Critically speaking...? - Activity 1

President Obama (center) steps off a ferry from Dauphin Island, Ala., to Fort Morgan, Ala., as he visits the Gulf Coast region affected by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill on Monday, June 14, 2010. With the president are (from left) Gulf Shores, Ala., MayorRobert Craft; Dauphin Island Mayor Jeff Collier; Alabama Gov. Bob Riley; and U.S. Coast GuardAdm. Thad Allen, the national incident commander. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

People	Objects	Activities
Mayor Robert Craft Mayor Jeff Collier	casual , smiling, positive attitude,	Walking on the a Naval ship.
President Obama	Sleeves rolled up, ready to do work, smiling, positive attitude, US flag in background	Walking on Naval ship, looking up, smiling, "team-like" atmosphere
AL. Governor Bob Riley	casual, buttoned up shirt, water bottle in had- thirsty- hot out,	walking with the Mayors and President, mouth open, looks flustered,
U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen	Business-like, in uniform, sleeves rolled up, looking to his right, securing the area to make sure it's safe,	Walking with the President, Mayors, and Governor, guiding them on their way around the ship, body-guard like

People	Objects	Activities
Background	Books, greenery,	looks to be an office of some type, a place where he can think of a plan
Eyes	very serious, looking straight ahead, concerned	looks concerned, focused on the task, driven
Mouth	closed, looks like he's thinking, serious	determined, no-nonsense, no time for talk, got work to do
Overall expression	focused, serious, a little tense	he's thinking of a way that he can fix the oil spill. No time for fun and games

This picture gives me the most confidence that he is attempting to get things done. He looks like he is sitting down and actually trying to come up with a plan to take care of the spill.

Copyright in an electronic enviornment

Questions:

1.) Can students upload their multimedia project to YouTube?

2.)Are the limitations to the amount of pictures or length of music or video that can be used in a multimedia project?

3.)Do you need to request permission from the original creator in order to use copyrighted material in multimedia project for school related assignment?

Answers:

1.) Yes they can. If they use other sources for their videos, they must cite the sources. Have a separate  page that lists the sites or pages where the information was received and cite them using the proper format. 

2.) Yes. For music composition or  sound recording, you can use up to 10%, or no more than 30 seconds. For video,  you can use up to 10% or 3 minutes; the image cannot be altered in any way. For pictures, you can use to up 5 images.  If you're using a collection of work, no more than 10%, or  15 images.


3.) If being used for education, no permission is needed. Otherwise, you will need to ask for permission. 




http://www.ncpublicschools.org/copyright1.html
http://mediaeducationlab.com/sites/mediaeducationlab.com/files/CodeofBestPracticesinFairUse_0.pdf

Digital Story telling

Describe the digital story project

My digital story was basically from the viewpoint of the students. As teachers we have to introduce the kids to new things, things that they may have never even heard of before. I think that educators need to take a more 'hands-on' approach to learning. Not only do the kids learn, but they have more fun than reading a book. When I was in school, I couldn't wait to get home, I hated sitting in class all day reading in a book. We need to change the whole perspective that school is boring and lame. There is so much new technology available to us, we need to take advantage of it. The students that we teach are growing up in a tech-savvy world, and need to know how to use the tools to be able to adapt when things change.With every subject we teach, we should try to expand their creative boundaries, and make learning fun. I know it sounds crazy, but I'd like to try to make school a place that the kids don't want to leave, and look forward to everyday.

Make a connections between the digital story project and the ISTE NETS-T

The ISTE standards want students to be creative,innovative and interactive. Being a Tech Ed teacher, I will present my students with problems that will challenge them. They will need to use the problem solving process to find the answer to the problem.   Students will be able to write their own programming, and make robotics, which they will have to use thier creativity to do so. I will split them into groups and they will have to communicate their ideas with others and be able to work as a team to accomplish the goal.




Explain how they might promote learning in your future classroom

I could have the students make a digital story using the different tools that we"ve been using. I would incorporate Worlde, Poll Everywhere, Google Maps, etc. Instead of giving them a notecard to tell me something about themselves, they could use it to tell a visiual story about themselves, their interests and so on.  It would be a good introductory thing for the kids to do, so I could get to know them.




Find a lesson plan, activity or idea that involves digital story telling in your content area and describe the activity or idea.

I'm going to be a Tech Ed teacher, so it would be cool to have the students document a project that I have them working on. For example, I could have them make and R/C car with a robotic arm. They would have an obsticle course they must run through and grab an object with the arm. The students could document the whole design, and testing process, with pictures and make a digital story that they will present to the class. I like that idea so much, I'm actually going to do it when I'm teaching!

Video

The World of Digital Storytelling

Quote: "Ten years ago, a project like this would have been too complex and expensive to be within the reach of most 6th graders. But media-based stories are now everyone's to create. And with the Internet as an international stage, they are everyones to watch and enjoy"

Responce:

It kind of makes me feel old to compare how lame the technology was when I was growing up compared to what’s available now.  It’s amazing how far we as a society have come in the past ten years. None of the computers I used in middle school had these capabilities. Now we can download an Application, through a wireless internet connection, and create movies and digital stories right from an iPad. When I was in middle school, we had big, clunky computers, and made slides on Power Point.

I think it’s great that we not only have so many great technologies, but that we are utilizing them in the classrooms. Introducing kids at a young age to all of the new gadgets coming out will expand their creative thinking and introduce them to things that they may not otherwise have the opportunity to use. I think it’s important for schools to stay up-to-date on the latest technology as much as possible, not just because it’s “new” or looks cool, but because it’s going to help the students develop a better understanding of the newer stuff.  The kids will then feel comfortable learning how to use new technology, and not be intimidated when something new comes out.  Hopefully this will help reduce the gap we now have with the older generation, who didn’t grow up with all the technical advancements we have today, and the younger generations.

Resource:  http://sites.google.com/site/digitalstorytellingwiththeipad/home

I found this website that goes through the steps of making a digital story from an iPad. It shows you all the Apps you need to download, how much they cost, and how they are used related to digital storytelling.  I thought it was pretty cool.




Ohler, Jason. The World of Digital Storytelling. Juneau,AK: 2005. Print.

The Keypad Solution

  

Quote: For most of the history of the language, English speakers took a lackadaisical approach to spelling; the notion that a word should always be spelled the same way is a much more recent invention than the language itself. The standardization of English spelling began in the 16th century, and although it is unclear at exactly what point our spelling became set, what is certain is that ever since it happened, people have complained that the rules of spelling, such as they are, just don’t make sense.

I remember when I was in elementary school, learning how to grammar and spelling got a little difficult. The English language has words that have so many words with multiple meanings and/or spellings. I would hate to be someone from a foreign land trying to learn how to spell English.  A lot of people have trouble with how to properly use the "there" varieties. They are all pronounced the same, but spelled different and mean something totally different than what you might be trying to say. Though I don't like the English spelling and grammar system, I think it is necessary to learn how to spell and use the words correctly.  In the pictures I have posted below, there are examples of how important it is to learn how to spell. I would hate to be one of the people responsible for one of those mistakes. 

Shea, Ammon. "The Keypad Solution." New York Times 01/22/2010. n. pag. Web. 11 Sep. 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/magazine/24FOB-onlanguage-t.html>

 

 

I thought these were really funny and are good examples of why we need to learn how to spell correctly.

The VARK Questionnaire/ What I've learned about myself

Visual: 7 Aural: 6 Read/Write: 6 Kinesthetic: 11 I sort of knew that I learned better kinesthetically, and this questionnaire re-affirmed that for me. It has always been much easier to learn about something when I physically have it in front of me, or am able to learn how how and why it works. I need to understand the reasoning behind it to fully know why things are the way they are.

Old People Can't text?!

I thought this was really funny because my grandparents don't even have a cell phone, much less the ability to text send a text message.

Are Digital Media Changing Language?

Quote:
           "Spell-check, along with online search engines, may be convincing us that devoting energy to honing spelling skills is anachronistic. Even before you finish typing a word containing an error, spell-check often automatically corrects the word. Similarly, if you type a misspelled word (or phrase) into Google, chances are the search engine will land you pretty much at the same list of sites you would have reached had you been a finalist in the National Spelling Bee."


Reaction:

This is a very interesting subject to me. I can't tell you how many people I've ran across that say they can't spell, which includes myself at times. With all of the available technologies we have at our disposal, there essentially no need to know how to properly spell.  This is something that I believe needs to change. Spelling should be a basic skill that everyone has a good grasp of.  Students need to be able to properly communicate with each other, and without knowing how to spell, that could hinder their ability to do so.  I don't think that text-messaging is to blame, I think we need to look at this from a teacher point of view, and try to build a better foundation for the kids.  I think that we need to utilize the vast array of technology available to us to help our  students learn how to properly spell.

Reference:
               Baron, S. (2009). Are Digital Media Changing Language? . Ascd.org. Retrieved August 31, 2011, from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar09/vol66/num06/Are-Digital-Media-Changing-Language%C2%A2.aspx 

 

Wordle/ Poll Everywhere

Wordle is a free program on the Internet that throws words or phrases together in a creative way. It bases the size of the font on how many times a word is typed during the creation of a Wordle page. The more times a certain word is typed, the larger it is, and the less a word is typed the smaller it is. It is very useful when you are wanting a creative way to show results of a poll question.
Poll Everywhere is also a free program on the Internet that allows anyone to create a poll that can be anonymously answered by anyone visiting the site. The poll can be answered by internet or by texting your answer. All you have to do is set up an account, and choose between a multiple choice or open-ended question.

In class, we used Wordle to show the results of our 'Poll Everywhere' poll. After the results were in, we entered the data into Wordle, and got a creative way to show the results of the poll.

If I were to use these programs in a class, I think I would want to use them at the beginning of the year. This is a good activity to do because the kids are still on a 'Summer high' and care more about what everyone else did over the summer than learning. I would do something similar to what we did in class.  This is a fun and easy thing for the kids to do to introduce them to the class. I would have the students  create their own polls and insert the results into Wordle. The poll questions should be questions that help the students, as well as myself,  get to know a little more about one another.  This would introduce them to the tools, and we would utilize these tools to do assignments in the future. This would go along with the ISTE standards, by introducing students to different forms of technology and make them comfortable using technology as a tool in the future.