PowerPoint was our main focus for this week and how it can be used effectively in the classroom. Having seen powerpoints in the corporate world and feeling, ‘great, another one’, shows that in some cases, the ‘triple P’ is prevalent. I know how to set them up, however, the sites showed as a reminder of the pitfalls and the assets that powerpoint can provide. Things like: offering accommodations for a variety of learning styles, allowing for reflection of the creator-so to edit later and keep perfecting, and the ability to print out for students when absent were things that I liked having brought to my attention. The reminder of ‘if your presentation shows all your verbage, email it’, was awesome! It shows that the presentation should be an addition, not the final.
Math facts as a powerpoint presentation would be something I would love. It seems to be an issue with my little ones at home. I would like to create an additional piece that would add to their learning of the concepts and then would be able to be used as a review tool. It could be sent home for extra practice.
So, part of our assignment this week was to create a PowerPoint and then present to your students or any school-age child. Since I don't have my classroom yet, my children had to be my students. It looks like I might have a chance at presenting the math facts powerpoint. So, I went ahead with creating the multiplication facts of 8. I had my 10yr old go over this presentation after completion. I liked having the quickness or slowness of the pages, so as to increase speed or concentrate, as well as the simplicity of the pages. However, my son stated that due to him learning better by listening, he asked if I could had the audio to presentation to offer both visual and audio. I am thinking that this is my new challenge.
TED-
TED is a non profit that is devoted to ‘Ideas Worth Spreading’. The website www.TED.com allows access to so many ideas and is categorized by the style of the thoughts. For example, there are multiple thoughts under the heading ‘courageous’ or ‘funny’.
I took a look at three different ones. One was by Sue Austin who used her wheelchair to go underwater. She spoke of the limitations that she allowed herself to internalize from others’ perspective and how she had to overcome them. The video of her underwater was amazing. It brought to life a whole variety of emotion with the visual. The second one that I watched was by Lemn Sissay and being a child of the state. He discussed the background, feelings and events of being a foster child. The ‘family’ definition to him as well as how perceptions are to others. The third one was from Sir Ken Robinson. He spoke of creativity and education. He spoke about how we are educating children for a world that we can’t even grasp what it will look like when they are adults. He spoke in depth about adding more creativity in the classroom and allowing each student to shine. I loved the quote “if you aren’t prepared to be wrong, you won’t come up with anything original”.
I can see using these 15-20 minute videos to encourage and inspire students to push through stigmas. If you can partner it with actually allowing the concepts shown into your classroom, it will be seen as ‘actions speak louder than words’ and bring the whole experience to the students.
Another classmate reviewed several videos that would be awesome tools at the middle school level. Things like self image, how to be a leader, and the role that a true hero should play. I found that each educator can find so many resources out there that can reach different aspects of a student.
Technology Explorations #11
ComicLife http://comiclife.com
iSpeech http://www.ispeech.org
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Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response.
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ComicLife looks to be something my own child would LOVE to work on. It definitely puts the ‘fun’ into an assignment. It seems to be a great platform for a variety of skill levels in writing. Probably the most ‘wow’ factor in the technology explorations so far, when it comes to a student creative piece. The software is available for Mac, Windows and touch screen devices.
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iSpeech is another form of text to speech. From what I looked at, it seems to be more directed to mobile devices. Examples of where/when you would use iSpeech: cell phone, ipad, car, caller id announcer, alarm controlling on/off. Talking websites, podcasts and e-learning are other avenues as well.
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How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
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“Key benefits of using comics in education
- A great visual Representation of Knowledge
- Presents what is essential - Easier to remember a visual graphic containing key information - Engaging through thinking, creating and writing. - Perfect avenue for writing dialogue - Incites students with low interest in writing - Helps organization through storytelling and storyboarding - Using visual images convey meaning to a story or topic - Develops creative and higher level thought processes - Develops composition techniques through visual-verbal connections - Enriches reading, writing, and thinking - Serves as and assessment and evaluation tool - Sequencing promotes understanding” …..per the ComicLife website
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iSpeech could be used as a resource for students. There was an informational piece regarding an autistic child who was able to use the program by writing on a device and it translating to audio. It was a great communication tool. Due to the fact that the program offers podcasts, that would be a nice offering as well to the classroom. | |
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Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not?
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ComicLife is inexpensive at $19.95 for a single license and seems quite easy to use. I can see how a few pieces of classwork that could be utilized with this program.
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iSpeech wouldn’t be one I would recommend at first. I believe there are other text to speech offerings that would be less expensive to offer. Pricing of 10,000 credits (words) for $200 was where it started.
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Technology Explorations #12
Voice Thread http://voicethread.com
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Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response.
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Voice Thread is an awesome multimedia slideshow that allows communication, collaboration and connection. The download allows uploading of images, documents and video along with the ability to add comments via voice, text &/or audio file. There is no software needed to install. It is just a simple download that uses Adobe Flash.
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Voice Thread wiki is a great teaching avenue to the Voice Thread option. It is a great tool in learning more about what Voice Thread actually is with examples of how to use it. Directions were even given on how to download to your computer to get started.
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How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
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I can see Voice Thread being a great teaching tool in the classroom, whether your students are elementary or high school. Presenting of a new topic would be a great way to offer students a way to work in a group effort in researching and then putting together a presentation via VoiceThread. This avenue would allow for the more shy students to actually get their information in, without feeling stressed about having to be too vocal.
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The Voice Thread wiki is probably even more of a resource than the actual site. Just the contact information from various educators alone offer vast options for collaboration. Having examples of best practices, options and examples….even more amazing!!
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Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not?
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Voice Thread and the Voice Thread wiki would be recommended sites for me. Probably the wiki first for ease of explanation and then on to the actual site to get started. There is a small fee associated with the Voice Thread. For a single educator the fee is $79/year or $15/month. This offers yourself and 50 student accounts at one time. You can add more users for a small per/student fee.
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Technology Explorations #13
Storybird http://storybird.com/
Scribblar http://www.scribblar.com
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Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response.
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Storybird is a great creative way of storytelling. This is a site that can get the student’s creative juices flowing. The site allows for creating, discovering, learning, connecting, selling and relaxing. It is a ‘make, read and share visual stories’ site. All stories are child appropriate and in English. There are guidelines to follow and will be deleted if not appropriate. This site offers the students a way to be creative with their drawings and bring them to life in a story as well as having students reading new and creative pieces. Printing completed stories is also an option from this site. How awesome would that be for a student. It would be a great way to show off a portfolio. Followings for set authors are an option as well, as are social media (blog &/or twitter).
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Scribblar is an amazing whiteboard tool! The site labels it as ‘simple, effective online collaboration’. After looking at this site, I realized that if it is not what my children have at school, it is very similar. It is basically a virtual whiteboard!! Real time and a multi user whiteboard. Although I have only actually seen it used in an actual classroom setting, the demos show it being used by the multi users allowing people to be all over. The site allows for a room to be set up and then various users can add their own piece to it, for example: images, text, artwork, brainstorming. The program has audio, can be used in all browsers and if you have skype, you also have visual. Pretty amazing! It is as simple as signing up and creating a room to get started.
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How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
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The Scribblar can be used in K-12 classrooms everywhere. Having the students incorporate their thinking alongside the teacher is awesome!
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The Storybird would be a great way to excite those students to get their creative juices flowing. They can be visual storytellers. This can combine the arts with reading and writing!! A total win win with our non traditional learners.
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Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not?
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Recommending the Scribblar is a no brainer. There is no cost, it’s easy to use for the teacher as well as the students and could be used daily.
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Storybird would be a great recommendation, especially when working on certain writing pieces. A simple sign up is free, however if you want to do the ‘extras’, then a membership can be purchased. The paid membership allows for custom covers, personalized profiles, unique hearts, unlimited downloads and accelerated moderation. Managing students, assignments, etc can be an option for a professional pack as well. Typically 1month- $9, 6months-$39 and 12months-$59. Printing the books created is also an option for a varied fees (page count, hard or soft bound, etc).
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Technology Explorations #14
Xtranormal http://www.xtranormal.com
Virtual Manipulatives http://nlvm.usu.edu
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Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be thorough in your response.
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Xtranormal is a very cool innovative way to allow our students to pump up their stories and make them come alive. Xtranormal is a way to tell their story through 3D animated movies. It allows for total creativity. The site offers packages for a school setting as well as individual and professional. The alternative option of text to speech was pretty cool as well. This site reminded me of one of the videos we watched in an earlier lesson, regarding IBM and virtual conferencing. How awesome to offer classes to allow their creativity to flow and set them up for success in their professional world.
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Virtual Manipulatives is part of the
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How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
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The Xtranormal site allows for a teacher to set up assignments with detail instructions as well as due dates, on the left side of the screen. The student can sign in to access his assignments and start to work. This allows for an exceptional opportunity for the information to be taught and then the students given the freedom to create within their own settings. It adds more depth than just placing a pencil to paper.
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Virtual Manipulatives could be used in any K-12 math classroom. The ability to view lesson plans that already have the standards at heart seems more efficient. The ability to allow students more opportunities to visually put math together is always a plus. It is one way to access all manipulatives at a lower cost than purchasing multiple at a store.
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Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not?
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Depending on the budget, the Xtranormal site could be a great resource. The company offers 3 levels of pricing. The basic is free, educator is $10 + .50 for students/month and the professional is $50/month. Using this source in the classroom, I would definitely recommend purchasing the educator over the basic, due to the safety. The educator package ensures ‘kid friendly’. Other examples had language and inappropriate content. It seemed pretty easy to start and access.
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Virtual Manipulatives does cost, however it depends on what the school’s budget is for this type of opportunity. The cost ranges from $39.95 for an individual up to $1199.95 for a large school. At the individual one-time price, it might be worth it, if you can’t get total school buy in. There is a free trial offer, so I think it would definitely be worth the trial to see how you could use this daily. The ability to sync all your instruction and hands on learning together with multiple math concepts seems to be a win-win.
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