Google Earth

Wow!!  I am totally entranced with all of the graphics I am learning, and will be able to use with my students!! In fact, tomorrow I have a sub assignment teaching a tech class at a local middle school!! FUN!!

So, here is Haunted Savannah from outer space.......

I was able to convert my Google Map of Haunted Savannah, to a Google Earth file, by simply finding my saved file on GM and clicking on the KLM link, creating a KLM file, a file format used in Geographical applications, such as Google Maps and Earth, to display data. The file format is based on XLM standards.

There are many reasons an educator might want to convert an image from GM to GE. First, it is an easy, fun intro to students learning both Geography and graphics applications, and how the two can come together to make perhaps a "boring" subject, appealing to the student.

I will re-visit this a little later today (yes, it is now "today") and see what the teacher's lesson plan has for me, and if I can incorporate one of the suggestions for educators, listed in GE. I will link to my lesson then.

I discovered Google Earth has a marvelous resource available; you may search for applicable lesson plans and also, submit your own! The lessons also contain the NETS*S standards (student standards). They are 1b, 2d, 3b, 4a. The NETS-T standard contained in my lesson is: 

2. Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experiences and Assessments.

Here is the link to the NETS*S:

Student Tech Standards Link

Lesson Plan 'Presidential Homes'

Google Maps

Welcome to Historical Haunted Savannah, Georgia!! One of the Most Haunted Places in America!!! Enter......if you dare!!

Today, I designed a Google Map of historical, haunted, Savannah, Georgia; based upon her storied folklore. I originally became familiar with Savannah, when reading the book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, by John Berendt.

My husband and I visited Savannah in the Summer of 2009, and went on our first Ghost Tour, and learned about the history and folklore of this remarkable city. 

I thought how a field trip to Savannah might interest students as a field trip venue. My class would be at least secondary students, due to the sensitive nature of the places we would be visiting.

An activity tying in with the field trip, would have my class designing their own Google Map, of a place they visited with their family. As I will be teaching Social Sciences, this would be a fun, and exciting activity to learn about historical places in our country.
I had visited Savannah in 2009, so I remembered most of the places I had been to, on the Ghost Tour. I simply looked them up by name, and saved them to my map. For the places I could not recall, I researched websites on Savannah, and did a search for them on my map, to include them on my tour. I also used Jing capture tool and screencast to snip and imbed my artifacts.

The ISTE NETS-T standard related to this activity would be:
#3. Model Digital Age Work and Learning.

Link to Google Map of Historical Haunted Savannah, GA

Batchgeo Part 1 & 2

This was a fun & easy activity!! I have played around a little with Google Maps, but have not experienced Batchgeo until now! All of the students in the class imputed their own data into the spreadsheet separately, however, the data was collected and populated in real-time as we each entered it. I was impressed that this took place in a very cooperative manner!

The first step was to copy & paste the Excel spreadsheet below (aka, your location data), into the Batchgeo field for creating maps. The map in part 2 was created, showing the locations on the map of the EDU 585 class. 

Batchgeo Part 1

Batchgeo Part 2

This would be a terrific mapping activity for kids to take part in! They would be experiencing new technology programs, Excel and Batchgeo, geography, cooperation and being able to create, and share a web-based map, including learning how to embed documents and creating hyper-links.

The tech standards represented by this activity are:

1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity.

2. Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experiences and Assessments.

Jing Screencast

Creating a visually exciting presentation for use in the classroom, to "flip" it and thereby engage my students in the learning experience, can now be achieved by using a program call Jing! Jing affords teachers the ability to offer their students activities presented in a 21st Century learning environment.

Visual learning allows teachers to "reach out" to their students, outside of the traditional classroom environment, by providing increased teacher-student interactions, which enable guided practice opportunities, during homework time, or when students may need extra tutoring.

The ISTE/NETS-T technology standards this activity relates to is: #2. Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experiences and Assessments; #3. Model Digital Age Work and Learning.

Opening the link provided below, entitled Jing Screencast, will guide you through the steps in creating your own visual presentations, without use of an external recording instrument.

The steps are:
Bring up the screen you want to "capture", or record. Use the Jing program, Snagit for selection of the visual components of the lesson you which to present.

Note: if the program Jing is used, your video will generally be limited to a short, 5 minutes. Jing is available for download on the Internet.

Using the "sun" icon from Jing provides you with 3 "prongs", Capture, History and More, for specific selection. In the case of screen "captures", select the prong on the left, Capture.

Once an the area of the screen to be captured is selected, a panel of buttons are available, Capture Image, Capture Video, Redo Selection, Cancel. By selecting Capture Video, and selecting the area to be digitally recorded, guided tutorials can be created for sharing on another Jing program, Screencast. The file extension is .swf. Shockwave.

Last, there are different file sharing options available: Share URL, Embed Link, Embed on your page. Below, I selected the option Embed Link, which if clicked, will direct you to the specific screen capture on the Internet. Enjoy! 
Jing Screencast

Jing Graphic

Jing can be useful in business applications for enhancing 
visual communications and to provide visual aids for training purposes through file sharing of SWF and MPEG graphic formats. Jing also provides exciting educational uses, such as enabling collaboration of students sharing information through video formats, teachers providing their students feedback while grading papers, by using a recording feature to track each mouse click made on a page, for a short video of 5 minutes or less.


The VA. technology standard represented by the Jing Graphic presentation is:
Frederick Douglass was a famous abolitionist, 

B. Instructional personnel shall be able to apply knowledge of terms associated with educational computing and technology.

Social Studies Project on Frederick Douglass

who fought tirelessly to end slavery. His home is now part of the National Park Service Historical Society, and can be visited, in the Anacostia neighborhood, in Washington, D.C.

*Any/all images contained in this post are courtesy of the National Park Service, Frederick 

Douglass National Historic Site

Link to Frederick Douglass graphic

Diigo

Marci's Diigo

Yesterday and today, I explored the a new web 2.0 tool, Diigo. Diigo I include 'today', because I am still setting up my bookmarks w/in my Diigo. I have a year old Netbook, but with all of the add ons I have installed, my pc is quickly becoming overwhelmed, and I am still exploring how to add disk-space and increase the memory to my operating system. So,......my system is kinda crawling and I get warning messages from Google Chrome, my choice of browser. My shockwave plug-in kinda crashes too. My husband, who is quickly becoming less tech knowledgeable than me (!), feigns to not know how to solve my pc dilemmas, so it is a good thing I am taking this class!! LOL!!! UPDATE!! I figured out how to add more disk space today!! Hopefully, this will make my browsing more pleasurable and functional (and quicker!!!).

Back to the task at hand! I am finding, like all of the cool things I am learning about, Diigo is a pretty handy tool, whether using it professionally, in the classroom to share a project with my entire class, say on The History of Arlington Cemetery and the Custis and Lee families Arlington Cemetery Historical Link; or to share my love of baseball and the Washington Nationals, to my favorite authors! 
So what does Diigo offer users: 

Add Sticky Note

Marcia Portal about 10 hours  ago Private Highlight and annotate web pages, Add comments, Bookmark the page for easy retrieval at a later date. acquire, archive, tag & share resources on the Web. Marcia Portal about 10 hours  ago Private Diigo is a research tool and portal for community knowledge and sharing

As shown above, I have created a
"Sticky Note" which I attached to the Diigo assignment document. I have an easy reference tool that can be shared with others on the www! I do not have to "copy & paste", I can share info though use of my notes attached through Diigo to whatever document/article I want to share, and highlight important sections of online articles, linked on my blog. These capabilities totally change the process of social networking, or sharing common interests with others on the Web.

What are Add Ons:
Any support the browser contains for adding on new features. My favorite browser is Google Chrome. I have used IE and Firefox in the past, but usually come back to GC, as I prefer the features it provides. 

My add ons include:
ITunes, QuickTime, Windows Media Player, GoogleTalkActiveX, Oracle Plug In, McAfee Site Advisor, Symantec. Maybe that is why my performance is so slow?....

The ISTE NETS T standard Diigo relates to:
#2. Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experiences and Assessments.

Self Portrait

Website : Picassohead
Masha en Abstract


Wow, what a cool tool Picassohead is!! This is my first "Self-Portrait", created on the pc. The application was simple to use, and I am getting more comfortable with file sharing and using Jing as a screen clipping tool!

My focus is teaching social studies, however I also love art and spent some time as a sub, as an art teacher. This type of application would be a wonderful for teaching an art history lesson! It would be a creative, tech tool, so different from having children merely picking up a drawing instrument! They would learn something about the style of art, Picasso used, and have a fun and user-friendly experience, in doing so! 

This activity relates to the ISTE-NETS-T tech standard, #1 Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity. The TPACK framework used, involves: (T) (CK) Using file sharing programs and screen capture programs for embedding an object on a web document, and providing a link to the application used, as well as to the artifact. The (P) is using a technology based program to teach children about art history, and letting them experience both learning about the artist, as well as being able to create designs using the artist'style, in a non-traditional manor, using forward-thinking design techniques!

Revisit Resume

Rezscore Grade

I have been trying most of the day, to get my resume to format in Google Docs so I can submit it to Rezscore. When I created the document directly through Google Docs, the formatting stays the same. However, Rezscore does not recognize it as resume doc and won't open the file!  Soooo, I saved my Google Doc resume as a Word doc, which Rezscore seems to prefer, but the formatting kept getting thrown off! I was finally able to resolve this, however, 'Tabs' have never been my friend, and this proved to be quite the challenge! Especially, since I am a bit of a perfectionist!! 

I was able to use TechSmith's Jing, as a screen capture tool, which is great, because I am not able to download MS Snipping Tool! I created a link to a copy of my Rezscore grade which is viewed via Jing's, screencast.com.

I have to play around with Jing a bit, to see exactly what it can do, but it looks like a handy tool for both texting/email uses- need to send a friend directions to a restaurant so they can meet you for dinner? Send a clip of the map showing the restaurant's location, in a snap!! Whether you need a web publishing tool, or designing a presentation, Jing replaces former programs, such as PowerPoint! It is a fun and user friendly program.

Jing would be a wonderful tool to incorporate images/video for visual presentations to students, via the Smart Board or Promethian Board. The ISTE/NETS-T standard this relates to is: Facillitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity; through demonstrating the use and understanding new technologies for creating meaningful, attention-getting learning experiences in the classroom. This tool incorporates the theoretical TPACK framework, by intersecting the completed activity (T) (a presentation to art students on creating a cityscape drawing), via the use of visual aids (P) (pictures of major city skylines) as an examples (CK) to further a student's imagination.

Now, as for Rezscore, that was a pain in the butt! I got different scores for my resume, depending upon whether I was submitting a GD doc uploaded as a Word doc, or submitting a Word doc directly, although saved under my GD. It seems to be a completely subjective tool, which I don't intend to use in the future!

No Snipping Tool for me!

Well, bummer. Since I only have Windows 7 Starter, I do not have access to the Snipping Tool. I am also trying to get used to a speech recognition program installed on my computer. I will be looking into the speech recognition program by Google to see if that is more user friendly. 

I'm going to use the evaluation tool for my resume and edit as necessary. I also want to include links to MLB sites, since I am and Nats fan and it looks as though we may headed to the pennant! I need to learn how to do this without needing permission. Gonna check this out now. 

Google Docs

Marci's Resume

Today I experienced what true web publishing is, by using Google Docs. I updated my resume in MS Word, and then I uploaded it to Google Docs. I began by installing the Google Driver application. I then transferred all of my MS Word docs to my Google Docs folder, by clicking and dragging the relevant files.

The process was more complicated than I thought it would be! While I have had web pages before, this is the first time I have gone through all of the steps myself and actually engaged in web publishing. I have a better idea of privacy settings, and how documents may be securely viewed by select audiences. I am amazed at the capabilities of Google Docs for web applications over traditional desktop applications I have been using, prior to this time! It is very cool that constant 'saves' are not needed w/ GD. I also am able to view all of my files on my smart phone, which is very convenient! I am just starting to learn about the possibilities of using new technologies! Cool!

While I am still learning new technologies, terminologies, definitions and the like, I am finding this process an exciting challenge!

One major lesson I learned, was to use the Google template to create my resume, rather than uploading the file from MS Word. When I viewed my link, I found my formatting appeared to be off! I remedied this, by recreating my resume, using a Google resume template, as instructional videos demonstrated. 

The VAC tech standard this activity relates to is, applying knowledge of terms associated with educational computing and technology and applying productivity tools for professional use.

The ISTE NETS T standard this activity relates to is, engaging in professional growth and leadership.