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.