Assignment 8

This past week we were tasked with creating a desktop movie/digital story and upload it to TeacherTube. I really enjoyed creating this as I had never before used Windows Movie Maker. But it seems my computer wasn't so keen on cooperating with me.

While creating the movie, my computer would freeze at various points causing me to have to reboot....and my computer takes FOREVER to reboot. So this was really frustrating. Then while trying to save my movie maker file as a movie file, my computer froze a total of 6 times. Again, I had to reboot. After the sixth time of freezing, I was finally able to save the file and upload to TeacherTube...only to find that the video was uploaded but could not be viewed.

It was 2:30ish in the morning at this point so I had missed the assignment due date (Monday at midnight) which really angered me. I went to bed and when I got up in the morning, I checked TeacherTube. Still no active video. AGGGGGHHHHH!!!!! So, I uploaded my video to YouTube instead and submitted the URL for grading. When I viewed my uploaded movie, I realized that some of the last changes I had made to the video had not been saved.

So, I had to go back to the original movie maker file and make those changes, re-save as a movie file (as you can guess...my computer froze two more times) and uploaded again to YouTube.

GEEEESSSSHHHH!!!!

Despite my computer troubles, I still enjoyed creating this digital movie and can't wait to make more...although I will not attempt to create such a movie again on my current computer...unless I absolutely have no choice!

Assignments 4,5,6 & 7

So, I'm back again for my second blog post. It has been a rough semester in terms of my not having enough hours in a day to get everything done that I need to get done! But, I'm managing to stay afloat.

Now...looking back to assignment 4, Visual Learning through Inspiration software. This was a fun assignment. I am a very visual person so I enjoy creating learning tools to enhance the classroom instruction. I created a learning tool that would help with teaching the differnt cell organelles as well as mitosis. The Inspiration software was user friendly and I was able to quickly figure out how to add different shapes, change font color, incorporate images and add hyperlinks.

Assignment 5 was helpful in learning how to create a gradebook using Excel. This will be a great tool for organizing students grades and will be helful in generating various charts to show grade distribution amongst students.

I absolutely loved Assignment 6 as I LOVE PowerPoint. I had fun creating a game that reinforced the learning of my subject and prepared students for an upcoming quiz.

The WIKI, assignment 7 was interesting as I had never posted a WIKI before. I researched Voki's and Digital Storytelling, both of which I knew very little about. I love the idea of having students create Voki's or a digital story as ways to enhance their visual literacy while building various skills throughout the process. I also learned about Virtual Fieldtrips and Skype through looking at a classmates WIKI. This assignment opened my eyes to so many opportunities to include technology in my classroom.

Looking forward to the remaining assignments!!! :)

Assignments 1 & 2 & 3

So this is my first attempt at blogging. I like the idea of blogs and sometimes I even read them...I just don't seem to have enough hours in the day, though, to blog on a regular basis. My sister, on the other hand, blogs ALL the time. I just say, "It must be nice to have all that time on your hands." But, since I am required to do this for my Principles of Instructional Technology class, I am making time. :)

Assignment #1 required us to create a Pageflake and include a number of elements such as what I believe my current technology level is. I had never heard of Pageflakes before so I was instantly intrigued and yet nervous that I wasn't going to know what to do. I consider myself to be on the intermediate side of technology. I use technology daily but I am by no means an expert. I do find most technology to be pretty user-friendly though (for the most part) and I can typically figure things out without having to read the directions. I guess that means I am more of a hands-on learner. Anyhow, the assignment was great and Pageflakes are very user-friendly. I enjoyed creating all of the different little flakes and adding colors and images to make the page fun. I can totally see using this in the classroom as a way to communicate to my students or even give them an assignment to create their own Pageflake for class. It seems to be much easier to maintain and manipulate than a traditional website. Check out my Pageflake at http://teacher.pageflakes.com/kslevin/27632643

Assignment #2 required us to create a newsletter using a Wordprocessor. This assignment was very easy for me as I create newsletters and training documents all the time for my current job. I prefer to use other programs for these documents such as Adobe InDesign because I find them easier to manipulate when adding images and text boxes. The columns in Word always drive me bonkers and this assignment just confirmed for me how much I despise using Word to create newsletter-type documents...lol! I decided to create a mock syllabus for a seventh grade science class....hummmmnnn...for some reason I cannot get the image of my newlsetter to appear under this...I will need to work on that! Maybe I'll have tread some directions! :(

And this brings me to assignment #3...the BLOG. Woo hoo! I have succeeded in writing my first blog. I guess I have more to say than I thought I would! Ha!