Mr. Walker's Technology Blog

Archive for the ‘Multimedia’ Category

The following website  has 16 live underwater webcams of the Gulf Oil Spill.  It is very interesting to watch. This type of resource would be great to pull up on a smartboard as a discussion starter. It would also have a place in current events lessons.

http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/bp-live-oil-spill-cam.html

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YouTube has launched a new video editor.  It allows you to trim videos that you find on YouTube or mix together videos that you have uploaded to YouTube. This could be very useful if you find a video on the site that you want to use in class but you only require particular segments of it. You may also find multiple videos that you would like to merge together as one and then download.

Richard Byrne, a fellow blogger that I follow, has created a very simple tutorial that explains how to use it. You can access that tutorial here http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=df6bwk2v_552gj98kwf9

Enjoy!

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There are two search features that Google offers that I would like to introduce. These features are found in the Google Image Search. We all know that Google is the primary website that our students go to conduct just about all Internet searches. Google Image search is their #1 location for images.  Unfortunately, many of our students do not know the copyright and usage rights associated with images that are found online. We have also found that the images available through Google Image Search are not always appropriate for a school setting or the eyes of a child.

Google has included two search setting located in their advanced image search that can help address these issues.  If you visit http://www.google.com and click on Images on the top left of the screen, you will be directed to Google Image Search. Once there you will see a link titled advanced image search located to the right of the search bar. Clicking on this link will direct you to the advanced search menu.

Within the advanced search menu you will see two settings that are of interest to this topic.

Click on the Image to Enlarge

1. SAFE SEARCH – Students can select to use Strict Search Filtering.  By enabling this setting you are filtering out images that are deemed innapropriate.

2. Usage Rights - The default setting for usage rights is to not filter by license. This  means that all of the images that are returned by a search may be subject to copyright. If you would like to limit the search to images that are free to use (not protected by copyright), you can select”Labeled for Reuse”. This will return only images that are allowed to be used.

3. Once you select these settings you can type your search terms in any of the find results boxes.

It is important that students are aware of these settings. They must be educated on the fact that it is against copyright laws to publish images on the Internet that are copyright protected. Digital Stories and Digital Posters are published online. Students working on these projects must use images with the proper usage rights.

For more information about images, videos and text that are free to use visit http://www.creativecommons.org

Enjoy!

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Have you taken a look at a Glog yet? The website http://edu.glogster.com is a free Web 2.0 site for educators. The site allows for teachers to create an account and then within that account create up to 100 managed student accounts. The entire setup takes about 3 minutes to complete. On my wiki page I have provided instructions for accessing and setting up an account on Glogster. http://edunology.wikispaces.com/glogster.

A Glog is a digital poster that may contain text, images, clip art, videos, audio files, backgrounds and hyperlinks. All of these items can be arranged  in a very creative and artistic way. There is not a template that is forced on the user. Glogs are designed to be presented to an audience upon completion.  This is where a Glog separates itself from other presentation tools such as PowerPoint.

We have all sat through a number of PowerPoint presentations delivered by students and our peers. How many of these presentations have been dreadful? How painful is it to sit through a presentation in which the presenter has slide after slide of text that he or she continues to read word for word? In many cases students are copying and pasting text from the web and then reading it out loud to the class. This is not an exercise in higher order thinking. Students are not synthesizing the information they have uncovered. They are just reading information that they found on the web.

Glogster can change the way you and your students deliver presentations. A Glog is a one page digital poster. All of the content for your presentation must be contained in one page. It is designed to be populated by primarily images and short text labels. By limiting the space allocated for content the presenter must provide meaning and depth to his or her presentation by offering explanations and descriptions for the content they have added to their Glog. The presenter must have a clear understanding of the topic and be able to offer explanations in his or her own words to explain their content selections.

Example: The Glog that I have linked to below is a digital poster assignment in which the presenter is stating a case for a President that she believes a monument should be built for. It was designed by Mrs. King in our Middle School as an example for a class project. Each image has a full explanation that provides justification for her argument. Mrs. King must provide this explanation to her class. This explanation is verbal. Ther are not large text boxes of content that is being read. Mrs. King provides a verbal justification to her class and uses the images to support and add meaning to her content delivery.

http://kingcrown.edu.glogster.com/john-f-kennedy-monument/

By providing our students with a presentation tool that steers them towards reflective analysis, verbal explanations, public speaking and creativity we are not only preparing them for the 21st century, but we are providing them with an avenue for synthesis of ideas and information. This type of assessment will have a positive impact on student learning that exceeds what we are currently experiencing with MS PowerPoint.

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I have written about the website http://edu.glogster.com. It is a website that allows students to create digital posters. These posters may contain text, images, videos, and clip art. There are some really great examples available on my wiki page as well as on the Glogster site. You can read my previous post on Glogster here.

I  presented a lunch and learn workshop on Glogster at Briggs School a few weeks ago. Since then a couple of teachers in that school have really taken this new tool and ran with it. Jodie Sparling and Cecilia Hansen have started to use the Glogs they created as a teaching tool. They have done a great job at compiling instructional resources on each of the Glogs they have created. In the end, they are enjoying the process of putting these Glogs together. The level of engagement for the student’s has increased and their is a positive impact regarding student learning in their classrooms.

I have listed a few links to the Glogs that they have created below.

Enjoy!

1. Grade 2 – Long Vowels – Jefferson Twp Teacher Ex:- http://jsparling.edu.glogster.com/long-vowels/
2. Grade 2 – Jefferson Twp – Teacher Ex. http://ceil.edu.glogster.com/frog-and-toad/
3. Grade 2 – Teacher Samples

• http://ceil.edu.glogster.com/blueberries-for-sal/
• http://ceil.edu.glogster.com/weather/
• http://ceil.edu.glogster.com/number-words/
• http://jsparling.edu.glogster.com/sentences/

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Have you considered connecting your classroom with another classroom around the world? Are you studying communities, temperature, time, weather or holidays?  Can you think of some questions that your students could ask students in other locations to gather data on these topics?

What about literature. Would you be interested in discussing a book your class read with another class in the world? Wouldn’t it be interesting to get the perspective of the American Revolution from a school in England? Are you collecting data for a project? Could you ask questions of someone in a specific location to retrieve that data?Have you used Google Earth? Would it be engaging for your students to take a virtual field trip on Google Earth and then video conference with a school in that location?

There are endless possibilities with regards to video conferencing in the classroom. It has never been so easy either. Most schools around the world use a simple service called SKYPE. www.skype.com. Skype is a free video conferencing software that anyone can download. Once you create a username and download the software you are ready to connect to the world.

There is an online project called AROUND THE WORLD WITH 80 SCHOOLS that started this year. The goal of the project is that classes that chose to participate will attempt to connect their class with 80 other schools around the world. The project is very well organized.  There is a wiki that provides all of the information necessary to get started. There is a spreadsheet available online that provides all of the contact information for schools that have decided to take part in this.

What i like about this project is the simplicity of this. Although connecting with 80 schools  may seem overwhelming, they are recommending no more then 5 minute conversations. The wiki has a nice outline of ideas broken up by time. I copied some of it below.

Here is a suggested timeline:

• Hello (15 sec)
• Intro of School 1 (school/geographic location) (30 sec.)
• Intro of School 2 (school/geographic location) (30 sec.)
• School 1 shares (1 min)
• School 2 shares (1 min)
• Data collection Question (30 sec.)
• Goodbye (15 sec)

Take some time and read through the WIKI. There is some great information on there. If you are interested in starting to video conference in your classroom please let me know. I will be happy to assist the entire way through.
Enjoy!

Around the World with 80 Schools  wiki ——aroundtheworldwith80schools – home.

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Today I was introduced to a fabulous website called Khan Academy. The address of the site is http://www.khanacademy.org.  Khan Academy hosts over 1000 math and science video tutorials.  All of the videos are categorized and hosted on Youtube.  Here is a quote from their site

The videos provide a very easy to follow explanation of basic and advanced topics. Salman explains these concepts in a manner that is attractive to students.  Each video is supplemented by software that dynamically generates exercises and captures data on student usage and progress. You can read this document to understand the vision of this site and to review student and teacher feedback.

Another highlight on this site is the SAT review. Khan works out every problem found in a common SAT study guide. This is a free SAT study guide with step by step video tutorials!

This site is a tremendous resource for students and teachers. The tutorials can be integrated into lessons, posted on Moodle pages, linked to teacher web pages or provided to students for review. The tutorials have proven to be an effective tool for special education students. Teachers may decide to incorporate these videos in center activities in the elementary school. I could also envision these tutorials added to a Glog.

I hope you enjoy this resource. I welcome your comments on this post and would love to hear your feedback or implementation experiences regarding this resource.

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Over this past school year we have been working hard to create and develop a model for teacher websites. In the high school we have introduced a WordPress MU blog server. This new tool allows teachers to maintain websites without having to know any web programming.  It also allows teachers access to their sites from home without the need for any special software. Some other features include: Rss feeds, moderated commenting, threaded discussions, embedding of multimedia, attaching files, and parent notifications.

We have also introduced a course management software called MOODLE. Moodle is a secure software that allows for an extension of your classroom outside of the four walls. On Moodle teachers create online courses. Within a course they can host discussions, give quizzes, collect assignments, create webquests, develop surveys, link to videos, text and images, and a host of other features.

Now that we have these tools it is important that we take the next step and understand how these tools can be useful for teachers and students. How will they impact student learning? I will be writing about this topic in a few separate blog posts. For this post I would like to focus on teacher websites. The diagram below outlines some features that I believe are valuable on a teacher website.

CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO ENLARGE IT

By providing resources such as class  notes and assignments we eliminate the need to spend time during the day gathering these materials for students who are absent or lost the information. By adding quizzes and online discussions we open up our classroom to students outside the school day. Students can respond to discussions on their time. They have an opportunity to formulate a response and share it without the pressures of a full classroom. Quizzes can be used to assess prior knowledge before starting a new unit or as a formative assessment to check for understanding.

By displaying student work you are allowing them to write for a global audience.  Students will show engagement in the fact that what they are producing is going to be made available for others to view and comment on.  There will be a greater sense of pride with what they are creating.

These are just a few ideas of how a teacher website can contribute to student learning. I welcome additional comments from  you regarding this topic.

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I came across this site thanks to a blog posting I read here. It is called The Week in Rap.  The week in Rap is a music video that summarizes the major world events of the week. It is organized as a Rap video.  A typical video is under 5 minutes.

This is a great alternative tool for teaching current events. It may be a great end of the week activity.  Some ideas that come to mind are:

1. Link to this in a Moodle discussion and ask students to respond to a question regarding it.

2. Have students develop a blog posting reflecting on these events using Ning, a wiki, Moodle, Google Doc, or traditional journal.

3.  Have students create their own music video that discusses a global issue. Use this as an example.

http://theweekinrap.com/

Enjoy!

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Learner.org has developed a great website that hosts interactives for all content areas.  There are math, language, art, history and science interactives for grades K-12. Here’s an example about geometric shapes.  There are a lot of great interactives. One that I really liked is the Spelling Bee. 

Take a look at the home page. I would love to hear your feedback.

http://www.learner.org/interactives/

Enjoy

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