my-blog

Educational Technology

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:20:42 +0100

Educational Technology

1. 1. Voki

3. 3. The purpose of this website is to motivate students to participate, improve message comprehension, introduce technology in a fun way, and use Voki as an effective language tool (text-to-speech in over 25 languages).

4. 4. Yes, it is free.

5. 5. Yes, it is easy to learn. Click on create and then it gives you options to click on to choose your own character, dress and add bling to your character, give your character voice it can be your own voice or one of the voices they have listed (and in what language/accent), and then how to share it with friends or family.

6. 6. I would recommend this tool because it would be a fun way for students to learn more about other languages. You just type what you want your character to say, and then choose in what language your character will say what you typed. It could also be helpful for ESL students. They could type something in English, and then have their character say it in their native language or type in their native language and have it say it in English.

7. 7. If the school doesn’t have a keyboard that allows you to add the accents over the words for other languages, it may not work as well.

1. 1. Mindmeister

2. 2. www.mindmeister.com

3. 3. The purpose of this website is to help you brainstorm an idea or topic. You choose an idea or topic and then build on information from there, when it is done it looks like a map of ideas and thoughts.

4. 4. Yes, it is free.

5. 5. Yes, it is easy to learn. You can either sign up for free or do a free trial. When you do the trial you choose a topic then press entre to add further ideas and thoughts. If you don’t want an idea there you just right click and choose delete. To add another idea or thought you just click on your main idea and press entre.

1. 6. I would recommend this because when the students need to work on a poem or a short story they can choose what it’ll be about, and then use this site to make a mind map for their story or poem. It would be particularly helpful for the students that struggle in Language Arts.

7. 7. One drawback may be that the school doesn’t have the budget for computers for everyone or at least a large portion so that the classes can share the computers

Reflective Journal 2

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 01:07:26 +0100

1. 1. The only addition I would make to my website is some photos that have more to do with the content of website. I would add pictures that I have chosen so that they have meaning to me. I think my website is otherwise well designed. I do not have teeny tiny lettering nor do I have really large lettering. My website doesn’t have to little or too much on the pages either. The colours I used also go well together, it’s not too light writing on a light background and too dark writing on a dark background.

2. 2. When creating a website two important guidelines are making sure your website isn’t too cluttered and making sure the reader CAN actually read it, whether the colours don’t work together or the font is too fancy.

The worst design feature I saw was the last one on being too cluttered. I thought it was the worst one because there were so many colours, font sizes, and pictures. There wasn’t just one thing for your eyes to focus on so that you could learn what was on the website. In the end I clicked away from the website because it was too hard to read the website, and if I couldn’t read the website did I really want to use his product or services?

Reflective Journal 1

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 20:13:55 +0100

Past Computer Use -- My first computer use was at home and I was about 14. I used the computer mainly for games then, Solitaire and Pinball mostly. I used the computer for a few assignments too, but mostly games.

Current Computer Use -- I use the computer for doing assignments, staying connected to my friends, writing a resume, an information resource, and playing games still too. One of my favorite computer tools is Microsoft Word. I use it for my assignments and sometimes when I’m bored I’ll type a book on it just to help with my typing and to keep me occupied. I now type much faster because I typed parts of two books on my computer. My other favorite tool is Google. I like being able to look anything I’m wondering about up on the internet. I guess if any computer use changed my life it would be Google that changed my life. I don’t have to dig through books and still not have an answer to a question I have. I can just Google my question and then I’ve got an answer right now.

Future Computer Use -- In the future I will use the computer for everything I listed in the current computer use and I would also like to learn how to do power points and other things along the same line as power points.