WebQuest

My Webquest is finished. I am still working on my teachers page that is linked to my webquest on the home page. I embedded a Prezi presentation into my wikispace; the ability to embed Prezi or other presentations into my future project page will be very helpful. I looked around for code that would allow me to embed a blog into a wikispace. I only found away to embed one blog entry at a time, neat but not what I was looking for.

WebQuest

I figured out how to insert GIF animations on sunday, it was was easier than I thought it would be. I will probably be done with my webquest tomorrow, and I am working on setting up a wikispace teachers page. I think I will probably use a different site for a teachers page later on and use this one as a student project page once I know how to use wikispaces.

WebQuest

I've changed some of my content to make it more easily understood. I am going to look for YouTube videos that will help learn me how to add an animation to a picture or text.

Update: I have not be able to insert an animation into publisher yet. I may save this for Monday when I can have assistance. I read that it requires a little knowledge of html to insert an animation into Publisher, and I do not want to break my WebQuest.

WebQuest

I'm doing pretty well so far on the webquest. I have my rubrics finished for my evaluation page. This weekend I am going to check my content and make sure it is easily understood and then see if I can add some flair to the webquest. I have not taken classroom management or planning and assessment, so it will be neat to go back over this webquest and analyze what I have learned at the end of summer II.

WebQuest

I am working on a rubric that will provide authentic assessment for my WebQuest. I need one that incorporates group work and journal entries. I found a few good rubrics today that I am going to borrow from. I also tried to importing rubrics from word and adobe to see how they will fit on my website and I am running into a problem with publisher; my pages are thin. My solution: map out a rubric and then build it into a table on the site.

Project

I am working on putting the content of my website together. It is pretty easy with Publisher, and I had typed some of it up over the weekend. I need to ensure that my content flows and that students can understand it, so I think I will have my brother look at what I have completed. I also decided to have a peer review it before I call it completed.

Microsoft Publisher

This weekend I had fun learning how to use Microsoft Publisher to build a website. I have always wanted to learn how to build a website, but have been afraid to because I do not know anything about html. I found out you really do not need to know any html using Publisher, and there are many videos on the internet to help you learn. YouTube.com was great source of how to videos for my project, and even learned how to embed video from a video posted on YouTube.

Random Thoughts and My Experience With Technology

My first home computer was a Tandy 1000 that my aunt handed down to me in the late 1980's. There were a few model variations of the Tandy 1000, mine had a 7 MHz CPU, 640 Kb of ram, and no hard drive. About twenty years have passed and it's amazing who much technology has changed; my best friend has a cell phone run by a 1 GHz processor, with 1Gb of ram available. My newest pc is a quad core 2.66GHz with 6Gb of ram and a 1Gb graphics card. It's about ten times as powerful as my Pentium 4 and yet it cost me well under a grand, about 1/3 of the cost of my Pentium 4, even though it came with a 1080p monitor.
Most of my early learning about technology involved playing video games. In high school I found a dumpster on Sheppard AFB that the Air force tech guys would throw old computers into. I took the gutted pc's and used the parts to build a working pc. Once I had a working pc I installed and played computer games on it. (Doom and Star Wars: Dark Forces were my favorite games around this time) I checked that dumpster for parts often, because they would throw out mother boards with better graphics cards (most were on board) and better processors every few months.
My passion for gaming also brought me to use the internet. As a youngster my parents would not pay for internet at our house, so I took a job at a fast food restaurant to pay for my gaming hobby. My interest in pc games brought me to use technology for more than just computer games, and played an important role in my decision to go to college. My experience has shown me how much of an impact the use of technology can have on a student.
I have not used technology to create projects as often as I would like to. In the past I have edited photos, created PowerPoint presentations, and fooled around with making web pages on Microsoft's website. If I were to start teaching today, I would not be prepared to effectively integrate technology in my classroom. Fortunately for me I can learn how to use programs quickly, and I will learn effective strategies for teaching with technology in my educational technology class.
I am in a gaming club, which allows me to interact with people from all over the world on our TeamSpeak server. TeamSpeak is a VOIP and file sharing program, that allows my group to communicate in real time while in game. We can also send each other links, updates for programs, and other files using TeamSpeak. Our TeamSpeak server houses various chat rooms. We have one chat room for each of the games our group plays, but we normally all stay in the same room and share stories. In our club playing the game is not as important as getting to know each other and we have members as old as 75 and as young as 21. (We have a minimum age requirement because we also enjoy a good brew while we play and we share information about beer from various microbreweries around the country.)
TeamSpeak is a neat program, and I could see it being used for interclass room collaboration. For example, a science and math class could use it to collaborate on a project and send files, pictures, and links to each other. TeamSpeak would also allow students from other classes to work in small groups on a project by entering a separate chat room and focusing on one aspect of a problem. While TeamSpeak is not as neat as video chat, it requires less bandwidth which would make it easier to collaborate with classes in countries that may have weak internet connections. TeamSpeak is also safe for students to use at home because it is password protected and the administrator has total control of the users, which means that only students and teachers would have access to the chat rooms.