I like this option for presenting and sharing slide shows. I mentioned in a previous post that I was having some anxiety about our current web hosting options changing to a new server and software. I am not as familiar with this, so things will be slow going for me in August until I get the hang of it.
On my previous website, and using Front Page, I could publish any power point presentations easily. This allowed students to view a slide show as a station in a set of classroom activities, it provided students the chance to view notes from home if they had been absent, and would be available to students who might be studying at home in the evening if they could not put their hands on their classroom notes.
Having this option to upload power point slide shows will now allow me to post these on our classroom blog in addition to our web page (when I get it figured out). Very comforting to have an alternative to use in the meantime.
As for student use, this will be very fun for them - they can create their own presentations, upload to a share program and post them on our classroom blog. This will make it easy for them to share between peers as well as sharing with their families from how to show off their work.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Thing 8: Screencast
My daughter recently created a blog for our family, providing each member rights to post and not just comment. Several members have had difficulty posting a comment. Whether they didn't accept their blog invite correctly or they just don't get the process for making a new post.....there are only 4 of us that have posted anything and I won't even tell you how many there are that should be posting.
I used Screencast-o-Matic to walk through the steps to logging in on our family's blog. I did it quickly, with no voice recording (it was too early in the morning when I did it and I hadn't had enough coffee yet) but the process was VERY simple and is very helpful.
I used Screencast-o-Matic to walk through the steps to logging in on our family's blog. I did it quickly, with no voice recording (it was too early in the morning when I did it and I hadn't had enough coffee yet) but the process was VERY simple and is very helpful.
The only thing I did not like was the size the movie appears on the post. I edited the width on the program but in both saved versions, it still appears the same small size in my post. Any ideas out there for how to override this? I know the user can click on "full screen" but it provides a very blurry view when you do that.
I can see many good uses for this in class - from letting students use it for their own projects to using it to show them how to participate on specific parts of our webpage, allowing them to all work at their own pace and hear directions for a part of an activity when they are actually ready for it.
I am also one of a team on our campus that is in charge of working with teachers on gradebook. If any of you experienced IGPro issues yourself or with peers, you know how difficult that program was for many of us. This video development would be so helpful to show teachers individual steps for them to review when trying to post grades.
This will be a fun tool to use this next year!!!
Thing 7: Video Resources
This is one of our classes all time favorites from this past school year.
As the year progressed in the 09-10 school year, it got to the point where there were more days that opened with a video clip than not. I found YouTube to be my greatest resource, while hulu or united streaming were other great sources. The reason YouTube became our favorite was due to the large variety of cartoons and funny clips that would address an otherwise serious and important topic. Here is one of our several classroom playlists. http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=AD5C230958D564A9
The following video was the first to get us thinking about how short clips could enhance lessons. It was a student favorite, the motivator for our science team to find more sources, and one we replayed many times even up to the last day.
I recently finished teaching summer school - I worked with students from all middle schools around our district and started our first day with a "They Might be Giants" video. Those first day stares of "who the heck is the stupid lady" changed in just a few days as we continued to start each day's lesson with a clip of catchy music or humor or one that would get them thinking for the day. . . . .whatever it took to make an otherwise unpleasant situation (who wants to be in summer school for 7 hours a day, right?)
As the year progressed in the 09-10 school year, it got to the point where there were more days that opened with a video clip than not. I found YouTube to be my greatest resource, while hulu or united streaming were other great sources. The reason YouTube became our favorite was due to the large variety of cartoons and funny clips that would address an otherwise serious and important topic. Here is one of our several classroom playlists. http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=AD5C230958D564A9
The following video was the first to get us thinking about how short clips could enhance lessons. It was a student favorite, the motivator for our science team to find more sources, and one we replayed many times even up to the last day.
I recently finished teaching summer school - I worked with students from all middle schools around our district and started our first day with a "They Might be Giants" video. Those first day stares of "who the heck is the stupid lady" changed in just a few days as we continued to start each day's lesson with a clip of catchy music or humor or one that would get them thinking for the day. . . . .whatever it took to make an otherwise unpleasant situation (who wants to be in summer school for 7 hours a day, right?)
Thing 6: iTouch Apps
I am probably one of two people left that does not have an iphone. BUT there are enough users around me that I get to enjoy some of the apps they have as well as make requests of those I see frequently to test out & enjoy apps I've heard of or would like to see.
In order to complete the lesson on apps, I found two at random I thought could be incorporated in our current curriculum.
http://iphone.iusethis.com/app/starmap
The app for star gazers seems pretty interesting and would allow students the opportunity to see constellations and galaxies, planets and sky conditions, while adjusting the view as if looking through a telescope.
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/information/moonphase_udellenterprisesinc.html
My students have always founds some fascination in our moon and trying to understand the phases. This app will give a visual of phases to come, or allow them to select the next or most recent full moon. At first glance, it doesn't have a lot of elaborate bells and whistles, but would still keep an 8th grader's attention.
Use of an itouch in the library can be as little or as much as the teacher would like. If students are working on a unit or topic research project, stations could be situated with individual units focusing on a particular area. Once finished at one itouch, they could move to a new station or setup. Take Chemistry as an example - one itouch station could focus on the periodic table.
That unit would have the periodic table app loaded, with the teacher's other manipulatives there to help them answer required questions. Station two could be to practice chemical formulas. There is a chemical formula app which could be made available at this station to guide students while they are working on this section of their project. It would almost be like a virtual scavenger hunt.
In order to complete the lesson on apps, I found two at random I thought could be incorporated in our current curriculum.
http://iphone.iusethis.com/app/starmap
The app for star gazers seems pretty interesting and would allow students the opportunity to see constellations and galaxies, planets and sky conditions, while adjusting the view as if looking through a telescope.
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/information/moonphase_udellenterprisesinc.html
My students have always founds some fascination in our moon and trying to understand the phases. This app will give a visual of phases to come, or allow them to select the next or most recent full moon. At first glance, it doesn't have a lot of elaborate bells and whistles, but would still keep an 8th grader's attention.
Use of an itouch in the library can be as little or as much as the teacher would like. If students are working on a unit or topic research project, stations could be situated with individual units focusing on a particular area. Once finished at one itouch, they could move to a new station or setup. Take Chemistry as an example - one itouch station could focus on the periodic table.
That unit would have the periodic table app loaded, with the teacher's other manipulatives there to help them answer required questions. Station two could be to practice chemical formulas. There is a chemical formula app which could be made available at this station to guide students while they are working on this section of their project. It would almost be like a virtual scavenger hunt. Thing 5: Microblogging
This activity should create numerous opportunities to keep our students attention. Regarding Facebook, it is something they are very comfortable with and want to log in to as often as possible. With that in mind, we could either develop a group or "science page" to allow students to comment on posts or ideas between each other and their teachers. We can post links, videos, assignments, and other classroom related bits of information, knowing they are going to see this. With our recent webpage changes in our district, the website my class relied on for the past 10 years is gone and I'm not quite up with the new software yet. I think I'm going to incorporate facebook for now until I can get a handle on our new web creating tools.
As for Twitter, this past week and the events with Lois the Corpse Flower were a great opportunity to get my first experience with this microblogging tool...and I have to say I was not immediately impressed with it. I do have my newly developed account and will continue to view and participate in other Twitter links, but as a quick exposure I'd say it is not something I'll be using as frequently as my other new tools I've been learning about in this class.
As for Twitter, this past week and the events with Lois the Corpse Flower were a great opportunity to get my first experience with this microblogging tool...and I have to say I was not immediately impressed with it. I do have my newly developed account and will continue to view and participate in other Twitter links, but as a quick exposure I'd say it is not something I'll be using as frequently as my other new tools I've been learning about in this class.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Thing 4: Video Hosting (You Tube)
JUST AS PRACTICE: I've uploaded my animoto here.
This past school year, we used You Tube videos for some of our teacher staff development. It allowed us to view and hear an explanation for activities we were responsible for completing. I can see this working very well for student use. Creating a web page or blog with a series of videos that walk a student through a step or stage of a lengthy, self paced activity would help keep kids on their own pace while still providing teacher instruction at just the right moment.
As for uploading student work, this was very helpful during a recent project our 8th graders participated in last spring. Those that created a movie on their apple were able to save and upload to You Tube for easier classroom presentation, where all we had available was a Dell. It also allows students to share their projects on a common playlist, allowing them to view and comment on each others finished work.
BTW: We start many many of our lessons with You Tube clips. While creating and uploading our own was the point of this lesson, the ones we use are more often those already posted by others. There is a series called 'They Might Be Giants' with several topics set to music. There is a lengthy collection of all the ending songs to any Bill Nye you would ever want. The kids LOVE these, and even up until the last day of school, they would ask "can we watch Timmy with the evil Global Warming?"
This past school year, we used You Tube videos for some of our teacher staff development. It allowed us to view and hear an explanation for activities we were responsible for completing. I can see this working very well for student use. Creating a web page or blog with a series of videos that walk a student through a step or stage of a lengthy, self paced activity would help keep kids on their own pace while still providing teacher instruction at just the right moment.
As for uploading student work, this was very helpful during a recent project our 8th graders participated in last spring. Those that created a movie on their apple were able to save and upload to You Tube for easier classroom presentation, where all we had available was a Dell. It also allows students to share their projects on a common playlist, allowing them to view and comment on each others finished work.
BTW: We start many many of our lessons with You Tube clips. While creating and uploading our own was the point of this lesson, the ones we use are more often those already posted by others. There is a series called 'They Might Be Giants' with several topics set to music. There is a lengthy collection of all the ending songs to any Bill Nye you would ever want. The kids LOVE these, and even up until the last day of school, they would ask "can we watch Timmy with the evil Global Warming?"