WOMMA Webinar with Mike Walsh

Word of Mouth Marketing Webinar - 7/8/09 with Mike Walsh (@mwalsh) CEO of Leverage Software (similar to Ning but based for consumer industries)
http://www.leveragesoftware.com/
http://www.wordofmouthbook.com/

Using GoToWebinar to connect: https://www2.gotowebinar.com/en_US/webinar/entry/entry.tmpl


LinkedIn -like a cocktail party, light discussion
Twitter-building small parties focused on what you need
*check out Guy Kawasaki...heard the name before and he mentioned it and follows him

LinkedIn-very professional

All very good, but not quite meet what our needs are. In comes internal social networks....

Internal Social Networks - about people working together

***remember TED (ted.com)

As Mike talks, I feel on top of most of these concepts and I am familiar with most tools.

Company intranet: (Sharepoint, Viniette, LDot from Microsoft ??check the last two as I've never heard of them)
-great for doc. storage/sharing
-not very social
-not often very usable
-often too clumsy for experienced users


ITS benefits
-security
-privacy (health care/banking)
-various levels of privacy (subgroups)

...pause for question: does gen. y demand this change and are they driving it?
A: of course...expounds upon it

Describes companies as being "Flat" (ref: Thomas Friedman) b/c all employees have the ability to add/subtract to the conversation

...pause for Q: is it helpful to have best practices (rules of conduct/guidelines) for these networks?
A: of course. most of our companies experiences say yes

Sharing and Collaboration provide ROI for everyone.

Q: What do you think about Ning for a ISN? Are they a competitor to you?
A: I think they are different as our networks (Global 2000 corporations) are based for consumers
Also we're very open/easy to integrate w/i other corporate systems (but he doesn't know about Ning)

90/9/1 rule: 1% extremely active 9% somewhat 90% not active
-their results show trends towards 10-15% active

-uses blogs to disseminate information from a management perspective

-seems Ning is a lot more affordable and can start you out before using Leverage
obviously depends on what your goals are

2009 NECC Pre-Conference Event at Discovery

Period 1:
Director's Cut: Animoto, PhotoStory & MovieMaker with Mike Bryant


****remember the rule of thirds when taking video

For Animoto education example (especially Kim), check out: http://animoto.com/education/casestudies

-after exploring...

Pros- it is very simple to use and produces high quality transitions and such to make a stellar video

Cons- no ability to decide when pics change in relation to voice, etc.

see others
-http://pixton.com/
-http://www.xtranormal.com/



Period 2:
50 Ways to Integrate DE streaming with Jannita Demian (saw at PETE&C)



****Diamond: disregard the grade-level for the videos...she taught 1st grade with a 9th grade video...just muted the volume and narrated with the images that are there herself


-we can now share the Discovery videos with embeddable code on all of our sites, etc. They will see the video, but when press play they'll have to log-in. Therefore, check out the new student center for student usernames/passcodes.

-check out editing html code with notepad for changing the closed captioning text that appears below the videos on Discovery Ed. (have to dl the vid. from website first in order to see the text file)





Period 3:
Power Up Your Professional Learning Network with Jen Dorman http://denblogs.com/jendorman




-check out blog for ALL resources she mentions and more!

-ning, twitter, slideshare, igoogle, skype, dingo,

Functions of a PLN: connect, collaborate, contribute

***important to model how you learn to students and where you go: lifelong learners

check out: Google Certified Teacher Community (July 1st for app. deadline for Denver)


PLN examples: Google Certified Teachers, PBS Teachers Connect, LinkedIn Groups (ISTE, DEN, EduBloggers, Tapped In), Facebook Groups (DEN, ISTE, Second Life, Classroom 2.0, Educational TEchnologists, Using Wiki in Ed, School 2.0), Ning (create your own PLN),

Aggregator PLN info: Google Reader. Grazr, RssBirthday (use in other ways for PLN), Jen feels Google Reader is the best Aggregator out there....I agree
-b/c of organization, customization, sharing articles with "Friends" in your network (look into!),


Podcasting PLN info: Itunes (of course), Gcast (will publish your podcast through your own RSS feed), , GabCast (use phone), Podbean, PodOmatic

Microblogs: Twitter (see PowerPoint for 5 Stages of Twitter Acceptance: Denial, Presence, Dumping, Conversing, Microblogging), use Diigo to crosslinks to Twitter (install Diigo toolbar), use Ask Mr. Tweet service to get in touch with great PLN (make sure that you reference beign an Educator in your profile),

Plurk (opposed to Twitter): advantage is organization with responses (look onPBWiki for: plurk and twitter for teachers)

Manage Multiple Accounts:
Ping.fm & Hellotxt (both to post statuses to multiple places) Jen likes Hellotext b/c of the mobile version for her Blackberry
AtomKeep: change profiles for all of your various social networking sites

Social Bookmarking: Delicious and Diigo (Jen likes Diigo much more b/c of annotation and grouping)

Google Docs vs Zoho


***follow Jen and the crew on Twitter


Final notes:
For audio editing try Vocarro or Window Voice Recorder instead of Audacity
Met Tom McGee and Erik Wittmer

Google Earth Project Reflection

Prompt:

• Talk about the instructional goals of your virtual field trip and comment on how your project provides students the opportunity to develop their respectful and ethical minds.

Click here to get to the Virtual Field Trip:
http://mrschutt.wikispaces.com/Virtua+Field+Trips

This virtual field trip is entitled, “Caring for OUR Fresh Water”. It is designed to demonstrate to third graders the various uses of fresh water, the importance of fresh water, and why we should nurture and care for fresh water. Along these lines, the trip exposes students to a variety of topics impacting the Five Themes of Geography.

First, students are constantly reminded of their location, the absolute and relative position of a place on Earth’s surface. They navigate the various Google Earth Placemarks as they venture from location to location.

Second, the students learn about place as they navigate around the United States. They further explore our country and build knowledge of the physical and human characteristics that define and distinguish a place.

Along this process the students also begin to recognize how an area displays unity in terms of physical and human characteristics; a third theme of geography called regions. One example of this is the continuation of learning about landforms; a previously taught concept.

Students also learn about movement, how people, ideas and materials move between and among locations, as they view the ways water is used in transportation.

Finally, students are exposed to the ways in which humans modify and adapt to natural settings; known at human-environment interaction.

It is the goal of this project to specifically sharpen students’ abilities to recognize the impact that humans have on their environment. Through this theme of geography, this virtual field trip aims to further develop students’ Respectful and Ethical Minds as proposed by Howard Gardner.

There are three specific targets that educators refer to when teaching respect. They are respect to ourselves, respect to others, and respect to the environment. Obviously, this trip explicitly focuses on respecting fresh water within our environment. In addition, the trip helps students realize the diverse uses of fresh water within the United States. By capitalizing the word “our” in the title, students feel a sense of ownership.

The trip also allows for educators to develop students Ethical Minds by expressing more specific ways that humans adapt to survive within each environment. This allows students to better understand others’ point of view through their needs for survival. Demonstrating others’ point of view accomplishes the same ethical mission that Howard Gardner proposes,

“As disciplined learners it is our job to understand the world. But if we are to be ethical human beings, it is equally our job to use that understanding to improve the quality of life and living…” (142).

Overall, this virtual field trip enables students to learn at their own pace through the use of educational technologies in order to better develop their Respectful and Ethical Minds.

Educational Blog

Identify at least one educational blog or podcast that connects to your current or future pedagogical efforts and explain why you selected it in the context of your own work and ongoing professional growth.

When I'm searching for Podcasts that are educationally based, I like to go to The Education Podcast Network (http://www.epnweb.org/index.php). This site hosts podcasts created by teachers and students alike. The main reason I chose this site is because it allows me to find information about almost anything I need, when I need it. For example, in searching for a podcast for this blog, I searched for Education and Technology. One of the first feeds that I found was Teach42, a blog with podcasts from Discovery Education's Steve Dembo. Ever since seeing Steve at PETE&C, I've been interested in what he has to share. I can really connect to his energy and thirst for new technologies and their application to education. I often get lost watching videos, reading blogs, and playing with new technologies (which is why this posting has taken well over an hour to write!). Within my own career, I hope to find a position where I have more of a direct impact of helping educators use technology within their classrooms. By following Steve's blog I can easily observe ways to apply technology within the classroom.

As I was writing this, I learned about Shout'em. In Steve's words, Shout 'em is a " create-your-own-Twitter platform that works just as easily as Ning does". These are awesome applications. If you'd like to learn more, check out http://www.teach42.com/category/social-networking/

2/28/09 BASD Technology Conference

Dr. Morgan opens:
-today allows us for the opportunity to network.
My thoughts:....the original way...human interaction as opposed to digital social networking

Sue Kinney welcome:
-Steve & IT Dept. are so patient...referring to virus infection on network...thank you!



Hall Davidson - keynote speaker
"Thinking Bigger While the World Gets Smaller"
-multitasking at your desktop: gmail, twitter, chat, etc
-bringing the internet into you classroom

-phone a friend in exams: see if you can find this type of thing...sharing what you know and who you know

-getting information is more than just google: where did you find it AND HOW did you find it?

-microsoft...linked social networking through gaming (XBox)...connected people, then made avatars and even more people linked in

-gizmoz site (free to use your voice w/ preset avatars)

-Slide on "Global or National Social Networks in Schools"
My thoughts: i hope the IT dept. is hearing this

-use cell phones, etc. to dl programs that you need w/i education and use them in the classroom
MT: again how to integrate what kids have with their education

-start locally: check in on your class as you are absent or on a break somewhere
MT: use video streaming...can we hook up our dig. camera?....prob. need webcams.

-using Jing to capture video of yourself and transplant it into Google Earth, etc.
have your students record video and tag it to a specific place
MT: very cool use of Jing, excited I've used it before many times
Qik.com and Kyte.com (check them out)

-again Hall references Green Screening for writing
MT: good old Jason Ohler

-uses videos and has students elaborate to teach others: "Reading Angels", etc.

MT: macs and their uses in schools are now apparent....Photo Booth (with a mac), choose your backdrop, etc.
-with a webcam and you can do this using Adobe Premiere for the PC

horizionprojectNMC.org (check out)

-checkout USTream so that we can make our own tv channel

Using Digital Media to Develop Students' Respectful & Ethical Minds

Reflect on Julene Reed’s article and post a blog entry that presents an idea for using digital media as part of a project, activity or lesson in which you aim to develop students’ respectful and ethical minds.

Our school district participates in the No Place For Hate initiative by the Anti-Defamation League. Each year we present three major projects in order to meet the requirements and be given our NPFH status. I, along with other voluntary educators in our building, have taken on some difficult endeavors this year. For one of our projects, we host an assembly at the beginning of each month based around character development themes; kindness, compassion and empathy, tolerance and acceptance, etc. These assemblies have three purposes. First, they award students that exemplified the previous month's theme by giving them a leaf to add to our school's community tree. Second, they present the new topic for the month. To present this topic, one of my colleagues has spent hours creating moving and motivating videos. Below is an example of one from our theme on "Empathy and Compassion". As illustrated, these videos present images, sounds, and words in order to spark a conversation. After watching the video, our principal has a quick Q&A session with the student body. Then the assembly ends.

Teachers have found that the video is a perfect segway into a conversation of the month's theme. The older grade levels have rewatched the videos numerous times in order to dive into the history behind the images and events. And, the younger students seem to understand the underlying themes quite well.

In addition to the video, our NPFH team organizes classroom lessons revolving around these themes and passes them on to the teachers in the building. The team writes a monthly newsletter focusing on a specific diversity awareness topic. These newsletters are passed out to parents and discussed within the classrooms. The newsletters also spark conversations about bullying awareness and prevention.

These projects, lesson plans, and conversations positively impact our students' ethical and respectful minds. They present background knowldedge of other cultures, provide viewpoints different from the norm, and induce students to put themselves in others' shoes.

Glogster in the Classroom

http://mrschutt.glogster.com/Map-Skills/
(click this link for the full view of the glog)




How can you use Glogster in your classroom this school year to foster the development of the creating mind? Elaborate on the instructional purpose and the standards you will address.

In Howard Gardner’s book Five Minds for the Future, he suggests several guidelines in order to foster the development of the creating mind within the preadolescent child. By combining these guidelines with the use of Glogster, a free Web 2.0 tool, I can develop instructional tools and strategies to help my students understand several of the geography standards for third grade.

The three core geography standards that I will focus on are identifying geographic tools and their uses (Std. 7.1.3.A), identifying and locating places and regions (Std. 7.1.3.B), and identifying the physical characteristics of places and regions (Std. 7.2.3.A).

In order to develop the creative mind, Gardner poses that children need to “master literacies” while keeping open “…alternative possibilities and to foreground the option of unfettered exploration” (86). The instructional purpose of using Glogster is that can be tailored to my needs. In order to master the basic literacies of geography, I can use a glog just like the one I created. This glog provides a starting place for students. Rather than a linear path to learning, they can learn in the order that they choose. All the while, I can require students to think for themselves and apply their learning through writing prompts and assignment links to the Discovery Education website.

Gardner also suggests that educators enable students to focus on quality rather than quantity. More specifically, he proposes that significant time should be spent analyzing one problem in order to “develop multiple, diverse representations of the same entity” (87). The geographic standards I’ve chosen lend themselves directly to this statement. For example, I can create another glog that has links to various types of maps. After learning about topographic, political, landform and other maps, students can create an example of each of these maps for our school. Again, this is how Glogster can jumpstart the students’ creative mind.

However, Glogster does not simply have to be a starting point. It can also be process. By giving students their own Glogster account, I can have my students create their own glogs. The students might be required to find examples of these maps to post to their glogs. Or, the students might focus on just one of these types of maps and find several different examples to link to their glog. Then, the students could navigate their classmates’ glogs, learning information from each other.

These ideas lend themselves to one of Howard Gardner’s last guidelines for developing the creative mind. He advocates the need for students to make mistakes. Through the creation of their glogs, students will examine how to add videos, images, website links, and other content that will increase their basic and technological literacies. This will be a process in making mistakes and learning that there is not one specific way to solve a problem.

As I’ve used technology within the classroom, I’ve increasingly noticed a trend where students ask for help rather than attempting to solve their own problems. Web 2.0 technologies such as Glogster are prime examples of media platforms that have no straight forward answer. These tools encourage problem solving. So, through the use of Glogster I hope to continue to encourage my students to read, analyze, and think in order to expand their creativity and problem solving ability.

Developing the creating mind through VoiceThread

http://voicethread.com/#q

The website states, "A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to leave comments in 5 ways - using voice (with a mic or phone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam). Share a VoiceThread with friends, students, and colleagues for them to record comments too."

VoiceThread is able to be manipulated for all users. The VoiceThread website has a huge amount of examples. However, a great example of how VoiceThread can be used to advance the Creating Mind within First Graders can be found here: http://digitalstories21.wikispaces.com/PETE+and+C+2009. Once you press play, make sure that you click on the arrow to the right so that you can observe all of the slides.

The third VoiceThread down highlights how teachers can easily use a digital video camera to take pictures of student work and quickly upload the content to the web. This allows for a fantastic conversation to evolve. It can also be viewed here: http://voicethread.com/share/332534/

Overall, the main reason I appreciate this software is that is allows static presentations to become dynamic. In addition to pictures, teachers can upload PowerPoint presentations to the software, and then all of a sudden the presentation is able to be commented on.

Nurturing Creativity

It takes creativity to be able to provide time to focus on creativity within the classroom. Let me explain. All educators feel the demands, pressures, stresses, and pulls from local, state, and national mandates. Amidst the AYP, PSSA, IEP, and wide range of other acronyms, lies classroom teachers struggling to "fit it all in". "How is it possible?", I often hear colleagues complain. Like always, where there is a will, there is a way. And technology is that way. Now, technology for technologies sake does not solve any problems. However, once you've identified the problem and have a need, technologies can easily answer the "how can I fit it all in" question. The reality is that so long as educators devise systems that enable, not discourage, students to read, think, write, and create, our students have the potential and ambition to soar on their own. It's our job to get out of the way and stop being the kink in the hose.

One website that opens doors up for creativity is www.wikispaces.com For writing, check out the tools here: http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/ and http://www.kolabora.com/news/2007/03/01/collaborative_writing_tools_and_technology.htm Finally, for some great student applications try this: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/web_20_backpack_web_apps_for_students.php

PETE&C w/ DEN

...a day of technology at the Pennsylvania Educators Techology Expo & Conference (PETE&C) with Discovery Educators Network (DEN)

Below is a brief outline, or brain dump as I like to call it, of the information I experienced during the preconference event.




Jason Ohler Keynote Speaker - Introduction

Key Learnings:
1. Screasle = screen + easle
2. students need to be able to write what they can read
3. ...

Web 1.0 (few writers, lots of readers)
Web 2.0 (more readers and writers, but too much information)
Web 3.0 (read, write, paint, think)

VDT (visually differentiated text)

Jason's 9 Dig Lit action guidelines
1 - shift from text centricism
2 - value writing more than ever
3 - art the next R...(multimedia, photostory, etc. is the new art)
4 - Follow DAOW of literacy (DAOW of literacy...art, digital, dawo, oral, written)
5 - attitude is the aptitude
6 - practice private and social literacy
7 - develop literacy about digital tools
8 - fluency, not just literacy (don't be the techy..be the guide on the side to help others)
9 - harness both report and story...embrace story!
(you don't need a lot of money to do this..work with what you have b/c this is what you have and you don't need $...it forces you to focus on the story)

Green Screening example: (zoom in to see the girl standing in front of a picture she drew)



-use the talents they have (garage band songs...rock band...guitar hero songs they've made it up on their own....set those songs to credits that role after their stories end)
-again having the kids own their stories (just like writing research supports)


JASON DOES NOT STORYBOARD....a good way to make a boring story flow
-mapping vs. boarding (emotional flow vs flow of emotion)

Media Infused Presentations & the Disciplined and Synthesizing Minds

Howard Gardner presents four ways to achieve a disciplined mind. First, one must identify crucial content or processes to be learned within a specific discipline. Second, he suggests allowing a significant portion of time for learning the proposed content or process. Third, one should portray the content or process through several different approaches. Fourth and finally, Gardner tells us to set up “performances of understanding” that force students to apply the content or process they learned into new situations and problems.

Gardner also establishes a variety of methods for educators to help create synthesizing minds within their students. He proposes that the most likely way that students will become synthesizers is through interacting with adult synthesizers. Therefore, educators should aim to acquire this skill and model it to students whenever possible. In addition, mass media presentations, surfing the Web, and reading books are all likely help students’ synthesizing minds evolve.

Media infused projects help foster the development of both the disciplined and synthesizing minds. As mentioned, Gardner proposes teaching materials through a variety of ways. When considering the developing brain of an elementary school aged child, videos, pictures, songs, and other digital medias all accomplish this task. Images and videos help build students’ background knowledge. They also present new terms, ideas, and meanings through visual representations. Therefore, practical tools such as WebQuests, videos, and slideshows are all important in fostering the disciplined and synthesizing minds.

These tools allow students to store this information so that it can be recalled later in their educational careers. When information from prior knowledge is recalled, connections are formed between old knowledge and new knowledge. Thus, students create new schema, demonstrating another way that digital media helps to foster the synthesizing mind.

The use of Smart Boards and other technologies allows digital media to be broadcasted to classrooms in new ways. When teachers can interact with text on websites and model specific strategies for learning, synthesizing also occurs.

In addition, when students are able to interact with similar texts on their own to create projects that demonstrate their learning, both the disciplined and the synthesizing minds are enhanced. Projects like these are non-limiting. Rather than simply reading information and regurgitating it, students must conquer the facts and manipulate them in new ways. This requires students to use inferring and other higher order thinking skills.

Finally, one last practical way that educators can force students to build upon their disciplined and synthesizing minds is through the use of specific software programs. Drawing on Microsoft Paint or creating image, audio, and video stories through Microsoft PhotoStory or PowerPoint are but a “performances of understanding” that allow students to apply their knowledge to new situations.

An attempt to enrich the synthesizing mind through the use of technology...

During my first year in third grade, I often found myself at odds with the curriculum to be taught and the current means of teaching that information. Worksheets and readings out of old textbooks were how "things have always been done". I knew that my students needed to be energized with the content. After all, it was the 4th quarter and summer was on everyone's mind.

As I began to process the Social Studies unit on Pennsylvania that I needed to teach and my goals for the end of the year, I soon realized that a culminating year end project would force students to synthesize the information that had been learned throughout the year. And so, with the help of our school librarian, we created a webquest on Pennsylvania.

The purpose of this webquest was more than just to cover a unit from our Social Studies curriculum. It enabled students to synthesize various learnings throughout the year. Students used reading skills, oral speaking skills, technological skills, research skills, and numerous other skills...


On Winning $5,000 . . . Or Was It Actually Much More?

By Kyle Schutt, teacher, grade 3, Pine Forge

The end of the year can be a very busy time in any elementary school, and my 3rd grade class has been no exception. During the month of May, my 3rd graders utilized a Pennsylvania WebQuest developed by Rebecca Hart and myself with the purpose of generating student-created Photostory presentations about any number of Pennyslvania topics. A WebQuest requires analysis, synthesis, judgment, creativity, and problem-solving through the gathering of information from the World Wide Web. Ideally, a WebQuest should include an authentic experience.
In 3rd grade our authentic task was to attempt to win 5,000 pretend dollars by creating the best Photostory travel brochure related to various topics in PA! Photostory is a software program similar to PowerPoint, but easier for students to use. The students collected pictures and narrated them using the research they found.
In order for the 3rd graders to then demonstrate their skills, parents, grandparents, and friends were invited to the Pine Forge Library on June 6, 2008 at 2:00 PM. At that time, third graders gave their Photostory presentations about Pennsylvania. Along with sharing their Photostory travel brochures with friends and family, my 3rd graders also answered a few questions about their experience. Below are the four questions asked with a number of student responses:

1. What was your favorite part of the Pennsylvania Photostory project?
“My favorite part is when I got paired up with Nick, getting to know each other better, and recording. I liked recording because you would get so nervous and say the wrong thing or say something funny that you weren’t supposed to say.” –Tesia

”My favorite part of the PA Photo story was that we got to work with partners and we had fun but, as we had fun we learned.” –Summer
“My favorite part of the Pennsylvania Photo story project was when we got to record on the microphones.” -Haley

“My favorite part of the web quest was learning how to up load photos and finding the photos.” -Jennifer

2. If you could do the Photostory again, what would you change?
“Get a different topic.” -John

“If I could change the photostory, I would be a little more louder.” –Dylan

“I would change the pictures and the way I was speaking I sounded kind of weird.” -Trevor

“I would change the music.” -Eric

3. What was the most important thing that you learned from completing the PA Photostory Project?
“Taking your time and patience.” —Trevor

“The most important thing I learned is that economy isn’t just money, but it is also agriculture, farming, services, and more.” -Tesia

“I learned how to work as a team.” -Nick

“That you learn to work together.” -Shjon

“I learned about the plains. I also learned that I had to work hard.” -Eva

“I learned to take time and patients [sic.].” –Ethan

4. What other comments would you like to share about the webquest?
“ . . . we had a fun time every minute we were in the computer lab.” -Tesia

“I enjoyed the webquest, because I learned that the Delaware River is really big.” –Eva

“I had fun, and I LERNED [sic.] lot[s] of things about PA.” -Matthew

“It was very fun and I really think more kids should do this.” -Trevor

Teaching Landforms through Media

Teaching landforms is a topic in our 3rd grade physical geography curriculum. To support teaching this topic, I found a video on DiscoveryEducationStreaming entitled "Geographical Features: Landforms". It can be found here: http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=bc55baaa-1c72-4e51-8cb5-145430879776&BLNPOPUP=1&productcode=US&CFID=43891681&CFTOKEN=80c6e13c596f18cc-29FB59F4-14C2-3E51-D64F799557023026

My goals for teaching this topic include:
-exposing students to the diversity and stunning differences between various areas on our planet
-helping students recognize differences and similarities among various landforms
-helping students examine how landforms have an effect on how we live our lives

There numerous ways I could use this video in my classroom to help reach these goals.
1- First, I could simply show the video in its entirety to provide background knowledge to my students.

2- I could use the video as an end of unit assessment. I could create a simple quiz that correlates with the video. Whenever I stop the video, I'd have students write down the name of the landform they see.

3- I could download the segments of the video and use each segment as an introduction to the specific landform we're studying that day.

4- I could download the video segments and piece them into a PowerPoint presentation for students to use at an independent learning center. The Powerpoint presentation would give pictures, videos, definitions, and even passages relating to landforms.

5- After recognizing those students that have not grasped the concepts of landforms, they could watch the video independently and fill out a graphic organizer as they go. They'd be encouraged to stop the video and rewatch specific parts in order to write the landform being discussed, write a description of it, and draw a picture that represents the landform.

6- This video could be embedded into a Webquest on landforms. Along with images, references, and such, students would be challenged to build their own knowledge of landforms as they work independently on the computer.

7- Students could create videos about landforms using MovieMaker. Throughout their videos, they could plant segments from this video to reinforce their ideas.

There are endless possibilities and variations on these ideas. Rather than just being "exposed"; however, the best ideas will be those that encourage students to interact with the information and build their own knowledge.

Introduction

Welcome to my blogger page for EDIM 508. I am currently a 3rd grade teacher at Pine Forge Elementary School in the Boyertown Area School District. This is my third year teaching at Pine Forge.

In our third grade setting, I coteach with one of our Special Education teachers for half of the day. This is usually the best part of my day as I look forward to the ability to interact with another adult in front of students. I always think of it as, "two times the learning, two times the fun". And, meeting our students needs is what our entire classroom philosophy thrives on.

In this class I hope to learn new ways to fuse technology into my daily routines. I think of myself as digital native with some immigrant tendencies due to the constant "hammering" of the past ways of education. My familiarities with technology include the Smart Board in my room, the classroom response system in our school, my classroom web page, student email and blogging accounts, and more. Overall, I strive to learn new technologies almost daily. Therefore, I can't wait to share my experiences with my class and my faculty.

Finally, and on a more personal note, this is one of my final two courses I'm currently taking that will finish my Master's degree! I am very excited for May, as my wife and I are graduating on the same day (although she'll be earning a doctorate in physical therapy...yes I'm very proud!) We just got married on the 27th of December, so the past month or so has been a crazy, hectic, and exhilarating ride.

Thanks for reading,
~Kyle