This week, although we did not attend class, our pod got together and watched our finished digital story and got it loaded onto YouTube. One of our pod members created an account and then we loaded our video. After a few minutes of processing, we were all able to get out video linked onto each of our classroom websites. We were able to put this project together using technology we have previously learned in class. Through our pod discussion group we are able to communicate with each other and plan meeting times when we need to get together to finish off our projects. Through our documents that are shared we are each able to take care of our assignments at our convenience. These two technologies have helped our pod communicate throughout the process of building our digital story.
This week, I have discovered a way that I can use digital stories to achieve my classroom objectives while helping my daughter with her science fair project. I asked her if she would like to create her own digital story to show with her display. We had taken pictures of her as she worked on her project and made a couple of videos of the actual experimentation stage of the project which I showed her how to import into Movie Maker. She went on the internet and found additional pictures she wanted to include for additional information. Next, she created a storyboard with the narrative for each slide all on her own. She plans to use the video to complement her science fair display. My daughter was extremely motivated and wanted to do the work on her own once I demonstrated how it was done. Students could easily use this technology to demonstrate what they have learned and what they are doing in our classroom as well as on projects. This would enable parents to become more aware of what we are doing in our classroom.
Unfortunately, the video link on the classroom website did not work; however, I did find a video on YouTube. The video titled Millennial Generation that I was able to watch on YouTube was created by Motorola Corporation and showed that students of today are moving ahead with technology. The students asked questions as to why certain things were not possible yet with technology. The students said that when their parents needed help with technology, they came to them, the students. As a non traditional student with children the same age as the students featured in the video, I can relate. When I need help with technology, I turn to my kids for help. I feel as though I am getting additional technology information that will be very useful to me as well as my classroom. As a future teacher, it is important for me to be in a position to know about technology and be able to teach my students instead of them teaching me. I cannot afford to be left behind in my technology skills.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Week 5 Reflection
Things were moving along smoothly last week on our digital story. By this Tuesday’s class we had written our storyboard, collected all the photos, recorded our narrative, and inserted all of our photos into the Movie Maker program. A small glitch was eventually overcome in getting the narrative into the proper type of file; then we thought we were ready for smooth sailing. Wrong. After two hours of class, our only accomplishment was that we had successfully got the narrative to import into the program. Disequilibrium is the state I found myself in for the next several hours. Eventually, I found my way back to equilibrium and all is well now.
Learning a new program without guidance brought both frustration as well as a sense of accomplishment in the end. From our experiences working with movie maker, it seems as though to be successful all the production work must be completed and a finished movie produced on the same computer or else all is lost. Even after hours of struggles, I now feel successful because in the end I could complete the assigned task. Now, I have a working relationship with the movie maker program and feel as though I can use the program successfully to create and present information to my eventual students. However, I am not so sure that I would use it as a project I would have my kindergarteners use until I was much more successful and understood the limitations I had to work with so that I could guide them through to success.
I feel that a problem with the digital story project is that the final production of putting all the information together rests on one person. Although each member of the pod gathered and participated in the first stages of the project, only one person could work on the project to put it all together. I feel that there should be a more collaborative way for many people to work on the digital story all at once. This could work similar to a Google document. There probably is a program that allows for this type of collaboration that professionals use daily.
The overall message from the video Did You Know? is having us ponder the type of education we are providing to students and if that type of education is going to be useful for the students as they enter the world of tomorrow. Shift happens. Change happens. Are we changing to meet that change or are we resisting and sticking with what we already know? The video challenges educators to step up and make the education we provide useful and relevant for our students. We have to use technology to engage our students.
In the video A Vision of Students Today, two hundred students collaborated on a document to create the message that educators need to change the educational environment. There needs to be change if the education that is provided is going to useful and relevant in their lives. I looked up the word digital ethnography on the web and it stated that said “application of new technologies to the process of ethnography. Ethnography is the branch of anthropology that deals with scientific description of specific human cultures. The students we teach tomorrow are part of a digital culture. We as educators need to seize the opportunity to include technology into the classroom if we plan on helping them achieve their goals for the future.
Learning a new program without guidance brought both frustration as well as a sense of accomplishment in the end. From our experiences working with movie maker, it seems as though to be successful all the production work must be completed and a finished movie produced on the same computer or else all is lost. Even after hours of struggles, I now feel successful because in the end I could complete the assigned task. Now, I have a working relationship with the movie maker program and feel as though I can use the program successfully to create and present information to my eventual students. However, I am not so sure that I would use it as a project I would have my kindergarteners use until I was much more successful and understood the limitations I had to work with so that I could guide them through to success.
I feel that a problem with the digital story project is that the final production of putting all the information together rests on one person. Although each member of the pod gathered and participated in the first stages of the project, only one person could work on the project to put it all together. I feel that there should be a more collaborative way for many people to work on the digital story all at once. This could work similar to a Google document. There probably is a program that allows for this type of collaboration that professionals use daily.
The overall message from the video Did You Know? is having us ponder the type of education we are providing to students and if that type of education is going to be useful for the students as they enter the world of tomorrow. Shift happens. Change happens. Are we changing to meet that change or are we resisting and sticking with what we already know? The video challenges educators to step up and make the education we provide useful and relevant for our students. We have to use technology to engage our students.
In the video A Vision of Students Today, two hundred students collaborated on a document to create the message that educators need to change the educational environment. There needs to be change if the education that is provided is going to useful and relevant in their lives. I looked up the word digital ethnography on the web and it stated that said “application of new technologies to the process of ethnography. Ethnography is the branch of anthropology that deals with scientific description of specific human cultures. The students we teach tomorrow are part of a digital culture. We as educators need to seize the opportunity to include technology into the classroom if we plan on helping them achieve their goals for the future.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Week 4 Reflection
This week in class we began learning about digital storytelling. At first, I thought digital story telling would be a book created with digital pictures that includes narration that is online. Now I understand digital storytelling is telling a story which includes photos, video, narration, and music. The three digital stories we viewed in class invoked deep feelings. The story tellers had emotional life stories to tell. All digital stories do not need to be emotional. The digital story that our pod is creating is light and informative as we are focusing our efforts towards kindergarten.
Our pod is working together very nicely. During class, we looked at the kindergarten core, found a standard and objective we wanted to cover, wrote our script and found the pictures we wanted for the digital story. All the members of the pod were working together on different areas of the presentation and things are moving along very smoothly. I hope when I am at a school, I will have a good working relationship with the other kindergarten teachers and faculty in order to make things work.
Digital storytelling would be a tool that I could use with my colleagues to create stories to present to meet our standards and objectives using technology. My kindergarteners could create an online story that we could use to show parents what we are learning in the kindergarten. As the students of today are accustomed to using technology, I believe with some guidance, they would be successful. This project would require commitment but I think the end results would be positive. Digital stories help provide information and can evoke deep feelings. Creating digital stories can be time consuming to create but can be used to teach students who are accustomed to using technology.
The NASA digital story was both informative as well as thought provoking. I have often wondered why our country spends so much to go back to the moon and into space when astronauts were loosing their lives. From the digital story I learned that the technology gained from NASA goes to benefit the medical field, transportation, engineering, energy consumption, weather forecasting, safety and much more. For every one dollar spent on research and development it is estimated the country receives tax revenues of seven dollars in jobs and economic growth. Something that I did not know was the large number of lives lost in space travel. All the individuals were named with the tragedy that took their lives. This made me realize they are real people who made great contributions to the life I live today.
Our pod is working together very nicely. During class, we looked at the kindergarten core, found a standard and objective we wanted to cover, wrote our script and found the pictures we wanted for the digital story. All the members of the pod were working together on different areas of the presentation and things are moving along very smoothly. I hope when I am at a school, I will have a good working relationship with the other kindergarten teachers and faculty in order to make things work.
Digital storytelling would be a tool that I could use with my colleagues to create stories to present to meet our standards and objectives using technology. My kindergarteners could create an online story that we could use to show parents what we are learning in the kindergarten. As the students of today are accustomed to using technology, I believe with some guidance, they would be successful. This project would require commitment but I think the end results would be positive. Digital stories help provide information and can evoke deep feelings. Creating digital stories can be time consuming to create but can be used to teach students who are accustomed to using technology.
The NASA digital story was both informative as well as thought provoking. I have often wondered why our country spends so much to go back to the moon and into space when astronauts were loosing their lives. From the digital story I learned that the technology gained from NASA goes to benefit the medical field, transportation, engineering, energy consumption, weather forecasting, safety and much more. For every one dollar spent on research and development it is estimated the country receives tax revenues of seven dollars in jobs and economic growth. Something that I did not know was the large number of lives lost in space travel. All the individuals were named with the tragedy that took their lives. This made me realize they are real people who made great contributions to the life I live today.
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