CEDU 534 - Week 6

This week was our final class and we had the opportunity to view each others video messages and wikis. I enjoyed having class and being able to see first hand how others have used what they learned in this class to create a product to enhance their teaching. Not being as savvy with technology as some, it was really beneficial to view their wikis and get a better understanding of what I can do to enhance mine.

CEDU 534 - Week 5

This week I continued working on my very first Wiki! It's going pretty well. I definitely see the benefits for myself and my students of using a wiki and will continue to enhance it after this course is complete. I'm looking forward to getting it in prime form and using it with my students at the start of the next school year. At this point I am uncertain whether I should have just one wiki site or to create multiple sites for each class I teach (Basic Communications, Exploratory, Basic Technology). I think having just one might work best, but I'm not sure at this point.

Also this week I learned more about Tokbox by viewing Louie's message to me, creating my own message and adding it to the forum, and by conducting our team meeting through it. I found it to be both easy to use and a great way to communicate with people from a distance. It is nice to have visual, audio, and be able to write responses. I look forward to having other opportunities to use this technology.

CEDU 534 - Week 4

Week 4 provided further exploration on a number of topics such as Social Bookmarking, Podcasting & Screencasting, Ning/Wiki, Twitter/Plurk, and Facebook.

Because of this class I have created a Delicious account and will continue to use this social bookmarking site both professionally and personally. I have discovered it to be a great way to save sites that I find useful in an organized fashion, rather than simply marking them as "my favorite" and then still having to search to find them and/or forgetting they were ever discovered in the first place. Also, I like that Delicious has its own "Search" feature that I can utilize. Rather than simply googling everything, it's nice to search in Delicious and find sites that other educators already found to be worthwhile. The final reason that I am now a Delicious fan is because I can provide my students with my account and direct them to a tab I have created specifically for them and a current project we are working on. This will save them much time and frustration...and the best part is that they can access this information from any computer that has Internet...it can't be left in their locker or the backseat of their friend's car! ;)

CEDU 534: Week 3

Week 3 focused on RSS Feeds, Photosharing Sites, Creative Commons, and the video "Education 2050: Neural and Networked". For me, the experience I had in setting up a Flickr account will most benefit me professionally at this time. Photosharing sites are so popular now that I feel they are something I should hit on with my special education students when I am teaching them a unit on "Technology for Real Life". Though everyone else I know has been comfortable with Flickr for quite some time, I had to take the time to stumble through it. I found it easier to locate and upload pictures on my friend's laptop than using my school computer, so the whole process of creating a Flickr account was really very easy. One small step...eventually I will catch up with everyone else. ;)