BP11_2009122_OneMinuteMessage1

BP10_2009122_PeerReviewJoanLourenco

BP8_2009122_Tool#3PhotoPeach

Featuring the Florida Teens Read 2009 Nominations on PhotoPeach




I selected to research PhotoPeach for my third Web 2.0. PhotoPeach is an online slideshow. There are other fancier slideshow Web 2.0 presentations such as animoto, however, after considering my audience, the computers, bandwidth, and the networking system my students and teachers have access to each day, I selected PhotoPeach as the Web 2.0 of choice for my teaching/learning environment. PhotoPeach presentations allows teachers and students to create projects and quiz shows, teach about creating effective presentations, provide a mechanism for students to work collaboratively, provide an alternative for assignments, demonstrate new technology tools and can promote new information and can promote critical thinking skills.

I selected to create a presentation showcasing the books nominated for the 2010 Florida Teens Read since I am in charge of getting a team together for the Battle of the Books competition in April. I am not a techy by any means yet I was able to put a slideshow together on PhotoPeach with ease. This was a plus, to be able to share a multimedia tool that is easy to learn and use.

Creating the online slideshow can be completed with three simple steps. The user has the option of importing photos from a file, Flickr, or the Internet. I was able to import photos in just minutes. I added the captions to each slide and then selected the music from the five sound effects/options offered. I soon had an attractive presentation with music and had options for embedding my presentation into a blog, a MySpace or Facebook account.

One really cool feature of PhotoPeach is the ability to create a quiz with your presentation. The quiz option appears once you are finished editing. To use this tool, first upload your photos or import them from Flickr, or the Internet. You can arrange your photos the way you want them to appear. The next step asks for the quiz title, description, and musical accompaniment. Click finish and your story/slideshow will begin playing. If you need to edit, simply click on the edit wrench in the upper right portion of the presentation.

If you wish to export the story/slideshow, the “public” feature must be selected under owner options. To see a sample and directions for a PhotoPeach Quiz, follow this link:http://paulhami.edublogs.org/2009/09/27/photopeach.quiz .

The slideshow I put together is located on the PhotoPeach website and is named Featuring the Florida Teens Read 2009 Nominations.

References

Hamilton, P. (2009). PhotoPeach Quiz / Free Resources from the Net for EVERY Learner. Free Resources from the Net for EVERY Learner. Retrieved December 3, 2009, from http://paulhami.edublogs.org/2009/09/27/photopeach-quiz

Lardinois, F. (2009). PhotoPeach: Easy to Use, No Frills Photo Slideshow. ReadWriteWeb - Web Apps, Web Technology Trends, Social Networking and Social Media. Retrieved December 3, 2009, from http://readwriteweb.com

PhotoPeach - Fresh slideshows to go!. (2007). PhotoPeach - Fresh slideshows to go!. Retrieved December 3, 2009, from http://photopeach.com

BP9_2009122_FlickrLesson

Upon researching how other teachers have used Flickr in their lesson plans, I came across a teacher that had students research images for a soviet propaganda project. In this assignment, students used the images to analyze how the propagandists used color and slogans to get their message across. I thought of a way to use Flickr that is similar to this. In my freshman cornerstone class, I have my students write a mission statement and they start by creating a collage about themselves. I bring in magazines and the students thumb through them to find things that define them. Instead of using magazines, we can use Flickr and have students surf the Web for photos. This will give them a lot more access to their individual interests.

BP8_2009122_Tool#3(Gig Tide)

This Web 2.0 tool is an online resume builder. As I mentioned in my former blog, in my freshman cornerstone class my students use the dependable strengths building activity to create resumes. The problem is that they typically don't know where to start when creating their resume. They know what they want to include in and they have ideas of what they want to say about themselves in an interview, but they don't know how to visualize it on a piece of paper in a professional manner.

This tool provides several templates for students to choose from and also allows them to individualize their resume at the same time. The tool shows them how to drag and drop information so they can change the look and orientation of their resume if they wish. This tool also has a auto fill function so students don't have to continue to retype or reiterate things, they can just drag and drop their info. It also gives them the opportunity to get a live preview of what their resume looks like so they can make changes before finalizing it.

This tool also helps students put images on their resume. This characteristic will be great in that the students can add the logo they created using Mutapic (the prior tool I discussed in my last blog post). They can also add their picture or other visuals of things that interest them and that can show some of their character to their future employer.

I recall using a resume template when I was in school, but this tool far exceeds the resume builder I used. Of course, times have changed and resumes are going to be fancier and more advanced, but I think this is a great way for students to get practice building a quality resume that employers will appreciate seeing.

The only thing I don't like about this tool is that there is only a 30 day free trial. I would like my students to be able to keep their resumes and to be able to continue to build them as they continue with their lives. However, this will be a great starting point for me to use in my freshman class.

BP7_2009122_Tool#2(Mutapic-Piocture Generator)

Mutapic is a Web 2.0 tool that I would use in my freshman cornerstone class to help my students create logos for their business cards and resumes. As part of this class, we talk about our students dependable strengths to help create a resume with. Some of you may have attended a dependable strengths training before, but what for those of you that haven't, this is a way to talk about past experiences and achievements and share them with other students. In their stories, they include descriptions of what they did and why they were so proud of these accomplishments. After telling 3-4 stories, the students that were listening tell the story teller attributes and characteristics they noticed they repeated in their stories. This gives each student a list of strengths and positive characteristics that they can list on their resume and they are already armed with stories that they can share with their future employers to use as examples of those strengths and characteristics.

After finding their wonderful strengths and attributes, the students will then create a logo to use on their resumes and business cards that help define them and show their personality. Students can be as dole as they want or as creative as they want when generating their logos. This Web 2.0 tool provides templates to help get students started and to aid in their creativity or lack of.

BP5_2009121_SocialBookmarking

I can see how this tool is useful in many ways, but especially for this program. There are so many videos and websites that I have looked at and want to save, but I don't want to cloud my desktop. It is also a way to sort all of the different videos and websites I save. It defeats the purpose of saving videos, websites and links if you don't know how to find them when you want to utilize them. I am excited to learn more about social bookmarking and start utilizing it more frequently.

BP6_2009121_AntiTeaching

As someone that is still new to the technology world, I can't say with complete confidence that virtual learning environments with course management systems is the answer to our educational problems. I know as a teacher, I have several students that I have talked to and found to be very bright, but you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at their GPA's. This is proof that there are problems in our educational system, but I don't know that I am convinced that a virtual learning environment is the solution to the problem.

As Michael Wesch put it in his article, significance is the problem. Students absolutely need to see the significance and purpose in each one of their classes. I have taught mathematics for seven years and it is very obvious that we use math everyday in our lives, but students still ask, "when am I ever going to use this in my life." I assure them that they asked the same question when they were first learning percents and discounts because in the fifth and sixth grade, their parents did all of the shopping and they didn't have first hand experiences of needing to know how to calculate discounts or sales tax. Now that they are in high school and a lot of them buy their own clothes and toys, all of a sudden they see a need for knowing how to mentally calculate a discount and add in sales tax. So things that will be of great significance to students at some point in their lives, may not be significant at the time they are learning it and therefore, they are uninterested and unmotivated to understand the material.

Another problem in mathematics is that a lot of students don't know their simple multiplication facts because they rely on a calculator. Luckily, most cell phones have calculators in them these days and since students do go anywhere without their cell phone, they always have a calculator handy. I am grateful for technology and believe that it is a wonderful tool in education, but at the same time, it is making our students less knowledgeable.

I like the idea of PLE's and what they can do for education. I am very excited about using them in my classroom instruction. I think that initially, it will get the students attention and get them excited about learning and motivated. However, I think that will be a temporary state of mind. As soon as the newness wares off and the next generation comes into high school with having already developed a PLE in elementary school and expanded it in junior high school, learning is going to be just as boring to them, even with all of their technology, as it is for our students now, with limited use of technology.

I hate to sound negative, but I'm just trying to sound realistic. When I first read the 7 things you should know about...Personal Learning Environments, I was very inspired by the scenario that led the article. I was imagining how great it is going to be to start integrating more technology into my lesson plans and how fun and exciting learning is going to be for my students. However, as I thought longer and more into the future, it dawned on me that it is a temporary solution to the ever growing problems of our educational system. Despite those feelings, I am going to move forward with this program and try to learn as much as I can about incorporating technology into the educational setting and continue to grow and learn better teaching practices.