Wow! Another class has come and gone, and I feel as though I am just getting started and starting to enjoy myself. The sad thing is that I know there is so much more out there for me to learn. There just never seems to be enough time. I guess that is why I have my whole life ahead of me. So what have I learnt thus far? Well here it goes…

Week One - RSS Feeds: I never even knew something like this existed. Personally, I have found Google reader to be a simple, compact program that easily allows me to navigate and track all the blogs and websites that are of interest to me. I enjoy the convenience of having everything that I want to check on a daily basis in one spot.

Week Two - Blogging: Not a new concept to me. To be honest, this was not an assignment I was looking forward to. I hate posting on a blog and still do to this day. However, I enjoy reading other peoples and learning from them. I will admit though, that I have enjoyed reading everyone’s comments on my blogs and appreciate all the help. I found this time with blogging writing came easier and was more enjoyable. So who knows maybe personal blogging is in my future yet. One more thing: I have a greater appreciation for the educational value of blogging. It is an amazing way to connect to a variety of people all over the world and really, truly learn from one another.

Week Three - Digital Storytelling: This was by far my most favorite lesson in this entire class. Once again I knew nothing about digital storytelling, but after a quick overview and lots of experimentation I caught on. I loved making my digital story and I know I will continue to make more in the future. Photo Story 3 is a fantastic, simple program that I am very thankful to be introduced to! This one will definitely be in my classroom in the future!

Week Four - Wiki: Another foreign concept to me. Extremely foreign. I had never used one and had definitely never contributed or created one before, so everything about this week was new and exciting to me. I think the collaborative project was a great idea. I loved learning from my group members and loved our topic even more: Children’s Literature Wiki It has been a struggling with learning how to podcast and still trying to figure out how to embed my videos, but I am enjoying the experience. I know this wiki will be something that I continue to add to and definitely use as a resource in my classroom! Couldn’t of asked for a more rewarding first time wiki experience.

Week Five - Digital Citizenship: The most interesting thing from this week was learning about Creative Commons. Great program where one can create there own rules, while still having full copyright. Love it! Also I enjoyed having the opportunity and reason to sit down an reflect upon my own online life and how cautious I am being with my online activity. A very informative week, with some real cut throat reality!

Week Six - Social Bookmarking: Another familiar, yet underutilized concept that I already knew about, but liked learning about the more recent programs such as del.icio.us and Twitter. It was just another chance for me to open my eyes and once again realize the potential that these programs have and just how useful they can be. Gave me a little more ambition to get back into social bookmarking, and I know that is something that I won’t regret in the future when I have a pile of resources at my fingertips, while other individuals are researching the web looking for theirs.

Week Seven - The Dream Team: A great overwhelming experience. The most important lesson I took away from this week: Choose one thing and do it well, in regards to implementing technological programs and tools into the classroom. That is how to get started: Choose one thing and do it well!!!

Now, what is my future classroom going to look like. That is a very broad question, that in all honesty I can’t fully answer right now. I know there are many programs and tools that I would evenchually like to see in my classroom, but at this point I have no idea how I am going to implement them. I am gearing towards a Kindergarten or grade one classroom, so what I can do with technology is more limited then say a grade 10 classroom. However, there is still much to do, just at a more basic level.

I guess my role model for my classroom would have to be Kathy Cassidy. I love how she brings blogging and other tools into her grade one classroom. I never before would of dreamed that grade one’s could do so much on there own. I love the idea of connecting with other countries such as New Zealand and Australia. That is definitely something that I want to see in my classroom one day. Making world-wide connections and learning from others outside of the classroom and school walls.

I want to have a class blog as well to keep parents informed on what there children are doing. Writing letters and calling home, is although maybe more personal, a lot more time consuming. I would like a central area like a blog for parents to read about classroom activities and post there own comments or questions.

Digital Storytelling would also be another tool that I would slowly bring into my classroom. I think it is a new and innovative way to spark a child’s imagination, while learning how to edit and fine tune there own work  at the same time. I would love to see what young children could do with the program and a little bit of guidance. My guess is that they would go above and beyond what I could possibly imagine.

Wiki’s I feel are a more useful tool for a higher grade level. I am not sure how I would bring them into a grade one classroom yet. Any suggestions? Amongst fellow teachers however I think it would be very beneficial. Collaborating with other teachers throughout your school division, that teach the same grade level would be an interesting way to get new ideas.

Finally, I think it is very important to address the issue of cyber bullying and online safety. This would be discussed before I ever began to think about allowing my students to participate in online activity. Children need to be educated and made aware of the dangers out there at a young age, before they get themselves into serious trouble.

Those are some of the main concepts that I would like to see one day in my classroom. There are many other tools out there that I am still trying to figure out how they could benefit me in the future, such as cell phones and ipods. As well, in two years when I am out teaching for the first time in my own classroom i’m sure there will be something new to consider. That is both the positive and negative side of technology: it is ever changing and sometimes hard to keep up with!

To end, I would just like to thank Dean for all of his knowledge, insight, personal connections, and advice. It has been a fun class and you did an excellent job! I loved the guest speakers and appreciate you bringing them in and connecting them to us. Great future references!I have learned more then I can process right now and I look forward to trying everything out in the very near future! Best of luck everyone!

So I created two videos on Photo Story 3 for my wiki. Easy as pie, no problems there. Then I go to try and upload them to YouTube, doesn’t work. It tells me that they were unable to convert video file. So I decided to try Vimeo because I know some fellow students have had luck with that. Works like a charm. So the videos are now online! Awesome. Now it is time to put them on my wiki and another problem occurs. This is what it tells me: ”This appears to be an invalid widget. We support widgets that contain either an EMBED tag for Flash content or that are contained within an IFRAME. Please check the code and try again.” So now I am officially at a stand still and not sure what to do. Any suggestions?

So I attempted my first ever podcast today and I quickly learned I know nothing about them or about how to create them. I don’t even know a good program to use. I ended up going with GCast. Just a random decision. So I will say right now…if anyone out there has an easy podcast creating program please let me know about it!!! The goal of my podcast was to read-aloud a couple stories for my wiki. Recording the stories was the easy part! I then had to figure out what file to save it under, found a MP3 one after a couple tries, and then I had to figure out how to load the recording onto the internet with this program. That process turned out quite easy. The hard part came when I wanted to add the podcast to my wiki. After much fooling around and rubbing of my temples I half figured it out. I managed to load my first podcast, but in order to view the other two you have to click on post and then a list comes up of all my podcasts, and to load another one you click on the title of your choosing. OK you are probably confused now, so just go to my wiki and under story time you will see exactly what I mean. I would like to get it so that they are all separate links to click on. Maybe I can’t with the program I choose to create my podcasts on…I really have no idea and am completely lost! HELP!!!

Just thought I would write a brief update on my process. I am officially cruising with this whole wiki thing. I just finished added quite a few more books and am now looking forward to switching up my process with audio and video. So stay tuned because there is much more to come!!

Well I just spent 4 hours playing around on my groups Children’s Literature wiki. I will admit it went much smoother than I thought it would. It took a little bit of exploring and experimentation to familiarize myself with the tools, but after a couple of attempts at creating new pages I found myself in a routine, and from then on I was cruising. It’s funny how you are trying to figure out one concept, give up on that, and while you are figuring out another concept, you stumble across the answer for the first one. That is what happened to me several times throughout my initial orientation process. Overall, everything has come together and hopefully, crossing my fingers, it will continue to do so.

I have added several new children’s books and have several more to add. Then I hope to add some video, audio, and some different main pages altogether. Adding audio and video I think will be a real challenge to me. I’ll let you know how it goes! Off to continue my editing!

Well I am about to embark on my first wiki experience. I have never set one up before and I have never contributed to one either. I really didn’t even know much about them until this class.

For my collaborative project I, along with Leah and Susan, are creating a wiki on children’s literature. I love this topic and adore any conversation or project involving children’s books, so I am looking forward to developing this particular wiki. Wish me luck. This is going to be an interesting experience.

Link to our wiki: Children’s Literature

During our last online class, the concept of social bookmarking was addressed. By taking ECMP 355 from Alec Couros  prior to this class, the concept of social bookmarking wasn’t a foreign idea to me. I had even created my own account on Blue Dot.  However, I have yet to fully utilize the program. I have had a Blue Dot  account for about a year now and I have probably not added a bookmark since last fall, when I was require to for my class. I just seem to forget about it. Don’t get me wrong, I think such programs like Blue Dot and del.icio.us are great! I love the idea of having all your bookmarks accessible from anywhere, especially for an individual like myself who is constantly on the move. It is so convenient and a huge time saver to find everything you need in one organized area. I have even told my friends about it. So why don’t I use it more? For me, I think the main reason is that I haven’t done a ton of online research yet, or found a lot of useful resources. Going into my pre-internship year,  I feel I will be more dependent on finding information online and exploring other peoples ideas and interests. Maybe this year will be the turn around year for social bookmarking or maybe I will never fully get into it. Everybody is different and not everything is for everyone right?

I’m back! My week away flew by and before I knew it I was back home again! Greeting me practically at the doorstep was my computer. 20 new e-mails, hundreds of RSS feeds, and 2 classes to catch up on, I just about walked back out my door. I’m feeling the pressure now, with only a week and a half to go I am swamped. Time for some serious catching up! Starting with reflections on my digital life and copyright laws.

Personally, over the years I have grown more and more cautious of what I post online. During my high-school days I was much more naive to the concepts of online predators and cyber bulling. Posting my picture, talking on ICQ or MSN, pretending to be someone i’m not, etc. were not foreign concepts to me. It is only recently that I have began to take more precautions and use more common sense with regards to my online actions. I haven’t even  signed up for a facebook  account! With that said, it is obvious to me that my digital life has been spiraling downhill over the past couple years, while many others have been doing the opposite. However, with that in mind, one can’t erase the past. Everything that I have posted online will always be there one way or another. Someone will always have that picture no matter how many times you delete it.  That is one of the frightening things about online activity, sometimes there is no escape! Here is a link to a thought provoking video, which describes the power of thinking before you post perfectly: Think Before You Post

As far as copyright laws are concerned, i’m not sure what to say. I will admit, I am one of those people who download music from Limewire, and TV shows from Pirates Bay. I can’t even remember the last time I bought a CD, but I know I burnt one a couple weeks ago.  So the debate continues: Am I stealing? I could write a whole book on the pros and cons of this question and still not reach an answer, therefore, I am not about to start even trying to answer my own question. A classmate of mine discussed this exact issue on his blog and I believe he gave it great justification, while at the same time supporting both sides of the debate.

Sometimes copyright comes down to personal preference. I know when I post pictures, webquests, etc. online that I don’t mind other people using them as a resource. It actually makes me feel good to know that I have helped someone else out. That is the great thing about creative commons. I love that it allows you to copyright your work, yet share it with others, all within your own control!  Check out this video for further information: Creative Commons 

As you can see I have yet to figure out how to display a video directly on my blog. If anyone can help me I would appreciate it! In the meantime, I will continue to try and figure it out!

Well this is probably going to be my last post for a week as I am going on vacation and will not have access to a computer or the internet.  So no need to worry about me if I am absent from the blogging world for a bit. I promise I am still breathing!

To be honest I wasn’t sure what to write about today. I read through my RSS feeds, like I have been doing on a daily basis now, and nothing really struck my interest. So, as I was sitting here thinking, and slightly freaking out, about what I am going to do without my computer for a week a question suddenly came to my mind: How dependent have a become on technology nowadays? Given, if I wasn’t right in the middle of taking this class online it would not be as big of a deal, but still I realized I rely quite heavily on my computer. It is my primary communication tool, whether it be through e-mail, msn, facebook, etc. There are only a select few who I phone anymore and I can’t even remember the last time I wrote a letter. How sad is that? I have become so reliant on e-mail that I don’t even write anymore. Given it is much quicker and more convenient, but still, handwriting is an art form. We teach letter writing in school, but will the kids ever use it? Should we be teaching e-mailing instead? Is there a future for handwriting or is it beginning to lose it’s purpose?

It is not only computers that I rely on anymore. As mentioned earlier, my cell phone is attached to my hip, I never leave without my digital camera, and I might go insane at work if I didn’t have my ipod to listen to music with. Just reading that last sentence only one word comes to mine: spoiled! Not a day goes by where I don’t use some piece of technology to make my life simpler. Granted, that is the bonus to new ideas and inventions, but at the same time are we forgetting about the importance of the little everyday things? For example, today I got a flat tire at work. I was blessed with a father who taught me how to change it. I also work with 10 guys who knew how to go about the process as well, and were more then willing to help. This got me thinking though, will today’s kids be to interested in video games, computers, the internet, etc to be taught those lessons? Will upcoming parents even know themselves how to change a tire, let alone teach their children.? Have we become so dependent on cell phones and companies like CAA that we don’t think that simple life lessons like that are important anymore?

Those were just my random passing thoughts throughout my day and hopefully gives you guys something to think about as well.  Have a good week! Talk to you when I get back! :)

Here I am sitting inside on a hot Sunday afternoon, trying to stay cool, and am slowly going through the busy day I have already had and it’s only 1:45.  I have been up for 9 hours already and my patience is starting to wear thin and it’s only mid-afternoon. Started my day at work bright and early at 5:30 in the morning. I work at a golf course and some days I just have to sit back and shake my head. The golfers run the course by the way, just so you know! :) So here I am changing the hole, and some old guy decides to hit up onto the green, missing me by inches. Not an apology or anything. Instead he has the nerve to complain about how I am slowing down his game. I just nod politely and smile. Apologizing and quickly moving on.  Then I get home and just out of the shower and my parents call. They are making a surprise visit. Time to quickly finish cleaning. They show up, earlier then expected, take me out for dinner :), and then leave. Now here I sit babbling on and on about nothing really. My point is coming though…

My day made me think a post I read the other day entitled:  Patience a thing of the past? I like to think normally I am blessed with a tremendous amount of  patience. I feel as a teacher I really have to be. I think that should be part of the criteria of getting into the education program: Must have patience.  Children require an abnormal amount of patience day in and day out. One must have the ability to be flexible and instantly be able to change plans because your day is never going to go perfectly as planned. So, on that note I will just take a deep breath in and look forward to the rest of my day relaxing and preparing for my trip to B.C. on Thursday!