Saturday, April 17, 2010

Wiki Assignment Reflection

This is the page I made on the wiki:
http://k12instructionaltechnology.wikispaces.com/DiigoLessonPlan

And I contributed to the resources my Prezi find :)
http://k12instructionaltechnology.wikispaces.com/ELABlogs
You can check it out here: http://prezi.com/my/

I would consider using wiki's in my classroom because they are accessible even once your students have passed through my classroom. I also think that it is an excellent way for students to share work with each other. Additionally, it seems that students rarely get a chance to "publish" their work so a wiki sort of verifies their hard work.

Friday, April 9, 2010

PREZI MAGIC

Okay I have been introduced to this new program that is an alternative to powerpoint and I am in love with it! You really should check it out here on prezi.com

The Road Movie





This may have been my most frustrating project because i had to redo it three times. I guess imovie doesn't like me or something but it is finally finished, hooray! I published it twice here in two different ways just for fun!

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Internet Safety

What you learned from Videos and articles?

Top 5 ways teens are comprimising their identities:
I was surprised to hear that people steal the identities of children, my mind had never even gone there before. I really support spreading knowledge to teenagers who unknowingly give out personal information online. Explicit instruction about internet safety seems to be a great way to protect students.

Growing Up Online: HOnestly it is hard for me to think that I am at all outdated but this brought to mind how different my upbringing was from the children around me. My nephew, for instance, gets to play with his dad's itouch as a little entertainment and he is less than 2 years old. I suddenly had the realization of how much technology has changed and evolved since I was little.

Let Our Voices Be Heard by Elder Ballard,
Finding and Sharing the Gospel Online,
Things as They Really Are by Elder Bednar: I loved all of these gospel perspectives on the internet. It made me really reflect on how inspired and up to date these men are. It was also nice to read about how the internet can be a danger and a resource. Battling this dichotomy offers yet another opportunity to use our discernment. I thought that Elder Bednar's talk in particular was so refreshing. It took into consideration the current state of deterioration of humanity based on a cyber-existence. It seemed like such a refresher to have Elder Bednar explain how reality is not what we see online but rather the interactions that we have.



Who I taught and how it went?
Luckily my visiting teachers were nice enough to let me teach them a little bit about internet safety in a casual way. They seemed interested in hearing how identity theft is a major threat. I think because they are from an older generation than I am they are even more weary of the internet, which is good for safety but possible crippling aswell.

Goals I have as a teacher...
As a teacher I want to create a safe environment where my students feel empowered by their knowledge of the internet. If they know how to stay safe while searching and learning then they will have a better experience in the classroom.

Finals Project

For finals I would be willing to share my class website! That was the most exciting thing for me to create this semester and it is something that I really want to use in my classroom.

Here is a link to my website:

https://sites.google.com/site/mrschristensensclasssite/

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Advertisements for Class

If you were teaching about advertisements in class here are some excellent examples to use. They can answer the following questions:
1. Who constructed this message?
2. What techniques are used to attract my attention?
3. How might different people understand this message differently form me?
4. What lifestyles, values and points of view are represented in, or omitted from, this message?
5. Why is the message being sent?



Copyright and teachertube






These are two videos that animate poetry. Being able to visualize poetry can commonly be one of the most challenging parts of comprehension. With these two videos students would be able to utilize multiple modalities in order to understand the poems at hand. As far as copyright goes, these videos seem to be a little bit on the edge of whether they are within their rights or not. They are using it for educational purposes but they are taking published poetry and making it free to everyone. In my opinion it wouldn't harm the market but they are using the poems in their entirety.

Technology Competition

I was really impressed with the idea of a class wiki mostly because I have participated in two class wiki's here on campus and I have found them extremely helpful. Being able to access class information long after you have completed the class is an excellent way for students to access prior knowledge and activate schema through participation in the wiki. I think that as teachers we all hope that our students will carry something on with them after they have left our classrooms and through wikis there is something more concrete to hold on to.