Thursday, November 19, 2009

Slide Show Online Tool

I found a fun site the other day thanks to a web design student who showed me Maria Childs' site. Sometimes we have to take ideas where we can.

I put some photos of my kids and my icon in there, but there were dozens of different themes you could use for other, professional, projects.

http://www.slide.com/r/DAvX8tCs4j-qkQJV7twOnA9Xq5S0Pgcy?previous_view=lt_embedded_url

Click on the link above to see the result.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Thanks to Jennifer Jackson's blog suggestion, I have joined Classroom 2.0. I wonder what that will mean for me down the road...


Visit Classroom 2.0


I hope to have some contacts for some collaborative activities in the coming months, and I think this site might provide the contacts for those activities.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Google Docs

A couple weeks ago, when we first met, I was already familiar with Google Docs but had not yet used them with my classes. I decided to take on creating a presentation for my classes using Google Docs so that students who missed class could still have access to the presentation over Mythological Gods & Godesses from Ancient Greece (We're starting the Odyssey).

Here's the presentation:


I adapted it in PowerPoint so that there were animations. This way I could discuss things as they came up, but these were the final slides that students would see. I think it will come in handy when they review for the test, and I look forward to polling them to see how many used it (it is a link on my website).

Monday, November 9, 2009

What do social networks look like?

I have been driven by a problem for the last couple days; people are more and more commonly finding their personal connections online. Aside from Facebook, where every bit of a person's identity and personality is viewable by whomever they chose, what social networks exist for people?

One that I found was gather.com. This site allows people to find and read and comment on topics within certain groups. Most groups seem organized by topic or by singular interest. The difference between just a topic site and this type of social network seems to lie entirely in the ability of people to comment on posts by the other members.

It is that interaction (rather than just a place to read) that most people seek, but what of those of us who don't specifically seek out the ability to tell people how great or horrible they are. What of people who would rather let others alone and just read interesting and well-thought out articles?

I suppose it all boils down to this: what true value is there for people on online social networks?

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Web 2.0 Tools

Whenever I start something new, I always get really gung-ho about it and dive right in. In this case, I actually get to share some things I discovered about "web 2.0".

I came across agreat web 2.0 wiki that I thought others could benefit from in our class. It's created by an educator, and the links seem pretty good.

My personal favorite on this site (so far) is yodio (http://www.yodio.com) which allows you to link audio to a slideshow. This would be really helpful for students who miss a slide presentation like PowerPoint to be able to view the show. I think it could also be used to benefit students who are working on individual projects, allowing them to create a presentation for the class about their topic.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

First Post


Hello! I'm posting my first blog for my grad class. This is my daughter Veronica when she was only a week old. She's five months now, but I really just wanted to brag.