Day 4 - EIT Class

Today was very busy. We worked in our groups today. I think our project will be interesting. We learned about iMovie today. I have used iMovie a couple of times before but I learned some new tricks! iMovie is very fun and kids really enjoy creating videos. We have a Video Production class that is taught at Estherville Lincoln Central and the class is always full. The students get so into it and so creative. J

Becky & I created a short video on how to use VoiceThread. I think that it will be a nice tutorial for students and adults.

We also toured Team Technologies. The tour was very interesting but some of what was discussed was over my head. I am more into the software side of technology instead of knowing the hardware and how that all works.

My brain is starting to overflow. We have been introduced to so many things that will be awesome additions to our classrooms. I am excited about what I can do with my classes in the fall.

One more thing that I am excited about is being able to see David, Jaydan & Jersie tomorrow. It has been hard to be away from them for the week.

Day 3 - EIT Class

This morning we started class time to work in our groups! This was much appreciated. We needed time to work on our project: Authentic Writing with Digital Tools. I believe our project will help not only myself but all teachers wanting to integrate digital tools to their curricular area.

Theressa and Seth introduced the class to VoiceThread. They did a wonderful job showing us the capabilities of the program.

Below you will find the podcast that Becky & I put together.

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Podcasts was the topic of discussion this afternoon. COOL, COOL, COOL! I recently purchased an iPOD and just love it. I have subscribed to a few podcasts, some education related, some personal interest. So, I was familiar with listening to Podcasts and using iTunes to find podcasts but we actually learned how to create them. We used Garage Band which is an application program used with Apple computers. Some of my students have played around with Garage Band in my room (I have one Apple computer) so I knew a little about it. I worked with Becky and she was a great partner. We had a lot of fun creating our podcast. The topic for our podcast that had to supplement our project was Examples of VoiceThreads used in Education. We posted our podcast using Podbean. Recording my voice made me nervous but as I did it, I felt better about it. Kids would absolutely love using podcasts for projects. I think I would be able to incorporate this into my Marketing class. Students could do this for our advertising unit and talk about how advertsiting affects us everyday.

Today was another very beneficial day. I am looking forward to looking at iMovie tommorrow. I have a little experience with it. There is also a chance that we may be taking a field trip! I will fill you in tommorrow.

Day 2 - EIT Class

Today was Day 2 of my Emerging Instructional Strategies class. We spent most of the day playing with Second Life. Dan Power from UNI Business Department, came in & talked to us about Second Life. I still am not sold on Second Life mainly because you have to be 18 to use and I won't be able to incorporate into my classroom. Although there are good informational tools out there for us to use. It was fun to learn & see some of the different things you can do in Second Life. It just astonishes me on what it can do.

Steve Hargadon talked to us this morning about Nings via Skype. The graphic to the left is the Skype logo, click on it to go to the website. Skype is really cool. I am going to try to incorporate this into my Marketing class and hopefully some others along the way. Marketing is a class that I teach that is hard for me to teach because all we have ever done is out of the book and I hate it. I want to change how I do things and I think using a Ning, Wiki, Blogs, and hopefully bringing in a guest speaker via Skype would be great and I think that I would enjoy teaching the class more. I like the subject but just don't like how I or the others before me have taught it. BORING. Nings are cool and I think they could be very valuable for our classrooms. Nings can be set up to be private and I like that idea.

We also worked on our final project for the class. My group is focusing on authentic writing digital tools. Very cool and useful for when I return to my school. I created the survey for the students (who are actually teachers in this case). Tommorrow we are learning podcasting. I already subscribe to a few different podcasts but after Wednesday I will know how to make one. Becky & I are in charge of doing a podcast for Voice Thread. Voice Thread will be introduced in class on Wednesday but some of my group members had already used it. Very cool. You can post a question and have people respond by voice. They can actually call from their cell phones to post comments. Our group also talked about Jing. Very useful tool also. I will be able to use Jing to show students various steps on how to perform tasks.

Another great day & I look forward to tommorrow.