It's been a busy week! It started with our Differentiation Day on Monday, where our librarian and myself helped teachers learn how to use Schoolfusion more effectively. We even had time to talk about some web 2.0 tools that could be embedded, such as Blabberize, Voki's, My Studyio, and Glogster (if it's not blocked). Everyone seemed impressed with Blabberize especially. I've received great feedback! Some discussions from the day however, led me to realize that I may need to provide some workshop time on basic tools with Office products, especially Word and PowerPoint. Our librarian was willing to help me with those sessions and I would love the chance to collaborate more with her.
On Tuesday, I worked with our art teacher to start documenting samples of student work for an e-portfolio project our CTE and art classes will be piloting this year. I worked with both the eighth grade classes and soon we will be using PhotoShop Elements to crop pictures and do another project where the students will add filters and manipulate digital photos.
Wednesday was quieter as I was in a TRT meeting in the morning and finished up preparing for the Study Island training session for Thursday afternoon.
On Thursday, I worked with the Science teachers to prepare for the Comic Life project and prepared for the Airliner Training on practice writing for Friday.
Which leads me to today, where I worked on the Study Island Training Video and stopped by some classrooms to see what everyone was up to. I saw a great lesson on discounts in a 7th grade classroom. They reviewed percentages and discounts in their warm-up activity and then "went" to the Ice Cream Parlor and had $25 each to buy as much ice cream as they wanted. BUT, they had to remember that the $25 included a 5% tax and 15% tip. Then they had to calculate how much money they had left over. It was very interesting to see the students helping each other and then get frustrated when they figured up their order and had to take something off because they didn't have enough money left over for the tip! I thought this would be a great smart activity, as well. 8th grade was also doing discounts and I saw one 8th grade teacher using the Smartboard and had a graph with Sales price, discount price, and total price and the students had to figure out the total price and write it on the Smartboard.
Like I said, busy week! How was yours?
Showing posts with label Blabberize. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blabberize. Show all posts
Friday, October 16, 2009
Friday, July 3, 2009
NECC Day 4 - Wednesday sessions
My first session of the day on Wednesday was Differentiating NETS*T: Moving Teachers Toward Transformative Technology with Kurt Kohls, Amy Crowley-Gonsoulin, and Aron Sterling from Fairfax County. This was a great presentation and helped me to see some avenues I can use when explaining and implementing the NETS*T with teachers.
The first thing they did was to introduce themselves via a voki avatar. Then they gave us the website they created where we could find more information after the presentation at http://conferenceconnection2009.edublogs.org In the NETS*T there are initially 5 different categories which are further broken down into 4 indicators, those being beginning, developing, proficient, and transformative indicators. They are going to walk us through the stages showing examples for how to implement technology with each category/indicator.
The first category they chose was, "teachers must use their knowledge with use of technology to promote student creativity and learning". The indicator was moving from a beginning stage to a developing stage and the technology tool they chose is one called Blabberize. This website is very easy to use as you select images and animate them in such a way as to make the image talk. The hardest part of this webiste is define where mouth should be. Then record your voice, make sure mouth is moving the way you want, save, and you can create an account to save all of your characters, and then you can share it!
The next category they chose was "Digital Age Learning Experience and Assessment- Creating learning experience for students who is going to be using digital age tools". Indicator level is developing stage to proficient stage. Technology tools to use is combining Blabberize characters into a blog, wiki, (even schoolfusion page) etc. The blogging page they use is Edublogs. This is also a great way to differentiate with different learning styles. They way to incorporate the two is by using the embed code from Blabberize and copy/pasting it into blog, schoolfusion page, etc. Their number one hint: Don’t be scared of the embed code!!!
The next category is addressing diverse needs of students and the indicator is developing stage to proficient stage and the technology tool is a voki, where you can put in pictures of your own for backgrounds and use phone, mic, or text to type to make voices. Here's a great way to use this with Social Studies: Could take picture of politician, president and use it that way!
Later on in the session they continued to share these great tools and ideas for the NETS*T. I definitely enjoyed this session and found it to be very helpful.
The next session I went to was Caravans Around the World with Google Earth which was a model lesson session and I got to play around with Google Earth and create a tour of Spain. It was a great session, because I got to learn more about Google Earth and meet some nice people from Canada and help them out a little as we were all learning. I'll have more on this session later as Google Earth is one of my summer goals to work on.
The last session I attended on Wednesday wasCool Google Tools with Tammy Worcester. Another great session! I am an avid user of all things Google and did already know much about what Worcester presented, but I did learn some new moves too! The first thing I learned is that I can use Email or a mobile phone to send posts to my blog. I kinda of already knew that, but Worcester made is sound so easy! I could also set up an sms service and send text messages from my phone to my blog. Worcester also showed us Google Docs, and in the forms section I got a brillant idea. We could use Google Docs to get information from parents. At the beginning of the year, I could work with teachers/team leaders to create a form and put on their schoolfusion pages and then during back to school night, during a schoolfusion training session, parents put info, and teachers get their information already put into a spreadsheet-with no typing on their behalf!!
Another thing I really liked was Google Alerts, which Wwill email you when something new is indexed on internet and it sends you an email. This is a great idea for parents who want to know if something new is on the internet, most especially your kids name!!
Just put in search terms and how often you want it to be sent to you and you don’t have to have google account to do this!
Wednesday was a great day as far as session went and I thought this was my most productive day at the conference.
The first thing they did was to introduce themselves via a voki avatar. Then they gave us the website they created where we could find more information after the presentation at http://conferenceconnection2009.edublogs.org In the NETS*T there are initially 5 different categories which are further broken down into 4 indicators, those being beginning, developing, proficient, and transformative indicators. They are going to walk us through the stages showing examples for how to implement technology with each category/indicator.
The first category they chose was, "teachers must use their knowledge with use of technology to promote student creativity and learning". The indicator was moving from a beginning stage to a developing stage and the technology tool they chose is one called Blabberize. This website is very easy to use as you select images and animate them in such a way as to make the image talk. The hardest part of this webiste is define where mouth should be. Then record your voice, make sure mouth is moving the way you want, save, and you can create an account to save all of your characters, and then you can share it!
The next category they chose was "Digital Age Learning Experience and Assessment- Creating learning experience for students who is going to be using digital age tools". Indicator level is developing stage to proficient stage. Technology tools to use is combining Blabberize characters into a blog, wiki, (even schoolfusion page) etc. The blogging page they use is Edublogs. This is also a great way to differentiate with different learning styles. They way to incorporate the two is by using the embed code from Blabberize and copy/pasting it into blog, schoolfusion page, etc. Their number one hint: Don’t be scared of the embed code!!!
The next category is addressing diverse needs of students and the indicator is developing stage to proficient stage and the technology tool is a voki, where you can put in pictures of your own for backgrounds and use phone, mic, or text to type to make voices. Here's a great way to use this with Social Studies: Could take picture of politician, president and use it that way!
Later on in the session they continued to share these great tools and ideas for the NETS*T. I definitely enjoyed this session and found it to be very helpful.
The next session I went to was Caravans Around the World with Google Earth which was a model lesson session and I got to play around with Google Earth and create a tour of Spain. It was a great session, because I got to learn more about Google Earth and meet some nice people from Canada and help them out a little as we were all learning. I'll have more on this session later as Google Earth is one of my summer goals to work on.
The last session I attended on Wednesday wasCool Google Tools with Tammy Worcester. Another great session! I am an avid user of all things Google and did already know much about what Worcester presented, but I did learn some new moves too! The first thing I learned is that I can use Email or a mobile phone to send posts to my blog. I kinda of already knew that, but Worcester made is sound so easy! I could also set up an sms service and send text messages from my phone to my blog. Worcester also showed us Google Docs, and in the forms section I got a brillant idea. We could use Google Docs to get information from parents. At the beginning of the year, I could work with teachers/team leaders to create a form and put on their schoolfusion pages and then during back to school night, during a schoolfusion training session, parents put info, and teachers get their information already put into a spreadsheet-with no typing on their behalf!!
Another thing I really liked was Google Alerts, which Wwill email you when something new is indexed on internet and it sends you an email. This is a great idea for parents who want to know if something new is on the internet, most especially your kids name!!
Just put in search terms and how often you want it to be sent to you and you don’t have to have google account to do this!
Wednesday was a great day as far as session went and I thought this was my most productive day at the conference.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
CRSTE Day of Discovery
I spent my Saturday this past weekend in Arlington, VA at the CRSTE Day of Discovery. The Captial Region Society for Technology Educators (CRSTE) is a newly formed educational technology group and they partnered with Discovery Education to create this day. I apologize in advance as this is a long post describing my day.
It started at 8:30 with a keynote address from Matt Monjan, from Discovery. One of my colleagues who I attended grad school with commented, that she felt like she was back in class again hearing about the concepts of digital natives and constructivism. I think that describes a real attribute of this organization, is that they are current and know what students and teachers need to grow in their use of technology. Matt did a great job and I was ready to start off my day with Jen Dorman's session on "Roundtrip Tickets to Anywhere! Google Earth and DE Streaming". Jen's presentation is available on her DEN blog at http://denblogs.com/jendorman here.
I've done a little dabbling in Google Earth (GE), but really need to use this tool next school year. Jen had some great ideas and advice: First, the Google Earth pro version is free to educators by sending an email to GEEC@google.com. You'll receive an email with a download after a couple of weeks. Next, she told us about the "my maps" feature in Google Maps, which can be a good substitute while you're waiting for that GE Pro version to arrive, or if GE is not allowed your computers, which luckily is not the case in our district. The "my maps" feature allows you to add hyperlinks and more to your maps and is great for collaborating or for group work. The teacher can create the map and then "invite" students to join and each students can add to the map. Looking at this on my own, I also found some groups that had created their own and shared. There is one for teachers who use technology and you can placemark where you are in the world. There are other topics including real estate, islands, and points of interest. I would have to look at this some more though to create my own map.
For GE, Jen explained an example she did with a history class, where each group was given one major battle from World War II and they had to add events and placemarks as the battle occurred. Her greatest piece of advice, was making sure the first step each group was to create a folder for their project and to make sure all placemarks, videos, etc. were placed in this folder. This sounds like a great way to learn about events in history!
Another idea Jen had was to use the ruler tool for studying math. I had no idea there was a ruler tool in GE. She said Washington, DC is great place in GE to use this for. For example, students can find the circumference between certain parks or buildings, measure the distance from the Capital building to the Lincoln Memorial, etc. She added that Africa is another great place to use this tool.
After the GE session, I attended "Getting Interactive with Glogs and DE Builders" with Mike Hakkarinen from Frederick County Schools in Maryland. Mark did a great job and has some fantastic products from his classes. Mark just created a new blog for the builders at http://discoverybuilders.blogspot.com. Everything from his presentation is this site, as well. If you don't know much about the DE builders, they are the assignment, quiz, and writing prompt builders in DE streaming's teacher center. Each builder helps teachers with creating online assignment, quizzes, and writing prompts. Some inventive teachers have begun using web 2.0 tools with the builders, which is what Mark talked about in his session and the results are pretty amazing!
The first tip Mark gave was to put a link to the student center on the desktop computers students use, for our district, our CTT could add an icon to our Novell windows and it would take the students directly to the page, where they could sign in to use the online tools the teacher has created. The first builder Mark used was the writing prompt builder. He's a science teacher and recently his students were learning about the relationships between grass, crickets, and anoles. So he took a picture of a cricket from DE streaming and embedded it into the prompt builder and added a writing prompt for the students to type up. When they're finished, students submit their writings and it's automatically sent via email to Mark.
For the Quiz builder, Mark embedded a video from DE streaming. After students watched the video, they could then take a quiz on what they watched. The best part is that students can read the questions first, then watch the video; they can watch and then take the quiz; or they can watch, take the quiz, and refer back to the video when needed. Another great feature is that when you are setting up the quiz you can decide on how the students view it, such as multiple questions at a time or one question at a time.
In the assignment builder, Mark talked about using a web 2.0 tool called Blabberize, which is similar to a voki. If you've never heard of either, they are two tools that allow you to record messages and then post onto a website, blog, wiki, or just about anywhere! With voki, you actually create a character that talks and with Blabberize, you can make images talk, such as a lion. If your students are studying about Africa in Geography class or biomes in Science class, a talking lion could come in handy! Mark uses this as a way to describe to his students what they need to do in their assignment. He simply embeds the html code from Blabberize and pastes it in the learning objective box and he's all set! He also suggested trying Dabbleboard, an online interactive whiteboard, Voicethread and Glogster.
The last session I attended was on Professional Development in Second Life with Fred Delventhal, from Arlington Public Schools. I've heard lots of talk about how educators, especially DEN Stars are using Second Life, but I haven't really tipped my toes into this yet. So I was interested to hear what this is about. Fred talked about how Discovery has set up PD sessions here and the different tech society's that are located in Second Life as well, such as ISTE and VSTE. It was a good overall tour of what's in Second Life, however I would have liked to have seen how you get started, create an avatar, and get them to move (I hear this is not easy at first).
Overall, it was great day, with a few surpises. I got to see old and current colleagues that I didn't know were going to be there and chat with some teachers from other districts, as well as learn some great ideas!
It started at 8:30 with a keynote address from Matt Monjan, from Discovery. One of my colleagues who I attended grad school with commented, that she felt like she was back in class again hearing about the concepts of digital natives and constructivism. I think that describes a real attribute of this organization, is that they are current and know what students and teachers need to grow in their use of technology. Matt did a great job and I was ready to start off my day with Jen Dorman's session on "Roundtrip Tickets to Anywhere! Google Earth and DE Streaming". Jen's presentation is available on her DEN blog at http://denblogs.com/jendorman here.
I've done a little dabbling in Google Earth (GE), but really need to use this tool next school year. Jen had some great ideas and advice: First, the Google Earth pro version is free to educators by sending an email to GEEC@google.com. You'll receive an email with a download after a couple of weeks. Next, she told us about the "my maps" feature in Google Maps, which can be a good substitute while you're waiting for that GE Pro version to arrive, or if GE is not allowed your computers, which luckily is not the case in our district. The "my maps" feature allows you to add hyperlinks and more to your maps and is great for collaborating or for group work. The teacher can create the map and then "invite" students to join and each students can add to the map. Looking at this on my own, I also found some groups that had created their own and shared. There is one for teachers who use technology and you can placemark where you are in the world. There are other topics including real estate, islands, and points of interest. I would have to look at this some more though to create my own map.
For GE, Jen explained an example she did with a history class, where each group was given one major battle from World War II and they had to add events and placemarks as the battle occurred. Her greatest piece of advice, was making sure the first step each group was to create a folder for their project and to make sure all placemarks, videos, etc. were placed in this folder. This sounds like a great way to learn about events in history!
Another idea Jen had was to use the ruler tool for studying math. I had no idea there was a ruler tool in GE. She said Washington, DC is great place in GE to use this for. For example, students can find the circumference between certain parks or buildings, measure the distance from the Capital building to the Lincoln Memorial, etc. She added that Africa is another great place to use this tool.
After the GE session, I attended "Getting Interactive with Glogs and DE Builders" with Mike Hakkarinen from Frederick County Schools in Maryland. Mark did a great job and has some fantastic products from his classes. Mark just created a new blog for the builders at http://discoverybuilders.blogspot.com. Everything from his presentation is this site, as well. If you don't know much about the DE builders, they are the assignment, quiz, and writing prompt builders in DE streaming's teacher center. Each builder helps teachers with creating online assignment, quizzes, and writing prompts. Some inventive teachers have begun using web 2.0 tools with the builders, which is what Mark talked about in his session and the results are pretty amazing!
The first tip Mark gave was to put a link to the student center on the desktop computers students use, for our district, our CTT could add an icon to our Novell windows and it would take the students directly to the page, where they could sign in to use the online tools the teacher has created. The first builder Mark used was the writing prompt builder. He's a science teacher and recently his students were learning about the relationships between grass, crickets, and anoles. So he took a picture of a cricket from DE streaming and embedded it into the prompt builder and added a writing prompt for the students to type up. When they're finished, students submit their writings and it's automatically sent via email to Mark.
For the Quiz builder, Mark embedded a video from DE streaming. After students watched the video, they could then take a quiz on what they watched. The best part is that students can read the questions first, then watch the video; they can watch and then take the quiz; or they can watch, take the quiz, and refer back to the video when needed. Another great feature is that when you are setting up the quiz you can decide on how the students view it, such as multiple questions at a time or one question at a time.
In the assignment builder, Mark talked about using a web 2.0 tool called Blabberize, which is similar to a voki. If you've never heard of either, they are two tools that allow you to record messages and then post onto a website, blog, wiki, or just about anywhere! With voki, you actually create a character that talks and with Blabberize, you can make images talk, such as a lion. If your students are studying about Africa in Geography class or biomes in Science class, a talking lion could come in handy! Mark uses this as a way to describe to his students what they need to do in their assignment. He simply embeds the html code from Blabberize and pastes it in the learning objective box and he's all set! He also suggested trying Dabbleboard, an online interactive whiteboard, Voicethread and Glogster.
The last session I attended was on Professional Development in Second Life with Fred Delventhal, from Arlington Public Schools. I've heard lots of talk about how educators, especially DEN Stars are using Second Life, but I haven't really tipped my toes into this yet. So I was interested to hear what this is about. Fred talked about how Discovery has set up PD sessions here and the different tech society's that are located in Second Life as well, such as ISTE and VSTE. It was a good overall tour of what's in Second Life, however I would have liked to have seen how you get started, create an avatar, and get them to move (I hear this is not easy at first).
Overall, it was great day, with a few surpises. I got to see old and current colleagues that I didn't know were going to be there and chat with some teachers from other districts, as well as learn some great ideas!
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