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!

Imagine a picture of yourself on a billboard for everyone to see!

That’s how I felt about putting an “About Me’ page on my blog. I felt as if  I had ‘revealed’ myself to the world.

The Week 3 Edublogs Teacher Challenge of adding pages to a blog was the hardest one for me yet – for 2 reasons.

The first, was that I did not have an ‘About Me’ page, nor had I previously needed or wanted one. I must confess that I had NEVER looked at anyone else’s ‘About me’ page before, and was very surprised to hear that blog statistics show that the ‘About Me’ page ranks high in the most visited posts of a blog.

The second, was that I’m a pretty private person and until now I’ve managed to remain fairly anonymous on the web to all but people in my PLN. The task really challenged me to take the biggest step yet in my web journey.

My blog and I had to do some deep soul searching this week to decide whether we had come far enough to be able to add pictures and personal information.

Our questions and thoughts went like this . . .

Why should I share details about myself?

When you visit a blog you get a certain sense of what the person is like by the subject matter and the way they express their thoughts. A few personal details help complete the picture, and assist the reader to understand and identify with this person’s message. The person becomes real, not just words on a page and you are more likely to return to the blog if you know and trust the credentials of the author.

What information should I share?

The information that you share about yourself is what you feel comfortable and safe with. Each person is different and will focus on different things. Whilst some people share a detailed page of photos and information about themselves, family, holidays and celebrations, there are others who focus more on their work and the people and blogs they follow. We are out there already leaving a digital footprint, so we should be thoughtful about what we do.

What message would I like to convey to readers?

My blog describes my journey as I interact with the web and learn new things. It is a reflection of the steps I take and the experiments I try. It reflects my educational learning journey. Whatever knowledge and ideas I gain I share directly with my students and colleagues. Through my blog posts I share my knowledge and ideas with the world. But there is a person behind the blog, and it may be time to introduce myself.

I eventually decided to take the plunge.  

Here goes . . . You can find out more ‘About Me’ here.

(Hint: If you want to make the Glog larger, click on the Glogster Edu sign and a list will drop down. Click full size for easier viewing.)   Made at Glogster Edu

I’m very excited to be taking part in the Edublog Teacher Challenge, as it not only supports my needs at the moment, but creates more opportunities to indulge my ‘lifelong learner’ cravings.

The first challenge encouraged me to look more carefully at my blog – its purpose, visibility and the way information is presented.

As I read other blogs, I am in awe of the way people can express themselves. Whether it be reflecting, describing or explaining, the right words seem to flow skillfully and easily across the page.

Not so me!!!!! With a Thesaurus page in the background, my fingers hover over the keyboard in anticipation until my thoughts catch up.

My realisation as I reflected on my blog, was that I am a very visual and tactile person. Seeing something ‘does it’ for me. And then I need to try it out for myself before I can understand it . . . not unlike the primary school children that I teach!

Therefore, although I will try to develop a style of informative and reflective writing, my blog may tend to be fairly visual.

The main purpose of all my learning is to take new pedagogy and technology into the primary school classroom. Therefore, my ‘blog reflection’ is a Goanimate presentation. It’s the first time I have used it, but except for a few ‘frozen’ screens, it was lots of fun and I would love to try it with the year 5\6 classes.

GoAnimate.com: My BLOG by pamn

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It’s free and fun!

Like a tap dripping slowly, Web 2.0 is filtering throughout our school . . .

We are still continuing small steps at a time.

The wiki is gradually becoming a very useful tool and something that the children are beginning to refer to and use on a regular basis. I often use it as a teaching tool in my lessons from Prep to Year 6. The children have a link to it on our MyClasses page and the staff have a link on their desktop.
The use of the wiki and various web 2.0 tools is beginning to filter throughout the school – in addition to work done in library classes, we’re up to about 90 children now who have engaged in some form of after hours activities as either creators or responders. I’ve had many emails – some requiring advice, some informing me of what they have done or sending me links, and some just communicating about things they are enjoying.
As more children are beginning to show an interest in displaying their work on the wiki I have decided to set up a Student Work page in addition to incorporating their work into other appropriate pages.

Recently some Book Week activities created some learning opportunities.

• Children began emailing to be the first to answer a question a day about a shortlisted book. This question became hotly discussed as children tried to be the first online with the correct answer. (Side effect – Use of email improved particularly with younger children)
• Wallwishers which I set up to discuss the Book Week theme and related activities created interest with the Seniors, who then began creating their own. These were posted on MyClasses and the wiki and the discussions began . . . and then more …and more . . .  They added videos and websites  (Side effect – online mentoring, classroom teachers added comments, good questions had to be developed)
• Some children who saw my Book Week ToonDoo cartoon tried some out for themselves and emailed their link to me.
• A few children found a link to Picasso Head on the wiki (via Schumann the Shoeman activities) and tried it out.
• Book Trailers – Two Year 4 boys created a book trailer for visiting author Justin D’Ath. A number of children who saw this on the wiki now want to try creating their own.
• A year 4 girl wrote and published on the wiki an excellent biography of Justin D’Ath, based on a talk he gave to her class during Book Week.
• Some children have begun adding book reviews.
• During their Inquiry unit, two year 6 boys made a web page to make people aware of the plight of the children in the Pakistan floods. A link to this was put on the wiki.
• As a spin off from these activities, I now have lots of evidence for assessment and report writing.

There is a growing awareness and some curiosity now amongst the staff about Web 2.0 and I have been asked to do some PD and share ideas with the staff next year. As well, I have the opportunity to further develop both my own and the children’s web 2.0 skills next year in my teaching. I think the wiki will develop according to the paths we take and the tools we explore.

My goals for next year are to continue learning about Web 2.0 so that I can provide opportunities to embed the use of appropriate Web 2.0 tools in the learning and teaching of students and staff in our school.

http://clairvauxlibrary.wikispaces.com/

I’m feeling satisfied that finally I have been able to complete a reflection on my Web 2.0 PLN journey. This online course has been the most amazing and exciting experience  -  involving lots of hours, lots of ideas and lots if fun! I hope the children I teach can always find learning this engaging.

To create my reflection I used Toondoo for the first time (probably not a good idea) to create the slides, and then I put them together with Animoto.

Many thanks to Judith who developed such an excellent course and has been a wonderful support throughout.

I think I am finally beginning to realise the benefit of networking and collaboration – it took a while. It’s quite funny that you get to know people by their avatar. I will keep looking for these avatars to appear online.

I have no doubt that I will continue to develop my Web 2.0 skills, but I’m also keen now to get others at school enthused and start the process with them. Of course I am already working with the children in this way.

There are challenges ahead – a new Library to be built and developing my role as teacher librarian to suitably meet the needs of children’s learning in the 21st century.

http://prezi.com/

I haven’t tried to make a presentation using Prezi yet but it is quite easy to use. The best thing is that it makes you focus on the main points by zooming in. Using Prezi to present things to students would help them to focus on the main points, but I wonder whether they would zoom around uncontrollably if they were using it themselves. As far as being a tool for them to present their work ….. I’ll reserve my opinion until after I’ve tried to make one. Interesting tool though! I’d love to try it with my colleagues. I have embedded a Book Trailer Prezi in my wiki as a tool to explain the process of making a book trailer. The biggest problem I had was embedding it into my blog. I had down-sized it and apparently made a mistake. Seems OK now.

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.