Thursday, June 6, 2013
Google Sites
This was a frustrating Gain for me. I have not spent much time with making websites. I had a hard time making my site's appearance look good. I will have to do some more work with it to become comfortable. I like all of the things you can do with the site and all of the gadgets, images, and charts you can put on. I couldn't always figure out how to get things exactly where I wanted them and sometimes I couldn't make a new addition to my site look like something I had already made. I hope that after working with it more, I can make sites for future classes and for my future classroom using google sites.
Monday, June 3, 2013
Apps apps and more apps
For the disciplines in education portion, I chose to look at 5 math apps. I hope to be a 7th or 8th grade math teacher upon graduation, but I still looked at the apps with an open mind for older elementary children as well. There were 5 that really stood out to me above the rest. I REALLY like easel algebra. It provides several different types of problems and questions that students can explore on their own and use the whiteboard on the screen to work through it. If a student needs help, there is a video that shows both the whiteboard being drawn up and a person's voice explaining the problem. Similarly, I liked the Mathboard app. This one gives quizzes that can be catered to the student's specific area of learning or a more specific set of numbers or problems they need to study. The video brought up a good issue and that is the lack of space for scratch work. Although, if the iPad is left on the table, but turned 90 degrees, there is much more space. A similar size issue is my one complaint with a great app: Sketch explorer. This one allows the user to "play" with different shapes and even add more shapes to a picture to see how they change will effect the original pieces or functions. The graphbook allows one to explore shapes in several different views including points, lines, solids, and graphs. The example I played with was a spiral like a snail shell. It's great to be able to move it, change its size, and manipulate the view such that you can see so many different facets of the object. Lastly, and very simply, is the jumbo calculator. A calculator is not some amazing app that can't be found anywhere else, but I like it for a couple specific reasons. If iPad's are part of the classroom experience (regardless of grade level) having the calculator app will be good for testing because it is big enough for the student to see and use quickly and it takes up the whole screen so that a teacher can say not to have anything but the calculator up once a student finishes the test. This will help prevent cheating and distraction as well as give a much needed tool to the students.
My preparation apps were the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and the Spelling Test. With the dicctionary, students can explore words as they are reading books on the kindle (or ibooks) app, learning about an historic event, or even learning new concepts in math or science. My personal experience in spelling makes the test app good. In late elementary grades, if I correctly spelled all spelling words on the weekly pretest, I got to look for my own spelling words (using a dictionary, map, or other tool). This app would allow a student to pick his or her own words (or a teacher to pick new ones) and then say them both for study and finally for testing purposes.
Photoshop express is a nice way to manipulate photos on the go and have them ready to view or share on the iPad. I have taken a couple courses that included the full photoshop program and this app allows for all the essential functions at a fingertip. For students, it will be good for fun (recounting a class trip or project) or making pictures their own for a project's visual aid.
Lastly, I looked at Puppet Pals. I really enjoy making videos and I can't wait to use this app to make stories with my daughter. She can narrate and/or move the characters across the screen. Students in class can do the same to tell about a chapter of the book their class is reading or to visually tell their own story in a creative writing experiment. I loved all of the apps I looked at for this Tech Talk!
My preparation apps were the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and the Spelling Test. With the dicctionary, students can explore words as they are reading books on the kindle (or ibooks) app, learning about an historic event, or even learning new concepts in math or science. My personal experience in spelling makes the test app good. In late elementary grades, if I correctly spelled all spelling words on the weekly pretest, I got to look for my own spelling words (using a dictionary, map, or other tool). This app would allow a student to pick his or her own words (or a teacher to pick new ones) and then say them both for study and finally for testing purposes.
Photoshop express is a nice way to manipulate photos on the go and have them ready to view or share on the iPad. I have taken a couple courses that included the full photoshop program and this app allows for all the essential functions at a fingertip. For students, it will be good for fun (recounting a class trip or project) or making pictures their own for a project's visual aid.
Lastly, I looked at Puppet Pals. I really enjoy making videos and I can't wait to use this app to make stories with my daughter. She can narrate and/or move the characters across the screen. Students in class can do the same to tell about a chapter of the book their class is reading or to visually tell their own story in a creative writing experiment. I loved all of the apps I looked at for this Tech Talk!
Not much of an artist, but this might help...
I really enjoyed playing with Google Drawing. I'm not much of an artist when it comes to physically drawing something, but computer apps that do it are wonderful. Drawing works a lot like the generic "paint" program that comes on most computers. Many of the mouse functions as well as the shape and drawing manipulations are similar, if not identical. I simply drew a few lines, made a square, an arrow, imported a picture, and added a text box just to get a feel for the different options with Drawing. I looked at the middle school lesson plan before I actually experimented with Drawing and was totally lost. Then I explored and the Tangram plan looks like a lot of fun for students (and teachers). Learning to manipulate and understand shapes will be made easier through Drawing and the collaborative aspect is just another bonus (as it has been in with all of the Google Drive functions).
Drawing never seemed to be something useful for subjects other than art until I read the handout. The reading and writing assistance that it explained was so obvious (afterward) that I felt a little foolish for not seeing it. Though the handout suggested there are further math applications than geometry, I will need more time to see if that's the best option. Obviously, the collaborative aspect makes most of the Google Drive functions exceedingly more useful so maybe there is more in it than I understand after the little bit of playing I have done with Google Drawing.
Drawing never seemed to be something useful for subjects other than art until I read the handout. The reading and writing assistance that it explained was so obvious (afterward) that I felt a little foolish for not seeing it. Though the handout suggested there are further math applications than geometry, I will need more time to see if that's the best option. Obviously, the collaborative aspect makes most of the Google Drive functions exceedingly more useful so maybe there is more in it than I understand after the little bit of playing I have done with Google Drawing.
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Does it make me a nerd that I like making quizzes?
I was already a big fan of spreadsheets and the tool that they can be. With a future in education, the Forms function of the spreadsheets becomes an even BETTER tool. It was cool to me to see that I could build the survey, send emails, and have people in 2 different states fill it out. It's very simple to use and easily repeatable. I liked that the atomic learning gave us a bit of a different formula for the self grading than the one we saw in class. It's nice knowing there are multiple ways to put the quiz together (especially if I forget).
With the CCSS, Forms is a great option. Throughout school I had to do a lot of research assignments in which I had to take polls and statistics from classmates and plot the data. It would have been so much easier to have something like Forms to share and obtain data for those projects. Students in school today and tomorrow should have a much easier time doing projects like the ones I had to do, especially as the CCSS are adopted.
Spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmOyKnkfSeGPdHRQbGtLanhLLVRyUkN3TEgtVkhxX1E#gid=0
Survey:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1TyiEK_VmmU3RL74ZvCuJ9YOiL88NAW2P8Vti48ckQCk/viewform
With the CCSS, Forms is a great option. Throughout school I had to do a lot of research assignments in which I had to take polls and statistics from classmates and plot the data. It would have been so much easier to have something like Forms to share and obtain data for those projects. Students in school today and tomorrow should have a much easier time doing projects like the ones I had to do, especially as the CCSS are adopted.
Spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmOyKnkfSeGPdHRQbGtLanhLLVRyUkN3TEgtVkhxX1E#gid=0
Survey:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1TyiEK_VmmU3RL74ZvCuJ9YOiL88NAW2P8Vti48ckQCk/viewform
Basic iPadia
Because it is my favorite of the three, I'm going to look at Numbers. I really like the app and its ease of use. I have been using Excel most of my life, and Numbers looks to have all of the things I would say I need from Excel. The three things that I like that both contain are the range of functions for input, the easy transfer of a data table into a chart, and the ability to manipulate presentation of data (number of decimal places, percentage, date, etc.). The two big differences I saw were ones that give Numbers a slight edge for me. I like that it saves automatically and the file is ready to be stored even if you don't remember to hit save every two minutes. I also enjoyed the ability to shrink the table down to just the cells in which one is working. It's not a huge problem to see more, but the simplicity of shrinking the view is nice. With both the similarities and differences, the iPad yields itself to quick and easy use. The function bars on Excel are very busy and Numbers looks to have all the functions and buttons very easily accessible.
I liked Box.com. It will be nice having another storage cloud to transfer and share documents for myself, classmates, and future students. It was fairly easy to use and simple to figure out, which is always a bonus.
iBooks and Kindle are both good apps for reading. They have similar interactive attributes. The book appearances on the shelf and in reading mode are about the same. I had a hard time finding big differences. The one big one that I noticed was the "track bar" at the bottom of the iBooks app. It let's one "scroll" through the book. Kindle has the search and "go to a page" function but the scrolling through pages on iBooks is a big plus for me. It seems to make the job of searching faster and easier.
As I watched and looked at Rover, I'm not a big fan. The limitation of java and flash is something to consider if a school decides on the iPad, but the bandwidth issues with Rover are quite significant. I don't know that there is anything online that I absolutely MUST have and would need the Rover app. In addition to the negative side of Rover, Apple has worked with the education system to provide games and apps for learning in the classroom.
I liked Box.com. It will be nice having another storage cloud to transfer and share documents for myself, classmates, and future students. It was fairly easy to use and simple to figure out, which is always a bonus.
iBooks and Kindle are both good apps for reading. They have similar interactive attributes. The book appearances on the shelf and in reading mode are about the same. I had a hard time finding big differences. The one big one that I noticed was the "track bar" at the bottom of the iBooks app. It let's one "scroll" through the book. Kindle has the search and "go to a page" function but the scrolling through pages on iBooks is a big plus for me. It seems to make the job of searching faster and easier.
As I watched and looked at Rover, I'm not a big fan. The limitation of java and flash is something to consider if a school decides on the iPad, but the bandwidth issues with Rover are quite significant. I don't know that there is anything online that I absolutely MUST have and would need the Rover app. In addition to the negative side of Rover, Apple has worked with the education system to provide games and apps for learning in the classroom.
Monday, May 27, 2013
So many tablets, so much to consider
Going back over the list of uses for the tablets really just muddied the water for me. I tried to make a couple broad sweeping comments on the uses, but, I think, perhaps, that there is too much to cover that way. When it comes to Apps, the clear winner is the iPad. There is an app for everything and, in many cases, multiple apps for many things. After further reading and understanding, the Google apps list is still not close. In books, it's difficult and the reading for this class period only made it worse. There seem to be strong advantages with the Nook and higher end Kindle models, but the iPad still has ibooks and the ability to run the kindle app. There wasn't a huge discrepancy (except price) when it comes to internet among all models of tablet. Most come wifi enabled and many have cellular capability if purchased that way. Newspapers, TV, video, and movies didn't provide too much difference either. Lastly comes software. I consider it a bonus that many tablets have software designed for their medium and as I said in my last post, if you want the Microsoft OS, buy a real laptop.
With tablets in education, there seems to be A LOT to go through. The first link that was more general makes me hope the burden of decision about tablets for my school is not put squarely on my shoulders any time soon. In the first blog containing 4 parts, the evolution of the author's opinion was interesting. Even the titles show that transition. First it was the "e-reader adventure" followed by two posts entitled "nook adventure" as the author seemed more excited about the possibilities Nook brought, and finally the title went back to ereader as the decision was made to move on from the Nook. Even in that decision, the Nook still came out favorable as the library was to keep the Nooks while the new purchase was a different tablet. Following that was a blog discussing why kindle's shouldn't be purchased. It's not that the Kindle is a bad tablet, but Amazon's requirements, in the opinion of that author, make it impossible for the schools to utilize them. The Nook looked pretty good after these.
In the next section however, a high school decided to give out Kindles and the students were ecstatic. They were excited so it seems only natural to hope that the excitement could transition into excitement over what they are learning and/or reading. In the video listed under "comments" on the iPad page, the Kindle Fire (in my opinion) seemed to come out looking pretty good.
Lastly, the section on the iPad from page 1 and the entire second page discussion uses gave great weight to the plusses in the iPad. From the list of articles, I was fascinated in reading about the speech impediment help offered on iPad. In addition, it appears Apple has worked the most with the teachers and as mentioned before, there's an app for EVERYTHING. I think the common knowledge of and exposure to the iPad gives it a boost here. It has had the most opportunity for use (some even claiming higher scores after a short time) and that means the most chance for comment, improvement, and evaluation.
The article I want to mention from page 2 is the "55 ways to use...". I really enjoyed many of them and had a hard time narrowing the 5. The three most interesting to me were the Connect to a live tutor, the globe, and writer's hat. I like tutor possibility because a live person (in my opinion) is always better than a book or a tutorial. Asking questions and receiving feedback is second to nothing (hopefully teachers won't be replaced by robots any time soon) especially with the digital age and the lack of other human interaction. The globe is a wonderful way to learn about our world, the countries in it, and interact with all of it. To be able to move a globe (like the ones we have always had in classrooms) is enhanced by the ability to focus on specific areas. The writer's hat is especially good for someone like me because I have never been really creative but I was required to write stories. An app to help get the juices flowing would be great. The last two I chose to highlight are for little kids. The money counter is great because it helps in multiples ways. Simple arithmetic opens the door for so much in the world of math, science, and computers. Counting and adding money is a fun way to learn it. Who doesn't love money? It also gives real world application to learning a tool. So many times, kids as "why do I need this for life?" Again, who doesn't love having and counting money? Lastly is alphabetizing. I think it is a small thing that can help immensely. Even though we are moving to a more digital world, alphabetizing is an effective way to organize things and help us all find what we need to find. In my house, I use alphabetizing to organize my movie collection, video games, and books. This app is a fun way to learn the skill. And the most simple thing you learn with the alphabetizing is...wait for it...the alphabet. I tutored a 3rd grade student last year and he could not write out the entire english alphabet without peeking. This game could have been a fun way to help him.
With tablets in education, there seems to be A LOT to go through. The first link that was more general makes me hope the burden of decision about tablets for my school is not put squarely on my shoulders any time soon. In the first blog containing 4 parts, the evolution of the author's opinion was interesting. Even the titles show that transition. First it was the "e-reader adventure" followed by two posts entitled "nook adventure" as the author seemed more excited about the possibilities Nook brought, and finally the title went back to ereader as the decision was made to move on from the Nook. Even in that decision, the Nook still came out favorable as the library was to keep the Nooks while the new purchase was a different tablet. Following that was a blog discussing why kindle's shouldn't be purchased. It's not that the Kindle is a bad tablet, but Amazon's requirements, in the opinion of that author, make it impossible for the schools to utilize them. The Nook looked pretty good after these.
In the next section however, a high school decided to give out Kindles and the students were ecstatic. They were excited so it seems only natural to hope that the excitement could transition into excitement over what they are learning and/or reading. In the video listed under "comments" on the iPad page, the Kindle Fire (in my opinion) seemed to come out looking pretty good.
Lastly, the section on the iPad from page 1 and the entire second page discussion uses gave great weight to the plusses in the iPad. From the list of articles, I was fascinated in reading about the speech impediment help offered on iPad. In addition, it appears Apple has worked the most with the teachers and as mentioned before, there's an app for EVERYTHING. I think the common knowledge of and exposure to the iPad gives it a boost here. It has had the most opportunity for use (some even claiming higher scores after a short time) and that means the most chance for comment, improvement, and evaluation.
The article I want to mention from page 2 is the "55 ways to use...". I really enjoyed many of them and had a hard time narrowing the 5. The three most interesting to me were the Connect to a live tutor, the globe, and writer's hat. I like tutor possibility because a live person (in my opinion) is always better than a book or a tutorial. Asking questions and receiving feedback is second to nothing (hopefully teachers won't be replaced by robots any time soon) especially with the digital age and the lack of other human interaction. The globe is a wonderful way to learn about our world, the countries in it, and interact with all of it. To be able to move a globe (like the ones we have always had in classrooms) is enhanced by the ability to focus on specific areas. The writer's hat is especially good for someone like me because I have never been really creative but I was required to write stories. An app to help get the juices flowing would be great. The last two I chose to highlight are for little kids. The money counter is great because it helps in multiples ways. Simple arithmetic opens the door for so much in the world of math, science, and computers. Counting and adding money is a fun way to learn it. Who doesn't love money? It also gives real world application to learning a tool. So many times, kids as "why do I need this for life?" Again, who doesn't love having and counting money? Lastly is alphabetizing. I think it is a small thing that can help immensely. Even though we are moving to a more digital world, alphabetizing is an effective way to organize things and help us all find what we need to find. In my house, I use alphabetizing to organize my movie collection, video games, and books. This app is a fun way to learn the skill. And the most simple thing you learn with the alphabetizing is...wait for it...the alphabet. I tutored a 3rd grade student last year and he could not write out the entire english alphabet without peeking. This game could have been a fun way to help him.
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