Sunday, February 19, 2012

Inspiration

1. Is Inspiration something you would invest in for your classroom? List at least 10  ideas in your content areas where you could incorporate it – include uses as a productivity tool as well as an instructional tool.
2. Tell me about your Personal Learning Network – where do you go for answers for all things academic in your field of study? Diagram this in your blog and describe. Include online and f2f  resources.
3.  Does Social Bookmarking have an application in your classroom? What are some ways it could benefit you 


     Inspiration is absolutely something I would invest in for my classroom. Even as an art major, I could do so many different types of activities and lesson plans that could incorporate some sort of organization.
     1. Art movements and use webbing to show which came before and after
     2. Use a graphic organizer to put an artist in the middle then branch out to his biography, mediums..etc
     3. Have students create a concept map for a presentation
     4. Use a concept map to show possible future outcomes: where art will be in 10 years, 15 years, 20 years..etc
     5. Students could also create a graphic organizer on an artist or art movement and then transform it into an outline
     6. Create a graph on a poll of students in the classroom or school that had to vote on their favorite artist
     7. The students can take that graph (say it's a bar graph), and turn it into a pie graph
     8. Students with special needs can use pictures instead of words to tell information in a graphic organizer
     9. Students with special needs can also use the Talking-Text if they have a hard time with hand-eye coordination
    10. Use a graphic organizer: one for elements of art and one for principles of art

     My Personal Learning Network comes from the Web.  Specifically. edu and .org sites that are professionally made and have accurate data.  I use .com websites when I need an idea for a lesson plan, but incorporate my knowledge from the professional websites.
     Social Bookmarking is an easy way for educators to quickly save links (preferably to Diigo), and have easy access to the links for the classroom.  If there is a video that you want to save on your desktop in case the computer crashes, you can go to http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/, find a video or clip, and save it to your desktop for a presentation or anything!  This is so easy which ever way you want to bookmark information, and I would definitely use this in my classroom!



Saturday, February 4, 2012

Blogging & Googledoc'ing


1. Give some specific ideas of how you could incorporate Blogs in your classroom. What are the advantages and disadvantages to using this technology in your classroom.
2. What did you learn about Googledocs Word Processor from the reading? What are the advantages/disadvantages of using this over traditional Word? List as many as you can.

     Within the art classroom, I would use blogs for the students to:
1) Take photos of their work
2) Upload them onto their blogs
3) Have the students critique one another as well as themselves. 

     I think this would be a really effective use of technology as well as blogs.  I would also love my future students to use blogs to describe their emotions about the projects they are assigned, and how they feel that day.  In art, I believe the work the students produce reflect themselves, and if they are having a good or bad day.  I feel this would allow my students to see what they are writing, and improve.
     
    The disadvantages to having blogs in the classroom are:
1) The students may abuse their internet privileges, and search websites that are inappropriate for the classroom.  
2) Other students will get too involved in their peers personal life if they are able to read their journal entries.  

                       **On blogspot.com, can students keep certain blogs private?

    Googledocs Word Processor is such an excellent resource to use when sharing documents with others.  The one major advantage to using this as opposed to having resend documents, is the other person can make changes or write comments and simply re-share without having to continuously share the document.

    Having this experience in the classroom was a great example. Sharing a simple document and power point with Allie in class, was a great way for me to learn how to use Googledocs.  This would be easy to sue in the classroom because the students can share documents with me, and I can use a different color to make corrections and give positive feedback.

    The disadvantage would be that Googledocs cannot perform the same tasks as Word/Pages, Powerpoint/Keynote.  The students will have to create the document outside of Googledocs then go into Googledocs and share it.




Wednesday, February 1, 2012