Week 9: Reflections

Other than last week's frustration, this course taught me a lot. I found fabulous cross curricular tools that I will integrate into my lessons this year. My students are so inquisitive, especially about other cultures and history, that they will really get a kick out of the sites I have found. And, because I run a creative, student-centered classroom, I hope I can practice and integrate some of this great software and get the kids involved in creating their own digital art.
Mostly, I would use google earth and all of the elements related to it. I have used it for personal questions since learning all about it on this course, and I think I have already become more in tune with my world. And I want to go to the Galapagos Islands badly, thanks to google earth.
Now that I have learned how to make better use of discovery education, it will probably be a staple in my classroom. I love the Atlas feature for culture lessons.
I think the thing I really hated was working with the assessments on atomic learning. If they say they are going to save something, then it should be saved, by golly.
My word to sum it up is:enlightened. I feel enlightened by using these tools that teach about our world, which we all have the responsibility to save.
I would like the next course (because I am sure we'll do a Web 2.1 next year, right?) to show us how to create classroom podcasts and video podcasts that we could distribute via itunes.
Thanks for the learning.

Week 8: Frustration Sets In

This week took me about 2 weeks to do, not all entirely because of the length of the tests and projects, though some of it was atomic learning's fault.
You should know that I think my desktop is close to failure, so loading things sometimes takes a while and things regularly close or freeze on me, causing me to completely reboot.
On the other hand, atomic learning would not save my tests, so I had to start my assessments several times over. This took hours.
I am not as technologically intelligent as I would like to be, as my final assessment shows. I do know enough, though, I think, to get around the computer and use a lot of really cool digital tools.
This week, I chose to learn about audacity and windows movie maker. I have tried both of these programs on my own to edit sound and video, and have been quite discouraged. Now, I can say I can probably get by on them with a little practice. Given the two, I really like movie maker and would like to practice with it for a while to make digital presentations and possibly my vlog or video podcasts that I have been promising myself I would do. I think time and practice are what is necessary to achieve on this program.

Week7: Projects

Part 1: kidpix. OK, so I am out of the loop here. Apparantly, everyone else is using this program. I am not, so I started learning from scratch, thanks to atomic learning. I did learn how to use it and how cool it could be for some classrooms, but probably not mine.

part 2: Wordle: I enjoyed mashing up my words in this program, but I wanted more control over the final picture. I don't see this as very useful in my classroom.

part 3: Terra Cotta. This site is a little frusterating. Scavenger hunts are fun, but they are no fun when the seeker has to be so specific. I did the tutorial, and if it didn't help me out, I wouldn't have known to zoom to a certain level to see what I needed to see. I don't think that should be part of the game. And I don't like that it needs generic terms for finding something. For example, it asks for Mickey Mouse's home, so I would say Orlando, Florida. It wanted me to say Disney World. Well, I don't see that as a geography lesson. Personal opinion.

Week 6: Classroom Aids

Part 1: Math manipulatives. I teach fractions in music as teaching rhythms. The pie graphs would be useful for my visual learners in this respect.

Part 2: Kid Zone. This is neither fun nor easy to use.

Part 3: Google Lit Trips: these look great to make with a classroom, so that the kids can visualize parts of the world with the book they are studying. I sometimes find a musical book, and this would work great with this sort of lesson.

Part 4: Scribble Maps: fun! I like not only finding the place we are studying, but circling it or drawing a line from one place to another for relativity. Very relateable to kids, I think.

Part 5: Word sift. This finds synonyms in a really interesting and visually appealing way. It really makes the writer think about the words he uses and their alternatives. I could use it to cheat on my blog! Ha!

Week 5: Message in a Bottle

I have created and used wikis before. The one that was really useful was the one I used to organize a baby shower. There were way too many hostesses, no one could figure out what was already being covered, so I created a wiki for everyone to list what they were doing and for all of us to compile a list of what needed to be done. It worked.
This wiki is supposed to be for people to share music. I will have to learn about music files, hopefully as I go along with this course, and then learn how to embed them in a wiki. If it works, it will be totally fun!

http://littlemusicmakers.wikispaces.com/

For the most part, blogs are great for single-party information if you want a comment or feedback. For a true group effort that everyone needs to be equally involved in, a wiki is better.

A pen and paper works for a to do list or a grocery list. A wiki works for bigger projects with more than one party.

Week 4: The Spy Glass

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Above is my attempt to copy the animoto video on to the screen. I have a feeling it is not working. I tried cutting and pasting several different ways, but I am having a very hard time getting it to embed. Photostory was even worse. Every time I try to play back the video I made (which was a much better video than animoto), it errored and closed. I didn't get it saved after a lot of work, and I am very frusterated with that program. Animoto is inferior in its ability to deliver and the editor's ability to edit. I have a program called Sonic that does a much better job at the same basic idea.

http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetID=b9e4011c-b9b3-4ff0-b0c9-9fa2d2e66968

This is a video segment from discoveryeducation.com about the history of Latin Jazz, which is very summery to me, so I find it interesting today. I love discovery education. I have been using video segments for a while, but I learned so much more about it today. I like the calendar feature that will help me do "today in music history" on certain dates. And the Atlas feature is SO cool. I will be able to teach my students about the geography and culture as we learn music from all over the world. This is so much better than trying to explain what Cambodia is or what Israel is!

http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=29711

I am less excited about teachertube.com . There is little music education here, and what is here is mainly fluff. I guess I can use it for humor here and there.

http://www.teachertube.com/blogComment.php?blog_id=1066

I believe that the era of connectivity is apon us, and it is our responsibility to embrace it and use it for good. We can choose to use networking for evil or sloth, or we can choose to use it to connect to our world. While a few years ago, we really didn't understand the plight of African tribes or the problems in Asia, now we have instant direct information and the ability to connect to actual citizens in other countries. I think we can choose to let the information destroy us or enable us. I intend to show my students not just the music of the world, but the culture of the nations and even the direct reports from the other lands where possible. If we can truly understand our world, then we can save it from genocyde, from manmade disasters, and from hatred and malintent.

Week 3: Treasure Map

Part 1: igoogle
I have used igoogle for some time, which I tumbled apon when I needed some translations. The translation button stays on that home page and is so easy to get to and use. Today, I found a new theme, though I am disappointed that the page itself isn't prettier. I was excited about some new buttons to add, but the aquarium and the free itunes buttons were ugly and impossible to use, so I took them back off. I'm excited about the tech education blog update button!
part 2: google earth
Wow. I have used google earth for maps and whereabouts, but I am so impressed with the volume of information here. There are video clips and pictures from organizations such as National Geographic to help you (the class) understand the subject matter. I will definitely use this when we do ocean music, and music from other landscapes that I have been trying to explain to the kids in the past. Now, they can see it for themselves. I am inspired.
I tried to apply to get google pro at school, but I do not know our employer ID.
Also, I noticed you can see much of Mars on Google Earth. How intriguing.
part 3: google reader
I have a google reader set up and I send my RSS feeds to my home page, but I rarely use it any more. i didn't see much new there.

Google earth should be in every classroom!!!!