I looked through many of the e-tools and found several that will come in very useful in the future. I found one that really caught my eye and that was EDpuzzle. This is a web based editing program for videos, here in the near future i want to be able to do something like this in you tube for our program and use it for a recruiting tool. Screencast and VoiceThread will be great stuff as well. With EDpuzzle we can run an engine or some other part of a machine and tell the viewers what we looking for and just how everything works. There are other programs out there in the e-tools that will help in so many ways, it's like the flood gates have been opened to our minds and the excitement is building as we go for a technology ride into the future. I hope everyone feels the same way i do and will use these wonderful tools.

As i reflect back over this class, all the information and new technology that has been presented to us, i am amazed at the opportunities we all have to learn and grow from all this. We have the opportunity to pass it on and use it or get in the way as the book says. I have found new friend and made new connections with old friends. We can all learn more form each other then we can all on our own. Collaboration is the key, the ability to communicate with others in like fields of expertise has been huge. Have a great week as we wined down in this class.  

I was playing around power point and did some of the editing of images and made a power point of some pictures i had taken from a bake packing trip a few years ago. i made this my opening page and did some cool stuff with transitioning and animation as well. I really wanted to work with power point because i use it quite a bit for my teaching, I hope everyone is having as much fun as i am. Good luck.

http://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/co1qfYfqAP

This was so fun and a big challenge for me because i am one of the old timers that it takes twice as long to do anything on a computer. But this screencast-o-matic is really cool stuff. My e-tool was VoiceThread which is very similar, i was able to play around with that and have some fun with it as well. I went with something that i would be able to use in my own teaching so i hope you like it and that it is informative to you. Thanks for all your patience.

The pros and cons of Twitter, twitter is so basic and easy to use to make quick comments and but sometimes i want to say more, so that is where linkedin comes into play. I have really enjoyed getting in contact with old friends and get updated, it has also been great for employment opportunities and to be able to get my name and face out there. Twitter limits you to 140 characters The opportunity to link with your group is fun and you are able to get feed back and learn new things from like minds and talents. This is what the book talks about in chapter 5 and collaboration. It talked about putting a group of kids together and ask them to build a skyscraper made of cardboard, with this the mind opens up and each will have there own idea as to how to build this skyscraper. When the group works together they can decide which way is the best and how their going to build their skyscraper. this is what needs to happen in all business, in all levels in order to accomplish the job. This has helped open my eyes to the possibilities that we have to get thing done and done better faster and safer.  

This week we have been doing our e-book paper, the topic that i have is VoiceThread. This has been one of the neatest new thing i have had the opportunity to learn about. I have taken the time to look at some of the slide shows, some were very basic and others very informative ranging from a 5th grade class talking about a black and white picture from the great depression era each student in the class was given a different picture and had to tell the story behind it. I also found a photographer who had several pictures of people and places and of different things, as he described the picture he put the emotion in as to why he took that picture. Much like an artist painting a picture would. As an instructor i couldn't help but think of ways i could use this in my own class. I also thought this could work great for both the developer and the learner. For one the student has to dig in and learn the information so much more in order to present the material this way as they develop their VoiceTread. Then two everyone who then looks at the VoiceTread gains more incite to that topic. This really has been fun to play with and learn from for myself.

As a hydraulic instructor you run into all kinds of different concerns as you work with students, the biggest one is that of safety. Today we had to put the loader bucket back on a machine, it's an attachment with quick couplers and you can remove a few pins and drive out from underneath it. Well like i said we were putting it back on today and it has been outside in the sun and the oil had heated up and expanded enough to put pressure on the lines. One of the students said i can fix that and pushed the ball in with his thumb spraying him and everyone around as well. It was one of those moment where i was just to say stop when he did it anyway. Hydraulic injections are so very dangerous and this was no different, nothing seemed to happen but that's not to say that it couldn't as well. We all have to be careful when working around pressurized hydraulic systems.   

Teaching a class

As an instructor one of the most rewarding things in my life is sharing some of my knowledge and experience to others and watching them sussed with those skills that they have been taught. This week in my Diesel class we have been going over engine rebuilding and the inspection of worn parts to determine there re usability. Today one of my students was fighting getting a bolt started in a housing, i went over to see if i could give him a hand and with in just a few minutes we had it started and going for him. His comment was "you seem to be able to always do that" i told him it's like taking a puzzle apart and putting it back together the more you do the more you recognize the way the shapes fit together and work together, the color the shapes it all is the same in both cases. It takes time and some times years of experience to get to that point, the most important is to keep working at it to get better. I love my job teaching.   

Trek in Wyoming

For the past 3 days my wife and I have been ma and pa with a group of 10 youth from our L.D.S. stake. We had 21 groups just like ours and we went to a place in the deserts of Wyoming called Martins cove. There we loaded hand carts with 5 gallon buckets filled with our belongings and treked 3 miles across the valley. We  camped like the pioneers that had crossed the plains to settle in the Salt lake valley. Nearly 500,000 people crossed through that area to settle the west in order to find religious freedom. All made it relatively safe accept the groups of the Martin and Willie hand cart companies of 1856. The groups were late getting started due to the lack of supplies, and didn't get started till early August. All was fine till October 19th when the parties were hit with an early winter snow storm putting down 10 to 18 inches. Just 2 days earlier the companies had burned all their extra clothing and blankets to lighten the loads so as to move faster over the last 250 miles in order to get to the Salt lake valley before winter really set in. The companies were none the less crippled as they tried to move on. Food was short and being rationed to 10 oz. of flour per person a day. As the day's went on the food was rationed more and more. 150 pioneers of the 1000 lost their lives due to starvation and the bitter cold temperatures. The Martin company held in a cove just past devils gate. This protected them from the elements until the rescue party could come from Salt Lake City.

We as a group started our trek cool and very cloudy. That 1st night it rained so hard and the wind blew tents over and we even had snow. It rained the 2nd day as we treked another 3 miles through the cove and back to camp. That evening the sun came out as we watched the kids play tug of war and other traditional games of the time. Then we talked over what we had learned and felt through this experience. I was so amazed at how everyone had felt. Each felt that this trip had made a lifelong impression on their lives. Each one there, like me realized we would have been one of those who had died on the trail. This would be such a great experience for anyone,  members of the church or not. If you want to see some great movies that depicts these events watch "17 miracles" and "Ephraim’s Rescue". I am so thankful I had this opportunity to walk the paths of the pioneers. To be able to feel and see the things the early settlers had gone through was so amazing to me. This increased my faith and my desire to always live my life closer to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thanks for letting me share this with you today.

Introduction

Hi everyone here is my new blogger page, i hope you are all having fun doing this. This is all new to me and i am a bit slow and nervous. i look forward to hearing from you throughout this class.

Thanks Gerald