Power Point

I decided to create my power point on the history of the Earth. This is a topic that will be covered in my science nine class later in the year. This is a great tool for presenting information. I was able to take the textbook information and incorporate graphics into it that my students will find more interesting than actually reading the text. With more time and practice I feel a teacher could make interactive power points that each student could view on their own and take part in online activities that could be hyperlinked to the power point. Very useful tool!

Podcasting

What an absolute hair pulling nightmare!!!! I had no problem creating the podcast whatsoever. I found the Audicity software to be very user friendly and exciting to work with. I made the script and recorded. No problem! The nightmare began when I had to convert to an mp3 file. I don't know what the problem was but I could not figure it out. I followed Debbie's directions and resorted to my podcasting info from a summer workshop. After an hour of frustration I finally downloaded a free mp3 converter. Just when I think all is going smoothly I hit another wall! From podbean, which I have used before, I was unable to upload my podcast. It goes as far as 1% then sits there, forever. I have been waiting over an hour with no success. I tried other computers with older versions of Windows to no avail. I have had enough. Finally I was able to save it as an ftp and provide a link for this assignment. I don't know if this is correct but I have had enough and am ready to go home! I had high hopes of developing podcasts with my students. There are so many uses for this resource in 21st century learning. I feel now that it is not worth the hassle and headache! If you would like to view my podcast and script please click on the links below.
Podcast
Script

Web Album

My web album consists of pictures used in my photo story. I wish I would have remembered to upload others before this project. I hope everyone is not tired of seeing my same photos over and over! I used Picasa 3 to make this album. I feel that it is easier and quicker to use than Photoshop. I will have a couple of uses here at school for this technology. First our school has a web site that is in serious need of reconstruction. I am going to offer to show the team how to use this service for all of our pictures. It will be nice to have a universal login for everyone to use so that they can upload different images from school events in one central location. This way everyone has access to them when working on their part of the website. The second option I will be using this for is research. When students are developing power points and such they need somewhere to store their web base photos due to our school having a download blocker. This way they can get past this obstacle.

Photoshop Express

This was a fun little tool to play around with. Several years back my wife purchased some editing software. It was hard to use and didn't have all of the capabilities that Photoshop has. Best of all this is free! A nice feature when using it in a public school setting when buying new technology isn't always possible. I can use this in my classroom when it comes to projects. I take my students out on our on site nature trail from time to time. I have them collect samples for what ever project we may be doing at the time. Sometimes they are unable to physically bring the sample back to school so they take digital photos and incorporate them into their projects. Photoshop will be great for editing these photos. Another handy option to having my album online is processing options. Sometimes I upload photos to various websites, have them printed and I pick them up later. Already having my photos online helps a bunch.

Crappy Graphics

This will be another useful tool within my classroom. I will be easy to reproduce this image to an over head or to a power point. I am like others some material may not be suitable to turn kids loose on in school, but it can provide a useful means of creating resources for the classroom. My graphic covers "Mitosis vs. Meiosis". This is the next section we will be covering in my biology class.

Online Graphics

Using the Kids Zone site to create various graphs was so easy. I was unaware that this was out there. When my students perform labs in my science classes I have them make lab write-ups to explain their procedures. When it comes to creating graphs I have tried Excel with them but usually it is like pulling teeth. The Kid Zone web-site is much easier to use. I will be using this again. To observe my graphs and interpretations of the data click here. I obtained my information from the NAEP and Info Please web sites.

Image Capture

I completed my image capture assignment with a picture I found on google images explaining the process of photosynthesis. I will actually use this image tommorrow in my biology class. The textbook we in in this class did not have any pictures of this proccess that I liked. With my overhead I can project his image on the wall. I used the print screen functions to obtain the image, but feel that in this situation copying and pasting directly to paint was easier. I used the different paint functions to change the background, import my text, and add new labels. After I finished doctoring it up I saved it as a jpg. file an imprted it into a word document in order to veiw it easily through a hyperlink.