JING Screencasting

Using JING, I created this screencast (video screenshot). It is a tutorial is for my classroom parents. It shows how to help students access EM Games from home, step by step.

Click the URL below to view the screencast:
http://screencast.com/t/1L1tat5XTZT

Sumo Paint

Strategically cropping images can profoundly change the message. Here I used Sumo Paint to "retouch" my flower girl and some guests out of my wedding photograph.

This is my original image.

This is my edited image.

Vodcasting

Creating a video podcast ("vodcast") takes much consideration and careful planning, I created this practice set for my Kindergarten students for rhyming, and published it for the web.

Yodio - Task E JGN

Task A Poster JGN

For this task, I learned about proper image placement, which guides the reader to see the message in a pleasing way. I chose an inspirational message that I am encouraging in my Kindergarten classroom. The clouds in the picture are set as a watermark, the flowers are clip art, and the letters are Word Art.

Practicing Embedding WMVs

I'm hoping this is easier than I thought when I was at a tech. workshop today... Of course, Blogger is not available in the district, so I waiting until I got home to try it. We were discussing the best ways to get WMV files out to parents, etc. Posterous was suggested, but you have to go through Postly, which requires a Twitter account. This is just too much work for me. I was thinking maybe uploading it to One True Media or maybe another site, then embedding the code; however, it seems there is an Add Video thumbnail--duh. That is certainly the easiest!!!

Final Project (Tech. Connections in K-2 Language Arts)

We finally finished our project! Lindsey, Cassie, and I chose to create a 3 hour professional development session on incorporating technology into the language arts block of K-2 classrooms. Both PowerPoints were uploaded using authorSTREAM (which took less than 5 minutes per slide show), and the other documents were uploaded through Slide Share (ironic that this was not the best choice for actually sharing slides). Check out our work!

PowerPoints (divided into two parts to save time uploading):

Final Project I

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Final Project Part II

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Handouts:

How to create_a_voice_thread

Kid Blog

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Youblisher handout

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Outline:

Final Outline

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If you would like to share this with your friend, grade level, or faculty, please let us know first. Enjoy!

Skype

Cassie, Lindsey, and I had our second Skype conference yesterday. It was nice to be able to talk to everyone on speaker phone, but I wish we could all use the video conferencing. One part I liked was how it the image of who you are talking with would be highlighted when they were speaking. It was nice to be able to type as well. We finished reviewing the last steps for our final project and how we would upload the slides.

Blogging and RSS (Required Reading #3)

Will Richardson is a blogging pioneer. He writes in "Blogging and RSS" that blogging is engaging for students who are otherwise not inclined to participate in school activities. Blogs a fluid, meaning they are constantly updated (hopefully), and there is room for comments and interactions between bloggers (students, teachers, and possibly parents or readers from around the world!). Blogs encourage students to write for an audience, pay attention to voice and grammar, as well as collaborate with other people. Teachers are using blogs as a home for homework assignments, student reflections, audioblogs, and also digital dropboxes for files.

The most influential change in blogging seems to be RSS (Real Simple Syndication). It's a way for readers of blogs to keep up with new updates from numerous blogs. Instead of going to 15 blogs and looking for new posts, the new posts automatically come to you. Google Reader is a good aggregator for adding your favorite blogs. To use this featured app from Google, sign in with your username, click Reader at the top of the screen and start "subscribing" to all of the feeds you enjoy following. As soon as new posts are added, Google Reader will let you know. So there you go--all of the new blog posts you want to read, all in one place. This is an awesome feature for teacher who want to keep up with their students' posts and not have to go to each site to look for updates.

The School of the Future (Required Reading #2)

I loved David Warlick's article, "Future Fiction." He gives the reader a vision of what a 21st century school could look like. My favorite part was the idea that the media center was set up as a place for knowledge construction, not just accessing information. I would love to see our media center set up with more workspaces for planning projects and collaborating using multimedia. Maybe in 2004 (when the article was written) the idea of students using tablets and key codes to access textbooks and turn in assignments was foreign and unfathomable, but in 2010 it may not be too far away. With microchips, iPads, iPhones, and new touch screen computers, it is extremely likely that students can learn and teachers can effectively teach using technology.

Practicing Embedding Vokis

Well, it took me nearly two hours to figure out how to embed a Voki in my google sites page, so I want to be sure I can easily add it to a blog. To add it to the google site, I couldn't just copy the code from the Voki site (and there are about 10 different embedding code options!). I ended up going to YouTube, copying an embed code for a video, pasting it into Notepad, and replacing the YouTube http:// address with the http:// address from the Voki code. It worked! However, it opens just fine in Fire Fox--no luck with Internet Explorer. I guess there is a plug-in missing or it blocks it for some reason.

So this time I am trying to add it here. The first time I tried to embed it, I used the suggested code. No luck. The suggested My Space code did work, and I used my "html knowledge" to center it! By the way, my voice recording on my laptop was really fuzzy, so I just typed it in and had the girl read it (kind of funny). If it works for you in Internet Explorer, let me know! And if you know how to fix that, let me know!


Click here to comment on this Voki.
Get a Voki now!

YouTube in the Classroom (Required Reading #1)

YouTube is taking videos on the web by storm, but what is its place in the classroom? Well, not only can children watch videos, they can contribute. This site gives them the opportunity to be heard. Although there are some sticky issues that can arise when looking at using YouTube in the classroom, it can be a powerful motivator for students.

"YouTube Comes to the Classroom," by Anna Adams and Helen Mowers notes that there are numerous classroom connections that can be made using YouTube. They searched for “WW2” and found a 94-year-old veteran relating his firsthand experiences of the battlefield.

Teachers can provide a safer environment for students to view videos by embedding them in a blog or website or converting them into a stand alone videos using sites likes Zamzar. Since our school is not purchasing a site license for United Streaming this year, I am going to try to find some clips to use in my kindergarten classroom (and convert them since YouTube is blocked in our system). I am still not comfortable letting my students upload videos of themselves.

Blogging in Kindergarten

Hmmm... I'm trying to decide how I want to use blogging next year with my class. I see it as an easy way to keep parents informed about things going on in the classroom, but I want the children to be involved as well. I was searching for some good ideas and ran across Mrs. Knee's Kinderkids Blog. I am obsessed with all of the unique slide shows and vodcasts she has posted such as the Clustr Maps showing the locations of all blog visitors, Animoto picture shows, One True Media, Flickr shows, Picture Trails, and Rock You slides. She also has some really cool ideas about collaborating on world-wide projects which makes blogging more interactive.

I still wondering how she added the children's blogs (on the right side) with their own Voki introductions and current projects. When does she have time to let the students create all of the pictures and recordings? And when does she compile all of the various slide shows and upload all of the files??

Final Project Proposal

Cassie, Lindsey, and I are going to create a three hour professional development session on using technology with language arts in the K-6 classroom. We are going to focus on integrating technology using Voice Thread, Youblisher, and blogging (site to be decided). Each of us will become an expert on one application, create a sample of how to use it in the classroom, and use PowerPoint to support each application.

Our final will include an outline of our day's schedule, a PowerPoint presentation, a sample product for each application, and a proposed task for the teachers to practice creating.

This is our WebQuest for first graders to explore animal biomes and their adaptations. We used Google Sites as our web site creator; this was not as easy to use as other Google apps. When inserting documents, they must be added as an attachment at the bottom of the page. Only URLs can be linked directly on the page. On the Introduction page, we made a Voki to explain the WebQuest, however, the embed codes were not working correctly. Finally, I used a YouTube embed code and added the site link. It works on Firefox but not on Internet Explorer... For visual interest, we added Picnik image for the Task section and a Glog for the Process section.

Photo by Igor GOLUBENKOV

On April 20, an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana exploded, killing 11 people. More than 200,000 gallons of oil are leaking into the ocean every day. So far, BP oil executives have not been able to successfully cap leak. The spill is affecting the animals and the land on the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. The oil-polluted waters are already affecting area wildlife. More and more oil-soaked birds are being seen. Dolphins and other ocean animals have started to wash up on area beaches. With hurricane season approaching, there is a chance that the oil will become swept into the current and carried up the Atlantic Ocean and possibly over to western Europe.

Although the rig is owned an operated by BP, they can not be held responsible for all of the problems happening. Ending BP as a corporation will not change what has already happened, neither will blaming our president. BP is truly concerned and willing to pay for all damages incurred. All off-shore drilling rigs have the possibility of exploding. When Congress passed the law allowing off-shore drilling, there were obvious risks involved. Now more and more people are blaming BP instead of realizing that our government knew that this was a possibility. Everyone is equally frustrated, and hopefully this will further the research for new biofuels. I hope that the patents on alternative fuel engines and high MPG engines will be released so that we can begin to become less dependent on oil.

Web 2.0 Application Presentation: Voice Thread

For part of our midterm grade, we had to partner up and present a Web 2.0 app. Cassie, Lindsey, and I chose Voice Thread. We will share various examples for grade levels, demonstrate how to upload a ppt file to VT, name it, and do a sample recording. We will show everyone how to browse for the created VT, register, and record responses. We will also play the class VT.

A VoiceThread is an online media album that can hold essentially any type of media (images, documents and videos) and allows people to make comments in 5 different ways - using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video (with a webcam) - and share them with anyone they wish. A VoiceThread allows group conversations to be collected and shared in one place, from anywhere in the world. The possibilities for educators are endless!!!

These are some step-by-step directions for creating identities, setting up a class, and commenting on slides.

Daily Data

Angela and I are committed to using a blog in our classrooms next year! We are planning to use the Daily Data as the inspiration for the blogs. I set mine up yesterday: http://kidblog.org/MrsNolesDailyDataBlog/jnoles/. I'm not convinced that this is the best venue yet, but kidblog seems to be secure. My class will come up with the posts as a whole group since it's Kindergarten, but I am hoping I can get the parents involved as well.

Wordle in First Grade

Well, it's the 176th day of school; only 4 more to go! Today was our very last day in the computer lab, and everyone was a little bit down. I decided this morning to make a Wordle with all of my first graders to use for the label of our end of the year CDs that hold all of our digital projects.



They were awed by the creation, so I taught them the basics of entering their name three times then adding descriptive words. We created a chart of nearly 40 words describing the people in our class and brought it with us to the lab. Each child typed their name three times, then each child proceeded to rotate around the lab, typing one describing word on each child's computer. After 17 rotations, each child created their Wordle, choosing their favorite visualization. We printed them as an end of the year memento.

As a rule of thumb, I usually introduce the lesson (or at least show a little) in the classroom sometime before going to the lab. Once we're in the lab, it's work time. Today's lab time took a full 45 minutes. In all, the entire lesson took about an hour. Having the describing words posted on the board made it easier for the students to gain inspiration.

My fellow bogger, Lindsey, helped me complete a webquest about social networking in the classroom. We watched this YouTube video, and created a PowerPoint to present to our class. I want to use this webquest as a professional development activity for our faculty this fall.

I'm a little disappointed that this YouTube video is embedded with the smallest size available, and it still doesn't fit. Any suggestions?

Social Networking

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Website Evaluation

Today I visited Kathy Schrock's website, and used one of her web site evaluation forms to evalute the usefulness of an elementary website. There are multiple bogus websites listed for evaluation. I chose to evaluate The History of the Fisher-Price Airplane. This site is extremely misleading for students and even adults because it is very believable. There are numerous photographs and captions, facts, and figures validating the history. I googled the site to see if it is credible, but I mostly found that it is used as a tool to teach students to evaluate the credibility of web sites. What do you know about Fisher-Price and the Soviet Union?

Hypertext Book Review

Snowflake Bentley
By: Jacqueline Briggs Martin
Illustrated By: Mary Azarian

Summary:
Snowflake Bentley tells the true story of a young boy named Wilson Bentley, from a small farm town in Vermont, who was determined to capture the beauty of snowflakes. The problem was the snowflakes melted before he could sketch them. His parents sent their life savings on a camera with its own microscope. He worked winter after winter experimenting with the lens, sometime capturing a few snowflakes or even hundreds! Shortly after publishing his first book, Snow Crystals, he walked six miles home in a blizzard. He died of pneumonia two weeks later. Bentley’s images of snowflakes are his living gift to the world. The original images can be found in The Wilson Bentley Exhibit at The Old Red Mill in Jericho, Vermont.

Review:
Snowflake Bentley tells two stories in one. It has a narrative story telling about Wilson’s quest for capturing snowflakes, and it offers facts about Bentley. There are numerous extensions teachers can develop for students. This heart-warming account of a boy’s dream encourages perseverance.

(Image borrowed from http://www.jacquelinebriggsmartin.com/books/snowflak.html)

Wordle

I am starting my blog today. This is the very end of my third year teaching first grade, and I am currently in my second Master's in Technology class. Only 9 more to go! Hopefully this blog will help me keep up with some of the more interesting and noteworthy projects I create. Today I learned how to take a paragraph and create a word cloud out of it using Wordle. By typing my name three times at the start of the paragraph, I ensure that my name appears large in the cloud. If I want first grade to appear together, I enter it as first~grade.