Sunday, October 10, 2010
Friday, October 8, 2010
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.
Monday, October 4, 2010
BP4_Web2.0
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.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
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.
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.
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.
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