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After all the blog harassment I have done about my youngest son not befriending me on Facebook I have to report that we are now buddies. To commemorate the event I once again turn to photo editing. This was done at http://www.frontpageyou.co.uk. This site is not Mozilla friendly. I had to use Internet Explorer.
I went to the Education Podcast Network, but I’m a little dismayed by the number of broken links and old posts. Are people just choosing not to post to this network? I really like podcasting, but more from the student learning standpoint. I think when students go through the steps required to podcast their learning increases. Not only do they have to know the subject, but they have to learn the podcasting process. So I wonder if that is why less teachers may post to a network such as this, or if they are using other networks to share (like iTunesU.) I did really like the “My Trivia” podcast.
I didn’t spend a lot of time in Podcast Alley just because I found the searching somewhat laborious.
iTunes & iTunesU: I liked “CNN’s News for Students,” “Meet the Author,” “Beauty with Six Legs” and “Grammar Grater.” I’m sure my son would love “Beer School.” Then I found”My Trivia” on iTunes after initially finding it on Educator Podcast Network. As an adult I love “Wait, Wait,” “Car Talk,” “StoryCorps” and “Science Friday.”
When I read other’s blogs I found some good sites. I liked the “Storynory” podcasts found on Got to Have Grammar’s blog and “Teachers Teaching Teachers” on the Sailing Through Technology blog.
Rather than make a new podcast I am posting two podcasts I recorded of friends talking about growing up in Muskegon. I clearly need one of the breath screens. I edited these from much longer clips. Britt Gary
OK. I am going backward, but I can’t help myself. I was browsing Twitter and saw Kathy Schrock’s post about photo editing.
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/25-websites-to-have-fun-with-your-photos/
Hours later, I have to share a few fun results. The pictures are me, my husband, and colleagues from school. You can click on them to see them more clearly. Fun!!!
The old-fashioned looking picture is my grandfather.
I really love the Common Craft videos. They really explain topics in easy ways. I investigated some of the podcasts. I thought the Colonial Williamsburg podcasts were very well-done as I would have expected. Radio WillowWeb seems to have stalled without any new podcasts since last fall and I’m curious as to why. I found the podcast by the State Superintendent interesting.
Mr. Langhorst obviously puts a great deal of time and effort into his history podcasts. I like the idea of having students listen to instruction at home and then put the info to work at school. It seems like it is a great way to maximize time teaching.
I have a few podcasts on my webpage if you’d like to listen. They are just the beginning of a project, and the two adult podcasts have some audio issues that I need to learn how to deal with. There are also links to StoryCorps, some of the most wonderful podcasts around! http://www.muskegon.k12.mi.us/schools/bunker/themuskegonproject/
We are also doing a daily podcast during reading month. They won’t be up for long, but here’s the link. http://www.muskegon.k12.mi.us/schools/bunker/librarybu/
My favorite podcasts are on NPR. I love Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me, Car Talk, Whad’Ya Know? and Science Friday. They aren’t (except Science Friday) necessarily school-related, but they sure are great!
When I first started this blog the Akismet spam widget was not available. My tech director installed it and I immediately took advantage of this widget. I’m not sure why I started to get so much spam all of a sudden, but so far Akismet has blocked almost 800 spam comments in two weeks. The downside, if there is one, is wondering if there is a legitimate comment somewhere in there. But I sure am not looking through 700 comments to find it.
I had previously added a page counter, Free Rice, and a Bloglines subscription button. For this assignment I added a Facebook widget. I didn’t have any trouble adding it, but then I decided it was just too much information on my blog.
I am a NPR nut, and I love to listen to Science Friday with Ira Flatow. This Friday I heard about a cool cornstarch and water video. Check out the video.
The link to the Science Friday website is:
Wow, this was so much fun I could spend hours (and probably will) fooling around with all the cool tools. I love the spelling with Flickr. http://metaatem.net/words/
The other Flickr mashups were fun, but then I went to Big Huge Labs. Yikes! The badge maker was just too cool.
http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/
I also really liked the Movie Poster maker. I think this would be a cool tool to make posters advertising books. I looked at Imagegenerator.org. Diane was right, it is a little more cumbersome, but fun. I made the Life Magazine cover on the “Fake Magazine Cover”link and the Mary as Gumby on the “Your Face on a Different Body” link.
I have looked at Flickr for photos, but I did not have a Flickr account. I have a Picasa account so I was curious about the differences. I see that I can create a profile and share photos in much the same way. I think many more people use Flickr however. I like that the photos are tagged with their “use” policy. It makes it easy to explain to students which pictures they may use and in what way. The Creative Commons search is helpful. I was looking for cupcake decorating ideas for a reception. Interestingly, many of the food photos are “rights reserved.” Below is a cute little chocolate raspberry cupcake from Chotda’s Flickr site.
Picnik is really a fun photo editing program. Below are pictures I edited. The one with two pictures is done in the “fancy collage” area. The picture on the left is my Grandmother and on the right is my Mom. Don’t they look alike? I have used Picnik before, but I never noticed that area. You can make cards and scrapbook pages. Cool! The other photo has an added frame, balloons, text, and a mustache!
Picnik has the regular photo editing tools, color, brightness, cropping, etc. Students will really love the stickers and text tools. I love the tools in the effects area of “create.” The “pencil sketch” tool makes any photo look just like a pencil drawing. I also love the “focal soften” tool. I introduced this program to students in an after school program. They loved it and you will, too! http://www.picnik.com/
I attended an ISTE Seminar Tuesday evening. Joyce Valenza was one of the featured speakers and the topic was learning communities powered by web 2.0 and Second Life. It was an interesting experience. What is better…a Second Life meeting or a webinar? In a webinar you listen and see just what the speaker wants you to see. In Second Life you are virtually in a room and can move and look around. I was a little distracted by the different avatars, their clothing, voices and actions, maybe because it is new to me. Another downside of this application is that you tend to spend extra time doing things that are not necessary, but fun (like finding cute clothes .) I would like to take a look at the teen area. I’m not sure if adults can do that, but I’ll let you know.
