Blogged Out

To begin, I enjoyed the historical TV episode we viewed on Tuesday.  It was neat to see that with the minimal technology available at the time they were still able to make a film that was entertaining many decades later.  I surprised myself in that I enjoyed the film.  Usually old movies bore me because my eyes and ears tire of the lackluster effects, having been accustomed to high def, surround sound, etc.  The film exampled the rapid evolution of technology from then to now.

I also enjoyed the bad powerpoints.  So often key elements in technology are difficult to observe because of the seamless flow of technologies (ie. powerpoints) when they work and are created properly.  By turning run of the mill assignments (trying to make it the best you can) on their head and purposely doing things wrong, it was much easier to understand how and why those elements are considered incorrect.  I believe by highlighting these errors in a very visual way, I will be better able to remember them when I go next to create my own powerpoint.  I think the bullets and bombs are going to reverberate in my head for quite some time.

I like the idea of Wordle as I really love visually interesting things, which Wordle very quickly and simply creates.  I am struggling myself to think of  a way to incorporate this into my classroom, I think the kids will get it, but I don't know if it will really help to drive home any key concepts.  Might just be a fun little computer period though.  Open to ideas on working the wonderful Wordle into the classroom world.