Video Themes

The theme for both of our videos is "Now and Forever" with a sort of sub-theme of "learn RIGHT now, play STRONG later".

Idea #1 : Outline

• Open with a child trying to jump rope and then they eventually get it down
• Transition into an athlete jumping (slow motion)
• Then gradually speed through images of various athletes jumping in their different sports i.e. basketball, soccer, volleyball, etc.

Idea #2 : Outline Option A

Parents encourage a student to try develop some skills in activities they have very little experience in.
A student decides to try out a few new activities.  He/she ends up loving it and now has something that they can practice for life to help them stay fit!

Scene 1- parents talking to child
Scene 2- child trying out a few different sports to find one he/she loves
Scene 3- grandma is still fit and loves to play tennis

message- encourage your kids to be active "now and forever."  Find hobbies that you can engage in throughout your life.

Outline Option B

• Open with a child learning to throw a ball and catch it and they finally get it down correctly
• Transition into a close up of an athlete throwing a ball
• Then gradually speed through images of various athletes throwing in their different sports i.e. football, baseball, rugby, etc.

Music options:  (from Freemusicplay) Vital Sign, Seven and Seven, Soul Thang

Internet Safety

 There are a lot of very good things about internet safety.  There are number of sources that provide good information to users of how to better use the internet without having to worry too much about the negative aspects of being online.  One site that I found that was very helpful to parents was Kids Health.  This site provides information on internet safety laws, protection tools, getting involved in the online activities your kids participate in, rules, chat room cautions, and warning signs.  Basically, it gives parents the knowledge base that they need to understand about the dangers of internet use and it also gives guidelines that parents can use when teaching their children about using the internet.  Another source that I read was an FBI Publication titled “A Parent's Guide to Internet Safety”.  This distribution gives a number of ways for parents to know if their child might be at risk when they are online, and provides guidelines for what you should do if you think your child is in communication with a predator, and then it gives ways to minimize the chance of being exploited over the internet.  I think there is good information on internet safety and I also think there are a lot of good ways to protect you with programs you can put on your computer.

There are some things that I would like to change about internet safety, but I’m not sure if they are all possible.  First of all, I would want more initial protection on the internet right from the start.  I think if people do not want to have things “blocked”, then they should have to go in and unblock certain subjects.  The things that would be blocked would have to be general subjects and I realize that there would still be plenty of ways to get trash onto the internet.  But I think it would help just a little bit if there was certain subject-matter that was blocked on the internet no matter what.  Another change I would make would be to add more information directed towards everyone, of any age, about internet safety.  Children are not the people who want or need to be safe on the internet.  So I think everyone needs to be told guidelines and actions you can take in order to be safer on the internet.  The last thing I was thinking about that I would want to change is the number of programs available to protect your computer.  I feel like there should be fewer programs and they should all work better.  There are some protective programs that do not work as sufficiently as one may want.  But there is no way to know how well they work compared to others unless you have experience.  The only thing you can do is decide how much you want to pay for a good program.  So I think there should be one program that is more efficient at protecting you from what it is told to protect from. 

I taught my roommate about internet safety.  I taught her about the different methods there are to protect our self first.  I taught her about things such as not putting certain information online, not giving information to people who you have never met before, and never agreeing to meet anyone in person that you might come in contact with online.  I also told her about the ways that we can better protect our families from being a victim on the internet.  Things such as communicating about dangers as a family, teaching children the responsible ways to use the internet, and supervising your child and going to sites with them to see what they are doing.  Teaching my roommate was a great experience because it opened up a discussion about what we realized happened over the internet but also bad things that we never realized happened often.  And we talked about what we are going to allow our younger siblings/nieces/nephews and future children to do on the computer.

Class Website

I learned a lot doing this project because I have never made my own website before.  Therefore, the entire process was a big learning experience.  A lot of trial and error, and a lot of searching around simply figuring out what I wanted to do on my website.  Making a website as a teacher is extremely helpful because it provides a way for not only students but also parents to know what is going on in the class and it gives them an easy way to keep up with everything.  The main things I feel that are really beneficial on the website are the calendar and syllabus.  These are the two things that have the greatest effect on what the students and parents need to know in order to be up to date with everything going on in class.
I would use a website like this as a teacher because it makes it so simple for others to access information about me and the classes that I teach.  We live in a world where so much is done electronically and over the internet that having a class website makes communication and contacting students and parents much easier.  I would create another website once I am a teacher because it would be really helpful.  It would also be easier to create that website because I wouldn't have to make up any information.  That was the most difficult part about making this website.  I didn't really know what to put on it or what to say most of the time because I'm not actually teaching yet.  But actually making the website was not too difficult. 
Miss Hague's Class Site

Figuring Things Out

So far I haven't come across too many more challenges with the technology we have been using.  I do anticipate once we start editing videos I'll be having a lot more difficulties.  One thing I've noticed is that the more I work on building my website the easier it is to get the hang of.  I've found that it's simple enough to just search around for a way to do something and generally there is a simple way for most of the actions I want to do.
One thing that we are doing in class is this blog.  This is easy for me because I have been using Blogger on my own for about a year now and have been able to figure out things I like about it and things I don't like about it.  One of my favorite things is being able to insert pictures and videos.  And doing that is really simple!  For the pictures just click the little pictures symbol next to where you insert a link and either search for the picture on your computer or on the web.  Adding a video is done with the same process, it just takes longer to load.  Adding pictures and videos is an easy way to make the blog more entertaining.  Here's a video that I found that better explains the purpose and efficiency of Google Docs.  Getting to know Google Docs  Once the basics are understood it makes it a lot easier to use them for use as a teacher when we want to share ideas with other educators.

Challenges

The main challenge that I have with the technology we have been using in class is figuring out how to make my own website.  It is not because I'm having problems, it is that I am not familiar with making and adding things to my own website.  I think as I continue to work on it and add ideas and information to it, I will gradually become more familiar and more efficient with Google Sites.  I also found out that the best help to me is this Google Site Help.  It's simply the support site for how to do things with your website, but it gives good directions on how to do specific things for your website.
The other things that are more challenging are using the Google Docs and Presentations.  Once again I'm not very efficient with these because I have never used them before.  I think as I continue to use them I will become more confident in how to use them effectively.

Copyright Laws

In general, copyright laws are very useful.  I think they're helpful because we should give credit to the original creator of music, movies, pictures, etc.  The rules that lie under Fair Use make perfect sense when it comes to educators distributing information to students.  Also, it is typically not difficult to give citation for different items.  The only thing I feel they could change when it comes to citation is making it simpler and more accessible.  For example, the general citation for a book or magazine or article could be included when it is published.  This would make it more likely that works are cited because the hardest part is finding the information to put in the citation.
Although I do believe copyright laws are good as a whole, I think there are some that could be adjusted.  I don't think it should be against copyright laws to watch a movie outside with a group of people or even on a laptop.  Maybe I don't fully understand the law, or if this is even a copyright issue.  But it seems like showing a movie in a public area to your friends isn't any different than watching it in a home.  It's not like you are making a copy of a movie and distributing it do everyone.  There is the possibility that someone might not go buy a movie because of doing this, but it is also as likely that someone could go out and buy the movie after watching it with their friends.  As I said, copyright laws are good, but I do feel that some could be relaxed a little.

Helpful Resources

Using this blog as a Personal Learning Environment is a great way for future teachers and current teachers to share their ideas with each other.  I feel that if we can be in contact with professionals who have experience and things to share with those becoming teachers, we can be greatly benefited.  Also, there are times where being in school right now we can learn things that are new to current teachers and we can share those ideas on a blog.  As fellow students, we can use our blogs to share extra information we may find more easily with each other.
The other resource we discussed in class that struck me as being extremely useful was Google docs and presentations.  While we are still in school this is helpful because there are going to be many instances where we will be doing group projects, making lesson plans together, and putting together presentations in groups, where we will need to share information with each other.  The nice thing about Google docs and presentations is that we don't have to be with our group in order to work in the projects.  I think this is so helpful because we all have such busy schedules and it is difficult to find a time to meet up and work on a project.  As a teacher this resource would be helpful because it provides a way for teachers working at different schools to share documents with each more easily.  If one teacher has a worksheet or information that has significantly worked well for them, they can easily send the actual document to a number of other teachers in different locations.  Although this is possible using a fax machine or e-mail, Google docs is easier because it doesn't need to be printed or attached, it can simply be sent to whomever would like access to the document.