ETC Reflection

 

After reflecting on my experience in Rena’s ETC class, I found the greatest impact on me as a learner was how to apply what I have been learning by using new and innovative  emergent technology tools to create products of my own while documenting the process through blogging.

This month I feel I have learned how to commit to myself and follow through with what is important to me in the midst of daily challenges that throw curve balls my way, even when planning and structure were intended for the day.  I have learned to do my work in various ways that have made my self adaptable and flexible where and how I will get my work done.

Taking a fast pace class requires planning ahead , communicating with other’s and making myself aware and prepared for challenges I might face ahead.

If I had to take this class again, or just for my next class, I will make an investment into my own sanity, effectiveness, and backup for completing my work by hiring a babysitter and person to help clean during the following months! A couple times this month I was able to step away from my three children and work  quietly by myself. What a difference in the quality, focus and time it required  to start or finish those assignment I worked on.

I really enjoyed blogging, and it has been something I had wanted to do for a while. I will continue to blog and use photography throughout the process to capture reflections and connections to the things that bring me passion, joy and stillness throughout my journey. I am finally going to move forward with my trademark for sharing my inspirations freely within the virtual community in my own expressive way that motivates and focuses me on the present moment awareness and stay positive even on those challenging, unexpected moments life brings teachers and mothers each day.

BP10_RILS Commenting and Linking_Educator Studio

Digital Storytelling

If you are interested in motivating your students to write in an innovative, creative, engaging and tech savvy  way, my classmate Chrissia Haughton created a Relevant and Innovative Learning Scenario (RILS) that demonstrates how to introduce ComicLife in primary grades, K-2 , in a fun, unique  and comical kind of way!

Visit Educator Studio to see how Chrissia Haughton

• Introduces the software ComicLife to teachers and students
• Creates a unique storyboard about penguins using students very own pictures
• Receives comments about what I and others thought about her innovative lesson that is adaptable for any classroom in so many ways

Here is the link, just click and read your way to making your own comic today!

http://educatorstudio.com/lessons/lets-make-comic

While you are at Educator Studio, you might as well check out another fun lesson on using emergent technology for digital storytelling in the primary grade classroom.

Read another classmates RILS that shares an additional tech savvy way 1st grade teachers can teach sequencing and retelling  using a  cool  emergent tool found at  www.storyjumper.com  . See how April Woosley takes a fundamental primary grade activity for assessment and  upgrades the old cut and paste version of ordering  parts of a story  in a tech savvy 21st century way.

Visit Educator Studio to see how April Woosley:

• Step’s up her authentic reading comprehension activities by going digital
• Uses Story Jumper to connect Digital Story Sequencing purposefully within students everyday life
• Foster’s collaboration and communication in the classroom using digital story telling to retell their story in their creative  way.

Here is the link to April Woosley’s “tech savvy” lesson. Send her a comment and let her know what you a think!

http://educatorstudio.com/lessons/clever-1st-grader-who-swallowed-story

BP9_RILS Reflection

My RILS  implementation was on using PhotoPeach to teach young children how to create a digital story that was displayed a purposeful and meaningful story that they would like to share with others. The most valuable part of this experience was that I learned how to use a new emergent technology that can integrate photography as a tool for documenting the users experience and fostered innovative communication through digital storytelling.

For myself I learned more about the process of my own learning while seeing where my motivation and engagement peeks with educational media and technology. Photography is what pulls my attention and focus into full force and the enjoyment I experience from it leads me to want to integrate this within the field of education to enhance learning for other’s.

For my learners, a sense of pride and accomplishment was felt from capturing their own photo’s and creating their own shows to share a story.

I liked that I was able to share a passion of mine with my learners and it increases both the teachers engagement during implantation as well as engaged the participants while being able to have user control and creatively express their own voice with digital slideshows, captions and music.

If I was to implement this scenario again I would use it in the classroom to demonstrate a variety of other uses PhotoPeach offers, such as creating quizzes for students, or collaboration amongst students, or for delivering lessons within the classroom to increase engagement and motivation.

 

 

 

 

BP7_RILS_PhotoPeach_Educator Studio Post

Christina Wilson

ETC- July 2012

RILS Implementation

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Title: PHOTOPEACH: PHOTOS THAT BRING STORIES TO LIFE

BRIEF OVERVIEW

Designed for K-8 students to design and write their own digitally and musically enhanced slideshow. Students will have the ability to share their stories by uploading their own pictures, pick the music for their shows and write their own stories discussing the meaning behind the pictures that they chose.

TARGET AUDIENCE

My target audience will be for children in grades K-3 at home for summer break using photography with their family.

MATERIALS

• Pencil

• Paper
• Writing Drafts

• Computers
Photos for uploading

• Memory Cards or Flash drives for photos

OBJECTIVES

• Learners will create a digital sideshow by uploading pictures they captured themselves and integrate sentences, music or audio to tell a meaningful story.
• Learners will understand differences and similarities in a family unit and experience the diversity within their community.

PROCEDURE

• Go to PhotoPeach.com(Students View on Overhead Projector)
• Click on Sign up for free
Enter a username, email and password
• Click on Explore

• Click on a category of interest (Family, Nature, Pet’s and Animals, Education, Science, Travel, Sports)
• Go to Photopeach.com (Students on computer).

• Select Create New Slide Show (Upload Photos.)

• Select up to 30 Photo’s of interest and Upload to Photo Peach.

• Drag and drop photos to change the play order

• Drag photo’s to the right side to delete them.
• Double-Click to see large previews
• Click Next
Add Music or upload your own Audio
• Draft and Write out Title and Captions for each picture on paper.
• Add a Title
• Add Caption’s to your pictures.
• Customize
Play slide show.

• Share each child’s slide show with the class and family.
• Embed each show on the class website to share with a collective community.

EMERGENT TECHNOLOGY

Photopeach.com is a slideshow application that is user friendly for all age groups that allows you to share your photos but also create digital stories by writing your own captions and integrating music to add to the viewing experience.

SOCIAL PARTICIPATION/ SOCIAL LEARNING

Students will start the activity by collectively discussing their own family units. They will watch a slideshow of my own family album and discuss members and their roles within it.

 

MAKING CONNECTIONS

• Previous Knowledge: From discussions and stories on families and community children have discussed the various members that make up a family.
• Relevant: Children in K-3 are learning about roles and member of a family unit. This will help them make connections and understand the members and functions of each person in a family. Students will make connections that they too are a collective part of a community.
• Local/Global Audience: By creating their own slideshow, students can share their stories and shows with others through embedding into the class website, sharing with the collective community on PhotoPeach, and sharing the slideshow with family and friends.

 

CREATE/PRODUCE

• A slideshow and digital story will be created with music and captions describing students personally captured photos edited just for their presentation.

 

REFLECTION

• Students will reflect on their experience by creating their own family album/and or meaningful story.
• They will present their slideshow and share with the class and families. This will enable students to be exposed to the differences in meaningful stories created amongst their peers.
• Students will be able to compare and contrast similarities and differences of the families that make up their community.

Assessment

• Rubric for Digital Storytelling: Photo Peach: Bring your story to life with Photos!

• Teacher Name: Mrs. Wilson

• Student Name:     ________________________________________

CATEGORY	4	3	2	1
Images	Images create a distinct atmosphere or tone that matches different parts of the story. The images may communicate symbolism and/or metaphors.	Images create an atmosphere or tone that matches some parts of the story. The images may communicate symbolism and/or metaphors.	An attempt was made to use images to create an atmosphere/tone but it needed more work. Image choice is logical.	Little or no attempt to use images to create an appropriate atmosphere/tone.
Soundtrack – Emotion	Music stirs a rich emotional response that matches the story line well.	Music stirs a rich emotional response that somewhat matches the story line.	Music is ok, and not distracting, but it does not add much to the story.	Music is distracting, inappropriate, OR was not used.
Grammar	Grammar and usage were correct (for the dialect chosen) and contributed to clarity, style and character development.	Grammar and usage were typically correct (for the dialect chosen) and errors did not detract from the story.	Grammar and usage were typically correct but errors detracted from story.	Repeated errors in grammar and usage distracted greatly from the story.
Point of View – Purpose	Establishes a purpose early on and maintains a clear focus throughout.	Establishes a purpose early on and maintains focus for most of the presentation.	There are a few lapses in focus, but the purpose is fairly clear.	It is difficult to figure out the purpose of the presentation.

Date Created: July 13, 2012

BP6_RiLS_PhotoPeach

I chose PhotoPeach.com as the emergent tool that I will be using for my RILS implementation because

1. It is FREE
2. Easy to Upload your digital photos
3. Easy to navigate, Just Click, Drag & Drag
4. Easy to  digital stories by creating slideshows with photos,  music and captions for young or intermediate children
5. It’s fun for teachers and other adults too
6. There are lots of examples of how to use PhotoPeach in the classroom or home environment

Although this a free site, which is great, I signed up for the Educator Account to test out its administrative feature that the site highlights as a perk for teachers.  The first month is a free trial also so that was a plus for trying out a new emergent tool and all the functions a teacher can use to help students create great shows in the classroom or with parents for building a home/school connection with technology!

The Educator’s Experience

I easily uploaded 100 of my photos from my drive quickly with no problems! All pictures displayed quickly.  I created my class roster and made usernames and passwords for all participant, including a student version for me. I thought this would be an effective way to view possible learning curves and situations through my students eyes by being the learner and not the educator during completing my slideshow.

As the educator I was able to easily set the tone for virtually managing my classroom with this tool easy.   Privacy settings are important for assuring student’s interact with content  that is safe and appropriate. I was able to add settings that help make sure students did not share content without my ability to have access to the information. Also all slideshow cannot be deleted without administrative approval, which is easy to do.

The Student’s Experience

As a learner, I used a student account to create my slideshow under my Educator account so that I can understand how to best manage both through practice. I logged out as educator and had to login with my student account I created. I did notice certain functions where not available for students. In order to access them I had to jump back into my educator account. At first this became confusing because I couldn’t figure out how to share my slideshow, but soon realized those features I disabled for my student accounts! This was a good learning experience from both perspectives.

The Downside to My Learning Experience as an educator and a student using  a new tool

I did run into two problems when making a slideshow.

1. As I added captions and spent a lot of time on my clips, for some reason I lost all the edits I made due to a save error on the site. I couldn’t retrieve any of it, so I had to start over. This was frustrating, and I could see how this could be frustrating for children.

Solution during implementation: I suggest writing a draft of captions first before typing straight onto the interface so they have  hard copy of their writing captions.

2. After I added all my photos with ease, I noticed some clips were not cropped correctly. The PhotoPeach site did not have any editing effects to help with this! I had to delete some of my favorite picture because they were upside down when the slide show displayed.

Solution during implementation: Make sure pictures are edited correctly before placing into PhotoPeach. Use another photo tool to fix pictures the way participants like.

Other then those two disadvantages using PhotoPeach was fun, easy and user friendly to use for creating digital stories in grades K- 12+.

I learned

• How to edit captions and add music to the entire slideshow
• How to create quizzes in PhotoPeach
• How to import all pictures easy at one time
• How to draw and drop pictures where I want them to display in the show
• How to Create as a Student
• How to administrate and manage Emergent Technology for a classroom like an Educator

Here is a personal slide show that shares a meaningful story with my learners about Celebrating a Day at Chicago’s Navy Pier for my daughters 5th birthday.

Enjoy my Story! Click Below to View

A Beautiful Day to Celebrate in Chicago on PhotoPeach

 

PE3_iMovie

Lynda.com’s iMovie Tutorial Certificate of Completion

One of the great features of using Lynda.com for learning is the ability to obtain a Certificate of Completion upon finishing all tutorials. This certificate enhances and helps highlight a users professional skills and credentials after establishing  proficiency with using applications such as iMovie.

Brief highlights off key elements that I practiced and found easy and fun to use during my final stages of learning iMovie with Garrick Chow at Lynda.com  included

• Working with Effects
• Storyboarding
• Transitions
• Title and text integration into clips
• Green Screen
• Working with Audio
• Advantages & tips for how and when to add Music and Sound effectively
• Adding Background Music
• Voice Overs & Narration
• Use of Beat Markers for integrating music with Photo’s for dramatic slideshow movie effects
• Extracting Audio from other clips
• Sharing and compressing movies effectively in various technically appropriate ways

My Reflective Experience: Making Connections Learning iMovie By Doing

My resistance of learning how to edit effectively and create a entire movie has been a part of my challenge since the beginning of the EMDT program. I had no desire to learn all the technical aspects to video making because I have relied on keeping my other videos on DVD or Tapes. Additionally, photography has been my main focus so I  didn’t see how I was going to engage myself during this process. However I have learned to LOVE what I have experienced with editing and audio that enables me to apply myself creatively in so many ways now I am excited to start using more often to apply, teach, and show others what I have learned. Pushing pass resistance has helped me see that taking a risk and being open to what may be possible in my own learning,  even when it is out of my comfort zone, can bring many rewards intrinsically and for others! Finally, after revisiting the last parts of the tutorial, which are the most important aspects to learn for applying and adding your own creativity to any project, I’m ready to make my own movies and show others my first iMovie creation!

The following iMovie I created demonstrates a sample of  how I created a dramatized movies that displays a progression of change with photography. I believe this first example will be helpful when I teach my students how to use photography to document growth and changes over time for learning.

During the making of this movie I learned and applied these specific elements:

• how to create Beat Markers before photo’s imported into iMovie to best make slideshows with music to create a specific tone and mood
• how to add automatic transitions between clips
• how to add background music and audio for my movie
• how to trim clips to specific time measures
• how to add themes and titles into my clips by simply dragging and dropping right over photos and between transitions
• how to use the Ken Burns effect to fade in and out to add a dramatic effect using photo’s and music to make movies

I will continue to practice using other aspects of iMovie such as Trailers and various Themes for movies in the future. But most of all I enjoyed being able to integrate photography easily into iMovie.

Enjoy the show!

BP5_RILS Research_ LooGix.com :)

Create animated gif online on LooGix.com. It’s easy and free!

via Funny gif maker. LooGix.com 🙂.

LooGix.com is an online animated GIF maker that is fast, free and easy to use to create fun animations of your photo’s.

I found this emergent web tool while searching for an easy and fun interactive tool my participants could use for my RILS implementation stage that would allow my participants to edit and share photos and their digital stories with others. and their story with other.

Follow these simple steps to create your own funny animations.

1. Click “Browse” to upload photos from your computer
2. Select your size and speed
3. Click Generate Animation
4. If your not happy with the generation, choose to add your own effects to your photos.
5. Choose and click on a variety of effects such as Explosion, Blur, Motely, Swirl, Black and White, and more.
6. Lastly, display your GIF animated pictures using a HTML Code  to insert into a blog or webpage, use a direct link for quick access, or email and share your funny GIF with others on the web!

Although  I will not be using this for my RILS implementation phase because I am looking for a tool that includes music and caption options to display a digital story and slideshows that are easy for children in k-3 to manipulate, I would recommend this tool just for the fun effects you can use to animate your photo’s.

Click on the link to try this easy to create GIF Maker for your on pics.

http://www.loogix.com

BP3_Rise_Picfull

For those of you interested in photography, you should see my classmate Selena Carruthers site and ET review of http://www.picfull.com.  See how she manipulates pictures as a unique way to express herself.

Selena’s ET Review of http://www.picfull.com includes

• highlights of the Free and easy to navigate interface
• 18 different photo editing effects and tools to use for social media sites or formal projects
• 6 easy to follow steps to editing your own pics
• examples of her own pictures she manipulated and edited to enhance her photos with a unique creative touch.

Visit Selena’s ET Review and Blog about a great photo editing tool found at http://www.picfull.com by clicking the link below.

http://resourcesforeducators.wordpress.com/2012/07/01/bp2-picfull/

BP2_Wix

Wix  

Wix is a free web tool for creating easy, fast, and customizable websites for showcasing your classroom in action and fostering communication with parents, providing a service for your business, or  just for showcasing a gallery of your favorite personal pics. This web tool allows users to publish their own professional looking website with no html coding skills need.

Features

• Its completely FREE to design and publish your own website
• Easy click and drop HTML editor
• No coding or HTML expertise needed
• Free  web hosting
• Create FREE Flash and HTML 5 Websites
• Upload your own images
• Choose from 100’s of free content such as  widgets, music, pics, galleries and more
• Customize your site from scratch or a template
• View FREE demo videos or join Live Webinars
• Get found easily on Google with free and easy to create Search Engine Optimization (SEO) options
• Go Mobile by creating a FREE mobile version of your website
• Add a Blog
• Create Facebook templates to connect with others in your social network

My Story and My Motivation For Using This Tool

I love photography and have been wanting to create a personal website to start a digital photo journal and scrapbook of all my favorite pictures. Its  easier than I expected and is a tool I am motivated in using while implementing my action research project on integrating digital photography in the classroom to enhance the overall process of learning in an educational environment.

View My Sample Published Website and Customized Creation

Click on the link below to view my  personal Photography website I created at www.wix.com to start hosting a gallery of my pictures I have passionately taken by capturing the beauty of nature in my own community and special moments with my family.

http://cwilson2912.wix.com/christinawilson

PE2_iMovie

 Editing made easy with iMovie

Although editing is one of the most important aspects of creating enjoyable family or educational movie tutorials, it is the part I have been procrastinating  to start because the clips and tools can appear daunting to use from a novice users perspective. With a quick glance at the overwhelming amount of  footage I  imported, starting  to edit my own always footage seemed to be another task placed on my “future project  to do list”.   However, after viewing Garrick Chow’s easy step by step process of editing located within Chapter 5 of his narrated  tutorial called Editing Video.

A brief overview of the key terms and post-production processes and tips I learned about in this section include:

• Creating a new project to edit
• Adding clips to the project
• Trimming
• Slip edits
• Precision and fine tuning editing
• Realtime previewing
• User controls
• Edit points
• Cropping and Rotating
• Time saving tips and shortcuts

Creating a New Project is as easy as 1-2-3

1. Select the New Project button located in the Project Pane
2. Name your new project, select your preferred Aspect Ratio, click Create
3. Go to your Event Library and Click on your Titled selection that you want to use for the current project.

Trimming and Editing