Natural Disasters

             Living in central Oregon, we are always at risk of several natural disasters especially volcanoes and earthquakes. Being a teacher it is important for students to understand what these natural disasters are, the scientific processes behind them, and how it can affect the local area and the world. The first step is getting students to understand what these disasters are. Driving around our area there are several old volcanoes within a 30 mile radius, plus when you head to the Bend Oregon area there are several volcanoes there including Bachelor, Sisters, and an old cinder cone just outside of town. There are several links that students can explore to learn more about how volcanoes and earthquakes work. One site for volcanoes is by discovery located at http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/pompeii/interactive/interactive.html that teaches students how volcanoes work, where volcanoes are, the types of volcanoes, and then has them create their own. Weather WizKids also has information and other links to help students understand located at http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-volcano.htm. Earthquakes are a second big disaster that could happen in our area. Websites that can help students understand this can be found at Weather WizKids at http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-earthquake.htm and information on vocabulary associated with earthquakes can be found at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/animations/.

Students should be aware of these natural disasters around the world. One website is found at Earth Observatory Natural Disasters, http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/. This shows current natural disasters happening around the world. Students can study the effect of these disasters, and I would have my students focus more on earthquakes and volcanoes. Students can learn how each of these disasters affects the people and the environment. I would let students pick a specific event and have students present their findings to the class.

Once students understand what these natural disasters are and how it has affected other places around the world I would have students brainstorm how a natural disaster could affect us locally. This would then lead to safety plans that students can teach their families at home and what they would need to be prepared. To contribute to our community I would have my students take their new knowledge to other classrooms in our school and teach other students about these natural disasters and what we can do to be prepared for one and how to stay safe.

Evaluating Web 2.0 Presentation Tools

This week I reviewed two different presentation tools to use for my course project. I picked these two based on what I had heard from a colleague and what caught my attention when researching using the internet. The first presentation tool I went to was PreZentit which can be found at prezentit.com. I watched some example videos and found the final project to be engaging and fun to watch. This tool is free and can be assessed anywhere with Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 1.5+, and Camino 1.5+. It has a storage space of 250MB and no limit to the size or duration of the presentation. Presentations are always available online for viewing or editing so it is easy to collaborate with a colleague from anywhere. When collaborating with a colleague it is possible to edit slides online and with other simultaneously. The downfall to this tool is there is currently no user guide. I tried to create a couple of slides and found it difficult without directions.

The second tool I looked at was Prezi located at prezi.com. This program is supported by Internet Explorer 7 or higher, Google Chrome, Firefox 3 or higher, and Safari 3 or higher amd is free to public level users. However, if you are an educator with an educator e-mail address can get the next step up for free. This provides core features, larger storage space, prezis can be public or private and there is premium support in less than 24 hours. Collaboration is easy whether it is across the room or across the country. It provides videos for every stage of development and even has a written manual. This tool allows the creator to insert images, videos, YouTube videos, PDFs, and other kinds of media. In order for this program to work properly on your computer you will need Adobe Flash Player 10 or higher installed, minimum 1GB memory, and a scroll mouse or touchpad.

After viewing the final projects completed by both programs I have decided to use Prezi. This tool provides videos and tutorials to help me create an amazing project that I can incorporate videos and other media into. I am excited to see the final project this tool helps me create.