Tool 7

1. After visiting the resources above, design a collaborative project with another classroom.
2. Post the following about the project:
   1. Content objective - Ways to improve the environment now!
   2. When you plan to implement   Spring 2012
   3. What tool(s) you plan to use: Netbooks, iPads, Cameras, and Mac computers 
   4. A brief description of the project (plan - two or three sentences) Students from Ms. Battles and Ms. Tavilson's science class will communicate with Lewis's class to collaborate ideas on how to improve our environment now.
   5. If you need to find another classroom - We can begin networking with other classrooms right here!

Tool6

1. Selected Skype and Google Docs from the tool list; accounts have been created.
2. Use Google Docs daily for ICU (missing assignments) and NL and I created our classroom rules contract using google docs.  We selected google docs so that we both could contribute and edit the document away from school.  
 
3.Link to the URL is listed below.

https://docs.google.com/a/springbranchisd.com/document/d/1byFSVUcqeW0XjTDEYilXni48DBNuBjWX50jRl5YkOvU/edit?hl=en_US#

4.Kids get excited when we use technology.  They become engaged because a lot of the technology requires active participation; example) activ votes, interactive computer games.

Tool 5

1.  Created a Wordle for Science and  use Mix Books to start a scrapbook for Spring Oaks Student Council state documentation and Anti Defamation League's No Place for Hate Documentation. 

2.  Embedded links for Wordle and Mixbooks.

3.  Students will list all important vocabulary that they have learned from the current unit.  Each group will be able to share and define the selected vocabulary with the class.  We could expand and have students compare data and only present words that no other group listed.  We could use this activity to see how much of the unit students retained from the prior grade level.

  Use Mix Books to start a scrapbook for Spring Oaks Student Council Student Council. Every year my middle level officers struggle to compile photos required for the state for documentation.  Using Mixbooks seems to  simplify the process.

Tool 4

1.  Created a google document and shared with two co-workers.
2.  Created a google form and shared with two teachers in my department.
3.  Google Docs are so versatile; I can create quizzes, tests, share data with other teachers, and allow students to store work so that it does not get deleted from the desktop of a computer. 

Tool 3

1.  Discovery Education was a very informative site and very user friendly.  I loved all of the Webinars that were available for students.  This year I will be sure that we are utilizing Discovery Education for our students in the class and during activity period. 

2.  Embedded two videos

3.  I enjoyed the copyright and fair use information.  It is important to be informed so that we can set parameters and ensure that our lessons and student projects comply with the law.  What I learned most from this section is that the law seems to be on the side of educators and students seeking knowledge.  We most definitely do not encourage students nor teachers to infringe on any one's copyrighted materials.  It is truly comforting to know that we can utilize sectors of those materials and publish to a secure location and still be complying with the law.   

4.I enjoyed learning about the Creative Commons feature on Picasa.  I was not aware that
Creative Commons (CC) was a non-profit organization that provides a licensing feature and other free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, educators, and photographers easily control how their works are used.  This is great because I enjoy shooting still photography of nature.  I could post my photos to Picasa but control how I wanted them used. 
 

Tool 2

1.  Commented on  Garza's post.
2.  The Educator's PLN site was quite enlightening and is a significant resource educators could use to get ideas or just read positive experiences taking place in the lives of their colleagues.  Although I enjoyed reading the stories of other educators, personally I would not frequent the site. Especially for those new to the field of education Educator's PLN could be a useful web resource.  Educator's PLN site layout contained an extremely large amount of data and I think the information could be organized better. Educator's use PLN daily and I feel that that it is vitial for us to use these resources.  How ever, all PLN's are not created equal and we should  search for PLN's individually.  I especially enjoyed the Fischbowl PLN.

b.  I love using the net for fun and educationally but I am always concerned about privacy and misuse (intentionally & unintentionally) of information.  I love lesson design and collecting data from different sources on the web but I am always hesitant about blogging. 

3.  Today I created an account with Diggo.  Diggo offers online bookmarking from numerous data sources.  Online bookmarking will really be useful in both my home and at work.  There is so much information to learn when it comes to technology and this is yet another tool that I was not aware of ,but will begin to use immediately in order to organize websites that I visit most often.  

Voki/ 11 tools post

Creating the Voki was fairly a simple process. The most challenging aspect for me was deciding what avatar I would like to use.