Blogger is easy to post to, and integrates well with Flickr (which I love). It’s also easy to create a new post while viewing the site, something Wordpress lacks.
I prefer Wordpress’ categories/filters for organizing information. It’s easy to jump to exactly what I need. I also noticed the ability to add pages. This would be amazing for my classroom. I could have a page just for my students (with links to games, tools, etc), a page for news, and a page for homework. That would be amazing.
I may just try and switch my classroom information site over here.
For now, this site is hosted by blogger. I designed the site in Dreamweaver and pasted the html into the “customize page” section. Now it looks fancy, rather than a bland page.
I also purchased mrselak.com. It is tricky to forward a domain purchase to a blogger host. I finally figured it out, but already forgot each step. Despite blogging pages (and hosts) giving detailed directions, it is not easy or fun.
These are links from my conference presentation last week at “Celebrating Technology”. There are three categories of free, useful websites for teachers: Google applications, sharing sites, and meeting people sites. These are some great gems.
http://billaday.blogspot.com/ is my new photo blog. It is a photo-a-day blog, so you can visit it every day, subscribe, or ignore it.
Here is the background. I use Blogger to host the blog and Flickr to host and publish the pictures and comments. It took some working to get the two web pages to talk to each other. The solution was to choose “BloggerAPI Enabled Blog”. The wrong choices are “Blogger” and “Blogger Beta.” It took a long time, so if you are going to regularly blog with photos, choose this method. Trust me, Flickr is an amazing photo hosting site ($20/yr is a bargain for unlimited storage).
This blog will remain up as a commentary on technology, education, and how to bring them together. This Photo-a-Day link (which I hope you visit) is a less serious delve into regular blogging.
Since this blog began, edublogs is now able to embed video into weblogs. An older blog, entitled “Recording Lost”, had an unreliable link to watch a quicktime video. Since its posting, edublogs has since embedded it without me having to alter any links, html, or preferences.
It is amazing to see how intricate my own blog has become… simply by existing. Comments about the future of weblogs are appreciated.
The goal of a PowerPoint presentation is not for the presenter to read aloud each slide for an audience.
Quite simply, this one point (no pun intended) will drastically increase the quality of a presentation. Of course, there are exceptions, where the goal is to read aloud the words; however, unless your audience is a class full of second graders, which mine happens to be, reading words is not the point!
PowerPoint slideshows are meant to enhance a talk, not replace it. So, use your slides as a guide, and your audience will be impressed. Simple, straightforward, effective.
Teacher will use technology if it is exciting and easy. As a tech leader at my school site, making technology immediately useful is the litmus test–”Will it make my life easier NOW!?”
There are simple ways to get teachers to use more technology; however, each step must be easy. Sharing an excel sheet for assessments can be one easy step. Next, a teacher can edit this sheet. Soon, every teacher is keeping track of student data on Excel, rather than in lesson plan books.
Another example is using software during a lesson. Teachers at my school are each issued a laptop and a projector; it is an easy step to show them how to download Google Earth. Then, as we approach lessons that could incorporate geography, teachers simply use Google Earth instead of a pull-down map. Now, students are seeing actual photos from space, not some state on a political map.
Below is the video my class made during my final presentation of evolving technologies. Note: the audio was ours, improvised and recorded during my presentation; the video, used for educational purposes, is a small clip from the TV show Lost. Download
Evolving Technologies (EDUC 515) should be renamed “EVOLVING technologies”. At any given point, between one and eight people in our class were completely frustrated with figuring out how to complete an assignment. Sharing this frustration with others greatly relieved stress for me and, consequently, led to enjoyable experimentations in blogging.
Without thousands of people hanging on my every written word, I probably will not take up blogging as a hobby/profession. I suppose I would become more interesting in maintaining a blog if I found a niche… but I haven’t.
Podcasting was fun to create, but was not worth the effort to publish. Eventually, I will try my hand again at the podcast. Eventually it will become easier to publish.
As far as wikis are concerned, I was thinking of starting one for foosball terminology and special foosball moves. This could be a good wiki-learning experience.
