Week 10 - Final Project part 2

Today was a work day. I am getting my wordpress page looking and functioning the way I want it. I think it looks beautiful and highly functional. The theme I am using also allows for a great mobile version if you are using a browser on your smartphone.

The link to my website is here: cassiewou.wordpress.com

I am confident that my website for my future spanish class will receive positive feedback.

Week 9 - Final Project part 1

Today we learned more about how to build and design a website. We looked at wordpress.com and learned some basic skills within that program. It's going to help me create my final web site project.

We also talked more about Dreamweaver and CSS.

It's mostly just a work day to develop and create our final project.

Week 8 - Coding and Website Design

This week, we were talking about websites and coding.  For the first hour we went to a website called "Hour of Code."  It was created to encourage youth to learn the basics of coding. You could basically play games that used logic and coding to figure out how to complete a goal.  I played the robot one. I liked it because it teaches students to think critically and problem-solve.

Then we learned how to create a website on Dreamweaver.  While doing this we learned how to use html codes. So far we created one website with a question and a link to the right answer, with a picture to go with the right answer. It is good to have a basic knowledge of html coding and building a website.

Here is the link to the website I made in Dreamweaver: HERE

Week 7 - Mobile Learning

This week, we played on iPads and found some apps that could be used in a classroom setting.  Since my interest is teaching Spanish, I found an app that allows students to study spanish vocabulary in various ways. I also found an app, Quizlet, that allows a student to make and study flashcards. It can be used for individual students, or for small groups of students.  I decided to create my mini lesson plan around learning the names of colors in Spanish, and included content standards and a timeline of how I was going to fill up a 50 minute class period.  Overall, this was very helpful and useful because I know that creating lesson plans involving technology is going to be incredibly important with the upcoming generations. 

Week 6 - Podcasting

I decided to base my podcast on a Spanish take-home assignment. The task is to listen to the story that I record, and answer a few questions based on what the student heard. I feel like this type of activity is important because I feel like too much of Spanish education is emphasized on written grammar and reading skills, but not on actual conversation and formulating sentences vocally.

I enjoyed recording the tracks and adding sound effects. I believe that this is a very realistic resource that I could use as an educator someday. I liked that I could upload it to my personal website and the student could listen at their convenience at home.

Week 5 - Hoax or Real

This week, we focused on internet literacy.  This means that we learned how to tell if a website is real, or if it is a hoax.  There were a couple of ways to tell: looking at the source of the website, looking at what kind of website it is (.com, .org, .net, etc.), looking at the content of the website, looking at what the resources are, among other aspects.

Overall, it was very straightforward and seemed like there are some obvious methods of telling if the website is fake.  I know that I will need to make sure I provide students with reliable resources and I need to educate them on whether or not they can trust a certain website.

Week 4 - Mapping

During this week, we worked with creating a tour in Google Earth.  I made my tour about 5 major cathedrals in Southern Spain.  These included Malaga, Cadiz, Seville, Murcia and Granada. I learned how to mark the sites and add a description, image, and link to the wikipedia website. Creating a tour like this would be incredibly useful for a geography lesson in my Spanish class.  I could create a tour of the places the students are going to learn about, and give them a brief description and insight to the places or things they will be learning about.  This would provide an interesting and attention-grabbing preview for the lesson that day. 

Week 3 - iMovie

Today we filmed a video as a group.  We used iMovie to turn it in to a short "commercial."  The actual filming was very fun and easy. We decided to make a video to promote reading. We used a green screen and added images and videos to the background. I didn't personally get to edit our video, but I did give input on what we should add and edit. It was a little complicated for the elementary level, but doable for once you get into intermediate level grades.

We also used iMovie on an iPad, which was much more realistic for a classroom.  This one was limited, but it was incredibly easy to maneuver.  It gives you the layout and you just "fill in the blanks" with your own video and text. Overall, I like the idea of using iMovie in a classroom using the iPad.  

Week 2 - Photoshop

I enjoyed learning how to use Photoshop to alter and manipulate images. I learned how to upload an image to photoshop, scan an image and layer images on top of each other.

The background is an image I pulled off of flickr. It is a street in Spain. My scanned image is a photo of the boat. And the original photo is of me taken last summer.

I really love how it turned out. I think it's quirky how the boat is floating down a paved street.

I also added a bonus image... did you notice the T-Rex peeking around the corner?

I learned a lot from this project. I feel like I will be able to use these acquired skills in my classroom.

Week 1 - Web 2.0

Web 2.0 allows the user to have a more rich internet experience. I explored go2web20.net to find some potential resources for my future classroom.

We also explored bighugelabs.com.

I liked setting up all my new accounts (i.e. gmail, flickr, blogger) and I look forward to making a class portfolio to use as reference when I am setting up my own classroom.

New blog!

This is my new blog for my ED 270 class at Western Oregon University.

Assignment list HERE: http://www.wou.edu/~saxowsd/tech2/eden/amind/ed270/assign.php

I set up a brand new gmail account: cassie.wou@gmail.com

I also set up a yahoo account: wou.cassie@yahoo.com

So that I could join flickr: wou.cassie

and made a request to join the group ED270spring15.

I've set up this blogger though my new gmail account

The domain for this blog is cassiewou.blogspot.com

I think it's exciting to start with a "clean slate" on the internet. I am excited to fill my blog with all the new things that I am learning in class and how I can implement these things in my classroom in the future.