Google Forms

This week we created a survey with Google and generated a spreadsheet from the survey. I appreciate the ease of creating documents and getting back information in different formats...spreadsheets, charts, and graphs. We learned how to create formulas and do some basic computing to turn the results of our survey into a "living" grade book. Unless I find something better, I will definitely be using this in the future.

Creating a Jing Instructional Video

Jing makes it so easy to record, cancel, and re-record a "lesson". One thing I didn't realize until after I was done is that because my video was about creating a Voki, it took a while to upload and open once clicking on the URL. My internet speed is a bit slow at times, so perhaps that was part of it, but Voki uses Flash, so I think that was part of the issue as well.

Sometimes all it takes to keep student's attention is a change of pace. I was thinking about how boring it must get to watch the same speakers every day. Creating a "teaching voki" and changing them often, might be enough to get and keep the attention of the class for shorter lessons or concepts. I could even create a Voki based on a character that we read about in a book, give some clues, and we could have a "name that Voki" contest. It could be done in reverse, too, with the kids creating what they think a character might look like based on descriptions in a story.

It would be wise to test this out with kids first to see how they feel about it before getting too elaborate. Sometimes what us "old folks" think is cool isn't so cool to younger kids, but this is definitely worth exploring.

Web 2.0 Voki

More on Google

I decided to switch over from Keynote to Google Presentation for doing my Final Portfolio. I couldn't believe how easy it was to import the slides I did from Module 4 into my new presentation. I am really digging the Google phenomenon. Google should pay for me for all of the promoting I am doing. Grin. Most of the time I think their products speaks for itself, so who needs promoters.

Online Presenting

This week we did some online presenting using PowerPoint. It was fun to have everyone on together. One thing to keep in mind when using this kind of technology is that things can go wrong...and they did. As long as people are prepared for glitches and have some patience all will be fine. I don't have the best signal out in the woods up here, so I will need to go in and review the presentations before I can give feedback.

My husband was off to the side helping me get set up. He used the same technology when he was in Iraq during his last deployment and he said that things can get messed up when presenters accidentally do things without intending to. He also said that interruptions happen frequently during online meetings because if there is any delay in sending/receiving messages, people start talking over each other and things get messy.

I was distracted trying to teach this way and felt like it showed. I knew the material that I was presenting, but I was trying to pay attention to many new things at the same time....I was on overload for a while. Grin. My lesson works better face-to-face. Sign Language is something that is best learned in action.

This week I am working on my Final Portfolio. I wasn't able to access the recordings from our presentations, so I sent Helen some screen shots of the error message I received when trying to use the Moodle link. She is working on it, so I am catching up on the blogging until I can roll up my sleeves and get working on that.

Googleicious

I really enjoyed learning more about Google. I have always appreciated using Google as a search engine and then decided to use use gmail for e-mail. I am really liking the versatility that goes with all of the Google applications and the idea of having documents I can either share or not share online instead of saving them on my computer or flash drive.