pick something that you are interested in or enjoy

-Best presentations use large images, less text

*Select 20 images using your own photos, compfight, or flickrstorm ( for flickrstorm: click on 'advanced settings' – select 'photos for non-commercial use' – add images to the tray in flickrstorm – save all images into a new folder using “save picture as” right mouse click on image)

-Creating powerpoint with your saved images... go to 'insert' on the tabs and select 'photo album', it will allow you to upload the folder of images (saves time!)

-Saving the powerpoint... ‘save as’ under 97-2003 powerpoint presentation – use ppt file, no pptx (this is necessary for it to work properly in google docs)

-Upload in Google Documents when finished... Make sure you 'publish' your document – put on your blogger site (embedding the video and sharing the link for your google presentation) create new post and describe your Petcha Kutcha

**There is the option of presenting your googledoc presentation in class (week 14 or 15) OR you can record 20 second audio for each 20 slides using Slideshare or Voicethread and post on your blog.

Phonecasting

What is Phonecasting?

This allows you to use a phone service and leave a voicemail creating an audio mp3 file. To break it down… you can use your phone to record, the website converts the voice recorded message into an mp3 file, and then this mp3 will appear on the site where you are given a link to download, play and pause the mp3. Awesome.

Friendly Reminder!

Official Homework Deadline - WEEK 15!

Study smart and good luck with finals!

Week13: Pecha Kutcha Presentations and Phonecasting

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This week we will learn how to create a Petcha Kutcha presentation (20 slides shown for 20 seconds) using the FlickrStorm, PowerPoint, Google Docs, Drop.io and SlideShare.

Week 13 Scribe Blog

Posted by Sarah Ransom and Felisha Seward

Today in class we went over how to create our "Petch Kutcha" presentation. For this we are supposed to come up with a topic that we would like to teach everyone about. Then we pick 20 pictures from flikr that convey the message of our petcha kutcha. After we pick the picture we will upload them to a powerpoint, then upload it to google presentations. Then we will have to record audio for each slide ranging from 15-20 seconds to talk about how the picture goes with our topic. We also decided that you could make a voice thread for this project as well. Before this we went over grades and he should have them ready for us by next week. He also said as long as you do all the work you should get an A or a B. We also got to see an iPad and play with it. Then we watched a video by DJ Spooky and it was supposed to show a darker idea of a period in history.

Week 12: Summary

This week we had another visit from Michael Mount who gave another introductory presentation over SMART boards. He didn't go into much detail just covered the basics such as: where the pens go, erasers, how to tell if it is on and ready to use, etc. Michael also showed us how to use the different tools in the classroom to create more creativity. We only spent about 30 minutes covering the SMART board and the rest of class time was spent catching up on the rest of our assignments we may be behind in and it was much needed. There are online resources for us to utilize, if we want of know more about SMART boards and how to use them.

Week 12: Summary

This week, we had another visit from Michael Mount who works in the UCO office of information technology to give another introductory presentation over the SMART boards. He not only showed us the basics of running the smart board, but also different programs that can be used through the SMART board for your classroom. Michael showed us how to customize all different tools for more creativity in the classroom.
Michael gave the same presentation that was given in week 5, which may seem redundant, but is needed for us to continue to understand the SMART board. We all are most likely going to have a SMART board in our classroom and we need to know as much as we can before we get to teaching to make the transition much smoother.
There are online SMART board training resources that are also available for us to use when we do need a little more help or want to know what else our SMART boards can be used for.


This video gives even more help and techniques regarding the smart board.

The rest of the class time this week was spent catching up from the previous weeks on anything we may be behind on. I hope everyone has an amazing week 12!