Come see my Voki! We learned about this site and others at Skyline Elementary this afternoon. Kids could create a Voki (an animated avitar that you can make talk) and imbed it in a multimedia poster, or link to it in a powerpoint, among other ideas.

http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=4955445&height=267&width=200

I am going to try to imbed it below - this is something new for me! Here goes.







Would you look at that? First try and it works! See, guys, it's not that hard!
Now, could you envision using something like this with your kids?

I have lots more great things to share but one of them is a secret until after Monday's class. I will post more later.

Script-writing and Pre-production of Educational Video

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/wc024 Producing an Educational Video - great tips about planning

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/wc022 Producing your own video program - great technical tips

Here are three videos produced by high school students - one in response to the First Lady's contest about healthy living (the zombies video) and two in response to an English class assignment.

Fahrenheit 451
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq0-f1HbzNw

Transendentalism PSA.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RASyyGy5oE&feature=channel_video_title

Zombies

http://www.ourstage.com/tracks/OVIHLHRIKXJJ-zombies

Video in Education - How, When, Why, and from Where?

The next two weeks we'll be looking at videos for use in your classrooms. Video is a great way to illustrate, supplement, and enrich and there are thousands of great videos out there.

We will be exploring the purposes of educational video, the evaluation of video prior to use, selection of videos from multiple sources, and eventually, making our own video.

Let's begin by reading the article from this week's content resources called Using Online Educational Videos: http://www.edutopia.org/youtube-educational-videos-classroom


Borrowing from Dr. Stansberry's blog (simplycurious.net):
Purposes of Educational Videos:
• Instructional – The purpose of an instructional piece is to teach something. This goes beyond simply presenting facts. Examples include: tutorials, teaching tools, and interactive games with assessment.
• Informational – The purpose of an informational piece is to inform the audience but not persuade opinions. Informational pieces could briefly cover multiple topics or focus on one or two. Examples include: News Programs, Biographies, Community Calendars, and Personal Websites.
• Documentary – The purpose of a documentary is to document an actual event or topic beyond the scope of a typical news story. It should reflect serious research and present facts objectively without fictional matter.
• Persuasive – The purpose of a persuasive piece is to present an idea, product, concept, organization or individual in a credible way, so as to change public opinion and/or encourage audience approval, support or participation. Examples include: Advertising, Public Service Announcements, and Movie Trailers.
• Story – The purpose of a story piece is to tell a story, whether serious or lighthearted, fictional or non-fictional. Examples include: Comedies, Dramas, and Student/Family Experiences.
• Entertainment – The purpose of a piece in this category is to entertain and/or amuse the audience in a format other than telling a story. Examples include: Music Videos, Variety Shows, Interactive Games, and Game Shows.

Great free places to find video:

• WatchKnowLearn (http://www.watchknowlearn.org/) is a wiki-type site with a very easy-to-use search tool
• SnagLearning (http://learning.snagfilms.com/) collects high-quality video from National Geographic, PBS, and others
• TeacherTube (http://teachertube.com/)
  
• SchoolTube (http://www.schooltube.com/)
  
• Edutopia (http://www.edutopia.org/video)
• PBS.org (http://www.pbs.org/)
• TED talks (http://www.ted.com/)
• NeoK12 (http://www.neok12.com/)
•  

Great sites your district may provide:

• BrainPop (http://www.brainpop.com/)
• Discovery Learning subscription channel (used to be called United Streaming) (http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/)

Take a look at these sites. Keep the following guiding questions in mind as you browse the video offerings:

1. What should I consider when choosing a video?

2. On what criteria should video be judged?

3. When would I be likely to use a specific video?

4. How can I save videos I want to use? How will I find them later?

5. In what instances might I want to make videos of my own?

Instead of meeting in class tomorrow, I would like you to read (and learn from) the following:

Chapter 7 pages 187-196 (Gaming);

5 blog entries about gaming from the blog When Tech Met Ed at http://when-tech-met-ed.blogspot.com/search/label/Gaming;

blog post "Gaming and learning - are they connected?" at http://pipedreams-education.ca/2011/09/17/gaming-and-learning-are-they-connected/

Please remember that learning involves exploring. When you read a blog post, you may find that there are many links to other articles, sites, lessons, and videos. Take a look at some of these. Does gaming have use in our educational settings?

Please also try out/preview/look at/read reviews of at least 3 of the games listed in the following places:

• Chapter 7, especially page 195

• or linked from one of the blogs you read

• or for our PE majors, try this series of articles and links (start with "What is Active Gaming" and go on from there) to games at http://pecentral.org/activegaming/index.html
  

• in the link on Week 8 in D2L "select a game" at https://oc.okstate.edu/content/enforced/627580-J_EDTC3123TH_002_116/games_list.html?_&d2lSessionVal=j-3xFcnSTKJOifsj8DZiEfQKFhI

Post your thoughts about gaming and the games you tried on our blog and be ready to discuss and continue exploring this topic on Wednesday!

What did you learn about gaming in an educational setting? Did you find anything you want to share with others?

Evaluating Educational Software

Today we are looking at different types of open-source software. Lots of articles have been written describing the use of open-source software applications in schools. See some of these at:
http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/article.php/3888901

http://www.bestkidsapps.com/category/educational-apps/

http://www.schoolforge.net/education-software/educational

http://os.cqu.edu.au/oswinsdvd/doc/README.html

What are the applications you found that look like they might be valuable? Why do you think so?

Enjoy the Game! Go Pokes!

Just a reminder that we will not have class tomorrow (Friday, Sept. 9). Instead, please post one or more of your cool tech tools to the discussion board on D2L. Put it in the "Links" discussion and label your post with particulars about which teachers would be most interested in the site. In your message, link to the site and give a description about it.

You are, of course, welcome to make more than one post to this recommendation of sites! If you found several that you think would be useful to your fellow teachers, please share!

You have three assignments due Monday. Don't forget that there are powerpoints in the course content area with great suggestions about your homework. Enjoy the game, stay safe, do your homework, post some links, and we'll see you Monday!

Web 2.0 tools sites

One of your assignments this week is to review three "new tools for teaching." Your content page gives you two links and I have a good third choice for you:

TeachWeb2.0 is the one with the annotations regarding the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of each tool and has some great info.

Go2Web20 has category tags to help you find an appropriate tool.

DiscoverySchools (which is a great website anyway) has another very teacher-friendly Web 2.0 tool kit - it's considerably smaller and organized very logically.

And for Assignment 4, here is an excellent article about integrating technology - BONUS! It's short and includes concrete examples. Read "Replace Completion with Creation" and you might get some good ideas for your assignment.

So, what did you decide today? Do you have many of the 21st Century Fluencies? Where are your strengths and weaknesses?

AND ONE MORE THING - did you think of any additional uses for that broken computer monitor?

Friday (yesterday) in class we watched this video:

www.edutopia.org/ferryway-ironworks-integrated-studies-video.

We noticed that the teachers based the unit on state standards, that teachers across disciplines collaborated to create the unit, that the students were engaged, and that grant money was used to purchase equipment.

If you were not able to attend class today, please make sure you watch this video.

Happy Weekend!

Old Tech

Saturdays you'll often find me tooling around town in my old van (it has 235,500 miles on it) visiting garage sales. I have always loved garage sales and love finding bargains and treasures.

Just last Saturday, I snagged a little something I've always thought was cool. It's practically an antique now. It's a great example of how technology has changed.

The man who sold it to me for $2.00 was quite elderly. He asked if I knew what I had in my hand. I did, because my dad used one every day as part of his profession. In fact, when I called Dad to tell him about my find, he asked if I got the brand K&E - you can see its logo on the case. He laughed and told me he still has his full-size and his pocket-sized at home. Can't bear to give them up. Of course, he had to be taught how to use it in his college classes.

Anyone know what it is or what it's used for? Anyone ever actually used one? When my parents come to visit in October, I'm going to have Dad show my son Robin how to use it.

Options for Ed Tech Assignments

When completing assignment numbers 3, 5, 6, and 9, you now have some additional options for showing your learning. Instead of simply typing into a Word document and posting it in the dropbox, you may try out some of the great tools available on computers and on the web.

Check D2L's content page for a document that will tell you more about the options available to you. We can also visit about other options if you have something you'd like to try that isn't listed.

Ed Tech and Us

Greetings! This blog will serve several functions:

• It'll act as an additional communication tool for our class
• Changes to assignments, due dates, additional options for assignments, etc. will be posted here
• It will allow me to learn about blog use (currently, I've spent the last 3 hours this morning just to get to this point. And that, my friends, is a major reason I've never been able to do a blog while teaching. Three hours on a Sunday would have been spent on lesson planning and prep, not "playing around with a blog.")

I would like you to subscribe via email or RSS feed to this blog. We'll try it and see if it is useful or if we should revert back to using D2L only. Your comments are welcome - just be kind and remember, I'm a novice in blogland!