Post #2 My Favs

Alright, well I guess this week we're supposed to talk about our favorite websites. Well I'll share with you a couple and explain a little bit about why I like them. One is JJHuddle, this is a website that is geared towards those who like sports. I particularly like the discussion board where you can read and discuss with others your opinions about the different sports from high school to college forums. This discussion board really has nothing fancy about it, but it is very easy to navigate. The second site that I frequent on a daily basis is our local newspaper, The Marion Star. To be quite honest, I read the paper online because it is free. Sometimes I wonder how a newspaper can have a free website and stay in business actually. I mean I realize they make most of their money from advertisement, but just think of how much revenue they're losing in subscription fees. This site usually has a leading story including a picture in color and other articles below that. I really like the tabbed "Breaking Story" and "News Updates" links that allow me to access the latest news. The last site that I like to look at is a photography site dedicated to sports. Oh boy, here is the sports thing again. Well for those of you who don't already know both of our children are involved in sports and Momma got a new camera last summer. I absolutely love to shoot sports photos, but I'm still in the learning process. This site, as you can see, has a menu option on the left side of the screen that allows me to easily surf it's contents and read others comments and suggestions about how they are taking or shooting their photographs. One thing that I don't particularly like about this site in the black background with white lettering. After you have read the context in this color formattion for a while your eyes tend to get weary. It's kind of like when someone takes a picture of you using a flash, you know that blue haze kind of feeling? It's kind of that effect. Anyway, those are a few of my favorites sites. I'm going to go comment on Tia's and Janet's sites now. Bye!

#1 Hi! Nice to meet you!

Hello my name is Peg. I'm a full-time student undergraduate at OSU working toward my Bachelor of Education degree in Business Education. This is my second go around with Fawn and one of her technology classes so if you will scroll down you will see that there are previous comments about class. Oh just a perk for her class, I did enjoy what I learned last quarter so let's hope this quarter turns out as good.

The good-looking guy that is with me is my husband, Rich. We've been married for 20 years now. I almost can't believe that he has put up with me for that long, but thank goodness he does. I also have two wonderful children, Colleen (14) and Nate (11), which I'm sure you'll be reading more about later.

At this point in my life I use the Internet daily. I feel like I'm in front of the computer screen constantly, but I do enjoy the technology. I use the Internet for emails (both professionally and personally), research for school, and as an education tool for myself. One day I will be teaching students how to navigate the web so I need all the practice that I can get to know what I am doing. My goal is to be employed at my home school district of North Union.

I do not have any previous experience with working with web design. Actually, I'll be honest after Thursday night's class, I'm probably even more confused. It'll be alright though. I know that I'll get through it with the help of my classmates :-) I think I'll concentrate on designing a page that I may be able to use in the future for classes that I will be teaching.

I posted on Scott's and Janet's websites this week.

Blog #9

Wow! I can hardly believe that this class is almost over. My understanding and use of technology has grown tremendously this course. I can honestly say that I have enjoyed using Photoshop and Movie Maker to make my own creations that meant something personal to me. By actually using the software I would feel comfortable introducing them to my students to see what creations they could come up with for their projects. I have tremendously enjoyed the on-hands approach to learning for this course. I believe that as an educator if we can get our students involved in their learning that they too would actually learn something. By that I mean, that hands-on learning is tremendously important. It allows students (us too) to explore, make mistakes, and then fix them which stays in our minds much better than just to read it out of a book and try to memorize the information.

I probably won't keep up the blog, as it isn't really my style, but it was fun to read other people's blogs to see how they were reacting to the class. I know that if I could actually afford it I would be out there purchasing the software for my home computer. Let's just hope that when I get a teaching job that the school district will have the software. Better yet, they'll let me purchase the latest version!

I wish you all continued success in your careers. Remember that networking is a wonderful thing, and by meeting new people each quarter you never know when you might come in contact again for some purpose. Good Luck at The Ohio State University!

http://dendinger1.blogspot.com

Blog #8

The idea of using video production professionally is a very interesting one. First of all, I believe that this is an area that would actually excite students and make them want to learn the process of creating their own movies. By using a software program like Microsoft Movie Maker it could allow a student who is very creative an outlet to their creativity. I believe that there are very creative students in our schools who may not be doing well in core classes because they are so creative and unable to use their imaginations in those courses. This in turn bores them and they may not put forth the effort because it is not something that they "like" to do. Whenever we can tap into something that our students actually want to learn and do is definately worth the effort of teaching it to them. I could also see students producing their own movies, documentaries, or maybe even creating a recruiting tape for the business program. I know that my own home school district is looking for more areas in which to open up the media and instructional courses and this could be a course that could be taught very easily. Is it possible that someday you may have to submit a video interview in place of a resume for employment purposes rather than going to a face-to-face interview? The possibilites are endless and only squelched with the possibility of no creativity.

www.livingproof077.blogspot.com

Blog #7

The video that I am making currently with Movie Maker is about my son's basketball team Orange Crush. Throughout his season I have used my digital camera and taken many action shots of Nate and his teammates. I am using them in conjunction with some video I shot of them during a basketball game to create a year end movie of their season. My plan is to show them their movie at the end of their awards program and to present them with their own copies. This is becoming a very time consuming project since I have to search through approximately 300 pictures to chose which ones I feel are appropriate for viewing. Also to come yet is the editing process of the actual video footage which I took of their recent game. Each team member was interviewed on the video tape so that each one of them becomes a part of the overall project. Music is pretty easily brought into the project, as we (my family and I) own quite a bit of Jock Jams CD's which contain alot of upbeat music.

http://audio.search.yahoo.com/search/audio?_&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-501&x=wrt&sngid=52396982262806f42fc773363c481baa&p=get+ready+to+rumble&n=100


Click on the above link and you will be able to download "Let's Get Ready to Rumble", which is one of the songs I'll be using on Nate's movie.

I'm really looking forward to finishing this project. Only because I'm excited to see the boys' and their parents reactions to viewing it. Here's hoping that they love it!

www.richardkayser.blogspot.com

Blog #6

Working on Movie Maker so far has been a really interesting activity. I chose to work by myself because of the project that I wanted to do. I originally had the idea to create a Powerpoint presentation for my son's basketball team, but after hearing about the abilities of Movie Maker I decided that this software would be perfect to create a movie instead. I only chose to work alone because of the topic of my video and I assumed that other's wouldn't really be interested in my son's team. Anyway, it is nice to have a personal connection to this movie, which makes me want to work on it.

http://jennyhinz.blogspot.com/

Blog #5--Literacy

I think that contempary design can help to improve literacy. If we can make a newsletter, newspaper, or magazine article more appealing to the eye then maybe they will want to take the time to stop and actually read it. I think this can really be used with the teen age group. It seems that in this day of technology not many teens actually take the time to read. Emails, instant messenging, and cell phone technology has made communication a very short and quick process. Unfortunately, I think that this technology has caused people to push literacy issues aside. As a future educator, I want my students to be literate. They need to not only be able to read the material, but comprehend it. If I can design something by using contempary means that makes a student want to pick it up and read it, then I'm all for using it.

www.bculver7.blogspot.com