Storytelling in the Digital World

Have you ever seen short clips at a presentation or on YouTube of pictures and wondered how they made such a cool video? Well this week we were introduced to a tool that makes creating one of these videos very simple. It is called iMovie. iMovie allows you to upload as many pictures as you need and create a video with them. There are ways to add transitions between the pictures in order to keep it interesting. One of my favorite characteristics of the iMovie is the background music. You can choose a song or any sort of sound file and simply drag it into the movie. You must be sure that you have the rights to use the song however, as well as the pictures. You can also fade songs in and out so that you can use different songs if you want to change the mood of the clip. There are certain text templates that can be added to pictures so that you can add some detail. But you can also record a narration and add it to the movie if you simply want to narrate the movie. One of the downsides of this tool is not only that you have to have a Mac, but also you cannot export the movie to edit on another computer. It must be completed on the same computer that its started on. This tool is a lot of fun but it is sort of tedious to create a video. The possibilities are endless however. My video is uploaded to YouTube for your viewing pleasure. Just click the link below.

Blaise Pascal in a Nutshell

Digital Diagram

I'm sure many of you have been exposed to some interesting diagrams throughout your school careers. I know I have seen some pretty creative diagrams many times. I often find myself thinking, "wow, they are really good with the paint program on the computer or they know something I don't know." Turns out it was the latter. Digital diagram seems to be the tool that many teachers and businesses have been using all along. After seeing many of the diagrams, it seemed that it could be a very complicated program to use if you wanted to maintain some originality. Well, after playing around with it some, I found that it is not nearly as complicated as the final product makes it seem. In fact, Digital Diagram may be the most user friendly tool that we have worked with thus far. It is a great way to make a quick, attractive  diagram for absolutely any topic. It is set up to resemble the web diagrams that so many of us are accustomed to. The majority of the tools buttons are represented with a picture so that you know exactly what each button does. It is not meant, however, to go into great detail about a topic. The topics can be divided into many layers but there is not much elaboration on each layer. Therefore, I think it best serves as an introductory tool or a review guide tool. Either way, it can easily be used in any classroom at any level.

Problems on the homefront...

This week was an important experience in the world of technology. Much of class time was spent getting to explore the tools of interactive white board in a deeper context. This exploration was not such smooth sailing. I would not say that we ran into problems as much as I would say that we ran into some rough waters. Some of the tools can be very complicated in interactive white board. Luckily, it was a great time to interact with my peers and put our heads together. As they have said for a long time, two heads are better then one, therefore a class full of heads must be better than two. This week created a great opportunity to see just how far teamwork can go in technology. Many of us have different strengths and weaknesses and when these are combined, there is almost nothing that we cannot do. We also found that sometimes a simple Google search can speed up the solution process whenever you may run across a snag. The tools were not the only part that gave us problems. We explored the web tool called Storybird this week also. This is a simple and fun tool for kids to use. There are not many applications for a high school math class but I am positive that it is not completely useless. The class discovered together an important part of Storybird. When you publish your story, it must first be granted permission by the Storybird staff before it can be embedded in a website. All in all I think this week served as a great reminder for all of us. Things will not always go according to plan in the classroom, but that is no reason to fret. When faced with a problem, simply gather yourself and search for a solution. It is also never a bad thing to seek help from your peers if necessary. Sometimes that is the best solution!

What a week!

This week in the world of technology was a little overwhelming. The class was introduced to a plethora of information and tools. One of the tools introduced was the interactive white board through Activeinspire. I think this may be my favorite tool so far. It has limitless applications in the classroom. It can be used in absolutely any subject at almost any grade level. It is by far the most interactive tool we have come across. I think it is imperative that all teachers in the future be familiar with this tool. There are many great ways to customize lessons with the white board. It can even be used for assessment of students. When implemented in lower grade levels, I think it can be one of the best ways to familiarize students with technology and how to use a computer. We were also introduced to Animoto which is another pretty neat tool. Animoto is a tool used to create video clips. Unfortunately the free access only allows for a thirty second video. I know it doesn't seem like much but you would be surprised with what you can fit in such a short time. It seems to be a reoccurring theme but I continue to be surprised by how much I learn about the web each week.