John's Blog

I have begun to administer my own Blog site.  I have registered my own domain name and created my own Blog Site that I administer

John’s new Blog site

First question is: How do you make it STOP! Second question: Once you make it stop, how do you make it start and stop per the viewer’s initiation?

Well I finally got it to work after another review with Craig and then a whole lot of trial and error.  I actually have another version of this flash video that is cooler than this one that I made accidently by a mistake formatting this video.  I would have published it but I have no idea what I did to create the effects that I have so I didn’t want to show it until I figure out exactly what I did to create the effects in the first place.

My flash video isn’t to sophisticated but I felt like I made progress in learning how to use the software a little bit better.  I look forward to learning more and more.  I can see how this can get rather addicting

Learn more about this project

I enjoyed learning how to use the various functions of scratch and learning how to combine them into an overall education game.  I chose to develop a basic multiplication a[[lication that will hopefully be interesting to a young student but not too distracting as to interfere with their learning the multiplication tables.  I started by searching existing math scratch apps until I found one that provided basic computational skills although the app that I copied was for geaometry but it provided the building blocks to build my multiplication app.  Initially, I wasn not able to find all of the items on my screen because the copied program contained a box that stored the final answers and another that tracted the input of numbers by the player.  These items where not included in the sprite category but I found them embedded in the Library Options that allowed you to ‘create an item’.  Once created, I had to embed the initial two number answers into the created item through an import of a .txt file.  Once I figured all that out it was just a matter of adding movement, sounds, color changes, etc.  If I have more time I’d like to make the app more sofisticated in what is programmed to occur on the screen.

One thing that I did have an issue with is the fact that the embedded scratch code on my site is already started before anyone clicks the flag.  I tried a few different ways to prevent this from occurring but wasn’t able to figure this out so I plan to ask our teachers how to resolve this issue.  I am looking forward to learning more and more as there is a world of knowledge out there on the blogging internet to learn!

It took me quite awhile playing around with GIMP software to figure out how to add layers of pictures onto the newly edited picture that you see here. Once I got it to work it was a satisfying experience but prior to that it was a bit frustrating. I’m still not sure how layering works so I’m hoping to get a bit more explanation from Craig and Ryan.

Western Vacation

I initially had a lot of difficulty in getting my PC configured to run the Prezi software. I had never configured my machine to record and had misplaced the microphone, so I had to purchase another microphone and spent over an hour figuring out how to get the microphone to record during the Prezi presentation. Once I got the audio working, it was fairly easy to figure out how to record the video presentation but it took me awhile digging through the Preezi Help screens to creat a share icon and then save it to screencast.com. Once saved, i had to read the help some more to figure out that the embed code is saved to the clipboard. i would suspecth that the more you use Prezi for recording the better you will get in putting together presentations.

During our last class I spoke with Craig and Ryan about my desire to pursue more School District Administrative applications for our class assignments.  Although I am interested in Web 2.0 Classroom Applications, I wanted to investigate the tools and applications that could be established at a school wide or district wide  level.  Towards this goal, Craig and Ryan suggested that I investigate UNITEDSTREAMING.COM or CONFLUENCE or PBWORKS.   

I did have success in logging onto the PBWorks site and was able to acquire my own Basic site access free.  There is a Campus license for $799 and a classroom license for $99.  The Basic access allocated 2GB of storage for use in setting up a collaborative Wiki site.  Establishing this wiki site is similiar in many respects to our setting up our individual Blog sites but the main difference is that the Wiki site can be accessed and worked on by multiple individuals simultaneously. I invited Ryan, Craig and Danielle to have access to my pbwork site and now I am in the process updating the site to make it useful for collaborative purposes.

https://johntcnjblog.pbworks.com/session/loggedout

When I investigated UNITEDSTREAMING, I initially had trouble finding Web 2.0 apps that I could access for free. Ryan pointed me in the right direction by looking ‘Under Classroom Resources there is a subheading for Featured Content and the first option is something called Web20.10   www.unitedstreaming.com  There are lots of links to different Web2.0 tools for use in the classroom. Some will require administrative support especially those under Community Tools. Many of the Web2.0 tools that teachers use in the classroom can also be used by administration to engage teachers.

The Discovery Site has great resources for teachers to better understand various applicationsof Web 2.0 tools.  One video helped my understanding by explaining that there are 3 Characteristics of Web 2.0, they are 1) Interactive, 2) accessible via the internet adn 3) Collaborative.  77% of School Superintedents surveys attested to the following 7 benefits of Web 2.0, which are 1) Leads to higher levels of Engsagement, 2) differentiation in Learning Styles, 3) Critical Thinking, 4) ZNew Capabilities, 5) Alternative Learning Environments, 6) Extended Learning and 7) Life Long learning skills.  Web 2.0 Tools can be classified into the following tool catagories: 1) Presentation, 2) Video, 3) Mobile, 4) Imaging Editors, 5) Community tools and 6) Best of the Rest.

A very helpful guide for helping you understand Web 2.0 Tools is the following link which provides a Web 2.0 Tescher’s Resource Guide.  http://cdwg.discoveryeducation.com/web2.0/Web2.0.pdf

The slideshare.net site allows you to upload existing presentations onto the Web for access by anyone with internet access.  It allows you to add mp3 links and add your voice to align with your slides for a more complete presentation.  The following is an example of what can be done using this web application: 

Another presentation Web 2.0 site is: http://280slides.com/   It allows the user to create presentations on the Web with audio, video, links, etc.

Since Seaside Heights is getting a ‘bad rep’ these days from the MTV show Jersey Shore, I figured I’d like to highlight some of the fun more wholesome ‘family’ attractions that are available at Seaside Heights. There are plenty of places for families to enjoy themselves such as: the water Park, Go-Cart Rides, Amusement Piers and a nearby trip to pristine Island Beach State Park for the day and Seaside Heights for good food and entertainment.

View Jersey shore – Seaside Heights in a larger map

I intially had some technical difficulty in trying to figure out how to create and tag my personalized map but like most things once I figured it out it was fairly easy and straight forward.

A very interesting show was presented on PBS tonight (Tues 02/02/10) that is pertinent to our course of study.  The show investigated the history, impacts and future considerations of our current digital age.  It is well worth your time to view some or all (if you’re not too busy multi-tasking) of the presentation.  The show can be viewed at:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/

Using Blogs to Integrate Technology in the classroom

I found this article to be very helpful because it succinctly explained the positive usages of blogs in an educational environment and gave practical applications of the use of blogs.      

The article espouses the use of educational blogs as a powerful and effective technology tool for both students and  teachers because they can be worked on at virtually any time and in any place through access of a computer with internet connectivity.   Since blogs are relatively easy to use and only require a minimum of technical knowledge they are ideally suited for the average teachers, who often feels intimidated by their students superior computer skills and experience in accessing the internet.  Blogs unlike traditional web sites are easy to design and maintain through the administrative support tools provided.

In addition to Blogs being excellent tools for communicating with students they also provide various educational benefits.  They are highly motivating to all students but especially to those students who may not participate as actively in class a desired.  Blogs provide an excellent opportunity for students to read and write in a setting and media they enjoy and prefer and can be used to enable scaffolded learning or mentoring to occur.  They provide an excellent environment for group assignments requiring collaboration and discussion groups.

Educational blogs have been shown to useful in accommodating different learning styles through integrating learning assignments in a multi-faceted approach.  Four uses of blogs in the classroom are: classroom management, collaboration, discussion and student portfolios.  Blogs can easily be used to inform students of class requirements, homework assignments, posting of handouts, classroom notes, notices and act as a question and answer board.  Assignment collaboration can be fostered through a blog as a place for open communication between the students and the teacher.  Teachers can offer instructional tips and students can practice and benefit from peer review.  Classroom discussions can be used in conjuncture with collaboration as blogs provides a forum and an opportunity for open dialog of topics and assignments outside of the classroom. Each person has an opportunity to share their thoughts and opinions and time to reflex and react to the postings of the other students.  Blogs are also an invaluable repository of a student’s portfolio.  They provide a place to store and archive all of the student’s assignment, writings and projects in the various stages of development.

While blogs present tremendous benefits there are also some potential risks that need to be considered in regard to the proper use of blogs.  Because of these risks many school districts have developed guidelines of acceptable use polocies (AUP).  These policies delineate the acceptable standards of use of the blogs by all members of the school community since they are in the public domain.   In order to protect studets and adhere to the district standards steps should be taken to prepare students for the use of blogs within the classroom and school environment.  Some examples of thes steps are outlined in the article.

Of interest to special education teachers is the following blog: 50 Best Blogs for Special Educatin Teachers