Teacher Technology Assignment 4

To be completed by April 30th 2010.

You must choose and complete 2 of the 5 tasks listed below. You may do all of them if you like.

Task Choices:

  1. Create a face book account and become a friend of the "Official Toledo Christian Schools Friends & Alumni" group. Then post a comment on the wall.
  2. Create an original video and upload it to You Tube.
  3. Create and short Animoto video on the Internet and send me the URL to view it.
  4. Create your own blog and use it to post announcements, or as a daily journal or discussion board. You might also decide to set it up to allow students to add to it as a creative writing assignment. How you decide to use it is up to you. Once you get a blog set up, write something on your blog and email me the URL. That's all.
  5. Create a Wiki to collaborate with your students or fellow teachers. Perhaps make your own classroom wikipedia. Add me to as a contributor or send me a link to your wiki so that I can collaborate with you.

Task 1: Facebook

Create a face book account and become a friend of the "Official Toledo Christian Schools Friends & Alumni" group. Then post a comment on the wall.

Creating a facebook account is easy. Just browse on over to www.facebook.com and create and account if you don't already have one. Facebook has plenty of built in help. Once your signed up you should sped time adjusting your Privacy Settings carefully.

Privacy

For new users I recommend strict security settings, as you become more accustomed to facebook, you may consider adjusting these. Just remember, choose your friends carefully. Do not hesitate to ignore a friend request. Personally, I only add friends who are truly friends and not just acquaintances. But that is your choice. And never add current students to your facebook.

Here are the privacy setting that I recommend.

Profile Settings

Contact Settings

Application Settings

Under "What friends can share about you" there are more options you should consider.

Friend Settings

Search Settings

After completing your set up you will now want to search for friends or groups to invite. Find them, simply by searching for their name.

Invite Others

Search for "Official Toledo Christian" You will find the group, then request to become a friend. After you are accepted, please make a comment on the wall.

 

Task 2: YouTube

To complete this option you need to create an original video and upload it to the youtube teacher channel. www.youtube.com/tcsteacher or create your own youtube channel and upload your video there. Then just send me the link to your video.

For access to upload a video use the schools account use the following information.

User name (Email): tcsteacher@toledochristian.com

Password: TCSEagles (Case Sensitive)

If you cell phone has a built in video camera, you can also upload your video from your phone be sending the video to: vs0o2iqyll1a@m.youtube.com

There are plenty of online help tutorials built into YouTube or tons of tutorials on the Internet. You can find them simply by searching Goggle: "how to upload a video to youtube"

Also: Don't forget that you can narrow your search of YouTube video for educational content simple by adding /edu to the URL. http://www.youtube.com/edu

 

Task 3: Create an Animoto Video

To complete this option you must create a 20-30 second original animoto video made from digital pictures of your class. You video must contain music. Upon completion, email me the URL link to your video. That's all.

Animoto website.

See an example by Mr. Neifer

 

Task 4: Create a Blog

To complete this option you must create a your own blog and use it to post announcements, or as a daily journal or discussion board. You might also decide to set it up to allow students to add to it as a creative writing assignment. How you decide to use it is up to you. Once you get a blog set up, write something on your blog and email me the URL. That's all.

Here is a site with teaching tips for bogging. Teaching Tips

Here are some of the most popular bogging sites. You choose.

  1. Class Blogmeister. Created as a bogging platform specifically for educators, this free service will get you and your students bogging in no time. An added bonus to this service is that it is rarely blocked by school filters due to it’s specific safety features.
  2. Edublogs. Another bogging platform made just for educators, this service is based on WordPress, so comes with all the features of WordPress. Another benefit of Edublogs is the short and simple URLs for the blogs that make it easy to share with parents.
  3. WordPress. Get a free blog with WordPress and you will also have access to plenty of tools such as spellcheck, integrated stats tracker, and spam protection. This is one of the more popular bogging platforms.
  4. Blogger. Another popular bogging publisher, Blogger is teamed up with Google and offers lots of tools to make your bogging experience easier. You will need a Google account to create a blog with these folks.
  5. TypePad. TypePad lets you select from thousands of designs and has lots of widgets, custom banners, and more. However, this service is not free. You can take advantage of a free trial before you decide to pay the low monthly fee or annual subscription, though.
  6. LiveJournal. In addition to providing a blog, LiveJournal also makes it easy to create a social network through the blogs. This might work great for your class if all the students will have their own blog as well.
  7. Moveable Type. Another free blog publisher, Moveable Type offers many of the same features as the others with a spam blocker, templates, and more.
  8. Tumblr. Not really a full-fledged bogging platform, Tumblr is designed for smaller posts and a much more personalized experience. If you aren’t ready to go the way of the blog, this might be a good way to get your feet wet.
  9. Windows Live Writer. Get a Space in Windows Live and download Live Writer to start bogging with this publisher. You can connect with others, post video, and more with Live Writer.
  10. Thingamablog. All you need to get started with this blog platform is FTP, SFTP, or access to a server. The setup wizard will guide you through the steps of getting your blog in place.

 

Task 5: Create a Wiki

Create a Wiki to collaborate with your students or fellow teachers. Perhaps make your own classroom wikipedia. Add me to as a contributor or send me a link to your wiki so that I can collaborate with you.

Here are some useful links to get you started.

http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/

http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers

http://educatorforum.pbworks.com/2009/06/29/when-is-a-wikki-worth-the-trouble/

 

Remember you must complete 2 of the 5 tasks for assignment credit.

As there are so many possibilities in using these tools, please feel free to come see me personally as you begin to plan how to use them. If you run into trouble, don't hesitate to ask. Just be sure you ask Google first.