Online Apps.

I chose to play around with Zoho. I think it is very similar to what Google Documents is. I have done a little bit with Google documents, so I decided to try something new. Zoho was just as easy to use and has very similar applications as the others. While I was messing around, I decided to actually make a "power point" presentation using what Zoho called "Zoho Show." It was pretty easy to use. I was able to make several slides, with some having photos. It was actually kind of fun. I have never used, or made, a presentation like that, but it sure would be handy to have for some of my lessons. The district I'm in is a little behind the times, as they say. We have two projectors that can hook up to the computer, but those are usually reserved to the Social Studies department (you know how they like their movies). Anyways, I would really like to someday be able to use stuff like this in my classroom. I do think no matter what office suite you chose to use, they would be similar and very easy to learn how to use.

I also chose to mess around with Picnik. In the past I have used Picassa to edit my photos and was excited to see that Picnik has even more editting tools. Things that Picnik offers that Picassa does not are adding frames, mattes, playing around with exposure, and many options to make a photo fun with eye color, stretching, neon color, and sketches. What I didn't like about Picnik is that you can only download one photo at a time unless you pay the monthly or yearly membership fee. This takes a lot of time if I wanted to edit quite a few pictures and then have to save them to my computer individually. I was glad that you can play around with much of the editting without paying. It's a decent price but not sure if I'd ever pay it since editting photos in my position wouldn't benefit me too much. I have tried to think of ideas of how to use an editting program in my classroom with either myself or students having to edit pictures, but haven't come up with any fun ideas yet. I will say that it was fun to play around with and I will use the program in the future since my wife takes many many pictures and loves to edit!

Here are a few pictures I played around with using Picnik!

D/B13

The one thing that I found to extremely cool was the example of improving a serve in tennis (pg 329). My reason for liking this, I have to admit, is kind of a selfish reason. I got very intrigued by this when they started to explain how they could improve their serve. As you have read, they used a tight suit with a complex electrical grid that would show on a PC the exact movement of the body. It allows them to basically "break down" the motions of the body so they can fix the flaws in this person's serve. I would love to get my hands on this suit. I have been golfing all summer and I can not figure out what I am doing wrong when I hit my irons. If I could go somewhere and have my swing analyzed by a professional, I think it would help me correct my swing. Yeah, like I said, it is selfish, but I think is is pretty neat that they can do that sort of thing. I do know that that is how they make a lot of those sport video games. Technology is so cool.

I have said it before in some of my posts, the coolest thing that I have learned is social bookmarking. I love the fact that I can organize my sites using different tags. I hated trying to remember what sites I used, and for that matter, what I even used it for. It helps me organize a little bit better. I also like that you can see who else bookmarked that site. Then by clicking on that person, you can see what other sites they have bookmarked. This helps me see what other sites people thought might be of importance. I like to browse the net and find sites that can help supplement my lessons, and with this, I think it will make it a easier and more enjoyable.

D/B12

When I was reading through Chapter 30, I feel like I had a lot of "Well duh!" moments. Of course rich media can improve learning if it is used correctly. That is kind of like saying glass will break if you hit it with a hammer. That might be a stretch, but you get the point. Another thing that I kind of thought was a little obvious was the fact that "too much audio, narration, and illustrations do not help the learning process, and in fact, can be a distraction." Too much of anything is never good, even money!

One of the things that kind of caught my attention was with all these studies that they did. They said that using audio and visuals are proven more effective than lessons that don't use them. So does this mean that ALL students are more audio and visual learners? To me, I feel that using those tools are always going to be more effective because it gives them something to relate words to. I know some students can get the concept by just reading, but throwing in some pictures to illustrate what is being said will be usually be helpful. I know with this book that we have to read for this class is that way for me. If there is a table or figure for me to refer to that goes along with the reading, I get it so much better. Not that I fully understand it, but it helped me get it a little better. I know this works in my class when I'm trying to explain a process on the calculator. If I try to explain something by just me telling them what to do, it takes for ever to get through. On the other hand, if I use my overhead and project my calculator screen onto the white screen, it goes much more smoothly.

The other thing that I really liked in this chapter was the illustration of the bunny and how they use it to add and subtract. I know I'm a math turd, but I really liked that idea. Now, I am a high school teacher all the students that walk through my door are supposed to know how to add and subtract by now. However, this isn't the case. I have such a hard time with my kids subtracting negatives. They just don't get that subtracting a negative is like adding that number (usually because they are so used to punching it in on their calculator). I think I might actually be able to use this illustration, even at the high school level.