Week 9- Social Tools & Cloud Computing

This week in class we learned about cloud computing. Rather than having to constantly e-mail attatchments back and forth, cloud computing allows you to use server-based applications. We looked at Google Docs, which is a very useful tool. Docs allows everyone to collaborate and view a project or document, without the hassle of emailing. Social bookmarking applications, such as Delicious, takes the hassle away of constantly adding websites to your favorites list. Delicious makes bookmarking organized and easy to search for with tags.

As a future educator, I could definitely see myself using social tools and cloud computing. If I wanted my students to work on a project, I would use Google Docs to view their progress and add comments. Social bookmarking would also be useful in the education field. Teachers could show other teachers helpful websites that go hand-in-hand with their lesson plan using Delicious.

Below is a video I found on YouTube that deal with social bookmarking in education. It introduces Edtags, which is a website where people can share resources relevant to the field of education. It is a collaboration of students and teachers, who share documents and websites that could be useful in the classroom. It is similar to Delicious, but contains only education related resources.

Sound File

Sound File.wma - Megan Oftedal

Hey everyone! Above is my sound file that I recorded using Windows Sound Recorder. It's just me talking for a couple of seconds. I think the use of sound files would be very helpful in the education field, especially when creating presentations for students. Teachers must make lessons fun and interactive for children, and adding sounds will keep the kids' attention. I'm glad I have the knowledge to put sound files in presentations because it will help me be a more effective teacher when I graduate.

Week 8- The Sound of...Podcasting

This week in EME2040, we learned about podcasting. Podcasting has a variety of different uses, such as using it in presentations for schools, communicating with others, and creating different sounds. When ever I heard the term "podcast," I assumed it was very hard to create sounds and presentations, and then send them to others. I learned that it is relatively easy, and there are a number of programs that will aide in the creation of podcasts. We worked on Garage Band in class to create different sound files, along with Audacity. Furthermore, we explored different websites, such as the Freesound Project, which is part of the Creative Commons movement that offers copyright free sounds.

Podcasting offers a variety of benefits to education majors. I have had experience with it in the classroom in the past. My history teacher in high school used to broadcast podcasts to prepare the class for the AP test and I found it very helpful. Using sound files in the classroom can promote better study habits, because students can listen to letures at their own convenience and replay parts of the lecture. Teachers can also add different content to their podcasts to aide in learning, including historical speeches and even videos using Vodcast. Podcasts also encourage students to read more through audio books, thus helping in the area of reading comprhension.

I obtained the following video from YouTube. I chose this video because it explains the benefits of podcasting in education. It describes how the classroom has evolved from simply downloading sounds and playing them to the class, to creating entire lectures and podcasting them. It also shows how to subscribe to an author's podcast through iTunes, and the tools needed to create your own podcast, such as a microphone and correct software.

Week 7- Digital Storytelling

I really enjoyed this week's lesson! In class, we learned all about digital storytelling and the different programs used to create them. It is amazing how a mass of photos can be compiled using tools such as iMovie and Powerpoint and adding music and other effects to create a wonderful story. Besides iMovie and Powerpoint, we looked at Animoto, which is similar to iMovie, and GoAnimate, a fun site that allows you to create cartoon video clips. For homework we were assigned to create our own digital storytelling example using one of the programs. I chose to use Powerpoint to create a story about Murphy. It was fun to look at my classmates stories and comment on them.

I feel like digital storytelling would make a huge impact in the classroom. I don't think many educators realize that they can use computer programs to make their lesson plans come alive. I'm glad I have this knowledge, so when I become a teacher in the future, I can create exciting presentations for my students to better comprehend the material. Using Google Earth for literature, as past teachers have done, is something I would also like to experiment with in the future because it makes stories come alive when you can show students landmarks that were mentioned in the book. No longer do teachers have to lecture for hours in front of a podium, but create an entertaining and interactive story to covey their message to the class.

The following video was obtained from YouTube. I found this video very useful for myself, because it talks about digital storytelling in the education setting. It goes into greater detail about what it is and how it is beneficial to use it in the classroom. The video also discusses more programs that can be used to create digital stories that were not mentioned in class. The benefits of digital storytelling in education were mentioned, and include accomodating different learning styles, captivate attention, encourage creativity, promote higher learning thinking skills, and address many 21st century skills.