Emergent Technology 2: Mix Book

For my third emergent technology I decided to try out Mixbooks. As I have mentioned before I love pictures and am always looking for a new way to display and share them. I have made photobooks from other cites before, but Mixbooks had more options and seemed easier to use. I really enjoyed this program and found it super easy to use. I also loved that I could retrieve my photos right off of Facebook, and could used the ones others uploaded of me and the ones I did myself. When I become a teacher I could see myself using this to share memories from the year with my students and their parents. It would be nice because I could make it online and share the link with them, then the parents could decide if they wanted to buy a copy for themselves. Using the internet will be a great way to save me money, yet still share the memories with my students and their parents. I will likely use Mixbooks for personal things as well in the near future. I take a lot of pictures of my cousins and am considering making a book for their mom to enjoy. I can think of many reasons Mixbooks will be useful to me now and in the future. I am really glad I had the opportunity to explore this cite, because I probably would not have found it if not for this class.

Here is the link to my Mixbook. It contains pictures of my family and friends from this spring. Enjoy!! :)

Mixbook

My Experience with PhotoShow

For this second emergent technology project, I explored several of the options before choosing to use PhotoShow. I love photos and almost always have my camera with me, so this was a very fun project for me. PhotoShow allows you to upload photos and then they will put them into a slide show for you. You can then add captions, music, etc. I did find it at times frustrating, because a lot of the options could only be used if you paid for them. I thought PhotoShow was very user friendly, and it didn't take me very long at all to make my photo slide show that I was pleased with. Once my pictures were uploaded I could choose from about 10 different themes and rearrange my photos to the order I wanted. I liked how they had all the photos below and you could just move them to the place you wanted. I also, liked how you could preview your show right on that screen after each change you made.

I would recommend using PhotoShow as a way to show off your pictures to friends and family. I will definitely use PhotoShow or something like it in my future classroom and now for personal projects. Since I take so many photos, I am always looking for a new way to share them with people. For a school setting I could see using this to show highlights from the year to parents or pictures from a field trip or play to the students and parents. Pictures are a great way to capture the moment and remember all that went on, and PhotoShow provides you with an easy way to display and share them. I was very impressed with PhotoShow and would even consider paying for it in the future to complete a larger project.

Emergent Technology 2: PhotoShow

My Experience with RSS Feeds

Well I found this assignment fairly easy since I already had a MyYahoo account/ page. Though, I did not realize that it was an RSS feed until I started this project. I really enjoyed having to take the time to find out how I could enhance my page so that it contains important information to me. Before this assignment I basically used it as an easy way to access my e-mail and see top news stories. Since I got the page a couple years ago I have used it a lot, but I think that I will use it even more now. It was hard for me to find an educational news feed, but I did finally find one, and so far I have really enjoyed the stories that have come up. I also like that I can see local and national news all in one place. Through doing this assignment I realized how valuable and useful this page can me, both now and in the future. I also, like how Yahoo has an easy button to add content to your page and that it also provides you with options, without having to search the web for the RSS icon. Yahoo also makes it really easy to organize your page, by allowing you to move things around right from that page. I did not explore any of the other options for displaying RSS feeds, but I was very pleased with the one Yahoo provides. This is something that I will continue to use often and helps me keep current on news and other things. Oh, and one of the best things I found to add to my page was a movie listings tab, where I can add my top theaters and find out show times right from my Yahoo home page! :)

Hey everyone check out my delicious site!!! I hope you find some of the resources helpful. For the last few where it was more open to what we could find so I focused them toward my major, since I thought they would be useful in the future. I found websites about teaching in general and helpful hints, and also ones about special needs specifically regarding education. Enjoy! :)

http://delicious.com/denisewoodall

Podcasting

Podcasting is a tool that one can use to record their voice and then share their recording with others. I used Garage Band to make my first podcast. I found it to be very easy to use and many features that enhance your recording. It was also easy to add music. They offered a few options or I could have easily added my personal music from my iTunes account. Overall, I was very impressed with my Garage Band podcasting experience. The main issue I had was trying to get it into a format that would transfer to my blog. I can definitely see myself using this technology again in the future. Next time would be even easier since I now know what format I need to save it in.

A podcast could be useful for as a teacher if you wanted to record a lesson for an absent student to listen to later. Also, could be used if you were going to be gone and needed to personally tell your class something. Outside of that podcasts are a wonderful way to find experts on certain subjects and then you could easily play that to your class or personally listen to it just to gain knowledge.

The best advice I would give to someone who is making a podcast is to be patient. Not only with the development of the podcast, because that was the easy part for me, but with getting it somewhere to share with others. If using a Mac it most likely will not be saved into a transferable file. So convert it to an mp4 to your iTunes and it is a lot easier to work with. I hope that this advice helps. Also, if you have never tried to make a podcast... give it a try... you might find it to be a very useful technology after a little exploration.

Podcast: The Three Little Pigs

http://dwoodall.podbean.com/mf/web/ce7nnc/TheThreeLittlePigs.m4a

Here is a link to my Podcast. I am really hoping this works because I have spent a long time trying to upload this to my blog. More about my experience later.

Pictures!!

Picture of my Friends and I:

A Picture of my family:

Power Point Presentation: Haiti

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Haiti

View more presentations from guest5c3b40f.

About Me!

Hello everyone, I am Denise Woodall and am excited to have the opportunity to share with you all some of my experience that I have throughout this class. I am a sophomore here at IUPUI. I transfered here last semester from Indiana Wesleyan. I am greatly enjoying my time thus far at IUPUI, though I do miss my friends from Indiana Wesleyan a lot!!

Other than school I also work for the YMCA doing an after school program in Wayne Township Schools. This is definitely a job of ups and downs, but in the end very rewarding. It has reminded me of how much I love to work with children, even on the most frustrating of days, and why I want to become a teacher. I have worked there since September and have developed a wonderful relationship with the children and also my co-workers. I am very thankful for the job that I have and the opportunities it has provided me with.

I also spend a lot of time with friends and family. I have a wonderful family, immediate and extended, and we do basically everything together. I am very lucky to have such a wonderful, caring family and thank God for that every day. I also have great friends, most of whom I have known since Jr. High. We have been through so much together, nothing could ever replace those memories. It is awesome to have so many people that care about me and that I know I can go to at any time. Along with them I also have a wonderful church family, who I have drawn close to over the past couple years. I try to live my life in a way that would honor God each and everyday. I have learned that He will see me through even the toughest of situations. This is my life in a nutshell and I hope this gives everyone a good idea of who I am and what is most important in my life.