This was a good week. Finally getting to the making of the Pecha Kucha was a little bit relief and a little bit exciting. Right after the first week I started thinking about what I would do for a digital story. I was really hoping we would be able to choose our story line. Choosing just the right pictures wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be, and a couple of times it turned out that the exact picture that I wanted was actually part of the video we took and I wasn’t able to use it. But I had fun doing it.
The rubric exercise was a good thing for me. I’ll need to be able to do this next year. Checking out the examples was very helpful. I used bits and pieces from a few different rubrics to make the one for this class.
Evaluating materials was helpful. Finding out the differences in different kinds of cameras and projectors will be put to use I’m sure. Honestly, I probably won’t remember what the differences are, but I’ll have an idea what to look for. I didn’t get to the software yet, but I plan on doing it yet this week.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Fourth Week Thoughts
This week was really pretty good for me. Finishing a text book is always cool, and we did two! I really enjoyed working with the pictures this week, going through and deciding which ones were the best and trying to figure out why using the Top Ten Tips for Great Pictures. Wednesday night I was a little upset that I wasn't able to get on to see the library presentation. Extra credit could be useful. I had fun making the avatar for my account though.
Since I couldn't get to the presentation on Wed., I spent the next hour or so checking out Prezi. I played around a little and deleted. Actually making the Prezi was fun. I think this is a great way to make a presentation, and I think I like it better than the power point. I wish we could have used more pictures. Making groupings of pictures could have been fun. I like that you can make it as simple as you want, or you can get pretty fancy with it too. This is definitely something that I could use with kids at school, especially the older ones.
Working on the Pecha Kucha is a bit more challenging. Picking out just 20 pictures out of over 100 was not an easy job. I spent most of Sunday afternoon looking at pictures and then trying to write a script to go with it. I'm still trying to decide how I want to make the final product. I would really like to be able to add some of the concert music, but I don't know if I will be able to. I'll have to do some consulting with colleagues.
As always, listening to Garr Reynolds was interesting, and I really enjoyed the out takes at the end. Nice to see he can make mistakes and have fun with it!
Since I couldn't get to the presentation on Wed., I spent the next hour or so checking out Prezi. I played around a little and deleted. Actually making the Prezi was fun. I think this is a great way to make a presentation, and I think I like it better than the power point. I wish we could have used more pictures. Making groupings of pictures could have been fun. I like that you can make it as simple as you want, or you can get pretty fancy with it too. This is definitely something that I could use with kids at school, especially the older ones.
Working on the Pecha Kucha is a bit more challenging. Picking out just 20 pictures out of over 100 was not an easy job. I spent most of Sunday afternoon looking at pictures and then trying to write a script to go with it. I'm still trying to decide how I want to make the final product. I would really like to be able to add some of the concert music, but I don't know if I will be able to. I'll have to do some consulting with colleagues.
As always, listening to Garr Reynolds was interesting, and I really enjoyed the out takes at the end. Nice to see he can make mistakes and have fun with it!
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Third Week Thoughts
One thing I learned about myself this week is that I need to calm down. I will make it through. I had a couple of scary moments this week, like when I thought I lost my power point when something happened to the internet, or when I somehow ended up with double voice overs on a couple of my slides (which by the way were working the last time I checked it, knock on wood.) Thank goodness for the level head of my daughter.
The Animoto was fun. It worked really well. I couldn’t use the music that I really wanted, but it still worked out well. Some of the 4th grade boys saw me working on it during my lunch. They thought it was pretty cool.
I enjoyed the websites for images and quotes. I’m glad they gave us some free ones to use, because I don’t think I would use them enough to make it worth the price, and I don’t think school would pay for them either. But I will pass the free ones along to the other teachers. The kids are always using images. The websites that I really liked were the quote sites. I particularly liked the Quote Garden.
Reading Presentation Zen is just so interesting. I loved the slides that gave examples of good slides and how they can be improved to be even better. I tried to use some of these principles in the revision of my power point. The changes made such a difference.
The Digi Tales chapter was very informative. If you are getting a new computer this is the perfect place to go to find out what you need. We are planning on getting a new Mac sometime in the next year and I am definitely going to take my book along.
Tok Box worked well, but I couldn’t get my microphone to work. I called Matt and he put me on speaker phone. Great idea Matt! Anyone have any thoughts on where to find the mute button on a Dell?
The Animoto was fun. It worked really well. I couldn’t use the music that I really wanted, but it still worked out well. Some of the 4th grade boys saw me working on it during my lunch. They thought it was pretty cool.
I enjoyed the websites for images and quotes. I’m glad they gave us some free ones to use, because I don’t think I would use them enough to make it worth the price, and I don’t think school would pay for them either. But I will pass the free ones along to the other teachers. The kids are always using images. The websites that I really liked were the quote sites. I particularly liked the Quote Garden.
Reading Presentation Zen is just so interesting. I loved the slides that gave examples of good slides and how they can be improved to be even better. I tried to use some of these principles in the revision of my power point. The changes made such a difference.
The Digi Tales chapter was very informative. If you are getting a new computer this is the perfect place to go to find out what you need. We are planning on getting a new Mac sometime in the next year and I am definitely going to take my book along.
Tok Box worked well, but I couldn’t get my microphone to work. I called Matt and he put me on speaker phone. Great idea Matt! Anyone have any thoughts on where to find the mute button on a Dell?
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Second Week Thoughts
This week was a bit more stressful than last week. Some it had to do with my apprehension about using elluminate. Everything worked out alright though. It was a great relief to see the other students' names coming up and hearing Louie's voice. There were a couple of times when the sound flickered but it always came right back. At the end of class, Louie's computer screen was still there and I could hear everyone talking, I could even raise my hand by going to the tool bar (sorry Louie, when you called on me I couldn't answer) but I lost all the rest of the things on my screen and the ability to communicate. It was awesome having 3 extra hours to get started on this weeks homework, and it was great not having the long ride home, but, at least for now, I still think I like face to face better.
The readings for this week were really good. I enjoyed the chapter in Digi Tales. Listening to Garr Reynolds before reading the next section was very interesting. He's great to listen to. The number of pages to read seemed incredibly long, but it didn't seem nearly so long as I read. The part about the beginners' mind and the fear about doing new things is so true. Knowing its o.k. to not be perfect the first time is very comforting. I'm still not too sure about story boarding.
VoiceThread had me very nervous. I had a hard time getting the educational account set up, but I think I got it right. Actually working on VoiceThread was fun. I could see this as a possible way for the 4th grade to make their Wisconsin slide shows. I think I would stick to Pixie for the 2nd graders though.
The idea of using digital stories in some form with elementary age students if exciting. It would be pretty basic, but making stories instead of just writing reports would be very attractive, especially to kids who normally don't like to do reports. Learning how to make comics would be cool. The kids would love it.
The readings for this week were really good. I enjoyed the chapter in Digi Tales. Listening to Garr Reynolds before reading the next section was very interesting. He's great to listen to. The number of pages to read seemed incredibly long, but it didn't seem nearly so long as I read. The part about the beginners' mind and the fear about doing new things is so true. Knowing its o.k. to not be perfect the first time is very comforting. I'm still not too sure about story boarding.
VoiceThread had me very nervous. I had a hard time getting the educational account set up, but I think I got it right. Actually working on VoiceThread was fun. I could see this as a possible way for the 4th grade to make their Wisconsin slide shows. I think I would stick to Pixie for the 2nd graders though.
The idea of using digital stories in some form with elementary age students if exciting. It would be pretty basic, but making stories instead of just writing reports would be very attractive, especially to kids who normally don't like to do reports. Learning how to make comics would be cool. The kids would love it.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
First lesson thoughts
Besides making a few mistakes with my profile, I think I'm doing pretty good so far. I'm not quite finished with all the reading and I still have to watch a video, but this week's work was quite doable. In reading Digi Tales, I get the feeling its leading up to making a video. Will we be shown how to do this or are we going to be pretty much on our own? After viewing some of those digital stories,I'm a little nervous. I have no clue how you would do something like that. I'm hoping that we will be taught how to do this sort of thing. I'm also hoping that this would be something that would be easy enough that it would be something that I could use with elementary school age children in the library.
When I went to watch some of the digital stories, I was quite surprised to find so many of them were not available to view. I was surprised to find that many of the stories were in the form of comic strips or graphic type stories.
I had the most difficulty thinking of a future story. I don't have more than fifteen years yet to be in the work force, so trying to think of what could be in the future that would still affect me in school was a little tough. A lot of the ideas in the story are things my family has talked about and wished could come true.
When I went to watch some of the digital stories, I was quite surprised to find so many of them were not available to view. I was surprised to find that many of the stories were in the form of comic strips or graphic type stories.
I had the most difficulty thinking of a future story. I don't have more than fifteen years yet to be in the work force, so trying to think of what could be in the future that would still affect me in school was a little tough. A lot of the ideas in the story are things my family has talked about and wished could come true.
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