10/28

Class Wednesday was probably one of the most interesting ones we have had this semester. The Vyew conference was absolutely amazing. I loved how simple it was and how quick and responsive it was to everyone's actions. This system would be great for any kind of group projects at a long-distance, and seems very college student-oriented. I can definitely see myself using this product for class during group work. This product also seemed very business-oriented, since that is the field in which most long distance projects take place. When college students conduct group projects, they are usually with people on campus. However, for a large university and for a large group, it is difficult to arrange a meeting time and place around several busy college student's schedules. Making this available from everyone's home computer makes a group project much less of a hassle, and gets the information out immediately.

The conference call website was also a very interesting feature. I for one have no idea how to three-way call on my cell phone, and I definitely could not create a conference call with it, involving 15 people such as our class did. This is a great thing to even incorporate into our casual conversations with multiple people, and obviously has advantages for businesses and for education. Teachers often conference with each other to plan cooperative lessons, or to discuss program, departmental, or curriculum changes. Parent-teacher conferences could also be conducted through this program, as well as PTA meetings, or any other kind of group discussion in an academic or business setting. I can definitely see myself using this product in whatever situations my future holds.

10/17

I was very happy with the decision to push back the deadline on the research project, and even happier with the decision, although tentative, to make the project our final exam. This will give all of us more time to do a thorough job on our project, and eliminates the need for an exam that I don't think is entirely necessary. In my opinion, a comprehensive project such as a presentation on a topic involving technology's role in education is much more of a reflection on our understanding of the class than an exam would be. It involves all aspects of the class and covers virtually all areas, if not in our own projects then by watching others' presentations for the final. I think this will be much more beneficial.

I thought the BrainyBetty.com website was a very useful download site for powerpoint templates. Being a college student, I would most likely not use the Crystal Graphics site that I have to subscribe to, simply because my future profession does not call for a need for extras like that. Someone in marketing or sales would find this very beneficial, but I can make do with what's free! I will definitely be downloading some of the free templates on Brainy Betty for my powerpoint presentation. I can later use these in powerpoints with my students, and can also share the site with them so that they may use them for projects.

Another website I found helpful was the citation website that Colin shared with us. While the official one originally shown was definitely more comprehensive and better quality, I can't see myself paying for it...especially since I'm so used to doing it manually that it isn't too much of an inconvenience anymore. However, knightcite.com was a great and simple way to create my works cited page in a matter of seconds, and I can certainly see myself using it in the future.

conference call + pageflakes

The conference call we held in class yesterday was something I've never been a part of before. It was a little weird to feel like I was a part
of the business world, on a conference call with the president of a
major corporation. That aside, it was a really interesting experience.
The president, "the baker," seemed very interested in what we had to
say, but also made it clear that his main focus was economically
driven...simply put, to make money. Since his business is still looking
to expand and gather more customers, this is completely understandable.
However, as we discussed afterward in class, he is looking to target
individuals as consumers when he should be marketing toward
universities, corporations, and places that will pay to give others
free access. After all, especially with college students, we are FAR
more reluctant to become users of a resource if we need to pay for it.
There are so many resources available that are free. "Babycakes" seemed
like a company that would target places that would need such a
comprehensive resource to all those programs. I was actually surprised
that they were targeting education at all, but in the context of this
class it makes sense. Individuals, even teachers, are only going to use
a few relevant programs. Especially since my subject is French, I don't
think I'll even have much use for programs such as Excel in my
classroom, even though they are so beneficial to other classes.
Teachers will only use what is specifically pertinent to their subject
and their lesson plans. If babycakes was marketed toward a school
however, and the school could have that resource available for all its
teachers, it would be much more useful. An entire school full of
teachers will need a much wider range of programs to learn about, as
opposed to an individual teacher who may only need 2 or 3. To learn how
to use 2 or 3 programs, a monthly subscription to a program that taught
you so many would just not be worth it.

This past class was the first time I was really awe-struck at one of the sites we were shown. The pageflakes site was the one I thought was best. Since I have just "converted" to firefox, I love the fact that I can set 4 different tabs as my homepage. Building on a similar concept, this site has it all on one page. I love that at a single glance you can get all the information you'd like, customized to what you want to know each time you open the browser. This is something I would use personally not only as a teacher, but for my internet use in general. Great idea.

United Streaming and Education World

The United Streaming site is probably the first teaching tool I've discovered through this class that I can see myself regularly using with my students. In my French classes throughout high school, my teachers used a video series called "French in Action" to illustrate certain concepts, vocabulary, syntax, etc. The videos were always pretty cheesy and I can't say they helped much. Looking at some of the French videos, they aren't any less cheesy or over-acted, but they are made this way purposely. Over-acting and exaggerating words and actions make students well-aware of what is happening on the screen. Students can learn vocabulary words because the actors say certain words while they are doing an exaggerated action. The students may laugh at how ridiculous it seems, but there is no mistake as to what the word means based on the actions.

There are full-length videos and shorter clips available on United Streaming. This was my favorite thing about it, because I think the reason we as French students did not learn much from French in Action is because we were made to watch 15-30 minute long videos, and most of us would drift off and not pay attention. With short 3 minute clips, the video gets its point across and is much more likely to keep the students' attention. These also work well with homework assignments, because students can log onto the site and watch a short clip and answer questions on it for homework. This is not generally reasonable to expect with a full-length video.

Another site that we were shown in class that I think I will definitely take advantage of while teaching is Education World. The resources on this site are plentiful, for advice, lesson plans, activities, articles, etc. I particularly enjoyed the section on mini-lessons, which were basic 5-minute fillers when you have extra time in class. I think this is important because down time in class is generally not a good thing. You lose students' attention very easily and it's hard to bring them back once they start having their own conversations. There is also a section that applies resources to your state's standards, which will be especially important during student teaching. In direct relation to my subject, I searched "French" within Education World. I found links to French newspapers such as Le Monde and Lyon Capitole, and links to French television and radio. This would be very beneficial if I choose to teach advanced classes. I also found a list of 200 quizzes to take, from easy to very difficult. Below these links there was a Lesson Plans section, which gave several links to French sites designed to help teachers create fun and imaginative lesson plans for various areas of French. I think I will definitely be using this website as a resource in the future.