A link for an example of both good and bad reasons for compiling an e-portfolio is:
http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.felix.albright.edu/hww/results/getResults.jhtml?_DARGS=/hww/search_history/mywweb.jhtml.12
This example was a good example because the students in the article found that this was a successful project because it empowered them to try new technology (transformational learning) that they had not used before and it was a very useful tool in compiling information/documentation that could be used to make assessments.
This is also a bad example of an electronic portfolio because the project did not have a conclusive outcome that indicated a permanent change in behavior would occur for those that were involved in using e-portfolios. Lack of time was a very big issue and continued lack of understanding/knowledge of how to most effectively use the technology necessary for a portfolio project.
I would venture a guess that there will be pros and cons to all electronic portfolio projects.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Online Presentations
I enjoyed looking at everyone's Online Presentations - they were educational but still fun to review. I think kids would love putting digital posters together, and filming themselves would probably be an exciting change to the day-to-day grind of classroom assignments.
Melissa's poster about Speak Up made reference through text and video clips to the fact that students were surveyed in regards to their school's level of competence in providing technology to the students they serve. Unfortunately, not many schools would receive high scores for their efforts. Also, Mr. Obama, I hope you are listening to the suggestions from the students - they are the future of our nation!
Katie's video spoke about using Assistive Technology to work with students with disabilities. I have had the opportunity to work with some of these systems (communication boards) and they help to keep students in line with their peers and provide a level of success for children that would not be able to be accomplished without technology.
While reading Lisa's glog I learned that China has a strong long distance learning program that serves college students and also millions of farmers. This is not information that I would have ever discovered on my own, and who would have ever guessed that this combination of groups would be using technology in China - college students and farmers??!
Melissa's poster about Speak Up made reference through text and video clips to the fact that students were surveyed in regards to their school's level of competence in providing technology to the students they serve. Unfortunately, not many schools would receive high scores for their efforts. Also, Mr. Obama, I hope you are listening to the suggestions from the students - they are the future of our nation!
Katie's video spoke about using Assistive Technology to work with students with disabilities. I have had the opportunity to work with some of these systems (communication boards) and they help to keep students in line with their peers and provide a level of success for children that would not be able to be accomplished without technology.
While reading Lisa's glog I learned that China has a strong long distance learning program that serves college students and also millions of farmers. This is not information that I would have ever discovered on my own, and who would have ever guessed that this combination of groups would be using technology in China - college students and farmers??!
Friday, April 22, 2011
Glog poster - Frustrating process/Cool results
So I had to redo my project because I didn't post something online. I chose to put a poster together. It took me awhile to figure out how to put it all together, but once I got past my frustrations I really liked the end result.
I also think this would be a very creative way for students to get their ideas into a cool and updated format. It was definitely more fun to put this poster together than to write a summary of the article I read. The poster is more likely to be viewed/read by other students than a boring article summary.
I am not currently working in classrooms, but I work with staff who work with students ages toddler through age 12. I believe this tool would be extremely useful when working on professional development plans with our staff. This would be a much more updated format to the types of trainings we have held in the past!
http://blatty.glogster.com/computersandyoungchildren
I also think this would be a very creative way for students to get their ideas into a cool and updated format. It was definitely more fun to put this poster together than to write a summary of the article I read. The poster is more likely to be viewed/read by other students than a boring article summary.
I am not currently working in classrooms, but I work with staff who work with students ages toddler through age 12. I believe this tool would be extremely useful when working on professional development plans with our staff. This would be a much more updated format to the types of trainings we have held in the past!
http://blatty.glogster.com/computersandyoungchildren
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Interactive Whiteboards
I was very hesitant about interactive whiteboards when we started our Smartboard Lesson project. It seemed like it was going to be too difficult to figure out, too many things to remember. After putting the majority of a project together for 2.5 hours last week and then throwing that idea out and working on a new project I have learned a lot about the system and I really enjoy it. In 15 minutes I put together a Smartboard presentation to accompany my Technology Notebook report! I never would have guessed I could put something so cool together so quickly.
My biggest concern is still the actual "performance" of the project. Without having a personal interactive whiteboard to practice on at home I am nervous about how well all my plans will work out during the lesson. I have practiced many times with the Smart technology frames that I put together, but the true test will be tomorrow night during class.
Would I like to have one of the interactive boards in a classroom? Yes, I would. I think it would be a huge advantage for a classroom to have this technology. Many of the articles I read for my Technology Notebook project reference the benefits that are found in a classroom that takes advantage of the uses of technology that will spark interest in the students. Students, from preschoolers to college-age, are used to interacting with technology on a regular basis so it is only natural that utilizing technology in classrooms would keep their attention.
My biggest concern is still the actual "performance" of the project. Without having a personal interactive whiteboard to practice on at home I am nervous about how well all my plans will work out during the lesson. I have practiced many times with the Smart technology frames that I put together, but the true test will be tomorrow night during class.
Would I like to have one of the interactive boards in a classroom? Yes, I would. I think it would be a huge advantage for a classroom to have this technology. Many of the articles I read for my Technology Notebook project reference the benefits that are found in a classroom that takes advantage of the uses of technology that will spark interest in the students. Students, from preschoolers to college-age, are used to interacting with technology on a regular basis so it is only natural that utilizing technology in classrooms would keep their attention.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Video in the Classroom
Video in the classroom is an excellent idea. It would meet the learning needs of all students - those that learn best by visual and auditory input and those that learn by doing. Video requires the writing and sketching of the Storyboard planning, the auditory input of the narration/music and the freedom to move during the taping and cropping of video clips.
This process teaches the students how to organize their ideas using a graphic organizer (Storyboard), how to put their thoughts into words and pictures, take an idea and produce a visual/auditory picture of what they were imagining. It shows students how to bring their ideas to life.
I could envision this video project being used during a lesson on geneology and family history. Students could tape family members talking about particular topics or family stories. Pictures of family artifacts or special items could be imported to be used in the video. The really cool part of this project would be that family members from other parts of the world could tape their clips and send them to the family member doing the project - taping would not only need to be done by the student involved in the project. The cropping could occur once all the clips are imported from their various saved sources.
The intended outcome would be for the student to learn all the technology outcomes - becoming familiar with the video equipment, acquiring a level of respect for technology, demonstrate creative thinking, use digital media to communicate and work collaboratively - including at a distance, apply digital tools to gather/evaluate/and use information.
This video project would potentially be as fully encompassing a digital piece as would be possible for a classroom project. It would be a very good idea to include video in the classroom.
This process teaches the students how to organize their ideas using a graphic organizer (Storyboard), how to put their thoughts into words and pictures, take an idea and produce a visual/auditory picture of what they were imagining. It shows students how to bring their ideas to life.
I could envision this video project being used during a lesson on geneology and family history. Students could tape family members talking about particular topics or family stories. Pictures of family artifacts or special items could be imported to be used in the video. The really cool part of this project would be that family members from other parts of the world could tape their clips and send them to the family member doing the project - taping would not only need to be done by the student involved in the project. The cropping could occur once all the clips are imported from their various saved sources.
The intended outcome would be for the student to learn all the technology outcomes - becoming familiar with the video equipment, acquiring a level of respect for technology, demonstrate creative thinking, use digital media to communicate and work collaboratively - including at a distance, apply digital tools to gather/evaluate/and use information.
This video project would potentially be as fully encompassing a digital piece as would be possible for a classroom project. It would be a very good idea to include video in the classroom.
Group Video Project
I have never been good at taking video, I don't like to star in video and I cannot stand to hear my voice on recordings - this was bound to be a very interesting project.
I was partnered with Kevin Ezzel and thankfully he had an idea in mind for a topic. I had considered a topic the entire week prior to the start of this project and I was still at a loss for an idea. Any ideas I came up with seemed inconsequential or too difficult to get video tape in the Albright college area.
The idea Kevin had was to film video on "Applying to College". I liked the project idea because it was going to potentially be a useful tool for You Tube viewers who may be considering the process they need to follow when considering going back to college.
The statistic that Kevin had available outlined the fact that a college degree will increase a person's odds of achieving a higher rate of pay and decrease their chances of being unemployed. I felt that this statistic was very interesting and should be a great motivator for anyone considering going back to college.
We outlined our ideas on the storyboard that was provided to us. There were 7 scenes that we planned: Panning a view of Selwyn Hall, a set of steps on the front of the Albright property, black screen with various college logos, parking space sign for "Future Albright students", person sitting at desk playing the role of an Advisor, screen with FAFSA website, shot of 13th St sign.
The next step in the project was to video tape the scenes we planned. In a 30 minute span of time we taped 6 minutes worth of video that we needed to crop and add narration and illustrations to. Taping was challenging due to user error - finding that the camera was moving while shooting a scene using the tripod, capturing passersby in the video clips, and unknowingly leaving the camera on while transporting equipment back into the bldg and then again while we were in the bldg. Cropping the video was not too difficult due to having the scenes scripted on our Storyboard.
Adding narration proved to be time-consuming. Matching appropriate timing to the video clips took a great deal of time. In addition to simply working out the timing, there was also equipment challenges in getting the narration added. We found that equipment was not functioning properly, and alternative types of equipment (headphones and microphone) needed to be plugged in and unplugged in order to use the other piece of equipment. Once we got the equipment figured out it was just a matter of recording and inserting the narration in the appropriate sections of video.
I believe that what worked well was my partnership with Kevin. He had great ideas and was very helpful in working through all the new concepts and challenges that we were faced with this project. The one thing I would have liked to do differently would be to tape at an earlier time in order to have more processing time - however, neither of our schedules allowed for the earlier taping to occur. Although many of the tasks were challenging, I was surprised at overall how easy it was to put a video together.
This is definitely a process that I would be willing to take part in again - but I still prefer to not star in the video - I like to be behind the camera, not in front of it.
I was partnered with Kevin Ezzel and thankfully he had an idea in mind for a topic. I had considered a topic the entire week prior to the start of this project and I was still at a loss for an idea. Any ideas I came up with seemed inconsequential or too difficult to get video tape in the Albright college area.
The idea Kevin had was to film video on "Applying to College". I liked the project idea because it was going to potentially be a useful tool for You Tube viewers who may be considering the process they need to follow when considering going back to college.
The statistic that Kevin had available outlined the fact that a college degree will increase a person's odds of achieving a higher rate of pay and decrease their chances of being unemployed. I felt that this statistic was very interesting and should be a great motivator for anyone considering going back to college.
We outlined our ideas on the storyboard that was provided to us. There were 7 scenes that we planned: Panning a view of Selwyn Hall, a set of steps on the front of the Albright property, black screen with various college logos, parking space sign for "Future Albright students", person sitting at desk playing the role of an Advisor, screen with FAFSA website, shot of 13th St sign.
The next step in the project was to video tape the scenes we planned. In a 30 minute span of time we taped 6 minutes worth of video that we needed to crop and add narration and illustrations to. Taping was challenging due to user error - finding that the camera was moving while shooting a scene using the tripod, capturing passersby in the video clips, and unknowingly leaving the camera on while transporting equipment back into the bldg and then again while we were in the bldg. Cropping the video was not too difficult due to having the scenes scripted on our Storyboard.
Adding narration proved to be time-consuming. Matching appropriate timing to the video clips took a great deal of time. In addition to simply working out the timing, there was also equipment challenges in getting the narration added. We found that equipment was not functioning properly, and alternative types of equipment (headphones and microphone) needed to be plugged in and unplugged in order to use the other piece of equipment. Once we got the equipment figured out it was just a matter of recording and inserting the narration in the appropriate sections of video.
I believe that what worked well was my partnership with Kevin. He had great ideas and was very helpful in working through all the new concepts and challenges that we were faced with this project. The one thing I would have liked to do differently would be to tape at an earlier time in order to have more processing time - however, neither of our schedules allowed for the earlier taping to occur. Although many of the tasks were challenging, I was surprised at overall how easy it was to put a video together.
This is definitely a process that I would be willing to take part in again - but I still prefer to not star in the video - I like to be behind the camera, not in front of it.
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