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FLAGLER COLLEGE

SPECIAL POINTS OF INTEREST:


Websites & iClouds Edmodo & Cyberbullying Pledges & Websites Weebly and Popplet Alternatives to PowerPoint ActivInspire and Microsoft Word

Instruction & Design


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Websites & iCloud


Last week we began Instruction and Design class. Our instructor has had several activities for us to do, and all to promote our knowledge and understanding. The very first night of class we learned about Jog the Web, where people can make their own websites. More specifically, teachers can make their own websites for their students in their class. I think this is a wonderful resource for teachers, and something that I could use myself for my future classes. The third graders from Canopy Oaks that I work with currently like to get onto their teachers websites and look into the things that their teachers put up on it for them. They like having a specific site just for them. The following evening, our teacher led a discussion on fake it until you make it and gave us an iar with, and since they do not want to appear stupid and unintelligent to their peers. The topic of the article that talked about fake it until you make it was on iCloud. After we read the article, we were to find our very own iCloud and begin to use it. Not only could we upload our own, personal things to it, but we were to upload our school documents to it as well. I was extremely unfamiliar with the Cloud before this lesson, and it was stressful and a little frustrating to find one for me to use, but after some time has passed, it has been a much better. I now currently use an iCloud to backup my school documents not only for this class, but for my picture files from home as well.

article to read about it. He asked us why we thought people liked to fake it until they made it. Our answer for this was that people do not like being asked questions about a subject they do not know about, or caught up in a discussion that they are unfamil-

Edmodo & Cyber-bullying


Edmodo. This is a site that looks similar to facebook, but it is much safer, and meant for a smaller community. Our teacher explained to us that he uses this for his classes, and it helps him keep up with his students online as well as in the classroom, and a way to make sure they are being held accountable in their peer-to -peer conduct. It is a place where assignments can be posted, work can be turned in, and badges can be given. Cyber-bullying is also an issue among students who use electronic means for their academics, and having something like Edmodo where not only teachers have access, but also parents, the adults can keep the students in check and make sure there is no cyber-bullying going on.

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Pledges & Websites


Another activity we did was where we ourselves prepared a parent pledge and a student pledge. The purpose of these pledges were for students and parents of those students in our future classrooms, in the laying-out of expectations for online academic use. We were able to come up with these expectations ourselves. To go along with our pledges, we examined a tutorial for Word to assist us in creating these pledges. There were multiple things we had to make sure we included in the documents, like a text box, a picture, and a hyperlink. We also had to adjust our margins, know how to wrap a text, and insert a boarder. The final activity for one night looked like this: we were presented with three teacher websites and were given a scale of 1-4 to rate them in certain areas. One was our very own teachers. This involved critical thinking, observation, and exploring the site itself to look for the things we were supposed to find to rate. Believe it or not, some sites were not quite up to par, being a little confusing to navigate, or not having the icons to match the theme of the overall site.

Weebly and Popplet


Weebly & Popplet
One tool were were introduced to one night was Weebly. It is a website to create websites without having to pay for them, and they can be personal. This was a bit of a frustrating endeavor, but not bad once you got the hang of it. In fact, most of my weebly website is complete now. Ive also been able to use this site to begin working on a site for my photography business. A facebook account is great for it, to have something for people to see, but to have a site is also great. I am so excited to be able to use this weebly website designer tool for this. Popplet was another tool we introduced to. This site was both fun and useable. It helps with organization , especially for those who are visual learners and need to have their plans out on paper to see. It is basically a digital webbing device.

Alternatives to PowerPoint
For this assignment, we looked at different websites that gave us alternatives to PowerPoint. There were 5 alternatives, and for each one, we typed up who the audience was, and what the pros and cons were. Expressor and Text 2 MindMap were two of the alternatives that appeared to be very confusing. I wouldnt use them. Slide Rocket had the potential to be overwhelming, but Animoto was cool. On that site, you can create 30 second videos and share them with friends. The videos come with different themes, and you can choose any of them to create your video. Then also, you add in pictures of your choice, text, then click produce. It is very simple, and it makes a beautiful , short, video. Prezi was the last alternative to Power Point that we looked at. It was neat, but the unattractive portion was that you had to pay for it If you wanted to do the really awesome

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Continued Alternatives to PowerPoint


things. If you choose to pay for it, you can import media and use different methods to allow for a lot of creativity. is still pretty good. If you create a video with two text boxes, unfortunately you can only fit five pictures. The overall result is good though. In the future, I may not ever use any of these alternatives to PowerPoint, except Animoto. I most likely wont use it in place of PowerPoint, but instead use it as a nice video to advertise my photography on my site. It is perfect for a short and sweet introduction to my work as a photographer.

For one assignment we had in class, we had to make three Animoto videos and one Prezi presentation. From actually getting to experience using these alternatives to Power Point, I can now say that Prezi was not very easy to use, but Animoto

ActivInspire and Microsoft Word


One of the last tools we learned from this class was ActivInspire on a SMART board. Overall, this is a tool that would take a long time to thoroughly develop, but for our time as a class so far, we learned how to input layers. Layers are used for just about everything on the SMART board, and an important aspect to have knowledge on. Having learned how input those, we were instructed to create a game for the students to assist them in learning a certain skill that we would have been teaching them.

Another skill we learned in this class was in connection with Microsoft Word. This is a program that is fairly familiar with students, but thanks to this class, I have learned how to do much more than what I knew before. The ability to input textboxes, borders, and little 3D icons are a wonderful skills to be able to add to the prior knowledge, and it really dresses up the work. I now feel much more equipped to create my own worksheets for my students, fliers, and

November 2013
SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

1 3 10 17 24 4 11 5 Guest Speaker 6 12
Chapel 9:15

8 Field Trip to Sea 9


World

13 Chapel 9:15 14 20 Chapel 9:15 21 27 Chapel 9:15 28

15
Science project due

16 23 30

18 Show and Tell 19 25 26

22 Ice cream
social

29 Spelling B

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