Final Blog...bum bum bum

This will be my last and final blog entry..for now. I have learned a lot in my computer applications class, such as new applications that I can use as a learning tool in my future classroom. I look forward to embarking on my journey as an educator, but am SO excited to have a break for the summer. Everything is handed in, and my portfolio if finally done!! I thought that would never happen :) This has been a great class, and I look forward to learning more as I pursue my Ed Tech minor at the University of Northern Iowa.

Digital Portfolio Nightmare

I have had quite the trouble with this digital portfolio. It is due this coming Monday, and I am starting to freak out. It is a lot of work, but I know that it will be put to good use in the future. I feel as though I have most of it done, and then I come to a section that has yet to be completed. So much work, for a benefit that will come in the future. This has been a great class, and I have learned a lot. But honestly, it will be a relief when it is over. I have been stressed about finals and can't wait for all of this to be over. 

My portfolio is under construction, and I find the most difficult part is typing out all of the reflections and aligning the standards. This is difficult for me, but hey, I guess as a teacher I have to get used to busy work like this on a regular basis. Yay for Educators!!! :) 

Delicious

Delicious is a great way to incorporate social bookmarking into the classroom. As a teacher, I hope to use this as a great tool to keep my personal lessons on file. This will make it easier to incorporate these lessons and keep them on file for a later date. In my classroom, I will have my students use this as a bookmarking tool to keep their research files straight. For instance, if I need to have the students turn in a bibliography for a research paper, they will be able to keep all of their resources they used on file without having to try to keep track of them. This is a great site that I will definitely be using in my future classroom.

http://delicious.com/network/turnagem

Prezi Presentation

This is a small presentation I did over the unit I will be teaching to the class on April 23rd, which is GPS units. This was a great website to become familiar with as I will use it in my future classroom either as a teaching tool or a learning tool for my students' to use.

http://www.screencast.com/users/turnagem/folders/Default/media/55c7552c-0fb9-4dc0-9fd1-27801b7056d3

Is it Superman?...Batman?...No! It's Zotero!!

We learned about Zotero today in class. It is a really neat website because it eliminates sites such as Knightcite or other bibliography sites. This is handy because it can be a pain to sometimes go back in and remember websites that you were at previously. This also would be useful for not only educational purposes, but personal purposes as well. In the classroom, this would be helpful at all ages. No matter what the grade level, this would be a wonderful tool to use as a teacher or a student. Great website! I am glad I learned a lot more about it.

Google "Mess-Up"

You call it Google SketchUp...I call it Google MessUp. I did horrible on this! Although it would be a good tool in the classroom, I need a LOT more practice! :) 

Tweet Tweet Tweet

Today we learned about the application called "Twitter." I previously knew nothing about Twitter, so this was something that I came into completely blind-sided. I created an account before class, but that was about all. Basically, twitter just sends out updates about what people are doing. The kicker is, the update has to be less than 140 characters. This is basically like a "facebook" for the older, more mature technology user. 

Integrating this application into the classroom can reap a lot of positive benefits, or also cause a negative effects. An application that I found that would be useful in the classroom was called  "tweetscan." This is an app that weeds out all of the searches that don't have anything to do with your topic, and only give you the posts that deal with your topic directly. According to tweetscan.com, "In the innovative world of Microblogging, one site aims to organize it all. Tweet Scan searches Twitter, identi.ca, and other Laconica-based sites with more being added all the time." This would be useful in the classroom when having a book talk. For example, you could type in the title of your book, lets say, "To Kill a Mockingbird," and you would read what other people had to say about it. You could pick someone to follow, and either form a book talk group or club, and discuss your thoughts on the book. You can either agree or disagree with someone's feelings on the book based on their thoughts posted in their answer to "what are you doing?" This would be useful in the classroom because it would integrate technology into the classroom when it could originally have been absent.  This gets students who are constantly on the computer trying to sneak on their myspace or "facebook" a reason to actually enjoy getting online in the classroom and it be allowed. This application would come in handy for this type of project because it allows a "search" of posts made by people and the students in the classroom would be allowed to research someone to follow and comment on their book reviews.

This could also be a negative thing in the classroom because students would have free reign of the website "Twitter" and could basically search, or post, whatever they like. The teacher would have to monitor the classroom very carefully to make sure that this would be used for educational purposes only. The username the students would create would all be fake names, to protect the privacy of the students names online. The usernames would all be "exampleturnage" with the same tag for each student. This would make it easier to follow the students and also monitor their posts. 

I feel like tweetscan in conjunction with tweeter would be a great and fun way to integrate technology into a High School English classroom. It would be difficult to monitor, but I feel that students researching others' opinions on books discussed in class would encourage discussion and in-depth thinking about literature in the classroom.