GAIN, 5-19-2015,

To be honest, I had the most fun with this assignment. I have always wanted to design my own web page, but I always thought it costed money so I never explored deeper into it. So needless to say, I was excited to start this one. I figured I would create a site about history. Now that sounds boring because history is one of the more hated subjects, but that's why I want to teach it. History has been taught incorrectly by most teachers, but by no fault of their own mostly. "Teaching for the test" is the new style, and it produces results, but sadly, that means a lot of name and date cramming. I want to teach in such a way that makes the subject fun and informative at the same time, covering all the name and date stuff while introducing themes and connecting the dots.

But enough about that. So I started with a blank template and went from there. I watched a few AtomicLearning videos, but after a while, it all just became natural to me. After having used many of the Google Apps, creating, editing, and formatting were a breeze. I made several pages that students and parents can go to. One was a "This Day in History" page so students can learn about what happened on this day years ago. I also have another page with links to great websites that are educational, practical, and not boring at all (to me at least), so in case students want to research a topic further or learn about something. I also included a mission statement-like page explaining why I do what I do, so students and parents can have a background on my methods. Lastly, I created a page with a link to Google Maps so they can explore the world from the comfort of wherever they are. I know Google Earth would be better, but there was no link to that, so I chose the easy way out.

I will most definitely use this and add to it in the future. Having a website is a good place for students to go for information (I plan on adding an assignment page in the future), and for parents to go to so they can see what their child is doing in class. Instead of giving out assignments and telling them links to go to while in class, I can do it all through managing a classroom web page. This is an AWESOME resource.

Click Here to check out my website!

GAIN, 5-17-2015

I have never used Google Forms before. The spreadsheets aspect has always been my turn off to it. Also, I like the idea of grading manually so I can comment and such on it myself. But after trying Forms, I started to warm up to it a bit. I found it kind of confusing though with all the formulas, but I'm not a spreadsheet person so this wasn't surprising. I do enjoy the thought of self-grading quizzes though and it's neat to see that Google now has this technology. Creating the test itself was very simple and I had no difficulties with that. Where it got tricky was creating the formulas for grading. I watched all the AtomicLearning videos several times and read the blog links that were posting but I was still having trouble. So I watched this one video that introduced a program called Flubaroo that self-grades. I really enjoy this program! I love mostly how it self grades, but also highlights the most missed questions automatically so a teacher can see the questions students are having the most trouble with. Now that I discovered that program, I will more than likely use this program in the classroom.

Click here to take the quiz

Click here to see the Spreadsheet

As Graham pointed out, there are many advantages to using forms. Administrators can use it to create questionnaires and surveys that can be posted on the school's Facebook or Twitter page. Teachers can use it to easily grade assignments (because on pg. 115, Graham says that educators are bombarded with collecting data representing student performance). Grades can also be compared across assignments this way, and administrators can access them at any time because they are on the cloud. It also fulfills two CCS for Presentations by making strategic use of digital media to express information and presenting information in an organized line of reasoning that are appropriate to the audience. It also fulfills a standard for Writing because a student must conduct a small research project and create a way to maintain and synthesize his data while improving his writing skills (The aforementioned skills are on page 117). I believe Graham uses Forms too much as a data organizing tool than as a quiz/survey creator. While it can definitely serve as both, the primary app for data is Google Sheets. He mentions the use of keeping the students' contact info on it, but why would you do that in Google Forms instead of Google Sheets. Maybe my simple mind cannot comprehend such things.

TECH, 5-16-15

Taking spelling tests is one of my fondest memories from elementary school. Why? Because I was good at it. I loved to have my mother call out words from the book and I'd write them down or spell them back. So naturally I was intrigued by an app that would help with spelling. After watching the video on My Spelling Test, I found myself impressed at what all it can do and how easy it is. A user can create a test by typing in a word on the iPad and record themselves saying the word, maybe along with a description just to clear things up. The student then starts the test, hears the recording, and spells the word by typing it correctly. This allows the student to set up practice quizzes for themselves so they can solo study. While I don't plan on going into elementary education and I don't necessarily see myself giving spelling tests, I think this app has potential for more than spelling. A student could use it for learning vocabulary words. Someone records the definition and the student has to enter in what the answer is correctly to get it right. That may be thinking too outside the box, but I think it's worth a shot.

On the other hand, I have use the Dictionary app a lot. Back during undergrad when I was a paper writing machine, I was always using the app to figure out if I could use the big words that I had heard before or seeking alternatives to overused words. I love the app. They have all the words that I could possibly need (even though the reviewer complained because they didn't have a Hawaiian word). I love the Thesaurus option too. The recent searches comes in handy because, for example, if you happen to forget what words you've previously searched and used while typing the paper, the app keeps a list of them. The listing of all definitions and pronunciations of the word(s) is a really big help too. I'm a fan of the app, as you can tell. For a free app, it doesn't get much better.

I have never used photo shop. I am not a big picture taking person, so editing photos is not my forte. I thought I'd check out the Adobe Photoshop Express just to see what it could do, but after watching the tutorial, I went and downloaded it myself. It's super simple to use. You can take an existing photo and edit it in almost any way you want at the touch of a finger. Now while I don't plan on going and editing every photo in sight, this will come in handy when the lighting isn't right or something like that. And again, for a free app, it doesn't get much better.

I had heard of ComicLife before, but had never used it or seen it being used. I like the template options that the app has. That kind of gives the designer a background of what to do. I also like how each separate slide can be different layouts and themes and stuff. One thing that bugs me though is that when I think of comics, I think of a drawn picture. This app only allows you to draw using pre-designed shapes which doesn't leave much room for creativity. Now one could go draw a picture in a different app and save it as an image, but that involves going back and forth between pages and apps so that's a pain. The uploading options are nice though. You can print it, open the comic with Chrome or iTunes just to name a few. The app itself can certainly be useful for like having kids do a comic strip for a project or have a group work on it for a presentation, but it definitely has some areas that it could improve in.

I've been using Newsy since high school. Each week, we had to turn in our brief thoughts on five different current issues. I plan on doing something similar in my classroom. Staying involved in what's currently happening in the world is essential to being a good citizen. Newsy condenses stories into easy to digest sound and video bytes. Attention spans are growing shorter and shorter and its becoming harder for younger generations to sit and watch CNN for a while and gain something from it. Newsy makes news short, sweet, and to the point. Like I said earlier, I could definitely use this in a classroom setting by having the students report on current events and offer their own opinions on whatever topic they choose.

The USA Factbook app really didn't do much for me. I like the part about having access to maps and original copies of the great documents of this nation at all times, but it defeats the purpose of what I want to show history to be like. History is more than just random facts that can be accessed on an iPhone, it's a cause/effect system. It's themes, the whys and hows rather tan the whos and whens. Don't get me wrong, facts can be cool, but using this app as a teaching tool will not be something I will be doing. The app itself is convenient to use, laid out simply, and has a lot of information, but to me personally, this app has more use in spouting off random knowledge to friends than it does in a classroom setting.

Google Earth is amazing. I know we've covered this in class and how ro use it in the classroom, but it's still very neat to me. In the video, Paul Hamilton shows how you can use it in the classroom in a way that I had never thought about before. He brought up the suggestion of using it as an icebreaker to get to know students. They could type in the name of a place they've been and tell a story about it. This would help gain familiarity between the students and teacher and between the students themselves. Google Earth can go anywhere on earth and zoom down close to ground level, which shows vivid detail. Although many places' photos haven't been updated, it's still a neat tool to use in the classroom, and one that I definitely plan on utilizing.

GAIN, 5-13-15

I have rarely ever used spreadsheets. I've updated address and contact information for some businesses that kept their info on Excel, but never to tally grades and such. So I had to watch all the tutorials to figure out this Google Sheets thing. I think it's a good program, extremely similar to Excel from what I can tell, but useful in an educational setting. Science classes can use it to enter data in for experiments, math classes can use it for...whatever computing they do. Teachers can use it (as I tried to demonstrate) for keeping up with grades. This keeps the grades accessible anywhere there's Internet, rather than the old fashioned way of keeping the grades in an actual grade book.

To me, the easiest part of figuring out Sheets was the formatting. With a toolbar similar to that of Microsoft Excel and Word, doing what I wanted to with the font and such was easy. it was difficult for me to figure out how to sum, average and such, and I may need to work some more with it to master it. This technology is just too much for my simple mind to handle.

Here's a link to my spreadsheet;  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YUmkJyg7WpdWvvg5TCbFuJe383D7fJXGH2dC33cgYN4/edit?usp=sharing

In the text, graham points out that Google Spreadsheets satisfies the Standard for Mathematical Practice 5. This program "allows students to collect data in cells and manipulate the data to make charts and graphs that the student can use to explain his or her findings," as it states on page 93.Using spreadsheets also better prepares the student to collect, manipulate, share, and present data. As our society become more and more STEM focused, technology usage will go up. And with more and more students being pushed to go into a science field, then they need to have a mastery of how to best enter and show their data in an organized way.

TECH, 5/13/15

I love making PowerPoint presentations. I was a stickler for them in high school and college and each one had to be perfect. So naturally, I chose to do Keynote. I was unfamiliar with the software despite having owned an iPad for a while because my go to was using PowerPoint. I was impressed with the simplicity and ease of use, but then again, it is an Apple program so it is to be expected. Some similarities I noticed where it offered templates right from the start, including different styles of slides depending on the type of presentation you wanted to do. The formatting of the slides and the process of editing the slides is also very similar to PowerPoint. After having used PowerPoint, I found the program easy to use and navigate. There are a lot of options for transitions and builds, which surprised me. A real difference is the toolbar at the top. Where as PowerPoint's toolbar can be overwhelming with all the pages and options, this simply has 6 icons and 3 words. It's much less intimidating to a first time user or a novice to Apple software.

Using Keynote on an iPad, while somewhat simple to do, can be a bit frustrating at times. It is way easier to use a mouse to create a presentation. On the iPad, I often suffer from "fat finger" syndrome and end up clicking things that I don't mean to and I can't figure out how to get out of what I just did. It would also be more difficult if you typed in notes on your presentation because you would have to go back and forth between notes and presentation. This is a great app though, and i look forward to using it, maybe not on the iPad, in the future.

Box.net is also a great site to store files on the cloud. I had never heard of the site, but I downloaded it and played around with it and it is a neat program. I feel that it shares a lot of similarities with Google Drive but it's a good way to save and access files on the cloud without having o log onto Google.

I had also never heard of Rover, but upon further research, I found that it is a browser for K-12 students and provides links to educational sites, such as PBS Kids and the NASA Kids' Club. It is also formatted similar to Safari, so that will be familiar to some. One flaw that I found off the bat is that it blocks Wikipedia, which I do not agree with in an educational setting. I fully support blocking a lot of sites in schools, but access to an online encyclopedia is not one of them. Also, it blocks YouTube. It's given that most things on YouTube may not be best for education, but it also has a lot of neat educational videos on there too. I also don't agree with that.

I like Safari. It's a great alternative to Internet Explorer. While I lean more towards Chrome as my main browser, Safari is a close 2nd. I think it has the potential to be used effectively in a classroom setting, provided that the proper blocking software is installed on it.

iThoughts is a really neat program. Again, i had never heard of it so, I had to investigate and play around with it. It takes making web diagrams to a whole new level. And again, as with all Apple products, it's so simple to use. The click-and-drag feature really simplifies so much because it eliminates typing and copy & pasting images. The webbing features, zooming in and out with ease, and connecting different parts of the diagram make this a valuable teaching tool. As a history teacher, I can use this to show the flow of events in a cause/effect format or I could use this is a lesson about a specific person, place, or event. I definitely plan on using this in the future, even if I have to pay the $10 or so to download it myself.

GAIN (Google Drawing), 5-10-15

I've never been much of an artist. I can barely draw straight lines for stick people. I was not blessed with that talent as my mom and brother were. If I ever did any drawing, it was tracing pictures in books. So I was a bit hesitant about trying out Google Drawing. I did not want to try anything too fancy or intricate because this was my first time using it and I am not artistic in the slightest. So I chose to draw a beach: sunny, blue water, blue skies. Then I played a bit with the WordArt feature to tie it all in together.

I learned a lot by watching the videos about Google Drawing, such as that you can collaborate with someone to perfect your drawing. That is definitely a plus to non-artistic folk like me. Plus, it can create group collaboration on project drawings in real time. 

Also I didn't know you could use it to create higher level designs like the Tangram square. That fulfills several Common Core standards across the board from Writing to Mathematics to Speaking & Listening. Google is making educational applications that are fun and easy and meet the CCS. That is a win win win the way I look at it. Children are becoming more and more technology prone. They all can use Google, so introducing things like Google Drawing can only enhance their learning experience.

GAIN (Google Slides), 5-10-15

I grew up in a Microsoft Office world. From middle schools when PowerPoint was starting to be a requirement and we typed everything on Microsoft Word to just a few months ago when I typed my 40 page Senior Thesis on Word and entered in data from Health class on Excel, my academic life has been dominated by Microsoft software. Even though in the last 10 or 15 years as Apple and Mac have begun to rise to the top of the technology popularity race, mostly all academic settings still require proficiency in and repeated use of Microsoft Office. 

Almost every student has had to give a presentation of some kind somewhere or another in their years of schooling. That usually required spending a while making a PowerPoint, saving it on a flash drive, bringing it into class, and uploading it on the classroom computer. 

Google has changed that. With Google Presentations (Slides), a user can create a presentation and save it to the Cloud (Google Drive) so they can open it or access it to edit anywhere where they have an internet connection. The days of carrying a flash drive and hoping your presentation comes up on the computer you're using in the same state it was in when you last saved it are over.

After playing with it a little, it is very simple to use. The controls are very similar to the PowerPoint ones we have all come to know and love (a hint of sarcasm there). There are many different options for formatting backgrounds, fonts, and transitions, the number of backgrounds may not be as plentiful as they are in PowerPoint, but there are more than enough to keep a fresh backdrop every time you use it.

Graham in his textbook points out a key Common Core standard that Google Presentations helps accomplish. One is "Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations." While it could be argued that PowerPoint also does this and while that may be true, Google Presentations presents an easier and more affordable way to achieve this. One does not have to buy Google Presentations while Microsoft Office costs a considerable sum of money. Google Presentations is a "strategic use of digital media" because if a student saves his/her presentation to the Cloud, they can access it from anywhere they have the Internet at any time, as opposed to carrying around a flash drive.


Graham also mentions that the use of presentations is key in communication. Whenever someone gives a presentation, spectators are often more focused on what the slides looks like and says than what the person is saying. Making a good presentation is key to making a good impression, selling a point/product, and to look professional. Students should and can be taught how to use this software from a young age so they can be proficient at it as they progress in their academics.

Here's my sampling of Google Presentations:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/10l7z8b6dQ8VQ4n53AWOvRdsVBWMqrQS2_RJ8Ts5-66E/edit?usp=sharing