Webquests and Thinkfinity

We learned about two great websites through which you can access all types of lessons:

1.) Webquests

2.) Thinkfinity

Webquest

I added my webquest website as a link (on the left) that you can go and see. I basically have it done-I just may want to add some modifications, some new resources, etc.

More progress

I'm almost finished with my Millionaire game and when I am I will post it here and on my website. I also added some more to my website :)

Updated Website and Jeo Game

Here is my completed jeopardy game and I also updated my website and added some pretty cool things. If you want to access it you can go to the links list on this page (on the left) and see the changes. I added the jeo game up to my FTP and if you just click on the enclosure link above in the title you can access it.

Google Docs Quiz

Enjoy my quiz that we created today through Google documents (the form function).

Google Calendars

Today we learned how to create an online calendar where you can embed it into any site. We learned how to share this calendar, it is now part of a global network so students can access it through your website, blog site, etc.

Multi Modal Learning

We learned about different forms of learning using Power Point applications and other multimedia options to create a more interactive learning environment. The work that we did today can be seen on my Google website (access through the enclosure link above). We also worked on a "Who Wants to Win a Million?" game format in Power Point, which I also attached to my website.

The National Standards that are applied during this assignment mainly include:
2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments; this is because of the Millionaire game that was developed and also utilizing and teacher's web page for student learning.
3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning: this again applies to the web page as an access point for information and assignment, study materials, etc.

Powerpoint Jeopardy

Today we learned how to make a jeopardy game in powerpoint...the way this game functions is through hyperlinks and action buttons. The number for each block in a category is a hyperlink to the question...then the next slide is the correct answer. Also on this slide is the home action button, which will take you back to the jeopardy board.
We also created our own website...you can access it through the enclosure link in the title.

The National Standards that were applied in this assignment were mainly:
2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments; this is because the jeopardy tool is excellent for review and class assessment through a creative application with Microsoft Power Point.

Power Point Day 1 FTP Stuff

Today we found a power point show online...I got this really cool one that shows how the tectonic plates have moved since the Earth was created. We saved the original powerpoint to the desktop as Power Point 93-2000 document (.ppt) then also learned how to save the power point presentation as a 93-2000 power point show (.pps), a pdf document (.pdf) and also as a web page (.htm). Sometimes when a document like this is saved to a webpage, it can become distorted but fortunately mine worked just fine.
You can see the .pps show through the enclosure link in the title and the other versions through the links below:

http://www2.fairmontstate.edu/users/ariggi/plates.htm
http://www2.fairmontstate.edu/users/ariggi/plates.ppt
http://www2.fairmontstate.edu/users/ariggi/plates.pdf

The National Standards that were applied in this assignment include:
2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning
Both these standards are applied because the power point is used for a more animated way of explaining a topic to make it more interesting for a student. The power point can also be adapted for questioning and answering.

Self Evaluation

Here is my evaluation for my blog site...attached as an enclosure link.
We finished the peer evaluation in class on Tuesday and it can be seen in the Formative Eval Form under the shared Google documents with Dr. Pierce.

Podcast Discussion Part II

Using the podcast technology, we had to think of a way to incorporate this into a lesson plan. I thought that since there is a good chance that I will teach mutidiscipline science classes at the high school level that I could take advantage of this. I would have my higher level classes (seniors and juniors) make mini-podcast discussions about a certain topic (ionic bonds, covalent bonds, polyatomic ions, etc.) that would take about 3 to 5 minutes on a podcast. They would do their lectures on the podcast for a grade, and the freshman classes could use the podcasts for studying...two birds, one stone!

NSET T: With this lesson plan I will be introducing the students to several standards: (1.) by allowing the students to be creative in their presentation and (5.) by engaging in their growth as a student and a professional by teaching a lesson.

Podcast Discussion

Today I came in with my script about wind for a seventh grade level, since weather is strongly integrated into the curriculum, and actually completed my podcast using the Audacity software. I borrowed one of Dr. Pierce's microphones so my voice would sound a bit better and it worked out great. When I was going through the Podcast tutorial, I went ahead and downloaded the LAME media converter software, which will convert and audacity project into a mp3 file. When you open up my podcast, it will play on Windows Media Player as if it were a song.
If you'd like to check it out, click on the enclosure link in the "Podcast Discussion" title and it will take you to the link online through my FTP account.

NSET T: See Podcast Blog post below for standards and how they were applied.

Podcast

Today we learned about audio recording a lesson as a Podcast. This is going to be done through Skype (a program we need to download) that will recognize our installed microphone in our laptop. The rubric is attached as an enclosure link in the title. The Podcast needs to be 5-7 minutes long on a topic of choice (need to include grade, CSOs and objectives) a script needs to be made for the Podcast and uploaded as a Google document.
Follow this script outline: http://sites.google.com/site/educ2201/Home/podcast-activity
Audacity is a second software program that we need to find and download to play the recording and upload the music to it.

NSET T: The podcast is a very flexible tool that can used in many ways by the teacher and the students. For my activity, it will cover standards (3.) and (5.) because I will be demonstrating how I have learned about technology, how I am using it, and how I have grown as a teacher by applying it.

Lesson Plan Day 1

My lesson plan will be covering the alkali metals (the elements in the first period of the periodic table). To help introduce the topic, I will show some of these elements' unique features, just take a look below.

Here is a video demonstrating how potassium reacts in water that I would show my students as part of the exploration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFG4Yr7lQzw

Here is another video demonstrating how lithium reacts in water:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxhW7TtXIAM

I'm then going to use the Intel website to create a shuffle so that students can line up the elements with their correlating properties. They will split into groups (at least two so that they can compare) and organize the elements on a basis of electronegativity, ionization energy, and atomic radius. These are common trends for groups of the period table that are a necessary part of the curriculum.
To view the Intel ranking games, go to this website:
https://ssl.intel.com/EducationUser/student/login.aspx?&LID=en
and sign in as Instructor: ariggi2187, Team: Team 1, and password is numberone.

My lesson plan that outlines the class discussion, class activity, and take home assignment is included in the enclosure link for this post.

NSET T: I covered standards (1.) and (2.) with this lesson plan because I used the Intel activity to engage and assess them, and I used the youtube video to promote their interest and learning.

Photos

Today we worked with new and different programs that relate to photos...we uploaded pics to Google photos through Picasa Web Albums and learned how to link these photos to a web site. I went ahead and embedded a photo album as well. That way, photos can be accessed through their own web page.
We also set up an account through photo shop: https://www.photoshop.com/landing.html
where photo shop becomes FREE! to use. Once signed in, you can access your photos through Facebook, Photobucket, and Picasa. Another way to easily access photos through the web.
Moving into pedagogy, we discussed about constructing a lesson plan using the information we have been taught from this class. I am secondary science and will be using Dr. Hemler's format for the lesson plan. I attached her format in the enclosure link.

NSET T: I believe that acquiring this very desired software legally demonstrates standard (4.) Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility.

Graphics-Venn Diagram constructed in Word

Refer to this website for instruction on graphics: http://sites.google.com/site/educ2201/Home/still-images/online-graphics

This is a Venn diagram that I constructed using Microsoft Word using the shapes application. It is to demonstrate evolutionary relationships between those four groups of animals. I had some additional text boxes to show the relationships where the circles overlap, but they do not appear on my blog spot or on the google documents...so if I were to use this as a teaching aid...I would have to print this off through Microsoft Word.

NSET T: I used a venn diagram to demonstrate relationships between animals, this would relate to standard (3.) model digital age learning and technology

Graphics Day Two

Today, for our second assignment with graphics, we again had to access the Kid Zone chart construction page:http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/graphing/classic/ and create a chart that shows the number of students with an IEP (Individualized Education Programs) in the poorest states. This was based on the per capita personal income per state information from the year 2006 accessed at this website: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0104652.html. These states were determined to be Mississippi, West Virginia, Utah and Arkansas (ranging from the poorest state to not as poor). The additional information was found through the NAEP website that was used for the first graphic assignment at this website: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/states/. Under each state's profile is listed the number of students enrolled and then percent with IEP. This information can be used to calculate the number of students with IEP using a simple calculation. This calculated number was then taken for the four states and inserted into a bar graph so that comparisons could be made.
The chart portrays that West Virginia has a much lower number of students with IEP than the other poor states, but this may reveal that West Virginia has a smaller population and therefore a smaller number of students enrolled. A more accurate comparison would be to use the percent of students with IEP in each state.

NSET T: This website provides a free way to exemplify several conditions of the NSET; (2.) design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments and (3.) model digital age learning and work by displaying graphs of the learning curve across the country and introducing students to a new source to organize data.

Graphics & Charts

Today in class we learned that there are other, FREE options out there for constructing a graph. While they may not be as sophisticated as Excel or Powerpoint...they get the job done. As part of our assignment today we went to NAEP site and compared math scores for WV fourth grade students to the national average. Using this data...we constructed a graph. You can see my bar graph through the enclosure link in the title. The information from where I got the data is explained in the document, including the websites where I obtained the data and also where I constructed the graph.

Graphic

NETS T Standard Covered: The graphic activity
covers Standard (2.) that is, to design or develop
a digital-age learning experience and assessment.

Today we learned about possiblities for graphics and using Microsoft Paint, Powerpoint etc. to utilize graphics in the classroom.
Here is mine so enjoy! It is biologically related since that is one of my disciplines...

It is the dissection a frog and I incorporated all of the labeling...the neat thing about it is that it is a real life version of a dissected frog...so for those students who have problems dissecting the frog-this is the next best thing.

If you have a weak stomach I suggest you look away...but it is one of the many things I've had to dissect, including a cat, a lamprey, and a pig!

Still Image

The link for my response is added as an enclosure link in the title. I saved the document to my FTP so it could be accessed that way. I'm looking forward to working with graphics and images. A person retains information much better when visuals are incorporated into learning. Certain visuals can also trigger memory as well. Whether it is recognized by teachers or not, humans are interactive creatures that need to use and apply all of their senses for learning.

Intel Teacher Workplace

Today we worked with the website for the Intel teacher link (the link is posted under my blog) to learn about different online tools. I used the teacher workplace to create a ranking game to put in order the different geological time periods. I set up for two teams, but if you want to check it out you can click on the enclosure link and it will take you to the sign in page. The teacher ID is ariggi2187, the Team ID is Team 1, and the password is numberone. If you do look at it let me know what you think! I think its a really good tool for when students are studying and to help them memorize as well.

Photo Story

I'm not quite finished with our photo story (I'm trying to figure out how to upload music to it) then I will attach it to my FTP space through Fairmont State Library. It is a really cool program that I think students would like to use, a really great technological application. As a science major--my thoughts immediately went to the various experiments students could use photo story for, even videos. A lot of times in science it is important to show the progression of something or how things change in the laboratory. What better way to present these changes than with this program?
I posted my photo story as a video below, enjoy!

Snow Day!

Well today we had no class and the whole campus ended up getting shut down because of the weather. We are supposed to pick up on our photo stories when we next meet again. I downloaded Microsoft photo story 3 to my PC and started getting acquainted with the program-it is definitely a cool program. I also uploaded a lot of the photos I wanted to use to my Google account using the photos tab...now I have a whole album available for me when we meet next time in class. I also read the email about frequenlty asked questions in regards to this project and I think I'm alright with the questions so far. If I have any I will try to have them ready for the next class session, and hopefully we'll learn some more about this very neat program.

FTP User

We learned today how to use the ftp storage. We created a document so that it can be accessed through the internet via the link posted in this blog. We also downloaded Microsoft Photo Story 3 to use and create our own photo story. This software can be downloaded for free and is an interactive way to use pictures, sound and text. A very good tool for technological learning in the classroom.

Adrienne's First Blog!

For the first day of my Instructional Tech. class we learned how to open a blog web page and post blogs. This application will be used for turning in assignment because it records the dates and times of each post. We also added links to our blog spot that will be relevant to our class so that they can be easily accessed. These links (for now) mainly include Fairmont State links. To change settings like this function you can go through the blog spot tabs. To add more links you can go through the "Settings" tab. This is also where you can find the "Posting" tab to post new blogs. Blogs can also have attachments so that it can be efficiently used for turning in assignments. Another tab available is the "Layout" tab which mainly controls the appearance of the owner's blog spot page. The other tools that are available through Google will become a central core to this course.