Sunday, June 20, 2010
BP12_20100620_One Minute Message #2
Watch my video below for more information on Go!Animate. I did find out when creating this that there are some problems sharing, basically you can save it at their site, post to Youtube or pay to download it for use. If you choose to download your video it also takes a few hours for them to convert it. After paying to download it I did find that they messed up the audio in places so you may have to turn it up to enjoy. Another thought, if I had to pay for this clip it was pretty interesting that they leave their watermark on and add their advertising at the end of the clip but what do I know I am in education now not advertising.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
BP11_20100617_Link to my comment on Marcia's Blog
Follow this link to my comments on Marcia's Blog on a book making tool she has discovered.
BP9_20100617_Web 2.0 T3-Go!Animate
I figured that since that I love Toondoo so much, that maybe there was also a Web 2.0 tool out there that would let my students do animation. I found more than a couple. Most of them required some kind of fee, but I was able to find a couple that were free. DoInk was probably the one with the most options for customizing. You start off with a completely blank screen and get to draw whatever it is that you need. This would be great for someone who has a lot of experience with graphics programs such as Adobe or Corel but for most of my 5th graders would be beyond their abilities. Another tool I found is Go!Animate. This tool was much easer for someone new to animation, much more of a drag and drop approach, but they have fewer options for customizing unless you want to add a few dollars to your account. I think Futurama was probably one of my favorites when it comes to animation and the characters on Go!Animate look like this popular TV show. The ability to animate is made easy by breaking the animation into small clips and right clicking on each element to add some preset animation to it. Another thing I liked about this tool was the ability to bring in your pictures or sounds to add to your clip. I think overall this tool is what I was looking for when thinking about my students. It will be a little more challenging than ToonDoo, but, I am looking forward to seeing what they can do with it next year.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Sunday, June 13, 2010
BP5_2010062_Web2.0 T2-elgg
The assignment for this weeks web 2.0 tool was to find something that we could use in our action research. Since I am building a website for my AR project I was looking for something that could help me with this. I originally had a plan to find something that would help me keep track of the time spent on each part of the website but decided that this would not really be a web 2.0 tool. I have been doing the research and have come to agree with the importance of having a social platform within an education website so I decided to look for tools that could help me incorporate these elements into my website design. While there are many tools out there I had to keep in mind that privacy would be my number one priority and I did not want that part of my site linking to other sites or ads that I could not control. After many hours of searching i found elgg, which looks like it will be challenging to incorporate with my limited amount of website building experience but looks to be perfect if I can implement it. The tool (which was created for education) gives you the ability to add blogs, instant messaging, bookmarking and other social networking abilities to your site. The picture above was taken from the elgg.net website.
Friday, June 4, 2010
BP4_20100604_RSS Feeds
This is the feed from the New York Times. It has all of the current events happening nationally about education, which seemed a necessity for an educator.
This is an online magazine dedicated to innovative ideas in education.
This feed seemed a perfect fit for the courses we are taking.
This is a blog I have regularly followed since finding it in college, always many interesting articles on the many aspects if teaching.
A great video resource for any teacher and with the feed I will be able to find out about new videos as they are posted.
BP3_20100604_Web 2.0 T1-Name of the Tool
Web 2.0, as I understand it, is any tool on the Internet that people can use to create their own content. This is as opposed to the original Web ways of simply consuming information. In this regards my favorite Web 2.0 tool, by far, is Toondoo. It is located at http://www.toondoo.com/. This site offers the users the ultimate in creativity allowing them to create comic strips. The user can choose from pre-made characters or they also have another program, TraitRV2, that allows them create their own characters. These characters can be customized in endless possibilities including poses and facial expressions. Once the user has created their characters, the Toondoo software is easy to use allowing them to create their comic strips complete with backgrounds, props, and speech bubbles. Originally this tool was free, and still is for the most part, but they are now offering their own "spaces" and options for educators to set up classroom pages that are priced accordingly. I have used this site for the last two years and can say without a doubt that 5th graders love it. I teach math and about once a month they get to use these tools to come up with comics regarding whatever topic we happen to be on and the level of creativity that the students have never ceases to amaze me. I have many of my students who will go to the site on their own time to play with it. I will usually print out their creations to use on the bulletin board outside of my class and when the new ones go up there is much excitement in the halls for the next few days. From an educational standpoint it doesn't get much better than that, 5th graders excited about math, go figure. The only downside to the site that I have noticed it that it is open, by that I mean anyone can post whatever they have created. When you come to the homepage, usually, the newest creations are there for everyone to see and sometimes they are not age appropriate. I have an account that the students are usually eager to log in and begin so, for the most part, this has not been a problem. I can see no age level that this tool would not be appropriate for, it is simply a fun easy way to create and share.
BP2_2010060410_EduUses4Blogs
There are many obvious benefits from using Blogs in the classroom. First and foremost it is an easy means to get out class instructions and provide your class with links relevant to the content you are studying. Blogs also give the students a way to talk about their learning with one another or with another class. Blogs can help your struggling users who now have a means for posting questions they are having and getting peers to answer and give them advice. Another excellent idea I ran across was using a Blog as a way to communicate with another class across the city or around the world. I am fairly new to Blogs. I have just started using Blogs on a professional level. Recently I became a member of the Math collaborative for our district and Blogging is the main way we communicate ideas and answer questions. It has been not only a pleasant experience but one in that we can be open and share more easily.I see tremendous potential for this medium for my classroom. For my AR project I am going to be building a website for my students to give them another resource for learning their math concepts and am now going to make sure that a blog is a central part of this website. In doing the research on this topic, I ran across a Blog by Stephen Downes at http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2009/04/blogs-in-education.html. In his Blog he lists the steps you should take in order to successfully incorporate Blogs into a classroom setting. His suggestions include staring out slowly and simply by using Blogs to post class instruction to get the students use to checking blogs regularly for information. Making sure to be a good model of how to use blogs by creating and using your own Blog as a teacher. Have students read other blogs before posing to their own as well as making sure the students have a context with which to write are also encouraged. One thing he mentioned that will be of outmost concern to me in my school setting will be watching out for any type of bullying that may occur with this sort of communication medium. I will definitely have to have a plan in place for what and what is not acceptable and consequences for inappropriate posts.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
BP1_20100603_igooglescreenshots
The following are my igoogle homepage which is being used as a Personal Learning Environment.
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