Digital Dewey

Learning CAN be fun!

We want children to be engaged, enjoy what they are doing and be learning at the same time.

With my blog down for maintenance over the weekend, I decided to explore a few more media tools, and found a couple of ways to get the kids laughing AND learning.

‘Blabberize’.

Blabberize is free and easy to use.

1. Upload your photo. You need to choose a photo where the mouth is large enough to be seen clearly. Crop if necessary.
2. Position and shape a mouth onto the mouth of the photo you uploaded.  This is the part that will move when the mouth opens and closes with the voice you record later on.
3. Record your own voice or add a sound file you have already made.
4. Convert to a video or just grab the HTML code.
5. Sit back and have a good laugh.

Too much fun to be educational, you say?

Because it was my first attempt, I just experimented and had fun with it, but how could you use Blabberize in the classroom?

Here are a few suggestions for classroom use:

An endangered animal making a plea for help; sing a rap about something you’ve done; advertise a product you have developed; explain how something works; Blabberize a cartoon; or for LOTE, speak in a foreign language; read a poem; present a short argument or a deliver a speech; be a person in history and talk about what you did; Blabberize your blog with information about it; draw your own picture; write a script for the image and read it aloud; make a book character come alive; present a maths problem for students to solve.

Fotobabble.

Fotobabble is similar to Blabberize but without the talking mouth. Although this was very simple, the on-line recording was a bit limiting.

All you have to do is -

1. Upload a photo.
2. Record a message online.
3. Save and embed Fotobabble or share.

Suggested Classroom Uses:

• Sing a jingle.
• Present a point of view.
• Describe what’s happening in the photo.
• Make up a story about the photo.
• Use a news photos and report on the news.
• Review a book.

I’m sure there are lots of applications in the classroom for both Blabberize and Fotobabble.

Please post your ideas on a sticky note on this Wallwisher.

You can also see what other people have added.  Click on the image link below.

Hidden benefits –

• Learning how to record a sound file. (plus uploading it in Blabberize)
• Emphasis on using expression and speaking clearly when recording.
• Keeping the text brief but informative.

Grab some POPCORN and let’s go to the

MOVIES.

In this week’s Edublog Teacher Challenge #6, we look at embedding media into a blog.

Here is an idea I tried last term with the year 5/6 students. They did a great job, but we were rushed for time and there are a few things I would like to focus  more on next time.

What is a Book Trailer?

A book trailer is like a movie trailer you see at the cinema. It’s a short movie made to promote a book so that people will want to read it. A book trailer offers a way of responding to books that is creative, but encourages critical thinking and analysis.

How do you make a book trailer?

Look at the prezi ‘How to make a Book Trailer’ and then research other book trailers that are similar to what you would like to do. (Prezi by Michelle Harclerode)

What steps will I follow?

• Choose a book.
• Read the book.
• Analyse the book – what was good, unique, interesting etc. – brainstorm/list/mindmap
• Write a first draft – impressions, the feeling, important points.
• Create a storyboard.
• Plan effects (transitions, sound, colouring, etc.)
• Review the plan – with teachers, other students…
• Find and download images to match your words or take your own photos or movies.
• Find music, create voiceovers.
• Create and publish the trailer using either – movie maker, animoto or powerpoint.

Here are some samples of each type.

Movie Maker using images by Emily and Ashleigh. ‘Witches’ by Roald Dahl.

Movie Maker using video by Annabelle and Georgia. ‘Scatterheart’. (You’ll need to turn the volume up to hear this.)

Movie Maker using visual effects by Brandon and Michael. ‘Guinness World Records.’

Movie Maker using great text effects by Alex. ‘The 39 Clues’.

Animoto video by Jack andTom. ‘Bear Grylls’.

If you sign up to animoto for education you can make full length movies. It also allows you to give each student an email address attached to yours. (I created a gmail address for the task.)  Students found this tool very easy to use.  The movie can be edited or remixed even after you have finished. It has an embed code but can also be downloaded to the computer.

Powerpoint converted to a movie by Josh and Liam. ‘Ranger’s Apprentice’.

To convert the powerpoint to a flv file I used a program called E.M. Powerpoint Video Converter.

At first I was unable to make these videos visible on the blog, but they worked after I first uploaded them to You Tube and then embedded the codes.

You could be only one click away from the perfect picture too. Everyone has a digital camera or phone these days.

So get out your camera . . aim . . . click . . . and then surprise yourself with how creative you can be (and how much fun you can have).

This heart-shaped word mosaic was created on Image Chef. Here you can add text to a sketch pad, create a poetry poster, make word mosaics, use an assortment of frames, or remix from user made examples.

Let’s look at some ways you can add fun to your day and artistic pictures to your repertoire.

5 Image Story

Here’s my 5 image story. Well, it’s actually a sentence that represents a big part of my life.  Each picture represents one word of the sentence. Can you read my sentence?

To get these effects, I used 2 programs, Be Funky and Fotoflexer. Both programs are easy to use and give you lots of options.

BeFunky lets you apply photo effects, enhance and edit your photos online. Effects include cartoon, sketch, painting, pop art and lots more…

Fotoflexer lets you add effects, fonts, shapes, doodling, distortions, layers, and best of all RE-TOUCH! Re-touch allows you to easily fix blemishes and wrinkles, so anyone can look 21 in all their photos again. (What I’ve been waiting for!)

I also used Fotoflexer to make this collage to see at a glance what amazing effects can be applied to one image.

Another program which allows you to create collages of your photos is
Shape Collage. It’s free but you need to download the program to your computer. Use your own images or photos from the web. You can make your photos appear in the shape of a rectangle, heart, circle, letters, or even draw your own shapes. This is also a quick and easy tool to use.

Make a Movie from your Photos

It’s great to find things that are quick and easy but give good results. I use animoto a lot and the students absolutely love it. We now use animoto for education which allows you to make longer movies and students can have their own accounts which you can view from your emails.

Here’s how we combined Wordle and images in an animoto video.

Playing with images is fun, but there are many applications for the classroom which I will be exploring further. Meanwhile I’m off to play some more . . .

The Edublog Teacher Challenge Activity 5 – “Images – the eyes of the blog” has some great suggestions and advice on how to find and use images in your blog in both the Beginner and Advanced posts.

Photo attributions for 5 Image Story

Original image: ‘oil slick eye’ licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike2.0Generic http://www.flickr.com/photos/27021814@N00/22613927

Original image: ‘under my umbrella’ licensed under Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic http://www.flickr.com/photos/36613169@N00/1828177743

Original image: ‘let peace’ licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic http://www.flickr.com/photos/37309069@N04/3822829488

Original image: ‘reading time’ licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic  http://www.flickr.com/photos/12692384@N00/255230682

Original image: ‘what I’m reading and re-reading’ licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic   http://www.flickr.com/photos/61787893@N00/163867388

Get a Voki now!



Get a Voki now!

It’s been quite a while since I posted any comments on the blog due to a relaxing holiday in Hawaii (minus computer!!!), but I’m happy to say my quest to learn as much as I can about Web 2.0 has been ongoing.

This term, I am working with the Year 5\6 students on making Book Trailers. With the many interruptions of Term 4 and limitations on time, the task will be kept simple, with the emphasis on a short, attention grabbing presentation. The children are familiar with Movie Maker and I will introduce Animoto as an appropriate Web 2.0 tool to keep the task short and simple.

The first thing I noticed was that ‘Copyright’ needed to be addressed. The second was that once again I relied heavily on using the Clairvaux wiki as a teaching tool and a source of information.

• I used the Prezi (created by Michelle Harclerode 2010) which I had embedded on the wiki, to work through some steps for making Book Trailers.
• I created a Copyright page on the wiki, not only to provide simple explanations and answers about copyright issues and licensing requirements, but also to provide students with copyright friendly sites to search for images, sounds and music.
• I also created a page to teach the procedure for using Animoto. I find students will often look at the wiki at home or refer back to it to consolidate their understandings.
• Students began the task by using the Book Trailers page and the New Books page to view videos and follow links to other Book Trailer examples.

The biggest frustration is that YouTube has recently been blocked at school, so that any embedded YouTube Book Trailers, ‘How To’ videos, or links to videos no longer appear when on the school internet. Primary children are very visual and will often view a short video in preference to following a link.
I have worked with the 5/6 students on Cybersafety and we have an Internet Users Policy. I wonder how other schools get over this issue and what precautions they take for safe use of material from sites like this?

http://www.edmodo.com/

At the moment I am investigating the use of Edmodo for classroom use. Edmodo is a teacher moderated social network where students can share ideas, publish their work, and learn how to communicate effectively online.

Edmodo makes sharing files and communicating with students easier -  no more having to set up shared drives on the server, posting stacks of URL’s on wikis, or waiting for student emails.

The main features of Edmodo are listed below.

• Accessing teacher’s Personal Library – store work and assignments in a library
• Building an online Student/Teacher PLC
• Collaborating with Other Teachers - creating Edmodo groups
• Connecting with Absent Students
• Embedding Just About Anything in one simple step
• Posting Handouts – no lost handouts
• Providing Online Data Storage – avoids lost files and jump drive crashes
• Providing Teacher Big Brother Features in a Student Centered Environment – allows social network whilst still being in charge of the content.
• Publishing and assessing Student Work – all student work is embedded in the one spot instead of having to search for it.
• Receiving Text Message Updates – reminders, questions etc.
• Setting Up Classroom Discussions – set up open ended questions for student discussion then watch (and assess)
• Sharing Links - links can be posted and immediately accessed by all.

For more detailed explanations of these features, see Mrs Smoke’s (Making Teachers Nerdy) blog post Social Networking Power with Edmodo in the Classroom.

http://animoto.com/education

I registered with Animoto today (another ‘sign up’!!!) and uploaded a few pictures to see what would happen. The result was OK but apparently it prefers better quality photos than I used. I made  two examples to put on my wiki. I’d like to make one with photos of the students but I don’t have signed permission. I did sign up with Animoto for Education but it takes about a week for them to process this so I used the free Animoto for now.

I’m sure the students would find this an easy tool to use for presenting their work. I wonder how else it could be included in their learning? I can’t wait to introduce them to some of the ideas I have prepared for them to use in their learning.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Today I had a look at how Voicethread has been used in education. The task for this term for our student Book Club is to read and review the shortlisted books. I am hoping now to have them use Voicethread to record their reviews and add comments.

I have set up a Voicethread for 3 shortlist categories by inserting an image for each book.  First I will need to enter my students. Then each student can make an identity image or avatar and begin recording a review of the book they have read. Finally I hope that they will comment on each other’s books as they read them too.

I will try to add them to my blog to see if they work. Eventually I hope to make a Library wiki or blog which includes other Book Week links and ideas as well.

Book Week 2010 – ‘Across the Story Bridge’.

Explain what you think the theme means.

WALL LINK: http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/dsK1nGyBna

BOOK WEEK BRAINSTORM

Brainstorm some ideas for Book Week based on the theme ‘Across the Story Bridge’.

WALL LINK: http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/4x2IggBkvA

Sayings about Bridges

What do these sayings mean? Add some more.

WALL LINK: http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/SLqo7phNCg