Picasa :)

I used Picasa for most of my digital photos. I like the organization that you can accomplish with it. Picasa is a software application that helps you to organize and edit your digital photos. It is a great tool to have on your computer. The name comes from Pablo Picasso and the phrase mi casa (my house ). I really like Picasa because I like to take a lot of pictures. I enjoyed using it to make screen savers for my computer. I think that it is an easy thing to do for any one. It was very easy to set up and to organize my pictures onto. I hope that you will give it a try. Any tips that I would have would to have fun with it, and to watch out what pictures you are posting. You don't want any inappropriate pictures on there. I enjoyed this emerging technology very much, and think that everyone should give it a try. Here is one of the screensavers that I made!

Smilebox.

For my second emerging technology post I chose to do digital scrapbooking. I used Smilebox. I found it to be super easy and fun. It is a great way to keep track of all of your photos while giving them a little more personalization. I think that this would also be helpful for people like grandmas who just cant get into all of the stuff that scrapbooking requires. There are a lot of people out there that love to scrapbook, but it is very time consuming and can get expensive buying all of the supplies. With this website you can get on there, personalize the book any way you want, and all you have to pay for is the ink if you want to print it out. I think that Smilebox is very user friendly. It was easy for me to do with pictures that I already had on my computer. I would suggest using this site over the other ones because it is easier to work with and very fun. There are a lot of different options to help you make your perfect scrapbook.

Scrapbooking!!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Let's never use poadcasting again. :(

Digital media files, audio or video, that are downloaded through web syndication. Podcasting is usually a series of downloads released episodically. The word podcasting is a combination of iPod and broadcasting. P.O.D id an acronym for Personal On Demand. It is useful because anyone can do it, you don't need a radio tower or satelite just the Internet. There is a wide variety of podcast out there, so everyone can relate to it. You can download it to your mp3 or any portable devise so it is very convenient. With podcasting you don't have to depend on traditional broadcasting. You can control what you watch, and make it your own. I started off using Audacity, but it was too dificult for me to figure out. It was very easy to install, but hard to work with. When I clicked on the help tab and followed the instructions the Audacity would completely shutdown. I then went on to use Yodio. Yodio was much easier too use. I just wish you could place multiple pictures on to one soundtrack. I did not like the fact that I had to record multiple tracts to get it to workout the way that I wanted it to. :( Um I did NOT enjoy using podcasting, and the only time I would ever do it again is if it were for a grade. If I were to give any tips it would be to avoid this at any cost if you do not work well with computers.

Yodio - Derrick and I

My Delicious account.

http://delicious.com/sjhein
I don't like this site very much. Fot me it is very hard to get everything organized. I hope I never have to deal with it again. :(

My Critical Thinking Paper...

Group 4

Handheld, Wireless Computers: Can They Improve Learning and Instruction?

Learning and instruction are two fundamental practices that have been present in this world since the beginning of the human race, and since then we, as humans, have tried to develop new and improved ways to better these practices. With the increase in technology in today’s times it’s only inevitable that it, it being technology, would eventually find itself in the realm of education, i.e. learning and instruction. Technology that was once predominately found in the business world can now be found in the classroom. Handheld, wireless computers, referred to as HWCs or PDAs, were once only used by individuals in the business world, but because of new research HWCs are now being incorporated in the classroom as a new modern way to instruct students (Moallem 2). Questions we need to ask ourselves about this incorporation include, “Do HWCs aid in the student’s learning and educational development, and do HWCs hinder this development, or simply not have any effect on it at all?”
The main idea of the paper was if the handheld, wireless computers are really improving the learning and quality in the classrooms. These computers are making research and communicating with classmates and the teacher much easier. Internet connection is readily available and since it is handheld, it is much easier to transport anywhere. If a student needs to know something about a project; he can quickly e-mail a classmate or teacher and ask a question. He can also research the internet for any information that he would need for the project. Also with the HWCs, the teacher or professors can assess the students’ knowledge before, during, and after lessons and tests. This is really helpful for teachers because it will help them prepare their lesson plans in where they need to start teaching. The teachers can do a short review of what is known by all students and then move onto a new lesson.
Technology can be a great thing to add to the learning environment, but not always. “Teachers who incorporate the internet in their class pay a technology penalty when they create jump pages that link to internet content that matches their lessons.” This was said by Professor Royal Van Horn in his article, The Technology Penalty. If teachers do not have a very organized lesson plan, and keep updated with the changes it can be very difficult for them to use technology in the classroom. Different types of software and website links change and are updated regularly.
As much as HWCs or PDAs can improve our education system, in actuality they are only as smart as the person operating them. The problem with just throwing HWCs into our schools is the simple fact that the instructors may or may not know how to properly operate or incorporate them into their lessons. Which makes a question come to mind, are HWCs and instructors just the blind leading the blind? Once further research is completed, and classes or seminars are offered to help our instructors, it could quite possibly be the blind leading the blind for a little while that is. As the article “Handheld...” states “the promise of handheld computers lies in facilitating the improvement of instruction.” Once the art of incorporating the HWCs and PDAs in the classroom is mastered, the education systems will definitely benefit.
In the “handheld,…” article, it says, “Faculty professional development effort should focus on helping teachers use good teaching practices to generate strategies for the use of handheld computers or any other new technology tool. School improvement plans that focus on use of technology for improvement of student achievement must also focus on good teaching practices as a foundation rather than trying to convince teachers that using technology makes the difference.” This caught my attention because of all of the variables that count in this situation. It’s not easy for a teacher to spend time in training while they already have a classroom in which to teach. Also, who will pay for this teacher’s training? Will it be the community who supports the school, or will this come out of the teacher’s already small salary?
As a group we pretty much agreed on whether or not the HWCs are helpful in schools or not. These handheld, wireless computers would definitely help with organization and quick contact with classmates and professors but the students are also losing the personal contact that they had before the HWCs. There are always positives and negatives to technology as we agreed in our papers and feel that the computers should not be fully relied on for assignments.