7.24.11

I really enjoyed our last meeting and being able to listen to everyone show their Prezis.  It was neat to see everyones pictures and see what picture tip each person used.  I enjoyed watching the lip dub videos during class also.  I think lip dubs are a great way to incorporate a large variety of people in a whole production.  I watched the Kids in America video and it thought it was a great  representation of the whole school working on something together.  I'm having a good time working on my Pecha Kucha.  I'm doing it on my trip to New Zealand and Australia.  While I love the pictures that I chose, I'm having a hard time figuring out exactly what tone to take in my voice overs and what types of music and sounds to put in with it.  I am also trying to decide if I should use voicethread or if I should try the slidesix.  I opened an account for slidesix, but couldn't really figure it out at the time.  I think I need to sit down more with it and focus more on it.  My biggest concern with the Pecha Kucha is that I won't be able to get each slide to show for 20 seconds.  Hopefully I will figure that out.

7.17.2011

After our fourth session, I don't feel as overwhelmed as I have with the other sessions.  I'm excited to work on my Prezi and I've actually done one before so I think I'll have more fun putting it together.  I am having trouble picking my top six pictures for my Prezi though.  I wish I had paid more attention to the pictures I was taking when I was taking them, so that would actually be good pictures.  At the time I was just snapping away and I'm having a difficult time pointing out in my pictures what technique I used to get the picture.  I also think the Pecha Kucha will be fun to put together.  I'm still trying to decide what I want it to be on.  I've got a story board going for my ideas to see which might be the easiest and make the most sense.  I have a story board for my trip to Australia and New Zealand and then a story board for my summer camp memories that could be used for the Y.  My fantastic news for the week is that I've had two library media specialist interviews this past week!  I've gone into both interviews being able to talk about the technology we have been learning about and I feel like I somewhat know what I am talking about in the interviews.  We'll see what happens with those, but it's nice to know that the classes I have taken have helped me out so far!!

4.10.2011

I have to admit that when each class session ends I feel a little information overload going on in my head.  The hour goes so quick because we are learning about so many new and exciting things, but at the same time it's overwhelming thinking of everything that needs to get done.  Once I'm able to actually go through the material I am finding that each and everything I go through gets more and more beneficial.  I am really enjoying the Presentation Zen book, but even more I love watching the videos becuase it is really enhancing what that book is saying and what is really important.  I think this last chapter in the book was extremely beneficial becuase it went through all the important key components of a presenation and what I should be working on.  I think what I am liking most about the class is that I am being forced to try new programs and sites and being forced to get out of my way of thinking and into something new.  I am forcing myself to try and expand on what I know and make something great.  I know none of the stuff that I've done so far is very great, but it's so much fun to learn and try to better myself.  Currently for my job I'm in the process of reformatting all of our paperwork and update old presenations.  I haven't started the presenations quite yet, because I want to practice and get better at them before I start, but I'm so excited to start putting new ones together and wow my boss!

CEDO530 4.3.11

I really enjoyed the class from last Wednesday.  I really liked the StoryCorps and have enjoyed watching some of the clips.  It's a neat concept and I've mentioned the site to other people that I work with and have heard great feedback from them about the site also.  Overall, I've had a really fun time taking the pictures each day.  I'm finding that I'm spending more time now looking for things that take picture of then ever before.  I also am really enjoying checking out everyone's pictures.  It's fun to check out and learn a little bit more about the people that you spend time in class with.  Everyone is taking really great pictures and I can't wait to see what we are going to do with them in the future.  I'm a little anxious about the powerpoint assignment at this time.  I haven't done a powerpoint presentation in years so I'm still trying to figure that one out.  I'm hoping that since I haven't done a powerpoint in a number of years that it will be like starting from scratch and I will learn the correct way to put a presentation together from the beginning.

CEDO 530 6.26.11

The first class session for digital storytelling was very exciting.  I was really nervous going into the class session becuase I've never done on online course before and I wasn't comfortable with the whole set up of the class.  As we got into the class it definately made more sense to me and got me even more excited about the class.  For only meeting for an hour I feel like I've already been given so many various resources that I could use in my work life right now.  I'm especially excited about the picture assignment.  I love taking pictures but never seem to have my camera around.  This will be a great reason to carry it around and I'm curious what we will do with the pictures.  Learning about posterous site has been the highlight of the first week of class and I'm excited to learn so much more through the upcoming weeks.

3.23.11

One of the most important things that I have learned from enrolling in this course is that no matter what your job title is you must advocate yourself and make it look as though you are one of the most important attributes to your co-workers.  I think that that is something a person can always work on, especially myself.  This week I learned a lot about the great things WEMTA had to offer this year.  I was tempted to go, and at the last minute bowed out.  I'm a bit disapointed that I didn't go, but am interested in seeing about becoming a member even though I'm not in a library at this time.  I also enjoyed everyone's presentations tonight.  There are so many neat lessons out there that are beneficial and I look forward to hopefully using some of these in my own library some day.  I'm especially excited to try using screen-castomatic with some of my work tools.  It's going to be exciting to show all my co-workers about it.  Another one of my favorite parts of the class were all of the databases and tools I've learned about over the past few weeks.  I feel like I've learned so many new things and that there can't possibly be more tools out there, but there are tons out there still and I can't wait to learn more and really hop on board with technology!

3.16.11

Some of my favorite things from the dtatbase presentations tonight were... -Tumblebooks - I really liked the read along books and how the story was read out loud and easy to follow along.  It seems like it would be a great way to encourage kids to read.
-WISCareers - I liked the career clusters section which helped pinpoint which careers might be possible for you to pursue.
-Kids Search - I loved the detailed search section.  It was so user friendly with the checkboxes and the many options that you could search by.
-BrainPop - So exciting, bright, and happy looking.  I can see why kids would enjoy using it; definately grabs attention.  The section on teaching to the standards seems so useful to teachers.
-Power Speak Language - This site makes me want to go out and learn a new language.  It seems like it teaches in such a straight forward way and would make learning a new language fun.

This weeks class has opened my eyes to how many really good, quality database are out there for students and staff to use.  I've never paid much attention to databases but I can understand how important and useful they are and why teachers and students would want to use them.  I've used CultureGrams this week for looking up recipes from various countries for some Y curriculum.  It was very beneficial and really convienent to use.  I also liked talking about WECAN tonight and how important in general it is to keep looking for jobs and putting yourself out there.  The discussion at the beginning of class really stressed the importance of putting in applications and to continue trying to find a job.