Thing #10 Virtual Worlds

I still haven't received my email about virtual world and when I tried to sign up again, I was blocked saying that I had too many avatars.  Not quite sure how this happened,so in order to experience this "thing" I looked over the shoulder of my loving husbands as he navigated through this virtual world.

By far this will become an addiction to some.  The graphics are awesome and those of curious mind to explore have found a new playground.  I was surprised to find out how real this second life is.  You actually have to get "money" somehow.  Meaning your avatar has to get a job...very applicable in the real world for our kiddos.  Interacting with people was interesting.  They weren't as polite as I feel folks should be upon first meetings.  Replies were short and curt.  As a class we could discuss how to the characters could interacts better.  

This blog is going to edited several times as my view change.

Thing # 9 Slideshare

I think that I have happened across this technology before while searching for PPt presentations on various subjects. I never really thought about uploading them before, but I can see where this could be helpful. I can imagine some students searching for presentations created by others to compare to their own.

As a teacher I appreciate the idea that Joyce Valenza had about "parking" her presentations their in the event of her computer crashing and loosing what she has created.

Thing # 8 Screencasting

This is soooo neat. This could be used by a teacher who is doing work with his/her class in a computer lab and needs them to learn how to produce something. Now I screencasted how to open curriculum for new teachers from the homepage.  http://screencast.com/t/eVwCYb9TtF

Phases # 7 Video Resources

I've bookmarked several of these sites on my computer and know that I will revisit them this year. I'm always looking for those little pieces of "action" to grab my students attention~~especially for the topics that have a tendency to be on the least interesting side of science.

I found a video clip on BLINX about the phases of the moon. Really neat! I would embed this into an active presentation during the space unit. I'm having some difficulty posting it to my blog, but I'll keep trying.

The second video I found was about wave erosion. It was okay. I would use only bits of it to reinforce the powers of waves.

Thing # 6 iPHONE

I borrowed an IPHONE and it was really interesting. It seems that there is an application for just about anything you wanted to do. There were a few research applications that would really come in handy. PLANETS has all the latest astronomy information at your fingertips, UNITS does quick conversions from any measurement unit you can think of, MAPS is great for social studies for coordinate directions.

Thing #5 Facebook and Twitter

I'll chance being ridiculed for my post here. Like many folks I had a Facebook account and "reconnected" with lost friends for a good 6 months or so. Then I began to realize a disturbing trend with myself. More and more of my time was spent on these web sites and the balance between family and friends shifted. My 4 year old would ask me when I would be done on the computer so we could play. Instead of completing so work for school, I was choosing to spend that few minutes I had between the kids bedtime and mine on facebook. Sooo... I closed the account. And let me tell you it was a hard thing to do. I desperately want to sign back up, but the time I was spending on the site was not improving my life any.

Twitter I might give a try. I'm not really interested in what people do minute to minute, but I don't want to give it bad wrap when i haven't experienced it yet.

I did appreciate the advice and uses I read about from Vickie Davis. She must have good time management skills.

Thing #4 Video Hosting

I've always wondered about this. I was afraid that I would need special equipment, but from the soundof things this isn't the case. Unfortunately I don't have any video footage to upload. However, I think I could use this at t beginning of the year when reviewing lab safety. I bet the kids would get kick out of seeing themselves on the computer

Thing #3 Skype

Skype I had a hard time working with in the sense that I couldn't find anyone on line at the same time as me to Skype with. Most of my contacts online don't have a video camera capabilites. However this would be wonderful to do interviews with experts and other professionals in particular fields. Classroom collaboration between campuses for various projects would fit in nicely with this.