My goodness! So my family Florida vacation comes to an end...it was an exciting week full of all 4 Disney parks, Universal Studios, Island of Adventures, and tonights culmination...party hopping at Universal's CityWalk (my favorite stop was the dueling pianos at Pat O'Brien's)! In between there were a few laps in the pool, a few beverages in the hot tub, and of course, a few logins to WebCT. Needless to say, I'm EXHAUSTED! But, I tried my best to check out some of the classes' digital stories...unfortunately the connection here at the resort was ify, so I hope to view them all once I return to Jersey tomorrow (or later today I should say as I look at the time!). From the comments and reactions posted they sound great and I look forward to seeing them!
Well, its kinda late and I have a fun day of packing and traveling tomorrow, so I'm off to bed! Hopefully I will have something more substantial to contribute next week!
Oh, but before I forget...my last posting was me basically complaining about how hard it was to find images for my digital story...well UPDATE: I was able to find almost all of what I needed using creative commons sources. Flickr was a lifesaver. And in my searches I also found Wikimedia Commons, which could be very helpful for students...check it out at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Friday, August 15, 2008
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Frustration...
So I'm trying to finish my digital story project before I go on my family vacation next week...BUT I'm finding it difficult to find creative commons photographs! I had originally searched for all of my photos on Google Images, but then Dr. Z reminded me about public domain and creative commons. My question is, how did all these OTHER people who had the pictures posted on their sites (so that I was able to find them on Google) gain access to the photos?!
Now, its such a frustrating process to find images that are comparable to the ones I originally pictured in my head! If I can't find a picture of Salvador Dali's "Persistence of Memory" that falls into public domain or that is shared under creative commons, what can I use to take its place in my presentation?! And if I'm having such a tough time, how are my kids supposed to complete the project?!
Reading about the copyright laws has not been any help because they all have so many variations! "The copyright has expired if it falls under circumstances A, B, C, and D, AND even then, only if the author has eaten peanut butter and jelly for lunch more than twice in his or her lifetime." Check it out...it's crazy!
http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/public_domain/
Now, its such a frustrating process to find images that are comparable to the ones I originally pictured in my head! If I can't find a picture of Salvador Dali's "Persistence of Memory" that falls into public domain or that is shared under creative commons, what can I use to take its place in my presentation?! And if I'm having such a tough time, how are my kids supposed to complete the project?!
Reading about the copyright laws has not been any help because they all have so many variations! "The copyright has expired if it falls under circumstances A, B, C, and D, AND even then, only if the author has eaten peanut butter and jelly for lunch more than twice in his or her lifetime." Check it out...it's crazy!
http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/public_domain/
Saturday, August 2, 2008
GREs...yikes!
I know this blog is a night late, but this week has been crazy and to be completely honest I overlooked adding this weeks post until just NOW! Why was my week so crazy you ask?! Well, I took my GREs today. I JUST registered for them on Monday ...long story not so short, I thought we could take 15 credits as a conditional student and ends up you can only take 12 and this course will provide my 12th! PLUS I had already registered and paid for my 15th credit this fall! Not knowing what to do I contacted Dr. T and am trying to speed through the process of getting approved for matriculation! My plan was to take the test later in August so I had time to prepare, but the only available appointment for the month was today! ::breath:: SOOOO, things have been crazy and I have been spending every night trying to brush up on my math and vocab ;-) I won't go into too much detail about how I did... lets just leave it as I am disappointed with my Verbal performance, but was impressed with my Quantitative skills!
For some reason, I have never really been successful when it comes to vocabulary and grammar. Just to give you some idea...my high school English AP teacher told me I had the grammar of a third grader (how I got into English AP I will never know!)! I am always one of those people who is quadruple checking my papers, essays, and even postings before I submit them. My best friends during college and thus far in grad school have been the dictionary and thesaurus! So it didn't come as a complete shock when I saw that I did a lot better on the math! But hopefully my total score will be good enough to keep me in the program with all you lovely people...keep your fingers crossed for me!
I'm not really gonna post on anything Ed. Tech related right now...I'm kinda drained. I guess you could just check out the webquest that my group and I completed this week if you haven't already! http://questgarden.com/68/54/9/080719093045/
Till next time...
For some reason, I have never really been successful when it comes to vocabulary and grammar. Just to give you some idea...my high school English AP teacher told me I had the grammar of a third grader (how I got into English AP I will never know!)! I am always one of those people who is quadruple checking my papers, essays, and even postings before I submit them. My best friends during college and thus far in grad school have been the dictionary and thesaurus! So it didn't come as a complete shock when I saw that I did a lot better on the math! But hopefully my total score will be good enough to keep me in the program with all you lovely people...keep your fingers crossed for me!
I'm not really gonna post on anything Ed. Tech related right now...I'm kinda drained. I guess you could just check out the webquest that my group and I completed this week if you haven't already! http://questgarden.com/68/54/9/080719093045/
Till next time...
Thursday, July 24, 2008
South Carolina and WebQuest
I currently find myself blogging from sunny South Carolina! I have been staying with a friend down here for the past 6 days and it has been fabulous! To be completely truthful, I kinda don't want to come back... :-X Seriously as a single 20-something searching for a house in northern New Jersey I find myself extremely frustrated seeing that I could buy a 4 bedroom house down here for the price of a one bedroom condo up there! If only I could somehow magically relocate my job, friends, and family to Blythewood, SC I'd be set! ;-)
In other, more NJCU related news, I have recently posted my opinion about using Wikis in education (I am an advocate btw) AND my group and I have been diligently working on our WebQuest. Though we thought it would be difficult to incorporate 3 different subject areas into one assignment, it has proved to be a successful endeavor thus far! We settled on the topic of "the cell." The history behind its discovery, the science behind its parts and purpose, and the art of creating a model. I'm very pleased with everyone's cooperation so far, and am finding it easier than I thought to complete a group project without ever meeting with them in person... I guess we should chalk another one up for technology and education!
Alright...off to lay by the pool for a bit more before the sun sets!
In other, more NJCU related news, I have recently posted my opinion about using Wikis in education (I am an advocate btw) AND my group and I have been diligently working on our WebQuest. Though we thought it would be difficult to incorporate 3 different subject areas into one assignment, it has proved to be a successful endeavor thus far! We settled on the topic of "the cell." The history behind its discovery, the science behind its parts and purpose, and the art of creating a model. I'm very pleased with everyone's cooperation so far, and am finding it easier than I thought to complete a group project without ever meeting with them in person... I guess we should chalk another one up for technology and education!
Alright...off to lay by the pool for a bit more before the sun sets!
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Finished the Website
Well, the external link to my blog is obviously working! YAY! Good job, me! AND, I have completed the set up for my website. I believe it meets all the criteria and I have made the changes my suggested on the class discussion board. The first was to provide navigation links on all pages. So, you will notice when you visit my site that you can now access all links at the bottom of the current page! The second suggestion was to increase the visibility of my email link. Unfortunately, FirstClass would not allow me to change the color of the link, BUT I did make it larger so hopefully it stands out a bit more than it did before!
On a more personal note, I am off to visit a friend in South Carolina for a week of relaxation! I'm very excited to be making the 12 hour car trip with my puppy Dexter. This will be his first road trip and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it goes smoothly! I will be taking my laptop with me of course, so that I can stay up to date with my classwork and so that I can let you all know how Dexter handled the ride (because I'm sure you guys will be dying to know ;-).
Till next time... :-)
On a more personal note, I am off to visit a friend in South Carolina for a week of relaxation! I'm very excited to be making the 12 hour car trip with my puppy Dexter. This will be his first road trip and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it goes smoothly! I will be taking my laptop with me of course, so that I can stay up to date with my classwork and so that I can let you all know how Dexter handled the ride (because I'm sure you guys will be dying to know ;-).
Till next time... :-)
Friday, July 11, 2008
Creating the Website
Tonight is night 3 of trying to create my website for our Using Internet in Education class. Until it came time to post my blog, the path of creation ran relatively smooth. Then I realized that the web publishing feature offered by FirstClass (the program my school uses to host our sites) can only house one "Home Page" to which everything links...even the blogs. This wouldn't be a problem if the only site I created using the program was the one for NJCU. BUT, that is not the case! I have also created a site for my students to use throughout the course of the school year. So when I tried to add a blog, it automatically linked it to my school home page instead of the one I created for NJCU.
I contemplated using one of the free web hosting sites, and even signed up for a page through one of the sites Dr. Z suggested. I didn't like it. It didn't allow me the flexibility of laying things out exactly the way I wanted them AND I did not like the random advertisements that took up the majority of my screen space!
So what did I do?! I created a free blog through blogger.com and simply made it an external link from the page I created on FirstClass! Fingers crossed it works!
I contemplated using one of the free web hosting sites, and even signed up for a page through one of the sites Dr. Z suggested. I didn't like it. It didn't allow me the flexibility of laying things out exactly the way I wanted them AND I did not like the random advertisements that took up the majority of my screen space!
So what did I do?! I created a free blog through blogger.com and simply made it an external link from the page I created on FirstClass! Fingers crossed it works!
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