Lisa's Blog

This is my last blog for EDAD 660! I have been reflecting about my experience in this course, and the closest analogy I can relate to is that it has been like riding a giant, scary-fun rollercoaster. There have been the exciting “highs” when I felt like I was witnessing technology that I never even knew existed, and then got to have a go at it. But there were also lows – the frustration and self-doubt that often overshadowed any thoughts of progress I was making. And I am drained. Mentally and emotionally.

The course has been good for me on a number of levels. When I’m mentoring new or pre-service teachers, I tell them to try to think about the kids in the class, and not about making the lesson perfect. After all, a child’s view of perfection is often something completely different than an adult’s.  Empathy, I believe is one of the most important traits a teacher can have; without it, it is difficult if not impossible, to design learning experiences that are meaningful for our kids. This course has reminded me that children do not all learn at the same rate, or in the same manner – and should not be expected to do so. It has reminded me of the dejection that kids can feel when they are trying, but their light bulb is just not shining brightly. It is in those situations that teachers need to provide a flashlight so the student can see a path to keep following. Without the flashlight, kids will just stay where they are, or worse go back where they started.

As a young child and teenager, I really struggled in school. In fact, I would not be surprised if I had an undiagnosed learning disability. Regardless, I have always felt that those early experiences made me a better teacher because I remembered what school was like for me. But remembering and feeling are two different experiences. For me, this course has given me a refresher on what it feels like to struggle, and also how relieved and thankful you feel when your teacher supports you. Thank you, Craig!

Yes, it has been a rollercoaster ride!

As I was walking home from school, I stopped to have an iced tea with some friends. Some of them had to write a paper about technology (specifically digital storytelling) and how it can be used deliver content to students. Eventually their conversation turned to a conversation that I have had many, many times over the years. The two main ideas behind  the conversation were: 1) Children need to stop spending so much time on the computer and playing video games. They are detrimental to learning, and perhaps schools and universities should ban laptops and other technology, so that the teachers could get on with teaching, and the students could get on with learning. 2) Technology is really cool, but spending 5 hours to make a book or a video or a PowerPoint etc. just because it’s engaging is pointless. Teachers can use that time in far more effective ways.

And then, like the joy you feel at the amazing moment right before you go down the giant rollercoaster hill, I was able to actually speak on the topic – with knowledge and surprisingly for me , with conviction. (I LOVE being knowledgeable! I LOVE knowing!) I was able to argue against their opinion, and I think perhaps it may have opened their eyes (just a little) to a different viewpoint, with information that they are unaware of. I talked about Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants, and how that must impact constructivist practice. I told them about a recent study I read about young children who appear to be not listening to video (and appear to be “off task”), but who are really selectively multitasking – listening enough to understand the gist of the video and still getting to play with toys. The study showed that they learned the same amount of information as the control group who only watched the video. It tells us that kids nowadays are different learners than we were, and we need to adapt to their needs, not the other way around.

The conversation ended, and I was secretly gleeful. I have always been a Social Reconstructionist, a believer that schools, teachers (adults in general) need to advocate for social change that benefits kids and makes the world a better place. And I love when I can argue effectively against practices that I believe are not best for kids. In the short time I have been in EDAD 660, I have become a believer in technology, and I only just realized that today, sitting with my friends, arguing that not only is technology really engaging,  and yes, very cool, but it is also absolutely  necessary for our kids. I have come a long way in this course, and I feel hopeful.

I am so thankful we didn’t do Photoshop today! Today was a GREAT day!

Today we did a really fun project using digital photographs to create a 3-D digital copy of the view from Bellver College! It was really simple to do – just upload the photos to the programme and it does all the work for you! (My kind of programme!!!) Photosynth is a web-based tool, but you need to have a Microsoft Windows Live account to use it.

The programme takes all of your photos from a particular area (e.g. from the rooftop of Bellver College or the Blue Mosque in Istanbul) and mashes them together to make one 3-D image. It looks really cool. If you go to the website, you can search for specific things. Next year, one of the grades will be doing a unit of inquiry about marketplaces. I think it would be really interesting to have a few photosynths (say that 5 fives fast!) of different markets. Then kids could get into groups, revisit the sites, and write comparisons. Having so much information compressed into 1 small show will help kids remember some of the details and see things that they may not have noticed before. Even the kindergarten kids would be able to do this, because the photos don’t have to be perfect. The programme selects portions that work and mashes them into something better. The only thing difficult about the project today was climbing up the stairs! 

We also looked at creating Excel spreadsheets today. My hope was that it would do all the math for me, and it does! Yahoo!! Unfortunately, I have to know how to give it the formulas. However, I do know how to make +,-, x and / <- means divide.  So, I’m off to a good start.

The best part of today was Jing and Windows Live Movie Maker. Jing is a super cool programme that lets you record whatever is on your desktop and add audio commentary. But this isn’t just for teachers; kids can use it too! We watched a video of some elementary children describing their understanding of order of operations in math. Essentially they were posting this podcast as a resource for other kids, but it also had the added benefit of developing a depth of understanding that is necessary when you have to teach a skill or concept to another person.  Amazing stuff!

We also used Movie Maker to create a video using photos (and/or you can upload video clips). It was so fast. The last real movie I attempted to make was for a project my Grade 1 kids were doing. It took a friend of mine, the tech support guys at the school and me hours.  We ended up abandoning the project and just adding the video clips and still photos to PowerPoint. This is so much easier!

This post is getting kind of long, but I just wanted to add that I have read most of Will Richardson’s book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. What a great read! I’m borrowing Craig’s copy so I can’t write all over it – and it’s filled with post-its! (Thank you for lending it to me Craig!) Richardson’s style is very easy to understand and he has just the right mixture of philosophy and practicality for a newbie like me. I’m going to finish reading his book tonight, and will be talking a lot about his work in my final presentation. I know that some of the students in my class might be doing blogging for their final project. If you would like to have a look at some of his articles from various journals, I downloaded almost all of them off the TCNJ website. Let me know if you want to have a copy of anything.

See you tomorrow!

Photoshop is a nightmare programme – maybe one of the most difficult ones I have ever tried to use. (And I really did try to learn it! I followed the written instructions on our website, watched all of my regular online “how-to” tutorials, and even searched for other to helpful videos too, but they didn’t help either.) The end result was the Star Trek photo I posted on my blog. The photo collage doesn’t look anything like I had planned it to be. I envisioned the Star Trek background, the “live long and prosper” sign faded into the background, and the photo of me and the camel in the front being beamed back to the Starship Enterprise. I thought it would be relatively simple to paste the layers together, and add some dots below my photo to represent me and the camel coming back – but I couldn’t do anything we were shown in class today.

I should have gone with the “I Dream of Jeannie” theme because my kindergarten picture (on the right) kind of looks like it is coming out of the bottom of the floor. Perhaps I should have used Jeannie’s bottle instead of the Enterprise as my background.

I don’t think I would recommend that my school purchase this programme, and I know I won’t buy it. I think it’s better suited to people like Craig who know how to do really cool things with images, and need a powerful programme like Photoshop. It’s sort of disappointing actually.

The information about buying a camera was helpful today. I really need a new one! Now I know what to look for, but I also want a camera with an optional flash. My current camera has a flash that I manually flip on if I need it (or the camera suggests it.) This is really helpful when I want to take photos of something that might reflect the light from the flash.

It’s amazing to me how inexpensive the cameras are now. I bought mine about 5 years ago, and it cost me $700-$800. It uses 4 AA batteries, and doesn’t have any fancy features like wireless uploading or LCD projectors in it! I need to upgrade!

Happy Monday!

Today’s class was great! We talked about podcasts and video podcasts, and then learned how to make an audio podcast using Audacity. Audacity is a free internet programme that you can download directly to your computer, and it lets you record your voice and sound effects (a.k.a. sound fx) to make an interesting and informative presentation. (Or in my case, a silly one that I think is funny.) Other than the programme, all I needed was a good headset –a pair or headphones with a built-in mic. It was strange to wear it, and at first I felt really self-conscious about speaking into the mic. For once in my life I couldn’t think of one thing to say!

Craig suggested telling a story, and that got me thinking…

I took his advice and sketched out a simple script based on a spoof of NPR – National Public Radio. Using some of the editing features, I was able to make 2 different NPR announcers sound really calm, and whisper-like and then I did my version of Mike Myers’ “Cawfee Tawk” lady. It was so much fun. I had to record small chunks of vocals because I kept on laughing so much.

The program isn’t that difficult to use. If you know where to look online for sound fx and how to paste them into Audacity, you will find it fairly easy. The most challenging parts were getting used to viewing the layers – called “tracks,” and editing the “clips” on each track. Viewing the tracks was difficult because there are so many lines, and then I kept forgetting what clip was recorded on each track. I learned the hard way that it is much easier to name the tracks after you have recorded them. This is especially helpful when making a long podcast.

Editing the clips was tricky as well. If I wanted to insert a new comment in between track 3 and 4, I had to record it on the bottom track and then manually move it up one level at a time. Eventually, though, I did get the hang of it, and I started to “read” the lines better.

I was also able to upload various mp3 sound fx files from these websites:

http://www.flashkit.com

http://www.soundjay.com

http://www.partnersinrhyme.com

http://soundbible.com

These added the special touches to my podcast. I had to change my storyline a bit because I couldn’t find the exact sound fx I needed, but all in all, I think the ending of my new podcast is better than my original idea.

Craig showed us how to embed the podcast right into our blogs using Lame – an mp3 encoder – which turns the Audacity files into mp3 files that are readable to most computers with an audio player such as Windows Media Player.

There are many things that I like about podcasting. First, it’s fun! It’s like being in a play – there is a little bit of stage fright, but that goes away quickly. Keeping with this analogy, it’s like a play only without the bad stuff: No pesky lines to memorize! You can re-do a line as many times as necessary! You don’t have to be a good actor! You can add an applause sound effect if nobody thinks it’s funny! No costuming or make-up is necessary – in fact I recorded much of my podcast in my pj’s!

It’s all good.

I can see myself making up some podcasts for the personal section my blog – I can let my inner-actress out! For the professional section of my blog I think using a combination of video and audio would be best.

Kids would love to make podcasts! Even the youngest kids would be able to participate. The younger the kids, the more individualized the scaffolding, but little kids are so imaginative and uninhibited. (For example, one of my former students used to sing and dance “I like to move-it, move-it” from the Madagascar movie – on demand! Or, if you ask a 3 year old what colour to paint the wind in a picture, she/he won’t hesitate to tell you, with certainty, that it should be ___.) It’s only as children get older that they get more self-conscious. It’s a perfect public medium for them.

Podcasting is also great for kids because you don’t have to worry about publishing their photos on the internet. I read in this article, that students use ‘pen names’ when their voices are posted online. I think that is a great idea, because it adds another layer of security for kids. The article talks about 8th-graders creating their own online magazines. What a great project! I think teachers could use this at any grade. For the youngest kids, they might provide the content, and the teacher actually does the editing and uploading. For older kids, the teacher could work with a small group of a project or a section of the magazine; then another group for the next section, and so forth. By the time kids are in about grade 5, they could do their own magazine, with assistance of course.

Tomorrow we are going to be learning about digital photos. I am excited to learn more about that, but a bit worried about using Photoshop. When I was a classroom teacher, I used to take digital photos of kids every day. When I taught kindergarten kids, I used to give them my school camera and have them take photos too. No matter the grade, by the end of the year, each child took home 2 dvds worth of digital photos. I can’t wait to see the interesting things we will be able to do with all of those photos!

See you tomorrow!

click here

Today was a really great day. I enjoyed Brook’s and Kristen’s presentations. I will definitely tell Sari, the IT teacher at my school, about the math site, and also the language site. I think when I get back to school I will also send out the links to the classroom teachers and the ESL teacher as well.

Things really are more fun when you do them online. Math drills and vocabulary drills are really uninspiring for many kids.  When kids can learn interactively through  games (or activities such as online matching, or the listening-responding tasks such as on Kristen’s site),  they will get more practice than they would have using similar pencil-paper drills, because it will focus their attention, and will engage them for longer periods of time.

I use  a lot of games in my classroom – but they are decidedly low-tech versions, using packs of cards, dice and similar tools. Each game takes me forever to create. I want them to look nice, have clear instructions etc., so  when they are printed off, they can take the sheets home to play with family. The problem is that many kids don’t have decks of cards or 2 dice (or they lose them in the classroom), so maintaining the materials for the games can be time-consuming, and a headache. This is so much easier!

I think I could do an infomercial about the math website! lol I would make it in typical infomercial style (e.g. “Do you have trouble hanging clothes on a clothesline? Well, send me $19.95 and I will send you a brand new package of “easy pins” But wait! there’s more!….) lol

But seriously, even though my games do look nice, and they are fun (if I do say so myself!), I can’t compete with a cute penguin hopping across an ice flow….and why would I spend the hours thinking up games? This is a much better alternative. (And it’s only $4.99…)

My school has a very high percentage of ESL students who attend. Kristen’s language website (using the podcasts) would be very helpful for both students and their parents. I could also see teachers using the website to augment their classroom activities.

After the presentations we watched Craig demo several digital storytelling tools. Dr. Kern’s class joined us, and it was so much fun! Afterward, I talked with several students who were completely blown away with the technology, and how easy much of it is to use. I spent some time on Zooburst, and it was really easy to complete a short story. (I figure if I can do it the average 6-year old will be able to master it quickly!) I didn’t spend very much time on it, and didn’t have any problems at all. I found it easier to use than some of the other ones we looked at.

I think kids will love this! I tried to do another Zooburst book based on a paper activity I do with the kids in my class every year. We take the frame of the “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” book and make our own, much simpler, version with kids pictures in it. (Just in case you don’t know it, here’s a link. It’s very popular with the kinder-and-younger scene! )

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom video/song from YouTube

We make the whole classroom “Chicka Chicka!” The problem I’m having is that the digital photos I want to paste into the Zooburst book (and this blog post) won’t fit . I think because their file size is too large. Is there a way to fix that problem? And, I can’t seem to fit my embedded Zooburst book into my website. It hangs over the edges. I tried changing the width numbers in the code, but it didn’t work. Also, can I password protect my books on Zooburst? Last question…If I print the Zooburst symbol out for each book (using the augmented reality function), will the symbol look the same or will it be a different shape for each book?

I tried to do Storybird for my Web 2.0 presentation, but it was really difficult to use. Nothing seemed to work.
I had much better success with the cartoon program, Kerpoof. I wrote and illustrated a pirate story and it took no time at all. Kids will really love this one too, because the background images make the cartoon look great. I am looking forward to seeing Danka’s presentation about Xtranormal tomorrow.

Finally, some more thoughts about blogging…. I think I had better get my own IP address soon. I really like blogging, and I think that it will provide an outlet to keep me, staff, and parents organized with school things, and it will also help me manage personal stuff too. I think that the private name will be best for me because most of it will be school/professionally based. The personal stuff I will keep password protected. (My personal reflections are wordy and have weird jokes that only my wacky friend Maureen and I will laugh at, so it’s best to keep those separated from the professional things.) I doubt I will go paper-free next year, but I will go paper-less and I know that this kind of forum will help with that.

I hope you had a nice weekend!
See you tomorrow!