Making Progress

I know people don't tend to keep up with each other's blogs after the 21 Things class ends, but I wanted to document my progress and share with anyone who might still be checking in how I'm doing.

I am teaching Digital Storytelling this trimester. So far I've had students load Audacity and Photo Story onto their school computers. I uploaded a video from YouTube to my school web page (I have a page for each class, actually). It is an old Muppets clip of two worms dancing. This is our "seed" idea.

We made puppets out of dryer hose, ladies trouser socks, craft trim, wiggly eyes and pipe cleaners. (Students were given free creative reign).

Then students found a song (preferably instrumental) to download. They took the song into Audacity to edit. I told them the piece should be no less than 1 minute long, and preferably not much more than 2 minutes. We then exported their edited music as an MP3 so that we can later use it in Movie Maker.

Students created storyboards (I'll include examples later) and practiced with their puppets and their music. I set up a puppet stage, which I had from past years because I have taught theater classes in our program.

We used my Flip camera to video tape their performances. These were then downloaded so that students could import them into Movie Maker and begin editing their programs.

Next week we will finish video taping, and will import their video and sound into Movie Maker, adding titles and credits. I will post their final versions on You Tube and have thought I might bring all of their productions into one Movie Maker video to post on You Tube and, of course, the school web site.

Check back next week to see how it went!

Using Web 2.0 in the Classroom

Create your own sms poll at Poll Everywhere

I really like using technology in the classroom, however there are a couple of things that slow me down. First is the learning curve. I am much better now at some things, but I have to try each thing and I always run across a few snags as I become fluent with a technique or technology.
Second, the school is resistant to some applications, partly because of funding, and partly because of old-fashioned ideas about what students should be allowed to do in the classroom.

How about you? Respond to the poll and let me know what challenges you!

Digital Storytelling

Today I found a really great site on Digital Storytelling. I'd like to share it with you. The link to a video on the site which explain's the author's use of digital storytelling follows: http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/intro/DS-intro.htm


The link to the site's main page is http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/


I will be teaching a digital storytelling class beginning after Thanksgiving and was looking for resources when I found this site. I think it is a wonderful resource. I hope you find it usefull, too.

Check out videos I've posted to You Tube at:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=1to1classroom&search_type=&aq=f

Next Trimester should be even more productive as we create things in my Digital Storytelling class!

Using 21things4teachers stuff in my classroom

I'd like to encourage anyone still following my blog to check out the blog I created for my CRT (Computer Related Technology) class. While much of the class focuses on mastering Microsoft Word and Keyboarding skills, this trimester I also introduced students to blogging, using google docs and a little bit of digital storytelling.

You can visit our class blog at: http://comedcrt.blogspot.com/

Let me know what you think!

Great Google Tutorials

www.googletutor.com has a lot of great tutorials for Google. I thought this one, intended to motivate college students to try document sharing, was pretty funny!

Pulling it all Together

I am now going through all of the things I learned and taking care of loose ends. It isn't just a matter of learning how to use different tools, but there is the issue of keeping up with them! How much time will I devote to keeping up with my blog, using Twitter, checking in on Facebook (which I haven't started yet), updating my school web page, following professional development opportunities on Discovery Learning, visiting Second Life (and trying to figure out how to get the video player at Ed Tech island to work), making podcasts, creating polls, using Delicious, keeping up with my wiki(s), adding to my Flickr account, and on and on and on?

Then there're my moodle accounts, and my personal accounts. It seems to me I have to be even more organized than ever! Otherwise, I may forget how to use some things, and, although I may not use every tool every day, I can foresee using all of these things in different ways in my classroom.

There is a lot of work to be done beforehand. I need to collect pics and data to create some of the things I want to share with my students. And there are things I won't use in class, like the cell phones, because at this time they are not practical, although I could see using them in a college class. I like the idea of having everyone respond to a poll question on their cell phones and getting practically instant results. And yes, they could use computers if they didn't have cell phones, but I think I need to lay a foundation first before I get to that point.

I am going to revamp my Computer Related Technology class which, up till now, has been pretty much keyboarding and making Word documents. I want to create a blog like this one and the 21Things one for that class and weave in things I learned in this course. I want my students to be able to handle all of these things, and as much as I hear about how my kids are Tech Natives, someone is missing the point that there are a lot of kids who may know how to use a cell phone and Facebook but who really aren't that tech savy. Some of my kids hate computers. Some of them have no access outside of school. You'd be suprised the things my kids don't know about technology, despite the popular wisdom. I want to fill in those gaps.