Website

Here is my 4th grade website. I updated "Meet Ms. Cox" page for this assignment.

http://web.sedalia.k12.mo.us/sky/CoxD/index.htm

CSS?

 CSS?

Dawn Cox

 

 What is a CSS? 

That was my question before beginning this assignment.  CSS is Cascading Style Sheets.  These were developeed in response to the high number of html tags being created by internet explorer and netscape.  These don't seem to be very popular yet but they are catching on.  I loved the examples that were provided.  They were very creative and seemed to really enhance the graphics on the page.  CSS allows you to control the style and layout of multiple webpages at a time.  The style shee can be like a partner I read to your HTML code.  It will take care of the asthetics like layout, font, colors and overall look.  This reminded me of the slide master function in powerpoint.

 

Who developed CSS?

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).  They came up with CSS after constantly make HTML files that were so huge because you were constantly typing in the same tags.   

 

Why use CSS? 

You should use CSS to save time, have consistency throughout your webpage, you will have to type less codes, and updating the designs are faster making it more efficient to utilize.  A well authored CSS can even ensure the ability of your webpage to be downloaded to PDAs and other portable devices that are becoming more and more common. Your download time for your pages can be up to fifty percent faster because there is less codes. 

 

Relationship between ADA and CSS?

CSS is definately trying to bridge a relationship between it and ADA.  CSS uses three different types of media that are created to adhear to ADA. They are Aural, Braile, and Emboss. 

 

Three examples

I did not use CSS in my webpage design.  I do know that is a possibility but I wasn't aware of it prior to this research.  If I were to use it I would use it in the following areas:

a.  I would use it to make all my webpages backgrounds consistent.

b.  I would also use it to change my website layout maybe with the seasons.  I have always wanted to have a website that changed frequently with seasons or even holidays but never found the time to change each page to incorporate all of the changes that would hav to be made.  Now with CSS I can simply change the style and it will change all the pages!

c.    I would use CSS to set the maximum size of a picture.  I hate editing the picture to get it the right size on the page. 

 

Disadvantages? 

 The only disadvantages of CSS were that some old versions of browser may not know how to render parts of CSS but I only found this by chance and not sure how much stock to put into it.   

Other...

 

I loved the CSS zengarden.  The style sheets were so eye catching.  It made me want to enhance my own website or begin my web design for next school year already. 

 

 

Camtasia tutorial

My Website

Here is my website link

http://web.sedalia.k12.mo.us/sky/CoxD/index.htm

Podcast: Are you ready for Map? (2)

Here is my 2nd attempt to post a podcast to my blog!

Powered by Podbean.com

copyright_coxd

Copyright

Dawn S Cox

February 23, 2009

 

    Copyright gives the owner the sole rights of anything that they write to do with as they choose.  For example it could be to distribute it, copy it, perform it, display it and modify it.   The author of the work is the owner and in essence owns that document.  The copyright protects your document for you.  The following works are protected by copyright:  literal, musical and dramatic works, pantomimes and choreographic works, pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works, motion pictures and other audiovisual works, sound recordings and architectural works.  So whether you write a song or draw up plans for a building copyright protects this document from being reproduced, duplicated, or changed by anyone else.   There are some things that are not covered under copyright.  For example:  names, titles, calendars, improvised speeches, listing of ingredients, etc.   Copyright begins when the work is created and lasts for 70 years after the author is deceased.  After researching this I now know that copyright begins immediately and continues even after the original author dies. 

    Fair use is defined in section 107 which was created after multiple copyright court decisions over the years.  There are four factors to consider(1): 

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

2. the nature of the copyrighted work;

3. amount and substantial of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

These four factors are considered under the fair use law.  These allow news reporters, teaching, scholarship and research, individuals to criticize and comment to use works legally under the fair use copyright law. 

    Creative commons allows a non-profit organization the right to publish creative works and allow others to build upon those.  This is like a massive public domain in which copyright is not an issue.  For example "flickr" is an example of creative commons.  This was first tested in 2006.   Contained within the creative commons licenses are four major permissions. (2)

• Attribution (by) requires users to attribute a work's original author. All Creative Commons licenses contain this option, but some now-deprecated licenses did not contain this component.
• Authors can either not restrict modification, or use Share-alike (SA), which is a copyleft requirement that requires that any derived works be licensed under the same license, or No derivatives (ND), which requires that the work not be modified..
• Non-commercial (NC) requires that the work not be used for commercial purposes.

    In my daily work I use the fair use copyright law.  I constantly use textbooks and other information to share knowledge with my students.   When teaching copyright I have used the following website http://www.cyberbee.com/cb_copyright.swf.  This website is very similar to the one we have in our class notes on blackboard.

 

1. US Copyright Office. retrieved on February 22, 2009 from the :  http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html

2. Wikipedia.  retrieved on February 22, 2009 from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons

 

 

delicious_coxd

Delicious

Dawn Cox

ED Prod Dev

    I really like delicious for use in the classroom.  I have had this linked directly to my website in the past so that my students can easily get to links that i want them to use.  This has increased learning time by having the information right at the fingertips which also eliminates the students going to websites they should not be at. 

I like this social bookmarking site because I am forever saving websites at work and then I always want them when I am at home working on different programs.  I previously would have to wait til Monday to get back to my computer and be able to find the websites I bookmarked. 

I also enjoy the fact that these bookmarks can be shared with others on the web and I can get to other people's delicious accounts easily to see if there are websites on there that I want to use.

     I really like the tagging feature in delicious.  You can tag or give a nickname to each site that you have bookmarked.  You can give each page a tag or multiple tags to organize it how you see fit.  Often you can put different tags on a site to organize it so you can get to it and remember it easily.  There is no hierarchy when using tags. You can even create a tag bundle which links other tags together.  For example if you have saved many different sweet recipe sites you can link each of them in one tag bundle by calling them sweet recipes then all your tags for sweet recipes will be linked. 

    A subscription is when you go to the subscription page and enter in a key word that you want to watch.  For example you could enter Technology teacher and then it will look for bookmarks saved with a tag like this and it will send it to you.  You must add a subscription to get started.  The subscription feature allows you to follow different tags by creating a subscription and then the system does it for you. 

    The numbers to the right of your bookmarks are the number of individuals that also have this website.  This lets you know if this is a very popular site or not.  I enjoyed looking at all my bookmark numbers.  I had one site that only nine other people had and then I had another website that had over thirteen hundred people that had bookmarked this site. 

 

accessed on February 16, 2009  http://delicious.com/help/faq  

 

accessed on February 16, 2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del.icio.us

    

WEB 2.0

Dawn S Cox

Adv. Prod of Ed

WEB 2.0

    Web 2.0 is a collection of a variety of applications that are available  such as social networking links, wikis, blogs, and video sharing sites.  The Web 2.0 is aimed at Generation Y.  It tends to cater to them giving them a quick access through a platform that is eye pleasing and effective.  There is so much information, you will need days to go through just a fraction of them.

    I took a look at ginipic.  This is a a desktop application that came from the Israeli-based Ginipic.  It enables you to search multiple search engines, photo sharing sites and use the pictures by dragging and dropping them into your documents or applications via the web.   Ginipic allows you to search photos from the best on the web.  Once you have found the photo that you want you can either post the url into a social networking site, or download it to your computer.  My daughter plays with photos all the time and she loved this application.  In my classroom we are constantly looking for pictures on the web.  Now I have a website to use that gives an abundance of photos to choose from.  http://www.ginipic.com/

    The next program that I looked at was PhotoPeach.  If you are looking at ways to make an amazing slide show this is the program for you.  First you decide where you want to upload the pictures from, for example facebook, flickr, youtube etc.  Then one click and all the pictures are there ready to go.  Next you can add music to it via searching on youtube.  Then just click save and your slide show is ready to go with music added to it and pictures.  You can then share your slide show with friends and loved ones.  I could use this in my classroom when we do slideshows.  Students could create a presentation about their famous Missourian complete with photos and music and it could be linked online for others to see.  http://photopeach.com/

    The final application i looked at was family-mingle.  This is a social networking site in which you upload people from your family tree.  It starts with your immediate family and then others after being invited will join and it will grow and grow and grow.  You can post messages to other family members, schedule family events such as reunions and so much more.  I liked this web page because most of my family has computer/internet access and what a way to try to get in contact with some of the family members that I only get to see once a year or every few years.  In my classroom I think I can use this to help students create family trees to share with their parents and maybe help get a family tree started for them to have for years to come. http://www.family-mingle.com/Main/Mingle/index.php

    What is web 3.0?  Web 3.0 is a not exactly defined as yet.  It appears that it will be an enhancement or spoof off web 2.0.  It will be more enhanced. 

RSS-Which is better

Before I began this assignment I had no idea what a RSS was.  RSS to me is a way to look at multiple websites in a flash.  You can check out blogs, news sites, and many others quickly with a simple glance.  I love it.  I had no idea that all my favorite websites could be linked to one site and I would be able to look at them all at once.  

 

Initially I choose google and spent a lot of time setting it up and watching the sites.  I choose google because I already have an account with them and love google.  I found this to be very simple and easy to begin and link up.  I found all our classmates and linked them to my site so that I could track their blogs.  I then added some additional blogs that I track like Theedublogger which is a website that constantly comes up with resources you can use to enhance documents and technology in your classroom.  I also added Talking Smart boards and much more.  I have a smart board in my classroom so I use this quite a bit to get new ideas to use with my students.  

 

I tried to download RSSOwl to no avail, not sure why or what I did.  I then discovered that I could download newsgator which is a program through my outlook.  I did this and easily got some sites hooked up.  I was not real thrilled with this one initially.  I then worked with it a little more and discovered that it was very similar to my email.  It was set up like email with email folders and did resemble the google reader in that it told me how many new feeds i had under each topic.  I like this because I can just look at the most recent that I have not yet checked out.  I also discovered that you do not have to be online to check out this reader.  I did like this function although I am always online so I will use the google reader much more.  

 

I think that I will use my RSS reader with my fellow teachers more than my students.  I will be able to find new ideas and share them with others in my grade level.   I can also have them see my RSS if they have a google account.  This is probably how I will use this in the classroom.  I will use the ideas that I get from the websites to share with my students.   

 

I looked at blogs that seemed to update regularly when picking what sites to watch.  I choose blogs that I knew had updated within the last month and some are even weekly. 

 

Fili, (2008).  Word Press. Retrieved February 1, 2009 from http://www.filination.com/tech/2008/02/27/the-ultimate-free-rss-reader-review-on-line-and-off-line-integrated-with-feeddemon-and-newsgator/

 

Good, R. (2008).  Best Blog Directory and RSS Submission Sites.  Retrieved February 1, 2009 from http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/. 

 

 

 

long week

This week feels like the longest one of my life. I have started yet another emints class and have assignments due in there. I am still playing with the readers and I really like the google reader but can not get a good grasp on the downloaded one and get it working in a way that I feel beneficial. I will continue to work on that though. I have submitted my word reference but i am still working on the master slide in power point. I never knew about this feature. I really like it! I am a bit overwhelmed with the assignments I feel as though we have dived into the deep in and i am barely treading water and scared of the rest of the semester!

Week 2

Wow I was on vacation for more then 3/4 of this week so i am shooting for the deadline now. I did get my google reader up and going and I like it. Now i tried downloading my owl reader but haven't got that going as easily as the other. I am still learning through this.

I enjoyed vacation but i am ready to get back in to the swing of things. I also have to print out instructions and make sure i am responding to all the assignments. I have to say I am a bit overwhelmed.

Hello, my name is Dawn and I currently teach fourth grade in Sedalia, MO. I have an emints classroom and I love it. I am really looking forward to this class and how I can apply what I learn to my classroom. I want to use the computers more than I do now. I currently have one computer for every two students.

I am a single mom raising three teenagers! Wow it is crazy but lucky for me they are really great kids! My oldest Jessica is 16, Ashley is 14 and Johnny is almost 12. They definitely keep me going and I love being in the stands cheering them on at all sporting events.

I read so many fourth grade books that it is hard to find the time to read an adult book but by far my favorite book was TWILIGHT!!! If you haven't read it and don't understand the hype I promise it will be well worth the time to read the series. The second book was a little rough for me to get through but the other three went so fast! Here is the website for the author:
http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/. The movie was OK but the books had me riveted to my seat wanting more constantly. I am also very impressed with Mrs. Meyers ability to write such great novels in her spare time as a house wife and mother.