Digital Stories

As part of our final project, Susan Chubb and I created a video introducing our students to an imovie project about stress. As part of our 8th grade curriculum, we discuss stress, how to handle stress, and ways to keep from becoming stressed. We thought it would be more meaningful if the students examine stress within the context of their own lives.

To introduce the imovie assignment, we found a non-zen PowerPoint about stress and we used that as an example. We created a situation in which we were asking the students to help produce interesting imovies to teach all about stress since our own materials were so dull and unexciting.

We had a lot of fun making our introduction imovie and we used the procedure that we were requiring our students to follow. First, we made a storyboard, then we practiced (a little), and next we shot the footage. Finally, we did a “quick” imovie edit, which actually took longer than we planned since we were both new to imovie. My only problem with this assignment is that somehow, I was stuck being filmed, and I hate to appear in videos!

Screencasts...a Little Bit of Sunshine...

My first experience with screencasts occurred during the last technology class. For our final project, many teachers created pages for a “Doing Stuff” wiki.

To accomplish my part of the project, I used Jing and found it to be very cumbersome. I created a screencast video about finding images on Flickr. Creating it wasn’t too much of a problem; it was waiting for it to load on the wiki page time each time you wanted to use that wiki page that was. Realizing this, I did the next few items with the screen capture and just typed in my comments. This seemed to work better with the wiki.

In spite of my trouble with Jing and my constant battle with that darn Jing sun on my desktop, I do think screencasts are very useful. Teachers can create them for students to show them exactly how to do something. Then the screencast can be posted on blogs or Panthernet for each student to reference as needed. Screencasts can be turned into lessons; students can create screencasts to show other students how to do things. For example, I might have students create screencasts to show different tips and tricks for working with imovie. Once created, all students can reference this information.

Oh No! That annoying Jing sun!!

Image from: http://cpusergroup.apcug.org/images/jing.jpg

Youtube & You

I was reading Facebook the other day, when I noticed a posting from one of my former teaching colleagues, a creative, dynamic, and energetic young United States History teacher. She’s the kind of teacher the students adore and she goes beyond the “normal” methods of teaching and really makes the lessons hands-on by doing things like converting her room into trenches for her World War I lessons. Anyway, on Facebook she was excited because she found this video about the US Civil War on Youtube:





However, she was up against the district’s firewall:
“…we need to figure out how to get around the firewalls at school to show youtube. this is a great example of things it'd be nice to show the kids!!!”

Fortunately one of her Facebook friends told her he’d show her how to convert the Youtube file so she wouldn’t need to use the internet at all while sharing the video with her class.

So… how has the explosion of web based video changed the teaching and learning landscape?

Well…not so much if you can’t or don’t know how to use the resources!

Fortunately, ISB doesn’t restrain teachers with firewalls and happily they provide teacher training opportunities as well as superb technical support. A few times a week, I am busy converting video files to use in the classroom. I prefer converting them because I don’t have to worry about no-or slow Internet. I use web based video to enhance my lessons. For example, when some students seemed to miss the concept of “materialism” I showed a few minutes of Madonna’s “Material Girl” video to clarify the meaning. In health class, I frequently show anti-bullying, drinking or smoking PSA’s to begin a discussion. I also show alcohol and old tobacco commercials to discuss how the media influences smoking and drinking. Finding the clips is fun but can be time consuming and you need to be careful that you are showing “accurate” content.

Presentations Before & After

Here is an example of a Powerpoint presentation I created before CoETaIL classes:

Ode To Odes

Here is the same presentation, updated using tips I learned in class:

Ode To Odes Update

The differences are very clear!

Using Images While You Teach

I frequently use Creative Commons Flickr searches to find interesting images to use for journal writing or to start class discussions. I think that many of my CoETaIL classmates wrote wonderful blog posts presenting some of these images used in this context. However, many times, especially for social studies, I need historical images or artwork and most of these fall into the Public Domain since they are quite old (about 70-100 years past the life of the artist). Here is one of my favourite images to use with students. It is a print made from an engraving by William Hogarth, issued in 1751, that was part of a campaign leading to the Gin Act of 1751:

This image, a re-release can be found at Wikimedia Commons. The original can be found at the British Museum.

When I’ve used this image in class, I’ve projected the image while the students write down what they see. Next, they discuss with a partner the message of the picture. Finally, as a class, we discuss the image, its message, and how it relates to our curriculum (as an early example of social commentary, how it fits with what was happening in England in the 1750s, or what this says about the impact of drinking gin on your health). Depending on the course content/focus, I’ll show them the companion engraving, Beer Lane as well as discuss the poems that went along with each engraving.

This image is found at the same souces mentioned above.

Another way I use images in class is by having students select their own images. Frequently, I like my students to write a blog post and then find an image to support or complement their entry. For example, at the beginning of this year, students could choose one quote from several economic quotes and then write what the quote was about, a bit about who said it, how it relates to some economic concepts we’ve studied and what the person who said the quote would think about consumerism. To accompany this blog entry, they needed to find an image that symbolized what the quote meant to them.

Now That I've Dusted the Cobwebs Off My Blog...

How This Program Has Changed My Teaching For The New Year...

Actually, these courses in the Certificate of Educational Technology and Information Literacy (CoETaIL) program have changed my teaching during the last school year as well as impacted my teaching for this current school year. Before taking these courses I knew the basics about technology, but little else. I came to ISB Middle School after teaching High School Advanced Placement World History, a course which relies heavily upon Powerpoint notes. To spice things up a little, I added short video clips to the Powerpoint notes presentations. A revolutionary move in my US school district, but the small pictures and bullet heavy slides remained. In my honors World History class, I’d often use a picture or an image to get a discussion started, but the rest of the class relied on low-technology projects and activities.

Last year, while teaching grade 7 Humanities, I had the opportunity to implement many things I learned in CoETaIL in my classroom. Some of the things that I implemented included:

• students blogging about different subjects and topics
• student making Powerpoint presentations in the Kim-Jeff-Zen style
• students using moviemaker to create their Korat photo essays
• students learning about Creative Commons image searches
• students creating and using iGoogle accounts and RSS Readers
• student choices regarding projects using or not using technology (creating videos, podcasts, Xtranormal videos, writing final chapters, creating sculptures, etc.)
• students learning about and using wikis, GoogleEarth, Google Docs, video clips, image searches, and music
• students learning to analyze the validity of websites
• teacher created activities, games, and brief Powerpoint presentations using the Kim-Jeff-Zen style
• class discussions centered around images and the analysis of those images

This current school year, I’ve been busy continuing to utilize technology in my classroom. With three new preps and all of the planning involved, I’ve been very busy (thus, the reason why I’m so far behind in my blog entries!) In addition to continuing some of the same types of technology activities that I used last year, this year I have been working more with Panthernet.

Like last year, this year I don’t use technology just for the sake of using technology in the classroom. I examine what I want the students to learn and use the best tools available to accomplish the task. Sometimes it may be writing a blog entry, while other times I might see more benefit from writing a journal entry or even creating a picture or web using a large sheet of paper. I try to balance traditional methods with technological ones. I think the CoETaIL classes have been instrumental in providing me with the knowledge of the different tools that are available and how to use them.

Image From Flickr, Josef Stuefer http://www.flickr.com/photos/josefstuefer/9500503/