For the past few weeks, I have been busy organizing things for the summer program at Hope's Home, the daycare I work at.  The program is for school-age children with exceptionalities and/or diverse medical needs and their siblings.  One type of activity that we will be doing a lot of is what's called sensory play.  

You know what's better than giving your students fun and engaging assignments that incorporate technology?  Giving your students fun and engaging assignments that incorporate technology that are already planned for you and ready to go!  Introducing  DS 106 - the coolest site for teachers to find ideas for multimedia projects on. 

This week I read an article entitled Why Twitter and Facebook Are Not Good Instructional Tools by an English and digital media teacher named Paul Barnwell.  In his article, Barnwell discusses how students do not use certain social networking sites, such as Twitter, to their full potential but, rather, they use them as a distraction from their school-work.  Barnwell also argues that certain web services, like Poll Everywhere and Prezi, do not offer any educational value because they allow students to use gimmicks, such as colourful graphics and fragmented text, to convey their ideas, and their novelty only lasts for a short amount of time. 

During my Facebook adventures today, I found this story about a group of students who used their skills to help out some very deserving community members. 

Before I was enrolled in my ECMP 355 class, I used Google for the basics - searching, (g)mailing, mapping, word documenting, and, without even knowing it was part of Google's empire, Youtubing.  Since enrolling in the class, however, I've learned a few other Gricks (that's Google + Tricks!) that are sure to help me personally and professionally.  

I'm still on cloud nine from what I accomplished at daycare today - I successfully brought two very diverse kids together.  It was near the end of the day when this break-through occurred; I only had two kids left in my care - one was a kid who uses a wheelchair and cannot speak and the other was a very outspoken kid who does not use a wheelchair.

Please have a listen to my first podcast, which discusses the (in)accessibility issues that surround people with disabilities.  

This week, I've been familiarizing myself with the art of podcasting.  Having worked in radio, 
I've developed an ear for audio that's been well-executed.  That being said, though, I'd never really listened to a podcast, per se, until a few days ago and I'm not really sure why that is. 

If you didn't happen to read my post from May 19th about the program Glogster EDU, well I forgive you.  But this post might make a little more sense if you do read it - and you can learn about a fun program where you can create multimedia posters, at the same time!

This week I have been checking out other blogs and websites to get some more ideas for my own and to learn about the different tools that other people are using.