Group PBL

For our group PBL the No Names decided to find a way to share your artwork with the world. We came across this cool website called artsonia.com. It was a site where teachers could upload their students artwork into different exhibits that the teacher could create. It also allowed for the students to have their own portfolio of their artwork. Another cool feature about this site was that it allowed people to purchase mugs and T-shirts and other things with your artwork on it. I found this project to be fun and it was cool to be able to show it to our classmates.


picture from: http://theteachingpalette.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Logo_New_Big.jpg

Interactive Whiteboards

I absolutely love interactive whiteboards! This was my favorite activity we did this whole semester. I would love to take a class that is all about interactive whiteboards. This was the first time I was able to create things that could be used on the board. After watching the videos on how to create the flipchart I started to make my own. The favorite thing I made for my flipchart was the magnifying glass. My group made our flipchart for elementary school students. Our theme was going to the zoo.


picture from: http://blog.simplek12.com/images/2011/03/smartboard1.jpg

Collaborative Tools

For the collaborative tools project we used google docs. Going into this project I felt very comfortable with google docs because I have done a lot of collaboration with other students on assignments assigned for different classes. I am a big fan of google docs because it allows for people to work together on papers and projects online without having to meet with each other in person. You do not even need to get online at the same time. People are able to work on, edit and change what has already been posted by other members. My group created a survey for the other students in the class to fill out. The survey was on what were people's strongest intelligence and their weakest intelligence.






picture from: http://www.skuggen.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/google-docs-logo.jpg

Limit Search Results to a Specific Reading Level?

Today I was reading some of the different posts on lifehacker.com. I stumbled upon a post about limiting search results to a specific reading level. Apparently Google has this option in their advanced search options. I had no idea that they had this. You now also have the ability to click on the more tools option on the left side of the screen to filter reading levels as well. Google has 3 reading level options. The levels are: Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced. This is pretty cool if you ask me. Looking at it from a teacher's standpoint I would have to say that I'm impressed but am craving more. How cool would it be to have something like that for school use? Something like this that breaks down the difficulty of the reading for K-12 students or even just elementary students could be very useful in education. It does not limit the search results unless specifically asked to. It does however provide labels showing the reading level of each site found.

Skinny Pop?

When I think of pop (even diet) skinny is definitely not the first image that comes to mind. While I was paging through a recent issue of Time magazine a picture of this unusually shaped Pepsi can caught my eye. It sparked my interest. There was not much information on it in the magazine so I turned to the web. Diet pop tends to be marketed as having the same taste as the regular version and with no calories. Pepsi launched their new skinny can during fashion week in February. I find it to be kind of funny how they decided to release the skinny can during a week that glamorizes ridiculously skinny women. I wonder what this is saying to the consumers, especially women.

AHA! Journal Week 4

The other day in class we watched another TED Talk. I am a big fan of TED talks. They are very inspiring lectures. The TED talk we watched this time was by Chimamanda Adichie. Her presentation was entitled The danger of a single story. Chimanmanda is a Nigerian writer. In her presentation she talked about growing up in Nigeria and how there wasn't much Nigerian literature. Because of this she grew up reading British books. She also mentioned how her roommate in college was surprised when she found out that Chimamanda grew up listening to American music. The whole point of of her speech was that there is more out there than your view of the world. You can find out so much by looking at another person's point of view.

Action Language

Recently Joshua and Evans shared their presentation on Action and Object Language. I came across a video the other day that reminded me of the presentation, specifically action language. Action language is considered to be conscious and unconscious cues that people give off that allows others to read them. There are many different types of action language. The three main types this video focuses on are facial expressions, gestures, and movements and posture. The video is a tech trailer for LA Noire. LA Noire is a detective video game that is made by the same company that is known for the Grand Theft Auto series. In the game you play as a detective. The game focuses on the player reading people to see whether or not they are telling the truth. This has not really been done before in the video game industry. In this video you will see how they have used this new technology to change the way we play games.