In the last two weeks I have had numerous opportunities to explore technologies related to presentation tools and collaboration tools. All of the sites I have explored have been completely new to me. I even Skyped for the first time to attend a class meeting that I was unable to attend in person. I was the only person in the group that had not Skyped before. I guess I am behind the times, but I had no reason to Skype before. I had to have my 14 year old show me how to do it. That seems to be the central theme with my blogs and my exploration of technology, my kids are my tutors. I also received a lesson in Google Drive during my Skype meeting. I did not realize Google Drive had so much to offer and it is included with my school email. This will be a feature that I work to familiarize myself with some more.I made a 30 second video of my family photos with Animoto, http://animoto.com/. I wish it could have been longer than 30 seconds but I may need to purchase it for my next presentation. It was relatively easy to use as well. I have added a short YouTube clip on how to use Animoto. I have found that I am referencing a lot of YouTube videos on how to work with these new forms of technology. Here is the link to my first Animoto video, http://animoto.com/play/4v31BOT6LnyUG8XN2YznqA.
As a student and a nurse educator, I work on numerous group projects. To aid with this work I have been exploring Zoho office suite,https://www.zoho.com. This site allows groups to post documents and make changes to them. The site also has calendars to share with the group to add milestones to the project. I have not used it with a group so far but between work and school there will be a call to use it soon. There are numerous applications within the site such as projects, notebooks, wiki, and meetings. The site states that it is compatible with Microsoft Office products. This too is a tool that I will become more familiar with soon.
As a class we collaborated on editing a Wiki on PB Works, www.pbworks.com to create an evaluation of nursing instructional technology guidelines to be used for both a group and an individual paper. This was interesting. I liked seeing how the original document changed as we all had our input to create our guidelines according to the class readings we had completed. Everyone got their say and we all had something to add. Alone I probably would not have had the insights my classmates had. This form of collaboration was nice. I researched PB Works a little and found the site was named PB Works because the creator stated "creating a wiki is as easy as making a peanut butter sandwich", just an interesting little fact.
As you can read, I have been exploring a lot of different technologies. I have greatly enjoyed learning how to work with them. My technology class started on January 13 and I can honestly say in the last 4+ weeks I am not nearly as intimidated as I was, at times I get a little frustrated as noted by the picture below but I'm growing and that is what this class is all about. In the Bloom's digital taxonomy I am in the application phase of the cognitive domain and responding to phenomena in the affective domain. http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Bloom%27s+Digital+Taxonomy
Hi Amy,
ReplyDeleteYou blog entry definitely shows growth in your journey of exploring presentation tools. Like yourself I have not had the opportunity to Skype and was not available for the class meeting, but I'm glad you had the opportunity to do so. Animoto is a site which I plan to use for my family photos. I found that site creative and a great way to share a life story. Since you mentioned that you reference YouTube videos quite a bit, do you think these sites need additional instructional videos to help those of us who are not as technologically savvy? .. Also thanks for the Blooms Taxonomy link, we are in the same phase.
I wish you would have been able to Skype, it was easier than I thought. During the meeting I told Dr. May that we could really benefit from videos of lectures like we had for our Stats class, he then explained google drive and stated he would make a video, which he did. I can't imagine how much time it must have took him and Clyde to make them but they were helpful and would be very helpful for this class as well.
DeleteAmy, Have you seen Toni Morris' animoto on bullying as an application to practice? Great that you are trying so many new things. I'll tell Clyde about your realization! He will smile!
ReplyDeleteI have not had an opportunity to see Toni's animoto yet, I'm trying to watch all the presentations and read blogs as well as posted diigo sites. I will watch it tomorrow, I can't wait to see how it was used as a presentation on bullying. Tell Clyde I said hi and thanks to both of you for putting so much prep time into our stats assignments.
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