It May Be Delicious, But It's Hard To Digest

Diigo wins! Hands down! It was easier to sign up, easier to manuver, and easier to add information.

Diigo took all of about two seconds to create an account where as Delicious gave me the run-around, I had to turn off my pop-up blocker, and it wanted to import information from my Google Account to the Yahoo server. I guess this is because it is powered by Yahoo so they want my information as well.

I played around with Diigo for awhile and added 9 pictures, two bookmarks, and a note within ten minutes. I really enjoyed using this application and I believe that I will continue to use it. I love the fact that I can find sites for school at home, put them on my Diigo account, and then access them at school. Right now, the only bookmarking that I do is on my Favorites bar in Mozilla and Explorer.

I might not have played around enough, but I didn't find any other features offered through Delicious. Whereas, Diigo allows you to also upload pictures and create notes. Overall, Diigo is great and I will continue to use it.

Check out my Diigo account picture... :)

Second Life....What is wrong with the first one?

This is my second experience with Second Life. I am personally not a fan. I think it is a pointless application that wastes time and pulls children even further from reality. Now, I know if you look back through my posts they have all been pretty negative. :( I feel bad about this, but I am speaking from personal experience and with my students in mind.

I do not see a reason to use this application in my classroom. With that being said, I do believe that there is a place for the virtual world in the classroom. As long as it is a completely educational based program, I would love for my students to be involved.

A year ago, I signed up for Second Life when I had to do the same type of assignment for a different class. The graphics are better and seem to run smoother than a year ago. It is also easier to fly and walk without interuptions. With that being said, I do like going to the "Real" destination such as Africa and the Eiffel Tower. I also like the fact that songs are piped into each destination that match. I am not a fan of the chat feature and the people are a little....well lets just say they are a little different. In Africa, I ran into a guy who was wearing a tail and vampire fangs and was chilling in the middle of the watering hole (yes, underwater). I walked into the pond because I could see his little name in the middle of the water and I just had to check it out. He he! I just chuckled (to myself, not virtually) and walked away. Even though I'm on the other side of my computer, some of those people still give me the willies! :)


On a side note, does anyone out there watch The Office? Second Life reminds me of the episode that Dwight uses Second Life. I believe he says, "A year ago, my life was so great that I wanted to create a second one. In my Second Life I am also a paper salesman and my name is Dwight." Bahhhhhh! Ok, so I feel that Second Life is a silly thing and all I can think about is Dwight.

Here is my picture of my Avatar standing on the Friendship Tower in Selmo Park. Enjoy.

APP-rehensive

As I began my research on Android and IPhones, I realized that there is a lot of information to wade through.  Most of the information that I found was written by people that have personally used the devices. Since I am a poor teacher, I unfortunately cannot afford such technologies and therefore have to rely on the expertise of others.  Here is what I found about the different handheld devices.

Limitations

-Wifi connectivity for certain downloading and streaming capabilities

-Expenses (to purchase and to maintain services)

-Running multiple apps greatly slows processing speeds

-Portable devices also need to be plugged in and may eventually need replacement batteries

-More likely to be damaged because of the amount of handling

Pros/Cons

Android		IPhone
Pros	Cons	Pros	Cons
Hot Spot Capabilities	Limited Multi-Tasking Capabilities	200,00 + Apps in the Marketplace	Have to subscribe to Apple
Excellent Integration with Google Apps	Memory Limitations	Combines all email accounts into one	No Hot Spot Capabilities
Large Market for Accessories	Limited Apps in the Marketplace	GPS with Flash Player capabilities	Some Apps can access your contacts and send to outside services (when Apps are found to have this problem, they are taken off of the market)
Some phones have physical keyboards and all phones have a removable battery	No Syncing Features between phone and PC	Nice looking	Can only upload Apple Apps (closed environment)

I really had fun looking at all of the different Apps that each brand had to offer. It really made me jealous and I wanted to run out and buy a Smartphone even though I just finished researching all of their flaws. In the Android marketplace I found three really great educational Apps. The first is called FrostWire. This is a file sharing App that allows you to browse and share files and chat with others in the FrostWire cloud. I think this would be a great App for students if they have done a research project and they would like to share what they have learned with their classmates. It is also a great way to complete group work. The second App that I found in the Android market is Nook for Android. Obviously, I would use this in the classroom just the way that you would use it at home. Students can download and read age appropriate books. Finally, I found a fun App called PlinkArt. This App allows you to take a picture of a piece of art and upload it to the App. It then gives you instant identification and information on the work of art. I can see unlimited capabilities with this App. I think students would be more apt to learn about famous works of art and their relevancy to history if they had this App. This would be great for a trip to the local art museum or to help students with research papers.

After I finished perusing the Android market, I jumped on over to the IPhone marketplace. Wow! What a difference! The sheer volume of Apps is astounding. But, it was very easy to search in the App Store. The first App that I found was for my students’ favorite website, Brain POP. My students love to watch the videos on Brain POP and (for some strange reason) take the quizzes that are offered after each video. I am pretty sure it is obvious what we could do with this App. The children could watch their desired videos and take the quizzes. The second App that I found was called Math Cards. This App allowed you to choose a specific grade level and math topic. Then, it would produce 25 flashcards. It also saves the players scores and tells you what areas that you may need to study more. I really like this App because many of my 5^th graders really stink at multiplication. It is a core skill and they really, REALLY have a hard time learning their times tables. This is a fun way that they students could quiz themselves or friends when they have spare or down time during the day. Finally, I found another flashcard App called Kaplan Vocabulary.  This App lets the user search for vocabulary words or quizzes the user. It gives definitions, parts of speech, and example sentences. This is an App that students could use to help them create their own personal dictionaries. This is something that we do in my classroom every year. Each student has a writing journal and in the back the students will create their own personal dictionary. If they come upon a word that they are not familiar with, they follow a process of finding out the word, its definition, and how to use it in a sentence. They write it down and then try to incorporate it into their everyday speech. This App would make students actually want to learn new vocabulary words.

My phone is a touchscreen, but not a Smartphone. I do not have internet access on it and therefore it is basically used for calling, texting, and it rocks at taking pictures. I do not have any other portable devices that I could use in the classroom, which makes me sad. One type of portable device that I would love to get is CRS (Classroom Response System) clickers and a Mobi for my SmartBoard. I know that these devices cannot download Apps or sync with phones, but they still rock in the way of streamlining classroom technology and creating an environment where technology is used every day. Hopefully, sometime soon, I will make the shift to a Smartphone and my eyes will be opened to the wide world of distracting (and sometimes educational) Apps.

Ashley

Technology Smackdown! Blackboard vs. Moodle

Ding! Ding! Ding! Blackboard is the winner by TKO!!!!
I have now worked with BB and Moodle from both sides; teacher and student.
Blackboard is the clear winner. Yes, there are many buttons on Blackboard but they are uniform throughout the entire class pages. Moodle is all over the place. From the student side, Moodle has so many places to get lost in. Your home screen has five thousand things to look at and it seems like the teacher side is the same.
My favorite feature of the Teacher BB is seeing the grading system. I really enjoy seeing how others/other programs are run. My school currently uses SIS, which I believe many other schools use. I think online grade books are great because I can work from home work school. BB also lays it out very clean and simple. I think that when you are working with people that have many different levels of technological understanding, the simpler the better. Moodle confuses me, and I think myself to be technologically proficient.
Go Team Blackboard!
Ashley

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! (Theme of the last few weeks)

This was awful... I have cried, laughed, screamed, and totally gave up this week. I have hated the last two weeks of homework with a passion. I would never, never, never, EVER use Camstudio or Camtasia again. I LOVED Jing! Jing was such an easy upload process. I hope that any future students do not have to deal with these programs again.
Here is the HD Video that took me two full days to upload!

Worst Experience Ever!

I thought I hated Evernote...I was wrong. I HATE CamStudio. You may have noticed that my blog is late... well that is because I have spent the last few nights trying to get this thing to upload. Tonight, after 4 hours, it finally uploaded!! I really hope that Camtasia works better because I am very frustrated.
On a side note, I really enjoyed working with Slide.com. It was easy and produced a nice result. I think it is a great way to show classroom pictures and videos.

Please click and wait to see the video on how to use slide.com. (You will have to wait a minute...sorry!)

Web 2.0hhhh NO!!!!

What do I say about Web 2.0 Tools…. Well, some are amazing and some are junk!! I think that there are some amazing sites out there that are catered to student and teacher usage. Conversely, there are many out there that are ridiculous and are very hard to use. To begin my rant, I did not like using Ever Note. For one, I don’t really see how I could use it inside the classroom. Maybe, I have not expanded my mind enough to understand its capabilities, but I do not see how I could use it in my 5th grade classroom. If I would have been working with Ever Note for a personal reason, I would have given up on it long before I figured out how to make it public.
Ok, moving on. I didn’t realize the amount of Web 2.0 Tools that are free or relativity inexpensive that are available to use inside the classroom. Through this process I also realized that some sites that I am currently using are considered Web 2.0 Tools. I really like the Friendly Letter Generator tool that can be found at ReadWriteThink! It is a great resource to help my students understand letter formatting, which is an important skill for the MAP Test.
Finally, another great Web 2.0 Tool that I have in my Communication Arts toolbox is called Into the Book. This site is amazing for teaching Reading Strategies and I usually work this into my teaching at the very beginning of the year. This is a very important tool for students to use because they can work interactively online and they can also print off any created or preexisting story.
For the most part, I enjoyed my experience with Web 2.0 Tools and will definitely incorporate many of them into my every day teaching. Unfortunately, I will never use Ever Note again and loathed every moment that I had to work with the software.