Watch this TED Video, that Free Technology for Teachers posted earlier today:
Dan Meyer brings up some great points about how to get kids more engaged in the problem solving process. He talks about how textbooks help us (teachers) give kids the easy answers when it comes to word problems and problem solving and how that is making kids impatient in the math classroom. Instead of making a straight line from point A to point B, we should be helping to build student's critical thinking skills by giving them visual keys and discussion points to be asking the right questions when it comes to solving mathematical problems.
From a technology viewpoint, I agree with Meyer's ideas about using multimedia examples and practical (real world) examples to teach. I wholeheartedly believe that every time students learn something there needs to be something visual to represent it for them-that's simply how they learn now. It has to be engaging, interesting, and able to grab their attention and make them think. I also think it's important, especially in math, that students realize how a certain formula can be used to calculate something that will use later in life. They need to see that not just careers such as engineering or science are the only careers that use math.
Websites and resources such as flickr.com are great ways to incorporate pictures of real world examples and grab their attention. Then back it up with videos from DE Streaming or BrainPop that give more information or as Meyer states help the discussion along.
Showing posts with label videos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label videos. Show all posts
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Monday, October 19, 2009
Today's Kid Reporter...Go Vote!
How cute is this! The Today Show is holding a contest to find a kid reporter. They have videos online of each child's submission and you can vote in their semi-final round.
While I watching one submission, it occurred to me that some of these videos were very similar to students creating digital stories or videos. One child, Vanessa Radke, did a report on how to conserve water. She had all the facts in her report and made it professional, yet entertaining to watch too. It reminded me of an alternative assessment. You have to think that she did research to learn more about this topic and give tips and then report on it.
Another child, Noah Johnson, did a report on trains and why they were important in American History. He interviewed one of the conductors and tour guides and did a great job of putting information into his report.
I guess it's the journalism major in me coming out, but go check this out!
What do you think? Do you get any ideas for videos students could do? Post away in the comments below!
While I watching one submission, it occurred to me that some of these videos were very similar to students creating digital stories or videos. One child, Vanessa Radke, did a report on how to conserve water. She had all the facts in her report and made it professional, yet entertaining to watch too. It reminded me of an alternative assessment. You have to think that she did research to learn more about this topic and give tips and then report on it.
Another child, Noah Johnson, did a report on trains and why they were important in American History. He interviewed one of the conductors and tour guides and did a great job of putting information into his report.
I guess it's the journalism major in me coming out, but go check this out!
What do you think? Do you get any ideas for videos students could do? Post away in the comments below!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
DE Streamathon
Today, I had the unique experience of listening in on the Discovery Education Streamathon, a day filled with professional development and training sessions for using DE streaming (formally unitedstreaming, which I still refer to it as). I multi-tasked throughout the day, as I worked on finishing to put together the Smart Airliners my school bought and working on a few other projects, like my newsletter due tomorrow-(one more article to find) and listened in on the sessions.
The best one of the day by far, was presented by Steve Dembo, who talked about using DE streaming with web 2.0 tools. I got lots of great ideas and wanted to share those with you.
The first tool Steve talked about was Speechable.com. With this website, you can grab pictures out of unitedstreaming, upload them to the website and choose different speech bubbles to add to your picture. Once you've got your bubbles in the picture, you can save it as an image file (.jpeg) and use it anywhere...blog, PowerPoint, Word, etc. I thought this could be good to use with Social Studies. Take a picture of some event in history and add facts to it. Steve mentioned another great use about unitedstreaming...the pictures can be republished...no need to worry about copyright! :)
Next up is www.bighugelabs.com-what a cool site! There are so many things you can do with pictures here. Create historical trading cards (also great idea for study guides), motivational posters, like the ones from Franklin Covey. You can also choose several features, such as photo wall, billboard maker, pocket album. As I learn more about this site, I will come up with ideas for these features. I think this was the best tool featured!
Jump Cut was next. This is basically an online version of MovieMaker or iMovie, the benefit being that students can continue to work on their videos/movies after class time. I also liked that you can record audio in audacity and incorporate it into this too!
Cueprompter.com is awesome! I need to share this with my librarian, if she doesn't read it here first, but this website allows you to copy and paste text and then change the font size and then have it appear on the computer screen as if it's a teleprompter! What a great thing for morning announcements!
MovieMasher.com was next, but I feel like it might be something to Jump Cut. Some other websites suggested was onetruemedia.com and fixmymovie.com.
The last website I was able to see was glogster.com. Another great site! This one creates digital posters! Pictures can be enlarged when rolled over on by the mouse, facts can added, as well as, links and embedded videos. Saved posters can be used on blogs and wikis. Some examples shared were: thescientificshamrock.wikispaces.com, environmentalheroes.pbwiki.com/Jane+Goodall+per+1, and ktitraci.glogster.com/election.
So much to look at, but good ideas all!
The best one of the day by far, was presented by Steve Dembo, who talked about using DE streaming with web 2.0 tools. I got lots of great ideas and wanted to share those with you.
The first tool Steve talked about was Speechable.com. With this website, you can grab pictures out of unitedstreaming, upload them to the website and choose different speech bubbles to add to your picture. Once you've got your bubbles in the picture, you can save it as an image file (.jpeg) and use it anywhere...blog, PowerPoint, Word, etc. I thought this could be good to use with Social Studies. Take a picture of some event in history and add facts to it. Steve mentioned another great use about unitedstreaming...the pictures can be republished...no need to worry about copyright! :)
Next up is www.bighugelabs.com-what a cool site! There are so many things you can do with pictures here. Create historical trading cards (also great idea for study guides), motivational posters, like the ones from Franklin Covey. You can also choose several features, such as photo wall, billboard maker, pocket album. As I learn more about this site, I will come up with ideas for these features. I think this was the best tool featured!
Jump Cut was next. This is basically an online version of MovieMaker or iMovie, the benefit being that students can continue to work on their videos/movies after class time. I also liked that you can record audio in audacity and incorporate it into this too!
Cueprompter.com is awesome! I need to share this with my librarian, if she doesn't read it here first, but this website allows you to copy and paste text and then change the font size and then have it appear on the computer screen as if it's a teleprompter! What a great thing for morning announcements!
MovieMasher.com was next, but I feel like it might be something to Jump Cut. Some other websites suggested was onetruemedia.com and fixmymovie.com.
The last website I was able to see was glogster.com. Another great site! This one creates digital posters! Pictures can be enlarged when rolled over on by the mouse, facts can added, as well as, links and embedded videos. Saved posters can be used on blogs and wikis. Some examples shared were: thescientificshamrock.wikispaces.com, environmentalheroes.pbwiki.com/Jane+Goodall+per+1, and ktitraci.glogster.com/election.
So much to look at, but good ideas all!
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