Photoshop Fun!

Fusing Art and Technology by: Allison L. Downey

This article was about a group of students that participated in a project in one of their classes that involved them making art through photoshop. They would take a photo of themselves and then turn it into an Andy Warhol kind of portrait where they had four different scenes or colors to go with the exact same photo. After they finished with their photoshopped pictures, they displayed them as art at an Architectural Firm so people could see their artwork. The article explains how much the kids enjoyed doing their projects because they could be creative and design their Andy Warhol's however they wanted. The teacher also incorporated using the photoshop in other subject area's like science and had the students make alien pictures. I really liked this article because the title really just sums it up, fusing art and technology. I'll be the first person to admit that sometimes technology can be boring, especially for elementary students. But almost all kids like coloring or drawing. This article could be helpful for any teacher who is trying to get their students interested in technology or maybe for a child who enjoys computers and technology but doesn't really enjoy art that much. I think the best way for a child to express themselves is through the arts, whether it be dance, music, art, or whatever. But when you let a child do as they please in a photoshop program, there's bound to be great things happening.

Like I previously stated, this article could be used by any teacher who is having trouble with their students connecting technology and art and I will definitely be one of those teachers. Even without having been a teacher yet, everyone knows children and if you know a child well enough you know their strengths and their weaknesses. Some kids are good at math, while others are good at drawing, and others are good at being the class clown. So when you have students who aren't so good with computers or who just don't get how to use Microsoft Word, start them out by drawing or coloring. All kids know how to do that and then when you introduce photoshop to them and they feel comfortable enough navigating through the program then maybe other computer programs will become easier for them as well.

What's a Wordle?

Words in a Cloud by: Samantha Morra

This article is all about wordles. A wordle is a group of words that are put together to look like a cloud. The text that you put into the wordle is then calculated and the words that appear more in the text are bigger inside the wordle so you can see what words were used the most. You can also change the style of the wordle by using different colors of fonts to make it look more interesting. The teacher that wrote the article talks about using wordles in her classroom to show what different types of text were about without even having to read them. She used it for the Declaration of Independence and her students saw what words were frequently used. I thought this article was really cool because anybody could use it and I think everyone would enjoy using a wordle. The author also talked about letting her students use wordles when they wrote papers. They would create a wordle based on their papers and then use the wordle as their cover page to show people what their paper would be about by displaying the different words. I enjoyed this article so much that I decided to make one myself. I found out that you can type in your own text or use text from a url such as a blog! I made a few and it's a really cool technological tool!

I think that these ideas could definitely be incorporated into my future classroom. Just like how the author was explaining how she uses it in her classroom, I would want to do the same thing. When I have to teach a lesson that may seem boring or uninteresting, I could put that lecture into a wordle to show the students the basic themes or topics that would be presented and then maybe go from there. I would also want my students to use wordles in their own homework or in their papers to help them keep interested in whatever they were doing. Doing a wordle is such an easy thing for anybody to do and it's so fun that it can make any lesson so much better, and it's so simple!

Arctic Learning

The Adventures of the 109'ers by: Diane Randolph

This article was written by a teacher that was teaching her students about the Arctic, and in an interesting way of teaching, she had corresponded with a documentary photo-journalist that was working in the Arctic at the time. She set up a classroom blog so the students could ask the journalist questions and he could tell the students about what it was like in the Arctic and tell about his different adventures there. The students were able to learn about different people that were from the Arctic and their different culture. I thought this was very interesting and cool because the students didn't just read about some place in a book and then they were tested on the information, but that they were actually able to interact with someone who was living their research first hand. A lot of students get bored inside a classroom just reading out of a book or listening to a lecture, and when their teaching goes outside the box I think it makes it more interesting for them. I know if it were me and I got to see videos and talk with someone who was living in the Arctic it would be very interesting and make me want to know more. We all know that kids are easily amused and it doesn’t take much to please them, so when we just go that little extra for them I know it means a lot to them and it’s really worth it.

This article goes along the lines of the first article that we blogged about and I think the same applies still. I would love to be able to set up a classroom blog or have interactive learning for my students. I think that the more ways you can make a lesson interesting, the more students are going to want to learn about it and pay attention and actually want to know more. Sometimes when you are teaching your students a lesson and they ask a question, you may not always know the answer. But when you have that extra help from someone who knows from experience about different things, I think it makes the students that much more engaged in the topic. I am greatly looking forward to teaching my students different lessons in many different types of fun, new ways.

Making Libraries Nonexistant!?

Digital Libraries: Shifting the Landscape by Glen Bull and Martha Sites

This article is about digitalizing books and essentially making books obsolete by just showing them online or in digital format. This has already been happening with google as they have about 50,000 books that are available to read online. There are also “readers” available that you can view books on in digital format. There are applications for it on iphone and ipod. This phenomenon of making books digital has already begun and it’s going to continue growing until all books are available digitally. I think that this is an amazing concept in our world of growing technology. Instead of having to go to a library and find a certain book, wouldn’t it be easier just to look the book up on the internet or have a tool right in your hands to automatically find a book for you? I think that it’s very convenient and definitely a step in the right direction for technology. The article also talks about how a reader has a built in speech mode where it will read the book out loud. This can be helpful for children who have problems with sight or with reading. It can help with pronunciation if a student needs help with big words or something like that. I really liked this article because I think digitalizing books will do amazing things for students.

I hope that by the time I become a teacher all books will be digitalized. I think it will be a lot easier inside the classroom if we don't have to deal with textbooks or magazines or journals. If a student has a reader, everything will be easily accessible and neatly organized for them whenever they need it. It would be easier also if they don't have to carry around a ton of books to and from school, all they would need is to carry around one item that isn't as heavy. I hope that when I have my classroom I will be able to teach my students through digital books or that they will all be able to have a reader for themselves or at least have access to one. With every article I read, I get more and more excited to become a teacher and I think of the amazing things I will be able to do with my students when it comes to technology. I get discouraged when I think about how much money a school would have to spend to give us some of these new technologies, but I really believe it would be a great investment.

Fun Techniques for Autistic Kids

Whiteboards Engage Autistic Students by: Kathleen McClaskey and Randy Welch



This article is about new learning techniques that were introduced to autistic children. Since autistic kids have attention deficits, they aren't able to focus for very long on one particular thing without getting distracted. This is especially difficult in the classroom because autistic children aren't able to learn anything because they get bored too easily and then they just tune out whatever information is being taught to them. So there was an experiment performed on an autistic group of kids where they were introduced to an interactive whiteboard where they could do their learning on a touch screen right in front of them. All the kids used it with each other and the teacher used it as well. The students had a lot of fun and really enjoyed the new interactive system and it was proving to work. The autistic children could sit for about 45 minutes and learn with their whiteboards, whereas before their attention span would only last about 15 minutes. I think that it's great that teachers and searching out new or different ways to teach their kids. Especially when it comes to autistic kids or kids with special needs, they require a lot of one on one attention from instructors and sometime that's not always possible. While reading this article, I was thinking to myself that this could be great to use in a normal classroom as well. All kids have short attention spans and a lot of students have trouble focusing in class so anything that will spark their interest or make them want to learn will be beneficial to them.

The ideas presented in the article could be very helpful in my classroom. Since most kids have short attention spans, a teacher always has to be thinking on her toes and come up with exciting or interesting ways to teach her students. I will always try and make sure that my students don't become bored or uninterested in topics that I am teaching. I want them to retain the information I give them so hopefully it will be with them always and help them in their futures. Whether it be turning a math problem into a silly game or having them act out their history lesson, theres always something you could do to put the spark into your students mind.

Introducing Students to Technology!

The article was called: "Chatting it up Online" by: Pamela Livingston.

The article was about a teacher who had set up an online chat discussion between her students and an author of a book that was read in her class. She explained the process that she went through in order to get the chat set up and then what happened during the chat. She explained it step by step so it seemed really easy to get an online chat set up between multiple people. She also told how there are certain requirements or etiquette that you need to abide by when you are chatting online. The teacher was very informative in explaining the process of setting up a chat and then having it all play out. I have to admit though that most of the information in the article I am already aware of. I have chatted online for many years and I have been involved in online classes so I know the proper etiquette you need to have when you are in a chat. I liked it though how she had set up a live chat for her students and I’m sure they found it really interesting and fun that they could literally have a conversation with a real, famous author. It’s important to teach kids at a young age about technology because it constantly surrounds our generation. When I become a teacher, I will definitely be introducing my kids to as much technology as I can.

Like I just mentioned, it is very important for children, as well as adults, to be introduced to different types of technology. The internet and email and chatting is an important part of our world today and if you aren't able to do simple things on a computer, you could essentially be lost or uninformed on many issues. Since the article was so informative and so depth about how to go about setting up a chat, I will definitely take this information with me into my future classroom. I want my students to be excited about computers and all of their amazing capabilites so hopefully they will want to use computers and search for information on the internet and want to chat with different people. And not only will the students be excited about new technology, you are also opening up their eyes to a whole new world and they are learning so much more. Information will be readily available to them whenever they want and I think that's really important in a school setting because its making them better learners. As I've already said, I can't wait to help my students with computers and internet and chatting. I know it will be a great experience for me and for my students.

ISTE NETS is 4.