Digital Story Telling

After Dawn posted a comment about my podcasting dilema I got to thinking about how we could still complete audio recording tasks in elementary school but make it more interesting for the students here. The podcasts were not having the school-wide appeal I'd hoped they 'd have. One interesting thought that Dawn suggested was that even many adults don't find the time to listen to 'talk' radio on their own. The only time I listen to talk radio is in my car on the way to work. Its hard to make the podcasting authentic for the students.

My new thought is to start the students vodcasting more. I attended a digital storytelling workshop this year that was very beneficial. The students become authors and created a story with pictures and animations in Powerpoint. The visuals are what make this activity such a powerful one. They can later add their own voice reading the story and/or ambient music to complete the story they tell. This form of sharing I think will be much more authentic for students. Authors of children's stories publish their work, some authors turn their work into movies, and this form of sharing lends itself well to having book talks, or a community read day at the school.

Using a program Camtasia, provided to each TRT in Loudoun Co. schools I can actually take each students' finished Powerpoint story and transform it into a WMV file for sharing on the internet. Then it will be a true vodcast that can be shared worldwide.

Our 5th graders will be digital storytelling during the month of May. I will definitely share if this approach ends with a better outcome.

Podcasting

The post is slightly overdue, however I am on podcasting overload at the moment. It has been quite convenient that my podcasting staff development at work has been overlapped with our podcasting unit for Mason.

I have been podcasting with students since the beginning of the year and I finally feel like I have the organization side and the tech side down to a science. Students and I can now crank out a 5 minute podcast in about 30 minutes.

However I am ready to change things up a bit and test out some new ideas with students. Right now a typical podcast with our 3rd graders includes some sort of content showcase (social studies riddles, science poems, writing samples, etc...), a staff member interview, and a trivia question.

What other ideas do you have for a unique, original and appropriate podcast?

We've also had difficulty at Guilford with motivating all students to listen to the podcast once its online. Many students don't have internet access at home either so listening at home is not an option. Any ideas for motivating students and teachers to listen to the podcasts more with their classes?

In Loving Memory

Ok, so this post is not going to have anything to do with technology however I felt it appropriate to leave a tribute to my white laptop baby featured on my blog. Tonight we will be taking her to the vet to be put to sleep. She spent way to little time on this earth and way to little time with us. Last week was her 2 year anniversary of being adopted into our family and what we also called her 6th birthday. Yesterday she was diagnosed with very advanced malignent melanoma. She was the shyest, most timid. but sweetest cat ever and has been a fighter the past few weeks. She's going to be missed by my husband and I but I'm glad I get to see her little face still everytime I come to update my Tech Blog. Thanks for listening to my ramblings...now back to our regularly scheduled blog...

The joys of technology

So I thought I would just post my frustrations today with Pbwiki. Today is the day I am supposed to start the Wiki site with fourth grade. Of course this would be the day that the pbwiki server is down. I keep getting the message "this service is unavailable - please try again later" T-minus 7 minutes until the class is here to do their first round of wiki-ing (is that even a word?).

Plan B is to have them type their first round of information into a Word document and cut and paste later, however that doesn't really showcase the uses and advantages of the wiki this week.

Don't you love how reliable technology is sometimes?

Video Editing 101

The past month or so I have been consumed by video editing 101. I think there are some very innovative and creative ways teachers could be using video technology in the classroom. At the start of this semester I was energized and ready to bring all I had learned from inservice sessions and grad school back to my teachers. I planned to establish a video team of 5 -10 teachers who wanted to work on video projects with their students. This team of teachers lent itself well to my second practicum unit and my plan was to write up and showcase all of the really great final products that were created.

Little did I know what a disaster this training would turn out to be! I too am new to the world of video editing. So coming into this team as a novice does not help. Video editing software is also a headache to use and there is a significant time element involved in tweaking a video project. The finished product is great to see (I am so proud of my PSA I am showcasing it everywhere I can - see above), and it makes me proud of all the hard work that was done. However, is this all worth it for 30 seconds of video?! I had a teacher on my video team who is concerned that since she isn't able to follow up with her students as quick as she'd like they will forget that they even made the videos. It has almost been a month since the their videos were filmed and we are still trying to work with the software.

How do we keep the momentum and energy up when completing a video project that is so tedious? Do you think the time involved is a worthwhile investment once we get the final product? Or should teachers be spending their precious time elsewhere?

Success

I had one small success today that I just had to share. I have a few teachers at my school who are very tech shy. Technology is scary to them and even though they try their hardest to integrate, everything is overwhelming. A lot of hand holding has been done and we do a lot of pre-planning together.

As we've been learning about Wiki's in class I realized how appropriate a Wiki site could be for all the history rich lessons one of my tech shy teacher's teach and I decided to bring up the idea of creating a Wikisite for her kids. When I first explained to this teacher that I wanted to introduce a new technology to her kids she looked at me like I was crazy. But as I explained it to her further she began to love the idea. She had heard of the Wikipedia and loved the idea of having a classroom resource for her kids.

The moment of success was when she took ownership of the project by suggesting a Wiki site for all the important documents in American history the kids have to learn about. She wants the students to work in pairs to manage and update a different document page each week for a few weeks. We are still working out the details of the project. This teacher and I are going to meet again to have a tutorial about the Wikisite and her kids are going to start it in the next few weeks. I am looking forward to watching both her and her kids grow through this project.

Have you been in a 'tech scared' position before? If so how did you overcome your fears of technology. I feel the answers to these questions are so important to how I work with my teachers as a TRT to help them feel more comfortable with trying new ides.

Picky about Wikis?

As I began reading Richardson's chapter 4 about the power of the Wiki I was reminded of a sticky situation I had at school this past week. On page 59 Richardson comments: "...whereas most people get the 'pedia' part of the name few really understand the first part, the wiki."

I had a teacher approach me this week about using the Wikipedia with students. She inquired why a shortcut to the Wikipedia was not included on our network for student access. She wanted students to be able to use the Wikipedia for research they are completing in 4th grade. I sat and thought for a moment about her inquiry and proceeded to explain that although the Wikipedia is full of a wealth of knowledge, it cannot be regarded as a 100% valid information source for student use.

I then went on to explain the 'wiki' portion of the name to her. How anyone anywhere in the world can login and edit what is included in the Wikipedia. I assured her that there are editors helping to ensure that the information is correct, but at any given time and for any given topic students could be searching information that is not current or not updated. She had no idea that the Wikipedia was a flexible, changeable document. Our conversation concluded with me encouraging her modeling lessons where she is searching the Wikipedia for information and then verifying the information with another source, while the student research at this time is done through other online databases and encyclopedias. I felt that was the appropriate use for her 4th graders at this time.

This was a tough moment for me. Because I do feel the Wikipedia is a great resource and did not want to discourage its use. When did you learn the true meaning of 'wiki'? I am sure this staff member is one of many who don't realize the easily changeable nature of the Wikipedia. How do you feel about student use of the Wikipedia for research? Do you view it as a valid source of information?

IM speak pervades student writing

My husband sent me an interesting article while I was at work yesterday. The premise of the article is about how IM speak is cropping up in student work at school more and more. As an elementary educator I have not seen too much of this first hand, but this topic does seem to be sparking quite a debate. Are social networking, email, and instant messaging sites causing our students to become lazy with language? What do teachers need to know or do to overcome these issues?

David Warlick was quoted in this article and disusses this issue in his blog. He says this type of language should be aknowledged and celebrated. He points out that we are now in the 21st century where perfect grammar may not be appropriate for all settings. He argues that teachers should be sharing with students how writing will change depending on the audience. A scientist will not write a formal paper the same as an author would write a book. Children need to learn how to direct writing to a specific audience or purpose. He says IM speak may have a time and place in the classroom, do you agree?

On another note, I was lucky enough to see David Warlick lead a workshop for LCPS during Staff Development at the start of this school year. His life's work is currently about promoting 21st century literacy, especially through web 2.0 tools. I reccomend you check out his website. His blogs, wikis, and podcasts are all very informative and give an interesting perspective on classroom uses for Web 2.0 tools.

Excitement and Frustrations of a Blogger

I think blogging opens up a world of possibilities in the classroom. Students are given a non-threatening way of opening up and sharing their thoughts and feelings about current events and class readings or through creative writings they have composed. Effective teachers are constantly trying to use multiple modalities to teach their students. Blogging will especially reach out to those introverted students who dispise being put on the spot and speaking in front of peers. What a powerful tool this can become for them!

LCPS has just begun allowing the classroom blog on their web service. However, it is still is its early phases and guidelines for use have just been established. These guidelines put many limitations on how we are able to put this tool to use in our classrooms. As TRT I am a little frustrated that students are discouraged from being the blog creators. They may only comment on what the teacher has written. I am hopeful that in a few years as this technology emerges as beneficial we will be allowed more freedoms. My other frustration lies in that once a comment has been made you cannot comment on a comment. The comment section is strictly linear. As the teacher I was hoping to leave positive reinforcement or constructive criticism on what students have posted. However, the commenting featue of our web program does not make this possible.

With that being said all and all I am excited about the blog project we have started at Guilford. We have just begun a "Book Club Blog" with one one of the 5th grade teachers. The teacher is using this blog to facilitate discussion prior to meeting with her reading groups. She is hoping that this will springboard her discussions and future literature circle discussions amongst students. She is seeing this as an immense time saver leading up to her meetings with reading groups as she'll know some of what they are thinking prior to meeting. It will be fun to see both the teacher and student mature and grow over time with the use of blogging. If you get a chance I encourage you to check it out!

Guilford 5th grade book club blog

Welcome!

Welcome to my little world of tech insights and thoughts on the web. I hope to provide my views and opinions about Web2 tools we will be using this semester in my Instructional Technology grad program, as well as offer suggestions of practical use of these tools in the elementary classroom. Enjoy!