Final Goodbye to GEN2243

In GEN 2243 I leaned a lot about myself and the outside world. I leaned technology can make you or break you. I learned that people can get a job, meet their hero, or even become famous though technology. I learned the positive effects and the negative effects. How different applications and websites can help you do amazing things. My professor Kyle Calderwood, showed me and my class many different tools to use and introduced us to people I never would of thought of meeting. Each one told their story and how technology helped them. I took this class as a elective and I can say this class changed my view on technology. Yes it can be for fun and games, but it can be used for much much more. The world is changing and evolving, technology is growing and getting bigger. We can either grow with the technology and let us thrive or we can challenge it. Who knows where we will be 20 years from now, but we as humans hold the key to our own success. We have the choice to set where we are going and where we are headed. This class helped me look towards the future and make decisions that will only benefit to me. It takes some time to realize how much power we old to our success.
I am going to use my power to succeed. Will you?

Make a better you!

In class we learned about circuits! We were given a box of Makey Makey and a whole bunch of wires. My team and I had to figure out how to connect playdoe, foil, cardboard or even a banana to these wire to make a controller. My team and I knew we needed several wires connected to different items to make a controller, but we couldn't figure out how to get it to work. As we kept trying we realized we didn't have a complete circuit. We needed a power source. After a few tries and the light flashing on and off, we figured out we could be the energy source. If you held a wire and touched the buttons it worked! It was so cool to finally understand how the energy transferred thru yourself and other objects. After we figured it out, we started playing games like Frogger, Pacman and even Guitar Hero! This little exercise was a smart way to help us collaborate and find solutions in a period of time. In the real world things will be thrown at us and you need to be able to critically think and find new ways to finish your tasks.

We spoke to a women named Robyn Hrivnatz who is Marketing and Educator Programs Manager for Microsoft. She started out as a teacher and realized she could do more. She spoke of her love of technology and how we can do anything if we set our mind to. She also stressed about the importance of social media. In todays day and age we can use technology to help us learn and even connect. Robyn spoke about how she wants to make a difference in the technology online world. It is a growing field that has endless possibilities.

In Connected Educator chapter 9, we learn about how we will always be a student. After we graduate and get a degree and even when we turn 80, we are always going to be a student. Always going to be changing and learning no matter how much knowledge we have. We will always be a student first before anything else.. There are 4 core Concepts behind this theory which are Knowledge, Pedagogy, Connections and Capacity. The knowledge aspect talks about how we will always be building on our intelligence. You need to use this and help express it and build on other people`s knowledge. Pedagogy is helping yourself and others chase your dreams. Follow you passions and your wants. There is a he world out there and we will never grab it if we don't try. Connections  is the third. We use this to help each other, connect to experts and expand our thoughts. We have so much networks and communities, join them get involved. Lastly, Capacity which means to challenge yourself. Push yourself, embrace possibilities. The world is yours and if you fail to seek it then you will never know the better you!

Create your own Online news papers and websites!

One of the biggest new trends is Online papers. There is this cool new website that you can set up your own newspaper. This new site is called paper.li. It can post itself weekly, daily, monthly, whenever you choose. You pick the topics and it takes information from current events and people you follow and put them on one site. In a newspaper looking format where you can organize the information and make it your news. You can have it post to any social media and it will automatically post at the time you set it. This is a simple and easy way to make sure information is getting out there. The best part is once you set it up, the work is all done!

Some helpful hints to help with your paper.li are seen in this article about, "Follow Smart People".  When your away it is helpful to catch up on local things going on. You can see the current events that were posted and make sure you haven't missed anything good. It helps you learn about different topics. Like my paper is about health so this will take health articles and put them on my news paper. This helps learn more about that topic. You can always take your paper and send it to your work place or share it with your class. This site has many cool concepts to it and is helping us keep up with information while sharing it in a cool way.

Another thing you can do is create a website for yourself. Weebly is growing and becoming a more popular site for this. This website is easy to use and free to sign up for. You can add pages, links, photos and many more things. This website is good for portfolios and just building your digital portfolio. You can choose from many layouts and add different tabs. It is very easy to help express yourself and create your own unique and personal website.

In Chapter 4 of Untangling the Web, it talks about Social Networking Tools. Teachers can use sites like TodaysMeet and Edmodo. These sites can invite students to an open online discussion that only the class can see. They can post lectures and links to things they need to learn. You can create group chats and other ways to connect with each other. Skype is another fun way to connect with either students or coworkers or friends. Skype can help you find other teachers, or professors and share ideas and other things with them.

Social Media good or bad?

Social media is a huge part of todays lifestyle. Social media could either impact you positively or negatively. It could help you get the job and one post, one picture could get you fired. This is why we have to be careful of the stuff we post, the pictures we put out there and the comments we make.

In class we learned what not to do with the internet. How someone can get fired from a picture posted in 2009 or adding a student, or even just posting a nasty opinion. In my case, it had nothing to do with anything he posted, it was someone else's post that destroyed his career. Neftali Ortiz is  a child psychiatrist. He was driving to work one day and he hit a car getting off I95. Who happened to be a 4 month pregnant women. He then proceed to drive away hitting her car again. The women took out her phone and took a picture of him and his license. She posted it on facebook as a warning to other drivers. He ended up loosing almost all of his clients and many comments were made to him. He will appear to court and could see jail time. Oriz said, " Social Media ruined my Life."

In our Connected Educator textbook, we learn about positive social media. In chapter 5, it gives us tools for documenting, connecting, for social networking,  and extending your learning. When it comes to documenting, helpful tools include bookmarking. This is making sure all of your information is organized and easy to locate. The web is so big and diverse we need a way to help put all our information in a safe place. Delicious is a good book marking site. It helps you tag a website and will help with easy retrieval. Some fun tools to use for connecting is blogs. Sites like this one help you express your ideas. There are also many blogging cites like EduBlog that will help your blog be shared with a group of people. Twitter is another way to connect. It not so much blogging, but it is an easy to connect in a fast pace. Depending on your major or career type, there are hundreds of tools for social networking. There are some general social networking sites like Facebook that make it really easy to connect. Finally making sure you are extending the learning not just from the classroom but outside it. Teachertube is a fun way to help students learn and find videos to help better understand the topic.

Social Media can be used for many things. This is why it is so important to use social media positively. There is so many things out there to explore and learn. There are also so many ways to destroy your life using social media, so next time you long on to your computer or post that picture, just think about how it will effect you.  

Apps on Apps

In my class, we have this activity called an App Smackdown. Each student picks an app and has to tell the class about it in 2 mins. This week I picked Glassdoor, which is a job searching  app.  This app was really cool because I can type in the job I am looking for and the location and all the results pop up in date order. Another fun feature is that it can tell you reviews, salaries, interviews and what is wanted from a specific company. It is far from your average job application.

Today technology is changing and growing as we speak. The new thing is 4D Apps. . Many of these help you learn thru a 4D reality. One cool one is Elements 4D. They take cubes of an element and with your phone can show you what that element looks like. If you put two cubes of two different elements next to each other, it can show you what would happen if you put the two together. 

Some other cool apps we were shown in class is Anatomy 4D , and Zookazam. These are the newest technology. You printout a template of some sort, download the app, point the camera to the template and WOAH a 4D image comes up! I used Anatomy 4D to help me study for my midterm. I could see the bones, muscles and nervous system on a miniature body! Zookazam is pretty fascinating, it brings up all different types of animals. This app lets you bring live animals to a classroom. To help explore and show what they look like.

There is an app called ShowMe.. This is a white board app that helps students learn based on notes and recording taken from the teacher. It is recorded and can be replayed and re-watched. The idea behind it, is to help students re-watch a teachers notes. This is less formal and maybe a better way to learn than a textbook. Plus, it is easy to watch outside the classroom and go over it again. Students and parents say it is very helpful when something needs to be drawn out to explain.

Presentations shouldnt be a bore!

Presentations can be so boring, slide after slide, a million words, it can make the audience fall asleep. There are 5 different and unique websites you can use alternative to powerpoints. You can use these sights to spice up your presentation.
1. Powtoon.

This is a website that helps add a little bit of animated characters. It is a fun way to help get the point across thru little animated figures and dramatic slogans. It just like  making your own mini cartoon episode.
2. Prezi

This website, is a fun interactive way to present. It has zooming features and takes you on a "Journey." It can give you so motion sickness, but it is very easy to make the 3D look real.
3. Keynote

This is the better, easier version of powerpoint for a Mac computer. It has the same features, but is much easier to use on Mac computers than the average Powerpoint.
4. Prezentit

This is very similar to powerpoint but has some cool transition features to help have a smooth powerpoint.
5. Sliderocket

This is one of the best softwares out there, but it doesn't come cheap. It has many different features, including changing the colors and defining the pictures and backgrounds you add.

Another fun website that is good for presentations is GoAnimate. It is easy to use and needs no artistic experience needed. You add your slides and words and then pick what you want to move. They have a lot of templates, backgrounds, music, sounds characters and even languages for the characters to speak. With a new clicks you can transform any lecture to a min movie. It as a easy step-by-step process that helps explain the information easier. This is extremely good for students or even to send a message like anti-drugs or anti-bullying. GoAnimate is also shown very helpful for special needs children.

Microsoft added a new part of Microsoft Sway called Microsoft Swift. This is another way to do presentations. It is a quick and more clear way to present your ideas onscreen rather than to an audience. They are backed up to the Icloud and can be used from your IPhone, IPad, ect. You can add Sway on a website or on a powerpoint. You would created a sway which is like a note card rather than a slide. This is a quick way you can jot down your thoughts and tidbits of information you think of. This application is still growing and making changes. It will be added to Office in the next year, so stay tuned.

In class we had an interview with Astronaut Abby. She was an inspiration to all. She is 18 years old and has accomplished so many things. She told us about how her parents never doubted her and always told her to follow her dreams and she did it. She created her own organization/blog with the help of other astronauts to help spread information about Mars. To help people and little kids realize how far we are growing. There is so much out their in space and we are slowly being able to explore it. Abby is so brave to wanting to go to Mars, I know I would have the guts to go into space, let alone a new planet that is slowly being explored. She really is an inspiration to everyone. No one dream is too big, you can do anything you strive for.
You just have to

Is your life Awesome?

In Neil Pasricha`s Ted Talk , spoke about the 3 A`s of awesome. Neil started a website, in a dark time of his life called "1000 Awesome Things." This reminded him that life wasn't so bad. He would post satisfying things in life. These little things in life that make us happy, like clothes right out of the dryer, and the warmth it brings to you. How happy you get when you get a refill without asking. There are a million things that happen throughout our day that make us happy, but most of the time we take them for granted.

He won the best blog of the year award.

 Neil shared the 3 As; attitude, awareness, and authenticity.

First; Attitude
No one can predict the future, we will never know what will happen through our day. There will be bad days and bad weeks and bad years, that is just life. We as people choose how to deal with our dark times. We can deal with it and choose to grow and thrive from it, or we can choose to sulk and waste days, months, maybe years at our low place. He explained how we only have life and no matter how difficult life is we need to move forward. Life is too short to be anything but happy.
Two; Awareness.
When you are a child, you notice everything. Every little detail, movement, smell, thought and even idea. That is most likely why 4 year olds ask "Why?" after everything said. This is something we loose after we seen something once. We don't appreciate what we have as much as the first time it is noticed. This is why we need to cherish the stud we have. Every little moment is worth something. Every conversation, every movement, every smell. All of this makes our world go round, and everything that happens we should be aware and cherish. We only have one life, we need to take each breath as a blessing.
Three; Authenticity.
Each one of us is unique. We need to embrace this part of us. We are different in who we are, what we do and think. This is the part of us that makes us who we are. This is what helps us find love, and make the friendships we have. This is the part that makes everyone different. Being yourself and expressing yourself is a big key in life. If you always follow the Status Quo you will never know who you are and who you are meant to be.

Chapter 3 in Untangling the Web, they give some good websites that can be used for presenting. These include SlideShare, Poll Everywhere, voicethread, and my favorite Prezi. Each one of these websites are used for presenting information. It could be stats, class project or even for work. You can add graphs, voice threads, slideshows, and even moment to your presentation. Each website offers a unique ideas to whatever you may present. These websites are offered to add that flare to your work and not be another boring powerpoint. Educators, students, and professionals are using them to express their ideas and make their presentation unforgettable. So next time you are going to present, make sure to check one of these sites out to add some pop to your work!       

Poll Everywhere 

Voice Thread

Prezi

SlideShare