Wow! End of class!

I finished my WebQuest on Wednesday. It really has been finished for about a week but I wanted to take time to check over everything again. I am a bit puzzled with QuestGarden though. On my standards page and my evaluation page, when looking at the WebQuest, it shows a large space in it that does not appear when I am editing it. It is so strange. So, if someone is quickly looking at it, they may not take time to scroll down to see additional information. If this happens on another one, I definitely will contact them or quite using it. My Photography students are advancing to Photo. B next semester so we will be using the WebQuest in the class by mid semester.
I have learned a great amount of information which can be applied in my curriculum and that is the reason I wanted to have my degree in Technology in Education.

At the finish line!

Well, it is almost over. I have had continued problems with my standards for my WebQuest but am going to do the best I can on those. One issue is the link is not working since it is so long. I need one more graphic and then it is off to the instructor.
I am continuing as I do research to use the delicious bookmarking site. This has been great to help me work at home and at school.
The course has been enlightening. And as in the last class, I have learned a great deal to help me in my school curriculum and in my own personal life as well.

Saturday, December 5th

My goal is to finished with my WebQuest this weekend. I'm glad I have been working on it along though as holiday festivities are interfering with my work. Not that I am busy decorating, etc. My tree is not even up nor any decorations. I want to get finished with my Lesley work/WebQuest before I begin decorating.
I have continued exploring Flickr this week. My students are going to try to upload photos on Flickr this weekend as my friend. We will see if it works. Hopefully, this will work and solve the problems of my photography students not being able to bring in CD's with their work on it, on a flash drive, etc. The negative I see so far is that parents will not be able to see the work like I want unless they go through their son or daughter's account. But, since we have to use the private setting, this will have to do. I'll let you know if it works.

Wednesday, December 2nd

Our weekend classes are completed now. I felt like the websites were all different and very good. The elementary teachers have such cute websites! My high schoolers would laugh at me if I had such a cute one though. I had "issues" with my website folder being in another folder which was titled with spaces in between the words. This must have caused a problem in uploading it. Thank goodness for the teacher solving my problems. Thank you, Kim! So now my website is up and running.
I decided to do my webquest in QuestGarden rather than Google Sites. I have been rewording some sections and entering it into the templates on QuestGarden. This is a slow tedious process as I am trying to be very careful as I go to not make mistakes. I hope to finish it this weekend. Our county website has our standards posted so I can use that address instead of the state standards website since our art standards are in the process of being rewritten. Too many issues!

2nd weekend of class, Saturday, November 21

We are in our last weekend of class and are busy working on our web pages and have done class presentations. If I had a better understanding of how to work with tables and also layers I would be in better shape to understand Dreamweaver 8. I just finished my Dreamweaver (that is the first part)and am glad it is finished to this point.
The presentations have been very informative since I did not know anything on Wiki's or RSS feeds. I would like to experiment with both of these but as with anything else, it takes time. So, possibly over Christmas I can devote time to it. I wish we could have heard all presentations and then been able to choose either just one or even two of our choice to do as a final project. I believe this would have helped me more as far as finding time to experiment on my own.
The presentation my partner, Rebecca, and I are doing on Flickr turned out very well. She is great at working with PowerPoint. As we were at the library, I was typing away on the handout and she was busy creating the PowerPoint. Adding "Furgle, the Fraggle" was a silly/cute element to add to the project.
On the class presentations, so far, the first one done by Linda and Jill was the cutest. The idea of blogger "bees" was creative.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

This week has consisted of continued searching of WebQuests. In looking for WebQuests related to Photography, most are either on a famous photographer which is what I just did my final project on in the first class, creating a gallery showing for a museum, or a few which do not even seem to be the WebQuests like we saw in class. There were quite a few which just involved showing a powerpoint on how to make a sculpture or how to do a printmaking technique and then the students made the actual piece. I think art is still performance-based and has the majority of my curriculum which is to be hands-on experiences with clay, printmaking, painting, drawing, sculpture, etc. History and researching designs lends itself to working on the computer as well as computer-generated art. So, I have been thinking and thinking to see where I can fit a WebQuest into my upcoming curriculum so I can use this in my Photography class. I want it to be relevant to what I am teaching. I have my idea that I will go with but am not sure if it could be better.

I have been bookmarking many more sites and really do like the social bookmarking.

Just wait until you see the flickr presentation Rebecca and I are working on. We are meeting tomorrow afternoon. I hope it turns out as well as I think it is going to. The photo above is a glimpse of something to come.

The discussion questions have continued to be thought provoking and make me reflect on how often and to what degree I use email and blogging and then further uses of them and possibly more in-depth than what I am presently using.

Saturday, November 7th

I have been busy researching and bookmarking this week with my delicious account. This is a very good tool as I can bookmark something seen at school and not have to email myself the website for home use anymore. Now, I can work at home and school with the bookmarks made on www.delicious.com. Why didn't I think of something like this? I believe I have my webquest idea but need to start planning for it now. Rebecca and I have spoken regarding our Flickr presentation and will be meeting this week to work on our handout. I created a Flickr account for my Photography class to use and am hoping it will solve some of our "issues" we have in Photography of students not being able to put their photos on the school computer on their deadline day. In speaking with one of the assistant principals regarding the use of a Flickr account in Photography, she said it was a great idea as long as I don't do anything like document a field trip. Apparently, they had just had a discussion of this nature in a meeting. It is a violation of the Ferpa privacy act. Our book we are reading in class suggests the use of Flickr to post photos of field trips. So, it is always good to run ideas past administration!!! I did receive my grade from the first class and received an A so I am thrilled. Due to my age, I was a bit worried about me doing this program. Actually, it may help in some aspects as I am determined to get an A with me paying so much money for tuition. I told my college-age children they need to follow in my footsteps. I also asked them what kind of reward I get for making a 99. They just laughed!

Saturday, October 31st

It has been an exciting week as I have just purchased a new computer. It is much faster and has a large monitor which is nice. I wasn't sure if I would like. So, much of my evening work time was lost to setting up a new computer and getting a few bugs worked out. Now, I have Microsoft Office installed and my Delicious bookmarking buttons are ready to be used. I accomplished my survey for Survey Monkey and had a friend try it out. I showed her the delicious website and we were investigating possibilities for her to use it in her classroom. I am glad I can pass along what I am learning.
I also did my first discussion question. It was interesting to read my classmates views on the question.
In doing a little research for WebQuests in art, I have not had much luck in finding many.

Day 2 of class - October 25, 2009

Whew! We are rolling along. Our morning was spent learning about WebQuests with a group activity. Five websites were viewed and evaluated by efficiency, collaboration,, higher order thinking skills, and how technology was used. Each group discussed and rated the sites as to the two best and two worst sites and presented their findings to the class.
This was a good activity to do for exposure to many WebQuests. It gives me more of an idea of what is in a WebQuest. Now, I just need to try to figure out what mine will be on.
The second part of our day was devoted to our website/Dreamweaver. A demonstration was done but I had problems with my link. It worked but then quite working. This was an omen! Moving on to the Dreamweaver site was so confusing. I have NO knowledge of this program and it has been years since I worked from HTML. My blood pressure is extremely high right now as I feel like I need constant help. :(

Day One of Class - October 24, 2009

We had a busy day! We first discussed the course syllabus and then set up a blog and class mailing list. Our social bookmarking assignment was through www.delicious.com. This is the best thing for me to use at school. Students can be linked to this website to access my favorite websites. There are no worries of students finding inappropriate websites. Searches can be done on topics so I can see what others have bookmarked. Many people can benefit from seeing what sites are favorites of others. Using a social bookmark allows one to be able to access their favorite bookmarks from any computer, not just the one they are on.

We also did a great get acquainted project. The teacher had us draw a card out of a deck of playing cards. We had to match up to the other person who had the same color and suit. Information on what the person taught, how long they had been teaching, what school, what they want to gain out of the course, and an interesting fact about them was collected. Each student shared the information on their partner while the rest of the class took notes. We then drew a paper out of a bag with one person's name and email address in the class. A response through email was made to this person asking two questions and then a reply was made. So, this activity improved my listening skills, note taking, email skills, word processing, and was a great get acquainted activity. I have been searching for a new activity and just found it!

A personal blog, which you are reading, was set up by each student and will be continued throughout the course. A reflection will be given on each class meeting and a weekly reflection.

Information on our website was given and homework is going to be done tonight for it.

I am looking forward to learning the curriculum of this class and know it will help me in my area of teaching. It is a little overwhelming at this point but I'll take it step by step....day by day. Does that sound like a song you know??

Internet Scavenger Hunt - October 16, 2009

The Internet Scavenger Hunt was a list of questions to be answered and put in the digital drop box. The questions covered who developed the Internet, who owns it, what web browser is and its main function, what a blog is, advantages and disadvantages of the Internet in the classroom, what a domain is, and social bookmarking. The questions were to be answered to the best of our ability using the Internet.

Survey Monkey - October 15, 2009

Our first assignment in the class was to fill out an internet survey showing our knowledge of computer usage including emailing, using the internet, the world wide web, blogging, etc. We were to rate our knowledge on a scale. The results were sent to our teacher.
This application can be used in my Photography class before school begins or on the first day. The students could fill out the survey to let me know what type of camera they own, what their knowledge is of it, how often it is used, what type of software they own at home, and any extra equipment or accessories they have.
We were to comment on the Discussion Board and reply to several classmates posts.