I had the good fortune to be invited on to the Edtech Posse Podcast once again last week. I joined Rob Wall, Dean Shareski, & Heather Ross for a conversation about teaching digital safety & awareness, as well as discussion on the concept of digital resident vs. digital tourist. Unfortunately, the Posse missed having Alec & Rick join the conversation as I hardly filled their role. As a noob, I learned that the clicking of a mouse can be picked up by the mic and so could my wife’s cello practice. Sorry Guys. Thanks for the invite.
*note: uploading to slideshare changed the layout and design of the slides
Creation of Bear’s Birthday
The origin of this project lies in my interest in digital storytelling and my lack of having created many examples of quality or substance. A spark hit the paper when Karen, the instructor of my ‘Teaching of Writing’ course, introduced a story writing project for class. I had recently visited Dean Miezienko’s class with Dean Shareski, where Dean S. introduced the class to digital storytelling, naturally I came home with a few ideas for format. Unfortunately, I struggled with character development and the the topic of my piece. At this point, the project was moved to the back burner for a couple weeks.
My eyes are always open for teaching resources and at a Apple MacBook Training session, the rep John Maschuk*, shared a file of teddy bear pictures. He welcomed us to use the resource and the spark from my writing course took. I am a visual individual when it comes to these type of creations and I had worked with storyboards before. I was instantly inspired. I worked the slides into an outline of a story and then pulled the pieces together. As I built the sequence I naturally played with the story, character development and word choice. The visuals of this project were created in Powerpoint and I saved many files containing changes to the original drafts.
At the beginning stages of my revision process I shared early drafts with Sean White, a new friend from class. Between Shawn and my wife, Joleen, the story was enhanced by their trusted insight and suggestion. From their feedback I made some key edits to create a more patterned sequence, modified the sentence structure and played with general appeal of the slide design. At this point, I saved the slides as .jpg files, and I imported them into iMovie for narration, transition and sound. As I narrated the story I found more glitches in how the story was written. It is really interesting to reread something out loud and record it to get a different perspective of the voice of the writing. From this experience I had another revision stage and needed to make necessary changes to the slides in Powerpoint and then go through the importing process again.
I had a fun time recording and re-recording the narration as I tried to be vibrant and fluffy as required for such a piece. A point of suggestion is to make short sound bites, I read 2 or 3 slides at a time and then pieced the audio together. In this practice I avoided having to re-read the entire story when I accidentally mis-spoke.
While I was designing the slides I was thinking of adding Batmanesque onomatopoeia through visual sound bubbles and bursts of text. I decided against this because I wanted to keep the visual simple and uncluttered. Ultimately this idea still worked through the recording process as I ‘wrote in’ sound effects and music to enhance the story.
Version 1.0 of “Bear’s Birthday” is born on to the web
At this point I felt the story was ready to publish, but I decided to sleep on it. The next morning I reviewed the story and found another spelling error and changed the text color in a couple places. The story was then ready for publishing. I exported “Bear’s Birthday” as a .mov file and uploaded it to Youtube and disperse to an audience. I shared the story through numerous email, facebook, WebCT and Twitter. I may of been guilty of spam, or maybe it was my marketing background shining through. I told my audience that this was version 1.0 and asked them to participate in a networked revision. The audience grew and I recieved numerous comments through a variety of streams including email, Private messages, Youtube and blog comments. Karen Janowski, even took a few minutes out of her day to call me up on skype to share her interest, encourage me and other suggestions from a special education perspective. All of this feedback demonstrates the power of social media in creating quality web content and I really appreciate the attention folks gave to this piece. From the feedback, I made major edits, including a spelling error, a couple changes to the story and some slide redesign. Can you catch the edits?
After this batch of story edits to the visuals, I had an opportunity to visit Mrs. Lichtenwald’s Grade 1 class to share this story and get their opinions. They were into it and wanted to watch it a couple times. After the second viewing I asked them what could be changed or improved. I received some fantastic critique and feedback, one child even suggested that I add a character named “Mr.Noodle”. I chuckled, thanked him and told him I would think about it A few others liked the sound effects and suggested that should have more. I agreed and invited a few them for their best sound effect to add to the story. We all laughed and had fun.
After publishing the first version of Bear’s Birthday, this story saw a more indepth analysis and polishing. My participatory audience included related professionals from a variety of backgrounds including graphic design, teaching, music recording, ESL teachers, experienced digital storytellers and best of all, the children. This collaborative exercise has many potential applications in my future classroom. The relationship with audience gave me a sense of ownership and mastery with the writing and creative process. I wanted to created the best possible piece and my network of friends, family and acquaintances help make this a reality.
This is my first uploaded draft of this children’s story. This piece has seen much trial & error many edits to get to the stage it is at. I am still not totally satisfied with the final product but am posting it here regardless. It is my hope that some will view the story and decide to offer suggestions on my writing and the design. Together with your input I hope to make this story better and more refined.
A more detailed post on my reflections and procedure for preparing this story will follow. I have had a lot of fun creating this story from the photo’s of John Maschuk (whom I haven’t found an online link for yet, but will).
*NOTE: Please click through to the YouTube Page. The pesky You Tube image embeded on my video within the blog detracts from the graphics and covers my writing.*
This post explores some ideas of how we can leverage mp3 players to enhance learning of the langauge. Schools try to prohibit students use of these devices, but that is the wrong approach. Innovative educators find ways to use these tools to expand their lessons. I have started to compile ideas and models of classroom use. You can be the judge as to how it will work for you. Projects involving MP3 players can be used to achieve objectoves from each of Saskatchewan’s 6 language arts strands; Speaking, Listening,Viewing, Reading, Respresenting, writing.
“12% of internet users say they have downloaded a podcast so they can listen to it or view it at a later time.” Pew Internet, 11/22/2
I have had this blog post on the back burner for little while. As a Digital Intern, I received funding from a Microsoft Partners in Learning (MPIL) Grant to purchase tools for my school. I chose MP3 Players to be part of the package. Today, I sat in on a meeting about potential classroom use of the tools. These two factors inspired this post.
Teacher’s automatically are intrigued by the idea of digitized assessment, voice recorders capture the blurbs of learning that students express in conversation. I used the recorder to record conversation during group work, reading, presenting & debating. As I walked the room I recorded student conversations, captured their responses to questions and made additional anecdotal comments. I briefly reviewed the material recorded and realized it would take a lot of time to listen to every minute again. The neat thing is that the recordings are digitized and stored as part of the students portfolio. The teachers at the school are excited about the potential of recording reading benchmarks for comparative data.
Rationale for using these tools; because our students do.
Ideas and models of classroom use of the Tool:
1. Listening to eBooks/podcasts
I have been in two conversations in the past two days in which someone has referred to a book they listened to. You need to search for free ebooks, but they are out there.
There are podcasts on many, many topics and new content added every second. Search iTunes or Juice to find podcasts that relate to the subject matter you are studying. iTunes U has a huge library of College podcasts. Educators may want to visit the Education Podcast Network to find podcasts from other educators and examples of podcasts organized by grade or subject. CBC is another favorite source for radio podcasts.
2. Take recording on the road, record learning and observations from fieldtrips. My good friend Paul had students interview one another while visiting the McKenzie Art Gallery. Listen to the podcasts at his classes blog. Again capturing the thoughts and ideas as they are expressed.
3. Create Radio Shows on a variety of topics
This could range from a strong 15 sec advertisement to a full out Sprankle Style Production. My fellow intern Joy, had her Gr 7 students create podcasts on music from different era’s. She called it “Music Through Time”. I worked with a group that studied music from the 70’s and created their version of what a radio show sounded like at that time. It should be noted that teachers need to allow time to work out the intangibles of larger projects.
4. Record the project instructions once in a while. Change up your presentation method. Record the instructions for your next assignment.
Possibilities are endless. Have students verbally record the process of a science experiment. Upload a daily language lesson. Drum with a professional. The teacher no longer has to be the only professional in the classroom.
Sharon Peters‘ grade 9 class completed a neat interview project (covering all levels of blooms taxonomy) as part of their response to a novel study on The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. Once scripted the students record their podcast and post to their class wiki. Sharon also pointed me pointed me to LEARN Quebec as a source for classroom ideas.
Welcome to LightintheWoods. I am Kyle Lichtenwald.
I am a new teacher just entering the profession. This space will document my learning and reflections in regards to educational applications of technology in K-12, Post-Secondary and elearning environments. I share info on tools, links and media that interest me. Thanks for visiting.
After this batch of story edits to the visuals, I had an opportunity to visit 
This collaborative exercise has many potential applications in my future classroom. The relationship with audience gave me a sense of ownership and mastery with the writing and creative process. I wanted to created the best possible piece and my network of friends, family and acquaintances help make this a reality.
