David Galenson & Daniel Pink

I thought that both of these pieces made me carefully consider different aspects of intelligence. I personally thought that Daniel Pink was kind of boring, but he did make a few interesting points. His three A's: Asia, Automation & Abundance really grabbed my attention and made me think a little deeper than usual. The different sides of the brain theory was also interesting and a good analogy, although I'm not quite sure if I totally agree with that. I think this is a good video to watch if you're a businessman, but I want to know how it can relate more to me as an educator. 

The article about Galenson was a little more attention grabbing than the video. Although it was mostly about his findings in age related to artwork, I did see how it could relate to "science, technology, and business". I especially thought about the technology side of it since that is what I will be working with as a teacher. His ideas about what it means to be a "genius" varies in his studies. He says that learners can be swift, deductive, and certain, and also approach learning more quietly, more inductively, and step-by-careful-step. I think that both of these ways of learning would apply to technology. Working with new technology or trying to come up with something new takes time and you have to be certain it works. I like how he says that you can make a difference at any age in life. I think this is especially true for teachers and I believe teachers make a difference in lives everyday, although they aren't always recognized for it like the artists in the article. 

Imagination Cubed

This week for my classroom scenario, I am choosing Imagination Cubed. I liked this site because it doesn't require you to sign up and use an email address. When you first go to this website, it's all ready for you to get started on your creation. Both of these factors are especially good things to think about for kindergarten-first grade. For some of my other scenarios, I had to log in to a website using my email before the kids could use it. With this site, it just makes it easier to get started right away. I also liked how simple & basic it is, which is also a good thing for the younger children. If we were doing a food unit and the lesson was focusing on reading/writing, I would have the kids draw with the mouse the words "I" and "like". Following these words would be a food of their choice. So, for example, I would write "I like  corn" using the pen for my writing tool. Doing this activity using this website simply makes it more interesting and fun for the kids to write a sentence other than the paper and pencil method. After they wrote their sentence, they could draw their own picture that illustrates their sentence using the pen, shapes, or stamper. After they have finished, I would print them off so that everyone could read their sentence in front of the class and share their creation. 

Photoshop

I have had Photoshop for awhile now and I really like it. I was first introduced to it in another technology class and we got to play around with it in there also. In the classroom, I would use this photo editing program to make an "ABC book". I would have my students partner up and would give each pair a digital camera. They would each be assigned a letter and would be asked to take a picture in the classroom of anything they wanted that started with this letter. When everyone was done with this, I would have them upload it onto computers in the media center. I would already have a Photoshop account on the screen so that we didn't have to deal with setting up each student with an account. I would demonstrate all of the different options for editing their photos and then let them explore and edit their own photos. All of this would probably take a few days to complete. I would then compile all of their final edited photos into one album and show it in front of the class on a slideshow. Everyone would have a chance to talk about their picture and what options they used for editing. This type of activity could also be shared with parents by making the slideshow public. 

Orkut

The wiki I found was through Google. It's called Orkut & it allows you to create "communities" aka wikis. I actually used this wiki my freshman year in college for a class. I thought it was useful in helping the class communicate with each other about assignments. The community that I chose to create to show to 302 was titled "Family Vacation". I can choose whether or not this is a private community. I could invite my family members to start discussions about our annual family vacation without the public Orkut members seeing it. In the classroom, I think that I could use this wiki for a "pen pals" type of activity. I could invite members of another classroom in the country into my classroom wiki and the children could communicate back and forth about what they're doing. Maybe myself and another teacher could collaborate on a lesson and then have the kids talk with each other about what they think of that specific lesson or unit as it progresses. I remember when I was a kid, I really enjoyed communicating with students in other places that were far away from Iowa. It was interesting to get information from other parts of the country or world. As far as online documents go, I would use Google Docs. I've used it numerous times and have not had any problems with it. It's another awesome way to work on assignments without having to be physically present with a group. You can also use Orkut at the same time to start a discussion forum about the Google Doc.