Check out Apture!

I've just put a new feature on my blog...it's called "Apture". It allows me to make a rollover for certain words that I want people to be able to automatically link to. It's cool...try some of my links on my previous blog entries.

Last Day 5520

Today Julie shared some information about Skype, a free source for internet to internet calls for Skype users.  If a call is made from a Skype user to a non Skype user there is a small fee.  The advantage being not only cost but the ability for video as well as audio.

Rob showed us Picasa, a free photo sharing and editing site.  You can also order prints and make slide shows from your albums.  Iphoto is a mac based free program that allows you to (among other cool things), make and order photo books.  Windows Photo Story is a free quick slide show program limited to only photos.

We discussed current issues in DE including accreditation questions from university to university.  We also talked about the difference between making individual accommodations on a university level compared to the public schools.  

This has been a very enlightening course, making me feel more confident in incorporating a few of the vast amount of tech tools into my teaching. 

More 5520

Wow, today we started off experiencing Second Life. It was amazing. Anyone can join. You create a character with any attributes and do anything you want. People can build, sell, buy services or products. I am very hesitant about introducing my students to this site for the fact that second life characters have no real life identity and can do some really crazy and illegal acts.

Our class discussed DE evaluation and assessment involving three aspects: students, faculty, and administration. It was concluded that DE is progressing and is just as rigorous and effective as F2F. Christie had a nice presentation about Web 2.0 and MySpace. I looked up Kellen on MySpace and found that he's got a huge Disney pic that I need to get off cause of the copyright scare we got this week. I guess I'll have to get his password from Argentina! Janet helped us explore Instructional Archetect, a program allowing teachers to create a webpage directly linking them to educational online resources.

Sample Movie 5520

Wednesday we learned how to make a simple movie with imovie. We then reformatted it as a podcast and uploaded it to our blog. Vwa-la! Here it is...

Today we discussed cost effectiveness of DE with an IM chat session again.  That was great except I got kicked out of the session several times so my contribution was very MINIMAL!

We learned some really cool tools again.  One new thing that I know I'll use is the apture.com site.  It will allow me to have "roll over" to open little windows to the sites and links I have on my webpage.  We looked at the possibility of using edublogs especially for the classroom.

Today we also learned about Connect Pro (Breeze) and Captivate which both have a free 30 day trial period.  They allow professional looking, interactive, animated presentations that could be used in an online course or virtual classroom.  The costs on those programs are quite expensive though--from $700-$10,000 depending on how many users and locations are used.

We all set up Facebook accounts and had a lot of fun with that.  I have MANY more "friends" after today.  Our class has a wiki beginning today that has ideas of what our final projects for this class might be.   I'll be watching for some good ideas coming from my cohorts because right now I really have not a clue what to do!  More tomorrow...

INST 5520

Hi Y'all,

I've been taking an IT (Instructional Technology) course this week. We've been learning about current tech issues and experiencing using new tech tools that will have applications in my classroom.

Today we learned about OCW (open courseware)-free, online classes available to anyone with the desire to learn and who has access to the technology. MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is probably the largest resource for open courseware, offering thousands of classes covering a variety of subjects!

We also discussed many issues relating to IP (intellectual property--sharing of educational ideas and how this works with cc (creative commons) and copyright laws. We learned how to use IM (instant messaging) as a discussion tool as we discussed faculty effectiveness in DE (distance education) in a fast paced 18 member chat room.

Don't you love all the acronyms?! :~) (and the emoticons). More to come tomorrow...