E-porfolio: wordpress.com vs. wix.com

The survival of the fittest has begun! In trying to get my e-portfolio up and running, I have entered the arena with www.wordpress.com and www.wix.com I first started out using wordpress. I got all of my artifacts and rationales uploaded, but I was at a loss of how to make it cute.... In my experience, www.wordpress.com is more technical. I then turned to www.wix.com to check out the competition. I really liked what www.wix.com had to offer. I like the look and the layout is much more user friendly. When creating a wix website, everything you need to create is on the same window. Once I figured out the mini-pages, it was a cinch. Is my e-portfolio all cute and stuff? No, not yet. I still need to play around. But, it is a work in progress. I do believe that www.wix.com will be the survivor in this dual!

Wordpress.com and E-Portfolio

Examples of e-portfolios:
dixie.edu -- education --resources--e-portfolio examples

• When using wordpress.com, remember your signin name needs to be simple, it becomes part of your URL address.
• Hyperlinks will embed the documents right into your blog. You only will have one post, with different pages for each artifact.
• wordpress is password protected, so not everyone will see your resume etc.
• www.candruswebquest.wordpress.com/ - this website is a step by step guide on how to create an e-portfolio on wordpress.com
• If you want to change your URL address, you will need to create a new post. That is fine, just don't use the old one. But, beware that you will need to create the post from scratch.
• You can import templates from other sites
• E-portfolio -- this is the POST, then you will adding pages
• Delete the option to leave a comment!!!

Photosharing

Websites that help you to store your pictures. The following are some sites which you can store your photos. You can make the photos private, public to all or just give out the address to certain people. It is usually free, however you need to create an account to upload pictures.

• http://www.flickr.com/
• http://www.photobucket.com/
• http://www.webshot.com/
• http://www.picasa.com/
• http://www.walgreens.com/
• http://www.slide.com/

Picasa and flickr both allow you to stream in your latest photos into your blog, using one of their gadgets. Good thing to remember when I set up my classroom blog!

Photobucket.com -- you can upload quotes and have them directly on your photo, get lyrics, change backgrounds. No copyright on the music -- you can just download. You can upload your photos directly onto facebook. Can do themes of your page. Can create slideshows Online scrapbooking.

Flickr.com -- need a yahoo account. Creative commons has tons of pictures you can use for educational purposes.

Slide.com -- you can create a slide show and post it on your blog.

These are public domain, so share away!

Bookmarking

A couple of different bookmarking sites:

• www.delicious.com
• www.flickr.com

I have set up my own account at www.delicious.com.

I am loving bookmarks! It makes life so much easier -- this way I can access all the sites I need to, even if I am not on my own personal lap top. Very functional. Very helpful.

Podcasting For Teachers

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Podcasting For Teachers

View more presentations from William Breitsprecher.

Podcast

WARNING!!!!! Podcasts can be VERY addicting! One of the most addicting aspects of podcasts is that they are FREE! Love free stuff!

• What is a Podcast? A mix between an iPod and a broadcast.
• Can be downloaded as audio or with video (Vodcast)
• Each time you synchronize your iPod, you can put the settings to automatically download the latest version of your Podcast

Instructions to downloading a Podcast in iTunes:

1. Connect to iTunes store
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the iTunes Store page
3. Select 'podcast'
4. 'Podcast Quick Links' is located to the right of the page. You can select audio, video, new releases, the iTunes picks, staff favorites etc.
5. Subject matter for podcasts include: fitness, religious, language learning, news, financial, parenting to name just a few.
6. Each podcast can last from a couple minutes to more than 1 hour, depending on what you select.
7. Once you have selected a podcast, you can read about it, then listen to a snip-it before you choose to subscribe to the podcast

Educational podcasts via iTunes:

• Poem of the day
• Children's Story Time
• Science show for Kids: 5 min. audio of science questions being answered
• ESL Teacher Talk - activities, games, insights
• Teacher's Lounge: teaching challenges addressed
• Bookwink: get kids excited about reading a new book
• Sixty Second Science: entertaining thoughts and provoking science exposed

Other sites for downloading podcasts:

• teacherspodcast.org: news, views, research and resources -- fun ways to incorporate technology into the classroom
• nationalgeopraphic.com/podcast: wild animal chronicles
• sonibyte.com: audio recordings of poems of the day
• epnweb.org: The Education Podcast Network - this has it all -- teaches you how to teach with podcasts, different subjects etc.
• podcastforteachers.com: adventures in transformative learning
• podcastsforlearning.org

It really is limitless.... see what I mean about it being addicting?

Understanding Learning Disabilities

Understanding Learning Disabilities has been one of my passions from the time I was very young. Little did I know then that I would give birth to someone with a learning disability and have to endure the stigma, lack of understanding and judgements that inevitably come your way.

I was introduced to Rick Lavoie several years ago, when my daughter was young. However, I have just recently investigated more on what Rick Lavoie does to help educate others about learning disabilities. Check out his website at www.ricklevoie.com. I have posted on my blog his RSS feed as well, entitled "Tales from the Road". One day, I want to do what he does.

Above, I have inserted some of his work. Many of the books and DVDs are available at your local library.

Have fun perusing!