• Provide the students with detailed wiki instructions with allowing time for practice.
• Provide detailed expectations of what you expect from the students using the Wiki page.
• Create a culture of trust  by starting with activities where the participants can get to know each other better.
• Include a common goal for the collaborative activities.
• Define student roles and activities.
• Remind students of deadlines and schedules.
• Create examples for the students to model.

Here are some of the things that a Wiki pages makes convenient for a classroom:

• Students can work together in one place to research, outline, draft, and edit group projects.
• Teachers can post homework, study guides, course materials, etc.
• Teachers can provide articles, websites, videos, and other resources for students.
• Teachers can post questions for brainstorming or feedback purposes.
• Teachers can post topics of discussion for student participation.
• Students can post papers or assignments for peer feedback.
• Parents can become a part of the classroom and stay up to date on classroom news and events.

Here is a great website to help you utilize a Wiki in your classroom.  http://pbworks.com/content/edu+overview

Also, here is a video of educators who were interviewed after using this helpful website.

So for the Productivity Tools assignment in Module #2, I chose to use PowerPoint to create my tutorial.  I am very comfortable with PowerPoint and enjoy creating them, although I am really getting excited about mastering Prezi.  I have been using PowerPoint for years to make presentations, and even took a class in high school, so that is what I chose to use for my tutorial.  I did my tutorial on the four seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter.  I am really excited about the transition from Winter to Spring, and figured that this would be a good time of year to teach students about why the seasons change.  Throughout my PowerPoint presentation, I used different features such as; clip art, adding images, adding hyperlinks, changing colors, changing backgrounds, using shapes, and coordinating colors.

In my presentation, I first discussed the reasons why the seasons change: The Earth’s orbit around the sun and the tilting of the axis is what causes the four seasons.  Because the axis is tilted, different parts of the globe are oriented toward the sun at different times of the year.  The Earth also tilts at 23.5 degrees.  After discussing why the seasons change, I highlighted some seasonal facts.  I made my presentation very child friendly, incorporating a lot of fun cartoon pictures that will help them focus easier on the main details.  I matched each season with the appropriate clothing to wear, the weather during that season, and the holidays associated with each season.

There are many fun and exciting features of PowerPoint that can be used to make presentations fun and engaging.  It is very easy and useful to incorporate the features of PowerPoint into your classroom lesson plans.  Here are some ideas that could be beneficial in teaching your students:

• PowerPoint as a vocabulary lesson

- You can create slide shows of vocabulary words that students need to learn.  You can do this by showing the word and associating that word with pictures and definitions.  You can even add audio to emphasize the pronunciation of the word.  It will be most beneficial to have a slide of the word alone, and then the next slide to show the picture and definition that they need to remember.  This is similar to a flash card.  In fact, instead of students making flashcards, you can have them create their own PowerPoint of vocabulary words as a way to study and learn the words.

• Spelling activities

- You can create slide shows that will emphasize the learning of the spelling of a word.  An easy way to do this is by showing the word alone on one slide along with a picture associated with that word.  Then you can have the students say the word aloud and begin to spell it.  With the click of the mouse, you can bring up the word one letter at a time as they are spelling it.  I would suggest keeping the same picture on each slide to make it easier to remember.

• Create a game for learning purposes

- PowerPoint can be used to create a fun game for the classroom on all of the content as a review for the test.  For example, Jeopardy, Who Wants to Be A Millionaire, etc.  For example, here is an example of a game created using a Jeopardy template in PowerPoint: Jeopardy Powerpoint

A couple of things to remember when using PowerPoint for presentations!  Still stay interactive with your students. You do not want them to sit there the whole class and just read the content slide by slide while you stand up there and lecture. BORING! Find ways to be interactive with the students. Show videos, ask questions, create small quizzes, etc.  Also, do not clutter your slides with too many words! If a slide has an overwhelming amount of content, the students will not be able to focus on the main details.  Make sure the use of pictures is related to the content on each slide.  Students are more likely to remember pictures than the words that are on the slide.  Therefore, if you use a picture that is not related, they will completely forget the content that they were supposed to remember.  Does anyone have any other tips for the use of PowerPoint in the classroom?

Here is a link to a fun tutorial on how to use PowerPoint to create effective presentations:

PowerPoint in the classroom

So spring time gets me excited for the Pittsburgh Pirates season! I have mentioned before that I love the Pirates and make it a point to go to as many games as I can in the summer.  I have added a Pittsburgh Pirates RSS Feed on my page to keep everyone updated on recent news.

So I have been checking out Prezi so that I can become more comfortable with using it.  I was debating whether to use Prezi or PowerPoint for our productivity tools project #2, however, I stuck with PowerPoint because I am more comfortable with it.  So I decided to make it a point to get to know Prezi a little bit more because it is something new and different than regular slide by slide presentations.  By reading up on information and reviews of Prezi, I have found that most people say the best way to get the hang of it is to simply play around on it.  So I have taken it upon myself to do so.  Through my experience, I have learned that Prezi is a great way to give presentations that are more exciting and keep the viewers attention.  Prezi provides features that help children to focus more on the main details that you are trying to teach them.  Prezi also makes it very easy to embed an educational video into your presentation that helps in the learning of the lesson.  Here are some of my favorite things about Prezi:

• It is simpler to use than PowerPoint once you get the hang of it
• You can zoom in and out throughout your presentation
• With Prezi, your presentation will provide a walking path throughout your presentation that focuses on the details
• It is completely free to use!

I am sure there is plenty more advantages to using Prezi that I will find in the future.  However, here are some ideas to how Prezi can be extremely useful in the classroom:

• Build a Prezi that focuses on vocabulary review.  You can type the word in large font and then zoom in on the definition to emphasize the meaning of the vocabulary word.
• Display a timeline of the biography of famous people in history.
• Display history information easier by providing a date, place, or person and then zooming in on the important facts.
• For Geography, provide a map and then zoom into the details on the map.
• Create a story to help with the lesson you are teaching by using pictures, written ideas, and videos.

Does anyone have any other ideas of how Prezi can be useful in the classroom?

Here is a great Prezi that is featured on the website that reveals tips and tricks on how to create an effective Prezi:

Prezi Tips and Tricks

Hopefully this will get everyone started on seeing the benefits of using Prezi in your classroom.

After finding some of the popular Open Source Softwares that are available, I began to research what are some popular ones for an educator.  One that I found that is used by educators is called Moodle.  Moodle is an Open Source Course Management System, also known as a Learning Management System or a Virtual Learning Environment.  Educators use this popular tool around the world to create online dynamic web sites for their students.  Many institutions use this as their platform to conduct fully online courses.  Some of the benefits of Moodle include:

• Accessible from anywhere in the world
• Create a course website and limit access to your students
• Upload and share materials
• Hold online discussions and chats
• Give quizzes, tests, and take surveys
• Disseminate, gather, and review assignments
• Record grades
• Online file cabinet
• Communicate outside of the class

Check out this video:

Some of the other popular Open Source Softwares used in education are: SchoolForge, and the Open Source Education Foundation. Open Source Schools provides some further information on OSS and how it can be beneficial in the classroom.

Finally, here is a link to a list of 55 Open Source Apps that are transforming education! Yes 55! This website even splits the Apps up by subject such as biology, chemistry, classroom management, elementary education, flash cards, and much more.

Hope this post is helpful to anyone wanting to learn more about the great Open Source Software capabilities that are available to educators.

The thing that was the most exciting to me about this website is how it is known to develop learning in special education students.  I plan to be a special education teacher; therefore, it will be beneficial for me to use a mind mapping tool such as Webspiration.  Here is an article that explains how this type of website is useful for special education teachers.  http://resource220.com/2009/11/19/webspiration-mind-mapping-tool/

Update on the Olympics! Here are the top 10 countries:

Country Medals

United States                       20

Germany                                13

Norway                                   10

Canada                                     7

France                                      7

Korea                                        5

Austria                                    5

Switzerland                            4

China                                        4

Sweden                                    4

Lindsey Vonn wins the gold medal for alpine skiing!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/sports/84434877.html

In good news, the Olympics are here! I couldn’t wait for them to come.  Is anyone else as big of an Olympics fan as I am??  Well the last time I have checked, the United States is in the lead with a total of 8 medals!!  What is your favorite sport to watch?  I would say that mine is either snowboarding or curling.  Snowboarding is exciting, and curling is an interesting sport to watch.  I am also excited for hockey.  Even though my favorite player Sidney Crosby will be playing for Canada, I am rooting for United States!!  In fact, I just watched the movie Miracle last night.  Has anyone ever seen that?  It is about the United States hockey team who beat the “invincible” Russians for the Gold back in 1980.  If you like true inspirational sports movies, this is a great one!! Anyways, this is the website I use to keep me updated on my Olympics news.

http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-schedule-results/

What are your predictions for the Olympics? Feel free to let me know who you think will be the winners by taking a poll!!

P.S. I also added an RSS Feed on my blog to keep my updated about the latest Olympics news.

How many of you guys use YouTube?  I know that I enjoy to go on their and watch random videos of people falling, or toddlers saying the craziest things.  Or what about watching some of the best pranks that you can play on your roommates?  Well the point I am getting at.. have you seen that they have an EDUTube? Or even TeacherTube?  Well anyways these are both sites that basically filter out the “bad” videos.  These sites focus only on the highest quality educational videos.  Not only are they the highest quality, but they are the most popular and highest rated.  This is a safe haven for teachers with a younger classroom to use because the sites filter out the non-educational and low quality videos.  That way if you are doing a project, you can allow your students to use these sites and not have to worry about them seeing videos that they shouldn’t see! I also want to mention, the sites offer RSS Feeds that can be added to the classroom website or blog.  That way, your students can feel free to check out the latest uploaded educational videos!  Take a look:

http://www.teachertube.com/

http://www.edutube.org/

Some other web 2.0 Tools that caught my attention were the various presentation/slideshow creators.  For example, just to mention a few, Vuvox.  This is the website that I used in my Resource Guide.  Vuvox is a tool that is designed to create multimedia collages and slideshows.  Teachers can use it to create one of a kind presentations.  Also, students can use it to help them with projects and conveniently express their creativity.  With the use of tools like this, it is a fun way for them to demonstrate their understanding of the content they are learning in the classroom.  http://www.vuvox.com/

Here are a couple other presentation creator tools:

http://animoto.com/

http://prezentit.com/

Finally, one other thing that I found pretty interesting are websites that help teachers create games to enhance the learning of the students.  For example, http://www.gameclassroom.com/, is a website full of games that are developed by professional educators.  This site is designed to enhance the learning for Math and Language arts and focuses on a K-6 audience.

So many students have problems with Math.  Therefore, it is best to provide a fun way of learning Math skills so that your students do not give up.  http://www.carrotsticks.com/ -> This website is full of games that are designed to increase Math skills.  They can practice on their own or compete with peers in fast-paced online Math games.  This website is designed for K-5 Math levels.

With all of the e-learning tools that are available, there are so many opportunities to bring technology into your classroom.  So what are some of the tools you have found that you are excited to use in your future careers?

Well now I am happy to that the symbol stands for “Really Simple Syndication”, AKA RSS.  Basically, an RSS provides subscribers with recently updated information.  With RSS Feeds, you can publish blogs, news headlines, sports updates, audio, and video.  You can find an RSS Feed for just about anything that attracts your interest.  Here is a cool website to search for an RSS Feed that you could add to your blog.

http://www.feedzilla.com/rss.asp

I just added an RSS Feed to my blog!  As I have stated before, I am a huge Pittsburgh Sports Fan!  Therefore, I added an RSS Feed for the Pittsburgh Penguins right to my blog.  Are you a big Pittsburgh Penguins fan?  Here is the link to where I found the RSS Feed for the Pens for your convenience: http://penguins.nhl.com/club/feedinfo.htm

Another exciting fact… Clarion University has an RSS Feed!! We can subscribe to keep updated about the events going on at our school.

http://www.facebook.com/feeds/page.php?format=atom10&id=148749814074

OK one more thing about RSS Feeds.  How do you think RSS Feeds could be helpful in the classroom?

Well let’s begin with for the teachers.  I found a website that has an RSS Feed for some of the most popular education topics.  Feel free to check it out!  http://www.edweek.org/ew/section/feeds/index.html

This is convenient for teachers to have on their own website or blog to stay updated with the latest educational information.

Now for the students.. they have sites available where you can create your own RSS Feeds.  As a teacher, you can create an RSS Feed on a classroom blog as a way to syndicate blog posts.  Or even a school or university can have an RSS Feed that updates the school’s sports schedules or events.  There opportunities that are available by using RSS Feeds are unlimited!  As an example, here is a RSS Feed creation tool website.  http://www.feedforall.com/academia-and-rss.htm

Well I hope that you all learned as much as I did about RSS Feeds.

What do you guys think of RSS Feeds?  If you were going to add RSS Feeds to your blogs or websites, what would you add?  Finally, do you think the use of RSS Feeds could eventually help you with your career?

Let me know what you think!

How it works:

A teacher creates an online classroom for themselves and their students.  They provide their students with a special code to use to log in to Twiducate.  Using this tool is a benefit for teachers to change the pace of the old, boring, lectured type classroom.  It is a way for teachers to get their students excited by introducing an online classroom.  It is also trustworthy because the teachers are in control of the private networks.

Benefit for students:

1. Easily be able to keep track of deadlines and homework

2. Record and share thoughts and ideas with fellow classmates

3. Improve writing and punctuation

4. Parents can be informed of daily projects, making it easier to keep their children on task.

Here is a video I found that explains how Twitter can be useful in the classroom. Enjoy!!

So what do you guys think of the Twitter World? Do you guys use Twitter yourselves? And do you feel that you could someday incorporate Twiducate into YOUR classroom?

I also enjoy the outdoors (camping, fishing, ect.) I love sports especially Pittsburgh sports (yes even the Pirates, who will win another world series before I die ha). I love to laugh and enjoy animated movies such as Finding Nemo, Madagascar, Alvin and The Chipmunks and Cars. I like to color in coloring books and I love to cook. I like to work out and lift weights. I work at a summer camp through the Y.M.C.A. called camp Kon-O-Kwee. Working there has taught me so much about myself, and has been the most worthwhile experience of my life.  Here is a website if you would like more information about one of my life passions. http://www.ycamps.org/

Random story about me: I once let a hamster go in Wal-Mart.

Hope this tells you a little bit about me and feel free to contact me to learn more. I’m an open book. :)