ED105 Charity

Group Advertising Project (Windows Movie Maker)

2008-11-23T23:23:00.000-08:00

This past week in ED105, we were assigned to make an advertisement for different areas of learning. We were assigned to film an advertisement and edit it on an online software called Jumpcut.
My group, which consisted of Hannah, Vivian, Byron, and myself, chose to make an advertisement for Language Arts. We looked through a list of software that would help children with language arts and chose to do an advertisement on The Reader Rabbit Series. Filming the commercial was easy and a lot of fun; however, when it came down to editing the movie we encountered many problems. We were unable to upload any of our movie clips so we had no choice but to using a different editing software.
My group used a software called windows movie maker. This software was very user friendly and had many features. There were many transitions to choose from as well as movie effects. We were able to upload our clips easily and successfully. We were also able to add songs that over laid the video sounds.
In the end our advertisement came out a success and we shared it with the whole class. Overall, i believe this was a good learning experience even though the original software ( Jumpcut.com) did not work.

Online Slideshow Software....

2008-10-08T01:03:00.000-07:00

For the past week in Ed105, the class has been putting together stories that would be displayed through different online software. The four sites that were provided were Picturetrail.com, Rockyou.com, Slide.com, and Photobucket.com.
Based on the presentations and ratings of these four softwares, I have come to the conclusion that Photobucket.com would be the best site to use. The group that usd this site rated it at a 10 and said that it was a very useful site that had many features and was user-friendly.
I would definately implement this site as a teacher. I believed it would be a creative way for students to use ther imagination and present it.

Online Word Processors

2008-09-22T01:09:00.001-07:00

Today, 8/22/08, in ED105, we worked in several groups to explore and agree on one online word processor to use as a class. My group explored a site called iNetword.com. It was basically like Microsoft Word; however, it offered more features. There was a wide variety of templates to choose from, ranging from basic office documents to poetry and homewabe page templates. This site allows you to share folders with common users and also set your folders to private. I r eally enjoyed using this online word processor.
Other groups explred sites called Thinkfree.com and Buzzword.com; however, they really did not seem all that interesting or usefull.
The online word processing software that we decided to use as a class is Zoho.com. This site had many useful features, like being able to edit or contribute to one document as a class. You are able to send your documents as either attachments or inline messages.
It has all the features that Microsoft word contains, but better.
I really don't know all about Zoho.com yet. As we begin to work with this online software as a class, I'm sure that I will discover all the features and find it very useful.

ED105, what I've learned so far...

2008-09-14T14:45:00.001-07:00

ED105, Intro. to Computers for Teachers, has been a great class so far. My knowledge of technology and computer skills have increased greatly in the past three weeks of taking this course.
I've become familiarized with the features on MAC computers, which is good because i generally use Windows PC. I've learned to take "snapshots" of work that i am doing, that is basically like saving an exact copy that can then be emailed and so forth. I have learned to convert documents to JPEG format as well.
Other then learning basic computer functions, we have been testing out and comparing different web-based software programs. The first site that we used was gliffy.com. We used this site to create a map of our neighborhood. I enjoyed using this site because it was user friendly and it had pretty cool features. We were able to upload pictures to use in our maps, rather then just drawing places. I would definately implument this site as a teacher, i think that students grades 5-8 would really enjoy using this site. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd rate gliffy at a 8.
The second site we used was mindmeister.com. Our assignment was to use this site to build a flow chart of the hierarchy of our group's imaginary school system. Unfourtunately, my group wasn't able to compete the assignment, yet alone begin at all. We found the site to be very confusing and no where near user friendly. It looked nice with all the different colors and format; however, I would not recommend this site. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd rate this site at a 3.
The third site we were intoduced to is this very one I'm using right now. Blogger.com is a very user friendly blog site. This is my first time that I've had a blog and i was worried that I wouldn't be able to figure it out. However, blogger's features are very easy to use and I enjoy updating my blog. I would definately recommend this site to first time blog users. I would also use this site as a teacher in grades 5 and above because its a good way to keep daily journals and reflections. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd rate blogger at a 9.

Mnemograph Refelction

2008-09-14T14:28:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed using the site mnemograph.com. This site is user-friendly, fast and easy. It allows you to customize a timeline that appeals to you by being able to choose fonts, colors, icons, and even allows you to post pictures associated to your timeline. I have yet to explore all it's features; however, from what I've done so far, I'd rate this site as a 8 out of 10. I would have liked the site better if it weren't so plain. Other than that, I would recommend this site because it's a pretty neat web based software program and it makes learning fun.