Emily Santure

Collaborative Technologies

noreply@blogger.com (Emily Santure) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:01:00 +0000

After learning about collaborative technologies, I realized that this would be a fun tool to introduce to the classroom setting. The primary use of them I can see is for group collaboration on a project. Using tools such as Notemesh and Yugma allows the teacher to lead a discussion with the entire class or group members to explain and answer questions about a project or assignment. It is also possible for students to have their own discussion. One of them would need to be the leader of the chat and let the others know the session number so they can join.

One aspect that I like of these tools is that you can chat with all or select members during the collaboration. So if one person is leading, then the others can still offer their input even though they don't have full control at the moment.

This tool also allows students to work on a project without meeting in person. They can all be at home and still work together on an assignment. This is really nice for college students as well because time is crucial!

Images, Copyright, Mashing, OH MY!

noreply@blogger.com (Emily Santure) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 23:03:00 +0000

This past class was very exciting and busy! We learned many new and interesting tools to use for fun and also the classroom. I was not familiar with most of them so it was a lot to take in!

We first talked about the use of images and copyright. Did you know that you are not supposed to copy and paste images from the internet? I didn't. I frequently took images from websites and put them in documents or what not. I don't think a lot of students know this either. This would be a great thing to discuss with them and ask them why they think it is not allowed. Can we take written work of someone and use it as our own? Nope, so it makes sense that we can't do this with images. A website called Flickr enables us to use other people's pictures because they have given us permission. How nice! You can also post pictures and make them public for others to use or make them private or copyrighted, but it is nice to give others the benefit of using your photos if you are willing. Flickr is a great website to introduce students to because the photos there are available for use. Some students may not think it is a big deal, but it is since photos (like written work) belong to someone. It is like stealing. That is a no no.

We also looked at mapmashing. It is as fun as it sounds. You can create your own maps using google maps. They can be world maps or they can be zoomed in to be neighborhood maps. You can pinpoint locations with a marker and create lines between various places. This would be a great tool to use with students to have them follow the travel of explorers or where battles were fought. They can use them to make a wish list of places they would like to travel to or make a travel route for vacations. The possibilities are endless!

After learning about these tools, I think I will use some of them. I use iPhoto a lot and plan to continue using that. It would be fun for scrapbooking to use Dumpr and Fauxto. I might use Flickr for some of my pictures also. I definitely will use Google Maps to create maps of my own for personal use and probably for teaching as well!

Social Bookmarking

noreply@blogger.com (Emily Santure) — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:13:00 +0000

After being introduced to del.icio.us this past week, I had to think about whether I liked it or not and would use it in the future for teaching. I think there are benefits to using a social bookmarking application. For one, you can access your bookmarks on any computer with internet access. Most people, including myself, only have bookmarks on their personal computer. Another advantage with social bookmarking is you can make a tag(s) for each website that you bookmark. This enables you to quickly find the website you are looking for by the given tag. If your bookmarks are public, then it enables others to find a website that you have marked based on your tag name. The down side of this is if I only tag a website about dogs as "dogs" then people who type in "dogbreeds" or "pugs" will not find this website because their search did not match my tag.
I can definitely see myself using del.icio.us for my personal use. I would use it primarily for my bookmarks and not the social aspect of networking with others.
As far as using it when I am teaching, I think I may use it to some degree. If would be convenient if I created a general account (kind of like our 416 resources!) for my students to use. I would put helpful websites there that my students can access and use. If I wanted, I could also have the option of allowing them to add to the list of websites if they found an appropriate one that they found useful. If this was public, then parents could also access it and use it when helping their students or when they want to know what we are using in the classroom as resources. I could post websites for parents such as helping your child read and write or a helpful disciplinary website. I think some parents would appreciate the extra resources.
One problem with using this application with students is that it assumes everyone has access to the internet. I cannot hold my students responsible for having a computer at home. I would have to count on having computers available in my classroom and/or school.
Overall, I like del.icio.us but I truly think I would use it primarily for personal use!

Dangers of Searching on the Internet

noreply@blogger.com (Emily Santure) — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 01:46:00 +0000

I have always known there are not credible or reliable sources online. When you type a word or phrase into a search engine you will probably end up with a few sites that aren't credible. Last week we talked about the ways in which we can critically analyze websites to determine their credibility. We talked about checking the URL. If it is a .com website it means that it is a commercial site where they are trying to promote or sell something. These are not as credible as they are biased and more for commercial use. If the URL contains a .org these are more reliable than .com because they are developed by organizations. However, you are likely to get a bias opinion because it is an organization advocating for something in particular. If the URL contains a .gov this is a government website and is reliable. This website will contain facts and not fiction. URLs that contain a .edu are education websites and can be reliable. With any website it is important to check when it was published and when the last time it was updated. If it is older then it is probably not as credible as newer websites. The exception to this is websites that doesn't contain information that will really change such as historical events.
Checking to see if a site is credible or not is pertinent to teachers as we need to check and double check the information we are telling our students. We have to make sure that the information we are gathering is accurate so we do not give our students incorrect information. This will create unnecessary confusion for students. It is our responsibility to make sure we do thorough searches to find the best information. Using operators helps return a better search for the specified topic. The operators are as follows:
+ no variation
- except this/these word(s)
~ synonym
OR x OR y
. . #'s (ex 1800.. 2000..)
* blank/space for a word
" " no variations

SOY!

noreply@blogger.com (Emily Santure) — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 01:25:00 +0000

I was lactose intolerant for quite a few years, but I have grown out of it. After not being able to eat ice cream, milk, and cheese without taking a pill, it is an adjustment to be able to go to the freezer, grab a tub of ice cream and spoon and dive right in. Although I could eat dairy products with a pill, I started to drink soy milk when I was younger. At first I did not like it at all, but after a while you begin to acquire a taste for it. Now that I can drink regular cow's milk I am finding myself still drink soy milk. I also have soy products for snacks such as soy crisps, soy yogurt, and soy ice cream. I wondered if there were health benefits to soy products. After doing some research this is what I found!

~Soy products are a high quality protein that have been shown to increase the feeling of fullness, which in turn can reduce the intake of calories and lead to weight loss.
~Soy contains no cholestrol, which is great for the heart!
~Soy can actually reduce women's chance of getting breast cancer.
~25 grams of soy daily can reduce heart disease.
~Soy is also low in saturated fat.

After doing some research, I think I will stick with soy products!

http://www.soyfoods.org/health/soy-and-general-health/
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1561142,00.html

RSS Feed and Aggregator

noreply@blogger.com (Emily Santure) — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 16:58:00 +0000

So far, I have enjoyed using the Aggregator. The aspect that I like the best is the functionality of having all the RSS feeds in one place! As we learned last Tuesday, blogs are updated very frequently. Some websites are also update at least daily, such as news websites. It is very convient to go to one site, aka Google Reader, and access all of the updates in one spot. I can have all my personal, school and work feeds all on the same page. I subscribed to many food and recipe feeds. I know I will use them to find recipes when cooking. I can also put other teachers blogs on the aggregator to stay updated on the new posts.
I have found the aggregator easy to maintain and organize. Some people may feel overwhelmed with the steps of getting the websites or blogs onto the Reader, but once they have figured it out I'm sure the process won't seem bad at all.

Useful Website

noreply@blogger.com (Emily Santure) — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 16:05:00 +0000

I found a very neat website. The url is http://www.4teachers.org/

It is for teachers and can be used as a teaching tool. One tool that I really found helpful was Classroom Architect. It allows you to design a layout for your classroom! You first choose the dimensions of your room and then begin placing the desks, chairs, rugs, etc in the places that you like. It is great if you are at home and want to reorganize your classroom. All you have to do is print the design and take it in with you to start moving the furniture.
The website also has information on how to integrate technology in the classroom. It has several websites listed that discuss the issue of internet safety for the students.
Another aspect of the website that is enjoyable for students is called Arcademic Skill Builder. There are several online games for students to improve their math skills and spelling/word skills.
I can see myself using this website in the near future!

BLOGS! Advantages and Disadvantages

noreply@blogger.com (Emily Santure) — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 22:01:00 +0000

After contemplating the advantages and disadvantages of using blogs, I have come up with the following list.

Advantages:

way to express yourself and opinions
share ideas and information
can be anonymous
less intimidating to share ideas online
open communication between a group of people
(posting)
free :)
some may think it is easier to work with than a website

Disadvantages:

not personable- communication online compared to in person
can be difficult to tell peoples tone in their post
some posts can be offensive to others
addicting- time consuming

The following websites were helpful when completing this task.

My First Post!

noreply@blogger.com (Emily Santure) — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 20:35:00 +0000

Welcome to my blog!
I am a Michigan State Spartan. Below is the link to the website for Michigan State University.

http://msu.edu/