Blogging And Language Arts
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Friday, December 4, 2009
Friday, November 27, 2009
Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas
For my 3rd emerging technology post, I decided to check out http://www.pandora.com. Pandora Radio is pretty awesome. Pandora Radio allows users to create their own radio stations based off of musicial artists or songs. Pandora Radio was created to allow people to access the Music Genome project. The Music Genome project, in the simplest terms, is a mathematical categorization of songs that allows similar songs and to be grouped together.
To use Pandora Radio all one has to do is sign up using their e-mail address and create a profile. Next comes the fun part, create a radio station! The site prompts you to enter a song or artist and then it starts to create the radio station for you. The cool thing about your radio station is that Pandora Radio allows you to give your feedback on each song. When the song is playing you can select thumbs up or thumbs down, and if you click in the center of the tile for that song you can say that you don't want it played anymore. I don't know know about anyone else but that is a feature I wished the regular radio had! One of the stations that I decided to create was a Christmas station. I love the song "White Christmas" and entered that as my song to base the radio station on. So far this radio station has been a blast. You can check out any of my radio stations I've created by visiting my profile http://www.pandora.com/people/hddick#. I could see myself using Pandora Radio in my classroom during creative writing times. It would allow a teacher to access different songs/artists without having to spend a ton of money on all the cds.
My tips for Pandora Radio are pretty simple. Have fun! This site is a great way to find new, different music! I absolutley love music so I've enjoyed this site because it has allowed me to find artist similar to some of my favorite artists. It's also given me different versions of some of my favortite Christmas songs. Also don't be afraid to click on the different buttons. In the menu section at the center of each song you can ask "why was this song selected?". This feature is so cool because it'll explain the connection of the song or the artist to your original selection.
Enjoy your new radio stations!
To use Pandora Radio all one has to do is sign up using their e-mail address and create a profile. Next comes the fun part, create a radio station! The site prompts you to enter a song or artist and then it starts to create the radio station for you. The cool thing about your radio station is that Pandora Radio allows you to give your feedback on each song. When the song is playing you can select thumbs up or thumbs down, and if you click in the center of the tile for that song you can say that you don't want it played anymore. I don't know know about anyone else but that is a feature I wished the regular radio had! One of the stations that I decided to create was a Christmas station. I love the song "White Christmas" and entered that as my song to base the radio station on. So far this radio station has been a blast. You can check out any of my radio stations I've created by visiting my profile http://www.pandora.com/people/hddick#. I could see myself using Pandora Radio in my classroom during creative writing times. It would allow a teacher to access different songs/artists without having to spend a ton of money on all the cds.
My tips for Pandora Radio are pretty simple. Have fun! This site is a great way to find new, different music! I absolutley love music so I've enjoyed this site because it has allowed me to find artist similar to some of my favorite artists. It's also given me different versions of some of my favortite Christmas songs. Also don't be afraid to click on the different buttons. In the menu section at the center of each song you can ask "why was this song selected?". This feature is so cool because it'll explain the connection of the song or the artist to your original selection.
Enjoy your new radio stations!
Friday, November 6, 2009
Welcome to the World of Microblogging
For my second emerging technologies post I decided I wanted to focus on twitter. Twitter is a microblogging site that allows you to tell the world what you're doing in 140 characters or less. All one has to do is go to http://www.twitter.com and register. After you've registered, there are literally millions of people that you can "follow." By "following" someone you are able to see their postings on your timeline.
Twitter is an amazing tool to keep people connected, share links to interesting/important articles, and to promote yourself. Initially I was very hesitant about signing up for twitter. It seemed like just another social network/blogging fad that would be here one day and gone the next. I felt this way until I talked with some of the "techies"(guys who work within the tech world.) at the coffee shop that I worked at. Douglas Karr, author of http://marketingtechblog.com/, explained to me that twitter allows people in his world to provide help to others stuck on projects, get out word of their latest projects, and even tell about cool things happening in the technology world. While I, myself, am not a "techie," I could see the benefit of being able to reach out to others. The great thing about twitter is that you can adjust privacy settings so that you can choose who can follow you and who can't. For my twitter account, www.twitter.com/darlinghollie, set to private. If you decide to sign up for twitter after reading this post feel free to add me, but be warned I tweet about silly things!
The tips that I have for twitter are pretty simple.
Twitter is an amazing tool to keep people connected, share links to interesting/important articles, and to promote yourself. Initially I was very hesitant about signing up for twitter. It seemed like just another social network/blogging fad that would be here one day and gone the next. I felt this way until I talked with some of the "techies"(guys who work within the tech world.) at the coffee shop that I worked at. Douglas Karr, author of http://marketingtechblog.com/, explained to me that twitter allows people in his world to provide help to others stuck on projects, get out word of their latest projects, and even tell about cool things happening in the technology world. While I, myself, am not a "techie," I could see the benefit of being able to reach out to others. The great thing about twitter is that you can adjust privacy settings so that you can choose who can follow you and who can't. For my twitter account, www.twitter.com/darlinghollie, set to private. If you decide to sign up for twitter after reading this post feel free to add me, but be warned I tweet about silly things!
The tips that I have for twitter are pretty simple.
- When selecting your user name, keep it short and simple. If it's a long name people will forget it.
- Don't post something you'll regret...this is going out to everyone! If you don't want people to know it, don't say it!
- Have fun! There are some many different unique people on twitter. I'm currently following Elizabeth Taylor. Twitter is pretty wide spread!
I hope everyone has fun tweeting!
Friday, October 23, 2009
Podcasting
I've been a huge fan of podcasting for quite a few years now. I remember during the wait for book 6 and book 7 of the Harry Potter series listening to podcasts with different theories about who would live, who would die, and other things.
Podcasting allows a person to share their knowledge on a topic with a group of people by recording audio. Podcasts have topics that range from education to really anything that you may be interested in.
I used Yodio which was pretty user friendly. It allows you to share pictures within your podcast. After you've set up an account you can upload pictures from your computer. When you've picked the picture you want to use you can call the number given on the site and record what you want to say. Once this is done you can create your Yodio. You pick your picture and the recording that you've completed and put them together using their software provided on the site. Overall it was fairly easy to use. The great thing about Yodio is that you can post your Yodio you've made on many different sites or send it in an e-mail.
The tip that I have for anyone using Yodio is to make sure that you record in a quite place and to speak loudly and clearly. I thought I had spoken quite loud but it records pretty quite.
Happy podcasting everyone!
Podcasting allows a person to share their knowledge on a topic with a group of people by recording audio. Podcasts have topics that range from education to really anything that you may be interested in.
I used Yodio which was pretty user friendly. It allows you to share pictures within your podcast. After you've set up an account you can upload pictures from your computer. When you've picked the picture you want to use you can call the number given on the site and record what you want to say. Once this is done you can create your Yodio. You pick your picture and the recording that you've completed and put them together using their software provided on the site. Overall it was fairly easy to use. The great thing about Yodio is that you can post your Yodio you've made on many different sites or send it in an e-mail.
The tip that I have for anyone using Yodio is to make sure that you record in a quite place and to speak loudly and clearly. I thought I had spoken quite loud but it records pretty quite.
Happy podcasting everyone!
Saturday, October 17, 2009
My Delicious Account
Here's my delicious account. Delicious is a pretty cool service. I can see it being helpful for professional and home use. It'd be a simple way to create a Christmas or Birthday wish list! :)
http://delicious.com/hddick
http://delicious.com/hddick
Monday, September 14, 2009
Welcome to My Blog
Hey out there! Just to introduce myself again my name is Hollie Dick. I'm a Secondary English Education major who enjoys music, fashion, and of course literature. I work at a coffee shop which is like my home away from home. In my free time I love to bake. My friends and family have nicknamed me "Betty Crocker," apparently because I can bake well. I also love to sew. I recently started constructing skirts with a Singer sewing machine I purchased.
Setting up this blog was rather easy for me. I've been blogging since I was 13. I've had a few different blogs depending on my interest and discovery of new blog hosting sites. For my personal blog I prefer tumblr, but having used blogger before I see the benefits of using it for a class like this. The only tip that I have for our class when it comes to blogging is that its very important to keep up with it. If you blog on a regular basis and then don't post as often as you once did, it can be very hard to get back in the habit of blogging.
Below is my critical thinking paper:
Building a Technological School, One Room at a Time
While reading the article “Toward a New Model of High-Tech Schoolrooms” by Royal Van Horn, I really latched onto the quote “I would shift the focus from the traditional model of creating a high-tech school to a model of creating a high-tech schoolroom” (487). I found this quote to be a main idea in the article because throughout the rest of the article Van Horn focuses on the challenges attached to creating high-tech schools and how he’d do things differently now with experience. I think that Van Horn raises a valid point while discussing the matter of the difficulty attached to creating high-tech schools.
While discussing creating high-tech schools, Van Horn starts by informing the reader that in a high-tech schools, the school will “…put four to six networked computers in every classroom one on every teacher’s desk” (487). Van Horn states that the idea behind this is to allow for teachers to use these computers in their classroom instruction but reminds his reader that some teachers will not utilize this readily available technology. Van Horn goes on to say that he often has been quoted as saying “one computer used four hours a day is equal to four computers used one hour a day”(487). This part of the article made me think about the use of computers in my own education from elementary school through high school. Mostly the teachers that I had would have us use the computer very sparingly. The computers weren’t used often or in an effort to enrich the curriculum being presented.
Not only did Van Horn talk about the possibility that computers may not be utilized, he discussed the cost behind creating a high-tech school. Often times we jump at the idea to introduce new technology to students because often times new, fun technology causes the student to gain more interest in what is being presented to them. I know that when a teacher wanted to get my classes excited about doing a project in middle school they would create a special powerpoint presentation to show us. While this technology isn’t as exciting as others, it caused my classes at least to pay a bit more attention to what was being presented. I don’t think that as a student I ever thought about the cost of having computers within my school. Van Horn states that “…a real problem with the traditional high-tech school model is that in 40-classroom school you would need about 250 computers…In three years, these 250 computers would need to be replaced at a cost of about $250,000” (487). This number shocked me. I know most school systems currently are struggling to keep the arts and after school programs running. I don’t think they have the kind of money to purchase and keep computers at that cost.
Van Horn eventually transitioned into the idea that schools without leaders who can champion technology won’t be as successful. This idea also really stuck with me. I know in some of my school experiences a teacher or administrator who wasn’t quite comfortable with technology wouldn’t use as much of it or require the students to use it. While reading “Assistive Technology and Inclusion” by Caren Sax, Ian Pumpian, and Doug Fisher, this idea of needing a person who can champion technology came up again. Within this article, the authors discussed the situation of Joey who they described “…as having cerebral palsy and also being ‘deaf-blind with cognitive disabilities’” (Fisher). Joey required assistive technology which allowed him to function in a general education classroom. The authors mentioned that with educators “…many are not sufficiently familiar with assistive technology to use it effectively” (Fisher). This information made me think about the fact that as a teacher we need to be a champion for technology. We need to be familiar with what technology is available, how to properly operate the technology, and how we can use it within our classroom.
Van Horn mentioned in the article about a principal who was a champion for technology named Roger Coffee. I thought that Mr. Coffee was great about being that champion for technology. Van Horn talked about how Mr. Coffee included technology in his yearly teacher evaluation process. I think that this is such a great way to basically force the teachers who may not want to use technology to get on the boat. I know there are always a few teachers in a school who are “old” and “stubborn” and refuse to learn new technology; everyone has had them. Those teachers would have to learn new technology to remain within the school which is important. Our world has become technologically driven and as teachers we have a duty to make sure our students are ready to enter that world.
While Van Horn discusses the use of HCA or personal computers for each student, this could be beneficial at different points of a students’ career. Van Horn specially uses the example of Florida stating “…giving all fourth-graders computers and having them do a lot of writing using a word processor might help them pass the fourth-grade Florida Write test…”(551). The idea of using technology to aid students in reaching their goal of passing standardized tests really stuck with me. I know that in a world of No Child Left Behind standardized tests weigh very heavily in the education world. Students need as much help as they can to better understand the material so they are able to succeed in the standardized tests. I know that if the technology is available to me for use in my classroom, I plan on using it to aid the learning experience of my students.
All-in-All this article really caused me to think about a high-tech school versus a high-tech classroom. I feel like I’m better informed about the costs of high-tech schools whereas before I don’t think I ever really thought about the cost involved with purchasing computers or other technology for a school. I’ve learned that I need to keep up to date on what technology is out there so that I can be a champion of its use within my classroom to provide the best learning experience available for my students.
Setting up this blog was rather easy for me. I've been blogging since I was 13. I've had a few different blogs depending on my interest and discovery of new blog hosting sites. For my personal blog I prefer tumblr, but having used blogger before I see the benefits of using it for a class like this. The only tip that I have for our class when it comes to blogging is that its very important to keep up with it. If you blog on a regular basis and then don't post as often as you once did, it can be very hard to get back in the habit of blogging.
Below is my critical thinking paper:
Building a Technological School, One Room at a Time
While reading the article “Toward a New Model of High-Tech Schoolrooms” by Royal Van Horn, I really latched onto the quote “I would shift the focus from the traditional model of creating a high-tech school to a model of creating a high-tech schoolroom” (487). I found this quote to be a main idea in the article because throughout the rest of the article Van Horn focuses on the challenges attached to creating high-tech schools and how he’d do things differently now with experience. I think that Van Horn raises a valid point while discussing the matter of the difficulty attached to creating high-tech schools.
While discussing creating high-tech schools, Van Horn starts by informing the reader that in a high-tech schools, the school will “…put four to six networked computers in every classroom one on every teacher’s desk” (487). Van Horn states that the idea behind this is to allow for teachers to use these computers in their classroom instruction but reminds his reader that some teachers will not utilize this readily available technology. Van Horn goes on to say that he often has been quoted as saying “one computer used four hours a day is equal to four computers used one hour a day”(487). This part of the article made me think about the use of computers in my own education from elementary school through high school. Mostly the teachers that I had would have us use the computer very sparingly. The computers weren’t used often or in an effort to enrich the curriculum being presented.
Not only did Van Horn talk about the possibility that computers may not be utilized, he discussed the cost behind creating a high-tech school. Often times we jump at the idea to introduce new technology to students because often times new, fun technology causes the student to gain more interest in what is being presented to them. I know that when a teacher wanted to get my classes excited about doing a project in middle school they would create a special powerpoint presentation to show us. While this technology isn’t as exciting as others, it caused my classes at least to pay a bit more attention to what was being presented. I don’t think that as a student I ever thought about the cost of having computers within my school. Van Horn states that “…a real problem with the traditional high-tech school model is that in 40-classroom school you would need about 250 computers…In three years, these 250 computers would need to be replaced at a cost of about $250,000” (487). This number shocked me. I know most school systems currently are struggling to keep the arts and after school programs running. I don’t think they have the kind of money to purchase and keep computers at that cost.
Van Horn eventually transitioned into the idea that schools without leaders who can champion technology won’t be as successful. This idea also really stuck with me. I know in some of my school experiences a teacher or administrator who wasn’t quite comfortable with technology wouldn’t use as much of it or require the students to use it. While reading “Assistive Technology and Inclusion” by Caren Sax, Ian Pumpian, and Doug Fisher, this idea of needing a person who can champion technology came up again. Within this article, the authors discussed the situation of Joey who they described “…as having cerebral palsy and also being ‘deaf-blind with cognitive disabilities’” (Fisher). Joey required assistive technology which allowed him to function in a general education classroom. The authors mentioned that with educators “…many are not sufficiently familiar with assistive technology to use it effectively” (Fisher). This information made me think about the fact that as a teacher we need to be a champion for technology. We need to be familiar with what technology is available, how to properly operate the technology, and how we can use it within our classroom.
Van Horn mentioned in the article about a principal who was a champion for technology named Roger Coffee. I thought that Mr. Coffee was great about being that champion for technology. Van Horn talked about how Mr. Coffee included technology in his yearly teacher evaluation process. I think that this is such a great way to basically force the teachers who may not want to use technology to get on the boat. I know there are always a few teachers in a school who are “old” and “stubborn” and refuse to learn new technology; everyone has had them. Those teachers would have to learn new technology to remain within the school which is important. Our world has become technologically driven and as teachers we have a duty to make sure our students are ready to enter that world.
While Van Horn discusses the use of HCA or personal computers for each student, this could be beneficial at different points of a students’ career. Van Horn specially uses the example of Florida stating “…giving all fourth-graders computers and having them do a lot of writing using a word processor might help them pass the fourth-grade Florida Write test…”(551). The idea of using technology to aid students in reaching their goal of passing standardized tests really stuck with me. I know that in a world of No Child Left Behind standardized tests weigh very heavily in the education world. Students need as much help as they can to better understand the material so they are able to succeed in the standardized tests. I know that if the technology is available to me for use in my classroom, I plan on using it to aid the learning experience of my students.
All-in-All this article really caused me to think about a high-tech school versus a high-tech classroom. I feel like I’m better informed about the costs of high-tech schools whereas before I don’t think I ever really thought about the cost involved with purchasing computers or other technology for a school. I’ve learned that I need to keep up to date on what technology is out there so that I can be a champion of its use within my classroom to provide the best learning experience available for my students.
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