Edmodo

Like facebook, Edmodo is a type of communication between people, but it is for students and teachers. Teachers are able to send out homework or reminders to students and these can also be accessed by parents. Files can be attached and these can be sent back anbd forth between students and teachers without the students loosing documents in their bags. I would definatly use this innovation in my classroom, it is fantastic, it helps students to become more organised and it helps to consolidate all the information at one point, in stead of having lots of loose bits of paper floating around. Edmodo is also safe, and teachers are able to monitor what is posted and sent by students. I think Edmodo is great and would definatly use it in my classroom.

Voice thread allows users to store images, documents and videos on an interactive multimedia innovation. This program is similar to a blog, as it allows other users to leave comments, but it is special in the way that you can leave comments through voice, text audio or vidoe files. This I think is a great idea, but when I comepare it to the innovation Jing that i presented to the class they both have their limitations. Using Voice thread users are only able to store 3 files at a time, and Jing is very time consuming. I think that Voice thread could be a handy innovation for communicating with students, and that they will benifit from the interactive approach. As I have found they enjoy all things to do with using computers, so this is something that they could engage in. It would just be a matter of weighing up the alternative program in Jing and seeing which innovation will suit the class best. As I know how to use Jing (from doing this unit) I would probably prefer Jing, but Im sure with more practice Voice Thread could be just as useful.

Game Maker

Overall, if the program was easier to use Im sure it would have been great, but this week Game Maker didnt really tick all the boxes. I had multiple problems using this innovation, which ultimatley ended my experience when my game that I had spent over 20 minutes preparing exited and I was unable to access the work that I had done. Looking at the other students in my class' games though it was evident that with some effort they were able to finally get their games to work. I would have liked to spend more time on this innovation, and perhaps I will try to make a game again. For this innovation I think it would be one that would be easier to make for the students in the classroom and then they play the game. I think trying to run through the steps and instructions with a class full of kids would be very time consuming and confusing. Overall though I did like the idea of being able to create a game and let studnets play it, it was just dissapointing that I didnt have any luck with figuring out how to make one myself. I found that even following the instuctions to be difficult because there was so many steps involved for all the different movements that the game needed to do.

Glogster

Glogster is a website that allows you to to create free virtual online posters that can be viewed by others and modified by the creater or teacher. Students are able to add music, videos, photos and other images as well as text to these posters and they are there is an added bonus that it doesnt use up class resources such as pencils and pens and paper. The posters can be viewed at any time and changed whenever the creator would like. Glogster is a tool for teachers to use with their students without the fear of students having access to unsuitable materials, that can be found all over the internet. I think Glogster is a great tool for students who want to express themselves creativley and are not confident with their art skills. I think I would be able to use glogster in my classroom, it would save time, and it would be a way that the students could add something extra to their work. Glogster is easy and fun and children would find it very engaging. In terms of students not doing the right thing on Glogster, teachers are able to access and monitor what their studnets are doing through this site. All in all, I like Glogster it is one of the innovations that we have seen that is simple and can be used easily in the classroom.

Scratch

Today we looked at Scratch, it is an innovation that can be used to create interactive stories, animations, games, music and art.
When these projects have been created they can be saved and shared on the web for everyone to see by using links to access.

This innovation has its good points and bad points in my opinion. Visually it is very engaging for students, they will be hooked on the characters and movements and all its features.
My bad point however would be that it would be hard to link scratch into education. Although they have provided us with ideas I think that personally I would find it challenging to implement this innovation into the classroom.


I think that the time it took to create animations and how fiddly the program is that it wouldn't be something that I would use when teaching my students. The only way I think that i could use it was if i made my own project and let the students view it. getting them to create their own project would be too difficult, because of all the different functions that are needed in creating projects.

Twitter:
Today we also made twitter accounts and started to use them. I think twitter is a great tool that could be used in a classroom environment, students and teachers could communicate via twitter. I think there are a few limitations or problems with twitter in terms of security and keeping students safe, also I think that students using twitter could get distracted when on twitter and become off task. It is similar to face book in some ways that it allows you to talk to friends and write updates and notifications and personally I find it hard to concentrate when in class and face book is on, so this may be a problem with using twitter as well. I like the idea about teacher and parent communications for parents who cant come into the classroom and talk to the teacher face to face.
I think that visually twitter is a useful tool for keeping students involved and helps students in becoming part of our technological society.

I think that I may see myself using twitter in my classroom once I have spent some more time getting used to it.
Good presentation
Thanks :)

This is my scratch

Scratch

Scratch is like a comic type application, we made animations and use features of scratch to make characters in the pictures move. I liked using this application though like the 2 students presenting I think personally I would find it hard to implement this in a classroom.

Today we looked at Google Docs, I got so many great ideas from this presentation.
Google Docs is a place online where you can invite people to share your documents rather than having to send through microsofy word. This was great as Simon and Miriam showed us how we could edit and change aspects of the documents online and press save and it would change the document for everyone, and many people at different times can edit the documents.
This is a great tool that I can see myself using in my classroom for homework and communicating with parents and students.
Great presentation great innovation :)

My Bitstrips comic :)

Bitstrips

Today we looked at Bitstrips.
It was great, I found it very educational and it is something I will consider using when I become a teacher.
I liked how it gives the students an opportunity to create characters and comic strips, and it can be used in a number of learning areas. It is an active hands on approach to learning and we were able to see you tube videos of students using the program and they really enjoyed it.
I can see a class using it and having lots of fun creating different characters.
In terms of the technology it was easy to use and easy to explain how to use, and it can be simplified (just getting them to make one slide) or made harder (making 2 or 3 or 4 slides)
The presentation was great and the group presenting did a fabulous job.
This is something that we use everyday in a similar program of Facebook, and this program is one children can enjoy to.
Bye for now
Caris

wiki's

This week we looked at wiki's
I haven't really had much of a look at Wiki's before so this lesson was great as it gave me a chance to learn about them.

Wiki pages are pretty similar to blogs like what im doing here.
They are a source for sharing information about topics and they can be made by anyone so dont always believe everything you read :)


Wiki's are able to be written collaboratively. Today we looked at our Wiki pages for our innovation for our assessment, and we were contribute our wiki page with our partners.

We also created an inspiration document - which outlined features and characteristics of blogs, wikis, webquests.
Bye for now
Caris

This is my very first blog, I think this is going to be a great experience and will be a great way to reflect on things that I have been learning in the unit. It is a good outlet for others to read about my views and opinions.
I am looking forward to getting some feedback
Thanks Caris