Week 7- Visual Literacy

This week I learned how to use Photoshop. I did the photoshop tutorial project in class and learned how to customized backgrounds in pictures and also learned how to import my own pictures on Photoshop. I also learned about layering and found out that if you do not label your layers it makes it difficult to create your project. This week I also learned more about visual literacy and digital storytelling.

It is important that I learn how to use Photoshop as an elementary education major because I could use Photoshop in my future classroom in order to customize pictures for particular projects that we may be doing. Visual literacy and digital storytelling are also important because they can be used as alternative ways of teaching the children, instead of just standing in front of the class and lecturing all day. The visual literacy and the digital storytelling can help the children who are visual learners learn the same concepts in a more efficient way.



This video that I found on youtube presents a way that you can cut out the background of a picture and change it to a different background. The video tells the viewer how to do this through written directions on slides and by showing them how to do it. The video uses visual literacy to explain the directions of using Photoshop. This video relates to what I learned in class this week because it explains how to use a part of Photoshop and it uses visual literacy, which is also something that I have been learning about in class.

Week 6- Media and Information Literacy

This week I learned about reading through the use of media and images which is called visual literacy. I watched a few videos on youtube that explained why visual literacy was important and how it can be incorporated into the classroom. I was also able to view some examples of visual literacy through videos and images. I learned about how to use photoshop and how it can be used to alter images. I was also able to view examples of other visual literacy projects so that I could be thinking of some ideas of my own.

I can use visual literacy in my own classroom one day because I can create videos with images and text to teach the class some of the concepts that I want to teach them as an alternative of verbally teaching them. These videos can be used as visual aides for the students who learn better through seeing in stead of hearing. I could even incorporate audio into the videos so that it could be beneficial for the students who learn visually and/or through audio.



This video that I found on youtube uses visual literacy in it to teach the viewer about how a teacher can incorporate visual literacy in the subject area that he or she teaches. Images of historical events can be used in a history class to help the students better understand the event that they are studying. Graphs and charts such as the periodic table can be used in math and science classes so that the students can learn these subjects through using visual aides as well. This video goes along with what I learned this week of why visual literacy is important and how it is used in society today.

Week 5- Tech Tools for Critical Thinking

This week I learned how to use Webspiration and Inspiration. I watched a few short videos that showed how to make concept maps, and they also showed exampled of how they can be used in the classroom. I actually made a concept map that was on the social tools that can be used in education. Then I looked at a powerpoint presentation about different learning styles and theories. I took two quizzes that told me the best ways that I learn information. According to the quizzes I learn information best by using all three learning styles, kinesthetic, auditory and visual, all at once. I learn by sight, sound, and doing hands-on activities. I learn the best by doing hands-on activites though. I also learned how to use the online tool Wordle this week.

It was important that I learned how to use the Webspiration and Inspiration web tools this week. I could use these tools when I become a teacher. I could use Inspiration to make pre-writing concept maps with my class when I am teaching them how to brainstorm ideas for the stories that they write. It was also beneficial for me to learn about the different learning styles that there are so that I can make sure to incorporate activities that are geered toward each learning style when I have my own class. Children learn in many different ways, so it is important for the teacher to have a variety of teaching strategies to accomodate for each child.



This video from youtube describes the different learning styles: the kinesthetic learning style, the auditory learning style, and the visual learning style. It also informs you on how you can incorporate each learning style in your teaching so that every student is able to be engaged in what is being taught in the lesson. This video goes along with what I learned this week because it emphasizes the different learning styles that there are.

Week 2: Educational Technology

 During week 2 we reviewed how to log on to the course website, and we discussed our upcoming assignments posted in the syllabus. We also watched two videos discussing basic technology concepts. I created a gmail account which will be used later on in the course. The concept that I learned in this week was how to use a Mac OSX. I learned the differnces between a Mac and a PC, and I also learned how to use the different keys that a Mac has on its keyboard. We were required to set up the desktop of the Mac a certain way and take a snapshot of the desktop.

I think that it is very beneficial for me to learn how to use a Mac OSX for the education field because many of the teachers today are required to use Macintosh computers in their classrooms and hook them up to the smartboards. Much of learning in classrooms today, even elementary school classrooms, is technology based, and the teacher is required to know how to work each part of the high-tech equipment herself.



This video from youtube gives detailed information of how to use a Macintosh computer. It gives you step by step instructions of how to use the software and it descibes exactly what each icon does on the dock of a Mac. This video relates to what we learned this week about using the Mac OSX sofware.

Webspiration: Social Tools in Education

This is a link to my Webspiration concept map for Week 5.

http://www.mywebspiration.com/view/560733a35872

Week 4: Multimedia and Hypermedia

This week I looked at a powerpoint presentation concerning designing instructional media and I learned about the dos and don'ts of using powerpoint, and what you should use and what you should not use excessively. Then I looked at another powerpoint presentation on Multimedia and Hypermedia and was able to view two videos on youtube on these subjects. The videos were very graphic and they not only told you about what these terms meant, but they also showed you what they meant. I also learned about the different parts of the url of a website, and how you can figure out if a website is real or just created by someone unofficial.

  What I learned this week can be applied to my major because I can use what I learned about powerpoint and designing instruction media to make presentations to instruct my class one day. Also, I found it very important and interesting to learn about how you can find out the origin of a website and who created it. When I am a teacher and I ask the students to do a research paper, I want to make sure that they are using reliable sources in their papers.



This is a video that somewhat explains what multimedia is and it is a video that contains multimedia in it. The video does contain sound, animation, moving and still words and pictures so this video uses many types of media to convey its message to whomever is watching it. Through all of these types of media that are used that message can be more easily conveyed to the watcher because it allows the video to be more interesting and informative.

Embedding a video