Week 5

Creating the rubric this week was a bit challenging, but rubrics always are for me. I am always trying to address any loophole a 7th grade student will find, so I feel like some of my columns/requirements are too wordy. It doesn't help that I also need to design the rubric to be able to withstand the scrutiny of helicopter parents. The bonus to the rubric is that I focused on how I could change the wiki research project my 7th grade health students currently work on and re-direct it so that they can use other tools like prezi, glogs, wikis, and even a pecha kucha. I am going to put the rubric in action with my next semester of students and hope I get some better stuff than I got with the group I currently have (my 7th grade students are rather immature this year, so they are not as able to work independently as previous groups I have had).

I enjoyed looking at the group work we had to complete because it gave me an opportunity to check out SlideSix, Author Stream, and 280 Slides. I wish I would have known about these last week! I finally got my Pecha Kucha to upload with the audio I embedded, but I had to convert it to a video first then upload it to YouTube. If I had known about one of these three applications, I may have test run them first instead of wasting my time trying to figure out how to get my audio to upload with my video.

I am happy to say I am done with my Pecha Kucha although I don't know if I am jazzed about the way it turned out. I wanted to embed soothing music in the background, but it either overwrote my voice or it overpowered it. In retrospect, I think I would have had an easier go of this assignment if I would have done it on a Mac using iMovie. I could have easily done the voice with music overlay and the interface for iMovie is so sweetly simple. I also have Magix, a video editing program for PC, but I am still learning how to use it. I tried Windows Movie Maker, but the newest version is terrible terrible terrible and does not have the nice features earlier versions have.

I was laughing when I read the info on how to buy a camcorder and all of those links with little guides. I spent hours researching equipment for my broadcast/filmmaking class and ended up choosing a Sony HD camcorder with 120GB hard drive. All reviews and recommendations were solid. However, after I spent $1400 apiece, the middle of the manual tells you that it does not provide interface for Macs (I just bought 3 for the class). One would think that piece of info could have been listed somewhere in the reviews or product information. I decided I could deal with that and only upload those cameras to the PC's. However, the PC's had a version of Adobe Premiere Pro that did not support AVCHD (the format of the HD camcorder), so we could not edit the videos from the camcorder. I had to buy a better version of Adobe ($400). Luckily, a techie at Computer World in Appleton was able to get one of my Sony camcorders to upload to the Mac (but not the other). I have learned so much this year about buying computer hardware and software!

Week 4

I finished my Pecha Kucha, so I am glad to have it done. It took approximately 15 hours from start to finish. I initially uploaded it as a PDF to Voicethread to add my voice, but for some reason the site would not cooperate and my slides kept going over 20 seconds even though I had it set for that. I recorded voice through my powerpoint (just found out it had that ability). Even though I stayed within the 20 second time limit for narration, when I play back the entire presentation, it goes over by approximately 15 seconds. I can't figure out why since each slide is timed at 20 seconds and I don't have any transition time set for moving through the slides. I am so done with it now, though, that I don't even care. I doubt I will be doing this again as I did not really enjoy it.
The readings were fairly easy, so I didn't spend too much time on them. I am still waiting to get my Animoto Education account so I can try that out.
On one hand, I'm glad to have the week off. On the other, I just want to get this class over and done with. Though I am learning some good stuff, I am not actually enjoying the assignments because they are more about the work (and the excessive hours to complete) than they are about trying something new and seeing how it could translate into my teaching.

Week 3 thoughts

I actually learned something from Presentation Zen this week, so that was refreshing.  I really enjoyed the before and after shots of slides as well as the not so good, better, best examples.  It's way easier to make sense of things when you can see solid examples as explanations. 

I still think the homework load is excessive.  I don't believe I've had this much for even six credits of classes, so I'm kind of wondering why it's necessary to have this much for three credits.

I had my guidance counselor come ask for help creating a powerpoint, so I grabbed the Presentation Zen book, and now I am helping her do Zen as well.  After she is done, I am going to teach her how to do her entire presentation through VoiceThread.  I would have her do Voicethread right from the start, but she isn't ready for that yet.  She is excited about the way her slides look and then being able to record all of the words she would say.  I like it when my best students are other teachers.

I had a Hollywood writer/director as a guest speaker today for my film class who talked about many of the elements in the Digitales book, so it's nice that those elements (that I have been trying to teach the kids all semester) are universal and reinforced by professionals.

Week 2 Digital Storytelling

I don't know if it's just me or if there was quite a bit of work to do this week.  I have been sitting here for 8 hours doing homework, and I still haven't had the group discussion.  I probably spent longer on the Voicethread thing than I should have, but I wanted to make sure it was good.  I wish that we could have picked our own topic because I think it would have taken less time because I would have been more familiar with what I wanted to do.  I also would have liked to "kill two birds with one stone" by creating a voicethread that my students could have participated in. 

I understand the essence of Presentation Zen, but I am getting "zenned" out because the videos say the same as the book, and the book spends too much time not being simplistic.  For example, I would like to see an introduction to the topic then a little info, then some examples (both good and bad).  That is how I learn best.  It doesn't help that I think the author is a little full of himself and it annoys me greatly that he flips off japanese words almost like he is saying, "I'm sooooo awesome."  Every time I watch one of his video snippets I want to puke.

While he makes some good points about powerpoints, I keep reminding myself that he is just one opinion.  I agree that powerpoints need to be more exciting, but I'm not sure that we have to go to the extreme he recommends.  Again, I may be biased because I just can't stand watching him talk.  And now it's too late to undo the visual of him being so pompous.

CEDO 530 First class thoughts

I am excited about this class because I am teaching an Intro to Broadcast class (which should be called Intro to Media), and I need help teaching my kids.  I was selected to teach the class after the prior person left, but the only training I have is that I love technology.  I hope we can get to some editing instruction because I have my students working with Final Cut Pro and Express, iMovie, other Apple suites like Garage Band, Adobe CS5 Pro Premiere and After Effects, and Windows Movie Maker.  As a class, we have gone through the process of brainstorming ideas, scripting those ideas, storyboarding, preparing a shot list, and filming.  With the editing suites, the kids are struggling to find what works best for them, and I am still learning, so I can't offer much help.  I am also hoping this class shows me more ways in which I can re-structure my class at school for second semester students so that I do not end up having them and myself be too overwhelmed by jumping in with applications that are too advanced.  I would like the class to be more about digital storytelling than it currently is.

As I was reading our chapters in DigiTales, there was a paragraph about Nikos Theodosakis and his book, The Director in the Classroom.  I have read this book, talked with Nikos on the phone, and organized a video teleconference with him for my classes with National Louis University.  Though he is not a licensed educator, he is doing much to help teachers make content relevant and exciting through allowing students to do film projects.  He has a presentation called "Mattering" that he did for my class, and it was amazing.  You can view this at http://vimeo.com/4888866. Additionally, you can visit the website, http://www.oliveus.ca/OliveUs/Welcome.html to see how he teaches teachers and students how to use digital storytelling as a project based/service based learning experience.  His website for his book is http://www.thedirectorintheclassroom.com/.  The book walks you through filmmaking in the classroom but also discusses why filmmaking and digital storytelling are important (21st century learning skills, ISTE standards, etc).

Strategies that I forgot to post

Setting objectives, providing feedback, and providing recognition:
I think that setting objectives is very necessary because it helps you define where your students are at and where they need to go.  I agree that objectives should be specific but flexible.  I find that being flexible allows me to adapt to what the students need most versus the pace I think I should be moving at.  I also agree that communication is essential.  So many times teachers do not show rubrics to the kids, but it would help the kids make better sense of what the expectations are for each unit or project.  Communicating with parents also helps keep parents as allies rather than foes.

Feedback is essential especially when you engage in project based learning.  I find that prompt and specific feedback helps students stay focused on the expectations of each project.  I like to sandwich my feedback by starting with positives and ending with a positive wrap up and suggestions for improvement.  Most of my feedback is given through email or through the comments section of a wiki or within a Google Doc.  Whenever possible, I try to use a different color so that it is separated from the student work.  I also try to leave feedback near the places where I recommend a change or more development rather than in one long paragraph at the end.  Because my feedback occurs so promptly, student time on task is more focused.  Lastly, the bulk of my feedback concerns content versus usage and grammar.  I may make a comment about technical things, but I prefer to focus on the actual substance of a project.

Recognition for me occurs in almost the same way as feedback.  I try to find specific places where I can leave a well developed positive comment rather than a general "good job" statement.  I have also saved good student work and used it as the "good" example of what students should be striving for.  I think students appreciate this, though most will act embarrassed and surprised.

Module 5 "Interactives" online unit

I browsed through the Interactives website http://www.learner.org/interactives/ and found some really cool learning tools.  The site has modules in Math, Science, History, Language, and Arts.  Under these main topics are subtopics such as cinema, middle ages, elements of a story, metric conversions, and amusement park physics.  Each subtopic has a recommended age level.  When you click on the subtopic of choice, it guides you through different facets of the topic including an introduction, and a related resources page.  I browsed the cinema subtopic found under "arts" because it had some info I can use for my broadcast/film class.  The site's explanation of director and producer was easier to understand than most examples I have read, so even though the recommended age group is 9th-12th grade, I am sure my middle school kids could follow it.  The tabs on actors and editing will be very helpful to my kids since they are about ready to start filming their commercial projects.  I will be adding the list of recommended resources to the wiki I have for this class.  Interactives seems to be sponsored by Annenberg Media Learner, found at http://www.learner.org/ which contains many more topics and lessons for most categories of education.