Everything always works out in the end!

After having technological issues and venting on my blogger (sorry), I decided to sleep it off and try again in the morning! Well when I woke up I decided to try my parents laptop to see if the program would download, and it did! I had a very good morning because of it! Photostory is wonderful. I thought it would be great to use to review a book that was assigned for the kids! I decided to make my Photostory on The Great Gatsby. If you would like to take a look at it, it is attached to my google site.

Frustration

Its always something that hits hard at the end of the semester. These last two projects have been the death of me. I feel like the actual idea of creating a photo story is awesome. It is just not working out for me tonight. I have everything ready but the program will not download. In order to download this program I have to update three other things which are not working! Technology is so frustrating! Now I'll have to cancel my doctors appointment tomorrow even though I'm really sick, because I'm going to have to do this at school! Hope there's a quiet room available! :(

Missed

Unfortunately, I had to miss last class because I was very ill. This is the kind of class that if you miss one night, you miss too much! I have no idea what digital storytelling is, but I am determined to learn about it and make project six very good! I started watching the video on our class website and it seems pretty interesting. I am not sure, but I hope I do not have to download anything to do this; I don't think my computer can take anymore programs! So far, I'm thinking that this is a project that I can put to use in the future and make me a tech savy teacher!

Pechakucha

Wow. That was quite a project! I have to be honest, that was my least favorite. I feel like everything that could have went wrong did! I have an old version of power-point which did not cooperate with Pechakusha. I ended up having to do it in school. The difficult part is that it is hard to find a quite spot on campus. I ended up giving up finding an empty (or close to empty) computer lab. I had to borrow a friends laptop who had the right version of power-point! I understand the assignment and I do think that it is a very nice idea, but this was a pain in the butt! Oh well, I am looking forward to the next assignment!

Whew

What a relief. Cindy and I just finished our Wimba presentation. I was pretty nervous because even after practicing it a couple of times, I was still uncomfortable with Wimba. We figured out how to hear the audio for the video on Cindy's portion of the presentation, but of course mine didn't work! I was dissapointed because it is a pretty interesting video to hear the students collaborating on creating a prezi. Oh well! I think we did a pretty good job explaining how Prezi is used. I really enjoyed learning and playing around with PreziU. I can see myself using it as an educator if I do not have a smartboard in my classroom. Its also cool that you can use other teachers materials. If you have time take a look at www.edu.prezi.com.

Presentation

So this week we are doing presentations on Wimba and I have to say, it is a little nervewracking.  I have just completed my screencast with Jing, which was pretty interesting.  I thought it would be much more difficult than it actually was.  Its would be a great tool for professors of an online class to use as a tutorial for a project.  Other than that, I can't see myself using it in the future. 

So now I am on to preparing myself for the presentation that I will be doing with Cindy this Wednesday evening.  We have decided that we will split up our focus.  She is going to focus on how to use and make a Prezi presentation and I am going to focus on PreziU.  Prezi is this REALLY cool presentation maker/editor.  It uses these zooming effects that really capture your attention.  You can take a look at it at www.prezi.com. Not a believer? Check out this introduction video I found.

Smartboard!

This week we had our smartboard presentations.  I have to say I really enjoyed this project, and I have never had that much fun doing a presentation.  The smartboard software is awsome.  I hope that in the future I will have a smartboard in my classroom.  I have requested that we get one where I work, at Stockton's preschool.  I feel like a have a great understanding of how to use the smartboard after creating my presentation and watching everyone else's presentation.

Technology can help you learn!

Last week we had class on Wimba, which was exciting.  I was actually dreading the Wimba class because of a past experience with it.  I thought that without face to face contact with my professor, that it would be hard to focus.  Well I learned that it is nice to have a Wimba class, and that with an exciting lesson plan it can actually be fun.  My favorite part was when I was able to speak to the class through my headset.  I was not even required to have a headset in my past class, we just needed to listen.  It was fun being in the breakout room, doing research on tablets, and talking to my partner.  I learned a lot about tablets in an instructional use.  I really do hope that more schools establish this, because students need that interaction with technology.  If more schools instituted a tablet program, there would be less texting under desks and more learning going on.

Wow. This is exciting!

Google is an amazing website.  I had no clue how much there was to it.  I was amazed when I learned about Google Docs, Blogger, Sites, etc. It is the ultimate source of organization.  I am planning on moving all of my notes from class into individual documents on Google Docs.  If I ever want to reference anything that I learned in school, I can always count on these documents to be online waiting for me.  It is also very practical for me because I am constantly using different computers or laptops and I would not have to email papers and notes to myself anymore!  The Google Site is something that I want to use for work.  Our website for the preschool is so out of date.  I am going to see if I can make this a project to do at work.  I think that parents would love a website that is updated monthly discussing what is going on at their children's school.  We could post important information about projects, potlucks, etc.  I am so excited about how much I have learned so far from this class.  It is really going to make a difference in my life.

Hello

My name is Arianna Donzuso. I am in school working towards a degree in Literature. After obtaining my Literature degree, I plan to pursue Elementary Education. I am passionate about working with children and helping them learn. I believe that this technology class will help me gain experience in using technology in the classroom. Throughout this class, I will focus on learning about new technologies and making creative lesson plans for the future.  The video that we watched earlier was very interesting.  It puts into perspective how frequently children are using technology outside of the classroom.  It makes you wonder about certain ways that you, as a teacher, could incorporate technology for the benefit of your students.