BP1_Google Reader

  

Third time’s the charm! I have encountered RSS feeds in past tech classes in my district. The first time, I was really confused and didn’t get far. Part of the reason may have been overload, as we learned a lot of different Web 2.0 tools in a short time and I was probably pretty fried by the time we got to RSS.

  Later I tried it again in a different tech class and understood more, but found I didn’t have the time to keep up with it.  A lot of the skills I now have I gained by going back again, revisiting the class or topic, and trying again. There is so much to learn, it sometimes requires a little time to digest and revisit a skill before it is mastered.

  I expect this time with be the occasion for mastering RSS. However, I didn’t want to just throw some feeds onto Google Reader as part of an assignment. I wanted my RSS feeds to be things I’d really use. These are the first five RSS feeds I decided to add in Google Reader.

New Media Consortium

  The first feed I added was to New Media Consortium (NMC). It looked really fantastic! The site really focuses on emerging technologies and education. Actually, it looked a little overwhelming, but there were online opportunities for seminars and it looked like a good way to be aware of what is happening on the cutting edge of emerging technologies.

FSO Digital Arts Community

  I was happy to find the FSO Digital Arts Community site has an RSS feed. There is some incredibly creative stuff going on there. Zoe invited me to join the other day and it led me to an animation, Azureus Rising – Proof of Concept, that was really amazing. What was more amazing was the interview with the award-winning short movie’s composer, which I shared with my son. He is studying to be a composer, and I thought the interview would encourage him. Aside from that, I have kids at school who would be good candidates for a career in animation, film making, and other kinds of digital arts. By being aware of what is going on in the digital arts, I can offer my students encouragement and point them in the right direction if they want to pursue schooling in these areas.

Discovery Learning

  Next I turned to Discovery Learning. Our school subscribes to this site, so, as a member, I was able to get a feed that will let me know when new media is added. They have so many resources, I would probably not know about new ones without this RSS feed. Unfortunately, others would need a subscription to see inside the Discovery Learning site; however, having this feed will be valuable to me as I use this resource in my classroom fairly often. The site even allows teachers to set up student accounts. These allow students to search the video, pictures, and articles to do research. It even allows students to take clips from various movies to make their own presentation about a topic.

Tech & Learning 

 Tech & Learning web site seemed to have a lot of content covering a wide variety of topics concerning using technology in the classroom. In addition to articles, blogs, webinars, and forums, the site has a magazine and a section discussing best practices for the classroom. I am looking forward to exploring this site in more detail

teach42.com blog by Steve Denbo    
 This blog is written by Steve Denbo, who is on the staff with Discovery Learning. He is deeply involved in teaching educators Web 2.0 skills and often presents at Discovery Learning workshops around the country. 

  Reading Steve’s blog is fun, as well as informative. He is on the cutting edge of issues involved in helping teachers to integrate Web 2.0 skills. He is usually pretty up-to-date about new things that educators can use, too.  Sometimes his blog will remind me of something I heard in a workshop, but forgot to try. At other times, Steve discusses the challenges teachers face or new Web 2.0 applications that are just coming into use.  He also discusses sites which were not thinking about teachers when they were created, but have become popular with educators, and why.

RSS feed icon courtesy of http://www.wikepediacommons.org 

Sweet Animation

I recently joined the FSO Digital Arts Community. I really admire the work that is shared there. I found this really sweet proof of concept animation, which is posted on You Tube by its creators. I went to their home web site and found an interview with the composer of the music for this video. This interested me because my younger son, Phillip, is currently majoring in music and wants to be a composer for video games and the like. I sent him the link because I thought he'd find the interview with this composer inspiring.

Hope you enjoy it! The animation is superb.

What's going on in Mrs. Ort's classroom?

As part of our Training and Motivational Development class, we were asked to make a video describing our use of technology in the classroom. I have to say, I would not know how to use most of the Web 2.0 tools I use if it were not for Janene Kosman, the director of our Tech department. She has held workshops every year, teaching Web 2.0 skills and helping teachers to use technology in the classroom.

I have to say, I rather like the MacBook Pro that came with my college masters program at Full Sail University. I have learned to use many of the "i"s(iPhoto, iMovie, iWeb), as well as a lot of other Mac software. Garage Band is pretty cool. I'm trying out different things. For this video I wanted a New Age kind of sound, but it isn't a choice in Garage Band. I messed about a bit with the program and got a blend of instruments I liked, then I played with the tempo. Close enough.

Now I need to turn my attention to our team's final project and my Action Research project. I also need to finish installing Comic Life on my computers at school so we can start using it Monday.

Technology in My Classroom

One of my assignments for my Full Sail University Online course in Training and Motivational Development calls for me to make a video about the technology I use in my classroom. I decided to include a Wordle to help make the visual point that actually, over the past four years, I have learned to use quite a few things.  I did not list things I learned about in workshops but have not incorporated yet. I should finish by video later today, at which time I plan to post it here, too.

My other task is to refine my topic for my Action Research Project. I've had a pretty good idea about what I want to do, but I have to think about how I will measure my results.  I also think I need to narrow my topic a bit. You can check out my AR web site using the link in the right hand side-bar on this blog page.