Brian+and+Chris+W

=**Some Starting Ideas for using Technologies in an Educational Setting**=

This site is a collection of Podcast's about various Technologies that can be used in the classroom. These podcasts are not meant to be all encompassing totorual on how to use each technology they are mearly intend to be a jumping off point for people who are not familar with the technology. This idea came about because we wanted to look at how podcasting can be used as an educational tool, so we decided to make several podcasts and let our friend Kyle listen to all of them and then give us feed back on how the podcast helped him learn.

We make four different podcasts about the technologies listed below. We have the podcasts we made for Kyle, to show how we could present the technology using podcast, ie how podcasts can be used as an educational tool. We also have some ideas about how the given Technology can be used by educators. We give a little bit of our option about how useful or user friendly the technology is, and we also give you the link to our blog about the given technologies.

Our hope is that this Website will not stay stagnate but that as people become more familar with the technology people can add their own idea and own option, also that people may add new technologies.

**Thinkfinity**
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Although Thinkfinity does have a student section we feel that this website is geared much more toward the teacher and teaching side. This website is a good collection of resources, one of the biggest problems is the size, the website it limited to the what the members have, so it is possible to be looking for lesson or activity ideas and not be able to find anything.

__**Our Blog Posts**__ Brian's Blog Chris's Blog

**Blackboard**
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BlackBoard is very common tool in schools today therefore we thought that it was a good subject for this project, but its inclusion is not an endorsement of the technology. We feel that Blackboard is a good consolidtor of material meaning that teachers can collect link to good information or readings in one place but this can be done in other ways. Also Blackboards doesn't have the best user ability, it is often hard to find things and it is junker to move around the site. With this said there are many good ideas on black board but again because of the user ability these idea are better used in a different medium. For example the discussion board in blackboard doesn't allow for very fluid discussion, although the idea of allowing students to talk with each other about the class is a good idea we feel that there are better forum for the students to be able to do that.

__**Our Blog Posts**__ Brian's Blog Chris's Blog

**Googledocs**
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Googledocs has many up sides when we look at it in terms of collaboration because it combines cloud computing with the user ability of google. Googledocs makes it possible to collaborated on a paper, spreadsheet, and presentations without having to be together or even be working on it at the same time. We feel that this tool is a great way to introduce students to the idea of cloud computing, we feel that the ability to collaborate using new mediums will be an important tool for future generations therefore Googledocs can be a great prepitory tool in this respect.

__**Our Blog Posts**__ Brian's Blog Chris's Blog

**Skype**
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Skype is a tool that really opens the door to new ideas. Skype allows you to talk to people around the world for **free**. A lot is said about the value of going to another country, this is not to say that using skype is like going to another country but it does allow us to talk to people from other countries and other areas of the country. There are new skills to be developed for the use of video chats, if we think about there are skill for interviewing and writing paper but what are the rules for a form video chat?

__**Our Blog Posts**__ Brian's Blog Chris's Blog

Kyle's Feedback
Here is a link to the survey we sent to Kyle through GoogleDocs. Now, we're not sure if you would have access to it, since it was created under our accounts. With this in mind, we included the results of the survey below.

GoogleDocs Survey

To the first question, Kyle responded, "From the podcasts, I learned that there are ways to use technology to aid in the development of lesson plans. Kyle also noted GoogleDocs as what he viewed the be the most useful tool in item number two. For the third question, Kyle mentioned that it was hard to sit there and pay attention to an entire podcast. It wasn't very attention grabbing. Kyle's concluding remarks touched on some advantages of podcasting. He particularly enjoyed how many of the podcasts were tailored for his individual use through personal references and the comforting voice of close friends.

Link to Rubric
Chris and Brian's Rubric

Chris and Brian's Culminating Activity
Chris's Concluding Reflection

__**Brian's Final Thoughts**__ media type="file" key="Final Podcast.m4a" width="459" height="92"