On Wednesday we spent much of our time trouble shooting and embedding our videos into our websites (a very useful skill to know). Now we'll watch the academy award nominees for best infomercial, and even watch a cool commercial by a student in another section that used camtasia to spruce up her Jing video.
Wait, there's more...
Before we begin our Think Like a Teacher activity next week, we need to learn about a few more tools we didn’t have time to discuss.
Blogs are a tool I use to communicate with you every class. I use Blogger because it's quick and easy and looks nice. I've also used WordPress for other blogs, and other EDIT 2000 teachers use it because they can access previous posts with the calendar. My brother uses a paid tool for his professional blog about parenting. There are blogs for everything – just do a Google search for your favorite topic and add the word “blogs” (ex: news blogs). You’ll find a long list of interesting sites.
Wikis are tools that allow you to collaborate on a website with other people. Your Google Site that you are using in our class could be considered a wiki if you chose to add collaborators. Here’s a video for more information about wikis. Everyone's familiar with Wikipedia, but have you ever contributed to an article?
Podcasts allow you to record or listen to audio from a class, an event, a renowned speaker, etc. If it includes video it is often called a “vodcast.” Searching iTunes will show you a huge list of what is available. You can view this video for more information.
An important part of blogs and podcasting is RSS (really simple syndication). This really simple tool allows you to create an RSS reader that can search the internet for you, and bring in updates from your favorite blogs, podcasts and news sites while you are off sleeping, going to a football game, eating out with friends....Don't understand what I mean? Here, we'll watch a video. A good rss reader is google reader, and the good news is you already have an account.
We didn't have a chance to visit the Go Web 2.0 site. This is a great place to find even more tools for all sorts of activities. You may want to bookmark this in your Delicious account in case you need some ideas for your project. Consider the “kids,” “collaboration,” and/or “communication” tabs for your first Think Like a Teacher activity.
For Monday
1. Read chapter 3 and complete the reading guide.
2. Play around with some of the new tools you learned about today to prepare for the TLAT project next week.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Commercial time!
Last week you spent time exploring a communication/collaboration tool. Today we’ll share our commercials and learn more about the tools.
Add a link to your commercial here
Make sure you check the blog post from last Monday to ensure you have all of the required components of this task available on your “Communication and Collaboration Tools” webpage. We'll show our videos to our small groups, and then pick the best ones to show to the class.
Your Jing infomercial counts as one of your exploration tools. Some of you told me you had trouble linking or embedding the file. If you’ve not been able to embed your Jing, watch this video to learn how. If you used Screencast-O-Matic and uploaded yours to YouTube, watch this video instead. We'll spend a little time in class making sure this works for you.
If I had a hammer...more tools.
There are other tools available that support communication and collaboration in K12 classrooms. I want you to know about as many tools as possible. On Friday you’ll start your first Think Like a Teacher activity. In that activity you’ll design a lesson activity that uses technology to teach a content standard. So, the more tools we talk about, the more choices you’ll have to work with for your TLAT #1.
There are many other communication and collaboration tools. One of my favorite places to search for new tools (that are free) is on the Go 2 Web 2.0 site. You might find exploring under the “kids”, “collaboration”, and/or “communication” tabs on this site will show you some additional tools you might want to think about using for your first Think Like a Teacher activity.
FOR Friday:
1. Read Chapter 3 and complete the reading guide. As always, attach the reading guide to your “Reading Guides” webpage or turn it in on Thursday if you are handwriting your responses. Remember, you need to complete 4 of the 6 reading guides for the semester.
2. Explore the Go 2 Web 2.0 site and find a few more tools that our class might be interested in using.
Add a link to your commercial here
Make sure you check the blog post from last Monday to ensure you have all of the required components of this task available on your “Communication and Collaboration Tools” webpage. We'll show our videos to our small groups, and then pick the best ones to show to the class.
Your Jing infomercial counts as one of your exploration tools. Some of you told me you had trouble linking or embedding the file. If you’ve not been able to embed your Jing, watch this video to learn how. If you used Screencast-O-Matic and uploaded yours to YouTube, watch this video instead. We'll spend a little time in class making sure this works for you.
If I had a hammer...more tools.
There are other tools available that support communication and collaboration in K12 classrooms. I want you to know about as many tools as possible. On Friday you’ll start your first Think Like a Teacher activity. In that activity you’ll design a lesson activity that uses technology to teach a content standard. So, the more tools we talk about, the more choices you’ll have to work with for your TLAT #1.
There are many other communication and collaboration tools. One of my favorite places to search for new tools (that are free) is on the Go 2 Web 2.0 site. You might find exploring under the “kids”, “collaboration”, and/or “communication” tabs on this site will show you some additional tools you might want to think about using for your first Think Like a Teacher activity.
FOR Friday:
1. Read Chapter 3 and complete the reading guide. As always, attach the reading guide to your “Reading Guides” webpage or turn it in on Thursday if you are handwriting your responses. Remember, you need to complete 4 of the 6 reading guides for the semester.
2. Explore the Go 2 Web 2.0 site and find a few more tools that our class might be interested in using.
Monday, September 13, 2010
And if you act now....
So – you’ve chosen a tool from Tuesday’s list or you’ve found one on your own. Here’s the link to what everyone is working on (please ignore the typos!). Now you just need to create a commercial about your tool.
Step One: Talk with others in the class who are learning the same tool as you. What did they discover? What are they planning to highlight in their commercial. Is this person someone you’d like to partner up with for this project? It’s not too late to do this assignment with a classmate.
Step Two: Plan what you are going to include in your commercial. You’re selling a product and teaching us a little about it – more like an infomercial. Here’s an example that does a great job of making me want the product and giving me all kinds of ideas for how to use it (and it’s a huge bargain that will change your life!!) But no one did infomercials as well as Billy Mays. But if you grew up in the ’70′s and ’80′s you always wished your mom would order these. But wait, there’s more!!! See Time’s list of 25 best/worst infomercials.
As a class we’ll discuss what should go in your commercial and what the requirements are. We’ll post them here during each class section.
Spend some time planning out your commercial – what are the main topics/features of your tool that you need to cover? How can you make the tool exciting for you audience? Who is your audience anyway?
Step Three: Learn to use Jing. With the free version you can only record 6 minutes or less. We want to stick to less than 2 minutes. You’ll likely want to test out Jing a few times to make sure everything is recording properly.
You can have your tool as the screen image the entire time you are talking about the tool or you can have some powerpoint slides or other images to use along with the actual tool. If you’re absent from class today (or just need a refresher) view Jing tutorials here: http://www.techsmith.com/learn/jing/
If you’re having trouble downloading Jing – you can try:
http://screencast-o-matic.com/ or http://www.screentoaster.com/ Not quite as good as Jing – but they work, and they're online.
FOR Wednesday:
1. Review the requirements for your commercial (from the class document linked above).
2. Create your commercial with Jing. When you are finished, create a new page on your website called, “Communication and Collaboration.” On that webpage, write a short description of your tool, provide a link to your tool, and provide a link to your Jing commercial. A screenshot of your commercial would be great, too (and you can use Jing to create the screenshot!)
Step One: Talk with others in the class who are learning the same tool as you. What did they discover? What are they planning to highlight in their commercial. Is this person someone you’d like to partner up with for this project? It’s not too late to do this assignment with a classmate.
Step Two: Plan what you are going to include in your commercial. You’re selling a product and teaching us a little about it – more like an infomercial. Here’s an example that does a great job of making me want the product and giving me all kinds of ideas for how to use it (and it’s a huge bargain that will change your life!!) But no one did infomercials as well as Billy Mays. But if you grew up in the ’70′s and ’80′s you always wished your mom would order these. But wait, there’s more!!! See Time’s list of 25 best/worst infomercials.
As a class we’ll discuss what should go in your commercial and what the requirements are. We’ll post them here during each class section.
Spend some time planning out your commercial – what are the main topics/features of your tool that you need to cover? How can you make the tool exciting for you audience? Who is your audience anyway?
Step Three: Learn to use Jing. With the free version you can only record 6 minutes or less. We want to stick to less than 2 minutes. You’ll likely want to test out Jing a few times to make sure everything is recording properly.
You can have your tool as the screen image the entire time you are talking about the tool or you can have some powerpoint slides or other images to use along with the actual tool. If you’re absent from class today (or just need a refresher) view Jing tutorials here: http://www.techsmith.com/learn/jing/
If you’re having trouble downloading Jing – you can try:
http://screencast-o-matic.com/ or http://www.screentoaster.com/ Not quite as good as Jing – but they work, and they're online.
FOR Wednesday:
1. Review the requirements for your commercial (from the class document linked above).
2. Create your commercial with Jing. When you are finished, create a new page on your website called, “Communication and Collaboration.” On that webpage, write a short description of your tool, provide a link to your tool, and provide a link to your Jing commercial. A screenshot of your commercial would be great, too (and you can use Jing to create the screenshot!)
Just for fun – this is the best infomercial ever!
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