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.