Learned a lot - the blog title says it all

Let's put it this way, everyone who has participated in this ICT course has benefitted tremendously. A lot of work, yes. A lot of hard work, definitely. I know that I intend to use these tools to design and implement materials that will help me to achieve the learning objectives outlined in each syllabus that I have to deliver.

Even if I never become a Reading Specialist, there are way too many children who cannot read and write properly and I know that I can help them in some way. This may be in the classroom or out of school. I can only hope that the use of new technologies would encourage students to take advantage of opportunities to become better readers and improve their lives.

The end is nigh!

After reading the (really nice!) comment to my last post I can admit I'm even more intrigued by podcasting. I'm sure you'll find this elsewhere but I found this really cool video on Vimeo. Vimeo has a ton of education-related stuff and is easy to join. Here's the link http://vimeo.com/926896

Anyway I think I need to post one more comment on a blog, but I'm not too sure. Just to be safe I'm going to do it now. Bye.

Podcasting

Been considering using a podcast for one of the lesson plans. Know what I want to do and how to do it. I'm just not too sure that my students would want to hear my voice. They already have to listen to it all the time. So my big plan is to get one of my friends to do the reading for me. Anybody think this is a good idea or not? Opinions accepted.

This was interesting http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/how-to-podcast.htm especially the part about making sure it's something you enjoy.

E-books library

I've been wondering about the feasibility of having an e-books library at school. Not sure library is the right word, maybe collection is better. I wouldn't be able to do this on my own but if other teachers create works we could probably put them in the Student Resources folder in the school's system.

This would also include content area material that students could access on their own. I know that teachers are sensitive about resource material that they put their hard work into, so each e-book could be credited to the author (teacher). The reason for developing authentic work is to cater to our local needs. Although I haven't ruled out downloading material I think this is a better option.

Who knows maybe as members of this MEd. program, people would like to share what they have created for use within our schools. And there are tools to manage your collection, such as Calibre. Just a thought.  

Blogs & Podcasts

Thought this was an interesting read http://ijttl.sicet.org/issue0802/4_2_3_Banister.pdf. Sounds a lot like what we were doing in this course.

I liked that the author:

• recognizes that many people have no access to these technologies
• clearly states the advantages of blogs and podcasts for reading instruction
• provided some relevant examples

Think I'll check out that PodOMatic program.

Ok this one is about nothing (much)

Can't think of a title for this post as yet but I'll figure it out. It is a real hoot reading all your comments. Thanks for all the encouragement. 

I know this isn't supposed to be a blog about yourself or your life or anything like that but I really don't know what the heck to write about! Those in class who would "associate" themselves with me have already figured out that I'm kind of a nut. Not a weird, insane, slice you into little pieces kind of nut, just a well...nut - the friendly kind.

I got this email inviting me to attend a Ministry session about the laptop initiative. Really hope this does happen because our students deserve it. Not because of 20/20 vision, or we need to keep up or it's an election promise. Simply because they deserve the best if we can afford it.

If you're a teacher you're also a caregiver (not a babysitter), and it doesn't matter which school you teach in there are deprived children. Deprivation varies only in degrees. The really good ones in government schools have to deal with the peer pressure that comes with being 'good'.

Believe me I'm no idealistic, goody-two-shoes. Those children know their place where I am concerned.

I just had this horrendous Form 3 class (and 'horrendous' should be italicized, capitalized, in bold, red, you get the picture).  At the end of last term they told me that they all wanted to do Social Studies in Form 4 with me.

Did I emphasize horrendous enough before? My choice words for them included "No!" and "Never!", among others. Of course I will end up with some in my class. On the up side I can always concept map them! Never forget to look for that elusive silver lining I say.

Back to the laptops, it would be great to share all of this stuff with those Form 1s. I'm a bit concerned that in my eagerness to share my newly-found Web 2.0 super powers that I'll end up bombarding students with TMI in too short a space of time. Anybody can relate?

Here's a little info about the law of thirds (photography, remember?) We have been socialized to read from the upper left to end at the lower right. Hebrew and Arabic are read from right to left. So unless you have really interesting material to fill a photo with, stick to keeping your subject closer to where the first vertical and horizontal lines would intersect to capture your viewer's attention.    

This is a nice intro http://www.ehow.com/how_2263114_use-rule-thirds-photo-composition.html and the before and after examples here are great http://photospot2004.blogspot.com/2004/07/rule-of-thirds.html

I hope this helps

I've deliberated about writing this post but it is something that has been bugging me and so here goes.
My posts may not always reflect it but I know that there are a lot of good things about our education system.

1. It has produced all of the wonderful, hard-working, competent, dedicated teachers that are involved in this MEd. and many more besides,
2. Our initiative makes the obstacles we as teachers face, look like a 2-piece jigsaw puzzle
3. We want the best for our students, not just academically, we want them to be everything they want to be and more

I accept that there is a lot that we've learned, and a lot that we want to share. The thing is a whole session was held on the format of a blog that would capture and hold the reader's attention, adult, child, teacher, student, and on and on.

If we as teachers do not model and implement what we want our students to do, we can become as technologically literate and brilliant as we want to be it won't help as much as it should.

Can we start with our blog posts please?
My emphasis is not on content but on delivery so don't think that I'm flaming anyone. In other words you don't have to agree or disagree, you can just leave it be.

Although I wasn't there I understand from the online notes that Audacity was used. This is an excellent and easy way to add any kind of audio - music, voice, effects to a wide variety of media (ppt, video) for use with students. Just remember to save your files in the correct format, wav or mp3 (wav is smaller in size).
Here are some good reviews http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/Top100Tools/audacity.html and the simplest how-to online tutorial that I could find (without writing it myself) http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Audacity.
Experiment that's the only way you'll get it right!

A few ideas to add to your digital storytelling

I've been thinking about the sessions on digital storytelling and was trying to figure out where I've used something similar, although not for the same purpose. This site http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/jan02/banaszewski.htm gives a good idea of how you can use iMovie (a Macintosh program) to get students involved in the creation of their own stories.
The whole process is not as complex as you might think and it is outlined very simply on this page. Most people will not own a Mac but other options are:

• Windows Moviemaker is similar and as easy to use
• Windows 7 has muvee (which I have not used)

I also found this http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools which does give some good (and some not so good) free online programs to create a story.

• # 53 Slideshare is good and simple
• # 65 Zooburst looks way cool!

As always the most important thing to remember is to synchronize your objectives and your teaching strategy/ies so that students not only have fun and are interested, but learn!

E-books and learning

This site http://www.neirtec.org/reading_report/report.htm has a bunch of useful information about the use of technology to help children to read. I am especially interested in the use of e-books to improve fluency.

The good points about e-books include

• being a good model of fluent oral reading
• in-built help with decoding
• visual highlighting of text to aid in reading with expression
• different levels enable readers to challenge themselves
• speech recognition
• assessments can lead to further instructional designs

Hope that I can produce some quality work in this area to help my own students.

Still learning!

Learned a lot from yesterday's class. Who knew blog formatting could be so crucial?
To reflect my newly-found knowledge I have:

• Changed the post header colour & font size
• Darkened the post text colour
• Changed the page layout
• Started using bullets

Lastly, new posts will definitely be shorter.
Check here for some suggestions http://www.makeyougohmm.com/20060125/2865/
I like the last one the best!

Jeez, my manners are totally non-existent these days. A special thanks to Lisha for your comment and becoming a follower of this blog. Hope to hear from you again soon!

The usefulness of blogs in teaching

I came across this article, http://www.rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/cho4462z9.htm, which made me understand more clearly not only the purpose of blogs in education, but some of the philosophy behind their usage.

The learner-focused blog which allows students to interact with their peers as well as the instructor appears to be the most suitable. The idea is for classmates to help one another through collaboration and discussion, hopefully with a good deal of research somewhere in between.  

Let me state right now that I am a big fan of technology - I'm not a tech-junkie, but I know that I couldn't live without all the everyday devices we know and love so well - starting with my (sometimes) trustworthy computer. Blogs, wikis, podcasts, all this terrific stuff that is supposed to be used by me to help students be better readers.

Guess what, I don't teach in a school "behind God back", but I am a realist and an optimist. I know that it will take some time for many of my students to become familiar, and then comfortable with the use of technology. And I'm going to have to be the one to teach them this too.      

If there is one thing this M. Ed. should have done a better job at it is this, give me some solid ideas about how to integrate the non-tech with the tech stuff. After all if my students don't know how to spell 'enter' can I really tell them to press the 'enter' key now?

ABTW there are two of these on a keyboard!

It's been a long time!!!

Ok, first by way of explanation, this is a blog that I created about three years ago and I've decided not to eliminate the previous posts because they are a part of mine and a few other people's (Susie, Paula) history.
I've viewed a few of the blogs created for this programme and they're all pretty good. I think that we should all be careful (myself included) with font size and colour, and the colours used on our blogs.
Remember a lot of struggling readers have difficulty with too small type or dark-on-dark (or light-on-light) font and background. The first thing you learn with remedial students is bigger font is always better (for them, remember!)
Anyway that's it and hope I get some posts here. Thanks!