What?
We are still working on our Digital Stories for class. We have been working on them for the last three weeks off and on. We are making our Digital Story about WWI and WWII. We have been asked by our cooperating teacher to teach on the two world wars during the time that we will be in her class. She is giving us 30 minutes a day for the whole three weeks to teach. I'm very excited!
So What?
I have watched several of the Digital Stories of people from my cohort and am amazed by the job that they have done. Just from watching them, I have learned a lot on the subject that they are teaching. The videos are very informative and I think that the students that they are teaching will enjoy them too. It is exciting to see what is out there to use to teach my future students as well. It's wonderful that we can share the projects that we are working on so that they can be used by us in our future classrooms. It is going to make me a better teacher to have these great resources so readily available. It will help the colleagues that I work with at the new school because they can also use them. I plan to share them with my sister in Idaho too that is an elementary school teacher.
Now What?
What does this mean for my students? It means that there will be more variety in the lessons because there is more for me to work with. It means that we get to watch and put together some pretty amazing things because of the new things that I am learning to use in this class. It means that I can better my colleagues by sharing what I have learned with them so that they can use it too. I am even teaching my family all about Photo Story and the great things that can be done with it. It's so easy to use that I plan on teaching my students how to use it too. It makes collaborating with my fellow teachers more productive because I will have ways to enhance the use of technology in our classrooms. It is really quite exciting to be part of the amazing world of technology. I wouldn't have thought a year ago that I could do all of the awesome things I know how to do now. I feel empowered!!!
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Digital Story 2 Copy Rights
What?
This week in class we learned about the Creative Commons. The Creative Commons are part of the infrastructure that enables collaboration in the digital medium. It's licensed resources are legally and technically interoperable on a global scale which enables teachers and learners everywhere to work together. We are learning this to make sure that when we are doing our digital stories we don't copy something that is copy righted and use it illegally.
So What?
What does this mean to me as a teacher? This means that I will need to always be very careful to only use information that is okay to use for educational purposes when creating lessons and digital information (Vidcast, digital stories, podcasts, etc.). I learned that there are certain guidelines that I must follow as a teacher, student, and colleague.
I also learned that there are sites that I can go to that help me to know what information is okay to use and what isn't. I know that I must get permission to use any photos that have watermarks on them. The watermark shows who legally owns the pictures. I think it's great that there is a place for educators to go to get lessons, info and other educational aids to use and share with other educators. It's amazing that we can share information with people from all around the world and even have that information translated into our own language. Creativity is key but no one said that we can't share with one another and work together to make things better or make things work for your needs. These things work well for me as a student, teacher and colleague. There is a lot of information and it's good to know that I can go to one place to find what I need.
Now What?
What does this information mean to my future students? It means that I can teach my students how to put projects together such as vidcasts, podcasts, etc. together legally without using anything that they can't use legally. It is a great way to teach them about honesty and plagiarism too. It's a great way to teach values and how to be a good citizen. I love that one is still able to be creative and use aids from others without it being illegal. I have always been worried about using things that I find on the internet because I wasn't sure if it was something that I could use legally. You can pretty much find anything on the internet nowadays so you have to be so careful.
This lesson was very helpful and interesting to me. I wasn't able to be in class for this lesson because I had a sick child, my cute Sidney. I am thankful for technology because I was able to see what we did in class and understand it even though I wasn't physically there. Thank you Google docs and thank you friends for sharing it with me! This information has helped me to understand the laws of copy rights and make sure that I know where to look when ever I am unsure of how the laws work.
This week in class we learned about the Creative Commons. The Creative Commons are part of the infrastructure that enables collaboration in the digital medium. It's licensed resources are legally and technically interoperable on a global scale which enables teachers and learners everywhere to work together. We are learning this to make sure that when we are doing our digital stories we don't copy something that is copy righted and use it illegally.
So What?
What does this mean to me as a teacher? This means that I will need to always be very careful to only use information that is okay to use for educational purposes when creating lessons and digital information (Vidcast, digital stories, podcasts, etc.). I learned that there are certain guidelines that I must follow as a teacher, student, and colleague.
I also learned that there are sites that I can go to that help me to know what information is okay to use and what isn't. I know that I must get permission to use any photos that have watermarks on them. The watermark shows who legally owns the pictures. I think it's great that there is a place for educators to go to get lessons, info and other educational aids to use and share with other educators. It's amazing that we can share information with people from all around the world and even have that information translated into our own language. Creativity is key but no one said that we can't share with one another and work together to make things better or make things work for your needs. These things work well for me as a student, teacher and colleague. There is a lot of information and it's good to know that I can go to one place to find what I need.
Now What?
What does this information mean to my future students? It means that I can teach my students how to put projects together such as vidcasts, podcasts, etc. together legally without using anything that they can't use legally. It is a great way to teach them about honesty and plagiarism too. It's a great way to teach values and how to be a good citizen. I love that one is still able to be creative and use aids from others without it being illegal. I have always been worried about using things that I find on the internet because I wasn't sure if it was something that I could use legally. You can pretty much find anything on the internet nowadays so you have to be so careful.
This lesson was very helpful and interesting to me. I wasn't able to be in class for this lesson because I had a sick child, my cute Sidney. I am thankful for technology because I was able to see what we did in class and understand it even though I wasn't physically there. Thank you Google docs and thank you friends for sharing it with me! This information has helped me to understand the laws of copy rights and make sure that I know where to look when ever I am unsure of how the laws work.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Digital Story 1
What?
We are learning about Digital Stories. We are performing several different tasks to prepare to make our Digital Stories. The end result of the tasks we perform will be a wonderful, insightful Digital Story on World War I. We (Sarah Jane and I) are planning to make a trailer like the one that Doc Waters showed us in class. We loved that idea!
So What?
We are learning about how music affects the mood of your story, how the pictures affect the mood and how the wording used also affects the story. It is important that you chose the type of music, pictures and wording to get the point across that you want to portray. Fast wording and switching of pictures shows urgency where slower wording and switching of pictures and movies gives a calmer feeling and can give a more dramatic affect.
We also learned about storyboards and how to use them in preparing a Digital Story. Storyboards are great because they give the general idea of what you want your Digital Story to be about. A storyboard can be written on a poster board, on butcher paper, post-its or pretty much anything. This is a great way to teach the students to prepare for writing a paper or outlining a project such as a vidcast or digital story. This is a great way to get ideas across to colleagues too when we are working on a project together or planning a lesson.
Now What?
This new knowledge changes a lot of things that I can do for and with my future students. It will allow us to make Digital Stories of the subjects that we are studying. It allows the students to be creative and to think out of the box. This changes the current schema of the way that I planned on teaching. Every time we have technology class, we learn new and better ways to use technology and it usually beats the awesomeness (if that's a real word) of the last thing we learned. I think Digital Stories will greatly enhance the quality of learning and teaching that will take place in my future classroom. I am really excited to get working more on Digital Stories and learning how to do them. I can see awesome ways to use them for my personal life, in the classes that I am currently taking and also in my future classroom! I think technology is an amazing thing that is making life a more creative, inspiring thing!
We are learning about Digital Stories. We are performing several different tasks to prepare to make our Digital Stories. The end result of the tasks we perform will be a wonderful, insightful Digital Story on World War I. We (Sarah Jane and I) are planning to make a trailer like the one that Doc Waters showed us in class. We loved that idea!
So What?
We are learning about how music affects the mood of your story, how the pictures affect the mood and how the wording used also affects the story. It is important that you chose the type of music, pictures and wording to get the point across that you want to portray. Fast wording and switching of pictures shows urgency where slower wording and switching of pictures and movies gives a calmer feeling and can give a more dramatic affect.
We also learned about storyboards and how to use them in preparing a Digital Story. Storyboards are great because they give the general idea of what you want your Digital Story to be about. A storyboard can be written on a poster board, on butcher paper, post-its or pretty much anything. This is a great way to teach the students to prepare for writing a paper or outlining a project such as a vidcast or digital story. This is a great way to get ideas across to colleagues too when we are working on a project together or planning a lesson.
Now What?
This new knowledge changes a lot of things that I can do for and with my future students. It will allow us to make Digital Stories of the subjects that we are studying. It allows the students to be creative and to think out of the box. This changes the current schema of the way that I planned on teaching. Every time we have technology class, we learn new and better ways to use technology and it usually beats the awesomeness (if that's a real word) of the last thing we learned. I think Digital Stories will greatly enhance the quality of learning and teaching that will take place in my future classroom. I am really excited to get working more on Digital Stories and learning how to do them. I can see awesome ways to use them for my personal life, in the classes that I am currently taking and also in my future classroom! I think technology is an amazing thing that is making life a more creative, inspiring thing!
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Vidcast Reflection
Vidcast Reflection
Julie Roberts
Shantel Bernabeu
The name of our Vidcast is The Animal Kingdom. The core curriculum used was Utah State 2nd Grade, Language Arts, Standard 3 Objective 1. The lesson plan is titled: Plant and Animal Communities. Our vidcast can be found at: The Animal Kingdom
The Animal Kingdom is a great topic to present to a 2nd grade classroom using a vidcast. We knew that teaching this subject of the animal kingdom, would need visual aides to build schema and would allow the students to see images from each animal classification. Using a vidcast is a great way to introduce a new topic and is also a visual and audible tool in teaching concepts and skills. After introducing the animal kingdom topic with a vidcast, students will have the basic knowledge to begin other learning activities on this subject. It is a great tool to use as an introduction to a new chapter or area of learning.
We created our vidcast in the Photo Story 3 program. This program is a free download and was very user friendly. We were able to find great pictures of different animal classifications to add to the photo story. Once we added and edited the photos, we added background music and recorded audio facts teaching the characteristics of each classification, to each slide. To provide text information for the viewer, we created two Powerpoint slides at the beginning and end of the vidcast.
Our vidcast follows the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS T) and Performance Indicators for Teachers. We used the standards in the following ways: 1-a. & d., 2-a & d, 3-a, c & d, 4-a & c, and 5-a, c & d. In creating our vidcast, we modeled collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with the students in the vidcast (a virtual environment). We also used several different sources to find the pictures, information, and we used Youtube to post our vidcast as well as posting it on our Resources/Tools page on our classroom website where it is available for our students, the parents and other teachers to view. We used the Utah State Core Curriculum on which to base our vidcast. The program that we used, Photo Story 3, is a great way to teach the students digital-age technology. It is a tool that they can use to create a report or project for assignments. This tool will allow them to transfer their current as well as new knowledge to new technologies and situations. When teaching our students how to use this form of technology and any other form, we will teach them the importance of always citing the sources used. We clearly stated where we found the information for our vidcast at the end of the vidcast, which promotes and models digital Citizenship and Responsibility. The information on our Animal Kingdom vidcast is easily understood by the 2nd grade students in a fun technological way.
Utah Professional Teachers Standards are based on INTASC standards. When creating our vidcast, we incorporated these standards:1-b & e, 2-b & c, 3-a & b, and 5-a & b. A vidcast is a teaching tool that engages all students and enhances their learning through visual aides, while using time effectively in the classroom. This vidcast was designed grade appropriately and aligned with Utah Core Curriculum standards. The information on the Animal Kingdom was given clearly and accurately, providing visual and audio for diverse learners. The vidcast was created to follow Utah’s educational laws and demonstrates ethical and moral conduct in providing learning material to a 2nd grade classroom.
Drawbacks to using this technology would be when teaching a curriculum that would be greater understood as an inquiry based lesson. Inquiry based lessons are lessons that are taught in a way so that the students are able to do things hands-on to better learn a concept. The vidcast is teaching the students about the Animal Kingdom but they are not able to interact with it in anyway.
Vidcast is a great digital tool to use when teaching a concept that is best taught using many pictures and audio. It works well for most subjects such as teaching math concepts, science, history, geography, and as we have done with our vidcast, language arts. It can be used in conjunction with hands on activities as well, by showing a vidcast and adding an additional hands on activity afterward. We plan to use this series in our future classrooms as a teaching tool as well as teaching our students how to use the tool so that they can also use it to create their own projects.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Vidcasts
What?
In class we learned about vidcasts. Vidcasts are videos posted online that are meant to teach or share something. We learned about four different tools to make vidcasts which are by using the Flip, making a PowerPoint, making a Photo Story and by using Jing. We have the following options to use to teach for the vidcast. There how-to do something, tutorials, public service announcements and intro to content.
So What?
What does this mean to me as a teacher, student and/or colleague? Learning how to make a vidcast is a great tool to use to teach my future students the concepts that we are learning through fun ways rather than just standing in front of the class and lecturing. The vidcasts can be put to music along with video to make the subject exciting. As a student, this helps me because I can use this tool for presentations in my other classes. I think that this is a new and exciting way to present any topic in education! As a colleague, we can share our vidcasts with each other and share our ideas with each other. I know that in my children's school the teachers take turns teaching certain subjects so it would be great to do vidcasts for it. Like everything that we learn in this class, this is another way to make our lives as teachers easier and to find ways to be more creative for our students. I loved learning about the different tools that are out there for our use. The Flip is amazing! It's very easy to use and easy to upload. PowerPoint is always a great tool to use for presentations. Photo Story is awesome and I can't wait to use it for our vidcast! There are so many things that we can use it for such as to teach a lesson, to tell a story and to explain something step by step too. Jing is still something that I need to investigate a bit more to understand. I liked what Doc Waters showed us.
Now What?
This technology means that my students will have access to information that I wouldn't have been able to give them had I not learned it in this class. They will be able to learn the subjects that we are working on in forms other than direct instruction. The vidcasts make learning and teaching much more fun. How does it change my current schema? It makes a ton of difference! It means that I get to be creative in my teaching. I can teach the students new concepts with pictures, video and music. I know that I learn visually and through music. I can use this to teach students that weren't able to come to school. They will be able to access the information on the web so that they don't get behind. This way their parents can help them too. The parents will also know what we are doing in school. I can't wait to work more on this assignment and show my kids. They are always to excited to see what I learn in Doc Waters class. They love to go to my other stuff online and play around on it. They'll love this one for sure!
In class we learned about vidcasts. Vidcasts are videos posted online that are meant to teach or share something. We learned about four different tools to make vidcasts which are by using the Flip, making a PowerPoint, making a Photo Story and by using Jing. We have the following options to use to teach for the vidcast. There how-to do something, tutorials, public service announcements and intro to content.
So What?
What does this mean to me as a teacher, student and/or colleague? Learning how to make a vidcast is a great tool to use to teach my future students the concepts that we are learning through fun ways rather than just standing in front of the class and lecturing. The vidcasts can be put to music along with video to make the subject exciting. As a student, this helps me because I can use this tool for presentations in my other classes. I think that this is a new and exciting way to present any topic in education! As a colleague, we can share our vidcasts with each other and share our ideas with each other. I know that in my children's school the teachers take turns teaching certain subjects so it would be great to do vidcasts for it. Like everything that we learn in this class, this is another way to make our lives as teachers easier and to find ways to be more creative for our students. I loved learning about the different tools that are out there for our use. The Flip is amazing! It's very easy to use and easy to upload. PowerPoint is always a great tool to use for presentations. Photo Story is awesome and I can't wait to use it for our vidcast! There are so many things that we can use it for such as to teach a lesson, to tell a story and to explain something step by step too. Jing is still something that I need to investigate a bit more to understand. I liked what Doc Waters showed us.
Now What?
This technology means that my students will have access to information that I wouldn't have been able to give them had I not learned it in this class. They will be able to learn the subjects that we are working on in forms other than direct instruction. The vidcasts make learning and teaching much more fun. How does it change my current schema? It makes a ton of difference! It means that I get to be creative in my teaching. I can teach the students new concepts with pictures, video and music. I know that I learn visually and through music. I can use this to teach students that weren't able to come to school. They will be able to access the information on the web so that they don't get behind. This way their parents can help them too. The parents will also know what we are doing in school. I can't wait to work more on this assignment and show my kids. They are always to excited to see what I learn in Doc Waters class. They love to go to my other stuff online and play around on it. They'll love this one for sure!
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