Rekha’s Blog

As I continue on the path of learning how to use handheld computers, there is always one main point aside from the enhancement of children’s education that stands out. This involves the environment. Last week we took a look at several programs on the handheld computers. One was Inspiration which allowes for students to diagram and map out various materials. For example when having the third grade chidlren try to decipher the main idea and supporting detials of a passage, this program would have come into handy. I would normally photocopy a graphic organizer from my big book of “reproducible graphic oraganizers”. But using the handheld would save me from photocopying a batch of these organizers, therefore conserving paper. Similarily we also talked about another program called Novii Animator (which is my all time favorite so far). With this program what i would have normally asked a student to draw a poster to promote public transporation (to decrease pollution)I had them actually illustrate and do a little commercial with the Novii Animator. Once again conserving the use of paper and also giving the students a chance to do the assignmenn in a manner that is more meaningful to them.

Not being a very technologically oriented person, the idea of reading books on the computer really didn’t impress me all that much. The first time I heard about ebooks was when Stephen King decided to present his new book( at the time )only on the web. I knew right there and then that I probably won’t be reading that. Don’t ask me to explain why….I would rather go to a book store and buy a book and physically flip the pages to read what was to happen next. Having said that, I had my first encounter with reading novels through a computer via hand held. It wasn’t too bad of an experience. In fact I thought it was pretty amazing how so many words and pages can fit into one little thing that is sometimes lighter than an actual book. So the hassle of carrying a heavy thing around is resolved (if that was an issue for some of us). I even had the option of using my pen to go to the next screen or have the screen scroll automatically to save us the effort of raising our pens. If you have sensed a tone of sarcasm in what you read, you are not wrong.

I do agree that the handheld ebook are pretty amazing in situations such as enclyclopedias or dictionaries where each student will have the entire set at the palm of their hands. Even in language arts where each child will be able to have a copy of a novel and not loose them or ruin them, or take notes in an organized manner. But yet there is something about actually holding a book, and catching a whiff of new pages, and feeling the weight of it in ones palm. When you are about to finish the story, seeing the few pages left, and then finally closing the book once you are done and examing the cover one last time before putting it away. My point is ebooks are great, but I don’t think that using an actual book should be forgotten. Its an art and part of our culture.

The same thought had crossed my mind when watching the Panel Theater performed by visitors from Japan. It was not high tech. It simply involved paper and yet the students were amazed and impressed. It was nice to see that something as simple as paper can be manipulated in such a way. Again paper and pencil shouldn’t be completely forgotten. Its our culture. In the same way I can also say that palm computers will slowly become part of our culture as well.

Today we learned to use splashblog, which is a website that allows for pictures to be displayed via blog style! Pictures can be posted on a daily basis and will be organized in that manner. The site allows for up to 500 pictures free of charge. This allows for an excellent opportunity to portray events going on for those who prefer a more visual approach. If I had known of and learned how to use this site, I would have used it for our ongoing Science Fair project. My third graders are studying the affects of acid rain on plants. This involves spraying plant with various amounts of acid rain (don’t worry everyone.. its just vinegar) as well as regular water being sprayed on the control plant. The children observe and record any changes in the plants on a daily basis. I have taken pictures of the plants on almost a daily basis and could have posted these on the splashblog so that parents, students and others that are interested could see the same things that we are observing in class. And it will be preserved for the children to look back on! I thing its a great site to use for such activities that involve ongoing observation.

I have also tried my luck in Giraffe. I was doing fine with the lower case, upper case and even the numbers. Then along came the symbols and my mind was all symbols (@#!!?& - if you know what I mean!) It was difficult and i realized I had absolutely no clue how to enter symbols.

“I have a blog!!”

That was the first thing that came across my mind as I saw my name on an actual website address, as well as on an actual web page (or “blog page”?). In the past year, I have heard of the word “blog” more and more often. However, not being a very computer savy person I never quite bothered to check out what it actually was. But as I heard snippets of adverstisments and comments all around me about these so called “blogs”, I began to notice a commonality - it was always referred to as “someone’s” blog. So figured it was some sort of personal website. I was close. Today I learned that a blog or “web log”, is more of an online diary that is posted on line and is accessible to whomever wishes to see it.

Creating a blog for oneself was actually quite simple. All I needed to do was get on a blog website (in my case edublog.org) and sign up. From there writing and editing an entry was easy. I just click on whatever options I wanted, and went from there. To write a new entry I just click on “write”. I was also able to change the format of my blog, again with a simple click of an icon. In this case, the word presentation. To brighten up my blog entry we also learned to add pictures. We upload a picture when we are writing a new entry, and drag the picture to where we want it in the text. To take a step further, Rolly showed us how to align the pictures right and left by clicking on the HTML icon and entering a few codes in the proper place.

I’m looking forward to exploring more with blogs, and ctually interested in perhaps creating a blog for my son so that his grandparents far away can see what he is up to on a more frequent basis and I can add my comments to the pictures as well.

Hello… this is my first entry. Yaaaaaaaaaaay!

This is a picture that I have posted:

Its the first one that I have posted and it too a while,
but here it is!

My second picture that I have added to the blog. It did not take as long to enter the pciture but took longer to choose the actual picture. Here it is:

Welcome to Edublogs.org. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!