The Center for Teaching and Learning Website

I have worked for the Center for Teaching and Learning for two and a half years and have only really seen what we can do from the inside. I've never read any of the tips for using technology and teaching on the website but because Prof. West posted that link on his blog, I decided to explore it because I should probably know what's on there anyway. Adding videos to PowerPoint is something I didn't even know you could do, but it will be very useful in the future when I teach I'm sure. I looked further and discovered the teaching tip that talks about YouTube videos without the clutter and I really liked that too. Not only does it look unprofessional when you show videos with clutter like that, but it also can show inappropriate material by accident that you don't want your students to see. I also really liked the one about concept mapping because I have wondered what the best way to do that on a computer is in the past so that information is really helpful.

Teacher Tube Video Critiques

50 States and Capitals (cartoon song)

This is a good example of something that did not follow copyright laws properly. They use the Animaniacs cartoon of the states and capitals, which is a great resource for learning and so it's clear that they were using it for educational purposes. However, they made several mistakes as far as copyright goes. They used the cartoon without citing it, which should always happen no matter how much of the material you use or if you got permission for it. Also, they show the entire song, which is probably the only part of that episode people will really want anyway, so they are using more than they should have and not even citing the source. What they could do differently is either show just a little clip and then write down all the rest of the states and capitals and cite the cartoon, or they could obtain permission for using this clip and still cite it because that should always happen.

Kids and Kubs Softball

This video uses lots of images from the war and just general pictures of Florida and people playing softball and other things like that. Most of the pictures I think were the man in the video's own pictures and so they don't need to be cited, but there were a few that I don't think were his. They seemed to come from other sources and other photographers and so they were not his to display without permission. Now, because this video is education, I think it was ok to use them. Also, there was not more than five from one photographer or anything like that. So, the amount used was ok under Fair Use, but they still were not cited. So, in order to make this comply with copyright laws, I would suggest that they have a credit at the end with the sources of the photographs that were not directly from the subject of the video or the person who made the video themself. Other than that, it looks pretty kosher.

Google Reader

Here is my screen shot. I hope it's big enough. If not, I can email you one.

The social networks I chose to join were Facebook and Twitter. I chose Facebook because I already know how to use it and I like it and I chose Twitter because it's probably the most widely used besides Facebook. I'm still trying to get the hang of it though.

For my resources that I subscribed to, I chose The Edublogger because I read some of posts and found them very interesting. I also added a blog that I searched for and found about Secondary Education that I thought would be interesting and useful. I added the blog for this class so that I could easily access it in yet another way. I added two of the best English blogs that I could find because I found some of the posts to be interesting and useful as well.

Blogging as an Educational Tool

Using the blog for this class with all of the assignments and information on it has been a really easy way for me to understand what I need to do for this class. Learning how to tag posts opened my eyes as well. I think that this is a great resource for teaching and I'm excited to use it in the future in my own classrooms. Blogs are great because they leave room for comments and open communication between the teacher and student as well as the rest of the class that is quick and reliable.

Tagging is effective because it allows some easy navigation of the site that students can understand and that allows the person creating the blog to post as often as they want because it won't become too crowded if you always have the option of narrowing down what you are looking at.

Some ideas I have about using blogs in the future include posting assignments on them so that students can always go online and ask questions via blog comments that I can answer and then have available for all of the students to see so that it is like asking a question in class except that students will remember it better because it is in writing on my blog right next to the assignment. This will help clarify assignments and make it so that students don't flounder at home so much while they are trying to do new assignments, especially ones that are more difficult or detailed.

Another idea I have is that I can use blogs for announcements in class and tag them as "announcements" so that students can always see what is new in class in case they missed class that day or just need a reference to look at. It is always hard for students who are sick and miss a day or two when new announcements have been made or assignments have been explained and so this would provide a place where students can go and see what happened in class and see if any due dates have been moved or assignments have been changed.

I think a blog would be great place to post course policies as well so that students and parents a like can go online and see what the policies are at any time in case they lose a syllabus or something that was on paper.

I think involving parents in class blogs is a great idea as well. Allowing them access to see what their children are studying and what the assignments they are doing entail would help parents with children that struggle to know what needs to be done and help them more effectively.

I think blogging is a great resource and I think I will use if extensively in my future classrooms.

This Semester

My technological background is probably about the same as the average student. I have used Blackboard and have experimented with Moodle for a study at the Center for Teaching and Learning where I work. I work with Qualtrics there and can give anyone that needs one an account so that you can create your own surveys and distribute them. I have learned a lot through my job at the CTL, including better skills with Microsoft Office programs. I have used other programs such as Morae, JIRA, Scope, and a few programs that allow me to create tutorials for the programs we create and CTL.

My goals for the semester include becoming more proficient at some new programs such as Voicethread and Moodle (even though I understand we won't be using it much) and to learn new methods for using technology to become an effective teacher in the future. I don't know much about teaching yet and I am anxious to learn because I feel that it is very important and I want to be able to reach my students in the future. I'm excited to become a teacher and so I'm excited for this class and all that I hope it will teach me.

Welcome to My Blog :)

I added some gadgets on the side:
1) one of my favorite scriptures because good scriptures always put me in a good mood, so hopefully they will do the same for you :)
2) a picture I took while I was running Stewart Falls one night. I love this picture because it reminds me of the great run I had but also because I think Stewart Falls is beautiful and the mountains here in Utah have a way of making me extremely happy so why not put a little bit of that happiness on my blog?
3) a box for links that I like and want to share with others. I will add links to useful educational websites etc. as the semester continues hopefully but for right now, I just added one of my favorite SNL skits called "Immigrant Tale." Something else you might like to know about me, I love to laugh and SNL is great at making me. :)
4) My Blog List where I will eventually put all my group members blogs
5) a link to my profile so you can learn even MORE about me. Woohoo!