DEJ #13

When I first tried looking/ thinking of a WebQuest topic, I had no idea what I was going to do.  Then after looking through many WebQuests I finally thought of one because of something that I had done when I was in school.  My class read a book that was about this foreign country and how a certain vegetable was so important to their culture.  We then had a day in class were everyone prepared a dish from that country using the vegetable; it was a very fun day.  I decided to choose something that was similar to this because I had really enjoyed it when I was younger.

My WebQuest is about different countries and experiencing there culture.  The video that I chose talked about how traveling is a great thing and that everyone should experience it; and when kids finish the WebQuest they will get to learn more about other countries and hopefully want to travel when they are old enough.

DEJ #12

1. Which two of example WebQuests are the best ones? Why?I think that the best WebQuests are "Unraveling The Underground Railroad" and "Grow School Greens"  I like the Underground Railroad WebQuest because it is very informational and in depth and students can really understand how the Underground Railroad worked by completing this WebQuest.  The Grow School Greens was also a good WebQuest because there are a lot of things that the students do and it allows the students to educate theirselves more about growing food.
2. Which two are the worst? Why?
   The ice cream WebQuest was definitely the worst one.  Not much can be taken from it information wise, it just seems to be a fun activity.  Students would probably like to do this WebQuest, but its not very educational.  I was also not a fan of the Egyptian WebQuest because it had a very boring format.  The tasks that students had to perform seemed like it would be boring for the students.
   
3. What do best and worst mean to you?
   The Underground Railroad was the best to me because it was the one that even I wanted to complete.  It was a very informational and educational WebQuest that would help the students learn the information emmensely.  The ice cream WebQuest was by for the worst because it was not informational AT ALL!

WebQuest!!

WebQuest	Strengths	Weaknesses
Grow School Greens	This WebQuest deals with teamwork.  The students must collaborate with each other when making final decisions about what to plant, where to plant it, and so forth.	There really aren’t any weaknesses
Where is My Hero?	It allows the students to work together on things such as the interviews and making of the posters.	It deals with some individualized work because students research topics separately, then later talk about it.
Underground Railroad	It allows students to discuss and condense all of their information into main points.	It deals with a lot of individualized work by researching people of the Underground Railroad separately.
Ice Cream	It allows students to discuss and collaborate on what ice cream flavor to choose and how to present the poster.	Students do the ice cream worksheet individually.
Ancient Egypt	It allows students to work with a partner.	There really isn’t any weaknesses besides the facts that some of the work is done individually when making the brochure.

Google Form on vacationnn!

Vacation Time Form!

Thinking Creatively Video

There are many things that can be taken from this video. Putany talks about how teaching/pedagogy can be “messy” and he is very right.  I don’t necessarily believe that messy was the right word to use, complicated would have been a better choice.  There are so many different ways that a teacher can teach a class, and in a way this can be very hard trying to figure out the best way for the students.  Another thing that I learned from the video is that when teachers teach content to the class, a real effective way to allow the students to learn is by making it fun. Someone can be a very intelligent, yet they are horrible at teaching. Teachers have to know how to successfully transfer the content to the students.

Web 2.0 Tools

Describe the tool.
The tool that I chose is called Stencyl. It is an app that allows people to create games, it is similar to the Scratch program.

What content area would you use the tool.
Depending on what you had your students do with Stencyl, you could use the tool in multiple content areas.  You would just have to change the rules of what type of game to build.

Briefly describe a lesson in which you would implement the tool.
Say the class was learning about fractions in class, the students could then all create different games that dealt with fractions or whatever math skills they were learning.

What do you need to consider before using this tool.
The main thing that needs to be considered before using this tool is the fact that computers are needed.  Also you must make sure that all of your students understand what they are supposed to be doing on the computers.

DJ #10 Sewing the Seeds for a More Creative Society

Quote: "Children can use Crickets to create all types of interactive inventions: musical sculptures, interactive jewelry, dancing creatures. In the process, children learn important science and engineering concepts, and they develop a better understanding of the interactive objects in the world around them" (Resnick).

Response:  I think that this is a great thing!  Kids are learning how things function, they are having fun, and they are actually getting involved.  It is good that the kids using Crickets actually get to build things that they think are cool because they are learning about many skills at one time.  Things like this should be incorporated into the classroom more so students can learn and understand how and why certain things work.

Resource: Resnick, Mitchel. "Sewing the Seeds For A New Creative Society." . ISTE, 2007. Web. 8 Apr. 2012. <http://web.media.mit.edu/~mres/papers/Learning-Leading-final.pdf>.

Reference: This video gives the students point of view of creativity in the classroom.
About Creative Learning In The Classroom

SCRATCH-About Me! :)

Scratch | Project | About Me

Scratch Tutorial

Scratch Tutorial

Scratch!! Collect Beans! | Beetle

Scratch | Project | Collect Beans! | Beetle

DJ # 8 Video Games used in school... whatt?!

Quote: “Ordered Problems.  Good games will compel players to adopt certain techniques or methods to solve problems and build on these to help the player solve more difficult problems in later levels or areas”

Response: This statement is definitely true.  When students play video games, they will always pick up the necessary skills needs to progress to the harder levels in the game.  Usually if the player doesn’t adopt the skills to advance in the game, they will lose, meaning that they have to figure out or adapt new skill sets in order to pass the game.  And this can also be related to life and how people must maintain certain skills to complete a task and if the skills need to complete it are not there the student must reconfigure a plan to finish the task at hand.

Reference:   "10 Things Schools Can Learn From Video Games." Learning in Gaming. N.p., 20 Jan. 2012. Web. 26 Mar. 2012. http://www.learningingaming.com/10-things-schools-can-learn-from-video-games/.

Resource:

The Gaming of Education

Humane Society of the US Jing!

Jing presesntation

View more PowerPoint from lesliegiordon

Clean Up Banners on Wikipedia.... what??

Shiba Inu Dogs

This article or section has multiple issues.	No
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.	No
The neutrality of this article is disputed.	No
The factual accuracy of this article is disputed.	No
This needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone or spelling.	No
This may contain material not appropriate for an encyclopedia.	No
This article only describes one highly specialized aspect of its associated subject.	No
This article requires authentication or verification by an expert.	No
This article or section needs to be updated.	No
This article may not provide balanced geographical coverage on a region.	No
This is missing citations or needs footnotes.	No
This article does not cite any references or sources.	No

Is it written in a clear and organized way?	Yes
Is the tone neutral (not taking sides)?	Didn’t take sides
Are all important facts referenced (you're told where they come from)?	Yes
Does the information provided seem complete or does it look like there are gaps (or just one side of the story)?	No gaps

Website Validation #1 California's Velcro Crop Under Challenge

The website I chose was California's Velcro Crop Under Challenge. As soon as you go to the website it looks as if it is not going to be reliable because it looks like a report and it is very boring (See below)

It says that someone has taken responsibility for the website and his name is Ken Umbach, but it says that they don't really know who he is.  He has no creditials so basically no one has taken responsibility for the site.  It seems as if this is a bogus site because there is no contact information, ownership or copyright date as to when things have been published.
The site does state the topic that it intends to address and in this case it is the Velcro crop in California.  There is not much information under each heading though, the information is very brief.  The information is not well written because there is not enough information on the subject.

There is no date stated of when this information posted and we don't know during which years the article is even about. It would be nice to know the time frame that it is talking about so the readers can know when the Velcro crop problem came about. There are no links on this site other than the Ken Umbach one, that link works, but that site is bogus too.  On the bottom of the page it says that the site is fictional and completely made up.

This information is completely made up therefore the only place you would be able to find it would be online, there is no store or organization you can go to to try and get info.  This information can not be verified because the site in unreliable and made up; there is no phone number, address or even person that can be contacted about the site. 

I would not validate this website.

Website Validation #2 Puppy Mills

The website I chose was the Humane Society of the United States's website: Humane Society
I am an animal lover therefore I love when the HSUS goes in and rescues animals and allows them to have a better life.  I believe that this website is credible just because the Humane Society is a well known organization and the website is a .org.  The website has numerous amounts of contact information too.

Who!The Humane Society of the United States has a website.  On this website, the contact information is clearly stated, there are many phone numbers and different departments that you can contact.  Therefore you can confirm that the company is credible because they are very well known throughout the US and this information can be found under the 'About Us' tab.

What!I don't think that the information is biased in any way; the Humane Society strides to help out the neglected and abandoned animals to try and give them better lives.  The HSUS is one for following through, they actually do what they say they are going to do when trying to help animals.  All of the information on the site is very clear and well written.

When!It is sort of important that the information I'm looking for be absolutely right. All of the links on the site work and there is also a reference date provided to show when the website was last edited.

Why!I believe that the HSUS website is a great site to get information off of because it is easy to navigate.  Yes the online material I'm finding suits my needs and yes I am able to verify the information if I were to talk to employee at the HSUS.

American Educator's Teacher of the Month Edition!

My Voki :)

My voki is a penguin which happens to be one of my favorite animals.  Unfortunately my voice did not work because my computers microphone was not picking anything up, therefore I had to use the text to speech.  After listening to my text to speech I realized that I stated "digital storytelling" many sentences back to back so I changed the word to 'it' when 'digital storytelling' was used in the previous sentence.  Other than that, I really made no edits to my reflection.

DEJ #6 Art Becomes The 4th 'R'

Quote: "To keep this from happening, art must be considered the fourth R: a literacy as solid as reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic. When was the last time a school board discussed cutting any of these subjects from the curriculum? When art is considered a literacy and is as embedded in the curriculum and in our cultural psyche as the other three Rs, it will become self-perpetuating, inevitable, and unquestioned. Fortunately, the world of multimedia and the Internet gives us the opportunity, rationale, and a broad base of support to make that happen." (Ohler 2000).

Response: I once took an art class, and throughout the whole semester we tried to deteremine the definition of art, and what was or wasn't art.  I've come to the conclusion that basically everything deals with art; there could be a blank piece of paper with a dab of ink in the center and it can be considered art.  As long as there is a explaination that goes along with it, it is most likely going to be considered art.  Therefore if art is everywhere around us, we should incorporate it into the classroom.  Students should be able to make their own art with the help of technology and also have an explaination to go along with it.  This also allows the to be creative and to express theirselves in ways they might not be able to do with a paper.

Reference:

Ohler, Jason. "Art Becomes the Next R." Educational Leadership Magazine Oct. 2000: 16-19. Web. 27 Feb. 2012. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vCKbHYY-gzXtLXnLak8i_hoV7TPAOfxNIamNrkWW3Pc/edit#.

Additional Resource:
Incorporating Art Into the Classroom

Deconstructing the TERMINATOR

1. What do you see?  (Describe the pictures, objects, colors, etc...)The first magazine cover is very masculine.  Arnold is wearing a gray tight shirt, black gloves, and black sunglasses; he's flexing his arm and his muscles look huge.  The colors in the background are red and orange, looking like colors of fire.  The text used is white, black, and yellow.  This is a Muscle & Fitness magazine, therefore the text on the front talks about gaining muscle, being in shape, work out plans, things of that nature.
       The second magazine cover is for Esquire magazine, a very popular, high class, business magazine.  The background color is a light blue, and Arnold is standing in the middle in a suit pointing to the audience, kind of looks like what Uncle Sam's "We Want You" pose.  Arnold is wearing a black suit, with a red, white, and blue striped tie; he also has very thick silver jewelry on.  The text is white, black, and maroon.  There is also a picture of a woman in a bra in a little bubble on the right side of the magazine.

2.  How does he make you feel? 

The Muscle and Fitness magazine cover makes me feel like I need to get buff and in shape, makes me feel inspired to get fit.  The Esquire magazine doesn't interest me at all, therefore I probably wouldn't read it.  It seems like it is all about business and politics and politics bore me, so this makes me feel no interested.

3.  How do those "looks" influence how you feel? The Muscle & Fitness magazine makes me want to go lift, where as the Esquire magazine's look just seems boring.

3. What do you think about this person?Obviously the Arnold in the Muscle & Fitness cares about his appearance and he likes to be fit and look good in the body aspect.  I feel like the Arnold in the Esquire magazine cares about business, money and being better than others.  I feel like the Esquire Arnold thinks that he is number one and better than everyone else.

4. What lifestyles, values, points of view are represented or omitted?The lifestyle represented in the magazine Muscle & Fitness is obviously one that is revolved around being fit, gaining muscle, eating healthy; basically anything dealing with fitness.  The lifestyle represented in the magazine Esquire definitely seems to be a first class lifestyle; one with a lot of money and politics. Basically always being in other people's businesses trying to be the "it man".

5.  What are the differences between the two covers? What techniques are used to attract your attention? Pay attention to body language, clothing, camera angle, lighting, color, eye contact, etc...
There are many differences between the two magazines.  The Muscle & Fitness magazine uses bright colors and very few words in the texts on the cover.  There is no eye contact on this magazine cover because Arnold is wearing black sunglasses so you can't see any eyes.  The camera angle taken of Arnold is from the side, emphasing the size of his muscles.  The way his mouth is positioned makes him seem like he is about to kick some butt. 
    On the second magazine cover, Arnold is dressed in a very nice suit with some big clunky jewelry.  The background is a light blue color, its very mellow.  It is like Arnold is looking right at you with a big white smile on the cover and he is also pointing at the reader kind of like Uncle Sam's "I Want You" pose. 

Reading # 5: Code of Best Practice in Fair Use for Media Literacy

1. There are not limitations on the amount of pictures, music, and videos that you can use in a multimedia project.

2.  No you don't have to request permission from the original creator in order to use copyrighted material in a multimedia project for a school related assignment.  People must cite everything used though to give credit to the owner of the piece.  If it is not cited correctly or at all, it is like you are stealing their work; which isn't right. So CITE!

3. There are some principles that educators need to follow to ensure their digital story projects fall under Fair Use guidelines.  Two questions that teachers can ask theirselves are: "Did the unlicensed use “transform” the material taken from the copyrighted work by using it for a different purpose than that of the original, or did it just repeat the work for the same intent and value as the original? [and] Was the material taken appropriate in kind and amount, considering the nature of the copyrighted work and of the use?" (Author 7).  If the teachers answer yes to these questions, they are good to use the materials they are using under Fair Use.Teachers shall use DVDs, videos, CDs, music, etc to incorporate it into their lessons, using material like this and using it for promotional reasons is what gets teachers in trouble.

4. I had not heard about any of the eighth myths before, probably because I have never heard of the term 'Fair Use' before reading this article. 

My First Ever Photo Storyyyy!

DEJ #4 The World of Digital Storytelling

Quote: "Like many other teachers of digital storytelling, I welcome the advent of multimedia technologies.  Such technologies give voice to a number of otherwise quiet students and to students whose skills don't fit the usual academic mold."

Response: I think that this teacher makes a very valid point.  Almost everyone can remember having a student like that in their class, whether you're a teacher or a fellow student.  That little girl never speaks up in class, no one really knows much about her, yet she is the only student in the class that aces every test.  Showing that she knows the information yet there is no sign of it.  There are SOOOO many kids out there that are very smart, but they are timid and don't like to participate during class. 
       Projects dealing with technology give the shy students a chance to show the class what they can do.  It gives them the opportunity to show their best work to the class.  Projects like these allow for the bashful students to excel in an activity that benefits their personality.

Reference:

Ohler, J. (n.d.). The World of Digital Storytelling. Retrieved February 9, 2012, from http://www.jasonohler.com/pdfs/digitalStorytellingArticle1-2006.pdf

Related Resource: The video below Discovering Digital Stories talks about how this type of storytelling is becoming more popular in today's world.

DEJ #3

Quote: “President Theodore Roosevelt issued an edict in 1906 that gave the Government Printing Office a list of 300 words with new spellings: problem cases like artisan, kissed and woe were to be changed to artizan, kist and wo Roosevelt was largely ignored by the G.P.O., and the matter was soon dropped.”

Response:  I think that its good that Roosevelt tried to do something about fixing the issue with the words, even though it didn’t happen.  There are so many words today that are pronounced the same, yet mean totally different things.  Such as bear, bare or there, they’re, and their.  If English was not my first language, I feel like it would be very hard to understand the concepts of some words and their meanings because there are so many different spellings.  I have a friend from Turkey and he has been in America for four years, and still doesn’t comprehend everything; and I think this is because the pronunciations of some words and their spellings are completely different.  Then you get into all of the texting lingo, which makes everything even more confusing.  I think that more people, including adults are becoming more aware of what the lingo such as wrud (what are you doing) or lol (laugh out loud) means.

Reference: Shea, A. (2010, January 22). The Keypad Solution. In The New York Times. Retrieved February 5, 2012, from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/magazine/24FOB-onlanguage-t.html

Related Resource:
Texting Shaping Today's LanguageCastaneda, E. (2007, July 6). Texting shaping todays's language. In LJWorld.com. Retrieved February 5, 2012, from http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2007/jul/06/texting_shaping_todays_language/

Smart boards are smart?

Research Based Strategy

The strategy that Tabbie and I chose was 'Thinking Aloud".  It states that in order to help the students out more when presented a problem, they should talk the problem out, or even go up to the board and do it.  This is a great strategy for any grade level, but this was targeted for first through third graders.  The strategy allows the student to actually speak what he or she is thinking.  There are so many times that I can recall when I was younger and I was too afraid to ask for help because I didn't want to look dumb.  But implementing this strategy allows students to actually come out of their shell and become more outgoing and not afraid to speak up in class, especially when they don't understand something.

My Learning Style

The results I received from my test were:

Visual: 4
Aural: 7
Read/Write: 4
Kinesthetic: 10

This goes to show that I am a hands on type of person.  I love to do activites and get involved; such as doing projects.  Theses results are correct for the most part, I think that I am more visual than it says but other than that its correct.

Above is my Picassohead, she has really big hands to show that I am a hands on learner, therefore I love to do projects and get involved!

DEJ #2 Web 2.0 and Emerging Learning Technologies/Learning Styles

Quote: “For example, the English teachers can use the smart board to help the kinesthetic students to learn vocabulary. English teachers can write words or sentences and the students can edit them (School District of Waukesha, n.d.).Moreover, the smart board can help the auditory learners to learn a word's spelling by adding the word's pronunciation in the lesson. By listening to the words, the students should write what they listen to on the smart board.  Finally, the visual learners can learn better with smart board by using the electronic pens to draw or put some lines, shapes, and pictures.”

Response: Smart boards started to become very popular in the classrooms during my elementary school years, about 12 years ago.  I think that they are genius!  Smart boards are basically like a big touch screen in the front of the class that allows you to navigate throughout your computer through the screen (so you don’t have to be at your computer).  They are huge therefore everyone in the classroom can see them. The quote above tells it all; smart boards are good for any type of learner.  They allow students to actually get involved and teachers can do many different things when using them.  Overall, every classroom should have a smart board because it is easy to use and everyone in class can benefit.


Reference: Web 2.0 and Emerging Learning Technologies/Learning Styles. (2011, May 19). In WikiBooks. Retrieved January 29, 2012, from http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Web_2.0_and_Emerging_Learning_Technologies/Learning_Styles


Related Resource:  The video below gives the teachers prospective on using smart boards and also goes over all of the features of a smart board.

DEJ #1 Educational Needs a Digital-Age Upgrade

Quote: “The new classroom should teach the huge array of complex skills that come under the heading of digital literacy. And it should make students accountable on the Web, where they should regularly be aiming, from grade-school on, to contribute to a wide range of wiki projects.” (Heffernan 2011)

Response: Now a days, kids are so into technology. If you were to sit a seven year old and an 70 year old in front of a computer, I’m almost positive the child would know more about how to operate it and what do. Kids in the 21st century are growing up with technology, so they can easily figure out how to work an Xbox, Ipad, etc. So if kids are around technology all the time, why should they not be using more of it in the school systems? Many elderly people mock technology saying they never used it back in the day and because they didn’t use it, that makes it bad. Wrong. There can be many positive usages out of technology. There are so many educational websites and games that can be used in the classroom that are found on the internet or deal with technology.

Reference: Heffernan, V. (2011, August 7). Educational Needs a Digital-Age Upgrade. Retrieved January 29, 2012, from http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/education-needs-a-digital-age-upgrade/?hp


Related Source: The video below talks about how technology can be positively incorporated into the classroom. 

Wordle From Animal Poll

My poll!!

Favorite Animal Poll

Introduction Post

Hi! My name is Leslie Giordon and I plan on teaching either second or third grade; no specific subject.  I am from Medina, Ohio which was named number one hometown in Ohio for 2011. Wahoo! :) I want to teach in Georgia because I just love it there!  I am currently one of the captains on the volleyball team here at Fairmont State.  When I am older I plan on building a summer camp for children because I went to a couple summer camps when I was a kid and I loved them.  I also plan on becoming a volleyball coach for either a middle school or high team.