Cedu 533 Week 2

This week clearly went better then the previous week with regards to the personal homework that is due at the beginning of week 3. It just made more sense this week than last and although it's still challenging and time consuming, it took less time than last week. Secondly, there was something Prof. Sklar said in last weeks class when talking about the midterm exam and the class in general. He mentioned that people we getting better at this then in previous years. He credited "web 2" for that increase saying that people were simply more familiar with basic concepts and could relate to HTML better by having been exposed to Wikis and the like. I agree that that is personally the case for me as the connection I make in my naggen to make sense of HTML is brought about more redilly because of my experiences with WIKIs etc.

DECU 533

The idea of HTML programming antimidated me at first, to be quite honest. However once I got going I realized that it's just like any skill. . . with a little practice you can get the hang it pretty quickly. Really it's just a matter of spending the time necessary for the accurate programing. In some ways I made the connection to carpentry or pottery. . . when you see the finished product you end up with that sense that you've built something. The one exception I had was the insertion of a graphic onto the web site. That was far more difficult then I pictured and I never mastered it. When I was successful the picture was far too large and I was never successful at resizing it.
The biggest problem that I had, oddly enough, wasn't with the editing but the FireFTP. At the beginning I just never got any rythym with using it. I would place the index.htm in odd places and loose track of it continually. It was in my study team where I learned the trick of centralizing everything in a desktop folder. Only from that point afterward did everything flow.

Cedu 531 Week 5

As I look back and reflect on the information gleened from the class I can't help but to think that this is the wave of the future of teaching. I predict in 20 years the use of these types of projects will be used commonly in most classrooms. The idea is that these products allow students to take ownership of their learning.

That said, the specific project I have in mind that uses digital story telling is an extension of something I do called student of the week. This is a classroom and personal self esteem building activity in which one student has a special week that they are assigned to throughout the year. During that week they present information about themselves to the class. I've always had the template for the presentation on a poster. The poster requires some drawing or photographs of personal things that show information about the student. Why not have this format be a digital tale? Several applications such as photostory, imovie or voicethread could be utilized? The presentation would be far more engaging and much more individualized and could still include traditional presentations when appropriate.

CEDU 531 week four

I was really very impressed with the concept of podcasting in general and specifically with applications to education. For some reason I'm caught up on the personal applications for teachers. I know that's relatively low on the LoTi level but I can't get past it. The idea of recording a lesson and saving that as a podcast has many applications. First any student could gain access to it and use it for catching up when absent, for review, as a study tool before tests. Parents could access it to better help their students with homework. As a side note you I can't help but to reflect on my own teaching whenever I listen to a recording of my instruction. For the students it could replace, in may instances, a written report on nay variety of topics. Secondly it could be used in conjunction to oral reports.

Here's a link to my podcast on the use of podcasts in education.

531 week 3

I think that teachers are all just storytellers . I make up stories all the time while teaching even in the most mundane or unusual lesson that would not necessarailly apply to these 7 elements. Take long division for example. There's the standard acronym to help students remember the steps: DAD , MOM , SISTER , BROTHER . I'll make up stories about the family to help teach the steps. The problem is sometimes I get a little to animated and hyper and will somply try to cram too much into a lesson. I might take it too fast trying to do too much wheter it's different methods to do the same problems or trying to explain too much information for little students to handle. Therefore, the one element that really stood out to me and made me reflect is economy. The fact of the matter is that often times less is more. To focus on just certain aspects of a lesson and thus ceratin aspects of a story is more meaningful, and students will often walk away with a better understanding.

Cedu 523 week 2

That voicethread is a great sight and our group had a lot of fun doing the civil rights assignment. I believe that I could easilly use this program in my classroom given the proper set up and support. I see it used in the same way as I mentioned last week. In general it's application goes to anything that asks for a presentation of information of virtually any kind. I could see motivation being high and students that might not normally be motivated will be highly so with Voicethread as an instrument.

CEDU 531 week one

How I might use digital story telling in my class. . . I think that it's use is something that could be integrated into most an topic in any area. First, I could see it used as a substitute for certain types of written reports that I assign. An example of where one could be used is a variation on a "book report" that I recently assigned. That was an old fashioned "shoe box diorama" with about a page of written text describing the scene. A digital storytelling would be a perfect way of retelling that scene using a digital camera to take a picture of the students diorama and then a voice over to showcase the writing. Digital storytelling would increase motivation and enhance the report itself in most instances.