Voice Thread comment

The girls in this class are amazing w/their computer know-how. I enjoyed their slideshows and would've liked to do what Amanda did. My daughter did a short video and it turned out so funny. I looked and sounded silly and she laughed. I'm going back to the same frame of mind when I say how much this simple tool would enhance a story telling project, for older students, maybe 6th and up. How nice it would be to hear an elder tell a story (with an accompanying picture) in our language. Maybe of making a sled or one of the ladies demonstrating a beadwork style. I should have taken a pic of the beaded vest I made for my husband. In fact, Dylan is wearing it in the dance group picture.

Voicethread Project

Panraven update!

I'm sorry, classmates and Skip, I tried 10 different ways to post and none worked, apparently the "publish" one works, though. Once you post something it will stay on dashboard until the end of time, blank of course! I am frustrated w/computers. It was a piece a cake to make the story. Then I watched the replay and backed-n-forth until I found how to post. Unfortunately, this did not work until I C-A then C-V'd into blog (the old fashioned way.) I'll stick to that from now on. I'm sorry to say that I suffer alone in these assignments for the most part, because w/o reliable internet service it is frustrating and not fun for me. I'd rather do the 10 pg research project for 213 (and get that "A" again) or figure out 3 practical applications using the quadratic equation or teach kids fundamentals employing the six traits of writing. No problem there!

Panraven

ComicLife Project

So far this was the easiest assign for me. I think we could use this to promote subjects that are learning; science, health, math. If we are studying trapping, for instance, we could have students go out with their fathers (which some already do) and take pictures, record what is being done, document who used that area before them (it goes way back,) learn how to say names of the places, animals, equipment, beaver-nogha aa. There are so many ways to make assignments more interesting. The bonus would be if anything was caught and the tradition would then include sharing, learning firsthand how to be thankful, and even blessing (giving thanks) the land and what was given to us. I love our old ways and for the classroom it would give the students the opportunity to read/write and be interesting as well as perpetuate some of our cultural beliefs.

Flickr Slideshow

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Digital movie

Here is a look at my family and home. I just realized that I didn't put any of our second son, Edward. He lives in Anch w/his family. This project was so much fun to do and I was scared to do it. My problem is slow internet or none at all. I've had more problems in the history of the www. GCI should be sending my equipment soon, I hope. I would love to sit in my own home (with the plump little granddaughter) and be able to participate in class at the same time. Aside from all the griping I would say that my comfort level w/this class has been raised a couple of levels since I did those silly software reviews (which I plan on redoing some day.)

pp assignment

I have never done a powerpoint presentation by myself in my life. Why? Because for the first 40 years of my life on Earth, there was no opportunity to make one, now I’m given the grand occasion to create one. In retrospect, I think very few can fail with the instructions given by the esteemed Mr. Skip Via. I say very few, and Jessie David is one of them. Before I begin my take on this assignment, let me explain a few things about myself. I don’t know why, but I always manage to do things the hard way. People can listen to 20 directives that are part of an assignment and just do it. I get lost on about the second direction. But I don’t give up. It would help if I lived closer to one of my classmates. I would be getting an “A” if I lived in the same community as, say, Alice, 2 Jessica’s, Becca, Crystal, and any one of them. Instead old Jessie is left completely dumbfounded and stumbles blindly about most of the time. So, when the explanation about “updating quicktime” happened, it went in and out of my big (and apparently useless)ears. So I found, through trial and error, of course, that we must have a computer that works to download the latest version of Quicktime. It took 1 hour to do that at my office and ½ hour to save it on my jumpdrive and when it came time to view the files, it still couldn’t work. Near tears, I then completely alienated myself from tribal staff and unhooked the only computer that works in our tribal office and hooked mine up and downloaded this stuff. After all this, I can now view any of Skip’s instructional files. How great that would be if I understood him the first time he said it. Alas, it would’ve taken me ten minutes to finish the project if I had computer savvy, like all of you. Anyway, I had a blast doing it and next time our council or school needs someone to set up a slideshow they will have the expert of Microsoft Office Excel at their service (I hope none of you question why the schedule shows only 3 days of the week and overlook the part where there is an extra row on the bottom. I know now that I could have easily corrected that by dragging over each corner to the exact spot I wanted it, which was 6 not 5 columns over and 5 rows not 6.) I also did not make a chart, for the simple reason that this type cannot be charted. I really wanted to make a chart that I will use to hang up on the door someday. I should have done one about the bakesale our church had. Here is the data:
Cake 4
Pies 8
Bread 10
Muffins 6
Cookies 5 (batches)
Now I would have been able to employ the chart
wizard with that info!

Life in Allakaket

At some point I would like to put some photos on my blog. Well, I am in my senior yr at UAF and enjoying all of it. On our off time we run dogs, yesterday we ran 2 teams of 4 about 3 miles. My husband, Harold Sr., has a knee problem so he holds the leaders while I take the dogs to the line and harness them. That is a lot of work, but great way to keep our 50+ bodies in shape. He is pushing 56 but you would never tell. Our 5 children all have participated in kids/jr. mushers 4 mile races and snowshoe races. These are always fun to watch. We enjoy spring carnivals during the spring, they are a blast! They seem to be substance fueled events, but I am living proof that you can enjoy them w/o anything except what the Good Lord gave you! We stay in fishcamp 20 miles below Allakaket during the summer (I've got to post a pic of us cutting for Alice to check out). Beautiful place. We do some trapping in the winter. This is how my late father made his living and I tell you it is a wonderful feeling to stay near where he lived and to wake up at 7am and see the sun and smoke rising out of our tent. I love it. Last February Harold stayed up and kept the fire going (it gets cold) and then I get up at 6 and make breakfast and read a book that I had to do a report on. Yes, I take course materials on every trip if I have to.

One on One Reflection

One on One Reflection
I am a visual learner, so at times I struggle with lengthy directions. However, the instructions for 329 are pretty straightforward and that is encouraging to me, because I am in a place where we don’t have too many computer techs. My children all know this “iphoto” MP4 stuff, so I’ve gotten some information from them. If it is okay with the people that made this One to One dvd I would like our principal to see it.
I enjoyed this video. Aside from someone coming in and setting up the equipment (whiteboard for distance ed) I think any school can do this. Our problem would be; the students here are not very respectful of others as they should be (we have a meeting with our son’s teachers today) and my worry would be inappropriate use and talking back if asked to go back to assignment. I guess we would have to get the discipline aspect down first. How nice it would be if my son could write out his research paper and have access to resources and cite those references accurately. If we could get our students to choose a favorite topic and using what they could find on the internet write a paper and email it to the teacher. The students all have been posting pictures and info on myspace or myfamily and who knows where for a while now, but it would be great if they could extend that learning to making movies or documentaries about our culture or stories from elders or even seasonal activities, not only would they be learning new technology that will instantly upgrade resumes but they will be perpetuating our traditional beliefs and lifestyle. How nice it would be if students, while doing a course assignment, find that they are really interested in the field of Journalism or the movie industry. I know for myself I would never go back to writing papers by long hand. Before I do a paper I still write out all of the points I want to cover and make a t-sheet, which we learned in Creed/Andrews classes, which is to put down facts on one side and then my own thoughts or ideas on the other. I have found that this cuts my writing in half. It would be great if our students could do these applications on a daily basis. All of these “simple” computer tools would enhance writing skills and possibly even make writing a fun activity. Our rural schools would benefit from technology courses and I can see where they would boost the reading/writing levels of middle or highschool students.

Social Studies Game

I really like Houghton Mifflin stuff. I always go to their site. This looks like an interesting game kids might like. Great graphics.

Software Title: GeoNet Game
Grade: 4 and up
Subject: Social Studies
Platform: Both

This might be one I would do with my grandson, Jake. We struggled with a social studies assign last spring. He had to identify areas in the Mideast (Iraq, Iran, Afganistan,..) and label what ethnic group lived there. This would work if I found that area and sat with him.

Shepard Software

This is not for anyone under maybe 6th grade (I'm making an educated guess.) But I am a geography nut every since Van Ness use to let us play "Map Game" back in the dark ages, where we had two teams and 2 students faced away from the map (local, national, then finally world)and were given a town to find. Whoever found it in the 2 min allowed then their team would get a point. I loved it. Then we moved on to states and capitals. To this day I can say all of them in order in 3min but try for 1 and a half min. Except for Montana, is it Billings?

Software Title: Geography Quiz
Grade: 6 to 12
Subject: Geography
Platform: Both

This may not be appropriate for youngsters after all. Just because I had a blast doing the quiz (like trivia) doesn't mean that students might go into one of the other links on this site. I would sit with students when they did this, if I allow them to use it at all.

Math Games

I don't know why I'm scared to do assignments on the computer, I had a good time finding math games kids would like and also learn from. This is easy to find, it is posting them that threw me off, of course. I hope I didn't crash my work computer, when I left work today the computer had frozen and couldn't even turn off. I think I think some of this info could have helped me when I took my math classes, especially in math 105.

Software Title: Coolmath.com
Grade/Age: K-Highschool and up
Subject: Math
Platform: Both
Here is a site that parents or teachers can easily access (free) and after finding a game suitable for the age, the child can sit and play addition/subtraction games or do jigsaw puzzles and learn the name of the shapes while filling in the pieces.

Hello everyone!

If you got this, Mr. Skip, I am officially in the technological age. Whew! I am Jessie Bergman David of Allakaket. I have "met" a few of the classmates in different classes. I have 5 grown children and # 4 grandchildren. I am Koyukon Athabascan. Nice to meet all of you. Jessie David