Tutorial on digital book

View my tutorial on how to create a digital book on PowerPoint.

I am really glad I created my tutorial on digital books. I plan on sharing my tutorial with my colleagues in a staff meeting. It was easy to create, because I just typed what I would have wanted to know. It is simple enough to give people as a handout for them to figure out on their own. I chose to create a tutorial on digital books, because my students and I are making a digital poetry book on Powerpoint this week. I easily forget things if I don't take notes, so it was important for me to create instructions for myself to use in the future. I learned how to use the print screen button--it is so easy, and makes reading the instructions much easier.

Tutorials really do make a world of difference. I would like to make some simple tutorials for my students, such as how to create a PowerPoint presentation. The print screen feature is so cool. I can't believe I had never learned how to do it before! I like to make the kind of tutorials that I would like to read...short, sweet, to the point, and with important things in bold. If it gets too complicated you might as well read the manual--and no one wants to do that. Maybe I'll get really ambitious and help my kids create their own tutorials after they become experts in a program. They would get a kick out of the print screen button.

Social Networking-an educational outlook

Facebook and Myspace have the potential to be very educational, but they must be used with caution. These sites are blocked in our school system. When we were at new teacher orientation, they told us (targeting high school teachers mostly) to absolutely refrain from adding our students as "friends." I think they were more concerned about teacher-student "relations" than anything else like online predators/bullying (which is probably more prevalent).

Educational benefits: Students can type their thoughts on certain topics in the "notes" section in facebook (which functions as a blog). They can join groups pertaining to issues they support (or don't support and wish to debate on). Students could email messages to other students about homework assignments. They could post digital video or photo projects onto their websites. Not to mention, it's always good to learn technology for technology's sake (ex. typing skills, discovering new ways to communicate). Why not use a form of technology that kids are really "into" (which they are apparently already into networking sites, considering the percentages of students who already have accounts) and "trick" them into thinking they are just having fun when they are really learning! Why not take advantage of a learning tool that kids are already motivated about?

While I advocate for the use of social networking sites, I also think safety education is very important. I know that kids can hear "safety guidelines" over and over and over, but many times they don't take these things seriously until something bad happens. This is why we as parents and educators are responsible for safeguarding kids and protecting their sites from predators. I personally would not want to take the responsibility for my studnts viewing bad language etc. via Facebook or Myspace. Sites like Ning seem a lot more promising. These sites would be a lot more useful in the classroom if all students had internet access at home. However, like the PBS article said, maybe this should turn into a community issue (ex. keep the library open longer). My superintendent claims that he eventually wants each kid to have his/her own laptop to take home daily. While a great idea, I couldn't help but laugh at the thought of my kids taking a big laptop home on the bus each day...we would never see them again!

Social Networking-What Facebook means to me

From a personal standpoint, I love social networking sites like Facebook. In fact, this may be strange to say, but I really think my life would be a lot different without Facebook. This is not to say that I live through my computer, but I do rely on it for a variety of things. I communicate with old friends that I may not otherwise think to connect with. It also keeps me up-to-date on a lot of "happenings" around ASU, home, and the world! There are so many different "groups" to join for different causes you support or discussion boards to debate on certain topics. The email on facebook is easy to use, and the "wall" is nice for a quick comment. I think it's great you can write a simple hello on someone's wall without having to write a lengthly email. You can also search so many different networks and locate old childhood friends. Even if I don't care to really "reconnect," I always think it is interesting to see where people end up. Facebook is a great way of just expressing who you are in a few lines. You can sum up what is most important for others to know about you, and update it whenver you want. What I love about facebook the most is being able to download my photos to albums! It is an easy way to let all my friends know what is going on in my life. It also serves as a good back-up in case my computer dies or my hard copies disappear...they will be saved on the internet! I can look at my pictures with such ease, and it makes it easy if I'm out of town and want to show my grandparents or somebody a vacation. You can also type "notes" on facebook, which is somewhat like a blog entry. I really enjoyed facebook more when it was only open to college people, but I can definitely understand why everyone would want to use it. It is also kind of annoying to me now that they added all of these extra features...every now and then I'll get a request for some neat application, but more often than not they are annoying. All in all, I give Facebook an A++

Random

A. Even if you cite a source for a picture, it doesn't necessarily mean you're supposed to use it.
B. I made a few minor changes in my Zunal Webquest.
C. I love that I know how to make cool hyperlinks like this one to my webquest .

You know you're in the Reading program when.....

....you see the CVCC sign (for Catawba Valley Community College), and all you can think of is "consonant, vowel, consonant, consonant."

Delicious/Social Bookmarking

I really like Delicious bookmarking. I can already tell it will be very helpful for personal and educational purposes. It was so easy to sign-up! I can't believe I had never heard of sites like this before this class. Every time I think I am fairly caught up with all the new technology, there is always something new to learn! I had trouble downloading my buttons at home, (something about my toolbar) but the installation was extremely easy at school.

I was inspired by Cher's idea about making a school-wide bookmarking site. I always get so many emails about useful websites for school, but they are all lost in my email folders somewhere. I was thinking about it a lot today because I got a new teacher computer (which means my old teacher computer will be the students' new computer). I was frustrated because my Favorites won't be on my new computer. Then I remembered DELICIOUS...yay! Well, as I'm writing this Cher just told me her school-wide attempt to use Delicious didn't work, because her county didn't let her add the buttons. The buttons work at my school, though, so I'm going to give it a try. We'll see. Either way, I'm so excited about my new flat screen computer!!

Online Publishing

Check out this site on online publishing. It is an awesome ALA website that describes ways students can become authors online. It mentions several child-friendly internet resources to create digital stories, book reviews, and E-zines.

Digital Poetry

I thought of a digital idea I want to try in my class. I'm about to do a unit on poetry, and I'm going to introduce my favorite poem "Sick" by Shel Silverstein. I think it would be cool for each kid to act out part of the poem. Then I can take pictures of them and have a digital poem! I guess this is only exciting to you if you know the poem.

Update: Now that I have created a digital poem, I have been thinking about other reasons to use digital texts in my class:
-It uses less paper
-storage is easy
-easy to publish
-my students (and anyone else) can view it forever
-can be used to inform (give directions on how to do something)
-can be used to entertain (record memories from a class trip)
-can be used for struggling readers-they can read a book with auditory/visual support with the click of a button!

Communication Software

I really enjoyed making my Springdoo video (except for the whole part about having to watch and listen to myself). It was a fairly easy process compared to what I was expecting. I just had trouble figuring out how to upload it in the beginning. I hope it is as easy to use in school as it was for me at home. Some of my classmates had bad stories of how it worked one place and wouldn't work other places. When I get more comfortable with it, I want my students to send a video to our penpal in Kuwait.

I'm so proud of myself for figuring out Gaggle! When I first tried to add the user list it kept saying "file corrupt." I also felt that the site was a little confusing. It would have taken me a while to find where to go if we hadn't all been figuring it out together. On a positive note, I emailed the Gaggle people and asked them why it kept saying "file corrupt" (and expecting to get a non-helpful automated response back)....and they immediately sent me a template to download! I was so impressed! I finally got around to adding my students' user names/passwords in. We are going to start emailing as soon as I can think of some good topics to email on. Someone said literature circles, which I think it a great idea! I think the chat room could be even more beneficial than the email. I still need to learn how to work the chat room, though.