WK4 Final Video

PE4_Adobe Flash Pt.4

This week in Flash I was looking at building a slideshow/menu for our school's website.

After going through the trainings on Lynda.com and watching the videos on the basic animation, or tweening, it seemed pretty straightforward and easy to use.

I then grabbed some images that I wanted to use in this project and imported them into the library, fairly simple task so far.

Where I ran into the stumbling block was when it came to resizing the images. My original images were way too large for the 'stage' area in Flash, so it took me a while to get them resized and fitting my stage area.

The button for the forward, pause, and back were fairly easy to complete as well. Once all your images and button were complete, placing them on the stage was also a fairly easy task.

The area that I will have to revisit in Lynda.com and online tutorials from Adobe will be in the action scripting and creating the script that tells the buttons what to do, i.e. go forward, pause or go backward and also adding scripting to jump to a specific web page when the corresponding image is clicked.

WK4 Reading

Study: Interactive technology aids learning

In a two year study, researchers found that when educators added technology to the learning, that is Promethean’s ActivClassroom, Achievement was higher.

Classrooms were taught with the addition of this technology and other classrooms were taught without the technology, all the same lessons of course.

The study was conducted using over 5,000 students and over 120 teachers. Dr. Marzano led the research in finding that learning achievement was higher with the addition of the Promethean system in addition to the traditional lesson.

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Will digital content and e-textbooks really save money?

Districts must start to come to a decision whether or not digital content will save them money.

Many believe that the possibility is easy and well within current budgets.

In polls conducted it was found that over 52% thought It might not save money but moving to digital content wouldn't cost too much more and think it's worth the move initially. While, 34% felt that tapping into funding for broadband and decreasing reliance on print materials could save money. Then the remainder simply felt that it was all too expensive and not feasible at all.

After reading the article and seeing first hand where monies are spent and wasted, I think most districts would be able to make a total digital move happen, they would just have to cut cost in areas that they feel they must have in order to say they have certain programs. Also, a true feasibility study with actual classroom teachers should be conducted and personal biases be placed to the side. Too many times programs are not funded or are cut due to one or two people’s personal biases and not for the betterment of the programs affected.

Available software: How much are you actually using?

This article was very interesting in the fact that I tend to ask this several times throughout the year in my own district. There was a cool fact that was mentioned in saying that today, the chances are that we have more software and computing power at our fingertips than all the astronauts put together. But, how much of it do we actually use?

As I stated in the previous article, there are many software and technology packages that our district purchases just to have the latest and the greatest. However, more than half of the teachers don’t even use the software or the technology available.

This is my main concern when looking at whether or not technology and media rich content should be implemented. Will it be used?

History Tools

A new tool just out for the iPad, iPhone and iTouch is one that deals with history. It lists all the famous and infamous people who were born or died on each day of the year, major news events, holidays and celebrations around the world. You can even enter your own events and add to the pages of each day of the year. This program is fully searchable both by words or particular years.

You can even use the program as a diary to save your own events and important dates. Enter family’s birthdays and anniversaries, put in dates of your holidays, travels, and celebrations. The program offers several uses for incorporating history, keeping up with personal items and simply just giving you pertinent topics for conversation. 

WK3 Reading

Why Integrate Technology into the Curriculum?: The Reasons Are Many

As the article asks, why integrate technology into the curriculum? Well as we are into the 21st century, I think growing up we all expected to be flying around in flying cars by now. Why did we dream so big for our transportation, but not our education?

Technology is almost ever reaching in all areas of our lives, in our homes, cars, businesses and our schools. Integrating this ever-changing technology into the classroom will only help our students not only survive in this complex world, but hopefully lead the way.       

But, I think integrating the technology means more than just teaching your basic computer skills or how to make a Powerpoint presentation, Excel spreadsheet or format a Word document.

I would have to agree with the author in this article in saying that integrating technology has to happen across the board in all areas of education and not just the computer or tech classes. We need to support the areas to include active engagement, group participation, feedback and interaction and connection with one another.

Technology also changes the way we teach. It can offer us different ways to reach different types of learners and assess student understanding through multiple means. It can enhance the relationships between teacher and students, allow teachers to become advisers and content expert. Technology can make teaching and learning more meaningful and fun.

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A Web 2.0 Class: Students Learn 21st Century Skills, Collaboration, and Digital Citizenship

I thought this article was interesting in the fact that it compared our old views of thinking the world was flat way before Columbus sailed around the world, to us knowing the world is round and now saying when it comes to learning and collaboration, the world is now again, flat. 

When we use technology in our classrooms, we can now say that the world is flat, or should we say, flat as our monitors or the wall the images is projected upon.

Students have been separated from the world by the four walls of their classrooms. However, with the new technology available, cameras, microphones, websites and the internet, those walls don't have to confine our learning. 

There are now classes designed to teach Web 2.0 technology, digital citizenship, networking and social media responsibility. Students across the country, and even the world, have never met in person, but have connected and met electronically via programs such as Skype and class blogs. This type of learning is only limited to availability of a camera and connectivity.

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Connecting to the 21st-Century Student

As educators, we must work to understand, motivate and keep engaged a new kind of student, a digital learner.

Teachers are dealing with a students that are more wired than they are (teachers) but who also grew up in an atmosphere that has trained them to learn and process information in fundamentally different ways. This generation of students is almost always has a cell phone, laptop, or iPods before they have a spiral notebook or No. 2 pencil.

Teachers once competed for students' attention, against daydreamers, passing notes, and class clowns, but now face a new distraction in the form of gadgets and digitized content. Educators are now scrambling to figure out how to use this technology to reach and excite these young minds. 

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PE3_Adobe Flash Pt.3

To start off, I would like to get comfortable with the interface and learn to complete the basic animation and  creating the objects and moving images. Lynda.com will provide a great resource to help in this task.

PE2_Adobe Flash Pt.2

What I would like to learn first in Flash is how to create some simple banner type ads that I can add to already existing Wikis that we use in class. In these banner ads I would like to have images of projects, upcoming projects or examples of existing works scrolling through. With these scrolling images, I would love to have the ability for the students to be able to scroll through the content and then have the ability to click on the area that they need more assistance.

PE1_Adobe Flash

I decided to take a closer look at Adobe Flash CS5.  Flash is a great program that is so versatile and can create and present consistently via computers, mobile devices, and adjusts to fit user preferences on their screen environments.

Flash can create content for a variety of cross platforms as well as incorporate various types of media. It can use video and images together without consuming large amounts of bandwidth. 


Content can range from simple websites, dynamic interactive websites, interactive games, online music players/video players, image displays, dynamic buttons, content uploaders and other interactive tools.


Flash continues to be a leader an innovator in the area of web interactivity.


I would love to learn more about Flash and how I can create and design tools that I can utilize in my classroom. I think it would be a fun way to personalize fun, creative games and tools for my students to use and get involved more closely.

BP12_OMM_Sliderocket.com

BP11_Comment on Brandi LeBlanc's Blog

Follow my link to my comments on Brandi LeBlanc's review of Webbly.com. (my comments)

BP10_Comment on Ashlee Park's Blog

Follow my link to my comments on Ashlee Park's review of Tagxedo. (my comments)

BP9_Web2.0_Wiki Blogs

One of the Web 2.0 tools that I have been using the last couple of years is a Wiki blog that we set up through our Apple servers at in our district. Any teacher can create their own wiki for their own personal school page, a page for their class or subject, and even for any school groups or clubs.

I believe this is a valuable tool to use to create a sense of ownership in the learning and engagement of the students. It can also create accountability in the sense that you know when the students have read or posted comments on the subject at hand.

You can post a variety of media on the wikis from plain text, to pictures as well as videos. I believe that this tool can be a great asset in conjunction with the traditional classroom curriculum. Teachers can create supplemental lesson and have them posted here for students to come back and comment on.

Some examples of use are, in English or ILA classes, teachers can create a discussion board on a book they just read and choose passages to critique or find their meaning. In Art or Photography classes, pictures of artwork or sculptures can be shown for students to discuss and comment on what they think about the art. I've used ours in video production and broadcast for students to not only have a place to show off their work, but to have a sounding board to share their likes and dislike about the topics being covered, even having a place for suggestions of new topics.

Wikis also provide a way to get the quieter kids involved that usually don't participate in class. There is always a few in class that are afraid to speak up, but give them a place where they can type their thoughts without having to raise their hands and everyone look at them, well, they tend to participate in discussions a bit more. The example of the wiki I have shown above is one for our FCA group. We use it to recap lessons we discussed, post upcoming meeting dates as well as hear student requests for prayers and hear their views on life and their struggles.

A class or school wiki is a great place for collaboration, critique, review and discussion. I can see a variety of ways that teachers can utilize this technology with minimal effort and low technical skill.

WK2 Reading

Social Networking or Social Suicide: The impact of social networking on virtual DNA

I have been researching various ways of incorporating technology into the learning environment the right way, and in researching these methods and strategies, one also has to look at how their end-users already function in an online society or network.

In reading the article on whether social networking is that, networking or if it is social suicide, one must take into account how their students, or audience views the manner in which they use the internet and to what capacity.

The article described our online “lives” as having a vDNA, or virtual DNA that serves as a blueprint to your virtual life, i.e. hobbies, social interests, life experiences and various other traits or personalities that you post about yourself online.

One instance I truly agree with is the fact that in today’s world of online networking and “friending” someone, this “friend” may not even be someone you know very well, care about or even trust. We have begun to use the word, friend, more loosely and in somewhat of a cavalier manner.

We use sites like Facebook, MySpace, Match.com, LinkedIn, and many other sites to communicate, find friends, dates, and jobs. In using these sites, we share many personal information, or our vDNA, to friends as well as to strangers. This information is accessible in the virtual public domain and has the potential to be analyzed and used for multiple purposes. And, if the vDNA overlaps into conflicting networks, it can jeopardize relationships.

So, when thinking about using a social network site to integrate technology into your lesson or classroom, take a look at these tips to make sure you do it safe.

L – Learn the details of the social networking site. 

I – Interact online – but assume that everything is public. 

N – Netiquette the virtual version of good manners and how to be a good digital citizen. Train students that the online community has no borders, requires no passport, and everyone is created “virtually” equal.

K – Know when to disconnect from social networking. Know when it’s time to drop by in person. Log off the net and allow real face time with the real people in your lives.

I Can Back Off My Blogging, Turn Down My Tweeting, And Even Wrap Up My Wiki, But I Can’t Wane My Wordling... by Michael Gorman

Ok, so back to Wordle. Who hasn’t heard of Wordle yet? Well, in this article the author states that he still comes across many teachers who have yet to stumble upon Wordle and it’s great potential.

There are several links to ways you can use Wordle and various examples of how it has been used to display Presidential speeches, create quizzes and even classroom lessons.

My question now is, when has a new technology run it’s course? In my school alone, I see so many uses of Wordle. You would think this was the new sliced bread. It, in my opinion, has seem to lose it’s brilliance as a tool to attract or entice. 

Don’t get me wrong, I think it is a great and creative way in which to express ideas or display old and new ideas in a new innovative manner, but as with anything great, how much is too much. I think we can all agree upon the fact that we all hate sitting through PowerPoint presentations. Will Wordle become the new PowerPoint of getting ideas and information across to our audiences, and if so, when we will tire of this?

One to One Netbook Pilot Program

Niles Township High Schools of District 219 in Skokie, Illinois have instituted an Anywhere/Anytime Learning Plan with a 1:1 netbook pilot program, deploying 400 netbooks to students this year. Another 150 netbooks have gone to administrators and staff to learn about and integrate web 2.0 tools into instruction. 

I have read of other districts across the country also doing something similar. A few years back, a small district in South Texas handed out new Apple laptops to each of their senior class.

In the early part of this decade, Duke University gave new iPods to their incoming Freshmen class. Abilene Christian University followed suit a few years later by handing out new iTouch’s.

I think depending upon how one regulates and disseminates information to these students, allowing them access to these personal devices could create a new learning platform that produces an overall equality and even platform as to which the students all learn. Books, documents, forms, images and a variety of other resources could be pushed across multiple platforms to all students at one time. It can also ease the burden of carrying all those textbooks and having to deal with lost papers.

Bridging the Gap and Connecting Classrooms

A teacher in Florida sits in a hotel room with his computer and internet connection while his students in Maryland settle into their class. Although the teacher is some 800 miles away, the students are used to seeing their teacher through online video everyday. However, today their teacher is in another state, not just down the street at another school.

Many districts do teach upper level course via video conferencing or over programs like Skype. This allows districts to teach several students across a district at one time if they might have fewer kids enrolled or even less teachers available. My district uses distance learning for those in advanced classes that are well beyond what they can get at their current grade level.

Distance learning does have it’s drawbacks, but what about the perks? Advanced learning, new interactions with classrooms across town, across the state or even out of the country. What about virtual field trips? Or the ability to actually learn foreign languages from native people in those countries.

One idea that I think would be a great way to bring classrooms alive in social studies or history class is to take your classes to one of the many re-enactments of civil war battles held across the country via Skype or any other distant leaning technologies.

BP8_OMM_MediaConverter.ORG

BP7_Comment on Ginni's Blog

Follow my link to read my comments on Ginni's blog. (my comments)

BP6_Comment on Tricia's Blog

Follow my link to read my comments on Tricia's blog on Shidonni web tool. (my comments)

BP5_Web2.0 Tool Review

 Creaza (www.creaza.com) is a Web 2.0 tool that I came across that is an all in one tool/website that allows for some great integration and collaberation of technology into the classroom. Not only does it allow for ease of use in technology integration and media design, but it provides a platform for you to do collaberative and group projects on the web and across multiple formats.

So, if you are working with several team members on a media rich project or even with a partner who is on a PC while you are on a Mac, Creaza allows you work together on a media rich program that also allows for creativity while supporting multiple file types.

The whole site can take you from inception to completion all in one place. There is a tool for mindmapping, where you or you and your team can lay out the plans and what is to be accomplished. If you want to storyboard or even create a cartoon for your media rich experience, there is a tool to create cartoons. This one is always a student favorite, albeit teacher's too. Once you have your plan and you videos ready, you then can take your files into the movie editor tool. Here you can make some simple edits, cuts and transitions using a variety of media types and formats from either PC or Mac platform. And then to add the final touch to it all by tweaking the audio with the audio editor.

Overall, you could do it all here, or if you wanted to just use the tools individually you can do that as well. Creaza is a great way to create some new, fun media to use in your presentations or your classroom.

BP4_Web2.0

Movieclips is an online video destination offering a diverse collection of movie scenes. Movieclips allows you to find, watch and share more than 12,000 movie clips from the libraries of major Hollywood studios.

Since I teach a video production class, this site is great in that I can select older movie clips as well as newer releases to show my class when we discuss different aspects of production from shot types, lighting, sound and characterization.

It is also a great site for some ILA/English classes as it can also help add some dimension in talking about scriptwriting and how books become, scripts, becoming movies, even how certain movies were based on or are adaptations of books.

Media Converter is another great site that I use in class.  This site allows me to find videos used on the web and convert them to a source I can use in class. It can also convert audio files as well. It is a very simple drag and drop interface which also allows you to copy & paste web addresses as well as search for the site directly from the interface. You can even just take the audio source from a video. How many times have you seen a commercial, but just wanted the audio? You can do that here.

The site is very user friendly and if anyone has ever wanted to use clips from YouTube or other sites online that embed video, Media Converter is a great site to become familiar with.

WK1 Reading

Article 1: Choosing the right device for students in education environments. 
by Scott Reeder


This article was pretty interesting to me simply because I ask this question alot as I am looking at research for my topic of classroom integration of technology, how we can do it well.


In the article the author asks several great questions such as when choosing devices for our classrooms, are we choosing them for content creation, content consumption or both. I think may of us in the classroom may not even think about why we choose a device initially, but tend to use them based on other people's use of new technologies.


Other great points the author made were, is it portable, does it have the mobility to be used anywhere or is it stuck in a certain spot in your classroom? What's it's life cycle? Will this technology be outdated in a year? How long will the components last? And when choosing applications, will our platforms run these applications or will we be upgrading year after year?


Article 2: 100 Ways Google Can Make You a Better Educator
by Tech Learning Intern


This blog posting on a technology and learning site summarized many ways in which technology, specifically Google can help educators better in the classroom.


The writer gave some great tips and summaries on how we can utilize Google in helping educate our students while getting them engaged by utilizing technology available...for FREE.


He went on to even categorize the many ways you can use Google. Some of the categories were General, Collaboration, News, Search, Communication, Organization, Maps, Books 7 Literature and Images.


This article provided me with a great overview of the many resources out there offered by Google. As we already are utilizing many of these, it was neat to see how many more there were and gave some ideas of how to use even more.

Article 3: Ten Free Project Based Learning Resources That Will Place Students At The Center Of Learning 

by Michael Gorman

The article on Project based learning and placing students at the center was helpful in the fact that it gave me some clarity on how others are incorporating PBL into their lessons and classrooms as well as their school districts.


The article also provided several links to sites that utilize PBL and how they are being used. 


Article 4: Using Instructional Websites to Differentiate 
by Chris Alper-Leroux


Mr. Leroux in his article discussed how in the beginning teachers used to use websites merely as a novelty of sorts, we would maybe place a picture to introduce ourselves and maybe give some biography information and possibly our vitae, but websites were never being used as a place of instruction. 


The article pointed out how teachers can utilize this technology in enhancing classroom learning by giving students a place that they can go for added instruction. This also gives teachers a place that they can provide several ways, or means of access to a variety of content. While we provide lots of content in our classrooms, we can also repost these on our sites as well as provide either audio or video clips that review or restate what was already gone over in the classroom.


He also pointed out that teachers can also use the websites to help co-teach or provide a teaming environment in which they can collaborate and even plan. 

BP3_Diigo Group