Stevens' Court: Digital Videos

Stevens' Court: Digital Videos: Take a look at this video that gives tips on why and how to incorporate technology in the classroom.

This is a video on of my classmates posted and I wanted to share.

Highly Effective Tech Teachers

At school we are studying Steven Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  I went on Pinterest tonight to look for things to use at school and came across this for teachers using Technology and I wanted to share this with you.

I hope all enjoy this as much as I did.

http://www.edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2012/12/7-habits-highly-effective-ed-tech-leaders-infographic

Julie

7 habits of highly effective teachers Always Prepped Blog

7 habits of highly effective teachers Always Prepped Blog

Digital Storytelling: An Introduction

Here is a link to some digital story telling apps that are available for iPads.

I have used a few of these with my students.  They love the Talking Tom apps.

It is a lot of fun to use.  I even use it in my classroom with my students to get their attention.

Here is a brief list of digital story online web tools you can use:

1.Storybird

2. Kerpoof

3. goanimate

4. animoto

5. zooburst

6. Voki

7. Babberize

8. Little Bird Tales

Check them out with your students.  You all will enjoy using them in your classroom or at home with your own child.

The Future of Classroom Education

I loved this video because it was created by high school students showing us what the future classroom in education was and is to be like from their perspective.  Like I said, I loved seeing it from their perspective and the way they chose to share the information with us.

It was very enlightening when they showed us how hard it was to find the information in books for "When did the Battle of Gettysburg take place?"  To think, when I was going through school this was the only way that I was able to find the information that I needed. I had to look in the card catalog, encyclopedias, and other resources.

The internet has really made researching for information SO MUCH easier.  I wish when I was going through college the first time that there was as much information on the Internet as there is now.  I know that I am a Generation X child but I love technology.  I love getting my hands on it.

I can tell that I grew up in a home that had lots of technology in.  I am a parent that does not mind my children having the latest greatest technology in my home but my husband is the totally opposite.  He would rather have as little technology as possible when it comes to toys and video games.  I can see his point of view.  Children today do spend a lot of time using technology devices but the future is technology based and only becoming so more and more everyday.  I can not imagine what the world is going to be like in another 10-15 years.  If we keep advancing like we have technology wise the possibilities are limitless.

Wideo is all news to me

Wideo is all news to me. 

I have a new web 2.0 tool that I want to share with you today.  It is called Wideo.  It is really cool.  I can create animated videos online similar to goanimate.  I can create, edit, and publish digit stories or various types of videos with avatars in them to share with anyone in the world that is interested. 

Wideo can be used in the class with your students to creative short stories, animated descriptions of activities, events,  or simply a project that they are working on.  They can use it to create tutorials to teach their peers in class lessons on how to do something- "How To" videos.  The possibilities are up to yours and your students imaginations.

But it is definitely a new way for them to create digital stories online to share with each other.

Below is a short video that I created using Wideo.  


Here is a digital story that I created on goanimate.  They are both great Web 2.0 tools to use with your students in class for digital storytelling.  It all depends on what they like, how detailed they want to be in the movement of their characters and so much more.


jcarson1972's Animation by jcarson1972 on GoAnimate

Video Maker - Powered by GoAnimate.

Other digital storytelling sites to check out:
storybird.com
domo.goanimate.com
kerpoof.com--- this is one of my favorites but we can no longer use it in my county :O(
animoto.com
Bubblr!

There are numerous sites out there even ones that are like comic books or cartoon strips.
These are just a few ways to make writing fun for kids and even adults, too!

iMovies By My Students

Making iMovies for adults can be challenging enough let alone having your students make them.  Over the last couple of weeks I have had my students working on various projects for Community Service projects.  One of them dealt with the Ronald McDonald Charity House.  

This video had many challenges for them.  It offered a lot of ups and downs.  It was persuasive and had a good message to get across. However, it was a very hard video to make as you will see.  They made pop tops out of cardboard, painted them silver, wrote a script and then dressed up in the green suits because they want their voices to come from the pop tops.  When they went to put the backgrounds in with the video they created they had a VERY DIFFICULT time finding pictures, scenes and clipart that did not cover them up or was not half there or not there.  It was challenging and frustrating to them at the same time.  They kept having to go back over and over again to look for different backgrounds.  They had to tweak the colors on pictures, they had to black themselves out on a lot of the slides.

But they ended up asking each other what was the main message that they were trying to get across.  Was it them as the "Pop Top" or was it that they wanted people to help them raise money for the families in need and for the sick children at the Ronald McDonald House.  They ended up stepping back.  They looked at the whole picture.  They began to seek first to understand.  They kept the end in mind which was to help others, not themselves.

Please take the time to watch their video and let them know how they did.

Instagram

It is really fun... I laughed a few minutes ago when this email came through to me.  I just had to share it with you....

What is Instagram & How Can I Use It For Instruction?

Tuesday, February 26 at 5PM ET

REGISTER HERE for the webinar

Instagram is HUGE! This mobile social networking site is so huge that it is being called "The New Facebook" by technology insiders.  In fact, many students are leaving Facebook for Instagram because they consider Facebook a site for "Old People".  Mark Zuckerberg saw the power of Instagram, and bought it for roughly $1 Billion in the Spring of 2012.  Wouldn't it be great if we could use Instagram for educational purposes? Join Shannon Holden as we explore ways to use Instagram to engage students.  

This fits in SOOO perfectly with my post from last week.  I could not help but share.  If you are interested in attending the webinar, please feel free to click on the link above.

If you do not know how to get an Instragram account check out this short video from YouTube.

It is also a quick tutorial.

Download INSTAGRAM at :
http://freesoft13.com/download/instagram

Social Networking.....

I never knew that there were SO many social networking sites out there.
Did you know that there are 7 major social network categories?

Social Connections-Facebook and Twitter.
MultiMedia Sharing- youtube.com
Professional-Classroom 2.0.
Informational- HGTV Discussion Forums
Educational- elearners
Hobbies- My Place Scapbook.com
Academic- Academia.edu

Social Networking

Social Networking is a part of our everyday lives.  It is seen in various types of venues.  It is seen in the form of Facebook, Face Time, Skype, YouTube, Flicker and even Twitter accounts.  For younger children, it can be seen in Club Penguin, Webkinz, Second Life and more.

Children, preteens, teens and college kids are using social networking everyday.  It is a daily part of their lives, if not a part of their weekly routine.  Many adults are in the same boat.  And some of those adults are school principals who ended up talking about the different types of social networks that are out there to their staff in meetings. But never really encourage them to integrate them into their instruction with their students. They often forget that social networking is a communication device.  It allows us to stay in touch with each other, share a part of ourselves with others, and communicate in a way that we may normally not have. This is a tool that would allow us to know our students better and visa versa. Along with integrate technology that the students and teachers are already “hooked” on.

We in the education world have to embrace that social networking is a big part of the 21^st century and it is not going anywhere.  It is only grown in size day by day.  Look at how Facebook has grown over the years.  On August 26, 2008, Facebook reached 100 million users.  Today it has over 1 billion users and is still growing. (Facebook Blog)

Companies are also changing to compete with other social networks that are out there.  Look at what Google has added.  They are no longer are just a search engine or a company that you rely on for sending your emails.  They have added video conferencing, blogging, and other features in order for people to keep in touch with their family and friends.  Look at the apps and software that Apple has created for people to use to socialize with each other.  

We as a society have turned into nonverbal communicators. We are more willing to sit beside someone and text that person than have a true conversation. We are also communicating with each other through instant messaging, emails, comments on Facebook, Twitter, video conferencing and more.   Communicating with people this way is a skill that needs to be taught.  There is a proper etiquette and a lot of students do not know it.  If we don’t take this golden opportunity to teach students about the responsibility of using these social networks correctly then we as teachers lose a teachable moment. 

In saying that this is where some of the pros and cons come in.  If we are lucky enough to be in a school system that allows us to use social network then we need to take advantage of it. We need to use it with our students but not abuse it.  We need to teach them the correct way to use each of these social networking outlets. We do not want them to become a victim of cyberbullying, fall under the trap of a predator, or even as a teenager in college to fall prey to identify theft. We as teachers need to monitor it closely.  If we do not it could become a social time for students, not a time for learning.  Students could use the social networks to cheat on a test, share answers for problems in class, email and more.  It is very important that we as teachers be on our “A” game and be aware of what is going on in our rooms with technology.  Teachers need to monitor and need make the students highly accountable for their actions. 

The Pros can out way the cons.   There are so many benefits to using Social networks.  Look at Edmodo.  It is a social network being used in the a lot of classrooms today.  Teachers and students are able to chat back and forth.  They are able to  have discussions with each other online.  They can interact which other classes online while learning in a structured educational environment.  They post responses to polls, post work online, work collaboratively with other classes around the word and much more.  Skype allows teachers to teach globally with other classes in the United States that are working on the same Common Core standards and work on a group project.  Or it allows the learner to interact with an author, a person from a foreign country and much more.  If schools have Ipads in them they are able to use FaceTime and do the same thing.  YouTube is growing more and more in popularity.  Teachers are using it to integrate into their instruction to show students how to do things, to help students make connections and more.  Students are even creating videos and posting them on YouTube for other classes to see. Schools are often using Flicker as well since it is a unique social network that revolves around photography.  This is a great way to reach the learning style of other students in your classroom.  

Social networking can be both a positive and a negative thing.  It just depends on how the teacher is going to use it in their classroom.  It can be very beneficial in some classrooms and it can be abused in others. 

I can see both sides of the coin and you cannot give social networking to some teachers and not others.  In the world today that would not be considered “fair.”

Davis, Michelle R. "Social Networking Goes to School." Education Week Digital Directions. Education Week Publications, 10 June 2010. Web. 7 Feb. 2013. <http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2010/06/16/03networking.h03.html>.

Zuckerberg, Mark. "Our First 100 Million." Blog. Facebook. 26 Web. 1 Aug. 2008. <https://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=28111272130>.

Assistive Technology: 15 Ideas for the Classroom

There are different types of assistive technology devices out there to use in the classroom.  The website SimpleK12 is a great site for teachers.  It is a site that offers webinars. It has shared resources with LOTS of goodies that are truly beneficial to teachers. It offers forums and much more.

I encourage you to visit the site and see the different ways that the assistive technology is used.  I would also love for you to share with me ways that you use assistive technology devices at your school to help me improve the use of it at mine.

Thanks for reading today.

Julie

SOCIAL BOOKMARKING

It has been a while since I have been on here.  I have had a lot going on.

In my EDTC 6070 class I have just recently learned about Social Bookmarking.  I have never used it before.  It is a lot like Pinterest. However, this site does not put pictures with the links and does not allow you to neatly categorize your bookmarks.  To me Pinterest is very user friendly and more eye appealing.
Diigo and Delicious are great for Social Bookmarking but they are more professional.  They offering tagging which Pinterest does not.

Click here to check out each of my accounts.

Pinterest

Diigo

Delicious

Here is a great video that examples what Social Bookmarking is...