accessible technology (reflection wk 3)

I have been so swamped with grades that I have not been able to play on any of my sites. I sure could tell I have not checked in daily, my reader had many stored articles and blogs to scan. I can tell from other blogs that I am going to have to find out more about twitter and try to follow some of you. I know we have discussed accessibility of technology is very important but so is upgraded technology. I am running into a problem with dial up at home (Cathy I know you have this issue too), it is way too slow for some of the podcasts and videos. I have also run into some problems with needing mp4 players for videos and even windows 2003 will not open some documents. We all seem to be having some issues whether it is Cathy or me with slow connections or Chad with not the right players to open information to Lisa having her computer in for repair. I know we are all getting around these issues right now but I feel we are just scratching the surface of issues we will face. Trying to keep up with technology to explore new areas is going to be a challenge in the very near future. The new i phones are outdated almost when they reach the market. Our computers can be updated but with too many bells and whistles older computers get bogged down.

I did use my book mark on i Google to open a power point and video I found in (one building) in the morning to another building later that afternoon, and I now have it stored there for future use. Right now in this class I feel one thing I am accomplishing is being able to organize all my options so I can reference them from anywhere.
On to trying a new adventure, podcasting. I borrowed a microphone and will try tomorrow after school with Lisa and Chad to see if we can set up a small podcast. will update this late

Patrick is this site okay to follow for you??

Patrick I added your knight flights blogspot from your classroom 2.0 site if this is wrong post to me otherwise I'm sure everyone will add you soon through this connection

A handful of Firefox tweaks that will double your browser speed

A handful of Firefox tweaks that will double your browser speed

Posted using ShareThis

If you are like me you can use all the help to speed up your browser, this also gave me chance to make a post to my blog using Share This

Recap of first three weeks

A recap of what I accomplished the first few weeks of this class:
Read and posted on the DaVinci Thread #2, Hendron Thread #1
Set up a site on blogger.com and attached all Concordia classmates as followers and people I
follow
continued the posted reading for class
posted pictures and videos to our Concordia web site and my blog site
added a face book account and joined classroom 2.0
my biggest accomplishment for me was to set up my igoogle page and link everything to one site
my reader (aggrigator) follows ASCD, Education W eek.., Edutopia, eschool nes, Teachers Love
Smart Boards and all the blog site I follow
on the front pape of my igoogle page I also have a book mark section which links me to concordia, intersting acticles that I have found. I also have a link to classroom 2.0 and delicious
My direction now is to use these sites more, especially the smart board info.
I found and listened to my first podcast today that I could have linked or posted to but I am trying to be a little more selective I still need to work on music on my blog site but think I am close

Keeping track of your efforts

This is posted on the Concordia blog site too. I was reading our syllabus and found that I was suppose to be keeping a weekly log via my blog page of how much time I have spent. A little (very) delinquent on this, as I have no log. : ( I am afraid of how many hours (way over 30) that I have spent especially when you consider it was read time too. I did find something of interest on my i Google reader; if you click on trends you will have some idea of blog activity and site visitations. I say some idea because if you are like me, it too many hours to really investigate, set up and link sites before this could register. I also do not think it is reading our involvement on our CSP network site.

Jeannie nice share of Kare 11 info on Medford's budget cuts. It actually showed up on my reader too.

link blog page to Concordia Cohort page

FYI Lisa and I played after school today and were able to add links to Classroom 2.0 and our Blog site to our i Google but could not add the Concordia site I was able to add a link on my blog page (not dashboard) .
If interested go to view blog (your own)- find customize in upper right corner- once opened click on add gadget- scroll to link list and open add title you want and URL is http://csptech.ning.com that's it, save and move it to where you want it on your blog page. My only dilemma now is how to keep my blog page open once I link, but at least it is very easy to get back to since it is i Goggle.

Fred came to the rescue all I need to do is hold sown the ctrl key when when I click on it and it will open a new tab

practicing video upload with tina

learning more about this goggle site

I had one of my students work with me on the goggle side of this. I had no idea there was an i goggle but it is now connected to this blog site and I was having fun customizing it. I am trying to figure out if I want the RSS feeds to go there or to my blogger side, still playing. Is everyone setting up a facebook site ??? I have the site but have not done a thing with it, seems to be too many place to keep checking and exploring

smart board quest

Since I now have this fantastic smart board I am trying to learn efficient ways to use it. I can already see that power-points are limiting and are not using the interactiveness of technology. Thought I would research this, hence the presentation blogs

My Top 10 slides on presentations

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

My Top 10 slides on presentations

View more presentations from Alexei Kapterev.

After leaving class on Wednesday night I decided to try something very different with my Senior math class that really struggles. We used the computer lab and I gave them the assignment to goggle arithmetic sequences and series, then copy and paste a two page lesson that they understood and could present to the class. They also had to have a real application, a link to their web site and and a problem to give to the class with an answer key. Of course this bright idea did not go off without a hitch. Limiting the lesson to two pages was the best thing I did I saw a lot of frustration because now they could not just copy!
We will see on Monday when some start to teach if a few are getting the idea. This will take time but the goal is to develop a small math book with their lessons and applications. The real task for me became guiding them to trim to just the condensed organized info they needed to have it make sense.
Most of the lessons this year have developed this way but I was doing all the work and sharing it with the students. Hopefully this will have them more involved and have more meaning. I think this fits with the Di Vinci article to some extent but can see that the students have access to learn through the goggle sites and info but I am positive they would not grasp the knowledge I hope they will acquire without guidance (the teaching part)
Learning is essential and everyone can and should learn, but I am not sure we can all teach or facilitate that learning. There is a difference between learning and helping someone become educated.