Education n technology...

I read an interesting blog post today about how some school districts are getting the sense that they are not keeping up with changes. The blog post briefly discusses a presentation conducted with Edmonton school districts using video conferencing and knitter. Here are a couple of interesting insights from the students: 1) To the question, “…isn’t technology making us lazier?”
Theres a fine line between lazy and the ability to do more, if the computer can check our spelling, that saves us time to do more 2) About Facebook:
Facebook may not be completely safe but neither is taking public transport, that doesn’t stop us from using it 3) computers are used like typewriters, everything useful is blocked or restricted....Some interesting things to consider....

Puzzle Maker...just another cool tool

Check out this tool I found through 23 Things...this is why it's taking sooo long to finish my presentation...I keep trying out the suggestions in the online PD
Hope this works:

PD Opportunities...

I've been exploring 23 Things in the PD resource section and have learned so much in this past week. Some of the material presented was stuff we are learning about in class but trying them out as I read through each "thing" made it more real and I was able to apply some of the things I created to the wiki I've created for the class project. I guess you could say I'm killing two birds with one stone. I'm only at Thing 12 but I want to continue on to learn more ways to use technology. I've found interesting ways to incorporate Dene language into the world of technology through the tools we've been introduced to. Although I was a bit afraid of trying new things I am slowly learning how to navigate my way around the internet and computer. The PD opportunities available through and with technology are numerous and, depending on the need, any person or group could gain a lot through these tools used in Web 2.0.
A little note here about how youth are so much more able to navigate their way through things that we as adults are sometimes afraid to try. I've been trying, unsuccessfully, to upload the wordle I'd created to my wiki until tonight. I asked my daughter if she knew what screen shots were and she asked me to describe what I meant so I told her it was like taking a picture of something on your screen. She said," oh yeah, I didn't know that was what it was called but I know how to do it." Problem solved with the wordle...Amazing!!!I should have asked her a long time ago.

IPOD Touch and the like…

Using devices such as Ipod Touch in the classroom can have benefits but may also carry with it the potential for other issues. Warlick discusses this in one of his blogs and I feel the same way about a device that can do ‘everything’, that’s a scary thought…kinda makes me think of a movie I recently watched about a computer that could no longer be controlled by personnel. I am trying to be open to the use of technology but I can’t help but wonder what’s going to happen when we begin to rely on technology for almost everything…I know that when the computer starts acting up I begin to panic since all the work I’ve done is stored in the memory of this computer. Although the work is also backed up to the office network I still feel a bit fearful that all the work I've done will be lost.

PD Resource~23 Things

I am learning so much from the PD resource I chose to explore in this block. At first I thought I would skim through the pages and read a bit here and there but then as I read I became engaged in the material. For instance, there was a part about power point presentations and that immediately caught my attention since the tag was funny and true! I have gained valuable info on how to present more effectively. I might have spent more time than I wanted to on this but it was worth it. This 23 Thing wiki is really good. I have already sent the link to a colleague since she is always coming up with ideas for libraries and the idea for 23 things was taken from a course specifically designed for library techs.

Death by PowerPoint

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Death by PowerPoint

View more presentations from Alexei Kapterev. (tags: tips powerpoint)

Wordle...

I've created a wordle titled Dene but am having trouble adding it to my wiki. Tried following the directions to take a screen shot but was unsuccessful...any suggestions? Here is the link if you'd like to see it!
title="Wordle: Dene"> src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/624576/Dene"
alt="Wordle: Dene"
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