BP7 - Comment to Thomas Meringolo

Thomas thought of something really creative to use his Web2.0 tool for.  Check out my comment to him.

BP6 - Comment To Holly Loganbill

Holly found a great Web2.0 design tool.  Please go to her blog and read my comment at this link:

BP5 - Web 2.0 Tool - Wordle

Wordle

http://www.wordle.net/

I realize that probably everyone knows about this program by now, but I actually never saw a Wordle creation until I started here at Full Sail, so I decided to give it a go, and I love it!  Wordle is so unique, it does something that you could only do in Illustrator or Photoshop previously.  This program allows you to drop a bunch of words into a box, and it then ‘shuffles’ those words around for you and generates a really fascinating piece of text-driven art.  It reminds me of a project I had in my Advanced Typography course while doing my undergraduate degree in Graphic Design.  The instructor had us create a poster using only type, of course.  This Wordle program is so much faster than creating text-based or text-driven designs from scratch in another program.  This is just too easy, and is really fun.  I enjoyed putting in the words that relate to my Action Research Project just to try it out.  It would be great to have a classroom full of graphic design students who are using their computers to create interesting designs using text use this program to describe something they are interested in or want to create a design about.  I think students would learn about the creativeness of using text as the basis of a design.  I personally enjoyed typography when I was in school, and I think my future students would love this.  I think Wordle changes the whole idea of text-based design and is a great channel for creativity that I might not have though of if I had not come across it.  On my Wordle, (pictured below), I changed the color, the typeface, and the overall layout of my text art just by pressing a button! 

BP4 - Web 2.0 Tool - Fotobabble

Fotobabble
http://www.go2web20.net/site/?a=Fotobabble

I found the neatest application at the Web 2.0 tools site.  It is called Fotobabble.  What's awesome about this tool is that it allows one to upload a picture, in my case it was a photo that I had manipulated in Adobe Photoshop.  After uploading the photo, I recorded a brief description of what I did to obtain the effect I achieved in my photo using Photoshop.  I chose a selectively colored image and described that in the audio portion that I was able to record using the online software.  It then allowed me to save the file and embed the link here so that you can see it!

I loved this application because it would work superbly for me being a graphic design teacher someday.  I could use it as a teaching tool for my students, by giving them tips and tricks, and sending it to them via email or posted on my blog.  I could also have my students create their own Fotobabble!  Students could create an assignment for class where they record a message to a family member or a friend, or even record a special advertisement for their design.  This software gives me SO many great ideas for using it.  I will use this over and over, I'm sure of it!

Here is the link to the brief Fotobabble I made for this assignment.  I hope you enjoy this and try it out for yourselves.  I can think of several of my teammates who could put this to great use in their technology programs!

Limitations:  As far as I can tell at this point, Fotobabble on the Internet only allows you a very short time period for recording what you want to say about the picture.  This could be a problem if you have a lengthy discussion or description.  The point of it is to keep the recording as brief as possible and try to get to the point quickly so the recorder doesn’t click off while you are still talking! Below is a screen shot of the Fotobabble website, but first there is the link to my Fotobabble I created:

http://www.fotobabble.com/m/SWR0MGNGWERqT2c9

Below is a screen shot of the Fotobabble website:

W1 - Week 1 Reading

W1 – Week 1 Reading

As I foray a little deeper into brain-based learning, and multiple intelligences theories, which both have some basis in my Action Research project of getting younger students engaged and interested in environmental education through the reading of my e-book, and interactive website, several articles and reports have caught my eye in our library databases.  I will briefly discuss five of them on this blog post. 

The first article is an interesting report about 5^th and 6^th grade students in Cyprus being tested about their problem-solving, and decision-making skills by giving them a system thinking skills experiment revolving around a marsh ecosystem.  This is very relevant to what I would like my book to help foster in children, especially with interest to wildlife and the natural environment.  It was interesting to read about this study, and how it showed strong positive results toward the children being able to understand complex systems, and basically how the whole functions successfully based on the presence and function of its parts.  The study results showed that elementary school children were indeed able to develop the potential for system thinking skills.  I am still reading this fascinating article, so I will definitely have a lot more of a factual discussion about it for my literature review shortly.  A screen shot of the article title is below:

The second article I am reading gives the results of a survey about student’s environmental attitudes and knowledge, at elementary schools in Turkey.  I found this article to be fascinating in that after surveying 18 randomly selected elementary schools in Ankara, Turkey’s capital city, the findings indicated that elementary school children’s knowledge of environmental studies was low, but their attitudes about the environment were positive and favorable.  The study also showed that female students’ attitudes were significantly more positive than male students, and also showed that the environmental knowledge level of the children’s fathers also made a difference.  This is a good study for me to read about because I am interested in finding out about elementary school children’s knowledge about their natural environment.  This article will definitely be a helpful piece in my literature review.  Screen shot of the article title is below:

The third article in my cadre of information that I’m currently studying is a fascinating piece of research that was conducted in Taiwan on whether using technology, in this case web-based or e-learning, in elementary school classrooms was more effective than traditional instruction.  In this case, the study results did show that indeed the e-learning was more effective than the traditional instruction.  This is of importance to me, because I have created an e-book with a companion website for elementary school aged children, and it is very good to read about studies where it is shown that students do well, or prefer the e-learning to traditional reading instruction.  A screen shot of the article title page is below:

The fourth article I am reading is absolutely fascinating.  A study (named Project Zero) was conducted by Harvard University about whether or not elementary school children could grasp deeper concepts of underlying causal structures of ecosystems.  The study states that students have difficulty understanding ecosystem concepts because they do not understand the underlying causality that structures the concepts.  This study included three different test groups where the teacher taught different ecosystem activities.  The students who participated in the infused activities lessons showed significantly deeper understanding of the connectedness within ecosystems than those students who did not participate in the ecosystem activities lessons.  This further confirms my thoughts that elementary school aged children need more priming and instruction in environmental education. A screen shot of the title of this article is below:

The fifth article I am currently reading is very relevant to my area of study regarding environmental education (EE).  Joe Heimlich has written a marvelous paper about better understanding the needs of environmental education related to technology!  This paper explores web-using teachers and their levels of comfort with it when comes to searching for environmental education lessons for their students.  I think this article will be of great use for me and be a great addition to my literature review.  I want to get all teachers out there using the Internet to find rich resources to help them teach students about the natural environment.  A screen shot of the article title is below:

BP3 - Diigo Groups

This is a screen shot of my Diigo group "Digital Minds" that I created today.  Team Digital Horizoners, please come and join as soon as you can...thank you!!

BP2 - iGoogle Screen Shots

Hi everyone!  I had nearly too much fun creating my Personal Learning Environment on iGoogle.  I added a few extra things as well as the required.  I am looking forward to using this home page every day while I am at Full Sail!

Here is Screen Shot 1 - My Home page Tab, which I just love, at iGoogle:

Next, my FSO Tab, to which I added some extras as well:

And, of course, my always handy AR/CBL Tab:

Finally, perhaps the most exciting Tab...ETC:

Now I have an awesome Personal Learning spot, and I think I may have to add tabs for all the other courses I have taken so far at FSO.  I think this is one of the most fantastic, significant creations we are required to do!