This weekend I am heading out to B.C to go camping, so I thought I should write a quick post about what I am doing for the collabortive project. Kelly and I are working togeteher to create an Arts Education resource for the five art's areas: drama, dance, music, visual arts, and literature. This wiki resource will include lesson plans, artists, dancers, unit plans, video's, art's intergrated lesson plans for social, science, etc. We also want to include a section for technology intergration, and ways of incorperate it into the arts.
So there you have it. Our idea in a nut shell. We want to encourage anyone to join in and offer their ideas/thoughts for our wiki. If interested, you may access it by clicking here.
Hello everyone! On the 24th, In the Elluminate Live session, we talked about wiki's, while discussing the whole reliability factor. Considering anyone is able to edit a wiki page, how are we sure that this information is valid? Unfortunately, we are not! Ya that's right, there is information floating out there on the web that is unreliable and misleading.
I believe, however, that this issue stands true for all our recourses in life, and does not just start/end with the internet. Within the last month I read that Meg Ryan has died in a car crash, I have seen a teacher teach a music lesson and tell the student's the song was in 3/4 timing, and I heard a father tell his child the dog walking by was a bichon. Let's take a look at my sources: A journalist, a Teacher, and a Parent--all pretty reliable wouldn't you say?? Not only was this information gathered from sources other then the internet, but it was also all untrue.
My point is, we can not take everything at face-value. I believe that wiki's (such as wikipedia for example) can be an excellent resource if used in a critical manner. From a very young age we learn to analyze information and become critical thinkers, so why not apply the same skills to wiki's.
I came across an article in my RRS feed's, by Christopher Miller regarding the use of wikipedia in the classroom, and how we can use it as a teaching tool for students. The teacher developed an assignment that allowed the students to use wikkipidea as a source, by comparing it with other information. The main objective for this teacher was to "embrace Wikipedia instead of banning it, and use the experience as an educational experience" for the students.
I'm going to close with this for tonight. Take Care--and GoodNight
What should have been an easy task ended up turning into a big complication, but I suppose I asked for it. I really wanted to include a video into my digital story, which is why I didn't use photstory3.
Having said this, I downloaded the Sony Vegas Movie Maker, free of charge, which came with a great tutorial.
Overall the program was fairly user-friendly, and offered a wide range of transitions and video effects. Now for the downside. The whole time I was creating the video I was only able to preview it in a small box. I could enlarge it slightly, and then my audio timing was off?? I'm not too sure why.
Anyway, more importantly, the overall file is saved as a .VF, which I had to convert in order to post in youtube. The problem is however, I had a difficult time finding a site that converts .VF files. After reading the tutorial for this program, I realized that they convert the file for me and post it online, which worked out for the purpose of this project. From there I downloaded it, and then was able to post that on file on youtube. For those interested I well make a separate post with some tips for converting files, and what I learnt along the way.
I also knew that I wanted to use "lost in this moment" by big and rich as my background music but did not want to include the vocals…considering it was a wedding song, and would have been misleading for my video. I ended up extracting the majority of the voice (with the exception of the echo overlay). For those interested, I well describe how I did this in a separate blog.
I already know I am too picky for my own good, but two things really bother me about the outcome of this video:
1. I am curious why the quality is so poor, after it has been converted. The image is smaller then in my preview window of Vegas Movie Maker, and yet it was much clearer. If someone knows how to convert VF files, rather then having this program do it for me, let me know. 2. The voice waves do not match up with the actions, as they are delayed in the youtube version, but not in Acidplant. For now, I am posting it as-is but if you want to know it should really look and are willing to look at a much smaller screen then youtube, check out the posting on Acidplant.
OK, I’m done babbling. Enjoy my video…and more importantly
Insomnia seems to be a regular occurrence this past week for me.Its 3:15 and here I sit outside on the swing holding a freeze and wearing a Rambo bandanna.How’s that for a mental picture?Last Tuesday I got a tonsillectomy and my adenoids removed, so I’ve been taking a lot of Tylenol 3, and finding myself a wake most of the night.Oh, and just for the record, I swear I’m not twelve.
All in all, I ensure you this isn’t just a sympathy blog and I do have some reasoning behind my madness :).While looking up information about my tonsil surgery, I found some interesting graphic-filled video’s of what went on in the operating room, and found myself intrigued.
From there went to You Tube and started watching other surgeries and then came across a sonogram, which sparked an idea for one of my internship units in Health/Family Life.In the curriculum guide my co-op gave to me, there is a unit about God’s creations, and how we are brought into this world. A suggested idea is to show the students a picture of a sonogram: black and white fuzz, with motion lines and a possible foot—not very captivating for a grade four audience.
After watching the videos on You Tube I thought it would be incredibly engaging to show the student’s a video or two.In situations like this I love technology, because of its ability to create such a powerful experience.
What is more effective... You be the JUDGE! This 2D B&W Sonogram OR this 4D youtube video
Alec Couros posted the following message on my digital internship blog, and thought it might be relivent to what we are doing in class right now....or kind of relates to digital storytelling. Bellow is the message he posted:
I found a pretty neat resource that might be useful for you. Basically, it lets you upload photos and then link voice clips to each clip. In fact, you can have many voice clips for each photos.In a classroom situation, you could (for example) take photos from a field trip or from class observation ... or even from a class photograph, and then invite some or all of your students to upload their own voice clips to the photo. Click here for more information.
I think that teachers are often intimidated by technology, much like the arts. These are two things that many try and avoid, because they feel they have nothing to offer. The fact of the matter is that doing somehting is better then nothing.
(I made the very same comment directly in Kubat's blog and pressed the cocomment button, but am not sure how to post those comments on my blog, without creating a whole new one. Any suggestions? )
Right now I am re-doing my novel study I had prepaired, as it turns out half the class read the book last year! Darn! but oh well, I suppose that's life.
