Content Exploration: Fly Pens

I gave Fly pens a test drive, and I must say it took awhile for me to to adapt to the application. I am not going to advocate it as the second coming of the wheel, but it is a rather interesting tool that can help students immensely through the complex workings of a pen. Since I plan on teaching Language Arts, I explored the writing program for Fly Fusion Pens. The Pentop computer and learning pad allows for the students to write on the pad, while the program can check their spelling and enhance their writing skills, as they write on the pad.

Fly pens can enhance writing skills, and the student can practically interact with the student. Other than tutorial's, I searched and searched for a video of a student using the Fly Pen. No luck for writing, but here is an extensive review of Fly Pens. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2171883,00.asp

I was impressed with the review, I wish I could have taped myself sadly attempting to use the Fly Pens in the TTL.....

In this tutorial, this guy somewhat tends to gab. However, he does the best job at explaining how to use Fly Pens, through writing from the videos of what I saw. He claims Fly Pens can be useful to all different types of learners, but I would suggest higher level elementary students to middle school students. Fly Pens can be difficult to adjust to, but in the long run they can be very beneficial to students' writing development.

Tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jURmyWItSvc&feature=fvw

I would consider this primarily a tutorial because it mostly serves for the practice portion of a tutorial. But, it also presents some new information to them, such as the spelling of words and just acquiring new vocabulary words.

Prezi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1J4H2UzFZ0



Okay, so Movie Maker is just not for you, and you are going to keep chugging along that dirt beaten path of your dreadful Power Points. Do you hear that? It is the sound of your students falling asleep, once again. But, Prezi is here to wake them up! Prezi is the newly advanced version of Power Point. Itise much more difficult to tackle than Power Point, but you owe it to your students to try something new. Prezi enhances the visual concepts of a topic, and allows you to transition from different topics from one gigantic canvas. If you want to switch up the tedious note taking about a class novel or any other topic, I highly suggest presenting this tool to your students. It enhances the lesson with its highly innovative visual displays, while effectively presenting material to the classroom.

Windows Movie Maker

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9rRh7z5TCs

Are you tired of using the dull chalkboard or dry erase board? Are your students bored of your traditional and predictive PowerPoint presentations? Well then, I know a great solution to solve these issues, try Windows Movie Maker! Now I will be honest, this is not a simple tool to use. However, it can prove worthwhile and will definitely enhance your lesson that day. It is a great way to introduce a short story or a new concept in English, such as dull grammar rules. The students will be drawn to the technology from Movie Maker, and it materializes into an effective learning tool. Just like Rome was not built in a day, mastering Movie Maker will not take an hour, but if you watch that tutorial, it is worth it to liven up your classroom!

iGoogle

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3Tl3Ch51QU
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONkiX8mBGLU&feature=related

iGoogle is the more organized version of delicious accounts, which allows you to access information right at your fingertips. You can post sidebars and certain subtexts into your iGoogle page, and access the information from the site. This tool allows you to personalize the site, and post links that are most useful to you in every day teaching. If there is a site you use daily, it is a wise decision to post a link into your iGoogle page. I highly recommend using this tool for lesson plans and any other teaching site you use daily. Unlike delicious, this tool is slightly more efficient, and I like to label it the on the go tool to use before school. It is a great way to start your day by checking your personalized iGoogle page, rather than wasting time browsing those sites for information.

Delicious Accounts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGkXrOTEZmw

Do you ever have the problem of not being able to locate a useful video or site? Everybody has this problem, and this is where delicious accounts can solve this everlasting issue. Delicious accounts are an online bookmarking tool, which allows you to save certain links or sites that you find useful, or just want to save for future references. These sites can be copied and pasted into your account, and once you click save, they are forever standing in that account. This definitely saves time instead of searching for minutes to hours for online videos. There are a lot of useless sites out there, and this tool allows you to efficiently slice through those sites, and direct you to your desired destination!

RSS Feeds

RSS Feeds



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU



RSS feeds can prove very useful to anybody searching for content on the web, but especially teachers. There is only so much time in a day, and teachers need to be efficient when using their time wisely. RSS feeds allow teachers to no longer search for new content on a specific website. The newly uploaded content can be brought to you, as long as you subscribe to an available RSS feed link on the site. Secondary English teachers already have their hands tied with grading essays and so forth, so these feeds saves you time for searching for lesson plan ideas. RSS feeds are one of the most efficient tools in the technology world, and I highly recommend them to any teacher looking to save time!