Watch This!

I found this great video from youtube on Steve Dembo's Digital Passport Blog for Discovery Education. Now, I wouldn't typically go wandering on youtube, but this time I did and after I watched this video, I watched some others. I think it may be time to change some assumptions again...

Watch this: Information/Revolution

Help Wanted

I received an email from my district today which made me realize it's time to start preparing the teachers in my building for SOL reviews. In the state of Virginia, the SOL's or Standards of Learning are the state-mandated tests that are given every May. This email talked about a session for ITRT's and how we can start preparing teachers with extra resources. I think it's a great idea and wondered what I could contribute to the group. Being a second year ITRT, I didn't really realize what I needed to prepare last year, therefore I don't have many resources that I created myself.

While thinking this over, I wondered how blogs could be used as an SOL review resource. Are they even good for this sort of thing? I suppose teachers could put websites that include study guides on their blogs, but could the process of writing on their own blog help students? What about a wiki? What ideas do you have?

Problems with Slideshow

Okay, this should be easy, but of course I can't figure it out! Does anyone know how to add the slideshow function onto your blog? Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

Back home

I love to travel and especially learn new things, but it's also nice to be back home. The drive home was rough with the worst fog I have ever seen with almost zero visibility in front of you.

I learned lots of great things about Google Earth such as how to create placemarks, paths, traveling journeys for students, and imbedding icons, descriptions, pictures, and websites. I can't wait to put together a workshop for staff. The presenter was Scott Meisenzahl, a Technology Resource Teacher from Loudoun County. You can find this presentation and others from Loudoun at their It's a jungle out there...get technofied site.

I also learned a few more tricks for podcasts, digital storytelling, and this thing called stop-motion animation or "claymation", which allows students to make models out of clay, take pictures of every movement, and throw the pictures into movie maker or imovie and create a short video. It sounds very similar to what we did in the ITS program during spring 2007 with adding visual effects to our movies. This type of animation can work well with any curriculum, but I liked that it would work with cycles/changes in science and math concepts. Now, that's pretty cool. There are examples of some movies at Tech4learning. The exact web page is www.tech4learning.com/claykits/samples.html. The presenter for this was Michael Butler from Botetourt County. He also did a great presentation on Google Sketchup! and how you can use it in the middle school math classroom. There's a few teachers I can think of to show this to.

I have some pictures from VSTE, as well, and I should be posting those shortly! Have a great week!

The Traveling Stories

Here's are the websites that I mentioned yesterday:

The Traveling Stories

and

Virginia Trekkers

I attended a couple more sessions yesterday. I attended one with John Hendron, which was about podcasting and using this tool more effectively in the classroom. I think I got some great ideas! 4 more sessions today.

VSTEing away

I'm at the Virginia Society for Technology Education (VSTE) Conference in Roanoke this week. I'm having a blast so far! Yesterday, I attended my first two sessions. The first one was about travelling stories through podcasts. Two schools in Henrico County will take one class or group and start a story, record it and then send the story to another group or class. That class would then have to finish it. Once the whole process was through, the two groups would get together and then listen to whole story. I'm not giving it the full justice here and I can't remember the website at the moment, but I'll give that in my update.

My best story from the conference so far is this: In the first timers session, I sat down not really paying attention to where I was sitting. Another woman engaged myself and the person sitting next to me in a conversation. The woman beside me said she was from Tazewell, VA. Before going to college, I never would have known where this was, however, I told the woman that I had been there, having gone home once with a friend of mine who lived there. We talked for a few more minutes, before I asked the woman her last name. When she told me, I couldn't help laughing! I told her, not only had I been in Tazewell, I'd been to her house! Definitely giving me a strange look, she realized I was her daughter's friend from college! We exchanged phone numbers and she updated me on her daughter. Small world, indeed! Thought I would share. I'll be back with more later.

Kwality Blogging

I found this great blog a few weeks ago, which I think really epitomizes the idea of blogs, called Kwality Blogging. The blog is written by Mr. Sill, a Video Production teacher at El Diamante High School in Visalia, CA. I didn’t have a chance until today to really go through it and read some of the posts, but I was just fascinated by the post from January 27^th. As I was reading it, my impression was that this was a professor at the collegiate level. It wasn’t until I scrolled back to the top that I saw the blog was from a high school teacher. So that right there impressed me. This teacher knew what he was talking about.

This particular post talks about ideas in documentary filmmaking and the recently released movie Cloverfield, by producer J.J. Abrams, who created Lost and Alias (two of my very favorite television shows). I liked this blog post, especially, because the author threads ideas of using technology in the classroom with that of mainstream society. It made me want to sit in his class and learn about filmmaking! I also thoroughly enjoyed the various links he has through out his post, including the one with J.J. Abrams at TED. TED is another great site if you haven’t seen it. It also made me realize that I could/should be creating links right in the text of my post, instead of waiting until the end of my post. I think I have the hang of that now.

This post of Mr. Sill’s also made me start thinking about this upcoming week of class, in which we will be learning about Windows Movie Maker, the Flip Digital Video Camera, and Public Service Announcements (PSA’s). In my journalism classes as an undergrad, I learned all about PSA’s. Then when I became a teacher, I saw them being used in a different way in the classroom. I think they are a great product for students to make and helps them understand how their voice can be heard on a variety of subjects. I also know a great deal about Windows Movie Maker so that should help in completing our group’s PSA. I’ve seen the flip video, however I have not worked with it, so I am very interested in using this tool this week.

Wiki Thoughts

After reading chapters 4, 6, and 9 in Richardson's book, I've had several thoughts come to mind about wikis. The first being one that I think most educators would think about-"How do you trust what people put on them?" This is something I know that my county and me personally have thought about, especially with wikipedia. I've followed suit with most ITRT's and have said that it can be used as a secondary source only and that students need to double check the facts that they've found on it. But is this undermining what wikipedia is all about?

My second thought about wikis is about teacher use. I've surprised by how simple they are to use and that most teachers- digital immigrant or not - could use these very easily for their classes. Why shouldn't they? It's almost as easy as putting a wiki together as it is any other group project-the only difference is the broader audience.

I think I now have some good ideas to use in my building.

It's a Wiki World

I've been wanting to create a blog for a long time now and I am very happy with the ideas that I am coming up with and the resources I am finding to share on my blog. This past week, my classes started in on wikis. Wikis are a more collaborative version of a blog, in which a group or an organization can come together and share their thoughts and ideas, instead of just an individual. While I've heard of wikis before, I've never had the opportunity to really be a part of one before. I feel slightly hesitant about having one of my own.

My group picked vocational education for our advocacy wiki. I like what we have done and I'm learning a lot more about wikis through this. I tend to wonder though, what other kinds of things wikis can be used for. I've heard of some teachers using it for their schools as a source for sharing resources, but what else could they be used for in education? In your personal life?

Here's a site I've found that describes wikis in more detail: What is a Wiki?

Lights, camera....Digital Storytelling

Right now, the Social Studies department in my school is getting ready for History Day! The students are creating documentaries, presentations, and exhibits on conflict and compromise in history. The are excited, but the teachers seem to be a little leery of the technology available to them. Several groups are doing documentaries (technically digital stories) and some teacher leaders (new word!) have done workshops on Movie Maker and PhotoStory3. Today, I found a great website with examples from a digital storytelling competition. I just had to share!

http://www.interwritelearning.com/contest/index.html

What a great resource to show our students!