Mary Grace McCord

This is the cite to my podcast: http://web.me.com/mgmccord/Site/Podcast/Entries/2010/7/3_Mary_Graces_Podcast.html

Overall… I honestly feel this course has been quite useful, but frustrating. In addition I feel that this course should be worth more than 3 PLUs, as I put in a large amount of time in this course, WAY over 30 hours.

What will I take from this course:
#1 I do feel more informed about what I out there in the “web”.
#2 I now know I have a lot more to learn.
#3 I do plan on incorporating some of the items I have learned in my classroom.
#4 I feel that technology is a tool for enhancing knowledge, and that nothing can replace some of the most basic principles of a student themselves reading, doing their homework and actually studying. Even in major universities the students still have these basic ideas and we must remember them, but add in technology where we can and definitely stay current with the ever-changing material out there in cyberspace.

Social Networking….. Hmmmm, I definitely have some thoughts about this topic!!!

Ning — I did find the site useful and I did come across some interesting information… such as I now know that you can make online quizzes via Google docs. I was not able to find a list of Ning networks in the right sidebar.

Classroom 2.0 — I enjoyed this site more than the Ning site. To me it seemed friendlier to work with. I found a lot of information about Google docs that I found useful and interesting. I even forwarded a link about “Google tricks that will save time in school” to my daughter who started college last week.

I personally use Facebook as a social networking site, therefore I am not opposed to social networking. I use it minimally unlike most of my students and my own children. I find that our society is losing the personal aspect of communicating with people. In my opinion, social networking is good, but is should not replace people interacting (face to face or speaking) with real people. I also feel that with ALL the information on the web, people will have a tendency to lose valuable creative skills because many will use other people ideas and not decipher “things” on their own. I truly feel that our society is a little out of balance, and we do not need to forget the basics!!!

I enjoy viewing the Times Herald on my Google Reader. Below is a story I read and found it interesting that the store “Starship” might actually open in Coweta County. I have driven by it many times and wondered why they never took the sign down. Now I know they were planning on opening when possible.

http://www.times-herald.com/Local/Starship-expects-to-open-in-4-6-weeks-1197850?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2FTopStories+%28The+Times-Herald+%3E+Top+Stories%29

Using Pageflakes I made a pagecast for my chemistry class. See link below.

I spent quite a bit of time on this this am, but I plan to incorporate this into my class this year. I found this site useful, but there could have been more instructions available.

http://www.pageflakes.com/marygrace.mccord/30366850 or

http://www.pageflakes.com/marygrace.mccord/

Finally…. something that I KNOW I need!!!!! I can see so many advantages to using Google docs. I keep copies of my documents for school on a few sites. I find it completely time consuming to continually update all the sites when I make changes and I think it would be great to have 1 main location. I will first start off with loading in all my documents I have for my Science Fair forms in my Adv. Chemistry class. Once I have mastered it with these 10 or so documents I will spread my wings, adding more and more documents into Google Docs.

I also will add another teacher to my site and see how it works. If all goes well I will continue to add users to the site and allow them to make changes. I must say it does seem a bit scary to me allow others the ability to change my work or even worse delete… losing control is not easy for me, especially after I have worked hours and hours on many of the documents.

I have viewed You Tube many times personally and educationally.  I think it is a GREAT site and I have found to be extremely useful in the classroom.  As a chemistry teacher I have used You Tube to show lab demonstrations, instead of setting them up in class.  This is useful for 2 reasons: funding for the lab supplies is limited and it saves time by not having to set up and clean up a demonstration.  I would never use You Tube in place of a lab the students should perform themselves, only to replace a demonstration.

An example of a demonstration I have and will continue to use is a flame test demonstration. Flame Test

As funding in the State of Georgia gets tighter and tighter I will continue to try to find more good information on You Tube that will be educational for my students.

I viewed a few podcasts and found some of them interesting.  I have never viewed podcasts before so this was quite new for me.  Being so new at it I am sure caused me to spend some time just getting use to it.  Currently, I have not found any material I feel that I can use for school at this time.  However, I will be teaching a new class for me this coming year and I can see myself trying to find items on podcasts that be useful.

I truly liked the site.  I personally feel that I do not have the time to use it, but I do feel that I could incorporate this site in my advance chemistry class.  The students could possibly find some books on their topic for the the research fair portion of the class.  I also think it would be nice to start showing these sites to all students so that they know what is available for them to you on the web.

Although I found it hard to set up, I enjoyed the delicious website.  Personally, in my past I have had computers crash and lost my saved bookmarks.  By using this site I will never lose those sites again.  Professionally, I can really see where I could find a tremendous about of material to use for teaching and share the sites I use with others.

This is definitely a site I will use!!!