Windows Movie Maker

When I first started this class I wasn't sure what to expect.  The fact that we were going to use iMovie intimidated me, even though I am seen as relatively tech-savvy among my peers and family.  I had the internet early, back in the very first days of dial up, on a network created for physicians (my Mom is an M.D.) that was out before AOL.  I have always been into technology and the cyber world, even considered and proposed doing a doctorate at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute that examined the construction of identity online.  I was accepted!  But my life took another path and technology and all that became a hobby.  I blog and post YouTube videos, use tumblr and Twitter and Facebook and Google.  I can do simple photo edits and can build sites on Dreamweaver and the like.  But I have always had trouble doing anything on a Mac because they are so foreign to me.  It's like driving on the wrong side of the street, and all the gears mislabeled.

My hesitation about the class led me to look more closely at the programs on my own laptop, which is relatively new.  I found windows movie maker and gave it a whirl, adding captions and transitions to a hip hop video I found randomly saved on my desktop.  I played with that for a few hours and then felt less wary about using the iMovie technology.  So that was a good strategy for me.

Technology Annotations

Technology Annotations

 Title                        Salient Point/Finding                                Implications                

Web 2.0 Visual Organizers - presentation Web_2_0_Visual_Organizers_0.pdf (756.957 Kb)	This presentation is design to explain how new technologies can enhance the arena of visual organizers.  A visual organizer is a way to visually represent knowledge, concepts or ideas.  They help to: “ Relieve learner boredom, enhance recall, provide motivation, create interest, clarify information, assist in organizing thought and promote understanding.” They can take many forms, including Venn diagrams, T-charts for compare and contrast, relational organizers, story and word webs and so on.  Which kind of organizer to use will be determined by what kind of relationship or concept you want to illustrate. The presentation then outlines a history of visual organizers and then outlines why visual organizers seem to work.  This seems to be because they help learners connect the known and the unknown symbolically and intellectually.	The presentation closes with an in depth look at a variety of websites or application which appear to be extremely useful for constructing visual organizers of all types, including concept maps, wire frames, site maps, network charts, and so on. I think this is a very valuable presentation because of the variety of resources outlined in the second half.  I will definitely be hanging on to this one in order to refer back to it when I am creating graphic organizers for use in the classroom.
Tell a Story Become a Lifelong Learner digitalstorytellingebook.pdf (2.348 Mb)	Appears to have been designed by Microsoft at some point in the last few years to promote use of their software to tell digital stories.  Has a good breakdown of how to create digital storytelling projects on a wide array of topics and at varying degrees of difficulty.  I like the way each project is presented with a variety of levels you can take it to, I think this would help teachers plan differentiated instruction for students in their class with varying levels of technology proficiency. It describes different types of digital story including personal narratives, oral histories, and instructional photo essays.	Has some great activities and lessons.  A good alternative to give to students who don’t have access to Apple hardware or software at home or at their public library but who would like to use the digital storytelling format to do work outside of class hours. This document also links to a great number of other resources on digital storytelling and therefore it could be used a jumping off point for further investigation by a teacher interested in incorporating digital stories into the their curriculum
Buzz Buzz.pdf (35.255 Kb)	This article describes the popularity of digital storytelling as a classroom tool to promote meaning making and knowledge retention across disciplines at the University of Houston. The article then outlines how this technology has been utilized in education classes as diverse as Art Education, Early Childhood Education, Social Science education, and so on. Because digital storytelling can be applied to personal narratives, historical retellings, science-based narratives, and so many more avenues of learning, it quickly became very popular at this University. The researchers conclude that Digital Storytelling is a multifaceted technology tool and that it has diverse applications in teaching and learning which are being newly discovered.	One point made in the article which I will take with me is that digital storytelling can be used to take something amorphous and impersonal (like the civil war) and make it very personal and immediately engaging.  The person making the digital story choses who it will be told, what the words and sounds and images and video will be, and how it all goes together. This makes digital stories unique and personalized, which increases out engagement.  Humans are interested in other humans.  It is strange, but the designer’s mind shines through this technology based format and makes the content more humanly accessible.

My Presentation

I am presently a semester long course on using technology to support my teaching, in and out of the classroom. In service of this class, I was asked to give a presentation on a technology tool which I felt might be of use to my classmates.  I decided to show them ZooBurst, an awesome (and free!) website where one can design interactive 3D online pop-up books.  I've loved pop-up books since I was a child and this awesome site (winner of the American Association of School Librarians "Best Website for Teaching & Learning Award in 2011) really called out to me as something that could be educational, literacy promoting, and very fun.

In order to get ready for my presentation I registered for a free account on ZooBurst.  They have paid accounts with more features (such as the ability to add voice-overs and video to your pop up books) but the free account was perfect for what I wanted to accomplish.  The free account allows you to add pictures, add writing for the overall page, and add captions for the pictures.  I loved this idea for English Language Learners because the pictures can serve as scaffolds to comprehension when there are unfamiliar vocabulary words.

I created a model book to show the class and in the presentation I showed the class how to add pictures and writing.  You can view a model by clicking here.  

The other options that are available with the paid accounts include storycodes which let you print a QR code that you can attach to a physical object and then someone can scan it and look at the book. This would be a good way to show the work to parents, provided the parents have a smart phone.

I think this technology would be great to use with a computer literate students so they can create there own zoobooks, or for teachers to use to create advanced organizers for lesson plans and units.

This Spring, I had the good fortune of visiting the DiMenna Children's History Museum and the NYS Historical Society. This highly interactive museum brings the history of New York City to life, and focuses on the perspective of a group of persons with no small part in shaping it: The Children! The Historical Society Staff were very friendly and accommodating, and I would certainly. encourage other educators and childcare providers to consider taking their charges.

The design of the exhibits was such that technology was used to facilitate children's interaction with the content. Touch screens, turnable pages and openable boxes, large scale reproductions of how intriciate crafts are done, digitial telescopic viewers and more made the exhibits kinesthetically engaging. Students Digital representations of primary source documents gave children direct access to pictures, newspapers, or other artifact from well before their time.

The interfaces were very intuitive and natural to use, and I think that with today's wave of touchscreen technology, children will delight in a museum where everything is designed for their use and presented at their level. I especially enjoyed the digital picture frame which was being utilized to show digital images of classic paintings. The juxtaposition of the new and old was lessened by presenting the images within a screen embedded in a classical looking gilded frame. I think when we present the new with a mind to the aesthetics of the old, we can marry the two quite seamlessly. My favorite exhibit was the one on old-fashioned medicine, featuring Dr. James McCune Smith (Doctor and noted Abolitionist). The touchscreen "try to treat a patient" game was weird and engaging. The 3D displays like a medicinal jar labeled "leeches," were super cool. My mother is a doctor so I have always find medical things engaging, but I think for children who like "gross" things this display would also be a treat!