Wikis, Blogs & Web Publishing

Final Presentation

by

Daniel J. Markowski

My journey through this course began with a great frustration of

“how am I going to get the ACT 48 hours I need to meet my 180 hour

requirement by June?”

However, as the month progressed, and I made myself

more familiar with what was expected, I found the coursework

more and more exciting!

The Wonderful World of

Wikis! As with any great “cast”, collaboration is key.That is why my first project of creating a “wiki”

was developed out of the need for good communication among my fellow staff members.

With all of our unexpected snowdays this winter, we had to make up

school time by turning ½ days,normally scheduled for faculty meetings,

into full days of class.

Which led me to create a Faculty Wikispacethat turned out to be a great way to

distribute information to my staff, as well asa way to “sharpen” their technology skills!

http://sgsdragons.wikispaces.com

Creating this wiki led to an awesome sharing of ideas while letting my

staff feel as if they had instant input into school issues and concerns

without havingto leave their own classrooms!

Convenience right at their fingertips!

The Wonderful Thing

About TiggeRRS…My second project…the RSS Feed…was a greatway of gathering my favorite information aboutthings that were of interest to me without having

to search the internet for individual topics and sites. I used iGoogle, and was EXTREMELY

impressed at how easy it was to collect information in one location!

After deciding to book my family’s first trip to Disney World, “all things Disney” became my focus

for the next project…the blog!

Who’s the Leader of the BlogThat’s Made for You and Me?

As a young child, I was always fascinated by anything that had

to do with Disney. That fascination carried on through my adulthood, and now as a father of three sons, I cannot wait to share

that interest with them as we prepare for our first family visit to

Disney World!

From the dream of planning our family trip came the creation

of “All Things Disney”…a blog which allows visitors and friends of Disney

World, both past and future, to share ideas on any of the following topics:

Best Travel Times * Accommodations * Food Leisure Activities * Traveling with Kids

and in general…How to get the MOST out of your vacation!

http://disneydaddan.blogspot.com

Not only did this blog assist with making the most out of the

planning process of our trip, but it provided great insight into other

Disney fans experiences!

From Animation to “Animoto”For my fourth and final project, I went back to

a school focus and created a short video using“Animoto” for my graduating 8th grade class.

Not only did the class love the video, (even though it was only 30

seconds), but they’ve asked to purchase a larger version so they could create a longer video to be shown at their Graduation Dinner

in June!I was even able to post the short video to my Facebook account to

share with friends!

Now It’s Time To Say GoodbyeTo All Our Company…

This class has been very enjoyable for me. I began this journey in search of ACT 48 credits and found myself enjoying the

projects more and more. The use of Moodle and the on-line community was not only helpful and easy to navigate, but it was convenient for students such as myself

who find it difficult to set aside time for an “in-class course”. The assignments allowed me to venture out into areas of technology I was not familiar with and not only educate myself, but the faculty and students in my

school as well! THANK YOU Rich!