Day 12: Going on the Road

As teachers it is important to remember that you should always adjust your presentations depending on your intended audience. For example, if you are going to present to a young group of students you may want to keep your presentation relatively short and simple. Also, you may want to consider including some type of small or whole group activity that they can complete to get a better grasp of your message.

Day 11 Readings: Portfolios and Assessment

I found this article on portfolio assessment to be really interesting and full of useful information. For example, it was interesting to learn that there are three different types of portfolios that can be used for assessments. Documentation portfolios are used to highlight development over time; Process portfolios document all stages of the learning process, like reflections and higher order thinking skills. Product portfolios mainly focus on showcasing the student portfolio with the student’s best work and can be used as a summative assessment of student mastery. I also liked finding out that there are basically five stages for portfolio development. They include the planning, collection, selection, reflection, and connection stages. I saved the URL to this information in my delicious account because I plan on reviewing at a later time. :)

Day 10: Electronic Portfolios for Students

I really like the idea of storing student progress on a digital portfolio and using it as an alternative assessment. I have always thought that alternative assessments provide much more accurate information in regards to where a student is academically. I especially like the idea for my special education students because you can visually see the growth that has taken place over the course of the school year. I also think that ePortfolios could even be used instead of the current AIMS test. One test, taken for one week out of the school year does not give clear enough data on student progress. Yet so the scores for that one test can make or break a school
:(

Day 9: Electronic Portfolios

I am really interested in creating an electronic portfolio that I can keep all of my important things in and I was thinking about using my own personal Web Site as the glue, but it seems that many ePortfolios are created with some type of online software. The ePortfolio Web Sites that I have visited all seem to charge a little bit of money to create and host the portfolio.
I was really amazed to see the large selection of ePortfolio articles linked in this article. Unfortunately, it seemed that many of the links were old and no longer in use.
I also read the article written by Dr. Helen Barrett and I was really surprised to see that she wrote it because she is the one who is doing to Google docs portfolios. I think that ePortfolios will become easier and easier to create because more and more companies appear to be in the business of creating ePortfolios.

Day 8: ePortfolios: a portal site

I have never really thought about creating an ePortfolio for myself until today. As I was reading all of our day 8 readings I began to explore the resources available on the ePortfolio portal and found several companies that make it easy for people to create and manage their own ePortfolio. However, most of them were fairly expensive and a little difficult to navigate through. So, I began to look on my own and wouldn’t you know it, Google now has something called Google Pages and you can now author your own ePortfolio using your Google Pages and it’s free!

Day 8: Professional/Teaching Portfolios

ePortfolios are effective tools to record student growth over a period of time. They can be used as an alterative assessment in which students work is assessed from an individual perspective. ePortfolios are also becoming more and more in demand as an admissions process for college applicants. College officials can trace student progress and determine student potential based less on standardized test scores and more on interview, portfolio, and essay submissions. In addition, teachers are now being encouraged to create and maintain an ePortfolio of their best lessons. Such a portfolio could include video footage, lesson plans, classroom management plans, and several other useful artifacts that could be used to determine teacher growth and progress. Typical ePortfolios are constructed with a five-stage process, they include, the conception stage, the collection stage, the selection stage, the reflection stage, and the connection stage. ePortfolios are important because they have emerged during a time when information and knowledge of information is collected, constructed, stored, and assessed in a manner allows people to reflect on learning together.

Day 7: Tips for Different Types of Presentations

In my eyes, the number one rule for any presentation is to be prepared. If I haven’t practiced my presentation through and through I will get nervous, rush through it as fast as I can, and eventually not get my message through in an effective way. In addition to one being prepared, I think the next thing that really tires me out when viewing a presentation is that 98% of them are all lecture. I wish that some presenters would allow time for more interaction with their audience or include the audience in a learning activity. I know that I always learn more by having the opportunity to get hands on practice, not by listening to someone talk about it for an hour. So, perhaps presenters should also work on developing a group activity, or introduce yourself to the person your sitting next to activity. My students appreciate it when I do.

Day 6:Using Multimedia Peripherals

It's really been a lot of fun carrying around my digital camera for the past month or so, taking pictures, altering them in Photoshop, and posting them on the Web. I have enjoyed learning about picture taking and these articles provided me with even more useful tips. Such as using a plain background or moving an object from the center of the photograph to the side or corner.
However, I think I got the most practical use out of the 1001 uses for a digital camera article. What a great resource to have. I really liked their ideas, especially our class book, and the welcome to class book ideas. As I was reading through them, I began to come up with several of my own ideas. Perhaps I could have the students create a classroom newspaper that combined the Web, pictures, audio commentary, graphics, and be available to readers online. Students would have to work together on editing student writing projects, picture taking, working with audio/video and web tools and all of this would focus on reading. They would also all be working together creating a final presentation using any multimedia tools they wished (teacher approved).
So it looks like I will be carrying this little digital camera around with me for some time to come. That’s OK though. If I can get my students more interested in reading and writing by having them take pictures with a camera, I would be happy to do so. :)

Day 5: What Are Your Visuals Saying About You?

I really liked reading this article by Jim Endicott. It was funny and thought provoking and reminded me of so many in-service presentations in my district, especially the clown comment. Mr. Endicott's five steps to differentiate your presentation really cover some important aspects of any presentation. I thought it was funny, but after reading it I really began to think that much of what he had written was incredibly true. For example, before presenting ask yourself "What are the stakes for this presentation?" The higher the stakes the more precise and professional your presentation should be. Next, I thought that the author’s comments on quality and effective delivery of the content were very true and important. In any presentations we are evaluated on the quality of the images used to tell our stories and how effectively we deliver that message. This made me think that since I have learned to use Photoshop more effectively this semester, I may try to put in some custom artwork in my next presentation.

Day 5: Using Fonts, Clip Art and Photographs in Multimedia Presentations

I liked how this article stressed the importance of simplicy. All too often I find myself thinking of a way to develop a multimedia presentation (PowerPoint, Video, Web Page, etc...) that will dazzle instead of inform. I frequently (although I have gotten better) remind myself that the content is more important than the design. Although quality design is important to any presentation, we must learn to blend the two in order to create rich, meaningful, and dynamic multimedia presentations. Another important aspect of this reading is that they listed several important tips for designing multimedia presentations, such as stick to the same font (sans-serif), to use different colors, styles, and to make sure your work is legible. All wise words for any multimedia designer.

Day 4: My Definition of Multimedia

OK, I think that multimedia is any software application that can be mixed with technology or hardware that is used to communicate through text, graphics, sound, video, animation, or any other digital medium.

:) Whew!

Day 4: Who Will Own Your Next Good Idea

This was an interesting article on intellectual property rights and it was really very interesting. I thought that the introduction was hilarious. Who else but the French would steal a story about rats? Maybe I am being a little hard on them, so therefore allow me to digress. Intellectual property rights is a huge topic across university campuses and computer chat rooms. My stance on the subject is that I believe it is wrong to take something that does not belong to you. Therefore people, especially teachers need to be careful if they buy software, music, or anything else that has a software license agreement that only allows a certain number of users. It is really interesting to think about the huge impact that the digital world has brought to both copyrighted & trademarked materials. I have a good friend who lives in Thailand and he can get a copy of Windows Vista for $5.00 or a copy of Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull for $5.00. Until we can enforce intellectual property rights worldwide, I think that recording companies should back off of the local college students.

I think that it's interesting how bands such as Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have basically given their recordings away free online. A recent interview by Thom Yorke of Radiohead stated that why not let the fans be the first ones to review the record. Also, if you sign a huge record contract that strips you of all your digital rights, so that when you do sell something on iTunes you get absolutely zero. If you're an emerging artist, it must be frightening at the moment. Then again, I don't see a downside at all to big record companies not having access to new artists, because they have no idea what to do with them now anyway.

Day 4: Multimedia Glossary

It is really amazing to see a list of all of the different terms that are used in the develop and creation of multimedia projects. As a special education teacher I am used to using a lot of different acronyms such as IEP, AYP, ELL, ESY, SLD, ED, and so on. So, you can imagine how excited I was to see and learn about new terms like ANSI (The American National Standards Institute character set), API (Application Programming Interface) , Applets (Application Programs), AVI (Audio Video Interleaved), .BMP (Bitmap), and CAV (Constant Angular Velocity), CD-ROM (Compact Disc Read-Only Memory), and ICR (Intelligent Character Recognition). It can be a little mind boggling at times, but I think that I will save this page for future reference on my Delicious page.

Day 3: The Eight-Frame Storyboard for a 30-Second Movie

I really like the storyboard. I thought that it was a great idea to think of the storyboard as a comic strip. This way you can develop your story from the beginning to the middle and finally have a solid ending. The comic strip premise also gives developers the chance to give each block picture with an action and a line or two of dialog. This is a great way to get your students to develop a story of their own too. I usually have my students draw a picture of the story setting, the main characters, and usually they like to include a monster or some other pop culture icon as the villain. Once the pictures are done they can put words to their pictures. It is really a lot of fun.

Day 3: Setting the Organizational Stage

It's funny because there was a time when I used to think, "Why would I spend a bunch of time creating a storyboard?." However, storyboarding is really important. As a matter of fact, I think it is the most important aspect of web/video creation. As an undergraduate I had an assignment to create a video about mathematics. I thought I would skip the storyboarding part and just shoot as much raw footage as I could. It was a huge mistake. I ended up having to go all way back and write my storyboard and then collect new footage. So, believe me when I say that preparing a good storyboard will save you so much time in the end.

Day 2: Multimedia in the Classroom

I think it's really important to select the appropriate multimedia tool for whatever it is that you want your students to learn. For example, I think it would be useful for students to use graphics and storyboarding tools in order to develop and plan a story (plot, characters, etc... ). In my classroom I have students use a storyboard before they start writing. I typically have them start by brainstorming story ideas such as characters, climax, plot, and setting. Once they have the ideas they can then begin to draw pictures of all of these great ideas. Students can even use preexisting pictures in Kidspiration, Word, Picture Maker, or any number of tools. Students can get realy creative with this and sometimes they develop very elaborate stories. It is a lot of fun.

Day 2: How do I apply constructivism in my classroom?

I really found a lot of useful information in this article. I have always been interested in creating a constructivist classroom, but really did not know how to go about it. However, after reading this it seems like I have been doing fairly well so far. For example, I always try to link my instruction to my student’s experiences. This makes the lesson much more interesting and fun for them. I have even gone so far that if they have not had an experience linked to the assignment, I will try to provide that for them. For example, we recently read a story called "Salmon Summer" that was about a boy who went to Alaska to fish with his dad. Unfortunately, many of my students have not fished yet. So, I brought my own fishing pole and tackle box to class and let them take turns casting the line and examining the many lures that I also brought with me. They really got a kick out of it and some of the other teachers even borrowed my fishing pole and tackle box to use in their classroom. I was thrilled to have been able to do this with my students.

Day 2: Constructivism and technology

Computers and other technology devices really add a tremendous amount of interest and energy to curriculum based learning. For example, instead of pencil and paper or drill and practice routines, the use of technology can cater to all of the multiple intelligences in which promote student learning. In addition, technology can create a constructivist learning environment by allowing students to build and develop their own understanding of classroom objectives. Finally, technology also promotes cooperative learning environments and team development that prepares students to problem solve real world problems.