Podcasting in Education

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Podcasting in Education

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Scrapblog.com-Emerging Technologies Post #3

The name of the technology  I am exploring is Scrapblog.  It is a website where you create cards, slide shows, calendars and various other products.  I found it to be very useful and others could use it to make Christmas cards like I have done.  I found it to be very user-friendly and with my experience with Picnik found it to be very easy to use.  I recommend that everyone try out this site, especially if you plan to send out a family Christmas card.  It is a cheap and easy way to spread holiday joy.  

this is a holiday card I made w/ pictures of my girlfriend and I.

Emerging Technologies Post #2- Picnik.com

I explored Picnik.com for my second emerging technologies post.  Picnik.com allows you to take your "average joe" pictures and make them into something unique.  With Picnik.com you can change the effect of your picture (black and white, sepia, boost, etc.), add text, frames, stickers, and even touch up the discrepancies in your pictures.  You can also make collages and picture shows.  I learned how to use Picnik.com by simply going to the site and clicking around.  Everything was pretty easy to navigate and I didn't have much trouble figuring things out.  This technology is really neat, but I don't know that this is something that I would use very much.  However, it would be a great website for those who like to do a lot with photography.  The only tips or suggestions that I would give to those learning to use this website is to make sure you have photos on your computer or somewhere on the web that you can pull them from.  I pulled mine from facebook with the facebook application button.  


Here are the photos I edited with this website...

This is a photo (before and after editing) of me by a waterfall after walking on a 5 mile hike.  I changed the color to sepia and added text (james and 2010).

This is a picture of my girlfriend and I at a friend's house.  I changed the color to black and white and put a black framing around the edges called vignette.

This is a picture of me walking along the river.  It wasn't snowing when I was there, but with a picnik.com application, I was able to add the effect to my picture to make it look like it was snowing.

Podcasting- "Let me tell you"

I had a rather hard time trying to do my Podcast.  Uploading it correctly was confusing and I wasn't exactly sure what I was doing, or if I was doing it right.  However, making the Podcast itself, was quite easy.  Audacity was a pretty easy program to get used to and I had no trouble getting it to work.

Well, here it is, my finished product, hope you like it!

https://oncourse.iu.edu/access/content/user/jweinben/JAMES-1.mp3

Delicious is my middle name

http://www.delicious.com/james_weinbender55

Enjoy!

Critical Thinking Paper

James Weinbender

W200 Using Computers in Education

9-11-10

Module 2: Critical Thinking

            There are many ways in which technology enhances our lives.  Having a stove makes cooking easier, and having a car make travel less arduous, however, some forms of technology can be a detriment if used inappropriately.  By analyzing articles such as, “The Pros and Cons of Texting and IM” by Kelley Loftis and “Eight Ways To Use School Wikis” by Anonymous, one can more clearing examine both sides of the spectrum.

            In the article “The Pros and Cons of Texting and IM”, Loftis says, “In this age of technology, people will do anything to stay connected. In the last several years, the number of text related accidents have increased.”  The author goes on to explain that accidents in teens are caused more from distractions like text messaging than drunk driving like previously thought.  If texting while driving is causing more accidents and deaths in teens than drunk driving then why is the ladder being more enforced throughout the United States?

            This article reminds me of an incident that happened to a close friend of mine within the past year.  While driving home from football practice last year my friend was texting someone and got in a serious car accident.  Paul came out with only a few bruises but other driver is now paralyzed and the passenger that was in the other car was killed.  This is just one incident of course where texting while driving is something that law enforcers need to crack down on.

            In the article, “Eight Ways To Use School Wikis”, the author writes about how school wikis benefit students as well as the teachers.  The benefits range anywhere between making meetings more efficient, to saving trees and time.  The section that caught my eye was Saving Trees and Time, the author says, “Wikis are a clutter terminator.”  This quote describes that using wikis will save space on an educator’s desk/bookshelves.  It also describes how all the information that teachers put on paper can easily be posted right to a wiki.  This can save a school money and time that would have been wasted by putting the same document in every teacher’s mailbox every day.  If wikis are such a time and money saver though, then why haven’t more schools across the country picked up the habit?

            While my high school was not the most technologically enhanced out there, they did provide quite a few amenities to help further our educational experience.  My memory of my senior English class stands out in my mind the most.  I went from doing everything out of a book my junior year to only working on a computer my senior year.  My English teacher found that passing out papers every day was a waste, so we only worked on websites that provided us with the necessary information.  We too also used a program called Wikispaces, where we posted all our homework.

            Each article served a purpose of showing the pros or cons of using today’s current technology.  The texting/instant messaging article showed us how dangerous one of today’s most used devices can be, while the school wikis article showed how moving from textbooks and pamphlets to computers, can benefit teachers and students alike.  I found both of the articles to be very beneficial and they broadened my outlook on both of the topics.

About Me and Blogging

I spend a lot of my free time with my girlfriend or playing Xbox 360.  In the fall, I really enjoy watching football because it reminds me of when I used to play football.  I graduated from Lawrenceburg High School in 2009 and then I attended Vincennes University for my freshman year of college.  I am now attending IUPUI University and working on getting my degree in Elementary Education.  I also work at the Hofbrauhaus in Newport, Ky as a buser and hope to get a job at an animal shelter closer to home.  I love working with animals and have a
Chocolate Lab named Miller.

I really enjoyed the process that went behind making this profile and blog.  If your having trouble thinking of stuff about yourself in the profile section you could always go to Facebook and copy and paste information from there.