Making a poster using Excel

This is a cool way to make posters in a cost efficient way using Excel. It is easy and hardly takes any time or money at all. This would be a handy tool once we all are teachers and need posters to hang around the room.

PSA on Scheduling

For this project my group made a video on scheduling. We showed different scenarios that we all know happen around campus around the time of scheduling. When making this video I think we all had fun and it shows. Some of the pros to this activity were that we learned how to use the camera and also how to edit the movie so it made sense and flowed well.  One con was that the camera did not have a zoom and in order to get a close up effect we had to have the camera close.

I can see myself using videos in my classroom. I think by making the video themselves, students learn more than they would just sitting in their seats listening to a lecture, while having fun doing it.

Prezi and Finale

Today in class we were introduced to a tool called Prezi. Prezi is a tool that is similar to Popplet which we already learned about. With Prezi you are able to use unlimited space, use different backgrounds and fonts, and also add pictures and videos. Another good thing about this tool is you are able to embed your Prezi into your blog. A possible downfall to this tool is when making paths, if there are too many going every which way, the viewer can become dizzy. Prezi is a free program and is very easy to learn about.
We also learned about a music program called Fanale. The obvious downfall to this program is the price. The cheapest it runs is $350 witha student discount. Fanale is pretty neat. It allows you to make your own music composition and play it back in any instrument you choose. This program would be slightly difficult to use if youre not familiar with sheet music. This could also be a downfall because it is difficult to learn how to use. Overall I think this tool would be cool to use in class for those student who are musical learners.

Kidspiration

I really enjoyed this tool. It is part of a series which also include inspiration, which is for older children and adults. The fall back to this tool is that there is only access to a temporary free download and we would eventually have to purchase this to continue using it. This would be a good tool to use in a classroom, when using super grouper, because it allows children to group things into categories. The example we were shown was the children are on the computer and the teacher gave them a topic such as fruit. The students were responsible for finding pictures of fruit using the clip art provided, and also finding pictures that were not fruit. I think this tool would benifit students in a positive way.

Museum box and Go!Animate

In class we learned about a tool called museum box. This seemed like a pretty cool tool. It was a lot more interesting than a standard powerpoint, which I think is a great quality. Museum box would be a good tool to use in a classroom because it allows us to group things into different categories. For example we could have a box titled "Planets" and in each drawer we could have the names of all the planets and a fact about each of them.
We were also shown a tool called Go!Animate. This is a cool tool because it would get childrens attention because it is different and interesting. The fall back to this is that it is not free. This would be a good tool to use in a classroom because it is able to turn lessons into cartoons. This seems like a more interesting way to learn than to just sit and listen to the teacher lecture about something.