ACIT, Lesson Plan Project, Web 2.0

          ACIT (Accessible Computing and Information Technology) is similar to AT (Assistive Technology), but focus more on using higher technology such as a computer. Not only that, every piece of technology is designed for a certain group of people. In the lab, we discussed some of these technology and answered the following questions: what is it, how does it work, and who does it benefit.
         - Small keyboard (half the size of a regular keyboard); it's portable; made for people who are limited to using one hand, for businessmen
         - Big keyboard; color-coded, sturdy; for children, for people who has a difficulty in fine motor skills
         - Giant Mouse; for children who has difficulty with their fine motor skills
         - Electronic keyboard; pictures correspond to words or phrases; best for language learners
         - Magic Cursor; camera manipulated keyboard; for those who cannot touch the computer
         - Different Magic Cursor; manipulated by the jaw; for people who cannot move (vegetable)
         - Read & Write Gold; help to read and write with text to read; for people with dyslexia, for children
         - Zoom Text; zoom in on certain part of the computer screen, read all text; for people with visual impairment
         - Jaws; read out everything on the screen, read text that you click or type; for people with visual impairment
         - Clarity PC Mate; video magnifier, capture capabilities, zoom in function, portable; for visual impairment, for students studying science
         - Reliant CCTV (close-caption television); 50x magnification; for the visual impair

      Next, we discussed our Lesson Plan Project which will be due on December 5th. Our professor has her own format for creating a lesson plan that can be found on blackboard. Reminder: behavioral objective must be measurable, think Bloom's Taxonomy. We have to explain all the technology used by the teacher and the students, plus how the technology can enhance the learning experiences. Lastly, we have to create an attachment with the lesson plan. We have three possible options: scavenger hunt, web quest, or podcast.

        After that we started our web 2.0 presentation. I was suppose to present mine one month ago, so as you can imagine, we are very behind. John B. started us off with his presentation on Hot Chalk. Apparently, it is a learning management system, which includes curriculum and standards that's applicable to the subject you wish to teach. Also, for anyone using this web 2.0, resources and lesson plans can be shared with everyone. Thus, it is a good resource for teachers. The next presenter did hers on Survey Monkey, which in simple terms an online survey. After that was a presenter doing it on DIIGO (Digest of Internet Information, Groups, and Other stuff). Simply put, another type of social networking.
        I forgot to mention, I also presented my web 2.0 as well. Mine was on City Creator. I haven't rehearse or looked over any information so I pretty much winged it. Luckily I remembered all the necessary details. City Creator is similar to the game Roller Coaster Typhoon and Sims Creator. It is a game designed to help future architecture and children understand some of the basic of architect. This web also allows children to collaborate with one another and challenges their creativity. To understand how to use City Creator, go to www.citycreator.com

Chicken Buffalo Dip

      Today my group and  I were working on our podcast project. We decided to create our topic on Buffalo Chicken Dip. One of my group members got the recipe and images. The rest of us created a script for our project. The objective of this project is to teach the audience about something, so in our case, teach them to make buffalo chicken dip. In our podcast, we mentioned all the ingredients, how to make it, and other types of substitutes that can be used. We spent the rest of the class time on this... Our group was able to make a script that lasted close to four minutes in podcasting. Oh, I forgot to mention that the professor wanted a four to five minutes for the podcast. But we were close... I think that overall it was pretty fun.

Podcasting

     Among all the technology that I have seen or used, this one is definitely the most foreign to me. Podcasting, what is it? Similar to how the media works to present its shows on show time; podcast is like a digital audio or video files. The main difference is that what is shown on television will end after a certain time; podcast is like personal on demand. It captures whatever you choose to watch, plays on any playable computer or digital devices, and views whenever you want. There is a website by Tony Vincent that teaches us how to use podcast.
     The website is http://learninginhand.com/podcasting/

Apparently there are also many samples of podcasts that can be found on iTunes. Some are commercial, some are educational, and some are meant to be shared with friends and family.

     To make a podcast is a bit more difficult. One of the main podcast creator is "GarageBand." Once that loads, the images from iPhoto will automatically opens up. Oh, I forgot to mention that GarageBand and iPhoto are some of the programs on MACs. Anyway, tonight we learned four new techniques when it comes to dealing with this program: trimming, joining, adding images, and jingles.
           - Trimming: can shift/adjust the recording/sounds; splitting (command t) -> to divide the sound
           - Joining: combine two or more recording/sounds by highlighting (hold shift to highlight more), then command j
           - Adding Images: drag photos into the art clip --> creates an slide show in the end
           - Jingles: found under the 'omega,' a section with lots of music and sound

After learning how to use the program, we were told that there will be a Podcast project. How exciting! Oh, and this is a group project. So hopefully we can create a nice script or something...

Project Website

     This evening, there was suppose to be three presenters for the web 2.0 and I was one of the presenter. My was on City Creator. However, we did not have enough class time to do all three presentation, instead, only one person went. She did hers on VoiceThread. The features on there seems pretty neat. You can pre-record your voice while showing a diagram and they are in sync.  For example, if I am watching a movie, the voice of the character will correspond to the movement of the character's lips. In this aspect, it almost works the same way, but more towards having an educational purpose.
      Asides from that Web 2.0 presentation, we spent majority of the class time discussing how to create a class website project. In making a website, we have to be aware a few things. If our website is for research only, then we need to make sure that the links provided are legitimate, current (date), credible, and is the source reliable. We also discussed a few ways that we can share these links with the kids. We can either bookmark the pages or create a document with all the URLs. Before we can provide the students these links, we need to learn how to evaluate them. Thus, we spent the rest of the class evaluating some of the URLs.
      And we also started our class website project. I'll share the link on here after I'm done. And oh, on October 31, we don't have class. So see you the week after.