Change Story

Hi again,

For one of my classes, we have to create a Change Story - take a familiar story and change it in some way, or take a moment in history and ask, "What if?"  My Change Story is actually the combination of four stories and an expression:

• Peter and the Wolf
• The Three Little Pigs
• Little Red Riding Hood
• The Boy Who Cried Wolf
• "A wolf in sheep's clothing"

Below, you will find my change story, called Peter and the Wolf.  Enjoy!

Long Time, No See!

Hi, everyone!

It has been a long time - too long - since I posted on here, and I fully intended on continuing this blog, so I am going to try to make a conscious effort to keep up with it.  I am now heavily into my Instructional (Educational) Technology Master's Degree program at University of Central Florida, and I am really enjoying it. At this point, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel - two semesters to go!

Feel free to comment.  I hope we all can share.

~ Christi S.

Personal Learning Summary - Ah-hah Moments

Hi Everyone!

I began my Master’s Degree last summer.  I wasn’t sure if I had enough brains to handle the program, but I summoned the courage and followed the proverbial Yellow Brick Road to find my heart’s desire.  I have to admit that I haven’t exactly been skipping the whole time, but during this term, I have finally settled into the routine, and I feel like I am finally in the right place. 

There’s no place like home, right?

The following short video sums up my experience with Educational Technology thus far.  (For those of you who are not in my class, my professor is Dr. Kelvin Thompson and the Ed Tech Graduate Advisor is Dr. Glenda Gunter, who is my instructor in another class.)

Lyrics to Somewhere On the Computer

Somewhere on the computer typing fast

There’s a teacher in grad school writing about her past.

Somewhere on the World Wide Web is her blog

That she wrote all her musings and her assignments on.

Someday she’ll be back in a class

And show her kids the net en masse and teach them

The proper way to search for stuff

So they will know what’s good, not fluff

On Google and Yahoo.

Somewhere out on the web is her wiki

And the page that she made to write her biography.

My knowledge won’t just disappear,

I know I’ll use it, now and every year!

As my class comes to an end, I intend to keep adding to this blog.  I want to thank my instructor, Dr. Kelvin Thompson, for showing me what great online teaching is like. You were always available to answer questions and you went above and beyond to make your instructions clear.   In addition, thanks to my classmates who taught me, shared with me and encouraged me. Best of luck to you all!

~ Christi S.

Completed Digital Storybook Project

Hey everyone!

In my graduate class, we were given the task of developing a digital storytelling project with our students.  While we were not required to produce the final project, I decided to go ahead and complete the project with my niece and nephew, who are six-years-old, in first grade, and love school.  "First grade is great!" they say. (I am not currently teaching, and they are always happy to be "my students" when I need a class.)

So.... here is the final product of the last several week's worth of grad school lessons:  A Mischievous Monkey

Mischievous Monkey Show

It's fun to see the culmination of the project and to see the final product with their illustrations and voices.

I also uploaded the files and made a Prezi of the story.  I think I like the SlideShare version better.



Enjoy!

~ Christi S

Lesson Plan - and Link to Wiki

Here is my updated Digital Storytelling Project.  Click here to go to my wikispace.  In addition, you will find a lesson plan here: Mischievous Monkey Lesson Plan.

Enjoy!

Christi S

Activity Reflection #7 - Developing Rubrics

Hi!

This week, in my graduate class, we are exploring the world of evaluation, assessment, rubrics, and other means of seeing if whatever we are doing is effective. Sometimes it's hard to tell while we're in the teaching trenches if we are really getting the message across.  It is very important to self-evaluate ourselves as we are teaching, and adjust as necessary, depending on the students' responses, but it is also difficult to evaluate whether or not everyone is getting the concept.  Is the shy, quiet boy in the back getting it?  Is the chatty bubbly girl in the first row really able to focus?  Is the creative, out-of-the-box-thinking girl pondering the lesson or is she off in the world she has envisioned inside her head?  Is the athletic boy who can rattle off every MLB player's stats without a blink of an eye really grasping this concept?  Is the bright, inquisitive boy in the front row bored because this isn't a challenging enough lesson?  Is the girl who just found out her parents are getting divorced able to even wrap her brain around my words? Kids are good actors, too - they can pretend to "get it" while not having a clue of what the teacher is talking about. Their minds are off on other things, and as teachers we have to cast off, dangle the worm, hope they bite, and reel them in.  Hopefully we've chosen the right bait.  And, in a sense, evaluation and development of rubrics allows the teacher to learn if she really caught any fish. I mean, not all teachers are as competent as the economics teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off - his personality, brilliance, and delivery reaches all his students in the most effective and efficient ways - ummmmmmm....... doesn't he?

Whenever I hear the word "rubric," for some reason, I think of two things - Rubik's Cube and Ruprect, from the movie, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - neither of which has anything to do with rubrics, the evaluation tool.  A rubric can be defined as "An authentic assessment tool used to measure students' work. It is a scoring guide that seeks to evaluate a student's performance based on the sum of a full range of criteria rather than a single numerical score. A rubric is a working guide for students and teachers, usually handed out before the assignment begins in order to get students to think about the criteria on which their work will be judged" (Kennesaw State University).  I think that last statement is the KEY to rubrics - the student gets the rubric BEFORE they do the assignment so that they know what exactly is expected of them. They know ahead of time what they need to do, to what extent, and how well they need to do it to achieve a satisfactory grade.

So, my assignment this week is to create a rubric to accompany my digital storytelling project for my fictitious first grade class.  (I am not currently teaching, but I have a niece and nephew, twins, who are in first grade, so I have them in mind as I work on my project ideas.)  While I am pretty familiar with rubrics, and I have even created some, I have never made a rubric for first graders.  I wasn't even sure where to start on how to evaluate them so I checked with a friend of mine who teaches first grade.  Of course, kids at that age are all at different reading levels, so that was something that she stressed with me - make it easy enough to read for the kids who are pretty good readers, and let someone help the struggling readers.  (This advice was given for the rubric, not for other first grade assignments, I should note.)  

I found the Kennesaw State University site to be extremely useful.  Not only did they define rubrics, their purposes, uses, and features, as well as their advantages, they gave many samples of various kinds of rubrics for different grade levels.  I found this the most helpful area.  There was a section of rubrics designed for K-2 students, and this is where my "ah-HA!" moment happened.  Before I even started this research, I realized that many first grade children wouldn't grasp the whole scale of 1-5 thing or "Student showed adequate knowledge of the subject matter by listing at least three examples of how moths can cause harm both inside and outside of a home".  No, the language needed to be simple and, if possible, symbolic.  I was drawn to one that used faces:  

The rubric looked cute with all the little faces and it contained simple language....  but not really what I wanted.  I love the idea of the neutral face and the smiley, but the frowny one just kind of made me step back and think - Anyone who didn't do the assignment at all would get the frowny face for each question, in my opinion,  but if the student even TRIED, shouldn't they get something for their effort?  Am I being careful not to hurt their self-esteem?  Well, yes, but we are talking first graders here.  SIX years old.  Let's be happy for their attempt, at this point.  Perhaps later in the school year, we may revise that philosophy, but for now, I am content with not hurting their little egos.

So, I came up with my own rubric with stars as the symbolic rating system:  one kind of ordinary-looking shooting star has the lowest rating, one with a more elaborate tail represents the middle rating, and one with a lot of stars as the highest rating.  I included a key from not-so-good, to good, to very good. 

I went back to my curriculum page (on which I have done a lot of tweaking lately) and wrote my rubric criteria based on the instructions I had written there.  I thought that was the most logical way to create it, since those directions are what the students will have to follow anyway.  Here is what I came up with - a rubric for the students to do for themselves as well as one for me to evaluate each of them.

First, the student version.........

 

 

Now, for the teacher version....

I like what I created and I am not sure if I would change it.  I think I made a pretty thorough rubric that my students and I can use to evaluate their work. 

Comments? 

Until next time, keep reelin' in those kids!

~ Christi S

Resources:

Kennesaw State University. (2007) Assessment rubrics. Retrieved from http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/intech/rubrics.htm 

WOW! Check out Voki!

I saw this free site referenced in a classmate's blog and had to check it out.  What a fun site.  On Voki, I created this avatar, gave it a name, and "told" it what to say. I love how the eyes "follow" the cursor. 

The best part?  It's FREE!

Activity Reflection #6 - Here's the Story...

Hello Everyone!

WHEW!  This has been a CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZY week!  It's hard to believe that I was in the heart of Times Square in NYC just 5 days ago, came home, went to work, acquired a nasty sinus infection along the way, completed my Digital Book Trailer for my other graduate class, and did all the coursework for this week's module for THIS graduate class - all since Monday!  (Well, I had been working on the book trailer since February, but I finished up all the editing this week.) 

So this week, we are starting to put our digital story plans into action.  The story will be a question-and-answer-type story written by a class of first-graders - a group project.  The title of the story is "Mischievous Monkey" - about a naughty monkey who escaped from the zoo - and the students will write their answers to the question, "What will he do?" They will illustrate their story and record their voice reading it. Each student's work will be combined with their classmate's responses. In the last few weeks, we brainstormed ideas, created a wiki curriculum page for the activity, and researched appropriate websites for our students to visit.  This week brings us to the next level - creating a sample story (on SlideShare or Prezi)  for our students to view.

And this is where I sat.


For two days.


Neither program was what I was planning on using.  I had been planning on using PowerPoint - simple, accessible, user-friendly - to create the story. But, since we are learning new software and I shouldn't close my mind off to new things, I decided that I should get more practice with SlideShare and Prezi. 

Hmmm....  But, which one?  There are pros and cons for using both, of course.  I started with Prezi.  I uploaded all my pictures and added the text to each one.  I found that it was MUCH easier to create this time around - and I actually like my final product. I also love the graceful, smooth movement between the elements. That being said, I don't like that you can't add audio.  That is a BIG problem for me. I saw you can add a YouTube video - I wonder if I could somehow hide a YouTube video off to the side that only plays audio?  I guess the timing wouldn't be right because the user presses the next button. Or could I have multiple YouTube videos that played with each click?  Sounds like a hassle and much too complicated.


Here is my Sample Story "What Can You Do on a Rainy Day?" on Prezi.  (Note: I changed the topic of my book for the example - I didn't want them to copy what I did.)





The whole lack of audio issue really bugs me.  My activity is for a class of first graders, so I think that audio is extremely important - to reinforce the words on the screen for the readers as well as guide the struggling readers.  So, I most likely would not use Prezi for a first grade story project.

On to SlideShare....  I first created a simple PowerPoint presentation with the text I wrote and the pictures I drew.  I did not use any transitions or animations since they would not work in SlideShare.  Then I uploaded the presentation to the site.  I knew there were directions to upload and sync sound to a SlideShare show somewhere on the site, so I hit the forums and searched.  I found some great step-by-step directions. (I love forums!)  I used Audacity to record the audio as one complete file and then exported it as an mp3 and uploaded that to my account.  Syncing it was a little tricky at first, but once I figured out what exactly I was supposed to do, I had the sound attached to my presentation and to my liking pretty quickly.  I can definitely see myself using this site with PowerPoint, will use it for the digital story as well.

What CanYou Do on a Rainy Day?

View more webinars from mschrisann

So there it is... as Paul Harvey used to say, "The Rest of the Story"... I am looking forward to the final product.

I hope you are, too!

~ Christi S

Monkey Business - Activity Reflection #5

Hey Everyone!

I hope your week is going well.  I am on Spring Break from work, but I am not on Spring Break from school, so I am writing this blog entry from my hotel room in Times Square in NEW YORK CITY!  If anywhere in the world was technology driven, it is Times Square in NYC, that is for sure.  Bright, blinking, glittery lights sparkle from every building, flicker on signs and street lights, and glimmer on billboards and advertisements.  From the room key to the touchscreen computers in the taxis, we are totally surrounded with technology.  Even the American Natural History Museum was a technological wonder.

I am having a ball here with my 14-year-old niece, but we are in overload.  Everywhere we go, people are rushing around, lights are blinking, and we hear honking, sirens, and general traffic noise.  It can be awe-inspiring but also overwhelming.  My senses are on overload.  It makes me wonder if technology helps us or hinders us? Are our lives better with all this going on or will we suffer in the long run?  I don't know the answer to that.  I suspect that in the end, we suffer from the overload.  Well, in any case, we're EXHAUSTED.

It has been so hard to concentrate on my studies this week, and I know a part of that is because of this technology overload.  I don't especially want to sit down at the computer after all the over-stimulation.  I just want to close my eyes and THINK.  Which isn't to say that I don't WANT to do my work this week.  I am just struggling with gathering my thoughts and presenting them in a way that makes sense.....

This week we are reading and discussing curriculum pages.  Our instructor defines curriculum pages as such, "Curriculum pages help keep students safe and where they belong while on the Internet. They also assist teachers in focusing their students' learning. Creating and utilizing curriculum pages provides students with high quality and appropriate Web resources. Curriculum pages also encourage independent thinking and working skills in students, as well as developing higher order thinking and problem solving skills" (Thompson).  Curriculum pages provide students with a condensed web experience, in my opinion - meaning, the instructor brings together the resources that she wants the students to access, and from there, the student can read, view, explore, listen, etc. to the appropriate educational examples without having to do a lot of searching, which can waste time.  The instructor can use the curriculum page as a guide to assist her students in getting the most appropriate information in the most efficient manner.

Last week, we created a wiki that we could use as a collaborative site in our classroom, so that students could contribute to the site as well as gain knowledge from it.  According to dictionary.com, a wiki is "a web site that allows anyone to add, delete, or revise content by using a web browser" (dictionary.com).  This concept lends itself very well in an educational setting, since a teacher can guide students to certain websites and present various examples of multimedia all in one place. A student doesn't have to be at school to access the wiki, and the student may add their input to the site as well.  Group projects work well in this forum.  We will be using the wiki as a curriculum page in this class, for this project.

In addition, last week we also began brainstorming story ideas for an individual or group story project for our students.  I came up with a collaborative story, a question-and-answer-type story to do as a class project for first graders. The title of the book is A Mischievous Monkey Escaped from the Zoo! The format of the story is as follows:

Students will add their contribution to the following scenario. "A mischievous monkey escaped from the zoo!  Oh no!  What will he do?"  Then each student will answer the question of what they think the monkey will do.  The "mischievous monkey" phrase will precede ever student answer.  For instance,

• A mischievous monkey escaped from the zoo!  Oh no!  What will he do?  Student 1:  The monkey will hang from the trees and giggle.
• A mischievous monkey escaped from the zoo!  Oh no!  What will he do?  Student 2:  The monkey will eat one hundred bananas.
• A mischievous monkey escaped from the zoo!  Oh no!  What will he do?  Student 3:  The monkey will roller skate down the street.

I am not currently teaching, but I have twin 6-year-old niece and nephews who are willing, active, and eager participants in whatever project I am currently working on.  I also have a good friend who teaches first grade and she gives me feedback.  However, first graders aren't as technologically savvy as say..... any other higher grade, so my challenge has been how to create this assignment for the appropriate technological level of 6-year-olds.  I mean, my nephew knows how to "accidentally" move all the icons around on the desktop of a computer and my niece knows how to color inside the lines in a digital coloring book, but typing skills?  website navigation skills?  and basic reading skills?

This activity has been a challenge for me - to make one easy enough for first graders to do while still creating the wiki interface as assigned.  I decided that this digital storybook activity would be best suited for students to do with their reading buddies (presumably in 4th grade or above) or a "Special Grownup" (the politically correct term, I have heard, instead of saying "parents" because you never know what your student's home life is like, and of course, you want to include all....).  This project could also be done with the help of parent volunteers - those parents who are always helping/hovering in the classroom and who would be very eager to help out with this sort of thing.  In other words, this is not a project for a first grader to do alone.

Here is the link to my wiki's homepage:  hitechedcheck.wikispaces.com and the link to my Mischievous Monkey Digital Storybook Page.

Looking at my Mischievous Monkey page, there are a few things that I would adjust:  I think I would create separate pages for each of the activities - meaning, I would have one page for the monkey facts and photos, one page for monkey stories, and another page for the drawing tutorials.  I think that it is too long of a page to have all the links together.  I did have some links that were to pages of lists of links and, after reviewing them, I actually linked my site to the best sites directly, rather than linking to more links.  I think that simplified things.  In addition, I would include more graphics on my page - it looks pretty bleak right now.  I might even include some sounds or embedded videos, since these are small children who probably don't get around online very easily.  But, as this is a work in progress, I am satisfied with where my wiki is at the moment, and in the next few days, I can spend the a little time retooling it to where I want it to be.

In the meantime, there's Lion King and Mary Poppins to see, as well as a behind the scenes tour of the show Wicked - all before we fly home on Monday.

Happy Spring Break, INDEED!

Reading Reaction #5 - Technology Integration

Once Upon a TIME...


Once upon a time.... How many stories have we read that begin that way?  When I read those words, a sense of nostalgia washes over me, and I begin to feel cozy and warm.  Those words take me back to my childhood when things were simpler and stories always had happy endings.  Hearing, telling, and reading stories are comforting and familiar activities, and are an integral curriculum component in today's classrooms. 

Digital Storytelling seems to be a new trend in educational technology. I am in my third term as a grad student, and this is the fourth class where we talked about digital storytelling - and I had to do a digital storytelling project in each class - to which I say, "YAY!"  I am totally on board with the whole idea of digital storytelling - it is engaging, creative, and reaches so many different kinds of learners in so many different ways.  You have graphics and videos for your visual learners.  You have sound effects, music, dialogue, and narration for your aural learners.  You have buttons to click, storyboards to create, and a project to do for your tactile learners.  In creating digital stories for your students, the use of technology enhances the story beyond belief.  But, when you allow your students the opportunity to create their own digital stories, the learning potential is incredible! 

I once was working in a college learning lab and created some tutorials for the prep math, prep reading, and prep writing courses.  Instead of making stale PowerPoint slides about the Order of Operations in math, I made up a story about a doctor, Dr. Heinrich Zyphenblaza, who slept through class when the instructor went over the correct order in which to perform an operation on a patient.  Because he missed that lesson, when he tried to operate on a person, he flubbed it, and lost his medical license.  As a result, he retreated to the Swiss Alps where he studied math, and noticed that when he did certain math problems, he would get different results, depending on the order in which he calculated the problem.  Then, he gave a short explanation, with examples, about Order of Operations.  At the end of the PowerPoint, the student is given the opportunity to do some practice problems. Creative?  I think so.  Did it grab the students' attention?  Definitely - from the "Doctor, Doctor!" introduction at the beginning of the presentation - to the silly humor in the middle - to the Xrays of the math problems on the screen.  Effective?  Yes.  I had so many students tell me that they could remember the correct order after seeing that presentation because they remembered Dr. Heinrich Zyphenblaza (well, maybe not his name, but they remembered what he DID).  I also made digital story-like PowerPoints that covered Tone Words, Greatest Common Factor, and Prepositions (note:  this PowerPoint is unfinished).  I found that the story was the attention-grabber, and once I got their attention, the concept could be introduced.  In addition, presenting the subject matter in story form allows the student to relate to it in a more personal way.

I used to teach elementary music.  I had extensive aural training during my schooling.  I am not an aural learner, though. There are three types of learners:  Auditory, Visual, and Tactile.  I know now that I am a visual learner and a tactile learner.  In school, in math, I could not do a problem (especially word problems) without drawing a picture.  For example, I am so visual, that when my coworker mentions that after 5 pm we have a skeleton crew working, I actually picture a bunch of skeletons sitting at their desks, working.  Given the choice of doing a 5-page research paper that might take me two weeks to write or a five-minute video presentation that might take me four weeks to create, I'd take the video in a heartbeat.  I love to write, but I love to do projects even more.  Get me down and dirty into the heart and soul of a lesson, and I will totally embrace the subject, and therefore, I will retain more of the material. 

While I earned good grades in school, I always felt that I struggled to make those good grades.  I remember reading my textbooks for hours and not remembering a thing I read after I finished.  I sat in class and took diligent notes, studied them each night, but that really wasn't helpful either.  Both methods of learning were passive. My happiest times in school were when we were assigned a project like "Draw a comic strip about the characters in suchinsuch book" or "Make a diorama about sea life".  Those assignments were so memorable for me, not only because I got to MAKE something, but because it became an individualized lesson.  Whatever I created came from me, my interpretation of what I learned, and that was motivating to me.  I STILL remember, 32 years later, a project I did as an alternative to a book report in 5th grade:  I recreated a scene from the book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  I made a 3D model of the Chocolate Room, complete with little Oompa Loompa figures and a cocoa-brown-colored fabric "chocolate" waterfall held up by two camouflaged drinking straws.  I included every detail I could think of and make to replicate the vision I had in my head. One might say that writing a book report is more educational, and more students should write! write! write!  And I agree, to a certain extent.  Writing IS incredibly important, and knowing how to write is crucial for our students. But, when a student just regurgitates what he or she has read, have they really learned anything?  Has the book really come alive for them?  Will they remember the information three days later? a month later?  a year later?  32 years later?  If we can incorporate more creative lessons for our students, the results in their learning increases exponentially.  The ineffable learning potential is immense. The process of creating is active, and it draws on the highest levels of cognitive learning as well.

So, now, while I am not currently teaching, I can see how bringing a subject to life via storytelling can have a BIG impact on our students.  "Educators recognize that technology can serve as an extremely powerful tool that can help alleviate some of the problems of today's schools.  Motivating students to learn is one area that all educators constantly are trying to achieve.  Technology has the potential to increase student motivation and class attendance" (Shelly 330).  For the purposes of this current project, I am teaching an imaginary class of first graders.  My challenge this week is to come up with a digital storytelling idea for my students to create in reading.  Since repetition is so important when learning to read, I want to assist my students in writing a digital story that has repeating or patterned sections, and each student can write their own section.  This could be a great rhyming lesson, too.


THE STORY:  A Mischievous Monkey

Students will add their contribution to the following scenario. "A mischievous monkey escaped the zoo!  Oh no!  What will he do?"  Then each student will answer the question of what they think the monkey will do.  The "mischievous monkey" phrase will precede ever student answer.  For instance,

• A mischievous monkey escaped the zoo!  Oh no!  What will he do?  Student 1:  The monkey will hang from the trees and giggle.
• A mischievous monkey escaped the zoo!  Oh no!  What will he do?  Student 2:  The monkey will eat one hundred bananas.
• A mischievous monkey escaped the zoo!  Oh no!  What will he do?  Student 3:  The monkey will roller skate down the street.

THE PROJECT:

Each student will draw a picture of their answer.  After the pictures have been scanned into the computer, I will import them into a slide show-type program like Movie Maker, PhotoStory, or even PowerPoint. The student will type their answer onto the scanned in picture. Then each student will record themselves reading their contribution into Audacity. I could record myself saying, "A mischievous monkey escaped the zoo." The entire class could say, "Oh no!  What will he do?" I will import the sounds into the slide show, and assist the students in creating a transition between their slide and the next one.

This is a project that could also be done with Reading Buddies (if the buddies were 4th grade and up) or with a parent volunteer. 

This kind of story is a "Question and Answer" story.  I found a neat little writer's workshop site about how to introduce this subject to your students.  I would use some of the tips on this page with my students to show the kind of story we are writing.  In addition, I'd share the following sites with my students for ideas:

• National Geographic Magazine Monkey Photos
• Globio
• Monkey Stories

While this is just in the planning stages, I can see how this could make a great class project.  And, since we are creating it as a digital story, we can share it with the rest of the school and with the parents. All stories need to be told; using technology is essential in telling today's students' stories.

When I was typing the title of this week's post, I thought of an acronym for TIME:  (Technology Integration Means Excitement!)  

Until next week...  

~ Christi S

References:

Shelly, G.B., Gunter, G.A., & Gunter, R.E. (2010). Integrating technology and digital media in the classroom (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Course Technology.

Activity Reflection #4 - Digital Media Applications

♣ ♣ ♣ Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!!! ♣ ♣ ♣

Top o' the mornin' to ya'll out there in Blog World...  It's time for my weekly post, and once again I am excited about this week's topic:  Digital Media Applications.  (For those of you just reading this for the first time, I am a grad student in Instructional Technology, and writing this blog is part of my Introduction to Educational Technology class.)  It's hard to believe the term is more than half over.  We had a week off last week for Spring Break, but I really didn't take the time off of school - I still did my coursework in hopes to get ahead a little.  Did it work?  Hmmmm... not really.  I have a few big projects coming up, and, because of that, I am trying to keep up a steady pace.  What is that saying - slow and steady wins the race?  Well, not to this turtle, and I think that this is kind of what I am feeling this week:  

Do you believe this little guy!?!  Look at him go!  (And don't I have obnoxious neighbor-dogs?????)

Yes, I do have a point... and I am getting there.  And if you are a regular reader of my blog (THANK YOU!) you know that I usually tangent out somewhere but I always come back to my point... eventually.  And here I am... coming back.  I am beginning to feel the crunch of the end of the term and it is still weeks away!  So I do, in a sense, feel like this little turtle who is scurrying as fast as his little legs can carry him.  (Is it wrong that when I saw him outside my window a few weeks ago, I ran to video-tape him for a project I am working on, and as he approached the fence around my yard, I picked him up and carried him back across my yard so that he would have to scamper across my yard again - not once, but TWICE???)

Interesting, though, that I filmed him for a project in one class, and I am using him as an analogy in another class.  What a busy little turtle -- little does he know how important he is to me!  



So why did I film this little turtle anyway?   (Let's call him Stan - I think he needs a name and, according to a friend of mine, Stan is a great name for a turtle.)  I am working on a movie for another graduate class I am in, and I am trying to get some footage of animals in their natural habitat.  I'm creating a digital story, and while Stan is not the star of the movie, I have a special role for him.  Part of our lesson this week was about digital storytelling - where stories used to be told from person to person in the past, they then got written down for permanency when the printing press was invented.  Now, with digital storytelling, we can make stories come alive - bring them to life with action and give them personality and excitement.


That is one of the challenges to teaching today's children:  bringing action, personality and excitement into the classroom.  John Keller, who developed the ARCS (Attention, Relevance, Confidence, Satisfaction) Model,   wrote about human motivation and persistence as:  "the desires for adventure, for explorations into the unknown, for expanding our boundaries of knowledge, feeling and understanding, and for having the persistence and courage to conquer personal and world obstacles that might otherwise impede these quests" (ARCS Categories).  Sounds pretty lofty, eh?  But, remember that people want to know that what they are doing has a meaning, a purpose, and that will give them contentment and pride.  That, in turn, creates a more meaningful experience, and so on and so on...  It's cyclical.  The key here is to grab their attention!


Of course, it is important to note here that we are here to EDUCATE our children, not ENTERTAIN our children.  I recently attended FETC (Florida Educational Technology Conference) in Orlando.  I had the opportunity to explore the exhibit hall, and sat in on a few demonstrations.  One was for a 3D projector - and while I was listening, I thought, "When did we start entertaining our kids?  Is this REALLY necessary??"   Our text uses the word, edutainment, to describe this trend - "an experience meant to be both educational and entertaining" (Shelly 282).  I do think that it is important for us to have engaging, interactive and fun lessons, but we are there to teach, not be our students' 7-hour song-and-dance show.  When looking at software and educational games for our classrooms, it is important to make sure that it follows the ARCS model.

I am very passionate about digital media applications... multimedia.   I am a former elementary music teacher.  Music is in my soul.  I am a painter and art is in my hands.  I am a writer and words fill my head. I have a degree in music education and 2 certificates in graphic design and multimedia.  With multimedia, digital media, all my loves and talents can be combined:  I am a creator, and the computer is my palette.  


I think I should distinguish between the terms multimedia and digital media here.  They are often used to mean the same thing, but multimedia can be any kind of media.  "Multimedia incorporates a variety of elements. including text, graphics, audio, video, and animation.  Originally, a multimedia presentation did not have to be digital.  For example, multimedia might have incorporated a slide show for visuals, a tape recorder for audio, and an overhead projector for text" (Shelly 270).    When I was a kid, I remember the art teacher showing us how to use different materials to create our art pieces:  fabric, magazine clippings, yarn, buttons, papers, chalk, brads, recyclables, markers, glue, paints, tissue, beads, etc - basically whatever we could find - and collage all the items into a work of art - she called it mixed media - in which we created a multimedia work of art.  Next, "digital media is defined as those technologies that allow users to create new forms of interaction, expression, communication, and entertainment in a digital format" (Shelly 6).  So, in a sense, digital media is multimedia done with technology - digital multimedia.  


With digital media, a world of possibilities opens up for educators.  


We were given the task of exploring two free multimedia presentation applications:  Slideshare and Prezi. As a side note, first of all, I will say, first and foremost, that I love PowerPoint.  I am self-taught, and because of this, I really push the envelope on what can be done as far as animations, sound, interactivity, and graphics.  After I played around with how to work PowerPoint to my liking, I took a class in which I learned the terminology and the basics properly. I know that is kind of backwards, but I like to play around in a new program before reading the manual.  It's amazing how much you can learn by clicking on this or that and seeing what happens.  (Save often, and remember UNDO is your friend.) So, going into this activity with my bias already towards PowerPoint, I investigated both SlideShare and Prezi - and here are the results:


A Prezi Presentation.... about Prezis...

The next video (below) is a PowerPoint that I uploaded to SlideShare....  I'm not impressed at all with the results - my animations are bunched up and the sound doesn't work.  Turns out you have to upload a separate audio file to their site  - not gonna happen after spending hours syncing the audio and animations to the slides.

Super E Show

Next is a link to the real show - which I uploaded to my personal website.  It may ask you to download the file; I haven't figured out how to get a PowerPoint to automatically play from my site yet. This little PowerPoint show is part of my Personal Learning Plan, and it is an example of Digital Storytelling. Super E! I created this tutorial to be more like a story, rather than a straight instructional lecture, to teach beginning readers about the concept of silent e - when you add an e to the end of a word, the first vowel makes a long sound and the e is silent.  I decided to make the e a superhero - capable of giving his power to other vowels - BUT - he is not so powerful that he doesn't sometimes get tired.  ☺

I hope that my PowerPoint follows the ARCS model - Let's see.... Attention - I think my little E superhero concept and picture catch the user's attention.  I chose red, yellow, and blue for that exact reason.  Relevance - This is an important concept for children to learn: vowels have different sounds depending on their placement.  Confidence - Children who view this tutorial will gain confidence not only in silent e but in short and long vowel sounds.  Satisfaction - I sent the PowerPoint off to one of my friends who teaches first grade and she said her kids loved it. 

So there you have it - edutainment in action!

Have a good week!

~ Christi

References:

Keller, J. (2010).  ARCS categories. Retrieved from http://www.arcsmodel.com/home%20-%20goal.htm

Shelly, G.B., Gunter, G.A., & Gunter, R.E. (2010). Integrating technology and digital media in the classroom (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Course Technology.

Like a Kid in a Candy Store... Reading Reaction #4

*Happy Dance*  WOW!   *Happy*     $1000!    *Dance*      HURRAY!    *Happy Dance*


No, I haven’t saved money by switching to Direct General Auto Insurance.…. But I do have the opportunity to spend 1000 bogus George Washingtons on software for my classroom. One THOUSAND buckaroos, and I can purchase anything I want. Ok, okay, I can hear you saying, “She’s THAT excited about fake shopping?”

Well, yeah.

Sad, isn’t it? Well, not really! Kinda cool, actually. In my graduate class, we were given a fun scenario: “You are a classroom teacher with one internet-connected classroom computer. Your principal has just come to you with the offer to purchase one academic software program for your classroom, and price is not a concern.” (Later, the instructions allow the software to cost up to $1000.) We have to justify our purchase, explaining how students will learn by using the software we select. In addition we were given the following companies’ website addresses to research and choose our purchase:

Academic Superstore
Journey Ed
K12 Software

I am not currently teaching, so I decided to pretend that I am a middle or high school media teacher – or computer software teacher. Yeah. With one classroom computer. It could happen. I certainly hope I’d have more hardware available to me in real life, but I am creative and resourceful, and I set about my task with gusto and imagination.

I immediately jumped at the opportunity to shop with other people’s money – whether it was with virtual money or with real money. And, I knew what I wanted to “buy” before I even went to the sites – ADOBE CREATIVE SUITE 5 MASTER COLLECTION (CS5): Powerful, sleek, second-to-none in the graphics and multimedia software world. I mean, this software suite includes EVERYTHING – photo editing, illustration, animation, page layout, website creation, sound and video editing software, plus fun extras that assist the user in operating all the programs together:

Adobe Illustrator CS5	Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended
Adobe InDesign CS5	Acrobat 9 Pro
Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5	Adobe Flash Professional CS5
Adobe Flash Builder 4	Adobe Dreamweaver CS5
Adobe Fireworks CS5	Adobe Contribute CS5
Adobe Premiere Pro CS5	Adobe After Effects CS5
Adobe Soundbooth CS5	Adobe OnLocation CS5
Encore CS5	Adobe Bridge CS5
Adobe Device Central CS5	Adobe Dynamic Link

I had visions of students manipulating photos with ease and creating illustrations to show their knowledge of science concepts. I had images of my students editing videos and developing slideshows and multimedia presentations for their history reports. I could see my students animating geometric shapes in order to show their knowledge of fractions. I dreamed about students constructing book jackets, story boards, and Digital Book Trailers. I could hear their poetry readings queued up to original illustrations to bring their words to life. I saw students setting up websites to display their works. Without a doubt, this software would be an integral, quotidian, and indispensable resource and tool for my students. Every subject of their day could be accentuated with the use of this Creative Suite. Gone are the days of book reports and lengthy research papers. My students will be achieving the highest level of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: “morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem solving, lack of prejudice, and acceptance of facts” (Wikipedia). All for the very nice price of $898.95 (plus $17.50 Shipping and Handling).

YAY! *Happy Dance!*

Wait… there’s more to my assignment… I read on… oh… yeah… our instructor threw a bug into the assignment…. So… at least I THOUGHT I knew what I wanted… He added that we do not have the funds to upgrade our hardware on our computers. So with this dandy news, do I have a computer capable of handling such a huge program? So into my computer’s innards I dove…

This week’s chapter of Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom focuses on hardware for educators. Wow, when I read the chapter, I found out just how little I really knew about hardware. I am pretty versed in software applications, but I really never understood the whole bit/byte/kilobyte/megabyte/gigabyte/terabyte thing. In addition, I knew that computers had something to do with binary numbers or something, but I wasn’t sure what that was all about. In our text, I read that computers are digital processors if data, and powered by electricity, which has only two states: on or off” and are “represented by electronic circuits using two digits; 0 is used to represent the electronic state of off (absence of an electronic charge) and 1 is used to represent the electronic state of on (presence of the electronic charge)” (Shelly, 202-203). I decided to look a little deeper into binary numbers and I found this little worksheet on this website, which has other activities to help explain computer “think” to our students. What does all this mean? It means that computers, as complex as they seem, are basically made up of groups of binary (on/off) values that, when combined together in all sorts of groupings, can represent the 256 characters of our alphabet, numbering systems, and punctuation marks which are familiar to us (Shelly, 203).

(Kania)

I kept reading the text, and I discovered that it contains a plethora of computer terminology – most of it I knew (Motherboard, Memory, Input Devices – keyboards, scanners, mice, etc and Output Devices – Printers, Monitors, Speakers and Headphones) but others that I didn’t. I can never remember which is RAM and which is ROM and do I need a lot of both all the time? And, what’s with all the DVD+R or DVD-R, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-RW, etc? Can’t we all just get along? The chapter was somewhat tedious to get through, but I kept getting little “ah-HA!” moments when I finally understood that any rewritable kind of memory is called Flash memory (Shelly 209) and that the abbreviation for a Blu-ray disc is BD (Shelly 237). And this website gives a good explanation of what the difference is between a disc and a disk.  (My coworker said he saw light bulbs popping on above my head while I read the chapter.)

I was also fascinated reading the section on fax machines.  How they work has always been a big mystery to me.   I envisioned a fax transmission being similar to "Wonka Vision" - how Mike TV gets transferred across the room, in a million little pieces, to the television in the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie. 

So… with all this hardware knowledge swimming around in the upper recesses of my head, I investigated my work computer. I use a DELL OptiPlex 760 CPU, running Windows XP Professional Operating System, version 2002, Service Pack 3. It has an Intel (R) Core (TM) 2 Duo CPU Pentium III Xeon processor, with a speed of 2527 MHz. The local hard disk capacity is 148.95 GB, of which I have used just over 43 GB. The capacity of RAM is 2 GB. I have a screen resolution of 1024x768 pixels with a video card by ATI Technologies (ATI Radeon HD 3450 – Dell Optiplex). (I also have 3 monitors, which are linked by the DisplayLink Graphics Adapter and DisplayLink Mirror Adapter.) In addition, I have a CD reader/writer drive, which reads / plays DVDs but does not allow me to write to a DVD. I have ports for a microphone and multiple headphone/speaker jacks, and 2 USB ports in the front of the CPU tower, 4 in the back, and one in the keyboard. I also have the standard ports like a firewire port, ports for input devices like a keyboard and a mouse, and interfaces for networking and modems. The computer is pretty old and running somewhat ancient software, and now I am nervous….

HOWEVER…

Before I get too hopeless, I check out the specs for the software I am seeking. (Please! Please!) Adobe Creative Suite 5 Master Collection (CS5) is a big program… with big requirements…

*GULP*

• Processor? Well… they recommend Intel (R) Pentium 4, but it also can handle Intel Core 2 Duo. CHECK.
  
• Operating System? Microsoft XP, Service Pack 3 or higher. CHECK.
  … wait… for Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effect, Windows Vista or Windows 7, 64-bit edition. UNCHECK.
  
• 2 GB of RAM (recommended 4 GB) CHECK.
  
• 24.3 GB space on hard disk for software installation. CHECK.
  
• 1280x900 display (1280x1024 recommended)…. Um… I can change that on my screen. I did. CHECK.
  
• Some features use an accelerated GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) card (Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop Extended – Shader Model 3.0 and OpenGL 2.0). UNCHECK. (I think)
   
  

I look down the rest of the list. I think I am good with the rest of the system requirements. I will make sure Java, Flash player, and QuickTime are all updated, and those are free downloads.
So…. Do I purchase the software?

YES! Of course!

My computer can handle almost every feature of the software. I realize that it can’t handle Adobe Premiere Pro and certain parts of After Effects and Photoshop, so those parts I won’t use. However, it is such a dynamic and vast program with so many educational uses and possibilities, that it is certainly worth the money. I purchase the software because it is definitely a great value, and when will I ever be given $1000 again? Most likely, in the future, I will be getting a new computer, and I can uninstall the suite from the old computer and reinstall it on the new one.

This was a great lesson for me because it taught me all about the hardware that I am using as well as how to match my current hardware with a complex software suite. That was valuable to me because sometimes I buy a program and hope it works when I install it. Now I know exactly what to do and what to look for when buying software.

Incidentally, I found the following website extremely useful in this week's lesson:  Computer Hope.  Not only did I explore some helpful computer troubleshooting solutions, I also looked up html language so that I could change colors of text, make a list with bullets, and make a table without borders.  I even was able to fix last week's post that was accidentally double-spaced and hard to read.  I also found this site helpful:  Moms Who Blog.

As the weeks go by in this class, I am encouraged that I realize that I am definitely getting my Master's degree in the right field: Instructional Technology, with an Educational Technology focus.  Blogging, and reading my classmates' blogs has made this class more interesting and engaging.  I was dreading this week's lesson on computer parts and hardware - thinking it would be boring - and whatever would I write about? - but, as you can see (and congratulations if you've made it this far - I am almost done, I promise!) I learned a lot on the subject.  I look forward to implementing all I've learned this far into my subsequent lessons.

Until next time, keep your disks backed up and your software up-to-date.

~ Christi S

PS:  (For all you binary fans out there:)

01001000 01100001 01110110 01100101   01100001   01100111 01101111 01101111 01100100   01110111 01100101 01100101 01101011   00100001

(Translation:  Have a good week!)




References:

Kania, C. (1997). Real programmers code in binary. Retrieved from http://homepages.strath.ac.uk/~cjbs17/Graphics/realProg.gif

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. (2011, February 16). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs

Muir, D. (2001, June 25). An introduction to binary and data representation. Retrieved from http://homepages.strath.ac.uk/~cjbs17/computing/binary.html

Shelly, G.B., Gunter, G.A., & Gunter, R.E. (2010). Integrating technology and digital media in the classroom (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Course Technology.

Google as a Part of Speech - Activity Reflection #3

Hello, Readers out in Blog-Land!

Have you ever “Googled” yourself?  Type your name in quotes in the Google search box and see what happens.  Go ahead, I’ll wait.  No, I’m serious.  Go ahead.  I have to write this blog anyway, so you might as well start the search while I’m typing.   So, what did you find? 

When I “Googled” myself earlier this week, I was surprised that there were over 110 results from my “Christi Scheirer” search - I had no idea!  (I think it is so funny that “Google” is a verb, and we have incorporated all forms of “Google” into the vernacular:  “Have you Googled that?”  “I am Googling this.” The same is becoming true for Facebook:  “We are Facebook official” was how my nephew announced that he had a new girlfriend.  And who hasn’t heard the term, “Twittered”?  Ok, back to “Googling”…)   Most of the results of my self-surf were work-related or had to do with my Graphic Design and Multimedia certificates.  Several links were press releases or newspaper articles about the time that I took over as editor for our college’s online art and literary e-zine.  Some were from those MyLife-type people search engines.  I had a few social networking results (Facebook, Linked In) and a few links to the One Million Masterpiece, where I had added my own little square of art to the world’s biggest collaborative arts project.  In addition, I was pleasantly surprised that my question (and his answer) was published in one of Roger Ebert’s books, Questions for the Movie Answer Man.

I was pretty happy to see that my presence on Google is pretty positive, and I am recognized for my profession and for my artwork.  I think I come across as a hard worker, a creative person, and one who is dedicated to the arts and to education.  That is how I want to be known.  That is how I would like my students to know me; that is how I would like my employers to know me; that is how I would like my family and friends to know me; that is how I AM.

It scares me to think that I could get fired (or not even hired) from a job for what I write or post on the Internet.  Just recently, I read about a young woman, Stacy Snyder, who was allegedly let go from a student-teacher program because she posted a picture of herself on her MySpace page, in costume, holding an unidentified drink.  While she did write, “Drunken Pirate” as the caption, “whether she was serious can’t be determined by looking at the photo” (Stross, 2007).  In an excerpt from a document we were provided in my graduate class, I read about a woman, Heather Armstrong, who got fired because she vented about her coworkers on her blog.  While she did protest her firing, saying she hadn’t mentioned any one or the company by name, in the end, she said she knew the risks, and “I made my bed; I’ll lie in it” (Solove, 39).  Many other workers have had this experience – getting fired after posting on their personal blogs, social networking sites, or in emails.  I wonder whether this kind of action is a new trend or have employers been checking up on us in other ways, and we just don’t know it.  Further inquiry into the subject led me to an article about Henry Ford, who “in his day … maintained a ‘Sociological Department’ staffed with investigators who visited the homes of all but the highest-level managers. Their job was to dig for information about the employee’s religion, spending and savings patterns, drinking habits and how the worker ‘amused himself’” (Stross, 2007).  So it seems as though this sort of thing has been happening for decades.  What is different now, I think, is that the media is “all over it.”

So, I go back to my Google search and really look at what I have put out there.  I check over my Facebook page and my desolate MySpace page to see how I would look to an employer.  My pictures look good, and my posts are pretty standard, mostly positive, and rarely ever work-related.  I check around some of the other results and I am pretty satisfied that I am okay in that area. I know that what we put out there on the Internet is out there FOREVER, and for some reason, the old diet quote runs through my head:  “A moment on the lips – forever on my hips.”  I realize that this is synonymous with what we post online:  “A moment in our fillintheblankwithblog,FacebookPage,YouTubevideo,Flickrphoto,etc,etc,etc, forever on the Internet.”  Doesn’t quite have the same snazzy rhyme and rhythm, but I think it fits my point.  In a few years, I might want to get a new job somewhere, and I want to be sure my online record is clean.  JJ Jarrell, president of the North Central Florida Chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management and human resource manager for Performance Food Group, states, “While potential employers shouldn't use affiliations with social networks or your personal posts as reasons not to hire you, why take the risk?” (Clark, 2011).  It makes an impression.  What impression do I want to make? So is it right or is it fair that we are under such scrutiny in our private lives?  I am not sure if it is right or fair, but to me, it is what it is:  Employers are doing it, and I have no other choice than to present myself in the most positive way I can.  But, why wouldn’t I want that anyway?

This week, in my graduate class, we were given the assignment to create an “About Me” page.  I made one for my blog here and one for my Google profile.  With all the articles and textbook pages I reviewed this week, I decided to be proactive in how I am presented on the Internet:  I thought about how I want to be viewed, and made sure that my online presence matches my offline presence.  Put the positive and professional out there and be known for that.  That’s kind of how I am in person anyway.  Boring?  Maybe.  Safe?  Maybe.  Smart?  Yes.  I live in an age where Big Brother (or Big Boss) could be looking over my shoulder.  What do I want him (her) to see?

I think it goes back to our topic on ethics from a few weeks ago.  I do not recall, offhand, if the subject of the teacher’s personal and professional integrity came up in our reading. (I have since read a lot of articles and blogs about this subject, and I am hazy as to whether our textbook, Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom, covered it.) Irregardless, I think that in future editions, it should be a subject in that chapter.  “Employees, teachers, and students have an obligation to use computers responsibly and not abuse the power computers provide” (Shelly, 503).  This statement, to me, pertains to computer usage both inside and outside of the school walls.  Regardless of what we want to do, (and how much we argue “freedom of speech!) we, as educators, are in the public eye, and therefore live in somewhat of a fishbowl.  I grew up with a father for a minister.  I was a “preacher’s kid” and felt a lot of pressure to be well-behaved, quiet, and obedient, because that was what was expected of me by society.  As an educator, we have to live up to the same standards that society has created for us – to be upstanding citizens with high morals and “proper” behavior.  But who decides what proper behavior is anyway?  And, again, is it right?  Is it fair?  And, again, it is what it is, and I accept that. 

References

Clark, A. (2011, February 18). Watch what you post: Your boss also is watching. The Gainesville Sun.  Retrieved from http://www.gainesville.com/article/20110218/ARTICLES/110219428

Shelly, G.B., Gunter, G.A., & Gunter, R.E. (2010). Integrating technology and digital media in the classroom (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Course Technology.

Solove, D.J. (2007).  Information, liberation, and constraint. In The Future of Reputation.  (Chapter 2).  Retrieved from http://docs.law.gwu.edu/facweb/dsolove/Future-of-Reputation/text/futureofreputation-ch2.pdf

Stross, R. (2007, December 30).  How to lose your job on your own time. The New York Times.  Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/business/30digi.html?ex=1356670800&en=55ef6410d3cac28e&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss