Project 5 Blog

The most challenging aspect of this project was tying math into real life problems, that were not just simple story problems, but problems that would relate to the students. The most rewarding part of this project was seeing the final project with all the transitions and animations. It was overall a good project that had alot of information that could be a great guideline for teaching. The biggest reason to use powerpoints in the classroom is to use it as a guideline for the lesson plan. It could also be used by students since most students have an understanding of powerpoints in this day and age. I would show the teacher the 7 tips, those are very vital when it comes to powerpoints. Making sure you don't put too much information and use the powerpoint as an outline. Students could use this powerpoint to look back at the examples, they could use this powerpoint to help tutor another student in the future, they could use this to simply learn on their own.

Project 4 Blog

The most challenging aspect of this project was figuring out what I was going to do. It was very difficult finding the academic standard that I wanted to use as well as how to make that work with pictures and music. Quite frankly I did not like this project from a mathematics standpoint. Maybe it is just me and I lacked the creativity to make something useful and special with this project but overall it was tough. The most rewarding part for me was when I was able to make the sound track that I used fade out right in time with the end of the pictures. I thought that was really cool since you see that happen in movies, videos, commercials, and so on, but being able to do that was really cool.

These last two points are very difficult because I found this project to not be very useful for math. I could see myself using iMovie to do things for personal use, or school subjects such as history where images of historical value could be shown, or a time period of books our authors for english but for math I did not like it very much. I really do not know how iMovie would help from a picture standpoint, but if students were able to use its video features and take a video of a statistical project they are doing it could be useful for a new way of learning.

Chapter 8 Focus Question #3

I think that teachers can use blogs in classrooms to provide a tool for discussion all the time. A student can post a question to a teachers blog or can comment on a students blog proving their opinions, corrections, statements, and discussions. Due to these features providing students to make comments on assignments or tests as a form of homework, it allows teachers to see the time the assignment is posted and the time students reply on the blogs. A blog allows for more work to be done outside of class which can be beneficial to students as a way of giving them homework without it feeling like homework as these blogs do to me since it is not on paper anymore.

Project 3 Blog

When it came to project 3 I did not really have any challenges in the development other than putting all the thoughts and ideas I had onto the website and making it connect in a way that makes sense. That was the toughest part for me since we had so many weeks to plan out what we were going to do and with time it made that process simple. A pro to a website is that it can be accessed anytime of the day, they are 24/7. A student can look at it anytime to refer back to it and learn more outside of school. Another pro is that once the information is posted there is not a lot of change when it comes to math equations or the process in thinking behind them. Therefore, you would rarely have to change any information. I am biased, I cannot think of any cons to a website having information. I think my role on the team was just too simply complete my math section of the site. Actually, I am technically the host of the website but I made sure all members had the ability to edit the site ahead of time. My area was the Math page. I did not use the survey feature on the Google docs; I did not see that as part of the project so I will obviously lose points there.

Chapter 9 Focus Question 1

Multimedia technology refers to laptops, computers, the internet, and various other electronic items that can be used for learning. All of these can be used to enhance learning because there is so much that can be taught hands off through computers and websites. Students can learn on their own away from and outside of school. They can do lab work during school and can read their materials and see examples of a project online. It is comparable to how iusb offers eBooks for nooks; it is a new technological way to read without buying a paper book. New multimedia technology also connects to the hearing and seeing learners, but it could be a downside for the hands on learners. Multimedia technology can have a greater reach than a simple textbook or lecture.

Chapter 6 Focus Question 6

The question provides is "How might educational websites provide interactive and engaging learning experiences for students?"

This question seems a bit repetitive since we have already done project 1, and it fits in great with project 3 we are currently working on. Just like project 1, a website can give the student an Independence within the work they are doing, letting them work on their own, at their pace, while still completing assignments and learning the material. It gives them a new way to interact with the material. Plus through websites students can engage one and other by email, instant message, and now with skype and face time they can video chat even. All of these things provide a new way to learn and discuss a topic which can be fun and in a way even entertainment for a student. Just like project 3 is now showing us, we can get more than one subject within a website providing a multi tooled website, giving students another way to connect to subjects. Since one website can connect to math, social studies, and English for example, a student with a strength in one area could apply their strength to their weakness because the website is set up in a way that with the material they are able to make a connection. Websites provide a new and potentially powerful tool for student learning.

Fair use

I was not really interested in the fair use and copy right topic until last weeks class. I thought it was very interesting that copy rights last so long and that fair use is not something that will stop a company from sueing you but it is just a defense when they do. I believe that movie making is a very good industry to be in if you can get the rights to a movie that has some sucess. This is because within the next 100 years there will be another technology advancment beyond Blu-Ray discs, and when that happens the time countdown will restart giving the owner another 100 years of profit. It is an endless cycle anymore with how long copyrighted material stays as such before going to public domain. That is why fair use comes into play since all material shouldn't be outlawed completely, a loop hole was needed, and fair use provides that in a small way.