Hey all,
Here's a sample I created in Prezi for a Percents/Fractions notes page.
Thanks. -Regen
Monday, March 14, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Animoto Sample....
Hello,
Here's an Animoto sample video I created using some Christmas decoration pictures.
It was pretty easy to set up the account and upload the pictures from my computer. I created this demo using the free user account and was tempted to sign up for the fee-based account to access longer video times.
Here's an Animoto sample video I created using some Christmas decoration pictures.
It was pretty easy to set up the account and upload the pictures from my computer. I created this demo using the free user account and was tempted to sign up for the fee-based account to access longer video times.
Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Blog Post #5: Wikis.....
Hello,
I began to learn about wiki’s on youtube viewing the ‘wikis in plain english’ video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY
I instantly related to the hypothetical scenario discussed in the video. The video discussed 4 friends trying to email back and forth to organize a camping trip. Instead or sending out countless emails to each other and making sure to include all members in each email, a ‘wiki’ could be used. Before I discuss more aspects of a ‘wiki’ I just wanted to state some obstacles and/or difficulties that groups encounter in trying to organize group emails. Also note that the use of a ‘wiki’ solves all of these re-occurring problems encountered with group emails.
In organizing group emails the initial ‘sender’ must remember to include all email addresses of a particular group. If people are forgotten then other ‘recipients’ could include missed members if they quickly ‘cc’d’ that person in a ‘reply-all’ email. This gets challenging because new email messages composed by group members must use the ‘reply-all’ message with the missed cc’d members or else any new emails will neglect to include the original missed members as well. Regular email is kind of limited in this regard. Regular email doesn’t update email lists in real time, in response to newly included or removed members. With a ‘wiki’ you can always be adding or removing people to the group list.
Another con to regular email is the accidental comments or poor choice of words offered up by some insensitive group members, either on purpose or by accident. Once you type something and send it, an email cannot be changed. The only option a sender has is to create an entirely different email with corrections noted. Within a wiki anyone can change a comment instantly or add on to the information already contributed. I can remember many instances where I am sure family members would have loved to have been able to change their comments within a group email.
As you may have guest, a ‘wiki’ is a private webpage shared only by members of the wiki. Non-members cannot view or change the pages. A wiki is like a meeting place where members can gather and share, or review information. Once an account is created, friends can be added to the list of people who can read and post items on the wiki. The concept of a wiki reminds me of the concept of conserving paper, in this case electronic paper.
I signed up for a wiki page on https://my.pbworks.com/
I chose this site over three others offered by the youtube video I watched. This site was free and it seemed pretty straightforward to navigate through and sign up for a page. This wiki page also had no advertising and didn’t look overly busy with banners of photos etc. The page I created is at the following address: http://regenslibe477page.pbworks.com/w/page/37183511/FrontPage . Please visit this page and email me if you want to be included. I set the settings to ‘public’ so I’m sure anyone can see it and write on it. Hopefully this was alright to select ‘public’ for the security settings.
In the future I’d like to research the methods these wiki sites use to determine which posts take priority over other posts in reference to times posted. For instance, if two people logged onto the same wiki at similar times and began to modify the same wiki page and then posted their results, which post would appear as the most recent change? Could someone’s post or alteration therefore be ‘cancelled’ out if someone were to make a change a few seconds afterwards? I would also like to research whether users could make their posts read-only or in other words make their posts impossible to alter? I guess if wikis employed this kind of read-only style of post that it would defeat the purpose of a wiki. Having users post responses that cannot be changed is more like a blog or a discussion board than a wiki.
In terms of educational purposes, wiki’s could definitely be used to initiate students to discuss classroom issues and promote more online discussion. I think students would find it exciting to be able to change other students post in order to clarify ideas and make posts more accurate.
I began to learn about wiki’s on youtube viewing the ‘wikis in plain english’ video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY
I instantly related to the hypothetical scenario discussed in the video. The video discussed 4 friends trying to email back and forth to organize a camping trip. Instead or sending out countless emails to each other and making sure to include all members in each email, a ‘wiki’ could be used. Before I discuss more aspects of a ‘wiki’ I just wanted to state some obstacles and/or difficulties that groups encounter in trying to organize group emails. Also note that the use of a ‘wiki’ solves all of these re-occurring problems encountered with group emails.
In organizing group emails the initial ‘sender’ must remember to include all email addresses of a particular group. If people are forgotten then other ‘recipients’ could include missed members if they quickly ‘cc’d’ that person in a ‘reply-all’ email. This gets challenging because new email messages composed by group members must use the ‘reply-all’ message with the missed cc’d members or else any new emails will neglect to include the original missed members as well. Regular email is kind of limited in this regard. Regular email doesn’t update email lists in real time, in response to newly included or removed members. With a ‘wiki’ you can always be adding or removing people to the group list.
Another con to regular email is the accidental comments or poor choice of words offered up by some insensitive group members, either on purpose or by accident. Once you type something and send it, an email cannot be changed. The only option a sender has is to create an entirely different email with corrections noted. Within a wiki anyone can change a comment instantly or add on to the information already contributed. I can remember many instances where I am sure family members would have loved to have been able to change their comments within a group email.
As you may have guest, a ‘wiki’ is a private webpage shared only by members of the wiki. Non-members cannot view or change the pages. A wiki is like a meeting place where members can gather and share, or review information. Once an account is created, friends can be added to the list of people who can read and post items on the wiki. The concept of a wiki reminds me of the concept of conserving paper, in this case electronic paper.
I signed up for a wiki page on https://my.pbworks.com/
I chose this site over three others offered by the youtube video I watched. This site was free and it seemed pretty straightforward to navigate through and sign up for a page. This wiki page also had no advertising and didn’t look overly busy with banners of photos etc. The page I created is at the following address: http://regenslibe477page.pbworks.com/w/page/37183511/FrontPage . Please visit this page and email me if you want to be included. I set the settings to ‘public’ so I’m sure anyone can see it and write on it. Hopefully this was alright to select ‘public’ for the security settings.
In the future I’d like to research the methods these wiki sites use to determine which posts take priority over other posts in reference to times posted. For instance, if two people logged onto the same wiki at similar times and began to modify the same wiki page and then posted their results, which post would appear as the most recent change? Could someone’s post or alteration therefore be ‘cancelled’ out if someone were to make a change a few seconds afterwards? I would also like to research whether users could make their posts read-only or in other words make their posts impossible to alter? I guess if wikis employed this kind of read-only style of post that it would defeat the purpose of a wiki. Having users post responses that cannot be changed is more like a blog or a discussion board than a wiki.
In terms of educational purposes, wiki’s could definitely be used to initiate students to discuss classroom issues and promote more online discussion. I think students would find it exciting to be able to change other students post in order to clarify ideas and make posts more accurate.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Blog Post #4: Podcasts....
Hello,
‘Podcasting’ stands for Personal, On, Demand Viewing of videos, or listening to radio programs produced by individuals.
The idea of recording television first became popular because people developed desires to watch their favourite television programs at other times than the television stations were offering them. Listeners also had to tune in to radio stations at the right time to hear radio programs that they enjoyed.
The first solution to this problem was the VCR (video cassette recorder). Sony did produce its own version of the VCR termed the BETA recorder but it virtually performed the same operation as the VCR. Later the DVD (Digital Video Disc) recorder was produced, and currently the most popular form or recording is via the PVR (Personal Video Recorder).
PVR devices are typically supplied by the cable companies as incentives to sign up with them for multi-year contracts. The PVR unit’s record onto a hard drive, meaning there is no media disc or tape. The hard drive can hold hundreds of hours of television and recorded shows can be erased at any time. The nice thing about PVR units is that you can set them to record at similar times during the day or each week. The one drawback of the PVR unit is that it must be connected to a cable source to receive the video feed.
Enter the newest technology of Podcasting. From viewing the youtube video: Podcasting in Plain English http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMgemQahuFM, I make sense of the technology by comparing it to a wireless version of a PVR. The word ‘wireless’ refers to the lack of internet connection with respect to Mp3 players and wireless internet connections. Where the PVR has to be connected to an internet or cable source to record a television show, a device such as an Ipod or Mp3 player can receive the latest podcast recording wirelessly while in the user’s pocket!
To receive a podcast wirelessly, the user must first download a program that is able to receive or ‘capture’ the incoming podcast information. The capturing devices are termed ‘pod-catchers’ and be as simple as an iTunes program.
The actual technology available for this to work is quite amazing. I never knew what podcasting was until this blog post. Though the technology is great, I feel that the freedom to produce and ‘cast’ radio and video over the internet is far greater. Podcasting creates more ways for people to express themselves in an easy manner, and gives way to a far greater ‘electronic’ freedom of speech.
So for the actual creation of a podcast I visited the website www.podomatic.com and created a user account. Funny, this was one of the first accounts I had to create because google doesn’t own this website and I therefore can’t use my google email address. All the previous web tools have been owned or linked to google and one didn’t need to make a whole new account. Anyways, the podomatic site had a great layout and a very hip feel while you were visiting. Creating an account was easy and I liked how you didn’t need to go back to your email and enter in any verification code. Once you entered your email address and full name, you could begin immediately with your first podcast.
The process of publishing a podcast was similar to other web tools, as the site prompted you for a title and message for your podcast. At first I thought podcasts were all video based and was worried about the transfer process from my camcorder to my computer. Then after searching around I found that podcasts can also be strictly audio-based as well. Before creating my podcast account, and my first podcast, I had used my windows basic audio recorder to record a quick audio clip. I didn’t know where the microphone is on my laptop but as soon as I hit record and began to talk, my message was being recorded.
Once I had created an account, I uploaded my audio recording and posted it on my podcast homepage. One note is that the audio clip must be recorded elsewhere prior to making the podcast posting. The Podomatic site only organizes the already-created media. This site does not help with the specific creation of audio or video. The user must upload established material before entering the ‘make a podcast’ section of Podomatic. After creating my first podcast, I copied the hyperlink and posted it within my blog. It looked fine but I then desired to have it embedded into the site to create an easier access for visitors to my blog. You have to click on a few extra buttons within the Podomatic site and find the button that states ‘embed within facebook or a website’. When you follow the embed button, you’re provided with the embed code in which you can cut and paste as you wish into any sort of web document. One final note, prior to pasting the embed code into your blog, be sure to click the correct tab button so that your blog post accepts, and processes the ‘html’ embed code correctly.
In the future I would love to create more podcasts and would love to later experiment with video as well. As for teaching, a podcast would be a great accompaniment to any teacher website for a course. I teach math so I’ve thought about creating weekly podcasts which would verbally explain math concepts along with video footage too.
Please see my embedded podcast message in my previous blog post.
Thanks. -Regen
‘Podcasting’ stands for Personal, On, Demand Viewing of videos, or listening to radio programs produced by individuals.
The idea of recording television first became popular because people developed desires to watch their favourite television programs at other times than the television stations were offering them. Listeners also had to tune in to radio stations at the right time to hear radio programs that they enjoyed.
The first solution to this problem was the VCR (video cassette recorder). Sony did produce its own version of the VCR termed the BETA recorder but it virtually performed the same operation as the VCR. Later the DVD (Digital Video Disc) recorder was produced, and currently the most popular form or recording is via the PVR (Personal Video Recorder).
PVR devices are typically supplied by the cable companies as incentives to sign up with them for multi-year contracts. The PVR unit’s record onto a hard drive, meaning there is no media disc or tape. The hard drive can hold hundreds of hours of television and recorded shows can be erased at any time. The nice thing about PVR units is that you can set them to record at similar times during the day or each week. The one drawback of the PVR unit is that it must be connected to a cable source to receive the video feed.
Enter the newest technology of Podcasting. From viewing the youtube video: Podcasting in Plain English http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMgemQahuFM, I make sense of the technology by comparing it to a wireless version of a PVR. The word ‘wireless’ refers to the lack of internet connection with respect to Mp3 players and wireless internet connections. Where the PVR has to be connected to an internet or cable source to record a television show, a device such as an Ipod or Mp3 player can receive the latest podcast recording wirelessly while in the user’s pocket!
To receive a podcast wirelessly, the user must first download a program that is able to receive or ‘capture’ the incoming podcast information. The capturing devices are termed ‘pod-catchers’ and be as simple as an iTunes program.
The actual technology available for this to work is quite amazing. I never knew what podcasting was until this blog post. Though the technology is great, I feel that the freedom to produce and ‘cast’ radio and video over the internet is far greater. Podcasting creates more ways for people to express themselves in an easy manner, and gives way to a far greater ‘electronic’ freedom of speech.
So for the actual creation of a podcast I visited the website www.podomatic.com and created a user account. Funny, this was one of the first accounts I had to create because google doesn’t own this website and I therefore can’t use my google email address. All the previous web tools have been owned or linked to google and one didn’t need to make a whole new account. Anyways, the podomatic site had a great layout and a very hip feel while you were visiting. Creating an account was easy and I liked how you didn’t need to go back to your email and enter in any verification code. Once you entered your email address and full name, you could begin immediately with your first podcast.
The process of publishing a podcast was similar to other web tools, as the site prompted you for a title and message for your podcast. At first I thought podcasts were all video based and was worried about the transfer process from my camcorder to my computer. Then after searching around I found that podcasts can also be strictly audio-based as well. Before creating my podcast account, and my first podcast, I had used my windows basic audio recorder to record a quick audio clip. I didn’t know where the microphone is on my laptop but as soon as I hit record and began to talk, my message was being recorded.
Once I had created an account, I uploaded my audio recording and posted it on my podcast homepage. One note is that the audio clip must be recorded elsewhere prior to making the podcast posting. The Podomatic site only organizes the already-created media. This site does not help with the specific creation of audio or video. The user must upload established material before entering the ‘make a podcast’ section of Podomatic. After creating my first podcast, I copied the hyperlink and posted it within my blog. It looked fine but I then desired to have it embedded into the site to create an easier access for visitors to my blog. You have to click on a few extra buttons within the Podomatic site and find the button that states ‘embed within facebook or a website’. When you follow the embed button, you’re provided with the embed code in which you can cut and paste as you wish into any sort of web document. One final note, prior to pasting the embed code into your blog, be sure to click the correct tab button so that your blog post accepts, and processes the ‘html’ embed code correctly.
In the future I would love to create more podcasts and would love to later experiment with video as well. As for teaching, a podcast would be a great accompaniment to any teacher website for a course. I teach math so I’ve thought about creating weekly podcasts which would verbally explain math concepts along with video footage too.
Please see my embedded podcast message in my previous blog post.
Thanks. -Regen
Monday, February 28, 2011
Now I think I have the embed code....
Ok, 2nd try.
I think I've got the embed code now.
Hopefully this will work better or replace the link to the website.
-Regen
I think I've got the embed code now.
Hopefully this will work better or replace the link to the website.
-Regen
Hello,
Hopefully this works. I've recorded a podcast demo using an audio recorder on my computer. I then wanted to embed this sound clip within a blog post. I then went to the site 'podomatic' and set up an account. I was able to upload my podcast recording and the site gave me a link.
http://schmidt-r.podomatic.com/entry/2011-02-28T23_30_12-08_00
I will post this and see what it looks like. I want to have it embedded so there's no link so if this doesn't do that, then I'll find a different way to do it.
Thanks for your patience.
-Regen
Hopefully this works. I've recorded a podcast demo using an audio recorder on my computer. I then wanted to embed this sound clip within a blog post. I then went to the site 'podomatic' and set up an account. I was able to upload my podcast recording and the site gave me a link.
http://schmidt-r.podomatic.com/entry/2011-02-28T23_30_12-08_00
I will post this and see what it looks like. I want to have it embedded so there's no link so if this doesn't do that, then I'll find a different way to do it.
Thanks for your patience.
-Regen
Monday, February 14, 2011
Blog #3: Social Bookmarking sites....
Blog #3: Social Bookmarking Sites (Delicious).
Firstly, I watched ‘social bookmarking in plain English’ on youtube. This video clip was very useful in justifying the use of an application such as delicious. The link to the video is … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeBmvDpVbWc
From what I gathered from the video, ‘bookmarking’ refers to the saving of good or useful websites on your internet browser. Though this process can clutter up your ‘favourites’ section if you are bookmarking a lot of sites. And these bookmarks are specific to a particular computer, meaning you can only view your ‘favourites’ or bookmarks on that one computer. Along comes social bookmarking sites such as ‘delicious’ and grants users a free webpage to store these bookmarks. This makes a neater job of storing a bunch of useful sites and it also allows the users to access these bookmarks from any computer with internet access.
I then visited the delicious website and set up an account. The website prompted the user to either make a completely new account, or log in from a yahoo user account, or even login from an existing facebook account. It’s amazing how all of these internet applications are interconnected and one user account can establish accounts on all of these sites. I set up an account using my facebook account. The link to my delicious page is the following http://www.delicious.com/2be9026849256c3e8964b1dc6d7ad2ed
On a side note, I had previously posted the link to my bookmark page on my blog site. To include that same link on this blog post I used the copy and paste function. When I pasted the web address into this report, nothing appeared. It took me a while to realise that within my blog the font is coloured white so when something is copied from it and pasted into a document with a white background, nothing appears. One must select the pasted information ‘blindly’ and change its colour.
The one aspect that makes these sites social is that each users bookmark page is public. Everyone can therefore see which sites you find useful and you can see which other sites that people find useful. This feature doesn’t really make sense unless you know the person and know their interests. From an educational perspective, if you could view the bookmarks of a fellow teacher who also taught the same subjects as you, then you could potentially benefit from sharing bookmarks. In a wider scope, an entire school could sign up for a school-based delicious account to keep track of more general websites that teachers could benefit from.
Our school (Earl Marriott) is currently in debate with the school district over changing the bell schedule to a 5-block day in order to accommodate our 1900+ students. So much technical and legal information is associated within this proposal and our staff union representative is trying hard to keep up with keeping the staff up to date with our/their rights. Instead of attaching documents to emails he could potentially create a school-wide delicious site and bookmark all the pages that he is referencing and presenting to the staff. That way, the staff could access the information more readily and not be limited to the information our staff representative presents us with. If instead, our staff representative presented us with a bookmark site that shows various articles and more information for those who desire more descriptive details, then users could decide the quantity of information they read.
For more ideas on ways to use the delicious bookmark site, I visited the website http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-use-delicious-social-bookmarking/ in which Kristi Hines offered up 8 ways to use delicious. Kristi brought up some good ideas and I especially enjoyed the idea regarding the creation of a company delicious site for employees to see all the bookmarked sites that could yield good information. I immediately thought of a building contractor and the website links to all the reliable trades companies that worked out great and not-so-great. A contractor could use a bookmark page for future reference of who to hire and this list could be shared with other contractors or companies requiring services.
Educationally this idea of a school-wide bookmark site could be used for purposes such as giving parents links to available tutors or learning centres that work best for students. Also, as educational cutbacks become a yearly reality, teachers could use a social bookmark site to keep track of sites that offer competitive prices on constantly required school supplies such as overhead transparencies, projector bulbs, and photocopy paper etc.
Firstly, I watched ‘social bookmarking in plain English’ on youtube. This video clip was very useful in justifying the use of an application such as delicious. The link to the video is … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeBmvDpVbWc
From what I gathered from the video, ‘bookmarking’ refers to the saving of good or useful websites on your internet browser. Though this process can clutter up your ‘favourites’ section if you are bookmarking a lot of sites. And these bookmarks are specific to a particular computer, meaning you can only view your ‘favourites’ or bookmarks on that one computer. Along comes social bookmarking sites such as ‘delicious’ and grants users a free webpage to store these bookmarks. This makes a neater job of storing a bunch of useful sites and it also allows the users to access these bookmarks from any computer with internet access.
I then visited the delicious website and set up an account. The website prompted the user to either make a completely new account, or log in from a yahoo user account, or even login from an existing facebook account. It’s amazing how all of these internet applications are interconnected and one user account can establish accounts on all of these sites. I set up an account using my facebook account. The link to my delicious page is the following http://www.delicious.com/2be9026849256c3e8964b1dc6d7ad2ed
On a side note, I had previously posted the link to my bookmark page on my blog site. To include that same link on this blog post I used the copy and paste function. When I pasted the web address into this report, nothing appeared. It took me a while to realise that within my blog the font is coloured white so when something is copied from it and pasted into a document with a white background, nothing appears. One must select the pasted information ‘blindly’ and change its colour.
The one aspect that makes these sites social is that each users bookmark page is public. Everyone can therefore see which sites you find useful and you can see which other sites that people find useful. This feature doesn’t really make sense unless you know the person and know their interests. From an educational perspective, if you could view the bookmarks of a fellow teacher who also taught the same subjects as you, then you could potentially benefit from sharing bookmarks. In a wider scope, an entire school could sign up for a school-based delicious account to keep track of more general websites that teachers could benefit from.
Our school (Earl Marriott) is currently in debate with the school district over changing the bell schedule to a 5-block day in order to accommodate our 1900+ students. So much technical and legal information is associated within this proposal and our staff union representative is trying hard to keep up with keeping the staff up to date with our/their rights. Instead of attaching documents to emails he could potentially create a school-wide delicious site and bookmark all the pages that he is referencing and presenting to the staff. That way, the staff could access the information more readily and not be limited to the information our staff representative presents us with. If instead, our staff representative presented us with a bookmark site that shows various articles and more information for those who desire more descriptive details, then users could decide the quantity of information they read.
For more ideas on ways to use the delicious bookmark site, I visited the website http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-use-delicious-social-bookmarking/ in which Kristi Hines offered up 8 ways to use delicious. Kristi brought up some good ideas and I especially enjoyed the idea regarding the creation of a company delicious site for employees to see all the bookmarked sites that could yield good information. I immediately thought of a building contractor and the website links to all the reliable trades companies that worked out great and not-so-great. A contractor could use a bookmark page for future reference of who to hire and this list could be shared with other contractors or companies requiring services.
Educationally this idea of a school-wide bookmark site could be used for purposes such as giving parents links to available tutors or learning centres that work best for students. Also, as educational cutbacks become a yearly reality, teachers could use a social bookmark site to keep track of sites that offer competitive prices on constantly required school supplies such as overhead transparencies, projector bulbs, and photocopy paper etc.
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