I thought this week of assessment and hardware/software evaluations was good. We had to also complete our Pecha Kucha presentation and I honestly say that this has been difficult for me. I can't seem to get the slides to auto advance while I record into VoiceThread. Since I am leaving a comment, VT believes I am leaving a comment for just that one slide and will not advance until I am done. I find it difficult to advance the slide myself after exactly 20 seconds so I am trying to rely on the automatic advance, which of course isn't working for me. Hopefully I will get this soon.
The evaluation of software was interesting, but I believe we may have evaluated a few of these programs in another class. Even though I didn't get the same thing as last time (which would have been bad), I still found that Author Stream was a solid program. Group 1 has three online presentation programs that compete against PowerPoint.
I can see trying out a few of these online options with my students, however because they are online and our network is undergoing some renovations, I may wait until our network is a bit more reliable until moving to an entirely online option. I will have to explore more of these options to make an informed decision on which one would be best for my students. There are so many options out there and we all want the program to do everything that PowerPoint can do and more. Isn't it funny how some of us will compare things to PowerPoint, even when there are better programs to use?
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Week Four
Wow, what a week (or two) it has been. We've learned so much and the text, DigiTales, has demonstrated that the more we learn, the more we learn how much we don't really know. But it is nice to hear that we can only learn what is necessary. Beyond that, we will learn as we need to.
I've found that there are a lot of different elements to creating a digital story. The use of Animoto is awesome because of ease. I even had a class use it to show me some holiday photos this year and the posts are coming in like crazy. My students really like it and I've heard some of them say that they plan to use it outside of class. I think that is great, but once their membership runs out after 6 months, they'll have to get a free version. :)
Another aspect to telling stories in a digital world involve recording a voice over. This is where I am most afraid because my best stories involve feedback from my audience. In a digital story, the only feedback is that of your computer screen, which if you haven't noticed, isn't much at all.
Integrating pictures and images can be challenging as well, however the photo a day assignment was very useful in helping us take photos of things we wouldn't have seen before. It was sometimes difficult to post every day, but it was easy once I got onto the computer. I'm looking forward to finalizing our last project and finishing this course. It was fun and a lot of hard work went into creating these digital stories.
I've found that there are a lot of different elements to creating a digital story. The use of Animoto is awesome because of ease. I even had a class use it to show me some holiday photos this year and the posts are coming in like crazy. My students really like it and I've heard some of them say that they plan to use it outside of class. I think that is great, but once their membership runs out after 6 months, they'll have to get a free version. :)
Another aspect to telling stories in a digital world involve recording a voice over. This is where I am most afraid because my best stories involve feedback from my audience. In a digital story, the only feedback is that of your computer screen, which if you haven't noticed, isn't much at all.
Integrating pictures and images can be challenging as well, however the photo a day assignment was very useful in helping us take photos of things we wouldn't have seen before. It was sometimes difficult to post every day, but it was easy once I got onto the computer. I'm looking forward to finalizing our last project and finishing this course. It was fun and a lot of hard work went into creating these digital stories.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Week Three
I'm having a lot of fun with this class. There are so many different sites out there that I had no clue about, until this class. Thanks Louis! I love the VoiceThread site, and it looks like Animoto will be awesome too, but I'm currently waiting for the registration process to be accepted.
The readings this week were great, especially in Presentation Zen. I go a lot out of the different slide techniques and when I revised my original presentation, I tried to use as many of the Zen ideas as possible. I feel really good about it but I also feel as though I can do much more with it. I was a little overwhelmed with revising it though because I chose a presentation that had 29 slides in it to start. Revising that proved took a while longer than I expected, however I think the revision was well worth it...at least it's a step in the right direction.
The readings this week were great, especially in Presentation Zen. I go a lot out of the different slide techniques and when I revised my original presentation, I tried to use as many of the Zen ideas as possible. I feel really good about it but I also feel as though I can do much more with it. I was a little overwhelmed with revising it though because I chose a presentation that had 29 slides in it to start. Revising that proved took a while longer than I expected, however I think the revision was well worth it...at least it's a step in the right direction.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
I'm not sure if Overwhelmed is strong enough...
This week I found myself struggling to keep up. What a challenging week of assignments and not to use it as an excuse, but it's difficult not having the weekend to work on projects because of Military commitments. But, I'm still working and things are getting done, just not as quickly as I thought based on the time it should take to complete each project.
This week we learned a great deal about impacting your audience through a more simplistic format. Planning a presentation by going analog - getting away from the computer and back to using simpler forms of creating ideas that focus on what is most important for a presentation. I found this to be most informative as I typically would stare at the computer screen attempting to discover something that I am supposed to present about. Usually this does occur, but after how long of sitting there and re-writing countless times. Simple planning and getting away from technology would be better suited for presentations.
Presentations that lack stickiness are often not well remembered, in which case you have audience members leaving wondering if they will ever get those 20 minutes back. That is not a desired response from your audience. However, proper planning and focus can turn the most boring topic into a fun and exciting time.
I remember teaching a unit that discussed how to count rhythm. This was before we had an Interactive White Board in my classroom, but it used old images of rhythms and I would draw notes and ask students to count it, without really teaching them much of anything. Now, with the help of the Smart Board, the presentation and the lesson are more much enjoyable and educational as the students can write answers, discover what was wrong and what was write.
This week was very difficult and I hope that next week is slightly less intense. But I am really enjoying taking pictures everyday and posting them on Posterous.
This week we learned a great deal about impacting your audience through a more simplistic format. Planning a presentation by going analog - getting away from the computer and back to using simpler forms of creating ideas that focus on what is most important for a presentation. I found this to be most informative as I typically would stare at the computer screen attempting to discover something that I am supposed to present about. Usually this does occur, but after how long of sitting there and re-writing countless times. Simple planning and getting away from technology would be better suited for presentations.
Presentations that lack stickiness are often not well remembered, in which case you have audience members leaving wondering if they will ever get those 20 minutes back. That is not a desired response from your audience. However, proper planning and focus can turn the most boring topic into a fun and exciting time.
I remember teaching a unit that discussed how to count rhythm. This was before we had an Interactive White Board in my classroom, but it used old images of rhythms and I would draw notes and ask students to count it, without really teaching them much of anything. Now, with the help of the Smart Board, the presentation and the lesson are more much enjoyable and educational as the students can write answers, discover what was wrong and what was write.
This week was very difficult and I hope that next week is slightly less intense. But I am really enjoying taking pictures everyday and posting them on Posterous.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Digital Storytelling, Week 1
Wow, what a first week of class. I am very excited to learn about this topic of digital storytelling and how it can influence my future presentations and/or family. This week we read the Presentation Zen and I learned a great deal about how to better my future presentations to make them more effective (which is always a goal of mine), but also to really feel that my students may actually retain the information presented.
The first part of the book discussed how the use of PowerPoint has been a negative on many presentations around the world. The use of this program, or really any slide-share program, must be thought out carefully and deliberately. Each presentation is different so if a presentation does not need such technology, don't complicate the issue by adding it.
We also read about digital storytelling in the book DigiTales. This book is a great tool as it discusses how each one of us can tell our own stories, and keep them in a digital world...forever. I think of my Nana, who is approaching 90 years this upcoming year, and how awesome it would be to document her life growing up in Minnesota and joining the Marine Corps. Moving to Hawaii and meeting my grandfather, who was also a Marine, eventually falling in love, having 5 children and eventually settling down in Wisconsin. Digital storytelling is all about collecting those memories and documenting them, including printed photo's, documents, or other stories, and putting them all together into one presentation. What a great opportunity.
We also learned a great deal about how presentations online can be great stories, and some not so great. I viewed a few sites from the digital storytelling site and found some interesting sites that I would not ordinarily search. These are still great tools, even if just to learn what not to do.
Great week, looking forward to the rest.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
The Interactives
I really enjoyed "The Interactive" idea located on the learner.org web site. I worked through the cinema interactive to see how this idea would work for high school students in the arts. I was thrilled to see how the student would learn about just everything involving the cinema. All the way from the brief history of screenwriters to the grip, actors, camera person, or director. The student can then create and interact with the site by doing things like writing a short scene to be included in the cinema. It also allowed the student to try producing their own film, asking them to manage everything involved in creating a movie. The interactive part involves the student making the choices leading up to the actual creation of the film.
I thought this was a great strategy in showing students how one decision can make or break a particular concept, assignment, or life situation. This is a great tool for teaching ideas that fit "outside the box."
I thought this was a great strategy in showing students how one decision can make or break a particular concept, assignment, or life situation. This is a great tool for teaching ideas that fit "outside the box."
Concepts in Module 4
This week's strategies discussed identifying similarities and differences, homework and practice, and generating testing and hypotheses. I can say as a music teacher that there is a strong possibility I will not use some of these concepts in my classes, there are some that warrant thoughts and possible implementation in our curriculum.
Identifying Similarities and Differences: I understand this strategy is potentially very beneficial in other courses of study, however in music the way I use this is by identifying to the student how a performance or performer sounds compared to ours. I use specific examples in class by playing a recording of a professional group performing a certain selection or type of piece we may be working on for our concert. I sometimes avoid playing the exact piece for the class as I want the students to develop their own "ear" for how their music fits into the entire ensemble. However if I demonstrate a professional group performing a similar piece, I can show how that groups sounds and discuss how we can improve to make our group sound as good as the professional group. We are always making goals to help students strive for the very best, but these goals are realistic and worked on in lessons and sectional work.
Homework and Practice: Here is where we have really changed our strategies this year. In the past, our goal was to get students to practice a certain number of minutes each week. What we found was that students were ultimately changing the truth on these "practice charts" and sometimes even forging a parents signature before turning in for credit. We then went to a system where the student had to diagnosis some simple goals for each practice session and document the goals, then play specific etudes and/or exercises to help achieve the goals of the practice time, and then work on concert specific material. All of this was written on a "practice record" that documented the students practice time by use of written concepts. This was a great step forward but not quite what we needed to accomplish good student practicing.
We are now piloting a program called Smart Music. This computer based subscription helps students become involved in practicing by showing them on the computer screen what was done correctly and identify what was done incorrectly. The students are now given instant feedback and assessed on each performance of the music, lesson, or etude. Not only do students have access to the one book they may have been learning from before, but now they have the ability to work out of older books, other concert band and/or jazz band music, they can record their own music, work on scales, exercises and etudes specific to their instrument, and all of this is right on their computer screen. The student can practice and perform the assignment however long they wish and each time the system records the student so s/he can hear exactly what they sound like. It will then help identify for the student where the focus should be. This is not in any way a replacement for teacher instruction because it doesn't "teach" the student the concepts, but rather assess if the student is performing a concept or exercise up to a specific level of achievement.
Generating Testing and Hypotheses: This strategy ties in with what was discussed above. The analysis of the student work is tested within the smart music program. The student must then hypothesize the correct outcome and work to achieve a higher level of performance. This is done with the help of the teacher to show and demonstrate how to achieve such a level. However it is on the student to be tested on the concept that was assigned and be able to perform it at a level required for each grade level.
Identifying Similarities and Differences: I understand this strategy is potentially very beneficial in other courses of study, however in music the way I use this is by identifying to the student how a performance or performer sounds compared to ours. I use specific examples in class by playing a recording of a professional group performing a certain selection or type of piece we may be working on for our concert. I sometimes avoid playing the exact piece for the class as I want the students to develop their own "ear" for how their music fits into the entire ensemble. However if I demonstrate a professional group performing a similar piece, I can show how that groups sounds and discuss how we can improve to make our group sound as good as the professional group. We are always making goals to help students strive for the very best, but these goals are realistic and worked on in lessons and sectional work.
Homework and Practice: Here is where we have really changed our strategies this year. In the past, our goal was to get students to practice a certain number of minutes each week. What we found was that students were ultimately changing the truth on these "practice charts" and sometimes even forging a parents signature before turning in for credit. We then went to a system where the student had to diagnosis some simple goals for each practice session and document the goals, then play specific etudes and/or exercises to help achieve the goals of the practice time, and then work on concert specific material. All of this was written on a "practice record" that documented the students practice time by use of written concepts. This was a great step forward but not quite what we needed to accomplish good student practicing.
We are now piloting a program called Smart Music. This computer based subscription helps students become involved in practicing by showing them on the computer screen what was done correctly and identify what was done incorrectly. The students are now given instant feedback and assessed on each performance of the music, lesson, or etude. Not only do students have access to the one book they may have been learning from before, but now they have the ability to work out of older books, other concert band and/or jazz band music, they can record their own music, work on scales, exercises and etudes specific to their instrument, and all of this is right on their computer screen. The student can practice and perform the assignment however long they wish and each time the system records the student so s/he can hear exactly what they sound like. It will then help identify for the student where the focus should be. This is not in any way a replacement for teacher instruction because it doesn't "teach" the student the concepts, but rather assess if the student is performing a concept or exercise up to a specific level of achievement.
Generating Testing and Hypotheses: This strategy ties in with what was discussed above. The analysis of the student work is tested within the smart music program. The student must then hypothesize the correct outcome and work to achieve a higher level of performance. This is done with the help of the teacher to show and demonstrate how to achieve such a level. However it is on the student to be tested on the concept that was assigned and be able to perform it at a level required for each grade level.
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