Friday, November 30, 2012

Are E-Portfolios really useful?


Over the years I have tried creating a variety of portfolios. I usually take an updated portfolio to education job interviews. I like having my work in front of me when talking with potential employers. Some of the portfolios I have worked with were E-Portfolio and I was able to share my work with others. I tried creating a portfolio with live text but I had a lot of issues. I am now working with portfoliogen to create a portfolio webpage for my EDH Class.

 

According to The University Center for the Advancement of Teaching (2009) it is important that a portfolio is creative, organized, comprehensive, structured, representative, and selective. It should have a good collection of teaching ability evidence. The portfolio I created to take with me has:

Table of Contents page

Introduction which contains an update resume and my certificates

Service project experiences

A variety of lesson plans I created

My educational philosophy

Article reviews

PowerPoint projects

On my new E-Portfolio I will have an update resume, a cover letter, and my educational philosophy. By creating an E-Portfolio I hope to communicate online to new prospective employers my strengths, progress, and personal teaching style.

What do you think about using E-portfolio for job interviews? What type do you use?

 

References

UCAT. (2009). What is a portfolio? The University Center for the Advancement of Teaching - The Ohio State University. Retrieved from http://ucat.osu.edu/teaching_portfolio/teaching_port.html

Friday, November 23, 2012

Can You Hear Me Now?

 I have to admit one of my favorite forms of new technology is digital audio. I love being able to add music or narration to digital stories. I also love listening and watching things on youtube. I have been looking for classes that teach and work with audio technology and I having been unable to find one I like.
 Since I haven't been able to find classes specifically for audio, I check out different tutorials.

I found this site to be very informative in regards to digital Audio.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/manual-1.2/tutorial_basics_1.html 
 
This Youtube video really gives good instructions on how to use Audacity.

 
I found the best way to add narration to my digital story was to use PowerPoint. It has an easy way to record your voice with a microphone. I would read what I wanted to say and click to go on to the next slide. When you listen back you are able to stop at the point you want to rerecord. Most of the slides I did fine on, but the one I had the concept map on took me quite a few times before it came out the way I liked.
 
This video explains the way to add narration to a PowerPoint presentation.
 
 
 
 Did anyone else add narration to their digital Stories?
 
What types of audio technology do you prefer?
 
 
 
 
 

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Example of digital Stories Gone Green


I created this example digital story to help my high school environmental students get an idea of what is expected from them. As you can see I was still unable to embed my story onto this blog. However, I was able to convert it on YouTube and embed it on my wiki. You may view my story @ http://jodielynn.pbworks.com/w/page/60187442/FrontPage

I had a hard time getting the audio narration to work with slide share so I completed my project using PowerPoint. I actually like working with PowerPoint’s transitions better than slide shares. You will notice I have my signature on multiple slides; this is because I took these pictures myself. I would like my students to take pictures, and videos for their project and incorporate digital images from other sites. I think part of the fun and creative aspect is actually going out and taking your own pictures. Please take a look at my stories and let me know what you think !!!

Friday, October 26, 2012

Digital Storytelling Gone Green

    Digital story telling is a wonderful way for students to embrace their creative
nature while engaging in project based learning. I hope to challenge and engage my high school biology students by having them use digital storytelling as a presentation tool for solving environmental issues.  I minored in environmental studies and participated in IDEAS for us projects and I love the idea of being able to help students engage in projects which can help create a better future.



 
 
 
                       
    I think that digital story telling would be a great way to engage my future high school students in problem solving. For this kind of project based learning I would like to have students work in groups of four or five.

The idea of this project would be to have students pinpoint an environmental hazard and create a presentation through a digital story on how they would fix it.
They would start off by taking pictures of something they would like to fix. It could be a simple as a field loaded with trash, with the solution being have a group of people cleaning up the field, or it could be of a lake loaded with algae needing to be cleaned.                  


 Pictures taken by Jodie Gustafson
 
                           
Materials they could use for this project would include:
Digital cameras, video cameras, public images, microphone, music files, photo shop
They would need to take pictures with a digital camera of what they wanted to fix or find public images.  
Students would also be required to include at least one concept map.      


Concept map created by Jodie Gustafson
Students would have a choice of using:  Microsoft Movie Maker, PowerPoint, Photo story, or iMovie for presentation.  
The presentation would need to include:
Introduction page
Environmental problem with picture
Background information
Analysis of problem
Possible Solutions
Images
Concept map
Slide Transitions
Works cited slide
Narration
       
Digital Storytelling project plans

1. Introduce the concept of Digital Storytelling, Find out which students have past experiences with Digital Storytelling, and Separate students in groups of 4 or 5 hopefully including one student with past experience in each group.

2. Show examples of digital stories including those I have created myself, pointing out the different aspects; Introduction, Narration, transitions, images, work sited slide. Pass out a paper with details of what needs to be included in the project and a rubric showing how the presentation is going to be evaluated.  
3. Allow students to work in groups and come up with an environmental problem they would like to fix. Have each student assigned a specific task for group project; facilitator, data collector, photographer, narrator, graphic organizer creator.

4. Have students create an outline of digital story which includes environmental problem, background information, Images to be used, concept map, script page, and solutions. Help student fix or change any problems with outline or script.  

5. Have a troubleshooting session going over any problems students may have getting digital story to come together.

6. Once digital stories are completed they will be shown to class.

I know I will need a lot more tweaking and developing of this project before I can actually facilitate it, but it is a great start. Being able to incorporate digital technology with learning objectives opens a whole new world of possibilities.  We can help each other out by sharing our experiences with these new technological advances.

Do you think high school students will be able handle a project like this?
Or would this be too complicated?    

                                     

Friday, October 12, 2012

How can I safely download free media?


I don’t know about you, but I am finding myself constantly looking to download information; educational tools, songs, videos, and games from a variety of available sites. There are numerous sites advertising free media downloads. My biggest concern is, how safe are these sites? How can I be sure that I am not downloading viruses or spyware onto my computer?

According to the “Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the classroom” book, there simply is no way to totally protect your computer from viruses. Some suggestions from Shelly (2008) to help prevent viruses from being downloaded and corrupting your computers are:

Installing dependable antivirus software                                            
Installing dependable firewall protection
Scanning of USB flash drives
Scanning of any files which are downloaded from the internet
Scanning of any attached files before opening them
Do not use or download illegal copies of software
 
            Constantly back up files!!!!!(2008).
 
(Allmyapps,2012)


Along with reading books about safety measures, I also speak with people who work with computers on a regular basis about the best ways of avoiding viruses.  My husband, who was a computer programming engineer, has constantly warned me not to download or open executable files, which are files ending with .exe.
 
        It is also important to check out sites you want to download from. Even though I am very tempted to download from many, I only download from sites I have talked to people about and are well known.

      One of my favorite sites to download music and e-books from is the Volusia county public Library @ http://volusialibrary.org/ . This site allows people with active library cards to download 3 free songs every week. I also download a new hidden picture from Highlight Magazine once a month from Highlights for Children <highlightsemail@bridge.highlights.com.

 
 

Although we have a wonderful opportunity to acquire a variety of media for work and pleasure from multiple sources, we must use caution when downloading. Until downloading can be made totally safe we must not act impulsively. As much as I would like to download every crazy Halloween song I hear, I will download them from only sites which seem safe such as the Volusia County library site.

What are some of the sites you think are safe to download from?
 
 

References

Allmyapps. (2012). [Antivirus security]. Retrieved October 12, 2012, from http://allmyapps.com/pages/best-antivirus-apps

 

Shelly, G. B. (2008). Teachers discovering computers: Integrating technology and digital media in the classroom (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Thomson/Course Technology.




 

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Improved Technology, Distraction or Motivational tool?



As a teacher, my toughest challenge was handling and managing the behaviors of my students. In my six and seventh period classes I spent so much time trying to manage my students that I didn’t really get a chance to actually teach. Without proper classroom management, teaching any kind of concept is nearly impossible. Some of the major management issues were: students getting out of their seats and distracting others, students talking too loudly, students swearing, students listening to loud music on their IPods, and student’s texting during class time.

(Britton,2007)

 
I go along with the McGraw-Hill company statement “Improved Technology—Increased Distraction” I believe that smart phones, cell phones, and IPods should not be allowed to be turned on during class time unless they are specifically going to be used for a lesson.   Some of the problems I had with cell phones and IPods in my class were; students in my classrooms were playing games, watching videos, and texting others during class time. According to the “Cell Phones in the Classroom” article (McGraw-Hill Company, n.d.), many other teachers have also complained about students unauthorized use of cell phones during class time. Some of the complaints included students taking pictures during class, harassment in the form of text messaging, and searching for test answers.  

One teacher I volunteered with, “Terry Commean”, a sign language teacher with Seminole High school, allowed her students to bring their IPods to school on Fridays. Every Friday her students worked on signing to music for their end-of-semester project. They could not wait for Fridays and loved signing to music.  For her, IPods worked as a great motivational tool with her students.                                                                                                                        I have come to the conclusion that for some classes, cell phones and IPods are just distractions while in other classes they can be beneficial tools.

Do you think cell phones and IPods are major distractions or are you able to use them for motivational tools in your classes???

(Dellinger, 2012) 

References

Britton, I. (2007, May 07). [PDA Cell Phone]. Retrieved September 19, 2012, from http://www.freefoto.com/preview/04-12-24/PDA-Cell-Phone

Dellinger, A. (2012, July 30). [IPod]. Retrieved September 19, 2012, from http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/best-free-ipod-touch-games 

McGraw-Hill Company. (n.d.). Cell Phones in the Classroom. Teaching Today. Retrieved September 19, 2012, from http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/howtoarticles/cell-phones-in-the-classroom