534 Week 5

This week, I learned two things that I will definitely use in my classroom at some point.

The first idea that I got was from Paul Andersen and his discussion about Twitter in the classroom. I think that I am definitely going to create a Twitter account for the different classes that I teach so that I can post what we did each day in class. I can post the homework, when students will have a test or assessment due, and maybe even days off and fun things like that. Another idea that he had was to allow the students to give instant feedback on what is going on in the class. He said that any teacher willing to do this would have to be extremely brave - which I am. I would love to have students write their feelings about what is going on in class so that I can see. It would make things a lot more interesting and I could really interact better with them and their educational needs.

The second thing that I took from this week was Blabberize. I love making these pictures talk, especially if I use a picture of a historical person and make them come to life. It's fun for me and I know that I can have fun with it with the students too. If I am ever gone for the day I can create a picture of myself speaking and leave directions for the students - they would get a kick out of it. I also look forward to having historical figures discussing things like Facebook and the Internet, and also having the historical figures insult kids in my classes.

CEdu 534 - Session 4

I think that I got more out of this week than any other week so far. I really look forward to using podcasts/screencasts in my classes. I want to make screencasts for new websites that I am teaching the students to use so that they can watch and follow along with the screencasts instead of just listening to me then trying to get them to do it. It's way better than just giving them a handout with arrows and directions. I also look forward to telling historical stories on podcasts so that they can potentially download and enjoy listening to them on their multimedia players.

After swearing that I would never get a Twitter account, I have to admit that I am kind of enjoying it. I'm not sure that I'll use it professionally that much, but I can see the point to it. I have actually started to use it for my family. My parents like to keep tabs on what me and my brothers are doing so I decided to start posting more of my recreational activities on there. If my dad has questions about what I'm doing, he can always call me, but just for daily updates he can check out Twitter.

Bachelor Party - You know he's awake

Bachelor Party - You know he's awake
Originally uploaded by Matt Wood Esq

This is my friend Dennis. He got 1.5 hours of sleep then drove up to the Dells to spend the day with us playing paintball. He was pretty tired when he got back to the hotel. Even when he's extremely tired he still seems to have the ability to draw a crowd.

South Milwaukee Flooding 2008 - 12

South Milwaukee Flooding 2008 - 12
Originally uploaded by Matt Wood Esq

This is normally a quaint a peaceful waterfall on the Oak Creek in South Milwaukee. After those torrential rains in 2008 it burst its banks. Normally it flows in between the wall on the right and another wall just like that on the left that is just out of the picture.

I included this personal picture again because I just love to see how drastically nature can change things so quickly and then go back to normal.

South Milwaukee Flooding 2008 - 5

South Milwaukee Flooding 2008 - 5
Originally uploaded by Matt Wood Esq

Nature unleashing all of it's fury on South Milwaukee Wisconsin in 2008. After massive floods raised the height and power of this normally calm, peaceful suburban stream, the waters tore down previously healthy tree and ripped it, literally, limb from limb.

This is a personal pictures and I included it because I love the way the wave action is caught being so violent and you can see up close how powerful the water is.

Northern Canada 2

This was taken after Justin and I got the pictures with the moose family. We stayed in a lab that was actually a well equipped and massive igloo. Surprisingly warm!
A Night at the Museum - 1
Originally uploaded by Matt Wood Esq

The Jurassic

A Night at the Museum - 9
Originally uploaded by Matt Wood Esq

Justin and I decided to take our future wives along with us on this trip to the past - the Jurassic Period. This Tyrannosaurus Rex was so busy feeding on a Triceratops that he never even noticed us taking this picture.

Glacier National Park

A Night at the Museum - 8
Originally uploaded by Matt Wood Esq

Here Justin and I are, pictured on our expedition to Glacier National Park. We took this stunning image at the foot of one of the largest glaciers. What you can't see is that the glacier rises a stunning 30 feet above our heads while we stand at the base.

Amazonia

A Night at the Museum - 5
Originally uploaded by Matt Wood Esq

This is my and Justin's research trip to the Amazon. We were researching small game fish and managed to land this behemoth. We didn't have a camera in the boat, but the locals insisted on putting this fish on display before we could take any live shots of it, so this was the best we could do.

Siberia

A Night at the Museum - 6
Originally uploaded by Matt Wood Esq

This is mine and Justin's trip to Siberia. We heard tell that there might be a good spot to unearth mammoth bones, but nobody ever thought that 2 enterprising young Americans would make this kind of find. It took several cold months for us to dig this up by ourselves, but it was totally worth it.

Northern Canada

A Night at the Museum - 2
Originally uploaded by Matt Wood Esq

This is mine and Justin's expedition to the northern reaches of Canada. As you can see, we studied the moose. This family actually got to know us so well that they let us get right up to within 20 ft. of them to take this picture. Unfortunately the snow is so bright that the contrast makes it difficult to see our faces.

A Night at the Museum - 4

A Night at the Museum - 4
Originally uploaded by Matt Wood Esq

This photo was taken at the museum at one of the Food and Froth nights. I included this and all of the pictures from this trip to the museum because my friend, Justin, and I had this idea when we were there that we would take pictures in all the different parts of the museum and then create an album making it seem like we actually went to all these places around the world. So here we are after taking our time machine back to the 1880 Milwaukee streets.

I don't want to have to include it on all the next pictures from this night - but I am including these pictures and captions like I was really there because I could see doing some sort of historical project like this with my students. While they are all personal pictures, I could easily use these pictures and this album as an example of what I want them to do with historical pictures. All of the historical pictures are taken at the Milwaukee Public Museum and are posted on my Flickr map (as are the South Milwaukee Pictures)

South Milwaukee Flooding 2008 - 1

South Milwaukee Flooding 2008 - 1
Originally uploaded by Matt Wood Esq

Taken in the Oak Creek Parkway in South Milwaukee. I included this because I used to drive by here on a daily basis and the creek was about 10 feet lower than this. After the rains, the creek flooded and it was pretty neat. It's a personal photo and I don't think I could really use it professionally.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

534 Week 3

I was talking about RSS feeds with my practicum librarian. She asked me if I had looked into it all and I said not yet, but I was about to. She mentioned that she signed up for some, but the biggest drawback with it, like anything, is just the time. You only have time to read and do so much, and I understand that RSS feeds are supposed to be a kind of filter so that you don't waste time looking for the stuff to read, but my worry is that I'll sign up for so much stuff that it will just end up being kind of like an email box with a bunch of spam.

Along with the RSS feeds, I've had some trouble getting into the material for this class. Part of it is that I already have so much experience with wikis and blogs. Part of it is that my life has been swamped with real life things and I haven't had a chance to focus on this class. Part of it is that I'm kind of getting sick of LMS classes at this time of year. Part of it is that I'm sick of staring at a computer screen. But for whatever reason(s) I've had a hard time getting into stuff this class.

But then I started getting into and finding RSS feeds that I'm really interested in. I went from really not liking this, to being able to get updates about the Packers and my favorite TV show that is making a comeback this month on Comedy Central. I've started liking the RSS feed feature and will probably pay more attention to it, especially in my recreational life.

As far as picture sharing online, it's really just taking my pictures one step further. I already put all of my digital pictures on my computer, so all that I really have to do is upload them. I'm kind of looking forward to this because I do like to take and share pictures, so this is a lot of fun - plus I'll get to go back through all of my old pictures now!

5314 Week 2

This week I was given a new perspective of wikipedia, but I was not yet convinced to use it as a reliable source in itself. If my students are going to do research on a research project, I'm going to make them use sources that have been reliable for years. If they want to start with Wikipedia and then check those facts from more assuredly reliable sites and sources, fine. But they're not going to use Wikipedia for their entire project.

I think that photosharing could be the most useful tool of anything on the web. There is nothing that students love to do more than look at pictures. The only problem I have is that I teach history. The best way to do this for class might be to share pictures of historical places that I've gone and invite students to share pictures of themselves when they have gone to a historical place, then offer extra credit for them if they put together a presentation about the history of the place they visited.

The fateful day has come for me. I finally have a Twitter account after always saying that I would refuse to get one. I don't like it. I just don't like the idea of it. I understand that it can be useful for sharing links about professional development and hobbies and everything else that is important in life, but that's why we have friends, and why we make new friends when we start going out and doing the things we like. I know that Twitter is really just an online form of this, but it still bothers me. I think maybe it's just part of my personality, and part of it is that I'm not in a real good mood doing this work right now, but Twitter just gets on my nerves. I suppose that I might be able to figure out how to do a project with it if students pretend to be a historical figure and then have to tweet their way through an important part of that person's life.

534 Week 1

As always with digital media classes I learned more about some incredibly useful sites. I would say that I'm more than comfortable with using and trying new things when it comes to digital sources, I just find it hard to find the time to really work with and get into new things. I really like the type with me website (when my computer wasn't too slow to use it effectively), but I also found it kind of redundant. To me, it's not sufficiently different from a google doc, and I don't think that it's any better for having online conversations than simple message conversations or voice conversations over the radio. I think that blogs can be a powerful tool, but I don't anticipate using any of those blogs that we had to go through in class just because my school has an online learning community that is sponsored by the district and kids have already used it with other teachers so they are already comfortable with it.