ClassMaker

Hey all,

Classmaker is a great program for teachers who don't have access to a system such as Moodle or Blackboard. The flexibility of the tests is wonderful as it allows short, essay, multiple choice, multiple response and true/false questions to be written. With tools such as random question production it also ensure that students cannot copy each other.

I made a test and asked a couple of friends to try it out for me (as I don't have a class to test it on) and they said that it was really easy to use and very straight forward. I also made another account for it and found that it was even easier than Moodle or blackboard to use for the first time (remembering how much trouble I had learning how to use the two).

I think that this is a great tool and am so happy that it is readily available to everyone, allowing teachers to assign tests in a more effective way that the old pen and paper.

See you,

Jess

Picnik

Hey all,

I think that Picnik is the best photo editing application avaliable for free use. Unless you own photoshop or photoelements then there is no program out there that is as easy to use and has as many functions.

This is the photo that I have played around with and found it so easy to use. I could adjust the color, select Black and White for some sections and color for others. I was performing tasks that take alot of effor twith advanced photo programs with ease. It is and AWSOME tool.

This site is great for students to use to create their own artwork and photo adjustments.

Hope everyone else loves this site as much as I do!!

Jess

Flickr

Evening all,

I LOVE Flickr!! It is so easy to use, it is so simple to navigate, and makes posting photos on the internet so easy!!

This is my beautiful pony jumping 1.45m in the championships. She has now been given her well deserved retirement.

I think that this is a great tool for students to use to share their work and get feedback from not only their class mates, but also from the internet audience.

I think its great, I've heard other peopl ehave had troubles with it but it has just worked so well for me!

Night all,

Jess

Presentations with PowerPoint

Hey all,

The major challenge in making a presentation is the entertainment factor. If it isn't entertaining and won't keep the attention of the audience they are not going to learn the content presented. However, if the presentation provides too much entertainment, the audience will be hanging out for the next joke or effect and not pay attention to the content.

That leaves the question of what to do!?!

Well my idea was to provide a presentation that involves entertainment and information. So using an avatar such as Voki makes a good way to start... get everyone's attention. Using slide with dot points on them and elaborating on the points keeps attention on me, as the speaker and using transitions and sound effects keeps the audience entertained. I also feel that it is important to allow questions to be asked through out the presentation as this means that they won't be forgotten by the end of the presentation.

I didn't find any challanges with PowerPoint as I have used it extensivly at school, however I found that the tutorial helped me remeber many of the tools that I had forgotton. It was great to be refreshed and I have bookmarked the page so that I can use the information for future presentations.

I found that the PowerPoint tutorial was helpful and provided me with lots of ideas about how to use the full capabilities of the program. I will defiantly use PowerPoint more often in the future!!

What does everyone else think of PowerPoint?

Night,

Jess

References: PowerPoint in the Classroom, 2009. Retreived July 29, 2009 from CQUniversity e-courses, FAHE 11001 Managing E-Learning

Avatars and Voki

Evening all,

I made a Voki, as you can see to your left. Its a horse - of course - and a talkinging one, so I choose to call him Mr. Ed. (Its a talking horse - of course)

Well, Voki... Its a little different. I think that it could be a good way to start a lesson or introduce something, however it can become over whelming if presented for to long. During a long lesson, Voki's could be used to bring attention back to the subject and wake up students from the monotony of speech.

Voki's also allow students with poor reading skills to access content provided. They also provide students with poor speech skills a way to present oral's and use voice to enhance their presentations and self-confidence.

Voki is fun, Voki is creative, Voki is interesting. Using an avatar such as Voki is a great way to enhance a lesson or introduce a new concept. Entertain students with this fun concept to create interest!

Night all,

Jess

Mahara

Afternoon all,

I am not a fan of Mahara, I sturggle to use it and find it time consuming to create the views as they are have many process's involved in completing them.

It has taken me a while to work this program out. Mahara is an interesting way of creating a portfolio that can display several “view”s. These views enable the owner to display information to certain users. These views are individual pages that the owner can create to display feeds from web pages, pictures, text, and any other concepts they wish. The flexibility of Mahara enables the user to have total control of the displayed information.

Mahara can be an educational tool through its versatility and ability to display various information. A teacher can create multiple views and then allow access to students as they progress though the work, enabling them to view more information.

I am not sure that I would ever use Mahara as an educational tool or for any purpose. I find it hard to use and hard to navigate around. I don't think that it is really a suitable learning tool as it takes a large amount of time away from studying content into learning how to create the pages.

I would love to hear what everyone else thinks about it,

Jess

Google Reader

Aggregator's are a useful tool in the Learning process as they allow students and teachers to keep track of information. When using a Blog or Wiki as a learning tool, it can be hard to keep track of updates, however using an aggregator allows information to be tracked and all persons needing updates to be kept 'in the loop'.

When asking students to create their own blog and using it as an assessment item, teachers can mark the URL's of students blogs and receive notifications of updates that students are making. Likewise, students can mark the URL's of other students and the teachers blog to allow them to keep up-to-date with their peers and the activities the teacher requests of them.

I know that I use Google Reader to keep up-to-date with what my peers are posting on their blogs as well as accessing news feeds. Google Reader makes it easy and straight forward to comment on my peers blogs and see their opinions on items. I have only used Google Reader as I try and streamline my accounts and as I already have gmail, it makes it much easier for me to use Google Reader than Bloglines. I have also found that Google Reader has many more functions than Blog Lines.

Aggregator's can also be used to receive up-to-date news and new postings on websites of interest. Keeping up with news and events is essential in today's environment, and by using a facilitator such as Google Reader makes knowing what's news much easier.

Thanks for reading,

Jess