Virtual Classrooms

This weeks blog topic was Virtual Classrooms. Virtual classrooms are something that I am very familiar with as I have taken six or more virtual classes since I started at Florida Gulf Coast University. I personally like to take virtual classes because I work full time in addition to attending full time courses in college. Virtual classes allow me the flexibility to be able to schedule both work and school.
Virtual classrooms utilize many different tools in the teaching process including, Powerpoint slides, multiple-choice surveys, websites, live applications such as word and excel, whiteboard and electronic flip charts, and annotation tools with arrows, bullets, and so forth. The number of participants or learners varies depending on prerequisites, level of content, blending with other modalities, and so forth. Although, the technology permits hundreds of people to participate in a single event, the average number of participants in virtual classrooms tend to be about twenty-five people. Handouts, typically in electronic form, are made available to participants prior to the event.
As I said before, I think that virtual classrooms are a great tool for teaching that many people can benefit from. Virtual classrooms are good for distance learners as well as students that dont have a flexible schedule. Say you are a mother raising your children and you decide to go back to college but you dont have tons of time to spend on campus, virtual classrooms would be a great tool for you. My particular situation is that I work full time as well as take a full load of courses and my on campus availability isn't always flexible so I greatly benefit from virtual classes.
Im not so sure that I would use virutal classrooms in my teaching career but only because I am teaching lower grades and my degree will only be for kindergarten through third grade. However, if I was going to be teaching higher grades I would definatly utilize virtual classrooms.

Link to article: http://www.learningcircuits.org/2003/oct2003/maiden.htm

Streaming Video

This weeks blog topic was streaming video. Before reading this article I honestly had never even heard of streaming video before. It is something i have seen in the past but never actually knew it was classified as "streaming video". I read a few articles before I found one that made me realize exactly what it was and just how beneficial streaming video can be in the classroom. Streaming video enables the real time, or on-demand distribution of audio, video and multimedia on the internet. Streaming media is the simultaneous transfer of digital media including video, voice, and data, so that it is received as a continuous real-time stream.
Streaming video can be beneficial to both educators and learners. Teachers can use it to seperate curriculum areas by grade level and subject, For example, life science and biology, chemistry, language arts and reading, Earth and space science, social studies, health and prevention, physical science, mathematics, and general science. Streaming video is great for teachers because it gives them home access for lesson planning. Students benefit from streaming video because, the dynamic content of video streaming catches students' attention, helping to keep them focused on the lesson, content is always current and up to date, and videos are always available from any internet-enabled computer.
After reading this article I am very interested in streaming video and in using it in the classroom. I believe that I would benefit greatly from it in my teaching career and I will definatly consider using it someday. I think that it is something that both students and teachers benefit from. I dont think that I would add anything else to this article because it was the best out of all articles that I read on streaming video.

Link to article: http://www.ripbs.org/Education/video_streaming.html

Podcasting

The article I read this week was on podcasting. The term podcasting is dervied from the apple ipod and is related to ipods and mp3 players however they are not essential to it. Podcasting is a new type of online media delivery. It allows you to create your own online talk show or radio program. According to the article that I read, there are five steps to podcasting. The first step is to record your material, second you have to edit the podcast, third you have to compress the file, fourth you have to tag and package the file, and your fifth and last step is to publish and syndicate your podcast. After all of these steps your result is your own personal radio talk show that you may broadcast over the internet. Podcasting is a great tool for doing interviews. Some tools needed to create a podcast are; a laptop, microphone, portable recorder, and a headset. The article also mentioned that podcasting is completely free to do. I definatly found the article very interesting because until now I really didn't know anything about podcasts. I figured that the had something to do with the apple ipod but I didnt know exactly what and how much they were related to it. I think that it would be very interesting to create my own podcast and I would definatly consider using podcasting someday in my teaching career.
I think that podcasting would be a very useful tool for both educators and learners. Podcasting is very affordable for educators seeming that its free. I think that it would be useful for teachers in that they could create some type of a radio show for their students to listen to as part of an assignment. This could create yet another interesting and new way for students to learn. I think that this form of technology would be useful for students in that it would keep them interested in a new way of learning and also it would allow them to create their own radio show and do either an interview or and informational talk show as an assignment.
I found the article very informative and I really wouldnt change anything about it. It covered in depth all of the steps to creating a podcast as well as all of the materials used in podcasting. All in all, it was a very informative article.

Link to article: http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2005/07/20/WhatIsPodcasting.html

Web Based Multimedia/Animation

The topic of this weeks blog is web based multimedia/animation. I found the topic very interesting and enjoyed reading about it. Animation is a graphical, artistic way of expression and it allows you to really use your imagination. The atricle talks about the advantages of animation in the classroom and about different techniques of animation. The article talks about how children these days spend most of their time in the company of moving pictures, whether it be the television or the computer, it is their main source of information and entertainment. The article states that pictures aren't only a form of entertainment anymore, they have become an international language. Animation includes students who are academically weak because it gives them an alternative way to see and express things. Some examples of animation techniques are; cut out, puppet animation, 2D, flash, and 3D.
Animation could be of great use to both educators and learners in that it gives educators a new method of teaching that is fun for their students and gets them involved, also, for the students it gets them interested and excited. It is a way for students to show their creativity and enjoy learning. Also, as I said before, animation even includes students who are academically weak because it gives them an alternative way to see and express things.
I am very interested in this topic and will definatly research it further in interest of using it in my own teaching career someday. I feel that it is a great tool for the classroom and a way to get all of the students involved even the ones who may be less academically advanced than others. The article was very informative however I would like to do further research on the techniques and the process of animation.

Link to article: http://www.animwork.dk/documents/Leonardo-teaching_with_animation.pdf

Digital Imagery

Digital imagery is one of those things that I've heard of before but never really had tons of knowledge about. This article taught me a lot about the history and uses of digital imagery. Digital image processing was developed in the 1960's at a few differet places including, MIT, the University of Maryland, and etc. At this time the cost of digital image processing was high due to the expensive computers in that era. However, as time went on, computers became more and more cost friendly, making digital image processing more and more affordable. Digital image processing is now the most common used form of image processing because it is the mose versitile as well as the cheapest. Digital image processing is practical technology for classification, feature extraction, pattern recognition, projection, and multi-scale signal analysis. Some techniques used for digital image processing include, self-organizing maps, hidden markov models, and independent component analysis.
I think that digital imagery could be useful in teaching and education in many ways. For example, children of all ages love to take pictures. My five year old cousin even has a fisher price kids digital camera that allows her to store twenty five pictures on it at one time. You could apply this technology in a classroom by possibly having kids take photos of things shaped differently such as stop signs (0ctagon) or a picture frame (square/rectangle) rather than just drawing them when they are taking a lesson on different shapes. Also, art class teachers could use digital imagery by taking a photo of something and having their students draw a replica of it.
I think that this article was very informative and I enjoyed reading it. It taught me a lot about digital image processing from its history to what can be done with it today. I learned that today, digital image processing is the cheapest form of image processing as well as the cheapest and most versitile. I use it in my everyday life when I use my digital camera and someday I will probably use it in my teaching career as well. I would like to further research digital imagery because although this article was good I do think that there is more to be learned about this specific technology. I would like to read another article explaining more about the technical aspects of digital imagery.

Link to article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_image_processing

Storyboards

The article I read this week was called creating and using storyboards. The article talks about how a storyboard is basically a breakdown of an entire production such as a movie or computer based software. A story board uses pictures and words to organize a model of the movie or computer based software from start to finish. Storyboards aid producers and designers to organize all of their material and information so that it is all easier to read and to find. The article talks about the basic form of a storyboard as well. Storyboards can help save time and money because they can prevent a producer or designer from leaving out important details in the production itself, if this happened it could cause the producers and designers to have to go back and make changes which would take time and money to do.

I think that storyboards could definatly be a good tool for teachers to use both on their own and in the classroom. They could use them on their own to map out lesson plans or even the lesson plans for the entire day or week so that they could ensure they didnt leave out any important information. Also, I think that they could be of good use in the classroom because they could teach kids organizarional skills as well as make learning a little bit more fun. Its good for teachers to introduce new methods or teaching and new tools into the classroom to keep things interesting to the students.

I think that the article was very informative and it taught me a lot about storyboards. I would definatly be interested in further exploring the idea of using story boards in my teaching career someday. I think they are a great tool for organization that you can use at low to no cost. I would definatly consider using storyboarding in my teaching career.

Link to article: http://www.devshed.com/c/a/Practices/Creating-and-Using-Storyboards/

Wikis

Up until reading this article I never really knew anything about wikis. Unlike most college students, I don't even use wikipedia to look things up, I have always just used google. This article was full of great information about wikis as well as tips for choosing them and how to use them. The article states that, "A wiki is a website where every page can be edited in a web browser, by whomever happens to be reading it. The article stresses that wikis are great to use for group projects because they make it much easier to keep them organized. Rather than everyone just writing notes individually you are able to post them online, all in the same place so that everyone can read them and stay on the same page. The article says that when using a wiki, we must be tech-savy because they can be complicated at times. Some criteria for choosing a wiki is that the wiki must be easy to install, it should have user accounts, have the capacity for attachments, you should be able to view page history, it must have page edit locking meaning no more than one person can edit at a time, and etc. The article also lists some wiki sharing tips, such as, don't share too much and be precise. Last but not least, the article lists some pros and cons of using a wiki. Some advantages are, that they are good for writing quick and long ideas, they are accessible from anywhere with a web connection, and everyone has a say. Some disadvantages to using a wiki are that you have to patrol them often if they are public, you have to be tech-savy, and its not a good content management system.

Link to article:http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2006/07/07/what-is-a-wiki.html