Today's learning

We were introduced to Nings, Blogs and Wikis. I do have accounts already in each of these kind of sites, but the sites are being updated all the time, so the sites look different and are navagated differently. My blog account looks the most same, which is reassuring. Onward and upward.

Good day,
Here I am sitting at a meeting to learn about "Enhancing learning through Digital Literacy". I have a cursory knowledge of a bunch of applications, and even have some ideas of how to use them in the classroom, the major stumbling block is ACCESS. My district does not, at this time, allow access to many of the very applications that would be wonderful for the classroom. Maybe that can be overcome with knowledge I gain from this class

Tuesday night 6 pm

Going from paper to Pecha K was a long process for me, I spend about 3 hours looking for the right pictures and most of them were ones I took! Then I put them all into power point and downloaded it to Voice thread. I really did have a clear idea of what I wanted to say, but it took 3 1/2 hours to get the words just right and into the VT. On the whole I am satisfied, and I will use it for my class. The most important thing that I learned in this class it that to get a quality product you have to put some major time into it. Then the project, hopefully, should be good to use for a few years.

Week 5

The prezi presentations were awesome. Makes even the digitals slackers, like me, look good. What I liked about the presentations is that even though we all used the same the tool (Prezi), the look and FEEL of each was different. You don't get that with Power Point. Even good power points are very linear. I am a very linear person, so Prezi was somewhat difficult to envision-at first. However when I got started,I like the way one can just stick the information up there on the Prezi board, like using post-its, and move it around. Any way that's what I did, put it all up there and then grouped and moved and joined, etc. The tedious reports, by fifth graders, about the 50 states might get alot more interesting. About rubrics. I still think rubrics are somewhat subjective, but they are a heck of a lot better than the teacher's personal opinion on a piece of work by a student. For example, I taught a long term sub in HS CD. One of my students was clearly more advanced in her thinking skills, than the others. I had a poster assignment. If I would have graded on my personal beliefs she would have gotten an A. However, she did not follow the rubric, and she got a C. There were guidelines (rubic) and they were not followed. Just like life, there are rules (like a rubric), and each of us get to follow them to the degree that pleases us, but then there are the consequences ( like getting arrested) I hope you are following me. Also I think it takes GREAT pressure off the teacher, because I can now explain exactly why Johnny got a C versus an A, (like he always gets, says his loving parents at conferences). I having mulling over the Pecha whatever, for a long time, mulling over the pictures and the audio, now it is crunch time, getting it into visual form. The story board is probably very good for me. I usually think it all out in my head and then just do it, but I think that one more step of wrting it down has helped. Because I know just with writing it down I have changed thing around several times, so I do not have to do that when I am putting it together. Looking forward to viewing everyone's PK.

Prezi

prezi.com/euttrcd0d0rs/

Prezi

Done! And it is impressive, if I say so myself-was it worth all the frustration-maybe.
I am going to try to download it here the first attempt didn't work.

HELP!

Just spent the last two hours working in Prezi. Boy I don't think like the program does. I don't understand the zoom feature. I downloaded all my pictures, no problem, other than it slow. Put a bracket in, moved pictures around, added a quote or two. But now I am stymied. The little control thing keeps disappearing off the paper. And then I have to go searching for it. With the zoom, like I said I don't understand, I have it all screwed up. Good Night,

Week 4

It is 3:15 in the morning and I can't sleep so will reflect on this last week's lesson. First I am overwhelmed. For me , personally, there is too much to do in one week. I do not have computer access at home, so have to sit at school to do my work. That said, loved watching Gar's presentations. He is so laid back. And his presentations seem so natural, and maybe, would ya think, that he PRACTICED it? Me, on the other hand, sort of formulate what I want to say in my head and then wing it, and it probably sounds that way. But I do look at every PP presentation with a new perspective now, I am analyzing it instead of listening to it-which in some cases is probably a good thing, otherwise would be bored to tears. Prezi was interesting. As I said in my posting about Prezi, it is all about connections. I have not tried it yet, but went through the tutorial, which I didn't quite understand, even though they insisted that it was so easy. That tool in the upper left corner is so different, not linear as I am use to. For my Prezi, didn't have problems picking out the pictures to use, some are way better than others, but trying to figure out the connection to each other will be interesting. Any project that has connectivity (meaning one thing leads to the next or things that are interrelated), would work well in the medium. Like causes of the Civil war, reasons I am up at 3:15 in the morning, characters in a book, that Solar System project, 50 state project, Wisconsin project,.....I do not have my story board done for the Pecha Kucha, it actually scares me a little. 20 seconds is really a long time to talk about one slide-I mean the pressure is on to have THE perfect slides. I can visualize doing a presentation about the Dewey decimal System (exciting as that may be to you), which I could easily do in 6.6 minutes, but in 20 slides? Stay tuned.

After and before

Here are my after and before Voicethreads. I am not real pround of this firstattempt, but I think that the 7 design criteria with stay with me forever. Was watching a PP presentation by our school nurse, you know that one we all have to watch. All the while I was thinking about how she could make it so unboring! made the time go faster!

Promotion 4

Promotion

Simplifying the Power Point

Just got done redoing my power point. It was an exercise in frustration and a great learning experience. The first good thing that came out of it is the idea of less is more. I like the slimmed down approach, and as I have viewed 2 Power Points in the last 2 weeks, I can so see what is going wrong with those presentations. But mine new one is to the point of boredom, I think. Some of the pictures I had in the first presentation, I thought, were okay, as they were pictures taken where the promotion was done. A lot has to do with the mechanics of the Power point it self. There are so many thing I don't know how to do. Put in background color, flip pictures ( I read the explanation 3 times and still couldn't figure it out), re size pictures, putting text over pictures, ect, ect. I hope I don't sound like I am whining. I want to learn this stuff, but I learn better by someone showing me. I loved some of the pictures that people were Photo shopping (for our picture a day), but have never done that, either. Anyway, I don't think my presentation is better , just different. Also even though I had a picture of what I wanted in my head, most times I could not find that picture on a free web site. I know for my 20 slide/20 sec Power Point I am going to use my own pictures.

First week of school

Well have made it through the first week of school. Time for celebration! I am so psyched about doing some of this stuff with my students. When out and bought two flip cameras for the library, hoping that students can do animoto with those. I can't believe it Animoto is not blocked on our school site. Have not tried voicethread yet, to see if that clears the filter. Have talked to a bunch of teachers about Animoto and I Believe. We librarians are suppose to be the leaders into the "new" frontier of Web 2.0. Except it is only new to us older folk, the kids "get" it already. Our district this year banned phones AND ipods in school. I always let the kids use ipods in the Library. Our district is so behind in technology. I hope I can infuse some excitement into teachers to do more with all these exciting platforms.

Animoto

Just finished my first and second Animoto. I don't have to be creative at all, it does it for me. This is great for a student that says that they have no creativity-like me. I will probably make a million of these! This would have been my twitter posting-if I had one.

ANIMOTO

Didn't see the antimoto during class-must have been some kind of ilter on the system, but have watched a few now, and WOW. Are they amazing. I can see all kinds of uses for those. Personal and in class. How about for a book report, have 20 images that tell the story, or images that discribe the mood. Also liked I believe, although, since I din't know these people some of them were a little windy. If it was someone I knew then I think it would be great. I downloaded the educator "this i believe" curriculum for MS, el and hs also available (22 pages). Think it would be great for 8th graders who are so full of themselves. Maybe they would have to think about what they do believe. Also watched some of the wolrls bestPresentations. Very nice, few words, very visual, got the point across. I got sucked into the Josh one, thought it was a real guy, found out it was a book. But that maybe is the point, you don't know where it is headed. I am excited now, probably because school is starting and I can see some ways of using this. Now that I got Voice thread running, that also is a great for the classroom. Howabout you give each student a picture- like children in war. They have to write about it, then they can do a Voice thread showing the picture and reading what they wrote.

Fun but frustrating

On Sunday I story boarded my Power point on Civil rights, then proceeded to Voicethread, I loaded my first power point, an old one from class last year, and started putting the voice it, I thought I had to do that, anyway I ran out of time, so I bought some time, it was only $10, so I thought what the heck. Long and short of it, I was signed up for the wrong account, so was only able to post 3 times-which I did because I screwed up-and now I am stuck. The up side is that I emailed Voice thread and I actually got a answer back from a real person ON SUNDAY. We are working to help me get in the right account. So there is good support for voice thread.

Overwhelmed

This was the first week of school for me-a have a little extended contract. My job is located 90 minutes from my home-so I live away from my home during the week, and then go home on the weekends. It's a Tale of two cities. Viewed some stories from the Center of Digital story telling. Untitles, MSK Running, I think of you. The last one was too artsy for me. And, I think, sometime these stories are made not for the masses but for family. They are emotional, but we don't quite understand them because we are not in the loop. And there is nothing wrong with that. I have always thought I would record myself reading bedtime stories for generations in the future. But sometimes the stories are just not that interesting to me. I did like the story Corps vignettes. They are written to be humorous and entertaining, and they were. Listened to the one about a barbershop in NC and the man who made a American flag for his class

As for the reading in Zen, These are the points that resonated with me. In a good presentation the speaker given notes after the speech. I am one of those people that NEEDS to have paper to write on during the presentation-and probably wouldn't trust the speaker to have the CORRECT notes. Althought it sure would be nice to just listen to the speaker instead of scribbling notes.
What's the point? Why does it matter? I need to keep that in mind.
Use plain language. That is one thing I am good at, I don't try to dazzel people with big words. When I was reading this part it brought to mind Mission Statements. I hate those things. They are vaugely worded, catch-alls. Not concrete enought for me.
And finally the process-or steps in the process. This is what I need to work on. I am not a sketch it out person, so maybe the process will really help my presentations.
I signed up for Voice thread, but have not put something on yet. Hopefully it will become much clearer as I do it, because I am not getting it right now. I don't understand how I could administer it in a classroom, which is really my objective in this course. I get how useful it could be and even have some ideas for using it.

Can't sleep

1:29 am Have been watching some pecha-kucha (PK) on You tube. Interesting, but I think I was watching the clock more than listening to the person, to see if they could time it just right. And being a mathmetically inclined person, I have this feeling that if I know the presentation is a PK, then I will be counting in my head 1...2...3... instead of listening to the presentation. Drat, that left brain!

My story

Being a district librarian is a daunting task. I deal with teachers and students from pre-K to HS. Last year, my first, I didn't feel overwhelmed until the end of the year. Shows how naive I am. Anyway, using "good" power points and stories might lighten my load. I can see where I could do some of my lessons digitally and then could use them for a couple of years in a row (no not ten years in a row). The greater power I see here is exposing our staff to these great resources. Our staff, by their own emission, is VERY technology deficient. Therefore, just the introduction of a few on-line resources could (if done properly) really spice up the curriculum.
However, I am not so excited about writing my own story. I do have a vision of the future. And, I know, from reading that setting goals is the first step to obtaining them, however, dare I dream that high? What the heck! Go for it. So in my story you will learn what I really wanted to do for a living and how I will go about it, yet.

New to on line classes

Being one of those digital immigrant-I have been dragged kicking and screaming- well maybe only crying at times, into the 21st century. It's not that I am afraid of technology, sometimes I just don't get it. But when you have to, you do. For example I never knew how to use Excel and my last class was Statistics. Well, I know how to use it now, because I had to. I call myself a left brained person-loved Geometry-, but I also have a creative side in the craft realm. But my creativity tends to run in a very organized manner-weaving, very mathematical, X-stritch, very mathematical, and beading-mine is ALWAYS balanced. These creative assignments will be a real growth experience. I have not written my Personal story yet, even though I spent lots of time thinking about my future, as I am only 10 years or so from retirement. Anyway this class is very exciting for me. One of my jobs as a library media specialist is to find and introduce new technologies to the students and maybe more importantly to the teachers. Most teachers do not have the time to search out creative new ways to present materials in the classroom. I was told , by the tech person, to stay away from teaching power point and other word documents because I don't have the training, but after this class, I WILL be able to help students put together better power points. So, too teachers. Actually having only 6 words on a slide is great, then I can talk-which I love to do. The digital stories were interesting. But why do I care about the life story of some person in Alabama? True answer, I don't. However, I do care about the process of passing on thoughts and feelings to future generations of my own family-something we could only do with the written word before. Anyway, maybe I have dug myself in here.........

Pitures

Hello, I am still having problems being very creative in my picture taking. Even with a digital camera it is hard to go around and take random pictures. My theme will probably be the farm, because that is were I am now, but in 14 days the theme will be library, when I am back to school. Summer has come and gone in a blink.

Digital storytelling

Hello Fellow Classmates, This should be a very interesting class. I would like to pass this information onto my students in my library classes. I think back to the many inservices with power points that were chock full of graphics and words and how I don't remember any of it after I walk out the room, now I know why. I find the Presentation Zen book interesting in the fact that he is talking about content and brevity, but his text is a bit wordy for me.

Hello Everyone, Just checking out my blog to see if it is up and running yet.