A Sweet Farewell

This semester turned to be a really great one, I didn’t have many expectations for this class honestly. To start off I wasn’t to happy about having to use Twitter and actually post on there. I despised it so much, I could not figure out why we would be using this app. After talking to a few of the guest speakers we had the past few weeks I realized how Twitter could help us. It is such an easy way to find people in our future professions and connect with them. I was taken away when Adam Taylor talked to us about how he started this scientist chat. I love science it is absolutely my favorite subject I would have enjoyed this in my past years of middle and high school. Having kids communicate and video chat with actual scientist takes learning to a whole different level and makes it exciting.

Learning about the wonders of Google was eye opening, like I said before I had no idea there was so much to it. Google docs especially was a lifesaver when it came to papers this term. Such a fast way to get your bibliography, quotes, anything related to your topic in just one click. I haven’t even used PowerPoint I stuck with Google slides. Another app I still use is Evernote I cannot write too fast without struggling to read it later. Taking notes in my other classes was a breeze since I was able to record them speaking. It is simple, quick and easy note taking  and I will continue using it until I am done with school.

Who could ever forget about Zookazam? Definitely not me, this is one of the most memorable apps that we went over. How could you not love having an animal pop up in your hand or on your desk! It has been the best entertainment for my soon to be 5 year old, he loves this app so much and of course always steals my grass pad. When it comes to growing my PLN it was rough at the start I didn’t know what to do or how to get it started. After hearing the guest speakers and the chapter readings I was able to get  a better understanding. Now I follow quite a few groups and professionals in the Forensic field, I also had 2 request from people in the field which was exciting.

The thing that will stick with me that we went over in this course is social media etiquette. I did not know how important it was and that it even existed in technology. This is the prime reason people get fired for pure stupidity. Along with that keeping in my mind that we leave digital footprints. With every post, picture, tweet, and video we upload to social media will always be there and even if deleted we can still find it.

Tweets by @Sanabria5290

The fun part of class

    This week we had guest speaker Robyn Hrivnatz, she works for Microsoft a part of the education program there. She work on curriculum development and over seeing the educator trainer program. Robyn feels that as an educator social media is crucial, personal learning community is able to give advice, feedback, you learn about the latest trends, and business. In the business aspect its very important because you get an instant, need to know, and view the competition and that is crucial because you need to be relevant to your buyers. Things you need to know, understand your audience, and understand your competition. What Robyn loves is something called true collaboration that its there any time, any place, offline or online it works and it is instant feedback. She calls today's kids microwave kids they want everything instantly.  She gave us some great tips to follow while out on the social media sites: have a careful balance being professional yet still being yourself. Build out your network look for #s search for whatever your passionate about. Find the influences and follow them and do not be scared to reach out and connect to them. Build a personality that is interesting to a potential employee or potential connection this is important on sites like Linkedin.

    Class got even better when all we were told to bring foil, cardboard, bananas, and play doh it threw everyone off. We used makeymakey and had to figure out how to win either frogger, mario, and guitar hero. This was beyond fun we went into groups and started to brain storm we laughed, while trying to work hard to be the first to win. Google doc, you can view the google sheet showing what worked for us and didn't and some of the pictures while we worked. I am happy to say my group was the winners we were able to get frogger across twice =).  The video is posted to my twitter Sanabria5290 check it out to watch frogger leap into victory. 

   Chapter 9 in the Connected Educator goes into learning new things we need to unlearn a lot of things from our past to be able to keep up. They discuss learning 2.0 and its 4 components: knowledge, pedagogy, connections, and capacity. With knowledge it focuses on awareness of your networks expertise and knowing how to connect with students rather than memorizing and what you know. Pedagogy is taking the classroom and creating this safe, stress free, community based environment for your class and being connected even when not in school. Connections teaching students about PLN's, making your connections grow on your media, finding communities and sharing your ideas openly. Capacity this gives the learner room to grow and discover their passions and interest and it gives them the freedom to do so. It is all about how teachers who are connected educators are changing education with the use of the internet. I agree being connected online would have helped a bunch when I was in middle school. You have the access to help in and out of the classroom and this is what connected education is all about. 

So much work so little time

    I was unable to get to class this week but I was able to get a hold of my Professor for a quick catch up session. In class we are closing in on our final weeks which means our final PLN project is coming due. So we went over some of the sites that we can use to bring our final project to life. The site that I thought was really cool was Weebly you can choose from different layouts to it being a blog, business use, and much much more. Wix is the same concept since these websites are for building your own site. It is pretty simple and easy dragging and dropping till everything is the way you like. Google webdesigner is pretty easy to use as well the only thing for us Stockton students we would lose it once we graduate since it hooks up to your gmail.

     Weebly for educators, this article went over how weebly can be used in your classroom. You can post assignments, import pictures and videos, and even create student digital portfolios. Just sign up at the address provided http://education.weebly.com/, create your website name, you can start to design your layout, and add your pages like math or reading.  You can finally publish it using the orange button, and can easily go back and fix anything you need.  You can check out your students forms using the more button, you can also create a blog by clicking on pages.
 

   

        Web design tips for Wix first and fore most browse the internet for a bit collecting  your favorite web designs.  Second use accent colors, make what important tabs pop with strong bold colors that stand out and help the visitor navigate smoothly. Third: don't use too many fonts on one page this can easily distract your reader and remove the attention from your products. Fourth: less is always more keeping it simple and to the point will benefit greatly too much fluff will make it less attractive. Fifth: symmetry is very very important when designing your website. Having too many ideas can confuse and distract your readers and that is not something you want. Sixth: using a background that compliments your website not something that takes away from your site it is the keystone of your site. Seventh: usability is very important you need to make sure that it is easy for users to navigate you can't assume everyone can get through every website. Eight: make sure you always a create deadlines to keep you on time and help you manage your work. 

      About me I used this app for an assignment and it was so simple, quick, very easy to navigate, and it was efficient. It starts off with your biography basically answer who you are just do not go over board and give the reader too much information. What you can do for the reader, see yourself as the reader and they click because they relate you. Always put your contact information so your readers can easily get in touch with you and adding your social media links is highly recommended.  Adding a photo is critical you should choose one that goes with your personality (like professional, funny, or looking good).  Highlight your best posts and the most popular ones as well it is an easy way to get traffic on your page. When this is all done create an indented google listing this will be sure to get you viewers on your page. 

     Chapter 4 in Untangling the Web is all about social networking tools, to help students create their online identities. Todaysmeet is a site that allows teachers to create communication boards that can be private or public that are used for discussing and documenting classroom interactions. Skype of course is one the more popular sites that we have all used even if we did not use it for education. Skype in the classroom is designed to help teachers find other educators and experts willing to share and allow you to volunteer to do the same in their classrooms. Kidblog is pretty obvious it is just blogging for kids allowing them to have a safe and secure site just for kids.  Edmodo lets you broadcast messages to your entire class, individuals, and groups. Teachers can us this site to create quizzes and polls  and students can respond by the site or online. And than there is Twitter which we use in our class to share our blogs, articles, and make connections.