Technology is Sprouting at PJA

In this post:

2nd Graders Sing

Wikis and Blogs Around School…

Comic Strips in Grade 6

Animoto, Grade 2 Art Slide Show

Cool Tech Tools

Bullying in the News

 Macterrarium Image by aur2899

It may be the beginning of the rainy season in the Pacific Northwest, but technology is sprouting at PJA!  PJA teachers are tech trailblazers, diving into tech-integrated lessons and activities.  Model projects are popping up across the school.  Here are a few ideas to inspire you:

 

2nd Graders Sing

Jana has the tech bug, and she decided to flex the power of her new personal macbook.  We worked together in the program Garageband for maybe 15 minutes.  She walked away a pro, ready to record the sweet voices of the 2nd grade class.  We exported the file as an MP3, and she sent it out to all the parents.  What a fun way to deliver New Year greetings. And by the way, you can try this same project or any voice recording project with your students.  PJA has a set of portable digital voice recorders that you can bring into your classroom.  Listen to Jana’s cuties:

Tuuu Shanah Tovah

 

Wiki Warriors:

Wikis are spreading like wildfire.  Mostly, teachers are using the interface to share learning links with students, post homework, and upload documents.  Many teachers have plans to bring their students on the wiki for collaboration and editing, once the students are comfortable with the interface.  Take a look at some of the wiki works in progress at PJA:

4th Grade Wiki:

http://pja4thgrade.wikispaces.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6th Grade Wiki:

http://pjahumanities6.wikispaces.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6th Grade Technology

http://www.pjatech.wikispaces.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Teacher Blogs

Teacher blogs are also starting to sprout around the school.  Before you start a blog, think about using our school web site tool, Finalsite.  Finalsite gives you the option of password protecting your page, so that only PJA families can access your stuff.  Russ and Susan are experimenting with the blog tool, WordPress, which is outside of the PJA web site.  These tools also can offer password protection on pages.  Take a look:

7th Grade Humanities

http://mrromas.wordpress.com/

Russ’s blog is directed at his students, where they can get tips on writing and keep true to the course expectations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2nd Grade

http://sightsandsoundsofsecondgrade.wordpress.com/

Susan is using her blog as a powerful school-to-home link.  She is posting daily happenings from her classroom.  She also has a link on her blog to the student blog, where she posts writing and projects created by her 2nd graders.

 

 

 

 

 

Comic Strips in Grade 6

Elana created a comic strip project based on the memoir assignment, a school memory.  6th graders used the tool Pixton for schools.  The tool is free for the first 30 days, offering students a safe interface that does not collect information upon sign-up (follows COPPA guidelines).  Elana modeled the use of the tool by creating her own comic strip.  Once all the students are finished with the project, they will submit the comics for approval by their teacher.  Here are a few samples (*Note:  Double-click on each image to see a full-size that is easy on the eyes.):

The First Day of School by Mrs. C-R

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rocket Science by Will

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hooger What?  By August

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Animoto, Grade 2 Art Slide Show

http://animoto.com/

Animoto is a slideshow tool that allows you to upload still images (jpgs) and then animate the images with music.  The end result is a slide show that can be viewed online.  For more interesting slideshow tools, go to K8Jtechlearn wikispace.  And please do consider cyber safety when using any online tool.

Grade 2 Art Slideshows:  Saddle Blanket & Contour Line

http://animoto.com/play/aQ1vIW8dF7sLJiC06W1Bug

http://animoto.com/play/W4xgF3LRiRvEOhoWr7DpiA

 

Cool Tech Tools

All “Cool Tech Tools” can be accessed from the PJA Teacher Wiki, K8Jtechlearn. Bookmark this teacher wiki link, as the resources and materials will be constantly growing throughout the year!  You are invited to join this space and add some of your own favorite tools.  I will highlight a few tools with each blog post.

DahBear

This is a Hebrew flashcard interface from the Legacy Heritage Fund.  You can send the list of Hebrew words to DahBear, and they will upload your list.  Your students can also access flashcard sets put up on the site by others.  If you have used Quizlet, the tool works quite similar.  DahBear has plans to allow users to upload their own lists in the future.

 

Zamzar

 

This is a tool that allows you to capture a Youtube video and save it for  later.  This is wonderful for teachers who do not want to rely on the bandwidth speed.  If you experience buffering when viewing Youtube videos, then check out Zamzar.  You can paste the video link from Youtube into the Zamzar tool, select the file format for your video download, and enter an email address.  You will be sent an email message with a link for downloading the video.  The videos should be used for educational purposes and then deleted after use, of course (copyright!).

 

 Bullying in the News

CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360° is airing a special this week on bullying.  A new study conducted and released by AC360° reveals new information about bullying patterns.  The study revealed that patterns of cruelty are directly related to garnering social power and status.  Kids who are already well-liked are most likely to engage in bullying behaviors.  The higher the social ranking, the more likely a student is to bully. And of course, bullying is of tech interest, because tweens and teens use social networking and cell phones to leverage their social standings. The study also revealed that aggressive behavior does not improve social positioning and the behavior is contagious. And what is even more fascinating is that while the Wheatley School in New York is quite affluent (where the study was conducted), the school is a true model for bullying behavior everywhere, as the bullying pattern does not discriminate between socioeconomic classes.   Tune in this week at 5pm Pacific Time to learn more.  A follow-up airing of the original program, “Bullying:  It Stops Here” town hall, will occur on Friday, October 14, 2011, 5pm.


Complete report of the study on bullying at the Wheatley School

findings.from.the.wheatley.school

 

Wiki or Blog?

 

 



Which one is right for you and your students?

As you begin curriculum planning for the 2011-2012 school year, add technology integration to your list of tools to consider for using in the classroom.  Wikis and blogs afford students with an authentic audience, immediate feedback, and a platform that encourages revision, reflection, and personal investment in the learning experience.  And these are just a few of the wonderful benefits.  (Blog/Wiki image created using Wordle.)


General Wiki Features

Video:  Wikis in Plain English by Common Craft (3:53)

Wikis provide a quick (in Hawaiian, “wiki wiki” means “hurry”) and simple way to post information to the World Wide Web.  To the untrained eye, a wiki may look like a web site, as it contains multiple pages and navigation tool bars.  The organizer of the site has ultimate control over who can edit pages, who can view the pages, who can join, as well as the overall look and feel of the site.  Wikis offer a user-friendly template of color schemes, navigation menus, the ability to upload your own logo, post links, and control font styles and colors.  Media like video, still images, sound files, documents, and chat boxes can easily be embedded into any page.  Members who are invited can collaborate, add their own content, and participate in a discussion board. Sophisticated users can subscribe to wiki RSS (real simple syndication) feeds to receive notifications when content has been added or altered.  Wikis often have a history feature that allows the wiki community to see who has posted and edited what content.  Returning to previous versions of a page is a simple task, protecting the content from accidental deletions.  New pages can constantly be added to a wiki and navigation can grow over time.

Wikis in the Classroom

Read More About Wikis on YOUR K8JTechLearn

10 Classroom Ideas for a Wiki: (And there are so many more you can think of on your own!)

  1. Course content:  Post daily homework, activity sheets, resource links online, and class/student-authored notes
  2. Class discussions:  Use the discussion board to chat online about interesting topics related to learning, challenge questions, current events, literature, art critiques, and more.
  3. Collaborate:  Invite an expert in the field to make guest appearances on your discussion board, create learning groups that post information and discuss information online, or invite a class from around the globe to join in on your learning.
  4. Project-Based Learning:  Use the space to invite students to become experts on a subject matter and then post their culminating learning and project.
  5. Podcasting:  Post podcasts to enhance student learning and eventually have the students create their own podcasts.
  6. Record of Learning:  Ask students to post their reflections on learning for any given unit of study.
  7. Cartoons:  Ask students to use a free cartoon generator to create a dialogue that addresses a theme of study or challenging question.
  8. Classroom Newsletter:  Take your classroom newsletter on line and post photos, samples of students’ art, writing, and more.  This is a terrific link to home and a way to get your parents involved in their students’ learning experiences.
  9. Journal:  Use the space as an online class journal.
  10. Digital Book:  Create your own class digital book, representing learning on a specific unit or a variety of units throughout the year.  How about a counting book or a “how to” book of math concepts?


General Blog Features

Video:  Blogs in Plain English by Common Craft (2:59)

 

You can bet that there is a blog out there for almost every interest on the planet.  Blogs can serve as an online journal, a news feed of current information happening, a space to rant, a space to explore a narrow interest, a digital newsletter, and more.  The most recent blog post appears at the top of a blog page, followed by previous posts. A blogger can categorize their posts by topic, as well as archive posts by month and year.  Blogs typically have an “about” page that explains the purpose of the space, as well as a “blog roll,” which is a listing of other blogs that the author follows and respects.  Blogs have a “published” interface that the viewing audience sees and a “dashboard,” or behind the scenes view where the blogger can control posts, comments, user permissions, embed media, add pages, and manage the overall look and feel of the blog.  Just like a wiki, media can be embedded into the posts and pages, like pictures, sound files, documents, and videos.  And similar to a wiki and probably more important to a blog than a wiki, the blog has an RSS feed or “real simple syndication” feed, so that readers can subscribe to the blog like a newsletter and read the feeds or new posts in a “reader.”  (We will talk more about RSS later in the year!  It is an awesome little tool.)  Blogs are meant to be interactive, where readers post their ideas and comments.  The blog manager can control who can post and when comments are posted.  Permission settings allow the blogger to send comments to a review platform where only “approved” comments are posted by the blogger.

Blogs in the Classroom

Read More About Blogs on YOUR K8JTechLearn

10 Classroom Ideas for a Blog:

  1. Classroom Newsletter/Newspaper:  Take your classroom news online with weekly posts, pictures, comments from students, and samples of their work.  This will certainly engage the students and include the parent community too.  Eventually, invite the students to start writing the articles and photo captions.
  2. Classroom Blog Campus:  As a teacher, keep your own blog and in the sidebar, keep a listing of all your students’ blogs.  Your main blog page can organize the “blog campus” and serve as a space where everyone can collectively meet and find one another online.  This eases the management of a class set of student blogs.
  3. Daily Learning & Course Content:  Post daily warm-ups, activities, online resource links, related videos, study guides, challenge questions, and more.
  4. Podcasting:  Use your blog as a classroom “channel” and podcast/broadcast your learning to the world.
  5. Record of Learning & Reflections:  Use the class blog as a space for students to make comments and reflections about their own learning, as well as post questions.
  6. Literary Book Discussion:  The Secret Life of Bees created a blogging rage in the classroom for literature teachers in 2002. The author made a guest appearance online and answered many of the students’ questions.  It is quite possible to invite an author and have them appear with no fees involved.  It certainly makes the discussion online all the more authentic!
  7. Scientific Data Log:  After a science lab, why not ask students to post their data online, predictions, reflections, and then receive feedback?
  8. Collaborate:  Invite a class from the other side of the globe or from somewhere in the USA to participate in an online blog discussion around an area of study.  The possibilities are endless.
  9. Professional Development Reflections:  Being a reflective practitioner is an important part of moving your curriculum forward and growing as a teacher.  Instead of jotting down notes in a file folder, why not reflect about your teaching online and invite your colleagues to chime in?
  10. A Learning Space:  A blog can serve as a post for classroom learning around any topic.  Create a space that is a learning network for any topic that you want to explore with your students; better yet, challenge the students to create the space!

Main Differences Between Wikis and Blogs

  1. Blogs are chronological,  time stamped by date.  They appear linearly in the blog post column.  In contrast, wikis have complex navigational structures and pages can be organized in a variety of ways, determined by the collaborators.
  2. Blogs invite comments on each post.  In contrast, wikis may offer a discussion board, but content in general does not invite constant commenting.
  3. Blogs usually have a single author or one person posting the main content (even though a teacher can post all that students write and create).  In contrast, wikis are a collaborative space with many authors.
  4. Blogs have external links; in contrast, wikis have internal links to other pages within the same wiki, as well as links to web sites outside of the wiki.

Classroom Considerations Before Joining the Wild Frontier

  • Determine your  student learning and professional goals when you choose to use a wiki or a blog.  Which platform will serve your needs the best?
  • What sort of training will you and your students need to be successful in using this tool?  What skills and information do students need ahead of time?  What skills can they learn along the way?
  • Schedule time in class to make online posts.  Students will have more success if they have teacher support and guidance while making blog and wiki posts.
  • How will you weave in digital citizenship into the learning experience, so that students conduct themselves in a safe and appropriate manner online?  Model best practices in digital citizenship in all that you do.  Don’t forget about copyright.
  • How much time are you willing to dedicate to the wiki or blog?  Consider your time and your classroom learning time.
  • How will you communicate with parents about this learning tool, and how can parents feel more connected to their students’ classroom learning?

Wiki and Blog Resources Just for You

Visit the K8JTechLearn wikispace and explore wiki and blog tools, sample blogs and wikis from teachers around the world, as well as more resources and tips to get started with your own wiki or blog.

 

What are your thoughts on wikis and blogs in the classroom?  Start the dialogue by posting your comments.

Web 2.0 and 21st Century Learning

Walt Disney's School Desk

Walt Disney's School Desk

Photo by caniswolfe

 

Thing #3–21st Learning 2.0

Welcome!  Your first blog comment will be posted on my blog here, so that we can collectively discuss the concerns and challenges that the video clips bring to the forefront of our ed tech minds.

Background Information:

In Shift Happens“, Karl Fisch enlightens us with startling facts and statistics about our everchanging global community.  In A Vision of Students Today“, Michael Wesch and his students at Kansas State University highlight how students spend their time and question the relevance of today’s education into the future. Finally, David Warlick comments on Literacy and 21st Century Learning.  He deftly points out that three converging conditions demand a new definition of literacy.  These (3) conditions include: 1.  We are preparing students for a future that is unpredictable; 2.  We are preparing info-savvy students–students who have a richer, deeper, and more personal way of tapping into information; and 3.  We are living in a time with a new information landscape–the WWW is now a participatory interface where we dialogue and contribute to the content in a social manner.

Topics for Discussion:

You are invited to dialouge about the (3) video clips and share your ideas on this blog space.  Use these three guiding questions as you compose your comments:

  1. Why do you think Web 2.0 is important for 21st Century Learning?
  2. When comparing the information in the videos and your own school experiences as an educator, what rings true?  What does not?  What surprises you?  Worries you?
  3. If we are living in a world of Web 2.0, global learning communities, and online social interaction, what do you think “School 2.0” should look like? 

TechBabble is Back & Multimedia Can Dance!

Back to Blogging!

Photo by Mosier J

Photo by Mosier J

Back to Blogging! This is my first blog post for 2009!  I’m glad to be back in the ethersphere, continuing with reviews of savvy Web 2.0 tools.  In addition, I will throw in some brags about teachers’ exemplary uses of technology integration.  If you find an uber tool or know of someone smartly using technology, send me a buzz!

Multimedia Can Dance at The Crefeld School:

Project: Dance & Multimedia

Grade Level: High School

Technology Tools: digital video, imovie (mac movie editing software), and Garageband (podcasting/sound recording mac software)

Sara Narva, dance teacher extraordinaire at The Crefeld School, started with a vision.  She set out to involve her students in a dialogue about race through honest journaling and observations, as well as student collaboration.  From this visionary idea, a dance about race was born, where students collaborated with teacher in choreographing a thought-provoking, stimulating, and sometimes painfully honest look at how a group of teens feel about race.

Not ony did Sara take on a controversial  topic for dance expression, she also challenged herself with utilizing multimedia to help educate and tell the story of the teens’ perspectives.  A mix of music, video, and sound bytes echoed throughout the dance performance, brilliantly challenging the audience’s preconceived notions about race, the world in which we live, the beauty of diversity and its challenges, as well as the social injustices.

After watching this dynamic performance, you walk away questioning your own ways of thinking and you have a renewed perspective on diversity.

You can listen to some clips of the student interviews, which were utilized throughout the dance.

Through Our Eyes: A Dance About Race, The Crefeld School

To read Sara Narva’s reflections on her experiences with this project, you can access the Horace journal article, a journal published by the Coalition for Essential Schools.

Image created in Wordle, a creative word cloud editing tool, created by IBM Visual Research Communication Lab.

 

 

 

Director & Producer: Sara Narva (4:00)

Powered by Podbean.com

Students and teacher granted permission for the publishing of this sound file.  It may not be reproduced or distributed without the permission of Sara Narva and her dancers.

Thing #23: Web 2.0 Course Reflections

K12Learning2.0 :  Embarking Upon a Quest…

Photo by Prescott

I just completed a fascinating, envigorating, and enlightening online course, where I had the opportunity to experiment, collaborate, and explore Web 2.0 tools.  k12Learning2.0 afforded me an opportunity to expand my skill-set, round out my knowledge, all within a safe playground.

Most Valuable Knowledge Gained:

I learned that the more I know, the more I don’t know.  With every new web tool, I am led to another path for exploration.  I look forward to continuing this quest on my own.  To really learn each new tool, you have to try it in an authentic way and take some risks.

RSS Rocks!  My discovery of how RSS works for me has been an incredible timesaver, and it has also been a way to think more creatively about podcasting, gathering news, and broadcasting classroom projects.  Now, I just need to take more time to keep up with all the wonderful feeds out there!

Everything is one degree Google:  How did I not know the power of Google before?  Before this course, I mostly used google for searches, scholarly information, and Google Earth.  Now I am gathering RSS feeds, sharing documents, broadcasting pages, and even creating my own personalized news feeds.  This is a tool that I plan on mining more in the future. 

The Road Ahead…

As a life-long learner, I am jazzed by this new learning experience.  I am dedicated to forging ahead, making more connections, collaborating more with my colleagues, and returning to my original goal of “play”–this is key.  I plan on continuing this blog on my own, outside the Web 2.0 course, plunging into my journey of getting connected, sharing, creating, communicating, collaborating, and constructing knowledge.  This is authentic learning, baby!

Ps.  A loud SHOUT OUT goes to Shelley Paul, tech wizard and course instructor extraordinaire.  Without Shelley’s true passion for life-long learning and harnessing the magic of technology integration, all of this new learning would have never been possible.

Thing #22: Get Connected With Social Networking

Collaborate, Share, Create–Partner With the World…

Photo by WoodleyWonderWorks

Earth 

Thougths on Ning & Social Networking 

I enjoyed exploring Ning, as it opened up a whole new way of thinking about social networking for me as an educator. 

Currently, I am a member of Facebook, which I use to keep up with high school, college, and friends from other cities, as well as overseas.  I am a fairly new member, within the last 6 months, and it is amazing to me how people find me, either through an online “friend” or just from random facebook searches.  For instance, I got an invitation just a few weeks ago to be a “friend” with a woman from France, with whom I was friends with in high school, and I haven’t spoken to her since my senior year. I assume she found me through another online “friend” in the same network. Pretty cool!

Ning is new to me, and from visiting the Classroom 2.0 community, I have a whole new set of ideas for using social networking in the education arena.  I was surprised to see how many discussions take place on a myriad of topics.  In addition, I was delighted with the groups and additional online communities available in Ning that relate to my professional interests, including the Teachers As Writers community and the Second Life group within Classroom 2.0’s social network.  In fact, Kathy Schrock is creator of the Second Life group, which surprised me and made me see how the Classroom 2.0 community is valid.  For some reason, by her membership, and the membership of Tom March and Bernie Dodge, the site has more validity, as these are names that have been around in my introduction to the instructional technology world.  For a digital immigrant like myself, knowing that “real” and “authentic” professionals participate in the community, makes me more motivated in being a part of it as well, as shallow as that may seem.

Finally, I did a little fun search on Ning and discovered a slew of online communities dedicated to doll collecting, a childhood pasttime of mine . Who knew there were so many Madame Alexander fanatics!

Classroom Connection:

  • I see social networking as a powerful learning tool for sharing, collaborating, and creating content. 
  • Students need training in how to participate safely in social networking–what better way than to provide an authentic learning experience in the classroom!
  • As a language arts teacher, I envision participating in a writing network, collaborating with classrooms around the world.  (Move over classroom wiki, we can broadcast, collaborate, and share even more than ever!)
  • As an interdisciplinary experience, authentic research would be a richer experience by collaborating with other learners around the globe, constructing knowledge with people from other cultures, hemispheres, continents, and more–think of the possibilities!

Thing #21: Get Flakey!

corn flakes 

Picture by vinduhl 

Overview:  Pageflakes is a wonderful way to create your own content, all in one place.  Accessing widgets and “flakes” is intuitive and user-friendly.  I love being able to apply my knowledge of the different tools, and then filter them through one space for optimal use by me and my students. 

Pagecast:  The Giver

Students in my English 7 class are starting the novel unit The Giver.  Instead of posting links on my homework page, I created a one-stop-shop of tools, bookmarks, calendars and more.  The coolest part is that the students can keep up with Lois Lowry’s personal author blog, and they can learn about her travels, frustrations, and script writing for her upcoming movie of the novel.  Go RSS!

Classroom Themes: 

  • Current events could pull different news feeds on various countries in Africa, if a World Cultures class was following African news.  Related bookmarks and videos could round out the content on the page.
  • A language arts classroom could create a themed page for a particular author, genre, or novel.
  • Math classes could post a challenge problem on a sticky note, a sketchcast or how to solve a similar problem, as well as links to real world applications of the math.

Thing #20-One Degree Google

Only weeks ago, I felt all things led to Google.  Now I know this to be utterly true.  Google has always been one of my favorite search tools on the Internet, and with the discovery of gmail, Google Docs, Google Reader, Google News, easy to subscribe to RSS news feeds, surveys, and more, I am forever in love!

My students recently signed up for Google Docs to have reliable and easy access to their school documents, without having to send email from and to school.  Of course, the students picked up on the user-friendly interface, discovering the history feature within minutes of opening up an account.  They love it that they can pull up previous versions of their work.  For editing, they can easily share their document with me and their classmates, and the uploading of previously made outlines and drafts was a cinch. I was amazed that most of the formatting stayed in tact.  I did find that students had more control over printing and formatting on pages if they download the document. 

(3) Ideas for Classroom & Professional Use:

Idea One:  Use google docs as an online storage solution, so that you and students have access to your work anytime, anywhere. 

Idea Two:  Use google docs to survey others in a research project.  So many times students in their science fair projects walk around school with a notepad and a list of questions.  They can now automate these questions and have the answers dumped into a spreadsheet, all from google docs!

Idea Three:  Use google docs to collaborate on student writing.  Students can share their documents within assigned writing groups.  Students can offer edits and comments in different colors, right on the google document.  This will remove the need for emailing the work, and it will cut down on the difficulty in reading student hand writing!  In addition, the teacher can also have shared access to student work, offering edits and feedback electronically, instead of marking up hardcopies.

Bonus Ideas: 

  • Use Google Docs to collaborate on a professional document, like a parent newsletter, acceptable use policy, or the revision of some curriculum. 
  • Use Google Docs to create a “quick and dirty” web page, complete with a table of contents.  You can take any google doc and make it a live web page with the click of the button.  I did this with a poem I recently wrote as a model of “ode writing” with my students.  Check out “Ode to Sparkle Jeans“!

The possibilities are endless.  If you can imagine it, it can be utilized in Google Docs!

Thing #19-Tube Power

vintage movie camera

 Photo by lyrabellacqua

Exploring YouTube: 

I thorougly enjoyed exploring youtube and teachertube for “Thing #19”.  Of course, I know how addicted my own students are to youtube, and I can see why.  I am quite impressed by how youtube originated.  It’s amazing how a few young guys’ ideas turned into an empire of sorts.

YouTube in My Classroom 

I have a novel unit starting in May for Lois Lowry’s The Giver for 7th grade Language Arts.  I usually start the unit with a youtube retro video of John Lennon’s “Imagine“.  The students are so drawn to The Beatles and anything retro, and I always try to hook them on pop culture and visual tools to spark their interest.  This youtube video is always a hit. We use the video and lyrics to spark a discussion about “utopia” and I introduce the term “dystopia” at the same time.  This ignites a discussion in small groups about what they would do to make the world a “utopia” or perfect place. 

This year, I plan on expanding the use of youtube with a student-produced video representing the theme of the novel  The Giver.  Students can choose still images or live footage.  I think because of the shortage of time, they may opt for the still images, which we can compile from flickr and original shots.  We also may even use windows photo story for the creation of the movie.  The creation of the video is an alternative to my previous idea of creating slideshows using Rock You, Animoto, or another slideshow production tool available for free online.  I think I’ll give the options to the students.  Either way, they will be required to embed the videos or slideshows on our class wiki, WritePostRead

Students will be able to sample a few student videos for the novel The Giver by viewing clips on youtube and teachertube.  Here is a  trailer of the novel, created by some students:

Video by clarkviola 

Students will be able to use this sample to inspire their creativity.  In addition, we can use this sample clip as a springboard for critique, effects, and style. 

I did notice that teachertube offers less videos on topical searches, but each item I found was better prepared.  It is evident that many of the projects were teacher-coached and results of well-designed rubrics and scaffolded instruction.  This will be a timesaver for me in the future, as many of the trailers I found on youtube were lacking in quality.

YouTube for Fun:  I had a blast endulging in my love or the ’80s, surfing many video collections and sound bytes of the one-hit wonder bands of the ’80s and mixes of the ’80s’ sounds.  It made me smile and remember my own big hair days in high school:)  I also found a cool video on embroidery.  I found myself forced into the art of the needle for my daughter’s recent rite of passage at school.  I did find videos on different web sites when I needed it, but I think youtube would have been a much easier search for me.

Thing #18-My Very Own Podcast With Evoca!

Techbabble’s (3) Ideas for Podcasting With Teachers and Students:

Evoca was quite user friendly and easy to record a short sound clip.  It did take some time for the sound to get converted into an MP3.  It’s a “quick and dirty” way to throw up a sound file with very little effort.  It would be nice to be able to splice off the end or the beginning to remove the dead sound, due to my slow clicking of “stop and start”.  Having instruction on how to embed in my blog was really helpful, as I am sure it would have been a few hours of tinkering and emailing helpdesk in order to get it working on my own.