Digital Storytelling

Digital Storytelling is a new aspect for me. Before this class, I had never heard of them. Now I’m tasked with telling everyone what a Digital Story is. I started my research by like everyone else; I went to Google.  There are a great number of sites out there to explore.  What I found out is that basically Digital storytelling  can be defined as  the use of digital tools to allow ordinary people tell their own real-life stories.Digital stories are short movies (typically 2-3 minutes in length) that combine multimedia elements such as photographs, video, animation, sound, music, text, and voice with a narrative of some kind.

Digital stories should have seven essential elements: 1) point of view, 2) a dramatic question, 3) emotional content, 4) the gift of your voice, 5) the power of soundtrack, 6) economy, and 7) pacing. It should also answer basic questions such as why, how, and what. 

 Additionally, the aspects of Digital Storytelling (pictures, music, and narration) reinforce ideas and appeal to different students with different learning types. Teachers can use it to introduce projects, themes, or any content area. Teachers can have their students make their own digital stories to share. As an expressive medium in the classroom, Digital Stories can be used to integrate subject matter knowledge and skills from many areas of the curriculum. Students can work individually or collaboratively to produce their own Digital Stories. Once completed, these stories can easily be uploaded to the Web and viewed by a worldwide audience.

 The website that I liked the best was created by University of Houston. Their website, The Educational Use of Digital Storytelling is easy to understand and follow. A key part of this page is the video provided to introduce Digital Storytelling. This “video” is actually a Digital Story. This page also provides different examples, gives a list of software tools, such as video, audio, and imaging, provides tips, resources, and links on Digital Storytelling, give examples for educational uses, provides a basic rubric, and details how to release a Digital Story as a podcast, blog, or wiki.  The web address is: http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/

New technology is scary, but I'm nervously looking forward to creating my own Digital Story!!

Global Education

Hey everyone!
It's time to talk about global education. When I started thid assignment, I was a little foggy on what global education was. During my online search, I came across some websites that offered chatting oppertunities, but very few actually defined global education. Simply put, global education is the term used internationally to designate the academic field concerned with teaching and learning about global issues, events and perspectives, but in actuallity, it is so much more. the best website I found to define global education is Globalteacher.org. It's lengthy, but poetic. 
They write,"Global Education is not a subject, but a dimension that runs through the curriculum, an extra filter to help children make sense of all the information and opinion the world is throwing at them. It combines methodology - active and experiential discussion based activities, a caring, co-operative and open outlook on the classroom experience, and core concerns- finding out about all the cultures of the UK and of other countries and groups, about the causes of poverty and inequality (here as well as in other countries) and about the environment. Global Education is a way of approaching everything we teach and how we teach it. It broadens horizons and encourages exploration of all subjects from a global perspective. It contributes to the whole curriculum and enhances our understanding of the world. Global Education stimulates curiosity, motivates learning, and thus contributes to the raising of standards. Global Education studies different cultures and countries and the issues that face them, and develops an understanding of the impact our actions have on them. Global Education reflects the global nature of our society and responds to the diverse backgrounds and experiences of the children in the classroom. It recognises the entitlement of those children to receive an education which reflects this diversity. Global Education recognises the importance of expanding the horizons of children who live in less diverse communities. Global Education develops skills and attitudes which enable people to take responsibility for their own lives and the world we live in and become active global citizens. Global Education looks at the ways in which every-day life and experience affect and are affected by the wider world. Global education is as much about the relationships within a classroom as it is about relationships between countries." (http://www.globalteacher.org.uk/global_ed.htm)

global education

"How do we connect with Global Education Communities?"

Connecting to communities is actually quite easy. Once you find the community that you want to join, you simply sign-up. Some of the sites have a waiting period for approval, but others are happy to welcome you on the spot. 

"Whom did you find for students to connect with?"

There are many sites like www.epals.com/ were students are able to connect with other students around the world. This site even offers a translator to conquere any language barriers.

There are also sites like National Geographic's MyWonderful World blog were teachers and students can connect witheach other and still yet another site, Thinkfinity Community, were teachers can connect with each other.

"How did you find it?"

When I first went looking for global education sites, I simply typed

"How do we connect with Global Education Communities?" into the search bar. Funny thing happened. I was sent to a blog spot called Christine's Thoughts, http://christineboivin.blogspot.com/2010/04/how-do-we-connect-with-global-education.html. Christine wanted answers to the same question, but was having trouble finding them. Through her site, I was told to go to google and search kids penpals. I did one better and search kids educational penpals.  That's were I found www.epals.com.

"How will you students/you connect?"

That question is a little harder. A lot of places around the world do not coincide timewise. Students would either have to connect as a homework assignment, or they would have to leave blog messages for their penpals to view and answer later. The same goes for me and other teachers. We would have to connect at home, or through blogging or messaging.

"What are possible conversdation points?

The conversation points are limitedless for both students and teachers. Students can discuss every possible assignment that they are ever assigned, or they can join groups who are coming together to discuss specific issues such as: people, cultures, plants, animals, habitats, watercycles, maps, etc.

Teachers have the same oppertunities. They can join groups that are interested in Science challenges for youths, writers clubs, digital story telling, and testing around the world.

"One unique resource post."

I have already listed a few sites that I found through my search, but if I had to pick one for student use, I would chose www.epals.com. There are many different sites out there for global education. All you have to do is look until you find the one you want!

Following Blogs....

Hi everyone,

This blog is about the blogs that I have been following through the semester. Before I start, I have to mention that I started this assignment by catching up on some of my fellow classmates' blogs, and I just want to say that I agree with Christine. I have become very frustrated with some of the information posted on these educational blogs. The time that I spend wading through the fluff is frustrating, but the quality information that I have uncovered is sure to help me in my future classroom


I have been following http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/, http://www.techfridge.com/, http://www.techsavvyed.net/?cat= . This week, they all seemed to be wrapped up with Google+. I'm not at all familiar with Google+. I looked at all of the blogs, and they all seem to say the same thing. Google+ is a good thing. They also say that some applications of the program are easier to follow than others. The one application that stuck out the most to me is the Digital Circles. The circle allow up to ten people to come together for group chats. While I was reading through the Tech Fridge blog, he gave an excellent example of how circles could be used. He described a meeting forum that issues invitations to different teachers so that they can come together to help each other out with anything from classroom instruction to lesson planning.


Some of the different applications offered by Google+ are Graduation work, student hangouts, curriculum topic, digital footprints and circles, mobile learning, organizing class circles, student study groups, students collaboration, online learning, staff meetings, school PR, and writing prompts.


The techsavvyed blog also talked about the tech tool Wordle. I picked Wordle as my new tech tool of the week to explore. So, I found this blog exciting. Wordle is an excellent program. He shared an example of how another educator used Wordle in his classroom. He had his students do a word-pair-share assignment. When the students finished, he uploaded every students comments into Wordle. This allowed the students to see what the entire class viewed as important. It also allowed him to see if there was any negative areas that still needed covered. This is an application of Wordle that I would have never thought of on my own.


As frustrating as some of the blogs can be, they still provide much in the way of professional growth. Unlike the blog I follow, I am not techsavvyed. These blogs as well as this class helps introduce me to new tech tools and provide me with insight into the limited number of tech tools that I already use.
It is me intentions to continue to follow these blogs as well as others long after this class is done. The knowledge gained will surly help me to become a better, more well-rounded educator.

Assistive Learning for Education

          Hey everyone, this week is assistive technology in education. Special education is a subject near and dear to my heart. After graduation, my goal is to return to school to improve my teaching degree by adding a Special Ed degree to the end. I have worked with many special needs individuals. They are great people and deserve all of the advantages and extra help the can get!
         Children with disabilities sometimes need and are entitled to special equipment and services. Assistive technology helps to level the playing field. It allows both learning and physically challenged students to succeed in the "mainstream" world. It helps to create normalcy and preserve self-esteem. 
Assistive technology includes both devices and services. IDEA defines it as: "an assistive technology device means any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functionalcapabilities of a child with a disability, (34cfr 300.5) An assistive technology service means any service that directly assists a child with a disability in the selection. acquisition, or use of an assistive technology device (34 CFR 300.6)  (http://idea.ed.gov/).
     I have decided to focus my blog on those students that have trouble communicating with others. The North Central Regional education Laboratory has an extensive listed on assistive technology devices that addresses all different disabilities. Here is a list for communication disability devices:

 

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Assistive Technology for Communication: Aids students who have difficulty in communicating effectively (i.e., they are unintelligible, have no or very little verbal skills, or have limited language proficiency).

Pictures, photographs, objects Communication boards Communication books Eye-gaze or eye-pointing systems Simple voice-output devices Word cards or word manipulatives Word window Writing guides Voice-output devices with levels Voice output with icon sequencing Communication software (allows for communication boards and visual displays) Augmentative communication devices (visualdisplay, printed or speech output) Dedicated augmentative communication system Text-to-voice and voice-to-text software Talking word processing with writing support Word prediction, abbreviation, or expansion options to reduce keystrokes Software that allows communication via pictures and symbols Head-pointing devices Touch screens Translating devices: voice language (e.g., English) to output different voice language (e.g., Spanish) Electronic and software dictionaries http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/technlgy/te7assist.htm

           I specifically chose to look at text-to-voice software. This software allows people who have difficulties with speech to "speak" through a computer or other voice synthesizer. It also allows sight impaired people to upload text that can be read back to them aloud. Some programs like vozME even allows the user to chose what language they want o hear the text spoken. vozMe is a free downloadable program that provides text-to-voice technology. If you would like to try out this software, go to:

http://vozme.com/index.php?lang=en . These downloadable software programs are most often compatable withWindows, Mac OS X, Linux, BSD, Solaris, OpenSolaris, and GNU.

         Technology, even assistiveinternet is in my opinion by far the best way to stay on top of this ever change field. Using the internet is a great place to start!

Tech Tools

        My newest assignment was to go online and discover and play with a new tech tool. A lot of the tools that were listed in our resource list I have already used. Though I have never put anything on YouTube, I have watched plenty of videos. The videos that are out there can be really funny. Still, there are numerous educational videos posted there as well. You just have to look for them.
        I regularly use Skype to communicate with friends who live all around the world. Since my husband is active duty military, we have friends and family everywhere. Skype is so easy that my daughters have been able to use it by themselves for years.
        Starfall is another favorite of mine. I became familiar with Starfall during my practicum hours. The students just love it. It is a fun and easy way to target individual student needs and monitor their progress.
        Google Earth, nasa.gov, and the National Geographic sites are excellent resources for any teacher to have on hand.

        Finally, I come to the new tech tool that I chose to explore, Tux Paint. When I first tried t download the program, I had a few problems. Well, I guess it was just me being confused. The program downloaded onto my desktop, but the program didn't open. The only thing that I was able to see was the tutorial. You can't open the program from here. after I finally opened the program, I had a blast. This is a sight that I think all children could enjoy.
        As I was laying with it, Becca, my youngest daughter came in to the room. She got excited too. She said that she used this program often in school. She is entering the sixth grade this fall. She started showing my different ways to use the program. The only issue that I had was that part of the program, the stamp application, is optional. It does not download with the original Tux Paint program. I had to go back and install it separately. Although the program is fun without it, the stamp program adds a different dimension to what can be done.
        I highly recommend this program for everyone.

Commoncraft Update

Hey everyone,
         I finally got some feed back from a couple of the people I sent the link to.
         My mom really enjoyed the site. She said that most of the videos were about stuff that she already knew.
          She did like the online Google calendar set up. My mom is forever creating calendars to send to people.
          Yvonne works with special needs people. She is excited about this site. She plans to use it to help her higher functioning people to better understand some of these areas. She said that she will let me know how it goes.
          My fellow student never responded to the email. I hope that she went in and took a look around anyway.
          As for myself, I have poked around a little more, but not nearly as much as I want. There just isn't enough hours in the day to get everything done.
          If I receive anymore feedback, I'll be sure and let you know.

Preffered Learning

          I realize that this was suppose to be posted on discussion board, but I made a mistake and posted it here. I thought about deleting it, but decided against it. Maybe it will have more people looking into learning styles sometime in the future.Even though I have read a lot about preferred learning, I never really thought much about it. Sure, I would say to myself," I'm a visual learner".  I never thought about the people around me either.
          My oldest daughter, Hannah, is a visual learner also. It is easy for me to help her with her homework when she runs into difficulties. My youngest daughter, Becca, is a different story.I get so frustrated when I try to explain things ti her. We never seem to connect. If I see something something, whether it is in writing or pictured in a diagram, I can usually understand it. If I am trying to work out a problem or figure out something, I try to picture it in my head even words that I am trying to spell. I try to get Becca to attach her problems the same way. We both get frustrated. I get frustrated because she doesn't do it, and she gets frustrated because she still doesn't understand it.
          After reading these two chapters, another picture flashed into my head. Hello!!!! Becca is most definitely a kinesthetic learner. All of the fidgeting she does while I'm trying to explain her homework to her drives me insane. I find it distracting, and I often feel as if she isn't truly paying attention. I hate to say it, she often got in trouble for it too, but not anymore. I'm going to encourage different kinesthetic learning strategies in the future. Hopefully we can finally "see" eye to eye when I'm needed to help with her homework.
         I went to the website to discover what multi-intelligence category I fall under. My top two categories were linguistics and nature. That doesn't surprise me. What does surprise me is that I score so low in some of the other categories. I think of myself as a pretty well rounded individual in most areas except for math. Math is my mortal enemy. If I see it done, I will eventually conquer it, but it doesn't come easy.
         After seeing my results, it is my goal to work harder in these areas or to at least recognize them in others ( like future students) and provide plenty of different instructional strategies in order to try and accommodate everyone.