Week 6 - Can you hear me now?

I was petrified by the thought of having to make a podcast!  I knew I'd get nervous, talk to fast, stumble over my words, and plus I hate the sound of my own voice on a recording, so this was one thing I did not look forward to.  Not to mention, I was a complete blank for 3 days trying to figure out what to podcast about.  So I skipped that problem of not having a subject and went on to investigating the suggested programs.  I first tried Cinch and decided that I would talk about what is needed for climbing Kilimanjaro and how to plan the trip.  But, after listening to it I trashed it because it was long and boring and I couldn't figure out how to make the talk exciting.  Then I checked out Jing.  Now that's a cool program!  I fell in love.  I found I could talk AND add pictures!  Love, love, love!  So I went through my photos and decided I wanted to explain how to make sopapillas!  I already had the photos because my daughter had to make them for a class.  Had we met Jing sooner, she could have made a podcast!  I will definitely use this in my teaching.  It's free and easy to use, almost no learning curve at all.  Just watch a couple tutorials and read some instructions and you're up and running. 

Week 5 - There's a Velcro crop?

For the purposes of this exercise I chose the site called "California's Velcro Crop Shortage."  I thought it to be funny from the start.  More about that in a minute.  First, the literacy quiz revealed that I actually knew very little.  To be specific, I knew questions 2,3, most of 7, and 13 - that's all!  Shocking because I thought I was pretty literate!  The upside is that I know bogus when I hear/see it.  As it turns out the Velcro shortage website dates back to 2001 and further checking reveals it's a parody (no kidding?), and even further checking reveals that it comes from the website of a consulting, research and publishing company.  There were links to the 'real' company found in the Velcro shortage page.  At the location of the 'real' person behind the purported velcro shortage article, there is an ample list of accurate and news worthy articles with references as well as satire such as the above.  Did anyone really think that velcro grows in fields?  In the end, even though I did poorly on the quiz, I do possess a fair amount of discernment.

I created a Delicious account for my bookmarks.  This was slightly frustrating in that I had a small panic attack when I realized that I had just made ALL my bookmarks public.  I don't really care for the world to see where I do banking and other related things, but I did find where I could delete all of them or make them private.  I do use a program called xmarks which will sync my bookmarks between my desk top and lap top.  I also use programs called Evernote and Dropbox so that certain notes or items can be shared between my two computers.

After looking over the other links provided, my final opinion is that stumble + delicious = a pretty good combination.  Who knew?

Here's my Delicious link:   http://www.delicious.com/3goodhorses

Week 4 - eportfolio week

I most related to the tenet that an assessment for learning should be sensitive and constructive because any assessment has an emotional impact.  The reason why, is that an assessment, in a classroom for the most part, should tell the teacher “what needs to be done next.”  As a matter of fact, that is what I used the test results for when I home schooled my daughter.  My thoughts are still the same.  When I have a classroom, I will test, and then use those results constructively so that I can gauge where each student is within my class.

The portfolio assessment may be helpful to the teacher, but it also fulfills the self-assessment tenet.  I think it will be an excellent tool for us as students to be able to not only self-assess, but to also recognize our achievements.  Another aspect a portfolio has is that of a scrapbook.  When all of our work is together in one place for a class, we will (hopefully) easily see the positive results of all our hard work and time spent.

Week 3 - Wiki week

I had two ideas right from the start about creating a wiki.  My first thought was a wiki that was all things tennis.  Then I googled to find that there are many tennis wiki’s already in existence.  I also decided that I may be the only one to ever participate in that one.  My next thought was a Camp Mitchell wiki.  We have affectionately named or place here in east Texas Camp Mitchell.  It is the central meeting place for all the family for the holidays and in between.  We have family in North Carolina, NYC, South Texas, the Dallas, 3 in Afghanistan with the military.  For the holidays we send out emails to make plans and by the time they’ve been forwarded all over, the comments are lost, details go un-noticed, and it’s just been a big mess.  I think a wiki might just fix that problem.  I’ve created the wiki but have yet to invite the family to contribute.

Prior to this assignment, I didn’t really know what a wiki was!  I’ve heard the term but had never investigated its meaning.  The advantages I see are mainly for coordinating efforts among a group.  I’m not yet aware of any disadvantages.  When properly used, I doubt it has many at all.  As far as our digital natives are concerned, those that I asked didn’t know what a wiki was either!  However, when they catch on to the concept, I see it being useful in their circles. 

I have yet to investigate all the tools.  I found a few in addition to those listed in the course materials.  There is also a small (sarcasm) learning curve that applies to the use of some of these tools.  I took one tutorial about how to create animations.  I’m bad at drawing.  I look forward to exploring what else is available.  I have another project to do for another class and found something called Weebly for creating a free website.  I’ll let you know how that turns out.

here's the link to my new wiki:   http://campmitchell.pbworks.com