Scavenger Hunter using Digital Cameras...

About a week ago in class, we were instructed to get into groups because we would be going on a scavenger hunt with our digital cameras. Initially, I really did not know what we would be doing, I just knew that it probably involved leaving the classroom to go find different things. Based off of our licensure area, we were placed into group of two or three and we were given a sheet that instructed us of our activity and what we were supposed to find. I was in a group of three and our assignment was titled "Shape-up elementary" we were instructed to go outside of the classroom (during class time), to find things around campus that were of different shapes. (i.e.-we had to find something that was round, a triangle, a rectangle, etc) After we had all of our digital photos (a total of 12 for our group), we were instructed to put them on the computer and to resize all of them so that they were at 72 dpi. We were also instructed to crop the pictures where necessary and to make sure that the pictures were clear and to make sure they were saved as jpg, gif or png files. I was surprised at how much I knew already from what we have learned in class to be able to change my photos around and save them in different ways.
      It was comforting and relieving to finally know exactly how to convert a picture based off what I have already learned from this class. It was nice and useful to be able to transfer my knowledge from one assignment to another. After this, we each put the pictures on a flash drive and were instructed to each independently make a powerpoint with all the shapes, and then to put this powerpoint into google presentations. Above, you will see my powerpoint that I put into google presentations and then embedded into my blog. I am very pleased with how my presentation came out and I feel as though I really followed all of the directions to get this assignment done. It was definitely a helpful assignment that gave me more practice with digital cameras, image resizing and saving images. Practice makes perfect, and in since we just did a digital images project before this, I feel that this scavenger hunt was just more of the practice we needed with digital images!

Smilebox!

Personalize a photo collage

A few days ago in class, I learned all about the fabulous Web 2.0 tool, Smilebox! Before the presentation of Smilebox in class, I had NEVER heard of it before. It is such a fun tool that is addicting to play around with.In a nut shell, Smilebox is a way to create amazing, online scrapbooks, slideshows, invitations to events,and collages for any occasion! Another great thing about Smilebox is that it allows you to share your presentation through many different ways, such as Blogger (which is exactly what I did with my Smilebox collage!), Facebook, email, burning to a DVD and so much more! I was pretty basic with my Smilebox presentation that I created above. I did just a basic collage with pictures that I have saved on my computer. The few frustrations I had with Smilebox are that 1.)Although it lets you upload pictures from facebook, it only let you choose from a select few in your facebook, which was very frustrating because I wanted to use more pictures and 2.)When I uploaded some of my pictures into my Smilebox presentation/collage, it cut off the heads of me and whoever I was with in the pictures and when I tried to zoom the picture out, it still cut our heads off and I could not figure out at all how to fix it, (which you will see if you watch my presentation.) Other than those 2 things, Smilebox was a great way to make my pictures come to life in a such a creative way!

Digital images in Different ways..

          In these past few days, I have learned more about digital images than ever before. I had to create a digital image collection by using 5 different methods: one image being taken by a digital camera, one scanned picture, one that was copied from a CD/DVD clipart photo collection, one that was downloaded from the web and one that was taken as a screen shot. Before I did this project I only knew how to do two, which were taking one with a camera and taking a screen shot. With instruction, I quickly learned how to do the other three. I was a little anxious before I figured out how to do them because I had never done it before. It all worked out though because I got my 5 images through the 5 different methods. After the 5 pictures were obtained, we were instructed to put them into Picasa web albums, which is a site through google. This as well was very new to me because I had never heard of it before. Picasa allowed me to store my 5 pictures into an album (which is below by the way!) This method of storing my photos through Picasa was very useful and efficient! I really enjoyed uploading the photos because it was SO easy! Usually I always seem to have trouble with this kind of stuff but it was so self explanatory and easy that I was able to figure it out 100% on my own, which I was very proud of if I do say so myself.

        One frustration that I had with this assignment was the resizing of the pictures. Our direction instructed us to keep the pictures at 72 dpi and the photos had to be saved as either "jpegs," "gifs" or "png" files, which before this project, I had NO idea what those letters even meant! I had briefly read about them in our book and we had talked about them in class a few times, but probably should have read over it a little more so I could better understand what the difference between them were. I ended up learning somewhat about what they all did through this assignment, but I definitely think I need to read more about them in the book so I have a full understanding. Learning about digital images was quite an experience and learning about the different ways in which they can be saved was also an experience in itself. I am happy I got more educated with digital images because I definitely see myself needing to use them in the classroom one day. All the 5 ways in which I found these photos definitely seem like ways that I will need to obtain pictures in the classroom and my new knowledge on how to save these photos will definitely help me when I start teaching!

By clicking on the picture below, you will be able to see my very own Picasa web album that I created with my 5 photos! (I chose a flower/nature theme for all my pictures if you couldn't already tell)

Lesson Plans, Lesson Plans, Lesson Plans!

When I first started to create my lesson plan, I had somewhat of an idea as to what I was doing because I had done a lesson plan in one of my classes from the previous semester. However, the lesson plan for this class was required slightly different things. Initially, I was doing my lesson plan independently, but that did not last long. I expressed my frustrations at the end of the class one day to my friend Caroline (who is in the class as well) and she expressed her frustrations too. We decided that it would be best to just both stop where we are and start a lesson plan together in since we had the option of doing the lesson plan with a partner. This was a GREAT decision because we worked fabulously together! The stuff that I couldn't figure out she could and vice versa. We worked very nicely together and really fed our ideas off of one another. I really would not have gone back and done this by myself because of how well we worked together. Now, I know when I begin teaching, I will doing lesson plans by myself, but this experience with a partner really helped me learn the process of creating a lesson plan much better. It reduced a lot of the stress and anxiety I was experiencing from doing the lesson plan independently. Once we had our finished product with the worksheet and everything, I could really see how this could be used in an actual classroom. I think Caroline and I did a great job of really making the lesson seem realistic and making it transferrable to the actual classroom. This lesson plan was great practice for when I actually start my teaching and have to create real lesson plans for my class!

Frustrations with Prezi...

Before learning about Prezi, I never really knew what it entailed and what it had to offer. I did know that it was a form of presentation (like powerpoint) because of a teacher of mine in another class used it, but I never knew how to use it myself. After learning about it class, it didn't seem to difficult to construct a Prezi and I was curious about and interested in making my own Prezi. Dr. Obannon wanted each of us to create a Prezi based off a lesson plan that we had just created (my lesson plan was on the solar system) When I went to create my Prezi on the solar system, it was nothing like I thought. It was not as easy as I thought and I had so much trouble trying to navigate around Prezi to create a presentation. It was definitely not as easy as I thought it would be to make a Prezi and it actually built up a lot of frustration and anxiety as I was trying to figure it out. It seems like a great Web 2.0 tool, but I honestly can not figure it out for the life of me. After I talked with Dr. Obannon about my frustrations, she informed that I could make a powerpoint presentation with just a regular powerpoint (which I luckily knew how to do) and then I could upload this powerpoint into Prezi. I tried this, and I think it somewhat worked, but I'm still not sure. Below you will see a screen shot of what my Prezi looks like with the powerpoint uploaded into it. I really and truly want to learn how to use Prezi because it seems awesome and I think I would be able to utilize it in my own classroom one day! (once I learn how to use it)