Is it polite to PowerPoint your finger at others?

Week five. . .Wow!!
Last week the Yahoo Bookmarks assignment was due. . .there were way too many who didn't submit. We should be past the point of excuses for not completing work on time. If you had your assignment returned, read the comments and check the published tab (I published quite a few good examples)
This week: Newsletters are due. We are also beginning the PowerPoint lesson.
NOTE: There will not be class on Wednesday. You should use this time to work on your jornals and your powerpoints!!
Journal Article #4: I couldn't find any good new PowerPoint articles, so I'm giving you one I used last year. It is a point/counterpoint discussion about the use of Powerpoint. Title, "Is PowerPoint Crippling our Students?", Volume 33, Issue 3, Page 6. It is very short. You could do a summary and perhaps your two questions could be on the benefits and problems using PowerPoint. . good luck.

Does Time Really Fly?

Wow, week four. . .time must really fly when you are having soooo much fun! I hope that everyone has finally become one with The VI and you are now free to concentrate of the matter of becomming tekkies (not Trekkies).

This week we will finish our newsletters and begin Task Stream on Wed. . .got subscription?

Journal Article 3: I looked for an article in L&L about TaskStream, but couldn't find anything. I searched the web with little positive results either. So, I thought I would introduce you to the concept of a Special Interest Group (SIG). ISTE had many, for administrators, digital equity, etc. I found a little paper from the SIGtel (Special Interest Group - Telelearning) called "Using an Electronic Portfolio in an Instructional Technology Program," by Michael Uttendorfer from New York Institute of Technology. Read the article and give a brief summary. For the two Questions, visit two other SIGs and comment on anything interesting you discovered. Example: Question 1 - What is SIGHC (Special interest Group Handheld Computing)? Explain something you either discovered or find interesting about the SIG.

I'll put the address under Links . . .if it works. . .look for Journal #3

Okay. . . .the links don't seem to work. Plan B: Google the title of the article and you will get it!! I wish I could say that I want you to learn a new skill, but it's more about the problems I'm having getting Blogger to play nice . . . . . .
Wed morning and NOW it seems to be under links. . .either way, you shouldn't have a problem accessing the article.

Finding Inspiration

I think this sculpture is called "The Muse". I hope that you are all settling in to The Six, learning to love the Mac, and getting back in the habit of school. And by now, I hope that everyone has found the time and money to join ISTE and subscribe to Task Stream. I know that not everyone knows how to take a screenshot, screen selection, etc. on the PC and that's okay. I can show you all in class how to do it easily on the Mac and submit it in class first thing. Or you can try the "print screen" key, which will take an entire screenshot and put it on your clipboard. When you open up or go to your Word document, you can paste the screen shot into the document. The only problem is that is will be a picture of your entire screen. Microsoft Word will allow you to crop the picture if you need to. If all of this sounds like too much, wait until I can show you in class.

By now, you should have your intro letter in 3 places, completed the EdTechProfile (perhaps just waiting to take a screen selection of your graph), and started your blog. Hopefully, you will have also started journal entry #1 to try and stay stress free!!

Speaking of journals: Journal #2, "Failure is NOT an Option", by Dave Edyburn can also be found in the lastest issue of Learning and Leading with Technology. Volume 34, No. 1, page 20. You will have to be a member of ISTE to be able to access this online. You will go to iste.org, sign-in, then click on the L&L link under Publications. The September 2006 issue is featured and journal #2 is the second article listed. If you are signed in, it will open when you click the link.

This week: I will introduce the Yahoo Bookmarks assignment Monday and then the Newsletter on Wednesday. For the newsletter assignment, you will need a hand-drawn (by you are a loved one . . .or just anyone with a some colored pencils) portait of yourself. You will include this in your newsletter. The reason we are doing this is to have you scan your drawing, which introduces you to the wonderful world of scanning, and then placing the scanned image into your newsletter. I think you will all have fun with the newsletter. If we are able to get the Yahoo Bookmarks and Newsletter started this week, we should make up for the day we missed last Monday. My goal is to get as much done in the beginning as we can so that we can concentrate on our movie making and producing an outstanding electronic portfolio!!

Rebirth of Cool

So we begin week two with the newly discovered knowledge that technology is cool! You can now say to your friends, "You're just jealous because I've been chatting on line with my peers ALL Day!" Okay, maybe not, but you are at least learning the power of the computer for you as a future teacher.

This week, actually only Wed, we will learn how to post our blogs, upload our intro letters and insert pictures. The blog will be used to respond to journal articles from ISTE publications. We will also discuss the EdTech Profile assignment, which you will be completing on your own. If we had two class sessions in week two, we would have started the Yahoo Bookmarks assignment, but I will probably post the instructions in case anyone wants to begin individually.

Journal Article #1: "My Space or Yours?", by Joanne Barrett. Learning & Leading with Technology (L&L), Vol 34 #1. This article comes from the most recent publication of L&L. If you go to the ISTE website, click on the publications tab and go down to L&L. This will take you to the L&L area where the most recent issue is showcased. As an ISTE member, you can access articles by downloading PDF files from any L&L publication. In this case, this article is a free download. The instrutions on how to respond to the journal articles in the blog can be found under the Journal/Blog task in assignments.
Due this week: your Task Stream and ISTE memberships . . .complete the subscription/user name task under the assignments area. It is a zero point assignment, but the ISTE and Task Stream memberships are required.