FINAL REFLECTION

This class was great for learning different aspects of technology. I usually spend most time on email or facebook, etc. But this class really showed sides of what technology is supposed to be about. I am sad when I think of how technology has become such an obsession in our society today. Even though there are many good things about technology, I feel as though most of it is spent wasting away on things that are not important. The gospel insights presentations were great in showing a different side of technology.

I do not know if I will use technology in my class, because a huge emphasis for me will be on getting kids to physically do things outside of their norm. This means backing away from technology that most kids spend so much time on anyways. Even though there are many ways to use technology in the classroom, I feel as though I will not use technology in my classroom. The only thing I can think of that I MIGHT use is the class website. But even that I am unsure about.

This class has given me more hope for using technology in the years to come because I now know how to do different things that I was unable to do before. The technological things that I learned in this class will benefit me in the long run that is for sure. This is because our society becomes more and more tech-dependent every single day. The more I know the more I can teach my students.

Thanks DAN!!!

STUDIOCODE part 2!

So studiocode is pretty cool. I like being able to organize a video part by part and watch the good aspects. This makes it easier to go through a video rather than watching ALL 20+ minutes of it. The part I do not like is how many different things have to go on in order to do this. My management and instruction were kinda crappy when I analyzed them part by part. However, this was a bad video and was hard to analyze. The actual video was messed up because another group had the same frequency as us.

Other parts of studiocode and my management and instruction that were of any use to me were the "learning" about how to use this program. I feel like I see a lot of PETE students using it and I have a strong feeling that we are going to be using it next semester. SO this was a great idea in having a class that teaches you how to use it and analyze your teaching. I kind of wish we just had a whole class period to do it that way we could ask questions and figure it out while we were there.

Changes for next semester are of course make sure no one is on the same frequency. Another change is to make sure I have an organized class to make the video not so hard to watch. I feel like I could not see anything almost the whole time. Other than this I think I am doing great! Hopefully middle school students next semester won't be TOO difficult!! ;)

I'm in Studio Code Mode

My management and instruction is "okay" I guess I should say. I know that there are many things I COULD work on and improve on, but at the same time I feel like those things will change once I actually start teaching. For example, discipline during a lesson I teach now is way different than it would be with my own class. I will know their names and I will know where to send them etc. So of course things will be a lot different once I have my own class.

Another thing that is weird to me is the emphasis on communication jargons during instruction. This means saying "you guys" or whatever. I feel as though this is an unnecessary thing to dwell on when teaching. Of course it is not really good to say this to students, however this is something everyone says in our society today. Why is their so much emphasis to not say them when we leave the lesson and people say it all around us? I don't know I just feel like it is a waste of focus.

I want to be more comfortable teaching and not be so nervous. This means that I need to prepare with my lesson more and know/think about every possible situation that could happen. I also want to be able to teach more interesting lessons because I think the kids will be more attentive and more willing to learn if the lesson is enthralling to them. I plan to prepare a lot more before my lesson and really think about how things will go down.

Web 2.0 don't you know?

I think that google.com is probably the best web 2.0 site out there. It is still amazing to me that you can make a powerpoint presentation with people anywhere in the world. Other sites that might be useful are youtube, blogger, and maybe photobucket for pictures from throughout the year. These sights are all awesome and allow information to be online and accessed from any computer. This is great for teaching because then you can give out information to students on the computer at any time instead of actually physically seeing them to give them things. Also, the other way around works great too because then kids can turn things in without physically handing it to the teacher. Our society today spends a HUGE amount of time on the computer so these websites make it more convenient for us. I would not use facebook for anything educational unless I wanted to know the personal lives of my students and that is something that I would rather find out by getting to know them instead of reading the status they put last night about their love life... :)

LAST MINUTE DISASTER!! :(

The experience I had making these videos was mostly positive. It turned negative the very last day in the very last 2 hours, when I was trying to upload it to youtube. My video worked in iMovie and everything and then it compressed. BUT when I played the compressed movie it froze on one scene even though it continued to play. So even though the music kept playing and the time kept running, it was stuck on the same picture. This was frustrating and I tried fixing it for about 2 hours. I ended up talking to Dan and he told me to compress it with Web Streaming. It worked! However, the quality is probably the worst quality I have ever seen in a video! I am sad about it but hopefully I can get it fixed soon. I have had a little bit of experience with iMovie previously so it worked out well. I could make another movie if I was asked to do so. I would probably make a video for my class, but more likely I would make a video WITH my class. It would be a great opportunity to advocate for Physical Education. You can watch my video below or my video can be found by clicking here!!

Doug Pinkal (my partner) made a video and it's link can be found here!

Changed Story Board

I do not know if we are supposed to update our story boards if there are any changes, but I am doing so just in case.

My story board for my video completely changed because I came up with the idea that because winter is coming, people are going to naturally spend more time indoors. Well turns out we are supposed to be physically fit ALL YEAR LONG and not just during months that are bearable to go outside. So I decided to show clips that I filmed of my friends while they were sledding and snowboarding. It is very entertaining in my opinion and I hope it will be to others as well. All of these clips are of my friends crashing haha. I used the song Don't Let Me Fall by B.O.B. which seemed appropriate :) The video promotes going outside and playing even in the cold winter months when no one wants to even look at how cold it is outside ha. I have not embedded the video into youtube yet because it still needs some work. But it will be done in time for class.

iMovie.. iSee!

So far I have not had any problems with the iMovie. I have had a little experience in the past with them so it is fairly easy to me to figure out what I do not know. The only trouble I am having is settling on an idea of what to do for sure. I have a bunch of ideas and thoughts about them, but I cannot seem to decide. So I will keep thinking because I want it to be really good. However, my hopes are too high because I know it will not be that good haha. I do not have any tutorials to show because I do not know what I would show. K thanks.. BYEEEEEE

PSA? or PDA? BOTH!

I am partners with Doug Pinkal and we have two ideas for our videos. The first video, the theme is "Dont be a couch potato." There will be a large potato on a couch, and the tv will be on in the background. I will walk in after a while and say "come on timmy, lets go play catch!" and then pause for a second and say "Timmy?" Then the screen will go to text and say "Dont be a couch potato. Go out and play" Maybe the potato will turn into a kid between frames and he will jump off the couch or something. Not entirely sure yet.

The second video idea is similar to a commercial that I saw which is found here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwOi4D9lPig. Watch it because it is pretty dang funny! My idea is to show something like this except it be maybe an elevator out of order so then people dont go to work? Or maybe just a commercial showing someone who spends all day on the computer tv and phone, goes to bed, then wakes up and goes straight to doing those same things. I am not entirely positive yet. Also, if I do the outside an elevator scene I might use the music found here..

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/19019

The internet is SCARY

I think internet safety is very important for everyone in our society today. However, I think that it is even more important for teenagers and children. I have a very strong opinion on kids using the internet because my nieces and nephews, ranging in ages from 4-8, all use the internet on their own! This is so dangerous to me and I hate seeing that. I wish that the internet did not have anything inappropriate on it. But that is pretty impossible. So, looking all over the internet for information on internet safety got me thinking about how great these softwares and these options that people have to block inappropriate material. Each intervention to prevent corruption is very important to our lives today. However, I thought some more and realized that inappropriate material is going to come through regardless of the blocks set up. It makes me sad that we spend so much time on the internet these days. So, in applying this to students I will teach, I would not have them get on the internet at all if I could avoid it. It is a physical education class and I feel as though kids spend enough time on the internet as it is. My goal will be to make them get up and away from the computer and GO EXPERIENCE LIFE! There are so many great things that the internet does for us, I know. BUT I still feel as though every single good thing from the internet put together will still never make up for the time lost at the computer. I taught my friend/roommate about internet safety. Bottom line, she said that there is nothing you can really do about internet safety. It comes down to parents educating their kids. I whole-heartedly agree! It is up to parents to limit time spent on the computer and to watch what the kids do. I am done because I feel like I am arguing with no one!!!! ;)

Website Website Website.. Done Done Done

This project was beneficial to me because I feel like I am efficient now in creating websites (for the most part). I would like to use a website like this in my class because technology is taking over everything these days, why not use it with students? I could definitely create another website if I was asked to do so. I would be even faster and more efficient with the next one. It was pretty much exactly what I thought it would be in terms of difficulty. It was not that hard, but there were things that were a little more difficult to understand. Overall, I thought it was a pretty good project. I did overload myself at the end with everything that I had to do with it, but that seems to be unavoidable with me. It was weird to make random things up and to actually have them accessible on the internet, but I guess it was for learning purposes so it is okay. :) Here is the link to my website --> Hayley McKown's Website

I am Golden

So this week while working on my website I did not really run into any problems. Everything that has to be done is very possible and can be figured out. I am not quite as far as I could be and I am sure it will take some time to get everything that is required up on the site. It is pretty fun to me to make this website though, because it is like how when we were kids we would always pretend we were business owners or employees or whatever and we would pretend that we were in charge of everything. Well, with this website we are reliving our childhood dreams haha. We get to pretend that we are done with school and working wherever we want to. The way we run our classroom is completely up to us. This is great to me because I want it to be that way once I get out and start working for real, but I know that it will not exactly be the case. Anyways, no problems with the website really. I might run into some later, but as for right now I am GOLDEN! :)

Website time is a special time

I have not had any problems so far with the website building because Dan did a good job describing the basics. Another reason is that I have wanted to take his advice by just figuring out things myself. I have usually been pretty good at doing that so I will just keep doin' what I'm doin'. I think that the best way to do things is to take them one step at a time. You can see what I have so far on my website right here!

Looking over the requirements for the website I remembered that we have to have something that our viewers can "subscribe" to and I remembered I was unsure how to do this. I am going to try and figure it out myself, but if anyone knows how to easily explain how to do it then hit me up! Until then wish me good luck... And I wish others good luck as well. :)

Copyright, that's so tight

I think that copyright laws are helpful because it protects people's works. It is, however, an inconvenient thing so I think that changes could be made to ensure that people can get permission easier and faster. For example, there should be a website or a place that anyone can go to fill out everything to request permission to use some kind of work. Then the person can get automatic approval somehow and then they can print off a notice of permission. This would make things easier and faster especially for teachers who sometimes do not have time to go through the permission process. I think that copyright laws are also very confusing. It is easy to do the wrong thing when you are unsure about what the right thing is. So much "gray area" exists with copyright laws that it is hard to decipher what to do and what not to do. In order for this problem to be cleared up there needs to be set standards and laws that people know about. Or if there is no way for people to know about it then there should be something that blocks people from using stuff, like images on the internet, etc. In conclusion, copyright laws are a good thing because when I think of my own work just being used without purchase or permission then it makes more sense to me.

Resources for ME

I would very much like to use many of the resources we talked about in class as well as others that I have found to help further my learning. I love GoogleDoc and I think it was an amazing idea that I could have never thought of myself. It is like a big brainstorming session that you can have with people without even being together. In fact, you could brainstorm with them from anywhere in the world that has internet. This has helped me greatly in my years of schooling with test reviews, projects, and whatever else teachers have come up with.

GoogleCalendar is another amazing idea, but I have not had as much experience with it. I feel as though I would like to get accustomed to it and I would like to be able to become comfortable using it and share it with others. It is the perfect application to use and share with others in order to ensure that everyone is organized and on the same page.

Another resource that looks interesting to me is diigo.com. I am not sure if I would use this in my life right now, but I might want to later on when I really get into researching and finding things in multiple articles online at one time. It seems like it would be perfect to be organized without even opening separate programs in order to do so.

W3schools.com will be very beneficial to me if I ever really get into all the different formats and everything that is involved with web languages. This would show me exactly what I need to see, which is step-by-step instructions, and would help me immensely in becoming more efficient in using the web and all of its resources.

I cannot imagine all the many different resources that are available in the world and I am excited to be introduced to at least a small fraction of them in this class. I feel as though this class and all of its resources will be able to help me develop into a greater teacher and coach in a world and society that is so centered around technology.

Tech Savvy

My experience with technology has been great. I am not a techie but I am pretty good, so I would say I am some where in between. It is easy for me to learn new programs especially if I am taught. I can usually figure out how to work things. Technology that I use well is a tough question. I guess I would say that I am good with computers in general, I am good at most programs on the computer, however, I obviously have not had experience with a very wide variety. I am good with cameras and filming. I am pretty good with communication technologies. I would like to learn how to edit videos so that I can become comfortable with it and be efficient at it as well.