The end of the course

Well Intro to Authoring Tools has come to an end. I have to say this class was like "a breath of fresh air". I have learned a great deal from the course without being overly stressed out. The reading were nice "easy reads" and if there was something that I did not understand the book followed by explicet information with plenty of examples. Each task I enjoyed doing. I was not concerned before I started each task because I new the atmosphere of the course was not overwhelming. As far as the projects. I learned a great deal from doing them and again was not concerned with foreign terms and random requests by the professor. Dr. Mullane allowed me to correctly grasp the concept of and explore a variety of authoring tools. I feel I can leave the course with the capability of successfully identifying and reflecting upon tools that are available to help me in the field of education. I only hope I can talk this highly of my future courses at NJCU. Thanks Dr. Mullane.

Tara

Group Project

I had a terrific group for my project. Thanks Ken, Dina and Stephanie. I think everything worked out extremely well. Thanks to Dina we got it started and organized and of course finished. Ken took care of alot of the technical support and Stephanie had some great information for out project. The only problem that I had is my other three group partners all worked with upper grades 7-8 grade where as I am a 1st grade teacher. In the beginning of the process Steph and the others mentioned that we could somehow tie in the lower grades to the upper grades and I had said "don't worry about that I will work with you guys on the upper grades". I figured how hard could it be to adjust my 1st grade plans to 7th or 8th grade plans. Wow was I wrong. Let me just say that if I ever had to teach in the upper grades I would have to go back to school. It is a whole different ball game up there : ) but thanks to Steph (who I worked on the lesson plans with) she was very patient and had great tips for me to complete my end of the work. It was an enlightening experiece that I enjoyed being a part of. Unfortunately since our project was geared towards the upper grades I cannot use it but learning photostory itself will be something I will defenitly use with my class. I am thinking "Holidays' around the world". The kids will love it and without this project I would have never been able to do it!
Tara

Edtechnot (Technology Maven) Hall Davidson

The individual who I chose to read about on www.edtechnot.com was Hall Davidson.
Hall Davidson is the director of the discovery educator network. He also served as the director of educational services at KOCE-TV, a PBS station in California where he was nominated for an emmy as a producer. Hall Davidson is nationally known as a teacher, author, staff developer and a lecturer. His viewpoint regarding technology is that in the coming years technology will play a major role in all classrooms used to teach students. Hall has used technology in the past to teach individuals worldwide through his program where he was a mathematic teacher on educational programs which he also produced. Hall has also done extensive work with copyrighting and has also created a quiz for educators to take which from what I have experienced gives you real life situations and grades you on how you would react to the questions. Here is the link to Hall's Copyright resources where you could take the copyright quiz and there are also links to charts and articles about copyrighting. ( http://www.mediafestival.org/downloads.html)
Hall has led copyright workshops for educators and also has authored "No FAT
Guide to Copyright".

Hall Davidson has taught many students using technology, he was an on camera mathematics teacher and has produced series for teachers on the Internet and Big6 information literacy strategy. This series was created to meet the needs of high schools in the digital high school program, it integrates information literacy with technology literacy. Hall also co-founded Video-Using Educators in Los Angeles in 1985. Hall has served on the board of directors for Computer-Using Educators where he teaches educators how to teach their students using technology.

Hall Believes in using technology in the classroom and has devoted alot of his time teaching through technology. Hall Davidson had dedicated his career to teaching through technology. Whether he is authoring literature or producing educational series he is spreading his knowledge and teaching both students and teachers through technology.

Online Social Networks

Online social networking is a way for people who have common interests to communicate. Social network services were created so people who share interests and activities can communicate using software. Social networks are primarily web based and allow users to interact through chat, instant messaging, video, blogging and discussion groups to name a few. Social networking services like My Space allows the user to create a profile of themselves. They can upload a picture of themselves and can create friendships with other users. They can create a blog on theor account and are able to communicate with other users.
Benefits of online social networks are the ability to communicate with a wide variety of people who can share the same interests. You can post a blog about a specific topic and get useful idea's and suggestions from people along with recommendations. You can communicate with people from around the world very fast and can build friendships.
Some concerns with social online networks is that it has caught the attention of children. Many children have caught on to sites like My Space and have become vunerable to predators. If you look into my space there are many young kids with accounts and they do not even know that they could be in danger. Many young girls post pictures of themselves in very provacative ways and they are being hunted by predators. These predators pose as harmless individuals who set up a meeting with young kids and you know what could happen.
Young kids have definately become very involved with online networking. I think schools should implement online networks because it has shown that students have become very interested with online networking. If schools implement this it would be a great way to show the students how to become involved with online networking safely. Also two of the most fundamental tools, reading and writing are a valuable part of online networking and it would want students to learn to read and write so they could become part of a online social network.


References: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/social_networking

Tara D's Blog

Entry for SEPTEMBER 15TH, 2007

Intro to Authoring Tools

Dr. Z's Asterism ***

Dr. Z's Asterism ***

Dr. Z's Asterism ***

Dr. Z's Asterism ***

Tara Decker

My name is Tara Decker. I am 27 yeard old, married and currently working in the Jersey City School district. I have been a teacher for 6 years and during those years I have taught kindergarten, first and second grade. I have attained a Bachelors in psychology and a Masters in Education; I also have a P-3 certification. I am currently working towards a certification in Library Media.