Screenposting works

I finally got the time to try creating screencasts, and I am even more excited than ever about doing them. I'm using Microsoft's media encoder and going over class instructions on how to do different assignments. It's going to be great once I get all of the twenty or so I have planned because then the kids can not only read the directions but follow them and listen on the computer. I am currently building a webpage to post the links to each screecast on. I'll also post some examples of each assignment. I have discovered a few bugs: When I use PowerPoint I need to have the quality set up to high, and when I use Adobe products I have to turn the quality down to medium. I also need to remember not to have the mute button on. But these are minor problems.

K12 online conference

The K12 Online technology conference was just the thing to get me excited about doing technology again. It has been a very hard year with my students who truly will not try to do anything new and trying to put in a new curriculum in the 7th and 8th grade. I was also depressed that the curriculum was basically the same stuff from 10 years ago with updated software. I think that putting some of the Web 2.0 tools the conference talked about will make a difference; both to my students and myself. I was also excited to some free online programs that give me the tools to do things I would have to purchase major software to do. Now if I can figure out how to blend the old curriculum and the new tools, then I'll be ready to go.