Voicethread

Hello Blog World!!!

This week in the exciting world of Education 6305 we had to complete an assignment called VoiceThread. VoiceThread is a tool by which you can meet, chat, discuss all on line. If you visited the website then you learned more about VoiceThread; if you didn't hear is your chance. With VoiceThread, group conversations are collected and shared in one place from anywhere in the world. Plus there is no software to install major plus! So what is a VoiceThread. It is a collaborative multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate pages and leave comments in five ways- using voice (mic or telephone), text, audio file, or video (via a web cam). You can share a VoiceThread with friends, students, and colleagues for them to record comments too. VoiceThreads can even be embedded to show and receive comments on other websites and exported to MP3 players or DVDs to play as archival movies. So if you didn't know now you did!

For class we had watch this video What is a VoiceThread if you are interested in what and how VoiceThread works, (which is pretty cool I must admit), I highly suggest watching it. It is a great introduction into VoiceThread and how it works. Then we had to sign up for a voicethread account. This is very simple to do just go to the VoiceThread website and hit sign in or register link it is completely free so don't be afraid about cost.

Next part of the assignment we had to watch two videos. These videos were both presentations given by Sir Ken Robinson. Both of these videos had themes that related to each other with many other points but the reoccurring theme was that modern educational system world wide are failing students because we are capping their creative capacity. He goes on to explain how and why we as educators must try to make the change and switch educational directions. We must go from the "production line mentality" and we must start allowing our students to explore divergent thinking. All in all let their creative sides show and encourage all students to explore all their special interests and abilities. We must start waking them up instead of anaesthetising them with ADHD drugs. These two videos were very interesting and I must say really woke me up to the change that should and needs to be made in the educational system. Again the presentation was made by Ken Robinson I highly recommend checking him out!

After viewing the videos we had to go to this VoiceThread and respond to how you are or will make a difference in the classroom according to Ken Robinson's presentation. You could leave your response by voice, or comment the point is that you made it. This is really cool because the entire class will have responded and you get to hear each other voices instead of reading which creates a more creative aspect to learning.

So how can students use VoiceThread in classes or projects? VoiceThread can
be helpful at increasing student engagement and motivation while activating learning.  The cool thing about VoiceThread is that teachers can use it in many educational settings with students in general
education, with students considered at risk, and with students with disabilities. Students can participate in learning activities designed within the VoiceThread environment as part of a whole class, in small groups, or independently. VoiceThread can serve as an archive for students to go back and gain reference or further knowledge for future classes or subjects.  The best part is that once a student learns to interact in the VoiceThread world they can use it over and over again. Teach a student in second grade and when they are a Senior they will still be applying that same knowledge. Again a very cool tool that can be used in any setting at school or as a homework assignment and it can fit into any content area! As an educator I really see the value in this tool and look forward to using it.

To wrap up the assignment lets take a look at where VoiceThread fits into according to the NETS_T standards.

Ok Bloggers until next time!
Andria

Jing Screencast

Hello again! Well another assignment going into the blog history, Jing Screen cast. 

Everyone remembers jing right?!? If not click on my archives and read up on the original Jing post that should catch you up to speed. So one of the other great advantages to using Jing is to be able to capture videos,(screen casts),  and utilize the videos to share with your peers, the Internet, or classroom. This assignment required us to create a screen cast, using jing, that display how to do something on your computer. I chose to create my screen cast demonstrating how to create a word cloud using Wordle. If you haven't read my previous blog about Wordle that is great because you will really take advantage of this screen cast. However, if you have then please watch and provide feedback so that I can know where I need to improve my screen casting abilities. Click to view my screen cast.  I created that link by capturing my video through Jing, saving it, then sharing via screen cast which automatically generates the link for you to share with whomever. 

This activity wasn't what I would classify as hard but it wasn't easy either. I found that in order to create my screen cast I needed a touch of patience, an informative tutorial, and a peer example. Note to reader I had to view these items many times in order to fully understand what I was trying to accomplish. I think the important thing to remember is that anything you try that is new is never going to be easy so just sit down breathe and explore you will get it!

As for the NETS-T standards this activity covers:

Again this activity wasn't the easiest one of the semester so far but it did teach me a lot. I am not confident in my abilities to create and capture these screen casts and look forward to using this tool again.

Until the next blog,

Andria

Benderconverter

Happy Monday!
Well after an emotional weekend remembering 9-11-01 I woke up to reality today that life always goes on! Today's assignment involves using the multimedia tool benderconverter. One thing I can say about this class is that with every activity/assignment we do I am learning about something completely new and foreign to me. Not that this is a bad thing it is a very good thing just frightens me every time I go to learn the new tool. However, another growing trait with this class is that every new tool is easy to use if you just give it the time to show itself as being easy. So is the case with benderconverter!

Benderconverter is an easy-to-use online application for converting audio and audio files. Want to know more click here. So it's really cool you can take music you find from youtube and convert it into IPOD or I phone format. Best part about benderconverter is that it's fast, free, and friendly! How does it work? First you must go to the website and download the tool this includes adding real player to your computer. Next you select the format you want to convert your file to. Second step click the browse button and select the file you want to convert. Third click convert and wait for the process to be complete. Finally, you want to download the conversion so that you may transfer or apply it to whatever you are trying to create. For the assignment we were required to download the tool and find a video on youtube that we wanted to share in either a PowerPoint presentation or a google document. For my video I chose a really cool slide show of modern history set to Billy Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire. This was really simply I found the video on youtube using real player clicked the download video then chose the format I wanted to convert it to, mp3, now it is in my library and I can use it whenever I want also using the real player there are option to share it with all your social networks which is an added bonus! (So if you find that really rare Dave Matthews Band song you can share it with the rest of Dave Nation!) Below you can see the MP3 in real player!

Step 2 of the assignment we needed to create that PowerPoint or google document presentation that has the actual video embedded into it. You are going to see this just below.

If you would like to view the entire presentation or watch the video,(which is really cool and creative), you can click We Didn't Start the Fire presentation. Hope you enjoy!

So all this work and what NETS T standards are we achieving let's take a look!

Not going to lie now that I know about Benderconverter I can see myself using it all the time! Not just for classroom activities but also for getting files onto all my tech gadgets! Hope everyone has a productive and happy Monday catch ya on the next assignment!

Andria

Jeopardy

Oh rainy day = lazy days! But alas not for the graduate student. Today's assignment is going to be my favorite of the semester just because of my appreciation of Jeopardy. You see it is not abnormal to walk into my parents house around 7:00 p.m. and find at least 5 people gathered around the television attempting to show off their knowledge skills to each other in a very intense battle of the brain. So when I saw we had a Jeopardy assignment my brain was already clicking on what the overall theme of my Jeopardy review would be. Using jeopardylabs I created a Jeopardy review game reviewing an eighth grade Constitution unit.
To review or test your own constitutional knowledge you can click here to play. From that link you can also download, or edit my game to your own specifications. If for some reason you have a problem with that link, as we all sometimes do, you can also gain access to my gain through my jing cast.

Using points ranging from 100-500 and one double jeopardy questions the categories included amendment, legislative, executive, judicial, and ABCD just a hodgepodge of questions. I believe that the hardest part of this assignment is making sure that your questions match up the point value. You want to make sure that your students are successful at this game not only for knowledge retention and future success on assessments. But also that they are having fun so if questions are too light they will get bored. If questions are too hard they will become frustrated finding that balance is absolute key to success in my opinion.
Below you will find what NETS Standards this activity falls into compliance with.

I encourage everyone to use Jeopardy at least once a semester. It is such a fun creative way in engaging your students learning retention.

Til next may the sun come out tomorrow!
Andria