Social Tools

As our society becomes more internet savvy, people tend to stay online at all times of the day. Instead of having meetings with clients, people will video chat, instead of hanging out with friends, kids will hang out on Facebook. People have always been extremely social, and we still are. The difference between pre-internet years and now is how communication is being exchanged. People are still communicating while they are online, just they are not face to face with anyone. This week we talked about the pros and cons of internet communication, and whether it is hurting our social skills, or helping. Everyone has a different opinion, but I feel that communication is being used by everybody, whether they are online or not. The internet offers so many helpful social tools, like Google Docs. This is a free, web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, form, and data storage service offered by Google. People can create documents, and share them with other people who can then edit them. We watched a video in class that described how Google Docs made it easy for an editor of a newspaper to work. Instead of sending copies of the newly edited story, they writer can go onto Google Docs and see the edits that were made, and can even continue editing it. Sharing documents and files has never been so easy. Another great social tool on the internet is social bookmarking. This allows people to organize, store, manage, and search for bookmarks of resources online. The difference between social bookmarking, and regular bookmarking, is that you can share your bookmarks with everybody on a social bookmarking website, and you can make tags about the website, which will make it easy to find in the future. We used the website Delicious, which is a popular social bookmarking site that is very easy to use. Social bookmarking can help many people find the sites they need in half the time. Even though many people are spending too much time on the internet, most of the tools it offers can really benefit people.

Social tools can help a teacher out in so many ways. Teachers love to communicate with other teachers to share activities, lesson plans, and other ideas that can benefit everyone. Teachers who use Google Docs can easily share everything they need to with others, even their own students. If teachers need to give an assignment, they can create it on Google Docs, share it with their class, and the students can finish their assignment and send it back to the teacher, all on one website. Social bookmarking can help teachers a lot to. A video we watched in class showed how a math teacher used social bookmarking to find websites about a certain area of math. Instead of searching the web through thousands of math websites, he could go to his bookmarks, search through the tags for the specific math topic he wants, and his search would be cut down tremendously. When I told my mom about Delicious she was so excited. If you go on her computer you will see hundreds of bookmarked teacher sites, and she never knows how to find the right one she is looking for. Social bookmarking websites can organize all of her websites, and make it easier for her to find the right site. If all teachers knew about this, I am sure they would sign up right away because they are always looking for educational websites that look almost the same, and social bookmarking could differentiate them, and save teachers a lot of time. 


http://www.alltipsandtricks.com/top-10-social-bookmarking-tools-for-educators/

This website explains why social bookmarking can help teachers out. It says it is highly useful for educators since it allows specific categorization of websites for easy access and sharing. It then gives 10 great social bookmarking websites that will help in the classroom and with other educators. Delicious is the second one it gives, and it says that this site is specifically designed for teachers and teaching. 

Podcasts

This week we learned about podcasts, and learned how to make them. Podcasts can be used for many different reasons, like teaching a lesson, communicating with people on the internet, or just for fun. The definition an article we read in class said that podcasts are audio files that can be played on the computer or downloaded to MP3 players, such as Apple’s iPod. Another article we read said that podcasts are an automated technology that allows listeners to subscribe and listen to digitally recorded audio shows. The files are downloaded to your computer daily, once you have subscribed to a podcast. People make podcasts about anything. It is a way to teach, learn, or express your feelings about something, and have an online audience watch. They could be filled with words, pictures, and music, or it could be as simple as talking in front of the camera. Creating a podcast is very easy. We did it this week in class, and because I have a Mac I was able to use the program Garageband, which allows you to create music or podcasts. If you do not have a Mac, you could download the free program Audacity, or if you have a PC there is a program called Sound Recorder that is already installed on the computer. On Garageband, all you have to do is hit the record button and start talking. Once you have finished you can add in effects, music, or pictures to enhance your podcast. It was the first time I had ever used Garageband, and it was so simple to learn, so anyone could do it. 

Technology is being used more and more in the classroom. Now teachers are using Smart Boards and the internet themselves, and at the same time they are encouraging their students to use computers too. Podcasts are an easy way to make technology in the classroom different. Teachers could give lessons through podcasts, have announcements, assign podcast projects, and much more. If teachers knew how to make podcasts, they could have all of their students subscribe to daily podcasts that the teachers could post everyday. These daily podcasts could be reminders, tips and tricks, or even additional lessons outside the classroom. Teachers in higher levels, like college, could use podcasts as their main way to instruct if they are teaching an online class. Once teachers know how to make podcasts, they could show their students how to make their own. Students could use podcasts to express their ideas with other students, learn from their peers, and become knowledgeable. 

This video explains what a podcast is, and why it is important for podcasts to be used in the classroom. Some of the examples of how podcasts could be used are if a teacher is absent, they can make a podcast about their lecture and won’t need to worry about getting a sub. Another example is they could make podcasts about school news, or if school is cancelled the teacher could make a podcast allowing students to do an extra credit assignment. The examples are endless because there are so many different ways a teacher could incorporate a podcast into the classroom.

My Podcast

My podcast was one of my history questions for my test that I was studying for. It was about the Proclamation Line of 1763. Podcasts are very simple to complete. I just got a Macbook Pro, and was able to make my podcast on GarageBand. In the teaching field, they can be helpful because teachers can make podcasts that go along with their lessons, or if it is an online class, they can post the podcasts online for students to watch.

My Digital Story

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

This is my digital story of when I went to Halloween Horror Nights a few weeks ago. This was a really fun project to do, because I love taking pictures, and scrapbooking. In a way, digital storytelling is like an online scrapbook. In my field, education, digital storytelling would be used a lot if most teachers knew how to create them. Instead of giving lectures, they could tell a story through these videos. They would be educational, and at the same time they would entertain the students. It could also be a good way for kids to learn how to create storis with their own pictures. A teacher could give different projects using digital storytelling. One example could be having students practice their presentation skills in front of the class while explaining their vacation. Another could be a group project where students have to work together to put a digital story together. There are so many lessons that can be learned from digital storytelling.

Digital Storytelling

The more skilled we become with computers the more new ways we learn how to do different things. Instead of watching shows on the television, people can now watch them on their computers. Instead of people going to class, they can take online classes. What we learned about this week is similar. Digital storytelling is the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories. Instead of people writing in their journals, or keeping photo albums of events, they can make digital stories online. These stories can contain pictures, music, and words to make your story come alive. Cogdogroo.com gives examples of many different websites you can visit in order to make a video. In class, I visited animoto.com and made my own video about my trip to Halloween Horror Nights a few weeks ago. It literally took about 5 minutes to create, and was very easy. I had never made a video before, so I was worried it might be difficult, but it really was not. If there are people who need help, there is an organization called the Center for Digital Storytelling. They are an international nonprofit training, project development, and research organization that helps youth and adults around the world with their digital storytelling.They not only work to help individuals, but they want to help communities, on a large-scale basis, so that way the community can learn through watching their digital stories. 

This video explains what digital storytelling is, through a digital story. It uses a recorded voice-over, pictures, and music. It explains how digital stories can be created by anyone who has a computer. The video also gives you tips on how to start making one. The first step is to create you story, and keep it brief. Then add some pictures, music, and maybe some sound effects. Lastly, you want to add in titles, and transitions. Anybody is capable of creating a digital story, and there are plenty of websites, and people who can help.

The people who could help the most, if they learn how to do it properly, are teachers. If all teachers knew how to work with technology, and be able to create digital stories for their students, they would learn how to do it for themselves. Teachers could assign a class project to create a digital story of their winter vacation, or a school field trip. I would need to know how to guide my students through the process of making the video. Not only can I teach them how to make their own videos, but I can teach my own lessons through videos. I am positive that watching a digital story about history is way more interesting than reading a history book.

Visual Literacy

This week we learned about visual literacy, which is the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image. Just like a book, a picture can be read and analyzed. Many photographers capture an image to tell a story, express an emotion, or make a point. Being able to analyze pictures will help people throughout their lives, since our culture is very visual. People can learn to be visually literate by practicing visual encoding and visual decoding. Visual encoding allows people to learn by creating their own examples of visuals, like painting a picture, or taking a photograph. People learn through visual decoding when they try to understand and analyze other artists work. One of the videos we watched for class asked the question, “What if we were stripped of our visual literacy?” Every day, people are surrounded by visuals, like road signs, businesses logos, and more. If people did not know how to read a sign, how would they know to stop at a stop sign, or go into the men’s bathroom and not the ladies? Visual literacy is crucial for everyday life. Also discussed this week was the topic of photoshop. According to Wikipedia, “Photoshop is a graphics editing program,” that allows people to fix images on the computer. This could be good for many reasons, but it could also have a negative effect on society. Sometimes a photographer might have taken a dark picture and want to lighten it up, or they want to play around with the colors in the backgrounds, but some editors take it too far. In a video created by Dove, a models picture is completely changed and put up on a billboard for the world to see. They changed many aspects of her face, like making her eyes bigger, and her neck longer. At the end of the video they state, “no wonder our perception of beauty is distorted.” The people who created this video are trying to say that they way people are editing photos is taking away natural beauty, and making it fake. People are beautiful because they are different. There is no reason to fix a picture to take away acne, or bags under the eyes, or to make someone skinnier. 

This video shows how visual literacy is important to everyday life. A guy is walking around, looking at signs to help him find where he needs to go. Without knowing how to read signs he might get lost. Also, throughout the video, a lot of different examples of visuals are shown; diagrams, charts, instructions, pictures, signs, etc. All of these visuals are used daily, and being visually literate can help people read them better.

As an education major, it is very important that I learn how much visual literacy is needed in our lives. Students need to learn how to look at pictures in different ways, and be able to know what they are saying. Visuals are used all over the world, and just like learning how to read needs to be started at an early age, so does learning how to read pictures. Not only will my students know how to analyze a picture, they will be more capable of creating their own. Also, it is important for my students to know about Photoshop and how it can enhance a picture, and also destroy one. I want my children to know that they are perfect how they are, and Photoshop should not be used to fix any flaws they may see in their selves.