new tech in class

Last weekend, I went to SPEAQ, along with classmates, and discovered a new technology gadget that teachers can easily use in class. In the first conference that I attended, I was introduced to Clickers. For those who are not familiar with this, the teacher has a remote control that controls a powerpoint presentation. In this presentation, the teacher can put questions for students to answer. Every student has a clicker, which is a small remote control with which students can select an answer to the teacher's question. They are very easy to use, but hard to explain without a clear visual. Here is a link to youtube that explains it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G0WzfitDBA

I think that clickers are very useful and easy to set up before a class. I would use it in a classroom, considering the fact that, among other things, it is a good conversation starter.

Using YouTube

YouTube is pretty awesome. You can browse videos or upload your own. The scary part of it is that you can upload ANY kind of videos.

Which is why I wouldn't use it in a classroom. I would rather look for another site, if I really wanted to post or view a video. YouTube would be risky because of all the different videos available to students. The other video site that we saw, www.voicethread.com , seems better and safer than YouTube, but might still present some challenges. 

Overall, if I wanted to present a video to the classroom, I think that I would just download it straight from a resource and put it on a CD or usb key.

Sharing pictures on the web

Last lab, we discovered a site in which we could post pictures and create a small slideshow. I have discovered other sites so I'll try to make links here, but if it doesn't work and you still want to check them out, you'll just have to copy/paste. Here we go:

http://picasa.google.com/features.html

http://www.flickr.com/

http://www.smugmug.com/

Well, hope that works. I know that this post isn't very original since it is based on what we did last class, but I think that having more than one site can always be helpful.

Bubbleshare tryout

Alright, so here is a sample ( and by sample I mean 6 pictures out of about a thousand...)  of my trip to Europe. This is the part in Paris, but I also went to Italy, Spain, Belgium and northern France. 


BubbleShare: Share photos - Easy Photo Sharing

One of many

This blog will be used for my media project. It will become a journal in which I will posts my reactions and thoughts about previous lectures and on the class in general. 

Enjoy reading it :)