iPad Training 101

The article, iPad Training 101, talks not just about introducing the iPads to students, but also introducing iPads to teachers. Although many teachers may have been teaching in the classroom for a while, and excited about introducing new technology into their classrooms, they may also be nervous about it because the don’t know how to use the technology themselves. This is why a Christian school in Southfield Michigan decided to have a three-day intensive training session to help get the teachers acquainted with the iPads. One of the projects that the teachers did at this workshop was create and Public Service Announcement to remind the students of the importance of caring for their iPad. The teachers used the iPads to do every step of the project from writing the scripts, to filming, and even editing. Teachers commented that they liked that they were getting the training on the technology first, instead of just being given technology to use with no experience of their own.

As a future educator, I rally like what this school did with teaching their teachers about the technology first, so that they will not only know how to use it, but also will be able to answer questions that the students may have. As technology continues to improve I know that a day will come when education will begin to use a type of technology that I have no experience left, and I hope that when that happens I will not just be handed that technology to use in y classroom, but that I will be trained on it so that I will first no how to use it before trying to implement it into my teacher.

I really like what this school did, and I hope that other school take their lead and begin training teachers in whatever type of technology they are introducing before just introducing it to the students. If the teachers actually understand how to use the technology well, they will be able to use it much more effectively in their classrooms. 

Schools Abandon Textbooks to Go All iPad

The article Schools Abandon Textbooks to Go All iPad gives a brief overview of a school decision to abandon the use of textbooks, and use only iPads in classes. The article addresses the big question of, how did the school pay for this? Since the school launched a one-to-one iPad program, it cast the school about $500,000 for all the devices, which the school paid for within its already existing budget. How did they do this? The saved money by getting rid of its computer labs, and abandoning plans to build a language lab. They also saved money by not buying any new textbooks. The article addresses the fact that at first teacher were skeptical, but after having the iPads for a while those skepticism seem to have vanished. The article also includes a video of students explaining what it is about having the iPad that they like most. Many students said it was the not taking ability and organization, but other answers included having access to the internet from anywhere, and even being able to put their music for band and choir on the iPad so it was all in one location. This was a big positive for students, having all of the stuff for all of their classes in one location that was easy to carry around.

Based on the feedback from the students I definitely think the idea of a fully iPad school could be a great idea. It provides a lot of organization for the students, and less papers to deal with for the teacher as everything is done electronically. I am not sure however that I agree with the total abandonment of textbooks, whether electronic or traditional. This is something I would want to experience for myself as a teacher, how teaching a class with no textbook works. I feel that it could either be a good thing that gives students more freedom, or a negative thing with as there is no structure. However it is hard to say without experiencing it myself. 

What do Students Think of Using iPads in Class? Pilot Survey Results

The article What do Students Think of using iPads in Class? Pilot Survey Results, actually gives statistics from a survey taken by students about their time using iPads in the classroom. The author, Sam Gliksman states upfront that the their schools pilot program did not a have a 1:1 ration, instead students were sharing iPads, so this affected the students opinions of the iPads, Also as some students used the iPads more extensively in their class, the results were varies as well. When the survey was taken the students had been using iPads for three to four months. Over all the results were fairly good for students liking the iPads. The biggest complaint that they got from students was that they had to share them. This caused problems as students were not able to make the iPads their own, and had to be extra cautious about making sure they were signed out of everything, and had emailed any important notes to themselves. Through the survey they found that students who had more exposure to the iPads in their classroom and used them for more intensive things, like the iPads better than other students. Part of this could be because they understood how to use them better and were more comfortable using them since they had done so much work with them.

This survey was very interesting to read. As a future educator I have heard about the benefits of having technology like the iPad in classrooms, but it was nice to see a student survey and see how well the students actually enjoyed using the iPads. It is important that the technology we introduce into classrooms actually has a purpose and is beneficial to the students and that we are not just introducing technology into the classroom to have more technology. I would be very interested to see a survey of students who used iPads in a 1:1 setting.

When reading this article I could definitely understand the students’ frustration with having to share iPads, and I could see why they may not be as open to using iPads exclusively as they have just simply not had enough exposure to them. However, this article did provide a good starting points for educators to look at and make a better informed decision as to whether bringing iPads into the classroom would be beneficial. 

Managing A Classroom Set of iPads

 In the article, Managing a classroom set of iPads, the author, a teacher, explains the basic process she used when introducing iPads into her classroom. She covers a few different issues from student use management, to setting up the iPads, to storage and maintenance. IN Students management she mainly just addresses that students should be assigned a specific iPad that they use all the time, and they should take a certain amount of ownership of it such as polishing the screen. She also addresses how she will teach students who may not familiar with iPads how to use them. She also addressed setting up the iPads, she explained hw she did it personally, however schools may have policies already set in place to setting up the iPads. She did mention that all of the iPads needed updates, which took a while to do, as well as installing the apps on all the iPads. She also mentions the need to come up with a system to keep the apps updated. Finally, the teacher addressed the issue of storage, She stressed the fact that the iPads should be stored in a cabinet that could be locked, and where the iPads could charge. Se even provided a picture of the storage cabinet that she has in her classroom.

As a future teacher I love the idea of using technology like the iPad in my classroom, however I had never thought about what it would take to set up these iPads and maintain them. It was nice to read an article written by someone who had went through the process, so now I have a better idea of what it will take to get iPads set up in my classroom if they are not already. I also got some great ideas from this article for how to have students share the iPads and not give out personal information. One of things that I like that this teacher did was, instead of having the students setting up their own email addresses on the iPads, which is a bad idea with multiple students using the same one, she instead gave each iPad its own email address that would be used for in class purposes only. I really like that idea.

Over all I thought this was a really good article, and I agree with a lot of the things the teacher said, such as the need for a lockable storage, and the various things that should be invested in to maintain the iPads if and when possible.

How the Amazon Kindle Fire Fits Into Education

The article How the Amazon Kindle Fire Fits Into Education, reads very much like an advertisement for the Kindle Fire. It touches on it’s size, weight, resolution, and even mentions it being protected by Gorilla Glass It mentions its connection to the android, so users can connect to the App store for Android with their Kindle Fire. The article also talks about the Kindle Fire’s cloud storage. Which means that when users download a book it will automatically link to the users Amazon account and save it to their 5 GB of free storage on Amazon’s cloud drive. Finally, at the end of the article it mentions the new feature of textbook rentals, which the article claims is unique to the Kindle Fire.

This article only briefly touches on the uses of the Kindle Fire in school, and when it does it mentions only textbook rentals. Based solely on this article, I don’t know, as a teacher, whether this would be something I would want to try to use in my class. There were definitely some good features mentioned such as it being protected by Gorilla Glass, which in a classroom setting could be very beneficial. Also the storage of the books would be a bonus, although I am not sure if that amount of storage would be enough if the Kindle Fire were being used for a classroom. The textbook rentals were really the biggest positive for a classroom setting, but even still I am not convinced that the Kindle Fire would be the best investment, even over traditional books.

I am hesitant to believe everything in this article at face value because it does read so much like an advertisement. It is not written from the perspective of someone who has actually used the Kindle Fire, but rather from someone who it trying to sell it, and make it sound good. 

Will the Kindle Change Education?

In the article, Will the Kindle Change Education, the author simply addresses this question. He talks about the positive aspects of the kindle such as how light it is, the ability to access almost any book from almost anywhere, and simply the convenience of the number of books that students could have access to. Educators also feel that the Kindles text-to-speech function could be beneficial for those students with vision problems, language barriers, and lack of reading fluency. The author also addresses a few problems with the kindles as well. This includes their durability. The kindle is supposed to be able to survive repeated drops from 30 inches, however the author mentions that one of the kindles he uses in his classroom was broken shortly after receiving it when a students accidentally dropped it. Another issue with the kindle is that of content transfer. Amazon limits the number of kindles that can have access to books on a single account to six. Also there is no output jack to connect to an overhead projector, which is key in a classroom setting. Over all, the author concludes that the price of the kindle is too high, when compared with the classroom hurdles. The use of the kindle in a classroom setting is very limited.

As I said in my previous post, I do see a great benefit in using kindles, or something similar to kindles in the classroom. However, the issue of durability is something to consider, especially for he price that it costs to buy a kindle. If they can be easily broken, then the investment may not be a good one, especially if students are being allowed to take them home and carry them in their back backs. Also the fact that there is no way to display the text to the entire class through an overhead projector is a big downside from teaching perspective. Also the cost is fairly high, with one kindle costing more than most teachers are allotted for their classroom per year. The article mentioned the text-to-speech feature as being beneficial for students with a lack of reading fluency. I am hesitant to agree with this. While I do see the benefit of a student who has trouble reading being able to have the book read to them as they follow along, I feel that this could actually hinder their ability and motivation to learn how to read. If a student knows that he can just have the device read the book to him, then why learn how to read at all?

This article presented many good arguments, and based on strictly this articles research I would say I agree with the authors conclusion that while e-readers could be a great investment for schools, the cost is going to be the biggest hurdle to overcome at this time. 

Amazon Tries Taking the Kindle to School, Again, With Textbook Rentals

In the article Amazon Tries Taking the Kindle to School, Again, With Textbook Rentals the author addresses Amazons decisions back in 2011 to begin renting electronic textbooks. What is surprising about this is how long it took Amazon to begin offering electronic textbooks. The kindle was one of the first electronic readers to be produced back in 2007, and they are just now beginning to allow students to rent textbooks on their e-readers. This is something Barnes & Nobel has been doing with their tablet for a couple of years already.

As a future educator I really like the fact that Amazon is allowing students to rent electronic textbooks, especially at a lower price than traditional textbooks cost. If students are able to get all their textbooks electrically, than it would save students from having o carry around numerous heavy textbooks in their backpacks, which has been known to cause back problems. I also like the feature that anything students highlights and notes that students made in their text will remain even after the book is “returned.” This means students will still be able to access information that they or the teacher deemed important. I definitely like the idea of using electronic textbooks on e-readers in my classroom, and so I am excited to hear that the kindle has begun offering electronic textbooks. 

Evaluating the Nook Tablet for an Elementary School

In the article, Evaluating the Nook Tablet for an Elementary School, the author basically evaluates the nook and whether it would be a good investment for the elementary school. He felt the cost efficiency wasn’t a great selling point, as the savings gained through purchasing digital books would take a long time to make up for the initial cost of the nooks themselves. He also felt that technology simply for technology’s sake is never a good thing. So, he asked the question, what are the advantages of the nooks tablets. The durability of the books on a tablet was a big advantage. He states, “A digital book doesn’t get tattered.” Also, because Barnes & Noble allows the purchase of one book to be available to any device registered on that account, the books purchased will far outlive the tablets they were purchased on. Another advantage of the nook tablet is its access to the web. This could replace some of their existing netbooks, which were not in good shape. The nook tablets also provide a variety of learning apps that the students could use. A big question that the author addressed was weather the Nook would last. With investing so much money in something like the nook, there is a fear that Barnes & Noble would one day scrap the nook, and all that money invested in digital books would be lost along with the digital books themselves. However, since the Nook books can be accessed on iPads, iPhones, iPod Touch handhelds, and other devices, even if the Nook itself were to become obsolete, the titles could still be accessed through other means. With all of these arguments, the author came to the conclusion that the Nook would in fact be a good investment for the school.

As a future educator I would like to first state that I like the way this author went about evaluating the pros and cons of investing in a large number of nooks. It is important to know the advantages and disadvantages of making such a large purchase. Thinking about the advantages of the Nook over traditional books from every angle is important, because it is important to know what you are investing in, and whether it is a good investment. Based on all of his argument found in this article, I would agree with the author’s conclusion that the Nook would be a good investment for the school he was teaching at. This being said, I think that it is important that each school do their own evaluation of the pros and cons of investing in the Nooks before doing so, as each school has their own needs and reasons for purchasing the Nook. 

Why We Won’t Purchase More Kindles at the Unquiet Library

In the article, Why We Won’t purchase More Kindles at the Unquiet Library, the author talks about why their school library has decided to use the Barnes and Nobel Nook simple touch in their integration of eReaders, instead of the Amazon Kindle which they had been previously using. The reason for the switch was due to a change in the License Agreement. Where previously K-12 and school libraries could have multiple kindles on one account, allowing books to be shared, Amazon now required that each kindle have it’s own account. Requiring that each kindle must have the book downloaded and paid for separately. Although Amazon was working to set something up with and website called Overdrive.com, this website requires the purchase of a subscription that most school libraries will not be able to afford. Amazon said that they were working on a backend management tool that would be helpful to schools, however it would not be available for several months. The author also felt that it would not be comparable to what was already being offered by the Barnes and Nobel Nook.

As a future educator, I see the great problem with this new standard. For schools to have to purchase each kindle and then purchase the books for each kindle separately is costly. It also causes problems with simply keeping up with the kindles, making sure they all have the same books. The Barnes and Nobel nook on the other had, already has a system in place for how schools can manage their numerous nooks on one account. I agree with the librarian’s decision to switch from the kindle to the nook on the basis that the nooks are more user friendly for schools.

Embracing E-Reader Technology with Nook Club

In the article, Embracing e-reader technology with Nook club, author Hayley Ringle discusses the advantages of school libraries having nooks for students to use. She mentions that while the nooks themselves come at a fairly expensive price of about $300 per nook, the books that can be purchased and downloaded on them are significantly cheaper then buying the traditional book. She even gives a comparison of prices of Suzanne Collins’, “The Hunger Games” stating that the traditional book in hardback form casts 17.99 while the e-book format costs only $5. Ringle includes a couple of comments from students who have used the nooks who enjoyed various things about the electronic readers from being able to read in the dark with the illuminated screen, to the fact that the nook was much lighter than a traditional book. The advantage for the school with the nooks is that, since all six of the current nooks are on one account, the school only has to purchase the book once for all six nooks to have accesses to it.

As a future educator I have very mixed feelings about nooks and other types of electronic books. I can definitely see the advantages of them, including the cost efficiency of buying books. Also, just the fact that they are technology has a great advantage in getting kids interested in reading. For these reasons I think the nooks could be a great addition to schools, even though there is large initial cost to purchase the nooks. However, I don’t feel like the nooks should replace all traditional books. I think that students need to have the option to use a traditional book. The reason for this is because I know from experience that while some students will embrace the idea of electronic books, others will prefer the feel of holding a real book in their hands while reading. This is actually something that the school librarian said in the article, that the goal was to blend the use of traditional books and e-books, not replace the traditional with the e-books. If this blending of the two types of books is truly the ultimate goal, then I agree with the idea of integrating e-books into the school system. 

GAIN google earth

I learned a lot about google earth by looking at the tutorials and tips, and just messing around with it myself. At first I thought it was going to be just like google maps, and although you can do much of the same stuff that you can do on google maps on google earth, google earth also has a lot more to offer. One of the things that i thought was really cool about google earth is that you could explore terrain under the sea, and even explore various ship wreck. Google earth shows you where the sip wreck is, gives you some brief information about the ship, and how it sank, and in some cases even provides a video of the discovery dive.
Another thing that I though was pretty cool is that, its not just the earth you can explore, but also the moon, and even mars. This would be great for students learning about the planets and the solar system to be able to actually see that they look like.
You can also look and see what towns and cities looked like throughout history and compare how things have changed.

The idea sheets gave some interesting ideas for projects that teacher could have their students do with google earth. One sheet gave the idea that students could trace the path of  Explorers using the line tool, and create place markers along the way to mark important sites and events. This would help the students actually see where events took place rather than just hear about them. Students could also create place markers marking where various traditions started around America or the world.
Older students could actually explore various battle fields, and i some cases may even be able to use the date feature to go back to the particular year when the battle took place, and see what the battle field looked like then.
Another idea talked about how students could use the layer feature to demonstrate the historical migration of humans and also current migration patters of various ethnic groups.
Google earth has a lot of potential educational uses.

I looked at a couple of the sites from part C but the one that stuck out to me the most was the google earth goods. it talked about 26 different ways to use google earth in the classroom. One suggestion was using google earth to track the color Change of leaves in various parts of the world. This could be great for a science lesson. Another lesson that I thought was really interesting, especially for older students, is having them develop the next great city. Simply find a big open piece of land and let them work. Students would have to research city infrastructure in order to do this, and work together to design the layout. It would be a very intensive, but interesting project when learning about the dynamics of how a city works. Students can also make a virtual biography about a historical person, embedding picture and videos, marking important sites, and then take a class on a tour of that persons life. If your class is studying Shakespeare, you can even take look inside of the globe theater. These are just a few of the ways that teachers could use google earth for educational purposes. There are so many things that could be done with google earth. It is truly an amazing resource.

GAIN google maps

I use google maps quite often, so learning about some feature i didn't know about was great. Google maps doesn't just give directions.

One of the feature that cam up right away was the ability to explore various places through the world wonders project. You can see various locations as well as get information on them, and even see videos about them. This would be a great resource for students who were doing projects on discovering the world.

Another feature that i learned about was the ability to see pictures taken by webcams from various locations. By hovering over the map icon you can choose to view where the web cams are and then click one to see the images. They have been taken within the last 45 mins. You can also see traffic for various areas. Selecting traffic brings up streetlights. When you click on a streetlight it takes you to that are and allow you to see What roads have fast moving traffic or slow moving traffic, and even where there is construction.

These are just a couple of features that i learned about on Google earth, and there are even more.

I looked at the google trek feature. This is so cool, because it allows teacher to take students on a virtual tour for free. Teacher can track where they want students to go, add links to websites with important information, and even add pictures. This was interesting, i had never known how to turn a word into a link before, so that was interesting to learn.  Students could travel across the country, or world in just a couple of class periods. Of course there is quite a bit of set up on the part of the teachers, but done right, it could be worth it. Setting up this google trek was very easy to do. This is a great tool for teachers to use in their classroom.

TECH Picasa

Picasa automatically brings up the pictures are saved on your computer. In order to work with or edit a picture you simply double click on it. You then have the ability to crop images, use red eye, filter images, or even add text. One of the things i though was interesting was that you could press a button and Picasa would only show you pictures with people's faces.

One feature i thought was really great was the ability to create a collage. For the most part you could only create a collage based on templates they already had in place, however, it is still a great feature, as you can move your pictures around to the carious locations that you want them. In picture pile you can move picture around to any where you want them, however there is no way that i found to bring pictures to the front or back.

Another feature that i thought was cool was was the ability to use your pictures to make a movie. You could add transitions between pictures, add text, and even add audio to the movies. Once your movie is done you can even upload the movie to youtube right from Picasa.

Over all i found Picasa a little difficult to navigate, but once you know what you are doing it is a great site for editing picture and even making fun things with them. Below are the pictures that I edited. The original is first and then the edited one.

GAIN google sites

 Setting up a website with google sites was actually fairly easy. it was easy to navigate, and quick to set up. You can start from scratch, or you can choose a classroom website template. I looked at the classroom template, however, i preferred to start from scratch as it gave me more freedom to create a page that i wanted. Adding pages to the sidebar was easy, you simply clicked the add page button and it brought up a new page for you to work on. Inserting picture was also try easy, you simply clicked insert, and then image then chose your image. When they image came up it is the original size, however you could easily make the image smaller and easies to work with. Over all Google sites is a great and easy way to create sites that are easy for students to navigate and for teacher to post important information.
My site is at https://sites.google.com/site/missamath101/home

TECH game-based learning

For this section I choose to look at a couple of Macro games.

The first one that I looked at was called Fitocracy. This games links gaming with fitness. The mission of the creators was to make fitness more fun, and a more addictive experience. I choose to look at this game in depth and so i did set up an account. When signing up for an account, it asks you to give your weight. The reason for this is so that different quests and achievements can be created just for you. Don't worry, they are not going to post this. It also asks you do check what your inteseted in the fitness for such as cardio, weight loss, strength, or group training. It even gives the option of adding friends so you can encourage one another, or even compete against each other. There is also the option to join various groups that allow you to make new friends and discover new workouts, for instance i joined three groups, swimmers, couch to 5K, and Nah, I'll take the stairs. Finally, it gives you the ability to follow expert  on fitocrats that will keep you motivated in your workouts.
The point of the game is that you workout in order to level up. You input workouts, for instance, i did a work out at the pool today that I was able to input and i earned 227 points. I also input my workout for monday at the pool. The website is designed to be very encouraging. You also have the ability to schedule a workout. Simply choose the date you want to schedual your work out for, so i want to schedule a workout for tomorrow, so I would go to Wednesday July 18 and schedule a work out. The site then sends you an email with the details of your work out. The site allows users to see who on the site has the most points. You can even challenge your friends or people in groups, and interact with people in your groups to talk about your successes and even learn new workouts.
This game would be great for a PE class, as it adds the gaming experience and the competition that some students may find lacking when dong typical workouts. There is obviously a certain amount of honesty that has to go into it, but if you can keep your kids hones this is a great game. It is also available to get on your smartphone, so the students can take it with them everywhere.
This is a game that I will continue to use.

The second game I looked into was not as in depth. I looked at chore wars. Chore wars lets users earn points for household chores. This gets kids motivated to do usually mundane chores such as taking out the trash, or washing dishes. Only the Dungeon master, or the person who set up the account to create chores, others can only claim them. While this game is obviously most useful for the home environment it could also be used in classrooms.  Students do various things like clean their desk, pick up papers, pass out paper, take out the recycling, etc. in order to gain points. The teacher could then set in place a reward system for students as they earn points. Chores that are urgent can be put up as quests. Quests double that XP and gold of a normal adventure. This game is a great way to make anybody, kids and adults, more excited to do chores.

GAIN google search

Today we are looking at various features of google search. One of the aspects that i looked into was customizing a google search. Basically this allows a person to go in and set up a google search bar to put on a website that will only search through a few different sites that are specified. This would be a great addition to a teacher's classroom homepage. Student could use this customized search to look for topics on websites that have already been pre approved by the teacher. A great advantage to this is that both parents and teachers know that when using this search a child is not going to accidentally stumble onto a website that could be deemed inappropriate. Also, since teachers will have pre approved the websites, they know that the information that the students are getting is accurate.

I also looked at creating google alerts. This allows someone to create an alert so that each time a new article about a specific topic is added the person receives and e-mail about it so that they can check it out and stay up to date on certain topics. It is really easy to do, you simply tell google what the topic is you are searching, what type of results you want to be informed about, how often you want to receive the alerts, and how many alerts you want to receive. This could be very beneficial to teachers as they could more easily keep up to date with educational issues, and new ways of teaching, and even new educational games. Instead of having to go on every now and then and do a search and wade through the different sites to find new and useful resources, instead they would be delivered right to the teachers inbox. This would be a great way to save time in discovering new educational resources.

The other google feature that I looked at was the advanced google search. This is something that i have use, but not often, so i didn't know much about it. Advances search allows users to search for more than just a single word of phrase. They can specify exact words or phrases to search for, numbers between a certain range to search for, or even words to avoid. What I liked about the advanced search was how many different ways that you could narrow down a search. You could search for results in a specific language, by the last time that it was updates, or even by reading level. Being able to search by reading level would be very beneficial when teaching elementary school, because you want to make sure that your students can understand what they are reading. You can even filter you search, which I think is really interesting because when using this with students whether inside or outside school, it is important to make sure that students are not going to accidentally stumble upon something that they shouldn't see, so the ability to put a safe filter on the search is a great feature.

Over all, google search has some great features that could be very useful for teachers to use, and it takes no time at all to learn how to use them.

TECH iPad Apps

For the TECH part of todays lesson I looked at a few different apps that are present on the iPads we use in class.

Th first app I looked at was called 3D Brain. This basically gives students the ability to go in an look at a virtual brain in 3D, they can move it and turn the brain to see it from different angles, and even add click a button that will label the various parts. The app gives the ability to look at the brain as a whole or in pieces such as just the frontal lobe, or even just the brain stem. There is even a button that allows students to get more information about the particular part of the brain they are looking at, some even include case studies about it.
I really like this app because it gives students the ability to explore the brain, both as a whole and in pieces without having to worry about taking things apart and putting them back together like with plastic models. This app could be very useful in the classroom when discussing the anatomy of the brain, as each students could have the 3D model right there on their desk and they could manipulate is as they needed to. It would also be a great feature for studying outside of the class room, as it provides labels for each part.

Another app I looked at was called Your world. What I really liked about this app is that it combines a game with the learning. Basically, there is a globe and then at the bottom there are various countries. The student have to try and figure out where on the globe the countries go and then put them there. I liked that it wasn't all well known countries, even in the limited version there were countries that even I had no idea even on what continent they should go. The app provides hints for this reason. I assume that in the full version, all of the countries are present.
This app would be great in the classroom for learning world geography. While, at times it is like putting a puzzle together, the students really need to know where the countries go. This could be good as a review, or even as the beginning of a lesson so the students can see just how many countries there are, and how difficult it can be to know where each one it.

A third app that I looked at was called quick graph. This app is allows students to input equation that they are graphing and then it graphs it for them. They can even graph equations that are already in the library, to see what they look like. This app basically works the same as the graphing feature on a graphing calculator, however as someone who has used a graphing calculator for years, this app is much easier to use, as it allows you to have more than one graph on the same screen. Also this app has the ability to graph on a 3D plain for high mathematics. Something that is not easy to do on a graphing calculator or on paper. It even has a button that allows the students to easily email the graph to themselves to use for studying or completing homework if the iPad must stay at the school.
This app would be great in high-school math classes for graphing as it is much easier to use than a graphing calculator, and had more graphing abilities.

GAIN Drawing

Today for class i looked in to Google drawing. Google drawing is really quite simple to use. One of the features that i really liked about Google drawing was how easy it is to copy shapes and images. Instead of having to copy and paste, like in many drawing programs, you can simply hover over the image and hit control on a PC or command on a mac and then click and drag and it will duplicate the image. You can also easily align images so that they are perfectly in line by simple clicking arrange and then either arrange horizontally or vertically. you can even choose whether to align them on the top left, right, or center horizontally, or top, bottom or center vertically. You can also add text to a shape by simply double clicking on it. Changing the color is simply as well, you simply select the image and click the pain icon and the color you want. Users even have the option to change the language in which they type in. Over all, this program would be great for students to create a creative presentation of a book, or even data they have collected.
Users can download the image they created to their computes in one of four formats that include (.pdf), (.svg), (.png), and (.jpg).
Again, one of the most positive aspects of Google drawing is the ability to share it with other easily, as well as have more than one person contributing to the project at one time.

I looked at a lesson plan that used google drawing. It was directed toward first grader. The students were asked to sketch a setting for a story, and then develop a story for that setting. Students, with the help of an older book buddy would then use google drawing to create their story. These drawing were then put into a google presentation, to create a book of short stories that could be printed. This allowed students to be creative, both in drawing and story telling, and then by doing it through google drawing and presentation the teacher was able to print enough books for each child to have one, instead of having only one book if were done by hand.

TECH Finders Keepers

Delicious is essentially an online bookmark page. . Adding links is easy to do by copying and pasting the link or you can add a button onto you tool bar. With this button, all you have to do is when you find a site you want to save, simply click the button and it brings up a box for you to give more information on the site, and then simply save it. You can also search  keyword and brows through sites that other people have bookmarked. This allows people to expand their search to site they may not know about or have found on their own. Delicious is a great way to share helpful sites. I simply looked up "math lesson plans" and was given a whole list of links that led to websites that contained wither full math lesson plans, or helpful activities to do with math students. There were over 200 results for this search.

Google reader uses RSS or Really Simple Syndication to bring things that people want to hear about together on one page. Websites publish a list of updates called feeds. Users can subscribe to these feeds, so whenever that website adds new content it will appear in the users google readers. The article shows up with only a small portion that can be read, however by simply clicking on the title the user can view the full article. Users can also tag articles that they like so that they can more easily find them again later. Users can also sort feeds into folders. they may have an entire subscription feed in a folder, or simply one article. It is simple to do. This could be very useful for teaching, as if there are certain sites that provide good articles on teaching or maybe you want you students to keep up with a certain website, you can subscribe to it, and then both the teacher and the students will have easy access to the content of those stories without having to search for them.

The library thing is basically and online card catalog. You can make a library of the books that you own, or make a wish list of books that you want. Users can search for specific books or the can search by author or even just by a key word. The books may even link users to a sight were they can buy the book, and there is palace for users to review the books or even have conversations about them. Users even have the ability to add books that may not already be not he website. This would be a great thing for teachers to have, as students can get on, and have a full list of books that the teacher has in the classroom. This would be a great resource to use to discover new books in about various topics. The students could use it when dong research projects to find books that may help them. Of course, they would then have to find a library that also had that book, but it could be a great starting point.

GAIN forms

Creating the form of the quiz itself was easy and very see explanatory. I also liked how it automatically made a spread sheet to accompany the quiz. This was definitely a plus. Things got a little more complicated however in trying to figure out how to make the test self scoring. However, once it was figured out, it was pretty simple from there. The key is waiting until after the students take the quiz. Then, you can write the formula and copy the formula down for all the students. When doing this however it is important that the row that is being compared, or the answer key, is always the same to do this, in the formula make sure that those corresponding cells contain the $ so instead of B2:D2 is would be B$2:D$2.

I looked at a lesson plan where the class was studying human dimensions. The teacher had the students measure various parts of their body such as wingspan, and height. The students then entered their data into the Form that the teacher had created, which automatically entered it into the corresponding spreadsheet. Students could then look at this data sheet and answer questions about corresponding lengths and even calculating wingspan based on height, based on the correspondence they see in the form.

Another Teacher who was doing a consumer product testing experiment had the students make a form to conduct their survey. As people took the survey the answers they provided where automatically entered into a corresponding spreadsheet, which the students could then use to view the data, draw conclusions, and even make graphs for it.

Forms is a quick and fairly easy way to conduct surveys and quizzes, and even have google grade the quizzes for you.

TECH Gmail, Google Calender, iGoogle

I have only been using Gmail for a few months now, so although I am pretty good with the basic features, i have not actually had the chance to look into some of the other feature Gmail has to offer. For instance, I learned today that since my iPad that I use in class is connected to my Gmail account, all the notes I take on my iPad are saved to the notes section of my Gmail. Gmail also has a chat feature, which, if you choose, you can save all of our chats to your Gmail as well. Gmail also gives users the ability to prioritize their inbox, so mail sent from a priority person would be at the top of the list. Gmail also allows you to sort you contacts list into various circles such as family, friends, and acquaintances. One of the other things that I just learned about tonight is Gmail's task feature which allows the user to basically write a to do list. You can even add details as to what a certain task requires and can check it off as you finish each task.

Next I took a look at Google Calenders. I have used Google calenders a little at my internship last summer, however, I did not use them enough to fully understand what all could be done. Basically, i know that they can be accessed and edited by anyone who the page is shared with. Google calender gives the user the ability to set up a monthly calender, a weekly calender or an agenda for the day. One of the features i really liked about Google Calender was that no matter where you input an event, it will show up on all the other calenders. So if I input an event on the day calender, it will also show up on the weekly calender and the monthly calender. And vice-versa. You can also import another calender into your own, so for instance, I could import my friend Hannah's calender and see when she works and when we both have free days. Or I could import the calender of the Colts season and have all of their games placed in my calender. You can also print any level of your calender easily.

Finally I looked at iGoogle. iGoogle is basically a personalized homepage. I actually already had an iGoogle page, but i don't often use it. One of the best features about iGoogle is that you can personalize it to fit you personality and needs. You can add gadgets to the homepage that interest you, so for instance I have the weather for my hometown on my iGoogle homepage. Gadgets are easy to add and remove and there are a number of different Gadgets to choose from such as news, sports, games, facebook, Gmail, to do lists, and you can even have your Google Calender on your iGoogle. There are a variety of ways to make your iGoogle personalized whether it be just for your own personal use, or if you would want to create an iGoogle page that could be used as a homepage for your classroom. iGoogle would be a great way having everything your students may need right on one page. It's very easy to use, however it should be noted that iGoogle will only be around for about another year, so teachers and individuals should not rely to heavily on it at this time.

GAIN spreadsheets

The google spreadsheets are again fairly similar to excel with the main difference being the ability to have multiple people working the project at the same time. Also the fact that it is online, and so can be accessed from most anywhere. One feature that I saw that the google spreadsheet had, but excel did not was the paint feature, which basically allows you to more easily copy and paste the content of a certain cell, including formulas. Google spreadsheets also allows you to format the input numbers as percents or dollars with just the click of a button. Because it is online, google spreadsheets also allows users to insert various gadgets to the document that will use the data given to produce a chart.


I looked at a couple of different lessons that incorporated google spreadsheets. Both lesson plans that I looked at where science lesson plans. in one, the students were asked to conduct a survey and then use the google spreadsheets and input their data into it. The students would then use the data they had input into the spread sheet to create a chart. By doing this the students could see, in both number and char form, the data they had collected and see what the over all outcome. The example the teacher used was a survey on coke vs. Pepsi vs. diet Pepsi. One the data was put into the spreadsheet and the chart was made, it was easy to see that students in the school preferred the taste of Pepsi, but the look and health of diet Pepsi.


The other lesson plan I looked at focused on collaborative lab assignments. Each member of the team did their part of the lab experiment in a different place to see if that affected the experiment they did. The students were required to count the number of bubbles produces in a 4 minuet period. The students then input their number the counted into a google spreadsheet. Google spreadsheets allowed for each team member to input their data on the same spreadsheet while at their various locations. Then, with the data the students input into the spreadsheet they then created graphs to show with locations produced more bubbles, and which produced less.


Google spreadsheets would be a very useful teaching tool, especially in science classes, as you can have students preforming various experiments simultaneously, but they can still input their information into the same spreadsheet. If i teach science in the future I can envision using one or both of these lesson plans. i especially liked the one with the collaborative lab assignments.

TECH basic browsers

I have had quite a bit of experience working with firefox and safari, so in dong this assignment I choose to look into Google Chrome, Sea Monkey, and Sunrise. In comparing these three browsers i opened them all up at once to see the differences and similarities.
Just looking visually at these three browsers, there are quite a few differences. For instance, visually Sea Monkey looks similar to Internet Explorer. It has a favorites menu right on the screen as well. A couple of things that are interesting as far as actually using Sea monkey is that to open a new tab you must go through a couple of different menus. Also, it only has an address bar, but no search bar. However, the address bar works as a google search bar as well. I also thought it was interesting to note that there was a print button right on the tool bar of the page.
Google Chrome visually looks similar to firefox. It automatically opens up in tabs, and has an easy button for opening up new tabs. It does not have a favorites bar right on the screen either. it does have an easy button on tool bar/address bar for bookmarking pages however. It only has an address bar, but no search bar. However, once again the address bar works as a google search bar. There is not really a tool bar on the page, however there are a couple of basic buttons like the refresh button and customize button on the address bar.
Sunrise visually looks very similar to Safari, with a few differences. The first difference being the Sunrise opens up already in tabs, with an easy access button for opening more tabs. Once again, it does not contain a google search bar, but instead the address bar works as a google search bar. The address bar doubles as the tool bar containing buttons for the home page, history, bookmarks, and others that I will talk about later. When the browser opens it has the favorites screen to the right of the browser screen. Which can be made larger or smaller or taken off completely. The favorites are also easy to add and delete. Some of the extra tools that Sunrise includes on the tool bar are a screen capture button, a button for switching between different browsers that you may have open, a button for sending a report for something suspicious, and the ability to change the language right form the main tool bar. Sunrise seems to me to be the most user friendly.

GAIN google presentation

For the most part, Google presentations seems to be quite similar to a regular Microsoft powerpoint. t even includes a space for students to write notes about each slide. The main difference is again, the ability for more than one person to be working on the same project at the same time. This is what makes google presentations more desirable to use within a classroom setting. Also, because it is all done on the internet, students are able to access their projects from anywhere. These two things make google presentations a great alternative to Microsoft power point.

There are many different creative ways that teachers can use google presentations. One way that I saw was a teacher who used google presentation to have her students create a choose your own adventure story. I thought this was really creative because the students were using creative thinking, writing skills, and technology. It sounds like something students would rally enjoy. The benefit of doing this on google presentations is that students were able simultaneously work on their different slides on the same projects.

I also mentioned another project in my GAIN post about google documents about a teacher who used google presentations to have her students make a vocabulary slid show. Each students, or pair of students contributed one slide abouta  particular vocabulary word. The presentation was then shown in class. I think this is great because the students had an avtive part in creating their own learning presentation for that aspect of class.

Another teacher used the form and spread sheets available in google drive to have her students put together a consumer product testing experiment. After choosing a topic and a target group, the students used google forms to create a survey. Once they collected the data from the surveys, they used that information to create a spreadsheet on google drives.

TECH keyboarding

The website http://freeonlinetypinggames.com/ provided quite a few various games that students could play to improve their typing. They also had games for various age levels from smaller children just learning their alphabet, to older children who are learning to type fast. My partner Elise played a game called Farm Defender were kids simply typed one letter, this would be for students just learning their alphabet. I played a game called Alburn's attack, where students have to type words at a fairly quick speed in order to keep the attacking enemy away. This game would help improve students typing speed more than accuracy.

http://typingclub.com/typing-qwerty-en.html provided an activity for students to learn typing focusing on only two letters at a time, with a review for the whole row. Students type these two letters in various patterns, copying what they see on the screen. The website provides feedback based on accuracy and the amount of time taken.

The website http://harald.ist.org/index.php?site=neu&page=invaders&lang=en offered a game that is great for getting students aquatinted with the keyboard and where letters are located. The goal is to type the letters on the invading spaceships before they reach earth. They must be typed in order, and the closer to earth they get the faster they get to speed is also an issue.

GAIN Google Documents

Google Documents is an application offered were people can work on one single document simultaneously.  Also, since it is online, it can be accessed from anywhere. This means that while one person may be writing a report or such, another can be proof reading it simultaneously and editing it as they go. And these two people don't even have to be in the same room. The fact that multiple people can work on one single document at a time is both an advantage and disadvantage over a regular Microsoft word document. The advantage is that when students are working in groups, all students can have access to the project or report, and can add to it, make changes and edit it. The down side to this however is that on person can make changes to the document without the others knowing, so it would require that the document be re-read each time a person goes it to add to it. The comment section helps with this weakness however, as they can comment and tell the others on the project what they have edited or added. The advantage of Google documents for teachers is that they can actually monitor the students as the go along. Another advantage of google documents is that you can create more than just a simple word document, but can also collaborate on projects as well. Google docs also allows students to work on projects both inside and outside of class without having to worry about carrying around thumb drives.

The collaborative editing that is available through google documents it a great feature because it allows someone to edit what is written right on the document either as you go along or after it is finished. This would be a nice feature to have for editing documents. I worked at a job where we did a lot of editing papers. Google documents could have been beneficial because we could access students papers from anywhere are edit them, and then the students would already have access to the edited paper. It would make editing papers more time friendly. That being said, one of the things I really like is that when you invite a person to proofread or edit the paper, you can specify based on how you invite them, whether they can only access and read the document, or whether they can actually make changes to it.

I read a lesson plan where the teacher incorporated using Google documents into her lesson the seven wonders of nature. The students basically had to makes a web page in google documents. It this had been done the traditional way, students would have had to each type up what they thought was important individually, and they come together to put it all together into one presentation. With google documents however, each students could work on his or her own part simultaneously. So that all the information was already gathered together in an organized way. A social studies lesson on state research did something similar where students were grouped and asked to make a google site together. again they had the advantage of being able to work on the project together from different computers, as well as being able to work on the project from home. This is often not something that students are able to do, as many group projects can only be accessed on one school computer. Another teacher used google documents for teaching vocabulary. Each pair of students was given a different vocabulary word to define and create a slid about. by doing this project through google documents, once each pair was done creating their slid, a mini slide show for their vocabulary words was already to be presented to the whole class, without having to cut and paste 10 or so different slides together.

TECH Macs

I have been using computers for about seven years. I mostly use a mac however I also know how to use  a PC.
Since I regularly use the Mac OS operating system I listened to how to use more specific features of the mac. I listened to and learned about voice over. This feature allows people who are seeing impaired or blind to navigate their computers. This video gave instructions in how to turn on the voice over and how to use it. This feature will tell the uses what they are pointing to or clicking on. Although I often work with a mac I did not realize that this feature even existed so it was very interesting to learn about.
I also listened to the video about speech recognition. This was another feature that i have never worked with, however it is very interesting and useful. It allows users to speak to the computer in order to navigate it. This feature would be very helpful for someone who may be multitasking or not well at navigating manually.
Finally, I listened to how to turn written text into speech. This application would be good for if someone would like to hear something that they have written read to them. It would also be good for those people who may not be able to read a web page easily, they can instead have the computer read it to them. Along with this I learned how to save the spoken text to itunes. Again this could useful for saving speeches and such that you would like to listen to, or have other listen to. This would allow the user to sink the text speech to their ipod so that they could listen to it anywhere. This was another feature that I did not realize existed so it was interesting to learn about, and something that I would like to play with on my own to learn more about.

GAIN blogs

In his post "In Which the Teacher is Sacrificial Poet at His First Poetry Slam" Clay Burrell recounts his time of being the person to go before the audience before the students for their First Annual IASAS Forensics and Debate Poetry Slam. I really enjoyed that he included a video to allow people to watch and hear him read his poem. I like how Burrell uses his blog to share about his time as a teacher, even including some things that his students have done or written.