BP8-ETC Final Project

Here is an example of how we are using Glogster in a lesson...

Relevant and Innovative Learning Scenario - Planning

  

1.              Target Audience – 5^th -12^th grade students

2.              Materials –

·      List of possible items to go into activity bag (separated by age range)

·      Computers w/printer (internet connected)

·      Smart board/Elmo projector

·      Journals (may be done online)

·      Phone books

3.              Objectives – Students will:

·      Discuss the benefits of the service-learning project.

·      Design posters to advertise, promote, & present.

·      Formulate informative speeches, business letters, & formal emails.

·      Analyze their feelings, thoughts, and actions through journaling.

4.              Procedure –

·      Informal discussion on the purpose of service-learning and giving back to their community as well as providing additional ideas, suggestions, and comments on how it or parts of the project can be improved.

·      Review mini-lessons on; how to use reference materials, writing informal paragraphs, presenting a speech, and to speak over the phone when asking for information. (Permission slip sent out to appear in media outlets & volunteer offers).

·      Students develop a finalized list for activity bags and formulate methods to acquire items within small groups. 

·      Reference phone book and local newspapers to help identify businesses and potential donors.

·      Write letters to businesses & donors.

·      Make an amateur informative “PSA” about our efforts to distribute.

·      Design posters and flyers using Glogster.*

·      Email  & distribute media assignments to TV stations & other social media outlets.

·      Organize donated items by age appropriateness, work on filling bags.

·      Distribute bags with supervision from teachers & parent volunteers.

·      Students will use Glogster and their journals to create final presentations.

5.              Web 2.0 Tool – Glogster.com will assist our students on provide us with a template and platform to promote our project.  The site will also be used to present the students’ final reflection on the project as a whole.

6.              Social Participation/Social Learning – Using Facebook, Twitter, Glogster.com, etc. students, volunteers, teacher, and parents will communicate, collaborate and promote the project.

Beginning with the initial announcement: “Middle/H.S. students (or parent of one)!!! Need your help in a community service project! Cyber and/or hands-on, as little or much time as you can offer! If you’d like to be a part of this effort, Inbox me!!!

7.              Making Connections – Through informal discussion students will be presented with the question(s); “how do they feel when you are forced to stay inside all day on rainy days? Or in bed with a cold or broken limb for days at a time? Now imagine if you had to stay there for months at a time, sometimes confined to a bed, small room and lobby at the most. Even with all this technology…would you get bored with the same old stuff? Do you think it would help knowing that others cared?”

8.              Create/Produce – As a group the students will create activity bags to be distributed.  For the classroom students will use Glogster.com to create a final poster with quotes (or the whole doc) from their journals for a final reflection on how they feel and the significance of giving back.

9.              Reflection – Students will use journaling throughout the process for reflections from the initial idea to the final product.  The journal will discuss how they feel the project is beneficial, their thoughts on soliciting donations, and how they felt during and after distribution.  Their final entry will be the foundation to create a Glogster poster on their final thoughts to be presented to the whole class.

*the video demonstrates this step in the lesson. A after school student & his mother demonstrate here & below:

"Glogster is helping us promote our cause to a higher degree; 

Students use school plus their virtual world to give back to the real world"

PE5_Glogster

A Practical Experience 5

So far...Loving Glogster!  It was not as complicated as it looks, thank goodness. :)  Even with the basic package there is still a lot of features to choose from.  I am using the basic account and I really enjoyed the variety of possibilities.  AND I am quite proud of my little poster, although it may not be as creative as I have seen many of the students come up with, I'm still pleased with what I got so far.  That reminds me...if you are not ready to publish you can save and go back; another great option.  

Overall I believe this tool will be a valuable asset to my CBR project personally because it will allow the students to custom promote involvement in the beginning, promote for donations throughout the process, and display the results of their efforts in print and media.  They could also use Glogster to present their final journal reflection and thoughts on service learning as a whole in the class.

I know you have been waiting, so here it is... :)

  

If you'd like to interact with it, just click here.  I hope you like it and look into Glogging too!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Comment, share, or follow - always appreciated!

PE4_Glogster

Practical Experience 4 

Blogging about Glogging

For the next couple blogs were going to dive a little deeper into the Web 2.0 tool, Glogster!

First…so glad I found this out ahead of time...but, I figured out that you definitely need to make sure your on the Educational Glogster website.   Seems there is another part of the site that is strictly a social network based setup using personal glogs – very “myspacey”.  So…official warning, the educational site always includes “edu.” within the url name.

Once I was on that site I decided to start working on my first glog.

This is the template they start you with…I have to admit all the controls off the bat are a little intimidating compared to what the student’s blogs are producing from just this, but we'll see how a semi-techy adult manages lol.  Wish me luck!

I’m off to continue meddling with the controls & features; I’ll be back with an update!

  

BP7 - One minute video

Welcome!

Enjoy my 1 minute commercial of the Web 2.0 tool - Glogster!

If you are having trouble viewing you can also see it at my viddler account.

Thank you, comment, suggest, follow or just come back and visit. :)

BP6_link to another's blog (pt.2)

Just wanted to stop in to invite you visit another classmate's review.

gameclassroom.com

Follow this link to my comments on Marcos' blog.

Thank you!

BP6_link to another's blog (pt.1)

Just wanted to stop in to invite you visit another classmate's review.

dipity.com 

Follow this link to my comments on Helen's blog.

Thank you!

BP5_link to another's blog

Just wanted to stop in to invite you visit a classmate's review.

penzu.com

Follow this link to my comments on Ebony's blog.

Thank you!

BP4_250 word review of a tool

EXPLORE with Me - "GLOGSTER"

This is a Web 2.0 tool Review….

Glog?

Have you ever heard of it? I haven’t, but I am so glad I found it!

To Glog: the art of expressing yourself creatively via a virtual poster.  :)

I know what you’re thinking…how exciting can a virtual poster be?

Well, it can be with GLOGSTER .  And many students are already claiming to be captivated which is always an advantage.

Let’s check it out.

edu.glogster.com

It’s basically a drag & drop interface that allows the user to design a virtual poster placed on a wall, which is it’s own website.  Even the wall and background are customizable.  Students can use the Glog’s library, their own, or the internet to pull; data, pictures, graphics, drawings, video, sound effects, animations, notes, and so on to their poster.  They can also use the skin generator for a wide array of background and wall designs.

First time I thought, neat… but how much can you really do with a poster (besides the average art/computer teacher)?  

After exploring the website I learned. It can help you create a student-centered environment by allowing them control of their project and how they present the information they are learning to you and their classmates.  Yet, the teacher controls presents you, as the facilitator, access to management tools so you can still guide the learning and keep an eye on progress.

Students will really love the fact that they can share it through various popular portals (with your permission of course), including the Glogster website.  Or it can be kept within the classroom.  They are also printer friendly as well!

Over a million users/educators are taking advantage of Glogster already! They’re using it for:

•     Science fairs (virtual & real-world)
•     Assessments
•     Informational story-boards
•     Project Promotions
•      And so on…just to name a few.

Which brings me to how I plan on implementing it for my CBR (challenge based research) project in the coming months. :)

My CBR’s big idea is Motivation.  The objective is to see how well a technology and art immersed service-learning project can increase motivation to learning while increasing parental involvement & provide an opportunity for mentorship.

Through project-based learning the students will do the research and present much of this project.  They will also have the opportunity to promote the service project to get the community informed and hopefully involved.

Briefly this is just one aspect in which they can apply Glogster but they’ll have many opportunities to use it again, for instance presenting, if they so choose.

I hope you enjoyed exploring Glogster with me and I encourage at least a peek.  :)

Or…come back for my one-minute informative commercial on how awesome it can truly be.

See you then!

PE3_iMovie

A Personal Experience - Pt. 3

The last part of this tutorial covered Chapters 11-14 of the iMovie essentials tutorial at Lynda.com.  As I stated before, I wasn’t sure that I was going to learn much more but I was gladly proven wrong.  Within these chapters I learned how to break down the themes available in iMovie to customize even more than the standard. 

End of Ch. 14 - iMovie -  Lynda.com

One of the most useful elements, video adjustment, working with color and exposure were something I was interested in because sometimes what your camera lacks you may be able to compensate for later; a great feature. 

There were other features such as; adding markers, comments, and different methods of publishing that were described.  Many of these aspects can be helpful when presenting or preparing to sending to a specific device.

After completing the course….

Yay, go me!  To applied what I learned, I decided to try it in a small 1 minute sample of footage from my cousin’s wedding.

 
Hope you like it!

If your having trouble viewing you can also see it here on my viddler account.

In all, this was a great course and I plan to utilize Lynda.com whenever I can and encourage you to do the same.

Thank you, comment, suggest or come back to visit.

PE2_iMovie

A Personal Experience - Pt. 2

Welcome back! :)

Through this point I have finished Chapters 6 through 10. I have to say, “loving it!” I really didn’t realize how in-depth this program really got. The green screen portion seems a little intimidating honestly, but I do look forward to trying it and find it quite inspiring to know that I may actually be able to pull it off on my own.

End of Ch. 10 - Lynda.com

The audio features probably are my favorite parts because that is what I was struggling with the most.  I learned how to decrease the background noise and different ways of adding music to enhance the experience. 

Oh! I have been looking everywhere to learn how to add the images (still photos) to the movie as well, and lynda came through. :) She may be my new best friend…just saying.  It is apparently simpler than I thought, of course, but I am so glad this course covered it on top of smoothly transitioning into them and other clips.  I didn’t even know that we had the option to add special visual effects to those pictures as well like “dream”. You know…the part of the show/program in the soap opera where they’re dreaming lol, pre-t-ty cool. Great effects for family photos, especially for our dreamy children and the dreamy situations they get into. :)

Seriously, they have many effects like that (sepia, vignette, aged film etc.) to choose from and I am excited to see what else I can do with the clips.  Aged film has to be my favorite though, but mostly because I love the idea of anything nostalgic; but there are many to choose from. Definitely worth checking out!

Plus!! I get a very impressive certificate of completion from Lynda.com for finishing the tutorial/course to add to my website, resume, what have you.  Thus, I’ll definitely be sharing that as well. :)

Stay tuned for the conclusion of Days of…I mean my Lynda.com iMovie Essentail tutorials! *suspense-full music* :)

PE1_iMovie

During the EMDT program at Full Sail University much of our assignments require us to utilize iMovie.  Starting in August I have never used a MAC (which is provided & exclusively used during the program) let alone even heard of iMovie, since then it has all been trial and error. 

Then I saw the light! Ahhh…in the program we were also provided with a 1yr subscription to Lynda.com.  Why didn’t I think of this before? IDK! But it’s definitely a plus.  :)

 Accordingly, I will be utilizing this program for the next few blogs to demonstrate my journey through the iMovie tutorial provided by Lynda.com as well as documenting it for this forth month’s class, ETC, to show mastery with a software.

Here we go, wish me luck!

End of Chapter 5 - lynda.com

For the first few chapters (1-5) it covers most of what I have learned through trial & error and Apple tutorials.  Although there were little things here and there, like the shortcuts, that I may not have learned so easily, for instance, organizing the actual projects into folders is a great tip that I’ll use. 

Within these chapters I also learned how to do customizations from audio to title and fine tuning the clips in a more advanced mode. 

I thought I was pretty good at iMovie for a rookie but I’m learning that there are a lot of little (and some major) editing tools that I have been overlooking that can make my videos even more intriguing. 

So, stay tuned for the continued journey…

Thanks for stopping by!

BP3_Tag Galaxy

EXPLORE with Me - "TAG GALAXY"

This is a Web 2.0 tool Review….

New to Web 2.0? That’s ok; I’m still a rookie as well but to put it simply:

Web 2.0 tools are more user-centered interactive sites that are suited towards giving the control back to the user rather than the host. There are a variety of tools/sites available for almost anything you can think of, from custom search sites to blogs :), yeah! But for the most part the reviews here will be focused on their use in an educational setting. 

Today I’ll be reviewing a Web 2.0 tool Wikipedia has defined as, “folksonomy” – fun word right? No, just me…ok. Any-who, it’s basically one of those search sites that are arranged and tagged (labeled) into various categories by the users (Open to the public of Flickr). 

*drum roll*       TAG GALAXY (http://taggalaxy.de/)  

This collaboration/tag site is sometimes described as a “tag cloud” because it’s a visual search, which is my favorite! I’m that visual learner so I apologize in advance for being bias with some reviews. :) Back to the folksonomy - i still say it's a fun word. Users/students can use this site to search the tags for visual representations.  It can be used to look up vocabulary words, key words for presentations, or to give them that visual connection they may need for comprehension.   The following is an example using the tag “technology”.

First it takes you to a solar system based on your tag.  The "sun" is the original tag and the planets orbiting it are possible narrowed ideas of the tag.  (I then clicked “MAC”, which then becomes the center.)

…then “Computer”,  becoming the center again.

Once you are have it narrowed down and click on the center planet, pictures (provided by Flickr) surround the planet.  Each picture is interactive…

For instance,  I clicked on Steve Jobs and he floats off the planet of pictures accompanied with a informative summary box.  The summary pertains to your tag and links you to the page on Flckr where it is located.

Dragging the mouse back and forth near the planet will spin it accordingly revealing more pictures.  Need even more? Just click the right arrow at the top of the screen and a whole new “layer” will encompass the planet again. The animation during the whole process is just down right awesome in itself, and worth exploring for that fact alone! :)

I hope you enjoyed the review and hope you check it out.  There are many ways students can use this site and I encourage you to share it.  

*IMPORTANT NOTE* you may want to search the words/tags before your students because the pictures are tagged by the public and you may not know for sure if anything inappropriate for their age will come up. A pre-approved list is a great idea that the blogger/teacher below suggested.

(I was introduced to Tag Galaxy via: http://ilearntechnology.com/

  one of my favorite go-to blog/sites for a great technology resource.)

Please comment, suggest, and follow if you like. :)

"Knowledge is of two kinds; we know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it."

-Samuel Johnson

BP2_iGoogleScreenShots

Using iGoogle to organize my Personalized Learning Environment 

Are you having trouble with organization? How about organizing your virtual environment? Well today I’ll show you an example of how you can use your personal Google homepage to create an organized environment but as a student, more so, structuring your Personalized Learning Environment to create some kind of balance with your personal and educational virtual life - in a way.   *In my very best game show host voice*  

With this very FREE, :) always a plus, and great feature offered by Google you could organize your homepage, or “environment”, in a single site that keeps you connected to all your favorite or most visited sites.  It’s like having your Favorites/Bookmarks folder right at your fingertips. For instance, I use my custom homepage iGoogle for my “personal” sites and interests and the other tabs (set by me/the user) for various school sites or educational resources that I’ll be utilizing along the way.

Here’s what mine looks like and how my tabs are labeled (you can create as many as you like):

HOMEPAGE

FSO - FULL SAIL UNIVERSITY ONLINE

CBR - Challenge Based Research 

ETC - Emergent Technologies in a Collaborative Culture

I'm big on efficiency lol, maybe it's a Virgo thing but whatever the case, I really enjoy this feature because it does seem to give me some sense of organization.  Thus, I highly recommend you try it and some of the gadgets you can add are really cool and usually available from most of the Popular sites!

Hope you like it and if you have suggestions, or if you'd like a Video Demo let me know.
Suggest, comment, follow, & Thanks for stopping by! :)

BP1_Welcome to My Blog

 IT TAKES A VILLAGE

Stanford EdTech – http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/ 

Our generation may have began the digital age with the introduction of technology into the classroom but the next generation is showing us how much it needs to become a staple in their lives to truly reach them.  This blog will be a quick resource for educators, parents, or students who want to learn simple ways technology can be implemented into learning, reviews on Web 2.0 tools that may be useful, and general ideas on the present and future of educational technology – compliments of my journey through the MS in Ed. Media Design & Technology program from Full Sail University. 

           

I invite you to follow this journey into exploring the world of Educational technology with me and even offer suggestions or tools that you may think other educators and I may also be interested in reviewing.  Our students today are fully immersed in technology and it is our responsibility to teach them how they can use these skills to their advantage in learning and cater to their digital environment.

“The new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the image of a global village”.

–Marshall McLuhan

Stanford EdTech – http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/