As I type this blog on my tablet I know that I will be partial to working with a tablet. I have to or I feel stupid for getting one. I really feel it is more fun.
One thing that we would like for students is something that is an all-in-one and is portable. I think that a tablet is more portable than a net book. They both can be an all-in-one though. I listed pros and cons of a tablet and really ended up with more cons but I enjoy it more. Lets start with the pros. A table is more portable, is just as fast as a net book and has the cool touch screen. Who does not love a touch screen. A con on both is battery life. I don't think either would last a whole school day of use on one battery charge. One big con on my tablet is I cannot download any programs off the internet that I may need to use. The big one was a flash player when I first got this. That thankfully was fixed a couple of weeks later in an update. There is no Microsoft Office on a tablet. Of course I can always access Google Docs and that takes care of that problem. I can't save anything directly to my tablet, but again I can use Google Docs and the cloud to take care of that. The last thing is the touch keyboard. I thought that I would beable to two hand type with it but it was getting to be too much of a problem. So I gave in and got a bluetooth keyboard to type with. Life is so much better now with it.
I had so much fun trying out apps that I could use in a classroom. Being a math teacher the first thing I looked at was a graphing calculator. I have found the free ones for the Android system to be very hard to use and follow. I found a nice one on the ipad called GraphCalcPro that was very user friendly and I think could rival parts of the TI series of calculators. This calculator can be used for basic functions and graphing. It also had available a table of values from your graph. It color coded each graph with the table for easy following. Another app I found on the Android was formula lite. This was similar to the formula book I had to buy for my Calculus classes in college. It had formulas for math, physics and chemistry. So it could be used for a reference to find formulas. It also had different calculators in it. It had a basic, scientific and also one that would derive a function for you. Where was that in my calculus class. I don't think I would mention this to my calculus students though for fear of cheating. One last app that I found was called my pocket prof. It is a program that you can use to store all of your notes. I only played with it a little, but you can upload notes from word and excel. It did not give you an option to upload powerpoint presentations. You can organize them by class and chapter. It also has an option that you can create classes and quizzes and sell them. The only problem that I saw was that I needed to get on my pc to upload anything or on the internet site to add in notes. The only thing I could do through the mobile app was to view the notes. I think this could be a neat option to share my notes with my students. There would not be that mess of papers to go through to find something.
I personally try to use my tablet when I can in my online classes. I love that even if I have an appointment I can work on school work while I am waiting. I have done this a few times. It is great for postings, research and blogs. I still don't think that I am sold on all the educational benifits of it. I think right now it would be more for personal use. I don't think this will ever replace my desktop computer.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Blackboard vs. Moodle
Both Blackboard and Moodle were similar. They have options to make discussion boards, quizzes, folders, and a nice calendar to post weekly assignments.
I think that I liked blackboard better. This is probably because I am a little more familiar with the program. I felt that it was very user friendly. I could easily play around with things on my own and not have to watch a tutorial to figure out how to create something. I felt like I got a little lost on Moodle. I had to watch a couple of tutorials to get me started. I think that I only scratched the surface on what I can do with Moodle.
There were a couple of things that I did on both programs so I could compare them. The first one was making a quiz. In blackboard all I had to do was go under the assignment heading and click on create assessment. I was then given several options of types of problems that I would want to create. It was also possible to upload a picture or use a link to ask questions on. The program could also grade the assessment for you. You just had to enter in the correct answer. It was also possible to give partial credit I saw on some types of problems. On Moodle you go under the weekly outline use the drop down menu for add an activity and choose quiz. It also gave you several types of questions you could use and you can upload a picture or use a link to ask questions on. The one thing I liked better about Moodle was the picture would show up in the quiz and you did not have to click on the link and wait for it to show up like on BB. Moodle also had an option to make the quiz timed and if you wanted to give the student a chance to change their answers with or without penalty of points. I thought that was pretty cool for an option.
The other item I checked out was making a discussion board. Both of them were easy to make. Blackboard already has an option for discussion board and you just make a title and add in your question. Moodle adds it in on the weekly outline. You again add a title and question for people to answer. It just adds onto what you already have in the weekly outline.
One cool thing I saw in BB was how easy it was to add a youtube video. I was under assignments and clicked on build content and saw youtube video under mash ups. I tried it and it adds in the video right into BB and not as a link. One thing I liked better about Moodle was that it lets us upload a picure to attach to our profile. I could not get mine to upload but I really like that idea. I like putting a face with a name.
In conclusion I liked BB better in designing an online class because I like its organization and it seems more user friendly to me. This may be because I have gotten used to using it but at the moment that is my opinion.
I think that I liked blackboard better. This is probably because I am a little more familiar with the program. I felt that it was very user friendly. I could easily play around with things on my own and not have to watch a tutorial to figure out how to create something. I felt like I got a little lost on Moodle. I had to watch a couple of tutorials to get me started. I think that I only scratched the surface on what I can do with Moodle.
There were a couple of things that I did on both programs so I could compare them. The first one was making a quiz. In blackboard all I had to do was go under the assignment heading and click on create assessment. I was then given several options of types of problems that I would want to create. It was also possible to upload a picture or use a link to ask questions on. The program could also grade the assessment for you. You just had to enter in the correct answer. It was also possible to give partial credit I saw on some types of problems. On Moodle you go under the weekly outline use the drop down menu for add an activity and choose quiz. It also gave you several types of questions you could use and you can upload a picture or use a link to ask questions on. The one thing I liked better about Moodle was the picture would show up in the quiz and you did not have to click on the link and wait for it to show up like on BB. Moodle also had an option to make the quiz timed and if you wanted to give the student a chance to change their answers with or without penalty of points. I thought that was pretty cool for an option.
The other item I checked out was making a discussion board. Both of them were easy to make. Blackboard already has an option for discussion board and you just make a title and add in your question. Moodle adds it in on the weekly outline. You again add a title and question for people to answer. It just adds onto what you already have in the weekly outline.
One cool thing I saw in BB was how easy it was to add a youtube video. I was under assignments and clicked on build content and saw youtube video under mash ups. I tried it and it adds in the video right into BB and not as a link. One thing I liked better about Moodle was that it lets us upload a picure to attach to our profile. I could not get mine to upload but I really like that idea. I like putting a face with a name.
In conclusion I liked BB better in designing an online class because I like its organization and it seems more user friendly to me. This may be because I have gotten used to using it but at the moment that is my opinion.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Cam Studio Vs. Camtasia
For me the answer is hands down Camtasia. This program can do much more for your video and is easily uploadable. Cam Studio was not hard to actually make the video. My problem was that it gave my computer the green screen of death if I tried to use hot keys to stop taping so I would not get the program in my video. So I just ended up having that little window in my video so I would not crash my computer. Then the real problems began when I tried to turn it in. I even had my husband try to help me convert it to SWF but the conversion never looked or sounded quite right. So I ended up uploading it to youtube and it took around 6 hours for my computer to do that. I thought I was back in the dial up days. Ugh!
Camtasia was really easy to video my app. My only problem with the video was getting my app to work correctly. Then I had so much fun playing with the music and zooming in and out and adding in arrows. I think my video looks cool. My only problem is my computer is having issues uploading it to youtube. The small video uploaded fine but maybe this one is too large. I'll just blame it on youtube because I think that Camtasia is fun. I like personalizing my video myself.
Here is my Camtasia video I created on making a prezi presentation.
Camtasia was really easy to video my app. My only problem with the video was getting my app to work correctly. Then I had so much fun playing with the music and zooming in and out and adding in arrows. I think my video looks cool. My only problem is my computer is having issues uploading it to youtube. The small video uploaded fine but maybe this one is too large. I'll just blame it on youtube because I think that Camtasia is fun. I like personalizing my video myself.
Here is my Camtasia video I created on making a prezi presentation.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Tablets in Education
With the recent unveiling of the ipad 2 and releases of a few android tablets I thought this would be a good topic. This topic is also for me because my husband just got me the new motorola xoom. He said it should be great for my classes and also should have a good use in my classroom when I start teaching again. So I thought I could use my research in proving him right or wrong for my blog.
First, so far it has proven quite well for my classes. The internet speed is pretty fast. I am able to do research on the internet and type up comments in discussion boards. I am even trying it out to type up this blog. I am amazingly typing with two hands on a touch screen. I never thought that I could do that. My only problem for this class is I cannot download programs that I need to create my videos. I guess there is no getting away from the pc for that. I really love the portability. I was able to do some stuff in blackboard yesterday while my car was in the shop.
Now for uses in my own classroom. Most of the things I have seen on the internet are if everyone has a tablet. We could send and receive data from eachother and interact with it. All of their books could be digitized and there would be no more huge backpacks in the middle of the isle to trip over.
One negative thing,probably because I have not really tried to figure it out, is correcting my typing errors. I have to line up my finger perfectly where I want the cursor to add or delete letters. Another thing is saving things. I know there is an SD card slot but there is no office program to work with. Although this class has taught me several ways that I can get around that using web 2.0 tools.
In conclusion I am having fun using this tablet and look forward to using it to its full potential.
First, so far it has proven quite well for my classes. The internet speed is pretty fast. I am able to do research on the internet and type up comments in discussion boards. I am even trying it out to type up this blog. I am amazingly typing with two hands on a touch screen. I never thought that I could do that. My only problem for this class is I cannot download programs that I need to create my videos. I guess there is no getting away from the pc for that. I really love the portability. I was able to do some stuff in blackboard yesterday while my car was in the shop.
Now for uses in my own classroom. Most of the things I have seen on the internet are if everyone has a tablet. We could send and receive data from eachother and interact with it. All of their books could be digitized and there would be no more huge backpacks in the middle of the isle to trip over.
One negative thing,probably because I have not really tried to figure it out, is correcting my typing errors. I have to line up my finger perfectly where I want the cursor to add or delete letters. Another thing is saving things. I know there is an SD card slot but there is no office program to work with. Although this class has taught me several ways that I can get around that using web 2.0 tools.
In conclusion I am having fun using this tablet and look forward to using it to its full potential.
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