Video

I created a video on how to use a video camera for the Reading Clinic 4th year students.
Part of their course includes videotaping themselves and their clients (2-8 grade school stugents) to find and analyse the teaching moments. So at the beginning of the semester students are tested on the skill of working with video cameras. Not all of them know how to do it. I think it's a new way of explaining to them HOW. It's visuable and understandable. And it's fun!
In this video I used the Riding Clinic video camera. The materials were shot in the Reading Clinic library in Schindler. I also used the song The Sound of San Francisco by Global Deejays

Google groups

This week we had an exciting experience of a collaborative on-line learning. We created a group in Google and worked through it with my partner. Sarah was upstairs and I stayed on the first floor. We had no chance to communicate face to face. It was an unusual and a bit challenging experience, and I’m really happy to have had it.

There are several conclusions I made to myself:
· Your computer must work fine, and you need to have a quick access to the Internet. I lost Sarah for a while because she had some problems with the connection, and I didn’t know about it.
· The idea of answering different questions in groups was great. Some of the questions were answered by me, some by Sarah, and some by other groups. The best thing was that there were questions to which both Sarah and I gave answers. So we had a chance to discuss them and choose the best ones.
· It was good that we were to do a lot of things ourselves (such as creating a group). At the same time if we had questions or needed help, we were given it immediately. I had a feeling that out “teachers” were learning together with us.

I don’t know whether I’m going to work in Google Groups a lot, but this was a really nice experience! Thanks guys!

Picture retrieved from: http://news.softpedia.com/images/news2/039-Macs-Inside-Google-Group-039-launched-1.jpg

For Teachers

This materials should go to the wiki page. I reorganized it a little bit and placed all the emergent technologies our group found in a new blog. The Wiki page looks boring and colorless to me.
The interesting thing is that as soon as my findings appeared on My Creative Page, I started receiving comments with suggestions of emerging technologies people use in their practice of just find worth mentioning.

Flashcards
I think it can be useful in subjects where you need to work with terminology. This site allows you to create your own flashcards:
http://flashcardmachine.com/

Rubric makers
Here you can create rubrics on any topics:
http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/rubrics/

TrackStar
It's a WebQuest writing site:
http://trackstar.4teachers.org/trackstar/

The picture retrieved from: http://www.siliconvalleywatcher.com/mt/archives/The_BLOG.jpg

Windows Movie Maker

It was fun to work with this program. I was able to put together my podcast and the power point presentation. Now you can watch my project using the You tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBeuvTgiE7g





This video is about my trip in Saint Petersburg this summer:
http://ru.youtube.com/watch?v=C7-89Z_mFqI

I also made a movie about one guy who went to Chile this summer. It should be fun. Anyway, this short movie killed my weekend: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_5UbbW_-gw

E-Book

Last class we had a little discussion about e-books and Blooks. I was always thinking that it's just a PDF of any book or article. It turned out to be more entertaining.
Here is the link to see the images of the e-book:
http://www.mobilewhack.com/images/ebook_1.jpg

The Shortened Translation of My Second Podcast

I'm working on a wonderful project! It includes podcast and the power point presentation. I made it in Russian. So here I give the short review of what I'm going to be talking about. Hope it works.
It would be much better if I knew how to place the power point presentation in my blog.

http://koreshky.podbean.com/2007/10/30/take-a-look-around/

1. Hello! Today we are going to learn a bit of the history of St. Petersburg. Podcast and Power point Presentation will be helpful. To change the slide, click on the picture after you hear a special sound. Let’s try!
2. We are going to talk about the birth of the city and start talking about its first building - The Peter and Paul Fortress.
3. Ioann Bridge leads us to the Fortress.
4. The city is built on 42 islands.
5. There was a village here. The land lord named it the devil’s place after the flood that ruined everything.
6. The Finnish name of the island is the Hare’s island. Here comes the small monument to the hare at the entrance.
7. As you look around you, you'll see The Trinity Cathedral.
8. It was in fire in 2006.
9. The Trinity Bridge.
10. The Summer Gardens.
11. The Michailovsky castle.
12. The Marble Palace.
13. And The Church on the Spilled Blood going along the embankment of the Neva River.
14. The Northern War in 1700 for the outlet to the Northern Sea.
15. Several Fortresses were captured by Peter the Great.
16. Peter the Great chooses the place to build his own fortress to protect the city.
17. The sculptures on the Ioann Gates remind of the Northern War battles and the date 1740 is the date when the Fortress was completed.
18. Let's stop at the map of the Peter and Paul Fortress.
19. Next time we'll talk about the buildings of the Fortress. Stay with me!
20. It was Julia Koreshkova, UNI's graduate student. Bye!

Flickr

Last class I was trying to organize all the new things I learned during this class. I checked if I had accounts in GMail, google.docs.com, podbean.com, twitter, flickr, yahoo.com, My Space, Facebook, blogger.com, and SL. I also know how notebook, zoho.com, del.icio.us, you tube, wiki, and skype work.
I downladed pictures from my SL to flickr. You can see them here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/15228300@N04/show/
or just click on the picture.

Picture retrieved from: http://dfckr.com/archives/img/featured/flickr-insp.jpg

NSTE Hometask

1. Creativity and Innovation
Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.
Students:
A. apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes.
B. create original works as a means of personal or group expression.
C. use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues.
D. identify trends and forecast possibilities.

Blogging was a new knowledge for me in terms of using ET. Pages of all students in our class are different, showing their individual creative way of thinking. I made a podcast before, so I was able to apply the knowledge I had in a new situation (the project about St. Petersburg).

2. Communication and Collaboration
Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.
Students:
A. interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media.
B. communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.
C. develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures.
D. contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.

ET give a lot of instruments for communication and collaboration. The ones we use in our class are WebCT, Twitter, and SL. This is how we learn about the latest news, new assignments, and activities. SL gave us a wonderful chance to have an on-line class that turned to be very engaging and interactive.

3. Research and Information Fluency
Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.
Students:
A. plan strategies to guide inquiry.
B. locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media.
C. evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks.
D. process data and report results.

In this case You Tube, Google Search, Wikipedia and the use of the Bullean Search are very helpful to me.

4. Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving, and Decision-Making
Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources.
Students:
A. identify and define authentic problems and significant questions for investigation.
B. plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project.
C. collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions.
D. use multiple processes and diverse perspectives to explore alternative solutions.

I think my blog where I can put all exciting for me information and use it later for my projects is what I want to talk about here. I choose the information to put on my blog and figure out how to use it later, and to what extend it can be helpful to me and my classmates in our work.

5. Digital Citizenship
Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior.
Students:
A. advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology.
B. exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity.
C. demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning.
D. exhibit leadership for digital citizenship.

We did it at Dr. D’s class: we rea the Netiquette rules, and made our own group rules that made our group work and the work with the other groups later easier.

6. Technology Operations and Concepts
Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations.
Students:
A. understand and use technology systems.
B. select and use applications effectively and productively.
C. troubleshoot systems and applications.
D. transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies.

Now I know pretty much about ET and can use them for my various purposes. I think it’s not about knowing or not knowing about certain technologies. My attitude changed: I accept new for me things as a challenge, and I’m not afraid of not knowing about them any more. I know that I can find out how it works, and use it.

New Developments

Vkontakte (Russian version of the Facebook) is constantly developing. Recently they put the announcement that you can put as many videos on your page as you want (not just 5 as it was earlier). Then the graffiti thing appeared. You can draw a graffiti on the wall, and it's cool! I don't know now how to put pictures on people's walls yet. I asked one of my friends about it and was shoked to learn that the picture that I thought she copied somewhere, was her creation! It took me hours to draw something very simple using just 2 colors! Amazing, isn't it?!

Publishing first podcast

Today we worked on uploading our podcasts to podbean.com. My first Introduction podcast is right there!

Leveraging Web 2.0 in the Redesign of a Graduate-Level Technology Integration Course

Dr. Zeitz gave me an interesting article to read about how web 2.0 tools were tested in schools and what the teachers' opinion is about that experience. 5 assignments are described in the article. They are: Blogging Assignment, Google Docs & Spreadsheets Assignment, Multimedia Presentation Assignment, Trailfire Assignment, del.icio.us Social Bookmarking Assignment, and Cmap Tools Assignment. The article also gives considerations for using web 2.0 tools in the coursework.
This article brings theory close to life and gives some information about the possible ways of using web 2.0 tools in the classroom or when working with groups of people.

WOW!

How much do you know about The Warld of Warcraft? Patrik Leerman is an expert in this sphere. If you go to his page, you can find links that will provide you with the useful information. I just add some more links that I found on this topic:

Wikipedia explains: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_warcraft
A video that can give a general idea about this game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z72_-yAPhlc&mode=related&search=

These are the links that show how WOW is seen in American and Russian cartoons: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAJYQOANDCk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0te6-wJqYU

In Plain English

While looking for different articles (and videos as well) on Web 2.0 and Social Networking, I found a series of short videos explaining such things as Social networking, RSS, Wikis, and Travel Blogging in a very understandable, "plain" way. Later I found that Lois put the link about Wikis on "The Official Emerging Instructional Technologies Wikispace" page. So I'm happy that I'm not the only one who met these videos in You Tube. I hope they'll be helpful for every one.

Social Networking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a_KF7TYKVc&mode=related&search=
RSS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU&NR=1
Wikis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY&mode=user&search=
Travel Blogging: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoQOUiJpvw4&mode=user&search=

Google Docs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRqUE6IHTEA

Podcast

We already made podcasts at Dr. D's class, and it was great! The following link will provide you with the 5 steps of making podcast.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/ec2podcastinstructions

The article about the structure of the podcast broadened my knowledge about it. The Willowcast is an amazing example of what creative work students can do under the guidance of their teachers. That gave me some nice ideas of using web 2.0 tools in my project.
The video podcast looks fascinating to me, and I want to figure out how it works and how much it differs from the podcast.
TED TALKS turned to be really addictive because the videomoments are professionally made and well prepared. They are full of interesting, exciting information and humor.
I watched the episode with John Maeda talking about simplicity and complexity of the things around us. John Maeda is a graphic designer and computer scientist as well. He spreads his philosophy of "elegant simplicity".
This vodcast also made me think of not overwhelming my project with things. All genious things are very simple ones.

Picture retrieved from: http://docinthemachine.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/podcast.jpg

Earn Money in SL

There are many unusual and funny ways to earn easy money in SL. You can dance, paint, just sit on a bench, or even hang and play scrubbles at the same time. I did it in Odessa.

Of course, making chairs is more entertaining and... creative!

SL

The podcast about the learning in Second Life inspired me greately. I realized that I need to get more acquiainted with it. The idea of virtual projects isn't new, but to here that someone tried it and it worked means to bring the theory close to life. I'd really like to try some of the virtual study experiences in SL. Derek wrote about body organs virtual study. I'd love to explore outospace, for example.
Dr.D told that SL creates virtual copies of realplaces. I wonder if there is a virtual St. Petersburg. If there is such a place, then it would be great to use it in my project.

Picture retrieved from: http://prblog.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/secondlife_1.jpg

Web 2.0

The article seemed to be a bit complicated and didn't give me a clear understanding of Web 2.0. I looked for some other explanations and went to Dr. Z's page. Here is the link that leads to different definitions of Web 2.0 and explains differences between Web 1.0 and 2.0
http://webdesign.about.com/od/web20/Web_20.htm

Dr.Z has a wonderful power point presentation about the web 2.0 gadgets
http://show.zoho.com/public/leighzeitz/Gadgets.ppt

Picture retrieved from: http://www.webmakerslounge.com/images/posts/web20revolution.jpg

Second Life and Science Fiction

I don’t know when Second Life appeared. But a read about it in one of the Russian modern science fiction book. The author gave there one interesting idea about people’s appearance. Young kids preferred the bodies of grown-ups; people with some physical defects chose strong with huge muscles bodies, women changed their figures for the perfect ones. Everyone was trying to look like an ideal person. But these ideals were told by the mass media. As the result, those people lost their visual individualities and looked the same, as the pictures in the journals or famous actors or singers.
This book was translated into English. I enjoyed reading it!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labyrinth_of_Reflections http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Lukyanenko

Teaching millenials and baking bread

Yesterday we had an amazing class. We discussed really curious topics about Digital natives. And I continued this discussion with my roommate when came home.
Here a re the facts that attracted my attention:
· DN are multitask doers
· The pace of their life is really very fast
· They are team workers and collaborators
· They can’t make their own decisions
· They mix personal things and business
· On the other hand, they value their private time
· They are flexible
· Nonconformists are perfecting in 21st century skills (and it’s not a new thing in the whole world. Nonconformists seem to be more persistent, active, searching, discovering – they are rule-breakers. They are the ones to find something new!)
· Modern generation asks a lot of Why? Questions. In my opinion this is the result of new teaching methods and the reason for the development of collaborative work (constructivist model) at the same time
· G-generation has great expectations
· Millenials are impatient
· Net-generation kids don’t know how to work with the books, read and follow the written instructions
· If a child feels shy to communicate to a person face-to-face, he/she puts on a mask. Little kids would participate in the puppet theatre. Bigger kids would communicate in the Second Life. Digital technologies provide a perfect mask, give the students psychological safety and the chance to express themselves without feeling embarrassed.
· We talked about family relationships. Children can discuss some topics with their parents through computer. Nowadays families are more together not in the sense of spending time together, but parents always know what’s going on in their children’s heads, where their children are, and what they are doing. There is a constant mental interaction. Internet makes the world smaller. Even a phone call makes a great difference. I call my mom, and both of us feel OK. I felt being thrown out of my life when I came to the States and my cell phone didn’t work. Vkontakte (Russian version of the Facebook) provided the connection with the world again.
We also talked about including all senses in the teaching process (sound, motion, picture, taste). It’s one of the main principles in pedagogic. The new thing is that new technologies allow us to do it more effectively and faster. It is like baking bread many years ago and nowadays.

St. Petersburg

My topic is St. Petersburg for kids: history, culture, and traditions. I want it to be fun for the children to learn about such a big city in an entertaining way. This link provides me with the whole bunch of information about St. Petersburg. It also contains pictures, and links to other websites.
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Petersburg
Virtual tours: http://www.saint-petersburg.com/virtual-tour/
Virtual tours (videos): http://www.saint-petersburg.com/video/index.asp

Blogs

This week readings convinced me that the idea of using blogs for the educational purpose can work. Different links provided me with the information of evaluating blogs, and implementing them into the school curriculum. The new generation of the Digital natives spends a lot of time using the internet: chatting, blogging, sharing photos, music,videos, creating quizzes, interacting and acvtively exploring the new world of possibilities. This world has its own rules, because the community of people is engaged. One of the articles was discussing the netiquette rules that prevent rude words and deeds towards others. Internet helps new generation to grow active and interactive learners that demand the new look at the present day jobs.
Picture retrieved from: http://popsci.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/how20blog_badge_1.jpg

Tales of a Classroom Blogger
The Tethered Generation
Creating and Connecting//Research and Guidelines on Online Social and Educational Networking
WebLogs in Higher Education - Blog

Walking in the Forest

While I was signing up for My Space, Twitter, U-tube, Second Life , Facebook and Vkontakte more and more questions appeared. Now I know that if I want the whole world know about me, they will. I can post my pictures, videos, comments on the ideas I find interesting. That's so amazing! Such knowledge really makes people powerful! Now I'm obsessed by the idea of meeting my friends from Russia in the Second Life. But I don't know well yet how it works. Probably, I need some help from a person who feels free using the Second Life. It seems to be such fun!

I feel as if I'm walking in the huge forest of information. I want to know the names of all plants, birds and animals, and their habits. I know that there are other people in this forest. I just need to know the paths. There is so much work to do! Definitewly, this forest attracts me!

My First Post

Hi! This is my first post ever! Isn't that amazing?

I go to UNI. And now I know how to insert links and pictures. Thank you, Dr. Z!