Collaborative Project

Collaborative Project

My group chose to use epub presentation software to create the presentation for our collaborative project.  This tool was really cool and provided many options including video embedding/playback, interactive pictures and links, and the ability to create 3d imaging.  The appearance and effectiveness of these features and their capabilities were the number one comment we received from the groups that viewed our presentation.  This is definitely a tool I would like to use in the future, especially for creating a data base of different presentations for staff and students.  The strengths of this platform include professional appearance and the ability to include many interactive elements in a multimedia format.  The only limitations noted so far is that it takes a long time to download in the school setting and only runs on Apple products.  One excellent suggestion/comment we received was having teachers use this format to create interactive lessons that students could view on demand.  I automatically thought this would be great for the "flipped classroom" model. Based on the comments I received tonight, I plan to start using this presentation media more in my classroom. 

VOKI

VOKI BLOG POST

VOKI is a web 2.0 tool that is designed to engage students through the use of student and teacher created avatars that speak.  The overall idea seems to be that students will engage more with this tool because they are able to create a multitude of characters for different learning situations.  Students and teachers may also create dialogues to go with their vokis.  There are three basic platforms: voki, voki classroom, and voki presenter.  The only platform that is free is voki, which is limited to character creation and voice over.  I found the free version to be very frustrating because the adware blocks the majority of the tools needed to create characters.  I must admit that I was accessing the tool on a Mac, and am not sure if there are compatibility issues.  I was able to utilize very basic features and create several characters that said different things, which was entertaining, but with no practical purpose. The website does offer instructions for how to embed these characters in a google website, which is really cool, but even though I followed the instructions explicitly, the avatar still didn't work on my webpage.  I did watch the three tutorials offered by voki, but none of them really provided sufficient details to support their claims of how their platform makes learning more accessible and engaging than other platforms that are out there.  My gut reaction is this site is just looking to get your money and may not offer any other educational benefits than those found on other learning management platforms.  It's a neat tool, but not enough to warrant spending $35.00 to subscribe.

Diigo

Diigo Reflection

https://groups.diigo.com/group/educ584-_-greene

I actually enjoyed using Diigo so much more than I did last year.  It seems as if they made the site more intuitive and user friendly.  I must admit that being a guy, I'm never much for the instruction manual so I'm sure I might have figured some of the features out a little quicker had I read them!  That being said, I was able to bookmark sites, annotate them, and tag them fairly easily.  The only thing I did notice is that when I went back into my previously annotated bookmarked sites, I was not able to see the annotations.  However, (again, had I read the instructions) I soon discovered that all of my previous annotations became visible once I clicked on the blue Diigo square (I don't know what it's real name is) on the browser's tool bar.  Once I did this, all of my annotations became visible.  The only other thing I kept forgetting to do was to tag the bookmarks as I loaded them, but this was easy enough to remedy by clicking on the edit button for each of the items in my library.  This is a great feature because it allows me to easily locate the articles I want to work with by simply typing the tag in the search bar.  The only thing I'm still wondering about is I seem to remember Don saying that you could organize your bookmarks in files, similar to google drive - haven't figured that one out yet!  All in all though, I'm very impressed with this site's functionality and am looking forward to trying it out with my students.

Animoto Reflection

I found Animoto to be a very user friendly and fun platform to use.  It allows students to be very creative while also providing them with a platform that is intuitive.  Although I am not sure how the paid site differs from the trial site, the functionality would be improved were the platform to have access to a digital library of open source images such as the ones offered buy the Haikudeck.com presentation platform.  Other than that, this is a fun site for teachers and students to have in their tool box for presentation/class project needs.

https://animoto.com/play/a09810E0vnR10mDDTbd4aA

Digital Story Reflection

Digital Story Reflection

For my Digital Story project I chose to make a PSA style presentation on Global Warming.  I chose this topic and format because my classes have been working on attempting to better their interaction with text skills while also attempting to make determinations about which types of material are suitable for citation.  With this in mind, I made image and music selections based on a desire to incorporate an element of bias into the presentation.

As I own a Mac, the presentation media I chose was iMovie.  This was a very interesting and versatile tool that allowed me to import images, place them into a predetermined order, and set them to music.  I was also encouraged that iMovie also allows the user to incorporate video voice overs, which would have been very beneficial to my presentation.  Unfortunately, none of the equipment I had access to included an internal microphone so I was unable to utilize this feature in my digital story given my time constraints.  I found the iMovie platform to be very powerful and can see myself using it more in the future as I move toward a flipped classroom model.  That being said, I will definitely have to invest more time in figuring out more of the basic/advanced features as this platform is not very intuitive for the digital immigrant.  I also found that the newer version seems somewhat different than earlier versions whose instructional youtube videos I viewed online.  All in all though, iMovie is an awesome tool with a lot of potential for my classroom.

My personal thoughts on the final version of my Digital Story were mixed.  I found the overall presentation to be effective but some of the details needed more work; specifically, image quality and voice over. The nice thing about these issues is that they can be easily remedied by access to time and equipment. Photoshop technology could be used to crisp and sharpen the textual content or HD quality scanners could be used to obtain the same results.  Voiceover could also be incorporated to accent the factual elements of the presentation.  Also, more time "playing around" with iMovie will also allow me to enhance my presentation skills for this platform.

Now, for where the rubber meats the road, my students' reaction to my Digital Story.  Forty-two of my students viewed my Digital Story and their responses were very encouraging.  All of them liked the imagery and music and many agreed that narration would have improved their experience to some degree.  All students were able to discuss elements of the story and to use details from it to participate in the ensuing class discussion.  Most of my girls found the music scary and the boys commented that they liked the pictures of things "blowing up."  The three most popular slides were the ones of the polar bears, the fish, and the culminating slide; these prompted many questions, comments, and discussions about what could be done to limit the effects of global warming.

With that in mind, the benefits of this technology include promoting classroom discussion while also providing students with a medium they can easily interact with.  Although many of my students do not have access to technology at home, they can access mini lessons created using this technology at the library or at school.  The only impediment I can speak to is the time it takes to produce these stories.  I'm sure the amount of time will decrease with practice, but implementing this type of project in my classroom on a regular basis will need to occur slowly and purposefully.