My Experience with Blogging

    This semester I really enjoyed this class most of all. I got learn how to blog and more about computers that I didn't know. I really like to be able to follow people and their experiences in depth. This class went beyond facebook and took you deeper into people's life and what they have been doing. I wish that blogging was more popular but due to Twitter and facebook it makes it difficult. I hope I can continue to blog and allow people a glimpse into my life and what I enjoy doing. This class taught me a lot and I would recommend it to other people!

click or no click

I think these past weeks on the discussion of clickers has really been helpful in seeing other people perspectives and what they find important. Overall i think clickers can be a useful helpful tool when used correctly. Understanding that they cannot generate elaborate answers just shows that if you are using them to make sure and incorporate other activites that focus on topics and ways in which to answer questions that clickers cannot. I think we struggle with some students always not particpating and i think that clickers do help this, and progress is always important.

clicker

So we have discussed a lot of things about clickers but I had an idea to ask what people think could be a better alternative to clickers...something that alows you to be able to have this technology that can help aid a teacher, bring students together, help with attendance. What would your ideal clicker be able to do? Maybe if teachers had clickers that did more things??

Clickers convo

Thanks for all the feedback on clickers and the article. I think a lot of people had some really good points. Steven brings up a good point where the article talks about how personal response. With clickers and all the technolgy we use we do not have to activley particpate in a traditional way. Now instead of answering a question by raising our hands and talk out loud, we can click  a number and no one knows what we pressed or think. We may not even be in a class, we could be on a computer like we are in this class and do all of our discussions through blackboard. Instead of handing in projects in class, now many times we just email or submit a project. I think that there is something to say about the traditional way and i think that being able to do that in certain settings is important but i also think learning different ways is critical. Our future is changing and i think that being able to be successful in different leanring environments will be those that will have the easiest time adapting. Things like clickers, online classes, discussion boards are just other ways in which we now can learn, the traditional way is important as well but i think both will help overall.

7 things about clickers

I was looking for different articles that talked about both the pros and cons of clickers and I came across this article that says the 7 things you should know about clickers. In the article they agree that it can help enhance the learning expereince. One of the biggest cons to this technology would of course be the cost of each individual clicker. Each student would have to purchase one, and if the teachers used it for attendance as well, there is no way around having to buy one. The price ranges but I would say that the average cost that I found for the clickers would be about 50-60 dollars. Another part of the article that I agree with and think is important to bring up is that asking the rigth questions makes it more efficent. Teachers should ask questions that are talking about the main concepts and make sure they are helping their students learn. Random questions would hurt the students becasue they might remember the question because it was a clicker question, and not focus on the key points of the lecture or education.
Here is the link to the article if you want to look at it.

http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7002.pdf

clickers- good or bad

Hi thanks for all the feedback on the clickers. It seems alot of people have not seen clickers before and those that have have not used them alot. Although i did enjoy the idea that it is better in older student populations. It makes sense to me that younger children could find the clicker a distraction more than a useful tool. I think many agree that it helps start a discussion and get a class going on a topic. This is a link to a article talking about other treachers that have used clickers and their opinions on them.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7844477/

Clickers!!!

My new topic for the rest of the semester is clickers. A simple definition of clickers is technology tool that allows students to answer a question and then the teacher can compile the answers. Many college classroom, especially those with large numbers have begun to use these for many reasons. Some of the basic reasons is for attendance, or to check a simple understanding if the students are paying attention or if most of the class is paying attention. The question can be posted on the lecture, mostly on the power point that is on in class and then there are options to choose and then the answers can be shown on the bar graph so right there the teachers and the whole class can see the percentages of every response. More soon.

teachers resources

Going off the discussion last week about how it could help both students and teachers there is a tab on the website that is labeled teachers resources. Under this there are three different categories, each bulleting what they cover and help facilitators with. The one that popped out at me was the curriculum collaboration tool kit. It has many different resources for teachers on teaching and learning and I thought it fit best with what we all have been talking about in our discussions every week.
http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/
Here is the link that should bring you to the part in which you can look at the section of teachers resources. Enjoy!

Noodle talk

Leigh brought a good question, whether I thought it was more beneficial for students or teachers. My first assumption would be students because if you need to do something cite something and you dont know how you can get on noodle tools and learn how to. It not only will help you for the one project or whatever your working on but it can teach you for future references. However I think it can be important to teachers in many ways as well. For those teachers that are use to using one method of citation it is an easy accesible website that would allow them to learn and even use what they learned to teach their students. They also could use it in their classroom if they have computers to use at times. It would be a good tool for the teachers to advise their students to go to if they need more explanation and it also does a lot more. It helps with note taking and has many other tutorials. Not only could students take from this but teachers as well could find other helpful applications they could teach their students.

noodles...

So after watching the video from youtube that was posted it made me look at how well the webiste was set up in helping you or navigate. One of the tools that I found that I liked was the tutorials and powerpoints in how to use noodle tools. This is similiar to the video in some ways but i thought it was pretty well set up and interestting. Seeing how many of us finished our website evaluations, i thought that this website was pretty easy to navigate and get through.

comparing sites

As I continue to find new and interesting things on my website of noodle tools I also decided to look at other sites that are similiar to noodletools. When googling for other sites these were the ones that came up and I thought it was interesting to compare them and see what everyone thought of them. One that I am most familiar with is EasyBib. This site advertises the fact that they do the citations automatically for you, which seems to be very attractive to many students who do not have a good understanding of how to correctly cite sources. However this is a good example of how teachers make think that their students have learned this skill but really are just plugging in information. Noodletools seems to be a site that is much more beneficial in the sense that the task is not just completed but the student learns how to correctly do it. Here are the links to the other sites if anyone is interested in taking a look.
http://www.easybib.com/  - Easy Bib
http://www.bibme.org/ - Bibliography maker
http://citationmachine.net/ - Son of Citation Machine
http://www.sourceaid.com/ -Source Aid

noodles...

This noodletool website has so many different things on it. It helps students learn how to take notes and help you to organize what you are reading. All of these seem to be things alot of teachers expect of their students but many i feel do not learn accurately. Here is the link to the website and I will post more very soon. Feel free to look on the site and let me know what you find interesting.

http://www.noodletools.com/

Noodle tools....

So I have been researching and looking up noodle tools and basically noodletools is a family run website that offers software to teacher and students for research. The most common or popular part of noodle tools is the Noodle Bib. It seems they work hard to help the students and teachers to learn to become a better researcher and accurately cite sources instead of doing it automatically for you. I think that this is so much better becasue it makes the subscriber learn instead of punchung in information. Below I will attach the link to this website and update more soon!

My first blog

This is my first time ever blogging and i'm very excited! My blog topic I choose to learn more about is noodletools....sounds fun!
Lindsay