ETC Mth4 Final Video (Documentary)

PE9_ Modifying Objects in Flash

The key to modifying objects is to remember the SELECT tool and to understand the difference between object drawing and merge drawing. For this Web 2.0 tool, I've got to practice, practice, practice.

PE8_The Deco Tool is My Kind of Tool!

Pretty Impressive Huh?

So I’m thinking as I go along with these Lynda.com tutorials is, “when will I get to something easy?  Something that’s not related to merge and object drawing, toggling, toolbars and setting document properties?  Something I won’t forget?  And then in chapter 2 in the very last section, I got what I asked for. 

It’s called the Deco tool and it must be heaven sent.  This tool creates some of the most complex-looking, yet beautiful artwork with the click of the mouse.   And even more fantastic is that it’s EASY.  In no time, I created an awesome downtown scene, if I may say so myself.  Of course, I tried to throw in my prior knowledge with the shapes, but that didn’t quite go as I had planned.  All in all though, the Deco tool is the tool for me.

PE7_My Introduction to Flash CS5

I am an artist, but I’ll have to admit that I am not a VISUAL one.  My craft is words.  So when I braved into the world of Flash (CS5), I had not idea what I was getting into.  Thankfully, I have an entire month to play and experiment before Flash becomes reality.  The screenshot below is very basic because that is my Flash level – BASIC!  In Lynda.com, I am starting at the beginning.  In chapter 1 I learned about the basics:

File types (fla or swf)

The difference between “the stage,” the “timeline,” and the “pasteboard.”

There are a lot of technical terms like vectors and bitmaps that I’ll have to get used to.  But what I was able to accomplish after about many minutes of watching, pausing and note taking are the images you see below:

I'm still in basic mode with I added some flair, or at least I think I did.

Basic lines, circles, and other shapes.

PE5_How to Upload Documents from Your Computer to Google Docs

The minute I get to work tomorrow, I am going to tutor my colleague. This feature of Google Docs saves time, space and confusing emails.

PE6_Creating Folders and Linking Docs to Them in Google Docs

Creating folders may be no big deal to many, but for someone like me, this was a great find on Lynda.com.

PE4_Google Ettiquette: There is a way to BEHAVE!

See the comment at the upper right corner?  It's good manners to leave one before deleting content.

I am an intrapersonal learner and find group settings rather difficult when the group has an assignment to complete.  So I was taken aback when I listened to the Lynda.com tutorial about etiquette on Google docs.  Sure it makes sense, but it never occurred to me.  I have shared only one Google doc and I had some difficulties, but etiquette?  I never gave it a thought. 

Here’s what I learned:

1.     Be patient with your collaborators.

2.     Explain, explain, explain why you’re making the decisions and edits that you’re doing.

3.     Use descriptive titles because generic titles may create redundancy or confusion.

4.     Respect owner’s sharing options.  Request permission first before sharing with others.

5.     Don’t delete!  It’s better to check in with collaborators to see if they still have a need or use for the document.  If they do, then change ownership in “more actions” tab.

6.     When making edits, leave a note behind for your collaborators so they know why you did.  Simply “Insert” a  “Comment”

Here’s what not to do:

1.     Take edits personally

2.     Ignore questions

3.     Delete useful information.  Leave a comment for future discussion. (See my screenshot of this example.)

BP12_Wordsift: Where Verbal meets Visual!

BP11_My Comments on Emil Torabi's Blog about iRadeo

For students to really focus, engage in and learn, they should have access to multi-sensory experiences.  They have to:


SEE it
HEAR it
SMELL it
TOUCH it
TASTE it

iRadeo helps with the hearing part of that which is why I found Emil's explanation of iRadeo so fascinating (see my comments).  I've created an account and am working on a playlist that I can stream from.

BP10_My Comments on Nancy Madrigal's Blog

Hey guys, check out my comments on Nancy's wonderful One Minute Message (OMM) about Quizlet.  It's easy and fast.  And coming from a person who doesn't know computers, when I say fast, I mean it!  You're going to really like the benefits of using this with students in K- beyond...

Set-up is FREE, but an upgraded account at $10 a year, is definitely worth the investment.  After you view my comment, check out her commercial.

My First Flashcard!

BP9_Wikispaces "A Great Space to Collaborate"

 

I can upload videos from blocked Sites like YouTube to view at home.

This is the Home page that welcomes visitors.

I think this wiki stuff is interesting. It looks like there are several functions in this easy to use application that makes my life easier while engaging my students more. For example, if I assign my students a group assignment, their wiki page can be a common area. If they want to discuss class topics, there is a discussion area that looks pretty similar to a university style forum. What's good about that is... no new accounts to keep track of or log into! Then there's the notification tab. Whenever, wherever I am, I can be alerted to changes students make.  In that way, if someone is trying to sabotage the efforts of the group by – let’s say – deleting everything, I’ll know it.  And because Wikispaces keeps copies of all the edits, the information can be restored.  All in all, this is a promising tool…

So I have decided to give Wikispaces a try. My students are safe in this virtual environment. (WordPress is out because the site is blocked at my school site.) So Wikispaces is it! With the complimentary plus plan for teachers, I can protect my students much better than if I had asked them to create a blog because I can restrict access.

So far I have a welcome page, two videos and my first assignment.  My only concern after getting all excited about this Wikispaces was whether or not my students and I could access it at school.  Well guess what! We can.  Here’s a partial list of the planned activities with Wikispaces I can’t wait to try!

·      Have weekly discussion posts in place of paper homework assignments. (I’m saving trees and myself from the hassle of tracking student work and oh yeah, I can LOCK posts after deadline!)

·      Post movies/slideshows associated with stories or concepts we learn.  This means they get to take the classroom home with them and makes parental help easier for parents.  There’s nothing like trying to help your child with an assignment they can’t explain.  In a word – AGGRAVATING!

·      Link important URLs to students for resources.  How many times have you heard, “I couldn’t find the website.”  No more miscopied URLs or excuses. Yaaay!

·      Invite parents to join. In fact, I am offering students extra credit if their parents get in on our conversations. Talk about added perspective.

·      Celebrate student achievements and post pictures of Student of the Day, Week or Month.

PE3_iMovie Polishing the Final Cut

This Lynda.com tutorial was very helpful in guiding me to create a more professional looking movie. I included still images and a voiceover. Enjoy.

PE2_iMovie Adding Voiceover/Narration to Video

The Lynda.com tutorial taught me that when doing voiceovers, it's better to adjust the assets than to adjust the narration so relax and speak slowly.

PE1_iMovie Using Still Images

Still images give directors great flexibility and control in creating great film.

BP8_ANIMOTO is the APP for That!

I guess you can tell that I am in love with this tool! Enjoy my 60 second spot.

BP7_My Comments on Marsona's Blog

Hey guys, see my comment on Marsona’s blog where she features Gaggle.  While it may not be free, it sounds like a wonderful tool for helping all students find their voice.  It also sounds like a convenient, safe and fun way for teachers and students to communicate.  It’s definitely an enhancement toward personalized learning.

BP6_My Comments on Kathy Stalnaker's Blog

My FIRST Toon!

Check out my comments on Kathy Stalnaker’s blog by following this link.  She found a great WEB 2.0 tool that every teacher can benefit from no matter what age or subject you teach.

BP5_Wordsift WEB 2.0 Where Verbal meets Visual

I sifted the first paragraph of the short story "The Necklace."

Good teachers preview instruction with their students, guide their instruction as they teach and assess what was learned.  Now what if they could do all those things in one easy to use application?  Impossible?  Difficult?  Not anymore with Wordsift (http://www.wordsift.com/).

This Web 2.0 tool helps all teachers – no matter their content area or discipline – with introducing, teaching and even assessing vocabulary.  Let’s face reality.  Today’s students are digital natives who are so bombarded with images that they prefer it to text.  As a result verbal literacy is on the decline. One of the best ways to improve reading comprehension and fluency is through vocabulary development.

Recognizing the value of both verbal and visual literacy, the creator, Kenji Hakuta, developed this creative tool for students and their teachers.  And, oh yeah, parents can run with this too! 

Here’s how it works:  Copy and paste any text you want to analyze to the text box and click “sift.”  In seconds, the 50 most common words are formed into a tag cloud similar to Wordle (see http://www.wordle.net/).  The largest words are the frequent words in the posted text.  Here’s where verbal meets visual.  Visual images and a visual thesaurus are generated to connect the words to the type of media our students are used to and have opportunities to read to learn while they improve their learning to read skills like word recognition and comprehension via context clues and main idea.  Each sentence where the word appears is displayed in its original context and with a click can be highlighted within the full text of the reading passage.

Let the Fun Begin! 

·      Teachers can preview vocabulary.

·      Have students make predictions.

·      Display words across content areas to show relationships between academic disciplines.

·      Sort words in a number of ways such as frequency or alphabetical order. 

·      Click on any word in the cloud and an image from Google images appears and can be selected to create worksheets or student-made projects.

·      Students can identify the main idea via the most frequent noun(s) and verb(s).

·       Students can look for repetition.

·      Create a Pictionary.

·      Facilitate or have students facilitate discussions about the words.

·      Assess students on vocabulary acquisition by having them write across your subject area using words from the tag cloud.

·      Type your strategy here…

BP2_iGoogle Screen Shots

HOME Tab

FSO Tab

 CBR Tab

 ETC Tab

BP2_SweetSearch Web 2.0

One of the biggest problems in students’ research assignments is their dependence on Wikipedia.  Then there’s the cutting and pasting and expecting the teacher to not recognize the plagiarism.  Yeah right!

Well SweetSearch (http://www.go2web20.net/site/?a=Sweetsearch), a fantastic Web 2.0 tool, helps to alleviate many of the violations students commit plus serves as a valued source of information that has been culled just for students.  Thousands of websites have been highly ranked for easy accessibility by researchers and librarians who continuously examine them to determine their suitability on the SweetSearch search engine. 

To test how well the site worked, my kids and I searched topics that they are researching in school.  I even searched for material that I am covering in class with my students.  In every case, not only did we find information that was extremely helpful, but the resources were student friendly.  My son is researching the freezing points of liquids for a science fair project.  For a week, we have searched Google and could only get basic information on the topic, college level research or Wikipedia Answers.  Well on SweetSearch, not only were we able to find what we needed fast, but the text was kid friendly and I didn’t have to translate dense language to a 10-year-old.  How sweet is that?  Especially when I have my own homework to do at Full Sail.

The “sweetest” thing about this search engine is the number of specialized searches it has for its users from daily searches, to “sweet sites” for teachers, students and librarians, to searches for social studies and biographies.  Just a spoonful of SweetSearch will make the medicine of research most students scorn go down a whole lot easier.

W-E-L-C-O-M-E to My Space!

So these are the initial musings of first time blogger.  I am nervous and excited at the same time.  But I am hopeful that this experience will pose a “break-through” for the reluctant readers and writers in my classes. 

I am a wife, mom, teacher and Full Sail University student pursuing a Master’s degree in Educational Media and Design Technology.  I have never been so engrossed in technology as I have been in the last four months.  In fact, I speak to my laptop before my husband. 

I am excited about this program and need your feedback on my CBR Challenge Question:  “What is the result of using technology to improve literacy skills?”  Already, the hard work at Full Sail has paid off in my classes as I was recently nominated “Teacher of the Year” at my high school.  Yay for me, well almost, I didn’t win but I was flattered and thankful for the nod from my colleagues.  Next year, I‘ll get it. 

As for me personally, I am a busy mom of six children.  (Two have moved on, but there are still four at home!)  As the entire household is in student mode – husband included – we are finding that the family that studies together often fights for the laptop, dictionary, printer, kitchen table and all other things that help to become better, stronger students.  It’s a challenge, but we’re getting through it. 

Well I hope to hear from you bloggers, neophytes and experienced, alike.  I will value any comments, advice, observations you are willing to share. WELCOME