The 1st class of PE for the 2010/2011 PKers

Top 10

1. G Cast - This by far was one of the most powerful tools that I used with my 2nd grade class. They really enjoyed the instant gratification. I would have liked to use this application more but my class was not the most comfortable class when it came to explaining themselves via the phone. I could see this program being used in the upper grades quite a bit.

2. Voice Thread - Absolutely one of my most favorite apps. This program has the ability to really change the way teacher teach and the way students complete their work. Teachers are no longer tethered to the old PowePoint way of presenting material. They can now record their own commentary and have others leave comments about their work as well. Also, this takes the project based course to a new level. Classes that have a culminating project have this program at their disposal.

3. Installing Linux - Knowing that there is a free alternative to Mac OSX and Windows really opened my eyes to freeware. I though about having a lab fully of software that was completely free but never before a lab full of computers with a free OS. What a great way to get students to think alternatively.

4. dim dim - eluminate - These two sites are great sites that allow students or anyone to gather in a meeting place to share a presentation and also ask questions or make comments. I enjoyed listening to many instructors give their presentation to us using this medium. It really makes it easy for teachers and students to find the right time to attend a session. Many of our instructors gave us the opportunity to attend other sessions that were not conveinient for our schedule.

5. Bubble Share - This was just a fun site that my class used to illustrate pictures that they drew and to illustrate their own literature that they composed. My class really enjoyed this site especially when they were given a picture of me to practice with.

6. Skype - Probably the most used program that I took from this class. I used this class in when I couldn't be present to do my section of the presentation. This application I use also on a personal level. My parents live on the east coast and it is great so that they can see my kids growing up.

7. Thinkfinity site - When I was in the classroom, I always used Thinkfinity. This was a great resourse for me and my technology lessons. I enjoyed having the ability to seperate the lessons my subject so that if one of the grades were focusing on a certain area then I could narrow my search.

8. Google Docs - I really cannto say enough about Google. Google Docs has really reinvented the way that people collorbrate. No longer do we need to send the same document over and over again to each other. Now all we have to do is just share it out with the people tha we are working with. All the changes are saved on the shared doc...multiple users can work on the same doc at once...what a game changing application!

9. Flickr & Drop Box - I can see myslef using Flickr a lot more in the near future. I have only a few months left on my supscrition to MobileMe and I am not too sure if I want to renew. With DropBox and Flickr, I can save all my mission critial docs and pictures up to a cloud and have access to them anywhere that I can connect to the internet.

10. JumpCut - It is truely a shame that this site has closed its doors. I thought that this site was a much more intutive way to make movies that on iMovie or Windows Movie Make. Not only was it intutive, I had the ability to upload my footage and then work on my edits from any computer that has an internet connection. I was really sad to see it close. I am hoping that there will be a return to on-line video editing.

How does this course, and its content connect to you? Is it useful information that will help you in the future? If so how? If not how might it be im

The information in this class was very useful. The open software and OSs that are out there are very inviting to me. Reading about others components paper was really interesting. In fact I am going to install Window 7 onto one of my home PC to give it a try just like I did when I installed Linux. I enjoyed using Linux. The fact that there is an open source OS out there is very interesting. Backing up data was a fun activity to look deeper into. I might be alone in my thinking when it comes to network back up, but I do firmly do believe that it is the end users responsiblity to do his or her own back up. I see it as preventative maintance on your car. If you don't get the oil changed every 3k miles then you might or might not have problems. I get my oil changed every 3k miles because I don't want to have issues with my car. I back up my Mac every night. I do that because I do not want to have issues with my computer.
To change something for the future of this class...I would like to see more hands on activities in class. The time that we spent in class was beneficial but I think if we had a hard drive or a time capsule to play with might bring this last class to the next level.

3rd week 581

I have been having a really great time in this class so far. I have enjoyed replacing my operating system with a new, free OS. Some of the the things that I can take away from this last class is the fact that I really could run a very nicely equipped computer lab for next to nothing. It is great to see that there is an open source OS that can do all the exact things that a very expensive OS can do. But in essence if I were to really look at all of the 3 OS that I have compared I would say that there are some advantages from each. Linux, just being a free OS is an huge factor. XP, I love the fact that it is so stable...not too sure why Windows wanted to move away from it. OSX, is a beauty. The look and feel of this OS is just very nice and clean. Now as for Vista, I really haven't had a good experience with it. I have had many opportunities to use it on a stand alone machine and also on a network. Both of those experiences have not been favorable. Today for example I had to log into a networked Vista machine. I knew the local administrator log in information but found it very difficult to log in. I had to know the name of the computer, and I had to find that out by typing in the word "administrator" and then I needed to remember that and follow it up with the administrator credentials...that was hard to even put down in words. The long and short of it all is that I really enjoyed looking at alternative operating systems. The hard thing to find is an open minded network administrator that is willing to try new and free technologies. I can understand the hesitation. Anything that is free is not going to have a great deal of expert support.

Class Number 2

I am very excited to download a version of Linux to install on my basement computer. This computer is just sitting down there with nothing to do. It was a computer that housed all my music files at one point in my life. When I bought it, it had a 150 gig hard drive and at the time I thought that I would NEVER need another hard drive. I bought this computer in 2003 and really wanted something that could meet my needs for the long term. I find it very ironic I am now typing on a laptop computer with double the hard drive space. I had upgraded the RAM from 2 sticks of 256 mb to 2 sticks of 500 mb, which now is at 1 gig. This was my first time really exploring the inside of a PC. I also went on to add a wireless card so that I am not a slave to the either net jack. Once I did that I was very excited to help out others with their computer problems. Once my mother-in-law caught wind, the support has never stopped. For her, I have installed more RAM, 2 new hard drives, a wireless card, a new video card and added more firewire ports. One I explored the inside of a PC I became very curious about a laptop. About 2 months ago, our main computer a MacBook that is about a year and a half old quit working. This gave me the opportunity to see what I can do and try to rebuilt it from scratch. I bought it with only one gig of RAM so that was upgraded to 2 gigs and the hard drive that was there was small at 80 gigs. I upgraded the hard drive to 250 gigs and also bought a 250 gig external hard drive to make sure that my back up was working properly. Yes, my wife think I am crazy. I am looking forward to installing Linux and writing my paper on sound as I have a strong connection with music.

This week's activities were especially helpful to me simply because it was a nice break from looking at Macintosh's all day long. I got the opportunity to revisit my previous life in the PC world. I also didn't realize how dusty those machines can get. The more I thought about the assignment "A look under the hood" I wondered why more computer manufactures are not going to a all in one model like the Mac. It just seem to be a bit more convenient to transport and to maintain. Not only is it easy to maintain it also look like a work of art. I am not saying that I am so very Pro Mac but I think that the Clones would want to see some sort of design styling from the Mac side. I have been in the inside of my computers (PC, MacBook and iMac) many times. The most recent time was to replace a hard drive on my MacBook. 2 Years old and I had to replace it already. The reason why I mention this is because this was my first time taking apart a MacBook. It was really easy to do. I had help from youtube and that made it very easy to follow the on screen, step by step instuctions.

CEDu520 Developing Action Research for Instructional Technology

Well...I am a bit glad that this class is over but to say the least, I though that it was interesting. What I have learned from this class is that it take patience and persistence to get things done. Oh, it also takes an open minded professor. So I am pleased to know that I am well on my way with my action research. I am hoping that the rest of this project is not as labor intensive as it has been in the past. This might be a process that my school adopts when we try out new products or initiatives.