Click here to view the powerpoint

Making fun of my photoshop assignment using Jing!

Using Jing to get ready for my Action Plan Assignment

Urgh…….. Photoshop is so frustrating!  I can’t seem to edit what I want to edit.  I know this has something to do with layers, but I can’t figure out how to even view the layers.   When I go to cut around a picture, I seem to mess up the area I want to cut out.  I then go up to the tool bar to clear what I have done, but then I create this vapor trails wherever my mouse goes.  I have attempted to cut out one picture 10 tens.  There has to be an easier way to do this…..

I’m venting I know.  Sorry.  They say when you are really in conflict with your feelings on something that’s when you do your best learning.  So, I must really be learning now.  Teaching drama I have seen many people madly clicking around this program in order to create a production poster or tickets for a show I am working on.  At least now I know some of the basics to maybe (and I stress maybe) give Photoshop a go myself to make a show poster or collage of student pictures.  If I don’t do so myself, then at least I can at least understand their frustrations when they are laying out a design.

I presented the Web 2.0 tools today and came up with a few changes I would make if I were to do it again:

• Know the information on cost regarding the Xtranormal software.  If a listener is interested in the tool you are using, you as a presenter should know how he/she could go about getting it.
• BubblePly needed a demo of making one.  I showed my example, but then explained the means of making a BubblePly without actually having a visual to go along with this.

Thank you Lisa for sharing with us the Wall Wisher tool. I thought of a way I could use this with my class.  I sometimes have students do an activity called Infinity Mapping.  They are given tangible post-its with a topic to write about.  They then need to take all of the sticky notes from the class and find a way to fuse them together into a script or a poem to perform.  I often find that not all of the students participate in fusing the sticky notes together because it is hard to see/read them when 22 bodies are standing around these small notes.  With Wall Wisher, students could post stickies on the Wall and then in groups could arrange them into a script or a poem.

Lastly, we played with Podcasts yesterday.  I found Audacity to be a user friendly program, but ended up going back to Garage Band just because that is what I am familiar with.  I sometimes find Garage Band to have too many features, and I have a hard time sifting through the program to find what I need.  However, I do feel it is important for me to practice as much as possible with Apple programs considering we are an Apple school.

It is amazing how much time you can spend tweaking a podcast with sound effects.  After a fantastic meal Can Pedro, I came home to work on my podcast, and at 2am I just had to finally stop.  I’m still not 100% satisfied with the result.  Specifically, I need to figure out how to fade out the music at the end.

MALLORCA BEACH REVIEW

Jelly Fish YIKES!

EPISODE 1.1 DEIA BEACH

First off… many thanks to Craig for allowing us to finish our Web 2.0 assignments at the beginning of class.  His flexibility and insight to gauge the feelings of the group are fabulous!  (I know it sounds like I am sucking up here, but really, I do appreciate it)

Hearing about the web-tools Brook and Kristen found was very interesting.  I hope Kristen can use the Spanish pods with her school.  I’m looking at purchasing one for Chinese because I really ought to accept some language responsibility while I am living there.  I spend about 1 hour and 15 minutes a day on the bus going to school. This would be a perfect time for me to plug into some language learning program.  I wonder with all of the paid tools Brook and Kristen showed us if a teacher would be able to purchase one subscription for classroom use.  If it only costs $69 for an entire class to use it, it almost sounds too good to be true.  It seems like these companies would make more money if they had higher cost packages for schools.

At first I thought Brook’s math game program would not be of much interest to me because I do not teach math.  However, I was wrong.  When Brook starting to play that demo game the excitement and energy built in the room.  I wasn’t even playing, and I was having fun.  I can see how children would get hooked on educational games like that.

Even if a school does not purchase Web 2.0 tools for their students, teachers could inform parents on what is out there to supplement their child’s school education.  There are so many programs out there to help students learn that it can be overwhelming.  However,  in a mere one and half hours Brook, Kristen and Craig showed us over 12 tools that we could use with students.  This would make great professional development.

Xtranormal – Text to Movie

Click here to access Xtranormal Page

What is this site and who is it intended to be used for?

• Users can make their own animation movies by  being both the screen-play writer and the movie director.  then play the role of a movie director to bring the animation characters to life.
• Screen Play Writer – users type in text for one character or two characters.  They can choose various settings and characters.
• Movie Director – with the text typed in the user then can use various drag and drop tools to bring the animation to life.  Choices of camera angles, sound effects, facial expressions, pauses, gestures, etc. are all available to choose from.

Classroom Applications

Background of my drama classroom

I searched for tools that could be used for reflecting in the drama classroom. Reflections are a big part of what we do in class and usually occur at the end of a unit performance or project.  Typically I ask students to analyze what happened during the performance and during the rehearsal time before hand.  Then I ask them to explain what they would do differently if they were to do it again.  The format of these reflections either come in the form of a blog post on a student’s blog or a written comment on my blog.

• Xtranormal could be used as an alternative to a written reflection.  Basically, the students would be creating an animated identity for themselves in order to communicate thoughts on a drama project.  It is almost like they are writing a monologue for themselves.
• This sight also allows for students to think like a director and an actor.  They need to think about acting skills such as when do to put in a facial expression or a pause when performing dialogues or monologues.

Challenges to the Website

• If students mis-spell words then the speech in the video does not come out right.  Also, there are some words/names not recognized by the computer.
• The speech sounds very robot- like.
• The settings are limited
• The director applications can be limiting.  For example, if you add a sound effect you have no control of the length.  The same goes for pauses.
• Students may loose some deeper thinking in the reflections because they spend too much time animating what they wrote.
• You did need to sign up for an account to use it – it is free.

BubblePLY

Click here to access BubblePLY page

What is this site and who is it intended to be used for?

• This site is intended for anyone who wants to make an existing video look like like the old-school VHI Pop-Up Videos.
• All you need is a video with a URL
• You plug the URL into a box and your video pops up.
• You can then add pop-up bubbles or pictures to the video.
• There are many ways to customize the pop-ups.
• Do not need to sign-up to use  and share your project.

Classroom Applications

• Again thinking about drama class reflections you could ask students to do a make a BubblePLY using a video of one of their own performances.  They could be reflecting throughout the video using these bubbles.
• Students could use an existing video and analyze it for a multitude of topics.  For example, you could ask students to compare a scene from the Of Mice and Men movie to the way Steinbeck wrote it in the novel.  If you are studying elements of suspense, students could use an Alfred Hitchcock clip to point out these elements.
• This could also be a lot of fun with family videos or wedding videos…. good laughs.

Challenges to the Website

• Videos used must have a URL.  If you want to use student videos, then you need to have them uploaded to some server in order to us BubblePLY.  I had a student video on my computer, but could not get it uploaded yesterday.  Our school portal was down and youtube uploading was taking too long.
• It is easy to get silly with this program, so it may lead to shallow reflections.

Click here to watch my BubblePLY project

Google Map

View Work Time Verses Play Time Locations in a larger map

Taylor Mali came to our school this year, and he was fabulous!

After today’s class I feel the need to write thank you cards celebrating the awesomeness of the Technology Committee and Office at the Shanghai American School.  Over the past two years the school has been planning the roll-out of the one-one Apple laptop program, and this year the rolling out began to happen.  As with any new program there was excitement along with grumbling from the community.  What there wasn’t enough of were cheers and applause for the technology committee.  I know we only scratched the surface of computer terminology in class today, but that was enough for me to realize… ” thank goodness there’s a group of people at our school thinking, problem solving, and collaborating on issues around technology because I sure don’t know the half of it!”

Click here for link to article on the lab top roll-out

Additionally, I left today feeling better educated on what a buyer would look for when buying a computer.  I can remember standing in the computer isle in Best Buy staring at the white and yellow informational placards below the PC computers I was looking at.  I had no clue what the term processor, megabytes, etc meant.  All I knew was that some computers cost more than others, and the poor explanations given to me by the college-aged clerk were not very helpful.