Reflection Week #9 - Digital Story 3

What? This week my partner and I were finally able to get started on our digital story. We met with our teacher and now have the topic of Utah's Native Americans. We spent our entire class period finishing our storyboard and compiling information.

So What?Now that we have a direction for our digital story we are able to start working on the actual video. We will be using it as an introduction to our unit on Native Americans. It is nice to finally know the direction and be able to look for pieces we want to include. I am excited about our topic and I think that we will be able to create a great digital story on it. I just hope we have enough time to do it justice. I cannot wait to finish it up and show it to our elementary class and see what their reaction to it. We are lucky to have a teacher who has access to some technology. Every other classroom I have been in since starting school at UVU has lacked in technology so I am excited to get to possibly use some of what is available.

Now What? 

The technology used to create a digital story can be advanced or simple, but I believe it is important to create. They are a new and fun way to grab a students attention. Digital stories are similar to trailers for movies. They are a snippet of information that introduces the rest of a unit or lesson. Movies are a huge part of our students lives, and I think using digital stories is a way to connect the information we are learning about to something they enjoy. I have made videos before and have some experience in creating things like digital stories and I hope that my experience and practice will help my future colleagues and students. I am looking forward to teaching our cooperating teacher about how to create a digital story and I hope she will use the technology in the future. We need to use creative ways to reach our students, and digital stories are just one of the tools we can use.

Reflection Week #8 - Digital Story 2

What?  
We are currently working on our Digital Story assignments that we will use during our Field Work experience.This week we spent our time in class learning about the different copyright laws that our country has, and how they have evolved as our world has changed.

So What? 
In our world right now there are millions of resources available at our fingertips. It we are wanting more information on any topic all we have to do is log onto the world wide web, search for info, and almost instantly it is there before our eyes. Not only do we need to learn how to discriminate between what is true and false, but we need to know how to correctly credit the source of the information we find. Our class today taught me a lot of information I did not know about various copyright laws. Our exploration and collaboration taught me things that will be extremely helpful not only right now as I am working on my digital story, but it will be helpful later on when I am looking for sources and things to use as I am a teacher.

Now What? 
I did not realize that so many copyright existed, and because I was not aware I believe that many of my future students will not be aware of the laws either. Because I plan to use projects where students get information from the internet and make it into something new, I think that it is important that I teach these copyright laws to my students. We live in such an amazing collaborative time period, and I want my students to be apart of that environment legally. If students do not understand the laws it is more likely that they will unintentionally not follow them. Having this new information about the laws will not only help me make sure that my students are not breaking the copyright laws, but I will be able to help my colleagues make sure they are not breaking them as well.

Reflection Week #7: Digital Story 1

What? 
This week we began learning about Digital Stories. We also spent time learning about story boarding and how we can do that for our own digital story.

So What?Digital Stories are an amazing way to get students excited about a topic that they are required to learn about. They are powerful emotional ways to connect students to the information that they will be learning. Story boarding is actually useful in my life right now as well as in the future. It is a great pre-production step. It is a visual way to set up what I will be doing with a task. Whether that is making a vidcast/poscast or creating a lesson plan, knowing the basic outline will make the task so much easier.

Now What? Digital stories are an amazing resource. Once you create one, especially if it is about history, it will be useful for years to come. If I use them collaboratively I will only have to create a couple a year, and by sharing with colleagues I will have even more to use with my students. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and when combined with powerful music that picture is worth even more. Our students are tech junkies. They have grown up in a time where technology is readily available constantly. Their attention spans are not the greatest because of this, and digital stories are a way of taking that technology they love and using it to teach them. I can just see students loving these videos, and I can also see them loving creating them. It is unbelievable what kids can do with technology these days, and I cannot wait to give them an assignment and see what they come up with. Technology can either be our biggest downfall or asset as teachers, and I believe that using digital stories will help technology become on asset of mine.

 

Reflection Week #6: Vidcasts

Events Leading to Self Government in the United States
EDEL 3250: 01
Jason Biggs, Lindsay Farnworth

Our podcast addresses the 5th grade standard 2: Students will understand the chronology and significance of key events leading to self-government; Objective 1:  Describe how the movement toward revolution culminated in a Declaration of Independence.  We chose this topic because it is one of the core curriculum requirements for the grade we were interested in, and it also seemed to fit the assignment.  We did a sequential display of key events leading to the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  

    The Declaration of Independence and self government are things that every person living in the United States should know about.  We couldn’t think of a better topic than this to share with students.  If students can understand how important these things are then hopefully they will be more prone to finding motivation to understand them as well as be interested in getting involved later in their lives.  
    Our Vidcast connects to the NETS and INTASC standards.  Some specifics on how they fit in follow.  National Educational Technology Standards 2: Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments, a. design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.  INTASC Standard 2: Planning curriculum and designing instruction to enhance student learning, c. Design and articulate instruction aligned with Utah Core Curriculum standards.
    One potential drawback to our Vidcast is that it is currently in YouTube.  Many schools will not allow YouTube videos at their schools. This would make it difficult to view it in the classroom or to post it at school. Another drawback is that the background music is barely noticeable in some parts and more obvious in others. To make it more interesting we would increase the volume of the background music and leave more time for the music to shine through with no narration over it.
    The future plans for our series would be to create more Vidcasts about the history of the United States. These Vidcasts provide a great overview of the significant events and show students how everything fits together. Some possible topics would be: The Declaration of Independence to The Constitution and The Constitution to the Civil War, etc.

Reflection Week #5: Vidcasts

What?  
This week we learned about vidcasts and some of the tools that we can use to create them. Our assignment is to create a simple first level vidcast with a partner using one of the tools we learned about.

So What? 
I will admit that I am kind of a tech junkie. I love discovering new tools and used to do it all the time, but now that I am super busy with school and working, I haven't had time to find new tools as much. I loved learning about the vidcasting tools that we talked about in class because two of them were new to me. I have always wondered how to capture video of what is on your screen because I watch tutorials that do that all the time. I love that Jing is a free tool that allows me to do that! I spend a lot of time on the web and I like creating things like sideshows for friends and family members. The tools we learned today will help me to more efficiently do the things I love. :) They will also help me to be a better student and teacher. I will be able to use this knowledge on projects to make them more interesting and professional.

Now What?  
I hope my future students will consider themselves lucky because I love technology, and I know that I will use it in my classroom as often as possible. I love the endless ways vidcasting and podcasting can be used. Not only can they be used as a fun creative assignment for students but they can be used by me to introduce a topic or a unit. When video is combined with music it creates a powerful emotional response and I know that using vidcasts and digital stories will help the students to become more excited about what they will be learning. I also love the possibilities for assessment that they contain. Why use a paper and pencil test when you can have your students create a vidcast to show what they have learned? Technology is an everyday part of life for students in this day and age, and unfortunately a lot of classrooms are still stuck back in the middle of the 20th century. I hope that I will be able to have the resources available in my classroom so students will be able to engage with technology on a daily basis. Students deserve to have an instructor that understands and uses technology because it is something they are so connected to. I have learned a lot of the things that I can do to integrate technology, and where the resources are available I will use them often.

Reflection Week #4: Podcasts

What?  
This week we learned about pod casting and how to create podcasts. Our assignment is to make a one minute public service announcement podcast, and put it onto our classroom website.

So What? 
At first I did not think that something like this would be applicable in my life right now, but I then realized that just a little while ago this information would have been extremely useful. I was attempting to post an audio clip to my personal blog and had to jump through a bunch of hoops to get it done. It would have been awesome to have this information then. I never realized how often I use and listen to podcasts. I frequently watch and listen to things online and never knew they were considered podcasts. I know that my students will probably know how to create podcasts before they come into my classrom. I love how simple it is to create and share podcasts and I can't wait to  use it to collaborate and create audio for the web.

Now What?  
This another technology that I can see myself using to make an assignment in my classroom more fun and interactive. I think it would be so cool to have student create podcasts as an assignment and then have them share with class what they created. It can be useful in so many areas, like social studies, science, language arts, etc. It is not only a great tool for an assignment but for collaboration as well. As instructors we can create these audio files for various assignments and then share them with each other. I think using one of these audio clips to introduce a unit would be much funner then the usual way of just talking about it. :)

Reflection Week #3 : Google Part 2

What? 
This week we learned about Google sites. Our assignment for the week was to spend time setting up and designing our own classroom website.

So What?
Google has a myriad of tools available for convenient use. Google sites is one of those amazing tools. I love how easy it is to customize and add information. It is a tool for communication that is adaptable to just about any use out there. It can be used to connect people who are fans of an musician, or even those entering the field of education. The possibilities.

To be honest I am not sure what other ways Google sites can be used in my life right now. I don't have much use for it in my current education except as a storage device, and there isn't really a need for me to create something to connect individuals.  I know that it will be extremely useful in my future though as I need a place to be able to share information with my colleagues, my students and their families.

Now What?
This technology is something that I wish I would have had when I was in elementary school. I remember having class newsletters, but never did we really have something that made it easy to communicate with our teacher. I love the ease of use and the ability it provides for the instructor to pass information onto colleagues, parents and students. There are so many possibilities and I cannot wait to use this in my own classroom.

I also love that this is something that I can also ask students to create if I teach an upper level class. I can see this being such a fun way for them to show the things that they have learned. Students get used to creating boring, typical assignments and this is an assignment I can see myself using to get my students excited about the learning process!