Digital Storytelling

After looking at both options, I then looked at Michael Kauls's Zooburst and Heather Martell's Storybird projects to decide which one I wanted to try first.  Since Michael's was sort of an "all about me," and that's what I did for my Prezi, I decided to look at Storybird first.  Plus, I thought it might foster writing in my classroom.

I opted for the beta version of the poetry creating tool.  I was not impressed.  Once I chose a picture, then a bunch of words popped up on either side (like the magnets you would use on your refrigerator).  I chose some words, and then clicked to get more words, and all of my original words chosen disappeared.  The words hardly went with the picture, too -- they just seemed random.  You could change the colors of the words, but whoop-de-doo.

I know I could go back and try a story instead, as Heather did, but she wasn't very impressed.  Plus, I only get four more freebies.  So I'm gonna go look at Zooburst.

I'm disappointed, because this COULD have been a great tool for elementary-aged students, even with the stock images, but it's just not user friendly and doesn't allow for much creativity.

OK, here is my ZooBurst story.  I enjoyed this medium MUCH more.  It allowed for a lot more creativity and personalization.  I think it would be a great way to get students motivated to write, structure their writing, and want to read others' writing.  I think for third grade, the students would have to mostly use the stock pictures, because copying/pasting downloaded pictures might be problematic.  But, using stock photos would be a start!!!

Prezi -- Pimp My Presentation

Well, I sadly missed the last get-together with other Island Lake friends because I was dying from the worst summer cold EVER.  It was so bad that I even skipped the final Mounds View championship baseball game!

But, I survived.... and had to forge the Prezi Path alone.  This terrified me, because I've seen Prezi presentations before and figured they had to be impossible to create.  Trust me, I explored the Animoto and Popplet options, but of course wasn't interested in paying $$ further on down the road.

So, I spent a few hours with Prezi.  I had a GREAT time!  I'm very comfortable with Powerpoint, so the left-hand slides eased my fears.  The tutorial video was great.  I must admit, too, that seeing colleagues' presentations helped me realize that I CAN do this.

I used a template, and noticed Heather's comment to carefully plan b/c adding/deleting slides isn't easy.

I did try to add a frame, but then it appeared to the left of my big-screen picture and that annoyed me.  The flow still worked with the overall presentation, but I didn't like it in the overview, so I removed it.  Then, I slid the pictures I was going to add into the name slots next to my kids' names, but couldn't make THOSE into separate pop-out frames.  So, the pictures stayed static (too small) but I'm fine with it for now.

Next,  I'd like to build one from scratch, so I can better understand how to add frames and arrows.  But for now I'm pretty pumped with all I learned.

I can see using this for venn diagrams, illustrating cause-effect, KWL charts, showing Learning Targets.... the sky would be the limit.  Mindy's comments about 13-years old for usage means it would have to be teacher created -- though students could contribute ideas.  I also see that Prezi has a free iPad/iPhone app, so I've already downloaded that and watched my presentation on my phone!

Now I'm trying to embed the Prezi and I don't think it's working.  I may have to wait for reinforcements on Tuesday!  Argh!

Activity One

Day 2.  Clearly our brains were left at school on June 6.  Heather and I are struggling through but we've had a FABULOUS mentor in Katie Greene, who is also getting a master's in ed tech while taking this class.  OK, she is teaching us this class.  We're at Panera, so at least we're having fun and eating well!

We added some gadgets so far and are next going to figure out how to imbed a video.

This is one of my favorite videos because it shows the power of one person, but it also shows how different voices can combine together with very unique qualities to create one piece.  Plus, the music is pretty dang fun!