Facilitating Collaboration - Week 1

Blogs. Lots of info about blogs this week. I recall when I first heard about blogs. I wondered why anyone would be interested in what I had to say. It wasn't until about 2 years ago that I started using it in my job to communicate with teachers and staff. Since then almost all of our teachers have some sort of way to electronically communicate with their students. Some use a blog, some use Moodle, and some have used Google Sites to create their own classroom web site.

It is amazing how far blogs have come in the last 5 years. It seems that everyone has a blog with something to say. It has really changed how we communicate and get information. Now, the important part is to have the ability to determine what is fact and what is opinion or fiction. Our students need to learn this skill. It is a similar to the debate about Wikipedia. Blogs also have the power to influence people. I think it is important that we also teach our students responsibility when it comes to blogging.

Digital Storytelling - Week 5

Pecha Kucha. This is what it is all about this week. And boy, will I be glad when this week is over. I am finding this project quite difficult. I found the topic and the pictures without a problem. My biggest issue is telling the story.

I wrote the storyboard without a problem only to find out that when it came to recording the audio that I had way more than 20 seconds for each slide. I had to re-write the storyboard a couple of times. Now I have everything down so it fits in the time limit but I am having a tough time making it sound like a story. Right now it sounds very scripted and like I am just spewing out facts. I need to add more to make it flow nicely but that will cause me to re-write the storyboard again.

I am also finding that 20 seconds goes by really fast. I thought that a nearly 7 minute story would be tough to tell but when I have this many slides and have to squeeze in the info for each slide in 20 seconds the time goes by quickly.

This project is probably one of the toughest that I have run into in this program. That's not a bad thing, it was just unexpected. Even through all of this I am still enjoying the project and am looking forward to the outcome.

Digital Storytelling - Week 4

This week we are finishing up our texts. I am still really excited with the Presentation Zen book. I will take a lot from that book. I am hoping to really integrate these ideas into my presentations as I move forward.

I am starting to storyboard the slides for my Pecha Kucha presentation. I am finding that process a little difficult. It is easy to plan out the slides but writing down what I am going to say on each slide seems to be taking some time. It is especially hard to get that down to 20 seconds for each slide. I am starting to make progress but it is tougher than I thought.

I also spent some time creating a Prezi. I found this process difficult at first because of some technical difficulties. Once I got over that problem I found the program to be easy to use and got some nice results. Although I do like the Prezi format, I think it only fits in a certain place. It is not something that I would like to look at for a long time. I find the same transitions over too long to be boring and repetitive. Don't get me wrong, I do like the format, I just feel that it can be overused.

Digital Storytelling - Week 3

After taking a week off from the homework I have started hitting the books again. I am really enjoying this class. There are so many tips that I have picked up that will help me with my presentations and stories.

Presentation Zen is, by far, the most helpful element of this class to me. It is giving me a whole different way to think about my presentations. I remember in Chapter 5 that it talked about Steve Jobs and his presentation style. I have seen a number of his presentations online and I have always wondered why they stuck with me and impressed me so much. Many of the techniques he uses are in this book. In addition to his slides, he is just a great speaker. He has a way of talking to people and making them see his point of view.

I am also excited to see us use Animoto. I started using this about 2 years ago. I remember uploading my first photos to this service. I was amazed at what I got in return. I have even used it in presentations. I have taken photos of teachers doing group activities and then shown them the end product at the end of the workshop. When I first started using it they did not have an education account. I am looking forward to upgrading my account to the education version.

Digital Storytelling Week 2

This week we had to create a presentation using Voicethread. I had never heard of this tool before but it sure does make it easy to create a narrated story with pictures. What a great way for teachers to get kids involved with storytelling. It is similar to creating podcasts but without the hassle of using some complex software. There are some limitations to the software and the free tool is not feature-rich like the subscription model. At least the full version is not too expensive. At only $60/year for 100 students the price is affordable by most schools.

I am also starting to realize where storytelling can come in handy. I did a presentation yesterday at a school about how our teachers use technology in the classroom. I did this mostly by demonstration but found myself telling stories and using those stories as examples for the teachers. They reacted in a positive way and told me at the end of the discussion that the stories I used as examples helped them realize what they could do with the technology in their classroom.

I might start using students and teachers at my school to create short videos that I can show during my presentations. This will hopefully create a positive connection with the audience. They will be able to see how students and teachers are affected by technology. By having it come from someone other than an administrator they may be more open to embracing technology in the classroom.

Digital Storytelling Week 1

I have been looking forward to this class for some time now. For the past 5 or 6 years, I have been playing with things like iMovie and Garage Band making movies and podcasts. My knowledge of this process was limited to the tools that I had in front of me and I never went out on the web to find other tools and resources to improve my creations. I am hoping to pick up some new ideas on how I can share things with colleagues and family members.

The first week focused on PowerPoint and storytelling. I am glad that there is a movement to change how presentations are done. I have been through a few marketing meetings in the past few months and the presentations have been awful - lots of words and reading right from the screen. When it came time to do a presentation on technology I immediately knew what I wanted and didn't want to do.

One of the things I really want to improve is my ability to tell the story of events in my kids lives using pictures and sharing them on the Internet with family. I used to have my own secured web site for family but that became a lot of work to maintain. I am starting to explore things like Flickr and Picasa but would like to know what other options are out there.

By the way, I really like the new AngelLearning portal. It is a lot easier to find all of the items related to the class.

Similarities and Differences, Homework and Practice, and Generating and Testing Hypotheses

I can think of a time when I asked a student about similarities and differences. Before my technology career I was a music teacher. There were many times when we would look at two pieces of music and find similarities and differences. I was very pleased when the students would pick out some of the harder to find similarities or differences. There was one piece called Bravade Esprit by David Shaffer. The students named at least 10 ways that the composer similar in form and orchestration to music by Jim Swearingen.

I can think of a time when I taught a music appreciation class to 7th and 8th graders. I asked them to complete some homework covering Baroque music, specifically learning about the works and life of J.S. Bach. There was a complete revolt by the students. They had no interest in the music or the class. The students refused to complete the assignments and failed the quiz (listening and writing) on purpose. Needless to say I was not pleased with this outcome. I was forced to revisit the chapter taking a new approach to try to gauge some interest in music of the time period.

Generating and testing hypotheses is something that I use regularly in my daily work. Every time I come across a new piece of software or teaching resource I generate a hypothesis on how I think it should work and then test out that theory. In addition, I generate a hypothesis about how the teachers will react and use the new tool. A few times I have been way off on my hypothesis but, luckily, my teachers are open to embracing most of the tools I give them.