My Movies

                                                                                                            16/09/2010

Hello,
In today's lecture we had learnt about digital animation. What I had learnt in todays lecture is that, digital animation is the art of creating moving objects with the use of computers. I believe as a teacher it is essential to allow students to be creative and make mistakes so that they can learn from their mistakes. Modelling a storyboard is an example of an effective way to demonstrate to students what digital animation is all about. Storyboards allow students to become familiar with digital animation techniques, language such as angles and camera positions etc. Stop Motion Pro (http://www.stopmotionpro.com/) is an example of a great website that allows students to be creative and to learn about animation by taking several photos of the one object.

In today's workshop we had learnt, created, explored, and evaluated several programs based on digital animation. The first program we had explored was Dvolver Moviemaker- (http://www.dfilm.com/ ). We had explored this program in order to grasp an understanding of which programs are suitable/appropriate for primary school students. What I had learnt from exploring this program is that it is not a program that is appropriate for primary school students.

As part of today's workshop I had designed my own movie using Dvolver moviemaker. What I found with this program is that it allowed me to have a sense of structure, text dialogue, characters and plot. From this program I was able to pick a background, sky setting, create a dialogue for a character as well as to add music to the movie. I had lots of fun creating my own movie as can be seen below.

 http://www.dfilm.com/

 Another program we had explored today was the Zimmer Twins make a movie;
(http://www.zimmertwins.com/ ). If you have never used this program before, you will have to join the site in order to have access. While exploring this program, I found that it is a program that is suitable for primary school students to use. I found this to be a fantastic program to teach  English to students as the program explores characters, emotions, expressions, plot, themes etc. What I had also learnt from using this program is that the teacher will not have to sit at the computer with the students as the computer teachers/instructs students what they need to do. Below is a shot taken from my short movie.

                                                   http://www.zimmertwins.com/

Another program we had explored today was storygames; (http://www.storygames.com/). This program is fantastic to use with primary school students. It is a program where students get to read stories, generate words, learn to structure a sentence using still illustrations or animated. This program also teaches students to be creative and imaginative in what they write, (as can be seen below).

What I did on the Holidays...........

http://www.storygames.com/

The build your wildself program was another program we had explored today; (http://www.buildyourwildself.com/).  This program is also suitable for primary school students. The program allows students to be creative while teaching students about different types of animals. This program could be used as part of a literacy block when teaching students about animals/pets. It allows students to distinguish between different types of animals. This was my favourite activity throughout the workshop and it is one that I would like to introduce to my students on my teaching rounds if they are unaware of it.

http://www.buildyourwildself.com/

The last part of today's workshop was creating our own animated leggo, (http://www.reasonlyclever.com/). This activity was lots of fun as we got to be creative and very imaginative with the type of leggo we created. This is a fantastic program that is suitable for all age groups. This program is fantastic to use with students as it allows them to be creative while learning about dialogue and characters.

http://www.reasonlyclever.com/

m&m's Inspiration

                                                                                                                            

9/09/2010  

Hello,
In today's lecture we had learnt about educational soundness in the digital age. We had learnt that the digital revolution has provided opportunities in education to; improve learning outcomes, equip students with skills and knowledge and provide opportunities for collaboration world wide. Some great websites that I was introduced to in today's lecture that can be very useful in the teaching profession included;
Editure: Education Technology: http://www.editure.com/
The Learning Federation: http://www.thelearningfederation.com/ (This is a fantastic website, as it has over 5000 activities which cover all subjects).

In today's first part of the workshop we had explored the program Microsoft Excel. The activity we had completed focused on using our sorting skills, mathematical skills and knowledge as we had learnt to design bar graphs using Microsoft Excel. We had also used our  imagination to create an inspiring and colourful spreadsheet based on our findings of how many different coloured m&m'S their are in one small packet. The first step in completing this activity was to sort out the chocolate m&m's into groups based on colours; red, blue, yellow, green, brown and orange. We then counted how many m&m's there were in each group and wrote the quantities into our worksheet. From this, we then placed our findings into a spreadsheet using Microsoft Excel in order to generate a bar graph, (as can be seen below). I believe this is a fun activity for students to complete, as it allows then to be creative while getting students to use their sorting skills, mathematical skills and knowledge as well as to create class discussion (what do students see? etc). What I had learnt from today's workshop when completing an activity such as this one is, it is very important to first check with the school policy of using chocolate in a class activity due to allergies and religious beliefs students may have. I learnt that if chocolates are not permitted you could still conduct the activity by using coloured stars or confetti. This activity is also a great activity in that it can be used as both a computer task or as a paper base task.  

The second part of today's workshop was to re-tell a movie using the 'create a diagram icon' in the Inspiration program. The first step in completing this activity was to pick any movie from the dust echoes web page   http://www.abc.net.au/dustechoes.   The second step was to watch the movie, listen to the music, distinguish the characters and understand the themes that took place. After having watched the movie once, our activity was to re-tell the movie any way we want using the Inspiration program. I decided to replay the movie for the second time. This time I cut and cropped the main scenes from the story and pasted them into 'Insipration  create a diagram'.  In my diagram,  I had designed to re-tell my movie in the form of a step ladder (as can be seen below). The title of my movie 'Mermaid Story' was placed in the centre of the page followed by the main scenes around it . I clearly labelled the start and finish scenes so that viewers would not get confused.  I believe this activity is a great activity to get students to complete, as it allows them to practice their literacy skills and knowledge. This can be achieved by getting students to discuss what they saw in the movie, to work out the sequence of the story by cutting out themes/sentences and by allowing them to be both imaginative and creative in the way they decide to present their movie re-tell. This activity is a great activity to incorporate as part of a literacy block E.g. if students were learning about mermaids, they could watch the movie, create a diagram that re-tells their movie followed by creating a 3D mermaid or scrap book etc.

Design Brief: Jumping Frog

                                                                                                           02/09/2010

Hello,
In today's lecture and workshop I had learnt about the protection of students online. I had learnt that schools need to; establish a Cybersafety team, appoint a Cybersafety contact person, develop Acceptable Use Agreements (AUA) and Codes of Conduct (this is an age appropriate Codes of Practice for students, teachers and parents to follow), educate students, educate parents and have professional learning for educators. A great teachers resource is (ACMA-Cybersmart): http://www.cybersmart.gov.au/schools/teacher%20resources.aspx

As part of today's lecture we had viewed several examples of what different Primary, Secondary and Tertiary schools have done to ensure their students are protected online. These sites included;
Bayswater PS: http://www.bayswaterps.vic.edu.au/students/internet.htm
Keilor PS: http://www.keilorprimary.vic.edu.au/
and, La Trobe University: http://www/latrobe.edu.au/ict/policies

As part of  today's workshop we had performed and presented an activity to the class, which was to make a frog jump. This activity works towards VELS Level 4 but could also be used in lower year levels, although changes will need to be made to accommodate for the different age groups. The 'design a frog to jump' activity, could be extended broadly over other subjects. For example you could use this activity in  a science class where you could teach the students about tension or forces. It is a great activity to get students to discuss as well as to raise their level of thinking. The activity may be done in pairs on individually. The purpose of the activity is for students to learn and demonstrate ways they could get a frog to jump with the limited resources they are given by the teacher. These resources include; a pair of scissors (depending on the year level), a rubber band, 1 piece of cardboard, a small piece of sticky tape, a glue stick and a picture of a frog. There are some safety issues associated with this activity and they include the use of scissors and rubber bands. It is important to educate and inform students about the use of these instruments. If this activity is used in younger year levels than the teacher will have to already have cut the pictures for them and help the students to use the rubber band. This activity is also fantastic as it teaches students not only to self-evaluate their performance but it also gets the students to come up with other strategies that would make their frog jump further. This can be achieved by getting the students to present their jumping frog to the rest of the class. This activity also allows students to write and express their ideas by filling out a work sheet given by the teacher, this can be seen below. Overall I thought this activity is fantastic to include in my practicum as it could be something I could conduct each week as part of an introduction to my lessons.

Activity Sheet: Design a Jumping Frog

The second part of today's lesson was exploring different types of games using the computer. Today I had created my own quiz and hand man activity based on my chosen theme/topic, 'summer'. I found these games very useful as I had learnt about another program that is a fantastic way in teaching students factual information in both a fun and creative environment. I believe these activities are great to use with students across all ages as it allows them to be creative as they get to create and play games individually and with their peers based on the chosen topic given by the teacher. I found these activities also raise students level of thinking  as well as improve their research skills.   

Microsoft Publisher

                                                                                                                                                    25/08/2010 

Hello,

In today's lecture I had learnt about ePortfolio's. I did not know what an ePortfolio was until today's lecture. I now know that an ePortfolio is, a 'digital or electronic portfolio'. It is the collection of  individuals work, ideas, reflections, achievements and progress developed across time (across all disciplines) -unassisted and annotated. As new work is completed the portfolio gets updated. 

In the first part of today's workshop I had learnt how to set up an ePortfolio using Microsoft Publisher. I had learnt how to change settings, save work and use certain features such as choosing a website template when creating an ePortfolio. I had also set up a table of contexts and learnt how to change the titles to what I consider appropriate and relevant. I was comfortable using Microsoft Publisher as I am familiar with the program. Therefore I will be considering to use this program in the future when I need to create my ePortfolio.

There were several websites that I found useful to refer to when creating my ePortfolio. These included;

(1) Mahara: http://mahara.org/about/eportfolios

(2) Innovate; Journal of Online Education : http://www,innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=369

These sites allowed me to grasp a better understanding of the term ePortfolio and to understand that an ePortfolio offers ways of making meaning of information through reflection and social construction.  

The second part to today's workshop was designing a brochure, using Microsoft Publisher. The reason for this activity was to see how I could use this activity in my classroom.  I first explored the program and then decided to pick my favourite holiday destination and make a brochure of it. The aim of the brochure was to invite others to come and visit this beautiful  holiday destination. I had conducted some research on my favourite holiday destination which is the Greek Islands. I then looked for eye-catching pictures that best represent this destination. Photos included beaches, Islands, a map and towns. I then decide to put my brochure together. So my front cover consisted of the title of the destination followed by a picture. I then put my information about the destination inside the brochure. The type of information that was included were prices, hotels/resorts and some information on the culture of the Greek Islands. I had also included a picture of a map to show where the Islands are located followed by a picture of a view from one of the resorts on the Island.

I believe this is a fantastic activity for students to complete as they learn how to use Microsoft Publisher, they learn what a brochure is , features that are required, while learning to conduct research and be creative. This would be a fantastic assessment for grade 3-6 students and can be used across all subjects. e.g. English- this activity could be used to describe a town or place that their novel is set in.   

My Brochure: Santorini

My Inspiration

19/08/2010

Hello,
In today's lecture I had been introduced to the use of Technology (ICT) in the 21st century. According to Podolski, (2008) 'Technology is a part of students' everyday lives, and substantial advances in technology have profoundly affected the way they learn. As a result, educators are working hard to meet the ever-evolving needs of 21st century learners'.

In today's lecture, I had also been introduced to Ultranet, which I learnt is a state-wide, secure site, that students, parents and teachers can access via the Internet. I learnt that this site will provide a new learning space and more opportunities for information sharing across the Victorian government school system.
 I also learnt that, education and the Internet are two significant change agents in the current global environment. Skills that are required in the 21st century workforce include; critical thinking, problem solving, innovation, collaboration, life and career and information, media and technology. These skills are achieved through collaboration technologies and are enabled by key system reforms.

I personally do not believe my technology skills and knowledge are up to date that's why  I am looking forward to the Learning Technology lectures and workshops. I believe these classes will help me to improve my technology skills (by exploring and evaluating different child safe programs) and knowledge (with help from peers) so that I can teach my students the skills and knowledge they require in order to meet the substantial advances in technology, (changes in education).

In the first part of today's Learning Technologies workshop I had learnt about what a blog is, as I was unaware of what the term blog meant . I then learnt how to set up and create my own blog by visiting http://www.blogger.com/.  As a class we then looked at how to use the blog. We were taught how to save our work,  how to add pictures and add website references that we believe be to very useful in the teaching profession. Some of these websites included

ICT for Visualising: http://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/teachingresources/ict/visualising/default.htm  ICT for Creating: http://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/teachingresources/ict/creating/default.htm and ICT for Communicating: http://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/teachingresources/ict/communication/default.htm

I have never set up my own blog before nor have I ever set up a facebook account, myspace account etc. Therefore this was an interesting and very useful workshop for me.

The second part of today's workshop was exploring the program  'Inspiration'. Ive never used this program before so I was very excited to learn about it. I learnt that the  first step in using the program is selecting what icon you would like to use. Today I had explored using the create a diagram and mind map icons. In the create a diagram icon I had inserted pictures that best represent myself, without having to use words. This activity allowed me to explore different parts of the program and get a feel of how to insert pictures, background colours and text, as well as to teach myself about the program in order to be able to teach my students how to use this fantastic program. Today I had also designed a spot the difference and similarities activity, using the create a diagram icon. This can be seen below. I had decided to pick an activity that was based on the theme of animals as it is a popular theme that is taught to students in primary school. I based my activity for students working towards  VELS Levels 1 and 2. The activity I had designed allowed students to make comparisons, associations and identify different types of animals.  I found the program quite useful as it allows students to explore and be creative using text and pictures . From this, teachers could set an activity for their students to do, based on a theme of what the students have been learning.

 Today we had also used the mind map icon, where I had chosen the topic of turtles and made branch's talking about the turtle. The different type of text that are branched off the topic, turtle, were food, habitat etc. This can be seen below. This is a very useful activity for students to use as it allows them to learn to brainstorm ideas before they write a story in this case, based on turtles.

                                                               

                                               Inspiration Program

                                               

       The use of the Create a Diagram Icon

  Pictures that represent myself

Mind Map: Topic Turtles