Computers in the classroom Part I with Brock U.

I have learned a lot of valuable, practical information from my instructors, webmates and my research. I would highly recommend this course to anyone interested in learning more about using the computer and technology in the classroom. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing."
The more I learned, the more I wanted to do with my students, the more I wanted to share with my colleagues at school. This increased my workload but it was definitely worth it to me and to my students. I have taken three online courses in a row. Taking a forth this Summer is out of the question. I should be rearing to go again in the Fall.

Online courses

I have almost completed my third online course of the year. It was initially to change categories on the pay scale so that I could improve my pension. I have to admit that I didn't expect to learn as much as I did. By that I mean that I thought that I would put the minimum work required to get my credits. A funny thing happened however. I worked many more hours that I thought I would and rather enjoyed learning new things.
The instructors make a difference as do the participants. As teachers, we owe it to our students and ourselves to be life-long learners. This is especially true of technology.

PowerPoint templates for the classroom

The Best Teacher is An Eternal Student. Bengt Hambraeus, Composer and Pedagogue.


Thanks to those who share their great work in the classroom, there is an abundance of
POWERPOINT TEMPLATES available. These allow teachers to focus on content rather than programming the game.

http://www.pppst.com/templates.html

http://www.vickiblackwell.com/ppttemplates.html

http://www.inzones.com/free-templates.htm

Life and Death by Powerpoint

Don McMillan is "Technically Funny". Before he became a nationally known stand-up comedian, Don spent 10 years as an engineer at IBM, AT&T, and VLSI Technology. He knows what corporate life is all about. His show is funny, smart, clean, AND he is the ONLY comedian working in PowerPoint.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoID=1529637984

After watching and laughing through this video called Life and Death by Power Point, I googled Death by PowerPoint and came up with over 1,300,000 sites on the subject. Amazing!

So much to add to presentations!

Good resources for FREE sounds and clipart:
www.partnersinrhyme.com/soundfx/human.shtml
www.zooish.com
www.wavcentral.com
www.awesomeclipartforkids.com
www.kidsdomain.com/clip/index.html
www.google.com (go to the “Images” tab and then input the title of the picture you are looking for. OATC would like to give a disclaimer that anybody can put pictures on Google Images, so please note that there may be pictures that upload that are of “Adult” natured.)

PowerPoint Presentation

What a great tool! Like any other tool however, it is only as good as the people holding it make it. For that reason, students must be taught how to use it effectively. They can incorporate images, clip art, videos and sound to make any presentation outstanding. Nevertheless, some students have not taken a computer's application course and were never taught the dos and don't of PowerPoint.
Here are some of the sites that can be helpful for teachers and learners.

http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech013.shtml
Here is a site that we are familiar with. It also offers some great advice about PowerPoint.

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/on-line_powerpoint.htm
Helping teachers use the Internet effictively.

http://www.rapides.k12.la.us/VI/PowerPointresources.htm
More suggestions. Please check the short slide show on PP etiquette.

Active learning strategies
http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/tutorials/powerpoint/assessment.html

French as a second language and digital photography and imagery

There is an abundance of available images on the net. The beauty of being bilingual is that I have access to more search engines. The following site allows searching of images, photos and clip art in French.
http://www.sd61.bc.ca/fslactivities/images.html
http://www.edzone.net/~mwestern/pix.html offers 26 great ways to use digital photography in the elementary classroom.

http://askwhy.thestar.com/index.php This site is one that can be used in any subject.
You are shown a picture under the heading Why Ask Why? This can be the opening of many current event discussions.

Isn't it always the way? I just found this site after submitting my assignment on using digital photography in the classroom. It involves: "More than a dozen easy activities for using digital cameras in the classroom."
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech147.shtml

The next site also provides a list of possible uses of digital photography in the classroom.
http://www.tasi.ac.uk/advice/using/finding.html