BP16_2009113_ReflectiveMediaAsset2

BP15_2009113_Response2David

Monday, November 9, 2009

BP9_1182009_From Scrapbooking to Scrapblogging

Remember when English teachers used to ask students to cut pictures out of magazines to create a collage to represent either the student or some character from literature? The students would flip through magazines that appealed to their interests looking for something they thought represented their interests, or more likely, looked for images they thought were cool and then came up with a reason for including the image. Such examples often came through as "I like snowboarding so I put a picture of Shaun White (The Flying Tomato) on my collage."
When I used to use this activity, students struggled to move past the literal level of meaning, which is why the collages often ended up being a collection of "likes" rather than a picture of the student's personality. I stopped using this activity due to the frustration of hearing "I like..." statements all day long.
However, using both Flickr and Scrapblog, this activity is ready to be revived. Instead of flipping pages in a magazine, students can search conceptually. What images are returned when one searches for "stubborn" in Flickr? These are only two of the images that are returned using this search. Students can be as literal or as symbolic as they wish, depending on their needs and intentions.
Within Scrapblog students can create scrapbooking-style pages that can be used for autobiography of the student, for the student to create a biography of a particular author through images and text, or to create a character analysis or summary.
Other activities could include explorations of historical figures, an artist's scrapbooked portfolio, or a student creating a scrapbook based on a virtual or real-life field trip.
The tool presents students with a variety of templates, which are customizable, and the students can share the resource and results with fellow students and with teachers. Creating the Scrapblog is relatively simple, and users will find that importing pictures is as simple as dragging and dropping into a part of the template. The result of the Scrapblog is a shareable, fun artifact that students will engage in. One example of a student-created scrapblog page is this one from a French-language student.

References
[Untitled screenshot]. Captured Nov. 9, 2009 from http://www.flickr.com/photos/44306447@N03/galleries/72157622768626244/
[Untitled screenshot]. Captured Nov. 9, 2009 from http://www.scrapblog.com/viewer/viewer.aspx?sbid=16579
Posted by David Noller at 9:08 AM
3 comments:

shellypinkowski@me.com said...
@David - I am so very glad that you came across this tool and shared! I am actually preparing a scrapbooking project with Shakespeare and Romeo and Juliet. I am now going to do some revising! I may let the kids make the choice between the computer scrapbook site or the traditional way this semester, as a sort of test trail. I am anxious to see the results I get and to see the students' reactions to the technology tool. Thanks again, Dave. Take care.
November 15, 2009 6:30 PM

BP14_2009_113_Response2Kathy

KC88KEYZ
THIS BLOG HAS BEEN CREATED FOR THE EMDT ETC COURSE THROUGH FSO
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2009

BP07_20091108_Researching Web 2.0 Tools
There are so many Web 2.0 tools to choose from that it makes it really difficult to narrow the search. Here are three that I have had the chance to play around with and would like to work them into using in my music classroom:
Voki is a program created by Oddcast that gives you a chance to create your own speaking avatar that can be added to profiles and other web environments. The avatar can be personalized using drag and drop interfaces. You can record your own voice by using the phone, a mic, or by using text to speech or text to sing. There are also built-in voice choices and effects. You have your choice of characters including people, animals, and even vehicles, along with different themes and accessories. I wanted an avatar to represent me to use in preparing media presentations to be used in my classroom as well as on my web page and this tool shows a lot of promise. I am going to create a music room mascot or maybe several for different grade levels just to add another layer of fun. Pay a visit to Voki.com and enjoy!
Quizlet is a tool that can be used to create flashcards that can be used for group study and review, to introduce new material through games of matching that are timed. There is a learning mode that will keep track of scores and a test mode that allows for different question and answer formats. I see a lot of valuable uses for this tool for the six different grade levels of music classes as well as my before and after school groups. I am in the process of creating my own sets to try out for next week’s lessons using some basic music fundamentals, and also some questions related to the recorder and piano. I will update this blog and let you know how it comes out. Stop by Quizlet.com and check out all of the sets that are already available.

shellypinkowski@me.com said...
I had not heard of the quizlet.com tool, Kathy. Thank you very much! My students have a lot of problems learning vocabulary. I am hoping that another vocabulary learning tool will help. Sometimes just doing something a little differently makes all the difference, especially with teens. They get bored so quickly with the same thing. I want to experiment much more with Voki.com. I read the other comments and it sounds like a cool tool. I am going to have to think about how I would use it; maybe like you suggested, as a class mascot!?! I am going to think on its potential use for my classroom over the mext couple of days. Thanks, Kathy. Hope all is well with you.

NOVEMBER 15, 2009 6:13 PM
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BP13_2009113_Response2Lori

MY RESPONSE TO LORI'S POST

sunday, november 8, 2009

BP#6_2009112_Flickr

I will use Flickr to show student art work in progress. These four photos show two 8th grade Oaxacan Sculptures in progression. The students who are coming into my class in the next 6 weeks can see how students before them have done their work. It will help new students visualize the project prior to beginning and it will give students form the past classes a record of their progressing in this advanced project.
I will also use Flickr to keep a gallery of my student work for administration, parents and colleagues to view. This can be used at Parent Night to run a video on my projector to entice new students for art class.
Posted by Lori Pickering at 4:49 PM

1 comments:

shellypinkowski@me.com said...
I think it is a great idea to take pictures of your students' progression with their art projects, Lori! I know that if I were a student coming into your class, it would help me a great deal to visualize the new assignment, as well as give me some concept of where I should be heading. I think Flickr is a great way to maintain a gallery of work for you parents and colleagues. As a parent myself, I would love looking online at your Flickr account to view my child's work and to share my child's work with my friends (bragging rights). I know it must be fun to be in your art class!
November 15, 2009 5:24 PM

BP12_2009113_Web2.0_tool_xtranormal

http://www.xtranormal.com/

"If you can type, you can make movies." That is the slogan for xtranormal.com, a "Text-to-Movie" Web 2.0 tool. My Full Sail classmate, Van, actually told me about the site. Then I went on to discover that the English teacher across the hall from me was actually using the tool in one of her classes that week. (Interestingly enough, she is a first year teacher, age 22, a true digital native!)

I signed up for a FREE account, one of the advantages to the tool, and created my own little movie about Edgar Allan Poe's short story, "The Cask of Amontillado." I reviewed conflict and point of view through the use of my "characters" in my short snippet. It really is simple and fun, just like the home page advertises. There are drop and drag animations, international voices, and pre-designed sets and actors. It was truly very user-friendly and it did not require too much time on my part, a must for me!

Another feature of xtranormal.com is that you can post your movies to Youtube or to Facebook. On the home page, the creators write, "Movie-making...will be the most important communications process of the 21st century. Our revolutionary approach to movie making builds on an almost universally held skill-typing. You type something, we turn it into a movie." From the experience I had with my own movie, I would agree!

Easy, fun, and free -- three great reasons for anyone to try out this Web 2.0 tool! I asked my colleague across the hall how the lesson went with her class, a heterogeneous group of eleventh graders. She said it went really well, that the kids loved playing with the animated characters and experimenting with sound effects and camera angles. She made 5 groups and set them up before she took her students to the library. She also made them write most of their script before putting them on the computers in the lab. I am looking forward to creating a lesson to use with my freshmen.

Reference

Xtranormal. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.xtranormal.com

BP11_2009112_Response2Kelly

monday, november 2, 2009

BP4_2009112_Web2.0_Research

The Web 2.0 tool that I have chosen to explore and investigate more closely is Notely.net. Notely.net is an organization tool first and foremost, but it is also a collaborative tool as that is part of what makes a web tool a Web 2.0.

I have taken a screen shot of all of the features that Notely.net utilizes. On tab that I really like that I would use to create a classroom assignment would be the grades tab. The grades tab allows students to track their own progress in their classes. Hypothetically, I could have students get a grade printout from all of their teachers and they could actually keep track of how they are doing in their classes. This tab could easily be used in conjunction with the tasks tab. If students typed in all of their tasks as they were assigned and created a grade category at the same time, keeping track of their own progress would be a breeze. Also of note, there are applications for Notely.net for iPhone and a mobile version as well. Perfect for our tech savvy students.

Other features I like that I feel could be extremely useful are the uploads, journal, and links. The journal of course, is going to be something that you keep private, but a tool that allows uploads and links to be shared is amazing. For example, today in class a student asked me how to find out how many pages were in her novel that she returned to the library. If we were using Notely.net, I could have easily posted a link to her from amazon.com showing her how to look up how many pages were in her book. Another benefit with uploads would be targeted toward the incessantly disorganized student who inevitably loses the handouts that you give him or her. If a Notely.net network between teachers and students existed, the student would have access to the teacher’s Notely page where they could download the uploaded work.

All in all, Notely.net has an unlimited number of uses and I think teachers and students alike could benefit from its use.



Posted by Kelly Lynn P at 7:06 PM
1 comments:

shellypinkowski@me.com said...
I agree with you, Kelly, about the potential benefits of Notely. I, too, have those students who are forever and forever disorganized. They drive me bananas! Perhaps a tool such as Notely might be a place for them to start trying to get organized, especially if they enjoy using technology. I did not note that their were applications for one's iphone - that's a bonus. I too think that the grade feature is a great tool for students to keep track of their grades and know what they are doing, not waiting until halfway through the quarter. Thanks for sharing!
November 8, 2009 10:10 PM
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BP10_2009112_Protagonize_Web2.0_Review

http://www.protagonize.com
Want to get creative? Want to explore your hidden writing talent? That's what the Web 2.0 site, www.protagonize.com boasts. I almost dismissed the site, thinking that it was way over the level of high school freshmen, or that it probably had a lot of expense involved. I am glad that I checked this site out! I truly think that protagonize.com can be utilized in a high school English classroom without any problems. Best of all, it is free to join. Some of the things that can be done at the site are: creating and developing your own stories; contributing to existing stories; following your favorite stories and authors; and discussing and refining your writing, style and technique with other authors (www.protagonize.com).

After looking around the site, I came to the conclusion that I could easily form groups made up of my students. The groups would each write their own stories. The way it works, about twice a week (or however you set it up), the group members would have to add on to their storyline. The site has some "posting guidelines" that it recommends for writers: keep the story fresh and funny; keep the storyline and theme alive; and try not to kill off the main character (www.protagonize.com). Another feature of the site that I liked included the "flagging" of mature content. For freshmen in high school, this feature is a good thing. Even if one of my students wrote something mature, it would be flagged. Of course, I would have guidelines in place for my sudents to follow before we ever began writing. Students who stray from the writing and publishing rules would lose their site privileges.

I really think that protagonize.com could improve my students' writing skills, as well as improving their language conventions. Studies have shown that the more students write, and the more writing that they read by others, the better their writing becomes. Being able to write their stories on the internet for all the other members of the site to read would appeal to my students. Reading each others' writings would be amusing to my classes. Furthermore, I would send home memos to parents, asking them to visit the site to check out their children's writing. Then, this Web 2.0 tool would be utilized by parents, students, and teacher alike.