Thing #24

This class was a challenge for me, since I was unfamiliar with the majority of the applications required to complete each assignment.  Also when revamping this program, please consider polling neighboring school systems to determine if the majority of the sites required are blocked.  This was very frustrating for me.  If I did not own an iPhone, I would not have been able to complete the assignments unless I moved permanently into APSU’s computer lab.   Once I found the sites and worked through the activities, everything fell into place, and I was pleased with my accomplishments. 

This class offered many opportunities to explore technological opportunities to use in the classroom or for personal growth.  Animoto was the most exciting site, and I plan to use it to introduce new subject matter throughout the year.  It is so user friendly; I foresee teaching my students how to animate their graphic designs.  Also, this class allowed me to connect with fellow art teachers and share lesson plans, trade project ideas, discuss discipline issues, and other topics of interest.  Those links will remain as lifelines to colleagues with similar concerns.  LiveBinders was a useful tool for storing information needed for thematic units.  I will continue using them to organize all my photographs, lecture information, student assignments and worksheets.  When I began the class, I was already familiar with Google.  Now, I have switched to Google Chrome and enjoy it even more.  Finally, Web 2.0 is a useful source for collaborating or interacting with peers.  This will act as an outside source of information for me, since no one in my school can relate to my subject matter.  Due to the security blocks on student computers, I will have to transfer the majority of information to a jump drive so my class can have access to the data.  In conclusion, I resolve to continue using portions of the applications presented during our class, but my blogging days are over. 

Thing #23

An example of the use of Creative Commons is found on the content page of this website: 

       Credits

Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers is based on Learning 2.0 - 23 Things, a staff development program for the Mesquite Independent School District. That program was based on the Learning 2.0 program that was designed by Helene Blowers and adapted by the California School Library Association and others. Content and style for Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers has been borrowed and duplicated with permission, under a Creative Commons License.

When is something plagiarized, and when is it acceptable to use other people’s work?  Creative Commons allows the use of photographs, activities, and similar information to be placed on the internet and used without being accused of plagiarism.  Since the internet holds multiple sources of information, untold numbers of documents, and representations of other people’s work, the best way to give credit to them is to document the source where it came from.  When credit is given for use of other people’s work and an explanation of how it was altered for use in your project, this is the most ethical means of acknowledging the originator of the idea.  Free access to information does not re-leave the use from giving credit for transferring information to your own personal use. 

When researching information for the activities presented in these assignments, I found students’ work placed on the website from various universities cooperating in the 23 Things project.  This was upsetting to me, because I did not realize that people other than APSU 5540 students would be viewing my blog for eternity.  I noticed that the latest date was 2009, so I hope this has been corrected.  When using other people’s ideas like basing a research paper on Wikipedia, one must be careful to check the facts before quoting them.  During research assignments, I will make sure all photographs and activities turned in by my students are cited correctly.  It amazes me that today’s students believe cutting and pasting constitutes writing a paper.  They are shocked to discover that I can look up sentences from their papers and tell who originally wrote it. 

Thing #22

This activity was very interesting and useful to me as an art teacher.  My presentations require a lot of photographs of various artists’ works and methods used to reproduce their techniques.  LiveBinders provides a method to store all my online resources for each artist, examples of their work, demographic information, and other facts about the period and style he used.  This app is easy to use and allows extensive data to be stored in each folder.  Tabs allow subject matter to be subdivided into meaningful categories and accessed during lectures.  LiveBinders is similar to Diigo and can be shared with fellow instructors with interests in similar subject matter.  In fact it is so user friendly, that students can setup files and collect data for upcoming reports.  Our school system does not block access to this site, so it has been deemed appropriate for student use.  I could for see teachers placing introductory information in the first folder and assignments sequentially under accompanying tabs.  In this manner, students could access the designated LiveBinder, review collected website information, print off worksheets, and finish assignments independently.  This is a means of providing online access to information, but still controlling the content. 

Thing #21

I wish I had found this app when my children were young.  It would have been wonderful to share short videos online with my parents.  The usual photo album does not compare to the movement and music that Animoto provides.  I was actually shocked at how well my amateur video turned out, and I only needed a little help from my teenagers to accomplish the task.  I can see the application of this site to student reports and demonstrations.  Since the teacher would have prior access to the photographs being uploaded, this would be a wonderful way for students to gain extra credit or introduce a topic for discussion.  As an art teacher, I plan to use this app during the instructional phase of my lessons.  Needless to say, I was impressed with the easy of creating videos and the quality of the finished product.  I would be interested in finding out the cost for producing videos longer than 30 seconds.  This would be great to email parents so they can see class projects developed by their own children.

Thing #20

When your thirteen year old son shows you in five seconds how to go around the school systems blockers to access YouTube, you suddenly realize that students are more tech savvy than their teachers.  My daughter showed me her favorite sites and we laughed together about the antics of Fred, funny pet tricks and so forth.  I noted that if you clicked on the words, the school systems block popped up, but if you clicked on the picture the videos loaded immediately.  Many of them were too funny for words.  Unfortunately, they are not rated for content, so viewers must be prepared.  I can see an instructor downloading specific clips and playing them for their class.  For example when we were painting with wheeled toys, I downloaded BMW’s commercial to a jump drive and showed the students how they drove through various colored paint to create the video.  The students were so fascinated with the BMW sliding around the hockey rink making rainbow colored concentric circles, it was difficult to break them away from the screen to make their own miniature versions.  The only way I see this working in a classroom is for the instructor to control the videos, by loading them on to jump drives. 

Very Funny Cats 23

Thing #19

I chose to review wecollaborate.com since it offered an opportunity to dialogue with fellow educators on subject matters of interest to teachers.  Since our technology department just discovered how to link my Apple Computer to my Smart board, I found this site very useful, since I received no training on using a whiteboard.  The author accidentally found that student information could be dragged onto the whiteboard without using her screenshot program.  This was a revelation to me and several other followers.  I noticed that some of the bloggers had no hits on their posts, and decided that they possibly had joined the wrong social network.  Creating an account is easy and applications are reviewed prior to giving permission for usage in order to control spam.  Clients have access to a wealth of archived information, can join current forums for discussion or start a special discussion group. 

For fun, I joined opensourcefood.com.  This site had wonderful recipes and comments from readers on how to improve them.  Just looking at the photographs of the food caused my mouth to water, but at least there were no calories attached.  This site will continue to be a favorite place for me to visit, since I love to cook.

Thing #18

I wonder how many new words have been invented in the last two or three years?  Probably more than those created prior to internet access.  When I was in high school, “birds tweeted” not people.  We called, wrote or visited our friends.  Facebook and Twitter are both filtered out by the security system in our schools, so theoretically students are denied access to these sites.  Though access to social networking sites has been blocked within our schools, even our elementary students know how to get around the security system.  Just recently, our School Board voted to assign a supervisor to monitor all social networking sites for inflammatory, subversive or insubordinate statements regarding students, faculty, curriculum, and/or facilities.  Her role is to stop cyber bullying, warn the staff of controversial activities, and report erroneous or negative information placed on the internet.  Several teachers have received formal reprimands from our Director of Schools, for statements they placed on Facebook.  Within our county, students have been reported for posting inappropriate photographs on their privacy sites after they went viral, so parents and teachers should monitor this very closely.   

In regards to Facebook and Twitter, I have warned both of my children to never give out confidential information, say anything derogatory, only “friend” people they know, to remember that once it is posted everyone has access to it, and it is there forever.  To insure their safety, I periodically review my teenagers’ interactions.  Unfortunately, it would be difficult for me to determine if they had secret accounts. 

In Humphreys County, teachers are discouraged from directly communicating with students, so using Facebook and Twitter would not be an appropriate means of contacting parents or students.  As an adult, I use Facebook to talk with my friends and discuss college assignments.  It is user friendly and has more useful options.  Twitter is a very powerful tool when used to call vast numbers of clients’ attention to activities or events, and the users can limit the number of “followers” they have.

Thing #17

Delicious is a blocked website in our school system, so the students would not have access to it.  I was able to access it through my own personal account and found a wealth of information available.  The preset web links made researching various topics much easier, if bookmarks coincided with topic tagged by others.  Unlike Delicious, Diigo can be used by anyone and is not blocked by the school’s security system.   Teachers could bookmark items for research and students could have access to them.  The security on these sites is questionable because you are looking at other people’s social tags. I would be afraid that spam could be attached to them and import a virus into my computer.   Those that can be blocked for privacy could be used by teachers and their students without violating confidentiality.  Teachers would have to show their students how to view the protected area through a specified search engine.  These sites have comment sections available, but who would want to go back and see what other people thought about the way you linked articles together, unless they were used specifically by your students on a protected search engine.

Thing #16

Since I currently use Gmail as my email address, I looked into Google’s time saver website: Gmail Tasks.  Gmail Tasks was easily accessed and user friendly, which I definitely need at this stage of my life.  I was able to post messages to my Gmail account, list when all my homework assignments were due or my children have appointments and my parents have to drive them because I have a class.  I sometimes wonder how my parents managed to do all the things they had to do and still get me to ball games and dance recitals.  Gmail Tasks allows me to post all of these things in advance and then notifies me of the upcoming event.  I do not think my mother’s desk calendar ever sent her a message to do something. 

My parents and students have access to my iGoogle calendar listing class/school events, and activities of interest in art.  I post a list of needed household items for future projects, and the parents start collecting them for me.  The students get extra credit for bringing in these items.  The parents get a masterpiece created from recycled junk. The landfill gets less trash.

Thing #15

Wikis would be a wonderful tool for classroom use, as long as it remained protected.  When I looked at some of the student created websites, it was obvious that lots of prior planning, editing and technological expertise had been incorporated into their presentations.  The games, documentaries, slideshows, and photography were very colorful, well organized, and information packed.  The sites were user friendly, motivational, and held my attention.  It was apparent that the students who worked on the sites had spent a great deal of time on their projects, and their enthusiasm was obvious. If students were given a choice between writing a research paper or presenting the facts in a website documentary format, they would jump at the chance to participate in a Wiki assignment.  The current tech savvy generation would spend more time completing web based activities than looking up information for a boring report.  

This site can be used as a class project, and the instructor can have an instant snapshot of the changes made to the activity, so he can monitor the students’ progress.  Also, teachers/students can list pages and make side by side comparisons of the changes made to the script.  Then, they have the option of choosing the original versions rather than the edited editions. 

Thing #14

Flowcharts have been around a long time, just not in computer form.  Authors, scientist, and inventors have recorded their ideas on napkins and scraps of paper for years.  Speakers today have the advantage of charting connected information or talking points into easily followed formats.  Arrows or lines demonstrate relationships between facts presented to audiences, so they can easily follow the speaker’s train of thoughts. Unlike bulleted points, flowcharts clearly trace information from its source through all connecting data presented.  Flowcharts have a beginning, connections, an ending and can easily be reviewed at a later time.  They are used to symbolically explain complicated processes.  Each step of the process is represented by different shapes and contains further information on the subject.  Flowcharts allow instant understanding of a process without an in depth discussion of the subject.  Flowcharts can be designed with hyperlinks, so further details can be added.

Unlike flowcharts moving from start to finish, mind maps usually provide information in a clockwise manner with cross-referencing radial branches.  They allow speakers to keep track of where they are during their presentations and commit more information to memory.  Mind maps are designed to assist the speaker more so than the audience.   Mind maps are excellent study guides, because they focus on a central topic and allow the creator a chance to organize his thoughts.  They are great to use during brainstorming sessions, since mind maps do not list items in preferential order.  Many times, mind maps are used to condense information into a concise memorable structure.  They are useful for graphically organizing data and depicting directly related information through branches off the main topic. 

To make my mind map, I chose to use MindMeister because it allowed free access for a limited number of applications.  It was easily accessed and user friendly for a novice like myself.  Once I chose the topic and connecting concepts, all that remained was the typing.  A student could use this software to make a study guide, but I do not foresee having any additional need for this tool. 

To make my flowchart, I employed Gliffy.  This graphic organizer will be used in my after-school science class to teach the scientific method of doing research.   Also, this program will be useful in writing future research papers and power points.   

Thing #13

Zoho Writer is free and easy to use.  It is a great way of accessing information when you are away from your own personal computer.  For example in the past when I wrote my parent newsletters, I typed them at home and emailed them to myself, so pictures of the students’ artwork could be added later.  With Zoho Writer, I just post the document and reopen it at school.  When finished, I send a copy to my principal for approval before printing it for parents.  Zoho Writer allows my principal to alter my document rather than emailing it back to me with comments, because it is in read only format when emailed.  No more doing “save as” documents and trying to determine which is the most recent form. 

During undergraduate work, I wrote a paper on Joan of Arc and submitted it to my professor for proofreading and corrections.  I still have four Joan of Arc “save as” documents listed on my computer.  If I had used Zoho Writer, it would have kept all my revisions stored in memory for retrieval, but the current document would have shown first.  My professor and I could have dialogued about the changes through a living document. 


smoke-signals1

Thing #12

Google calendar allows teachers to produce master event lists of planning student activities.  Like all other Google extensions it is easy for novices to navigate and produce amazing results.  As a single mother, I have so many irons in the fire that they are difficult to manage.  Google calendar provides a means of visually depicting doctors’ appointments, staff meetings, homework due dates, school events, and many more activities I have to track.  It can be accessed easily.  My calendar is on my phone and whenever I open up my email at work I can view my calendar.  

Google translate is a good way for teachers to keep their foreign language parents informed.  Anything can be translated into any other language.

Google Translate

Thing #11

Google has always been my favorite search engine, so I chose to explore one of its extension sites.  Remembering that Google is user friendly with multiple listings under each topic, I chose Google Blog Search to begin my exploration.  Google’s counterpart proved to be as easy to navigate and I found a wide range of information.  While using Google Blog Search I realized that as with all research the better you define your topic, the higher the quality of data provided.  Google Blog Search produced a multitude of educational resources.

Next, I ventured onto Technorati Blog Search and was able to navigate around the site with almost the same as easy as Google Blog Search.  This site provides several useful blogs of interest to me.  Unfortunately, http://www.topix.net was not only more difficult to use, it had a limited amount of topics of interest to me.  The most interesting blog I found was http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/blog/ because it has the best art related curricula for me.  It is very easy to maneuver around the site as well.

Thing #10

Really Simple Syndications (RSS) is a time saver for busy teachers.  Since I serve four hundred plus students every week, I need access to multiple websites with creative art ideas.  Sometimes, I spend an hour researching sites for projects and finding related academic information.  RSS provides opportunities for instant viewing of comparable topics.  The free Google Reader allows me to access information readily and leaves more time for planning/teaching.  I felt compelled to share this resource with my fellow teachers and they had the same opinion.  This is not a resource for students, but they benefit from the information provided.

Thing #9

This assignment was a fun way to brag about my daughter.  My beautiful fifteen-year-old daughter has taken up Motocross racing.  The contrast is unfathomable and this application allowed me to capture those feelings.  I chose to place her photograph on a Seventeen magazine cover.  She has sent this to all her friends to announce this new phase in her life.

Since I am a new at using Flickr, I had to have help placing the photograph on the magazine cover.  Unfortunately, when I attempted to position the picture it misaligned the magazine title, so I was not able to drop the picture below the print.  It also would have been more fun if I had control of the text so I could title the lead story “Teen Model Takes Up Extreme Sports.”

You can find this application on http://www.fakemagazinecover.com, which provides access to Flickr.  Parents would enjoy seeing their children’s class on the cover of their own magazine.  Each student would be responsible for publishing an article about class events and include photographs.  Their families would treasure printed copies.

Thing #8

Life is a puzzle and this unique site lets you turn your pictures into puzzles.  http://www.imagechef.com allows you to create very dramatic images with the click of your mouse.  This was a very enjoyable site to use and it is user friendly.  The picture I chose to use was a mural that I painted in my high school gymnasium when I was a senior there.  I chose this picture because I took it when I was teaching chemistry there last year.  Not only can it be used to create novel reminder notes for your students, it can also be used to decorate your classroom.  Students could employ the graphics on this site to paint covers for reports or to initialize their plan books for assignments.  When you make homework fun, the students enjoy it and retain more information.  Creative writing assignments could be replaced though allowing students to create their own picture puzzle.

Thing #7

After searching through multiple photos, I found several pictures that interested me.  Unfortunately, this is not a site my students would have access to because our school system bans Flickr and other similar sites.  I had to use my own computer to view the myriad of potential educational pictures available.

As an artist, I have always been drawn to black and white photography.  As one can see in this Flickr image of barbed wire, the sepia film creates a stark somber tone in the photograph.  The film depicts the subtle effects of the texture of the smooth, sharp twisted steel and contrasts it with the blurred background of the field behind the fence.  When producing this picture, the photographer paid close attention to the time of day it was taken and composition he saw in his viewfinder.  (Color would have lost the intent of the photograph.) The sharp pointed barbs offer protection to the cattle housed behind the fence, yet a clear view of the tempting grass lying behind it.  The farmer who installed it hoped the cows would respect the sharp points of the wire, when in reality they do little or no damage to the cattle’s hide.  My father’s fences have strands of hair all in it.  Need-less-to-say, he is constantly mending it.  The barbs tear his clothing and scratch his arms, but in order to keep the cows out of his hay field, he must constantly maintain the wire.  His bull leans on the wire applying a little more pressure each time until it snaps.  The cows carefully place their heads through the spaces between the wires and eat as far as their necks can stretch.  The calves just step over the bottom wire and duck under the middle strand.  For that reason, I have dedicated this photograph to all the cattle ranchers who fight this battle every day.

 

Barb wire oldschool by isfppoet at http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/isfppoet/4379880854/

 

Thing #6

Google Chrome is very easy to install and retrieves data faster than the original version.  It is a free web browser and works on Windows, Mac, and Linux computers.  Google Chrome uses the WebKit layout engine and was released in 2008.  It is the second most widely used browser in the world.  The original version had more internet sites than its competitor and has always been my favorite web browser for many years.  Bing lacked the speed and database that Google had, so I removed it from my computer and replaced it with Google.  After playing around with Google Chrome, I have chosen to keep the upgraded version. 

It would be very easy for students to use.  In fact, my son helped me load the program and explained what it did.  It lists multiple articles under the subject being researched, so students have a wealth of information at their fingertips.  One of the greatest disadvantages is the way it categorizes topics.  As you narrow the definition of the subject being researched, the articles change.  Younger students would not realize that more articles were available, if they just drilled down further.  Also if they did not bookmark the article or record the website, they might not ever find the passage again. 

I spent time looking up activities to use in my classroom and have listed three sites where I found age appropriate items. 

http://www.dltk-kids.com/school/crafts.html DLKT is a free British website with multiple elementary art activities that are quick and inexpensive to make.  The site also includes directions, templates, and suggestions for extending the activities.  Other subject matter is included to use during cross-curricular activities. 

http://www.harcourtschool.com/menus/auto/12/44.html Art Express is a website with art activities for students enrolled in 1^st through 5^th grades.  It is a free site that has lessons plans on various subjects, templates, and directions for completing the accompanying art projects.

http://www.kinderart.com/drawing/numbers.shtml Kinder Art is a free website for children age kindergarten through 6^th grades.  It has a variety of activities, directions, lists of required materials, but no templates are available. 

Wikipedia www.wikipedia.org/ This program is available in multiple languages and is a free simplified CachedSimilarUndoencyclopedia available on the Internet.  It boasts of having over 10 million articles which are written in 200 different languages.  The website has beautiful pictures and a wide variety of subject matter to choose from.  It is a quick resource for students to go to for information, but they must be advised that it accepts articles from the public without proper documentation.  Many times, the articles border on plagiarism when compared to the original documents they were taken from.  Students must understand that Wikipedia may not be quoted as a resource when completing a research article.  It can be used as a starting point to define topics, find possible resources, and get ideas to research.  It is an excellent resource for them when they do not understand information.  For example, I used it while reading my organic chemistry textbook to clarify unfamiliar terms or to explain why various reactions occurred.     - You +1'd this publicly.

Thing #5

Students in my era learned through textbooks, overhead projectors, videos, slides and rudimentary interactive computer activities.  I remember creating a banana split on the computer and running it off on a dot matrix printer.  I was absolutely thrilled with my computer skills. 

That all changed with the invention of Web 2.0/School 2.0.  Now, students can view 394 million photographs using visual imagining software, and the library increases by a million images every day.  My two children navigate the web and show me how to access information.  They feel comfortable using the new software available in their schools.  Luckily, our school system realized early that in order to hold the interest of the students, the curriculum had to incorporate visual imagery and technology into the instructional program.  Our students learn at an early age to communicate with classrooms throughout our county via video streaming and do cooperative projects.  There is no limit to the learning opportunities of students today using Web 2.0/School 2.0.  They are able to access information, videos, and pictures about subject matter not covered in their textbooks.  Our educators have realized that by the time textbooks are published, a great deal of the information presented is already obsolete.  Using this software, allows instructors to remain current in the literature and supplement the adopted text with accurate data imported from the internet.  Students are free to do outside research on topics of interest to them and assigned projects.  These interactive learning experiences keep students motivated to continue learning beyond completion of their assignment.  My son comes home from school commenting on things he has learned and asking a million other questions.  My daughter is a visual learner and remembers material imported from the internet better than from lectures or textbook passages, so Web 2.0/School 2.0 has opened a new avenue of learning.

Thing #4

Blogging can be very useful to politicians and people seeking information on issues of interest to the public.  When public figures set up their own websites and request feedback from their constituents, it provides an instant resource to measure the feelings of society.  Surveys and phone calls are costly and time consuming.  The data collected via these sources are outdated before the information can be tabulated, whereas, electronic feedback elicits instantaneous responses. (The power of the internet was demonstrated when a simple posting saying to meet in the park for a snowball fight produced a 1000 participants.)   When political figures stay connected with their voters through blog sites, voters have a better scene of being a part of the political process and being represented by a concerned administration. 

When I was in school, my research consisted of reading a variety of articles and books in the library.  Now, my daughter actually has an opportunity to ask questions online and receive professional responses from experts in the area she is exploring.  Those opportunities are more meaningful to her than reading about it in a book.  Also, blogging provides feedback on her thoughts on the subject, before she submits the report for grading.  Her information is current and provides credible resources and data unavailable to her classmates.  The electronic dialogue allows my daughter to clarify misconceptions and develop a better understanding of the technical aspects of issues. 

Also, blogging allows an audience to share your thoughts and feelings with before making critical decisions, to sway public opinion, or elicit support.  One must be careful not to fall prey to fishing or predators inundating your computer with spam.   People who share the same interests or intellect can converse in minutes and not wait for snail mail to carry responses.  You are free to converse with people in other countries and all across the United States. People you would never have an opportunity to meet and talk to face to face.  Many educators are willing to share ideas and discuss ways to teach students of varying ages.  These posters have already completed the projects and can provide helpful hints on how to modify instruction to meet the needs of at-risk learners.  The comment section, allows other instructors to discuss how they used the activities, and the responses obtained from their students.  These websites are safe means of reaching fellow teachers and sharing ideas.  This is a constructive uses of blogging.  Hopefully, our society will not completely retreat into the internet world and forget the beauty of discussing issues face to face with colleagues. 

There’s a Dragon in my Art Room: http://plbrown.blogspot.com/p/about-my-classroom.html is for elementary art teachers to share ideas and make comments. Also, The Teaching Palette: http://theteachingpalette.com/category/blog/ provides a wide variety of art activities, interactive games, and videos posted by elementary art instructors.  

After reading Jeremy Hand-Roe’s, Alicia Coakley’s, Nathan Davis’, Katrina Motter’s, and Michelle Parson’s blogs, I realized that we were all basically concerned about the same things when communicating over the internet.  Two of us were novices at blogging, and the others were concerned with using proper etiquette while chatting.  One even suggested having a special font for criticism, so you could push delete when it came on the screen.  All of us wanted to communicate with our peers and fellow educators in a constructive manner, in an effort to share ideas. 

 

Thing #3

I have started to figure out my way around this blog.  It makes me nervous not knowing how to do something.  If anyone reads this and can help me improve it, PLEASE let me know.  I would deeply appreciate it.  I am now going to attempt to register my blog.  Cross your fingers there is no turning back for me now.

Thing #2

How did I decide on posting my name and the name of my blog?   I named my blog after me because, well, it is my blog.  Actually after being in organic chemistry for a year and labeling over 200 laboratory notebook pages, "K Mott", the name sort of stuck.  The title of my blog reflects the requirements of completing this course.

What was my experience in creating the blog like?  Was it easy or hard for me?  Why?  I am not going to lie to you...this class scares me more than any other class I have taken.  I was not raised during the electronic age and I am not confident in my computer skills.  I can do what I need to do to get by.  I had a hard time figuring out what size and colors to use on my blog and I still haven't figured out how to make my words closer together so it doesn't take up so much space.  I hope that after this class is over, I will have gained self-confidence in computer usage and be able to utilize the electronic equipment in my classroom as effectively as possible.  Computer technology can be very beneficial in my art classroom.  I have never blogged before so please be patient as I will do my best to succeed.  I am very nervous and excited about this class and I am looking forward to working with each one of you.

How does my avatar reflect my personality?  Did I create an avatar that looks like me or someone totally different?  There weren't very many things I could do to my avatar to make it reflect my personality other than change its clothes.  I would like to be able to add some personality to my avatar if someone could lead me in the right direction.  I tried to make my avatar look as close to me as possible.  I like to see people's interpretations of themselves or others.  It is fun to look at self-portraits and immediately know who that person is.