Thing #8

I choose to work with Screencast-o-Matic. I found a screen cast of a kindergarten class blog. This will be helpful to me because I was thinking I would set up a class wiki- but didn't realize I could also set up a class blog. I can see where students can create screencasts as to teach others how to create blogs, and upload and download videos. The screencasts allows people to access online and at their convenience.

Thing #7

I choose the two youtube videos because we will be implementing both the itouch devices and the dell 2100 netbooks school wide. I can see where posting videos could be very useful to teaching students as well as their parents about the technologies being used in the classroom.

Thing #6

I have some experience with the itouch and applications. We were part of the Power to Learn Grant and we received 80 itouches for our fifth graders. We played around with a lot of applications both free and not. This year I plan to explore some special education applications that are digital schedules and some communication applications. These are costly, however I think the benefits outweigh the costs. The goal is to provide the special education student with a tool that will help him/her in the classroom. Since all of the fifth graders will have itouch devices, this tool will be easily tailored to fit the needs of our special education students.

Thing #5

I love the benefits of Facebook. Last week my father was in the hospital and I used it to post updates to my family members across the state. It was very comforting when friends would post support! I was in the hospital for most of the week and it was very convenient to post just one thought instead of having to send email.  I have also used Facebook to find resources. It is a great platform to poll your friends on opinions on products or other items.
Twitter is something I haven't really delved into. I have an account and periodically someone will ask to follow me but I can not figure out why since I haven't "tweeted" about anything in over a year! I am still exploring the benefits of this resource.
I have attended a workshop where the presenter was "online" with the class and I found this to be fun! The responses were displayed on a screen behind the presenter and we all had a chance to respond or participate. Questions sparked more questions and I think this added to the presentation. However, the speaker definitely has to be comfortable with it or it could cause havoc on a presentation.

Thing #4

Uploading a video to Youtube was easy. I think this would be a terrific tool that a teacher could use to supplement instruction. I flip videoed a math teacher last year teaching long division and I could post this on a class blog so that students who needed reteaching could access this. I definitely think I will do this with my special education blog. I will record the homeroom teachers teaching concepts and then post or link the videos so that my students can easily access them when needed!

Zach movie.wmv

Thing #3

Skype allows you to communicate with others and share information visually. Classes could collaborate with each other across campuses. The classes could schedule times where both classes would be available. Skype allows a visual communication where sometimes an audio explanation is not as clear. Skype also allows students to "visit" places and make contacts with other students so that they can share experiences. Skype provides the students with faces and places behind their online collaboration projects.