Round 2 - Thing 4

Thing 4 was iPadio, which is a phlogging tool (telephone blogging). It basically allows people to call a number, leave a message, and then the message is translated to a blog. I thought this would be really useful for my biology class. My students often have major issues pronouncing some of the complex vocabulary words, and if I could have recordings of me correctly saying the words, it would help the students a ton.

Here is the link to my channel:
http://www.ipadio.com/phlogs/KristiSterling

Master Class Project 3

My third and final project was with Animoto. Again, I used my Zoology class as the guinea pigs! The goal was for them to create a "Most Wanted" video about an invasive species. Their animoto was limited to 30 seconds (which was nice because it forced them to really focus on the important facts) and had to include pictures and text. The students really enjoyed using Animoto and I would use it again!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pevVmga2RQboxn_IspuO5g2FJz4lAfOA0Til1069FC8/edit?hl=en&authkey=CKLm6dUJ

Round 2 - Thing 3

Diigo was a pretty cool tool..I especially liked using it for articles and other reading material. Although I agree that it takes some good research knowledge in order to use this tool, juniors and seniors might be able to grasp the basics. For example, my senior zoology students are doing a research project right now and instead of printing the material from the websites, they could just highlight and bookmark them to save paper. I like that you can go back to your bookmarks later to review them. Perfect for a research project in progress.

Here are my annotated links:
http://diigo.com/0fcby
http://diigo.com/0fcbz

Master Class Project 2

I assigned aPrezi project for my Applied Zoology students. The goal is for them to research a specific aquatic animal of their choice and present their findings in a Prezi. I hoped to get great Prezis with lots of information, pictures, and maybe an embedded YouTube video. Just like with the webpages, my students blew me away! The presentations were amazing. I gave the students plenty of time to fine tune their presentations out of class, which really paid off. Some of them did things that I don't even know how to do on Prezi. Take a look at the examples, I put in the links to a few of the coolest ones.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y0GeDPcsfDhUunPAtjNviXZfJOYcBYMry-t4bMtePno/edit?hl=en&authkey=CPWbqc8H

Master Class Project 1

I completed my first project which was for my Applied Zoology students (seniors) to make a website through www.weebly.com. I decided to have my students make websites instead of making PowerPoint presentations or posters. The benefit was that I was able to hand out all the website addresses to the class and the students can go back to revisit the information when they are studying for the test.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MsEuf0w49FWw2N8NQGD4FQ9LxN37iTKpGPAfDGNr4VA/edit?hl=en&authkey=CN_VqeMJ

Thing 2 - Round 2

This thing was to explore Prezi, which is another way of creating presentations instead of using Microsoft PowerPoint. I really liked it, but I struggled to figure out what I was doing. This must be a popular web 2.0 tool because when I was working on my video, two different students asked me if I was using Prezi and said they had to make presentations last year for different teachers (some from RB and some from jr. high)...which impressed me. I think I would use this in my classroom as a different way for students to present materials. I often have the students make posters or powerpoints, and I think I'll try Prezi for my next project. That will probably end up being one of my Master Projects for 17 things to chew on.

Here is the Prezi I created for my freshman biology class. The goal was to visually show Protein Synthesis. I'll have to play around with Prezi a lot more to get more creative!

Protein Synthesis on Prezi

Thing 1 - Round 2!!

So I've started the Master's Edition this year and our first thing is about email blogging. I've set up a Tumblr account and my link is: sterls.tumblr.com. I like how easy it was to add pictures and video (much easier than on blogger) but I think it's pretty much the same as using a regular blog website. I'm not sure I would use this in biology class because my freshman might not use it correctly. It might be cool to start a zoology blog where my seniors can post about animals that they research and then comment on each other's blogs, so I'll have to play around with it for a little bit. With an older set of students, I really think this could potentially turn into a an innovative way to sharing information instead of traditional presenting.