I believe Photostory 3 has several uses for me, both professionally and personally. Professionally, it is a tool that I can use to have students introduce themselves to me and to other students. Because students at CDC come from all over the district, most of the students do not know each other very well. Using Photostory 3 as a multimedia tool to get students more familiar with each other may help students feel more comfortable in the classroom. I also think that it would be useful for end of year functions such as classroom parties (showing pictures of what we did during the year) and staff functions like retirements slideshows and the like.
Personally, I think Photostory 3 is a great tool to actually use my digital pictures. So often I take pictures and then they either sit on my camera or on my computer hard drive, rarely shared with anyone. Creating a cool slide show with Photostory will give me an end product that I am more likely to share. For instance, I might create a Photostory about a trip I took with music and narration in the background.
There are a few features of Photostory that frustrate me. One is the text feature doesn’t have very many options for font styles. Many times a picture is too busy for regular text, but a shadow or outline would make it more appealing. Unfortunately, Photostory 3 does not include font styles. Also, I wish I had more options for exporting the finished product. Only being able to export to Windows Media means that I need to use a converter if I want it in some other format. That requires more software.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Week 2--Why Blog?
How can you use blogging in your classroom? Explain a specific assignment you could give that could involve blogging.
Blogging has many uses in the classroom. It can be a way for students to comment on eachother's writing, thus providing peer feedback. It can be a means of reflection that is either shared or not, but is always archived for later viewing. Regardless of how you use blogging, the main thing is it is another form of writing that students can do and it will give them more experience at writing; and this time it can be for an audience.
My classroom assignments tend to be quite long assignments covering at least several class periods to complete. Reflecting on these assignments can be very valuable to students both as a means of processing what they have just done and also as a means of looking back at their previous trials and triumphs. I like to have students keep a blog of these reflections. I give them a prompt so they know where to start, and then they write about how the assignment went. I've had good luck with this and I believe that having students write about their experiences gives them an opportunity to do some self evaluation that might not otherwise happen.
Blogging has many uses in the classroom. It can be a way for students to comment on eachother's writing, thus providing peer feedback. It can be a means of reflection that is either shared or not, but is always archived for later viewing. Regardless of how you use blogging, the main thing is it is another form of writing that students can do and it will give them more experience at writing; and this time it can be for an audience.
My classroom assignments tend to be quite long assignments covering at least several class periods to complete. Reflecting on these assignments can be very valuable to students both as a means of processing what they have just done and also as a means of looking back at their previous trials and triumphs. I like to have students keep a blog of these reflections. I give them a prompt so they know where to start, and then they write about how the assignment went. I've had good luck with this and I believe that having students write about their experiences gives them an opportunity to do some self evaluation that might not otherwise happen.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Week 1--Value of Virtual Campus
How could you possibly use the Virtual Campus in your setting?
In my years of teaching, I have found a variety of tools that I can use in my practice. It is important to evaluate these tools and see which ones are viable to use in my current setting. I have found that Virtual Campus is a great means of communication between me and my students.
There are three main ways that I use VC in my classroom. First, it is used to help students keep track of the material covered for each class period. At any time, from any online machine, students can see what it is that we are covering for any week or any specific class period. Second, I use VC to post all assignments and necessary documents. This way students can access such things as instructions and rubrics any time they want. They can view it on their monitor or print it out if they so desire. Third, I use the VC to post instructional tutorials so that students can get "just in time" instruction. If they have a question either in the classroom or at home, many times the answers are in the tutorials.
In my years of teaching, I have found a variety of tools that I can use in my practice. It is important to evaluate these tools and see which ones are viable to use in my current setting. I have found that Virtual Campus is a great means of communication between me and my students.
There are three main ways that I use VC in my classroom. First, it is used to help students keep track of the material covered for each class period. At any time, from any online machine, students can see what it is that we are covering for any week or any specific class period. Second, I use VC to post all assignments and necessary documents. This way students can access such things as instructions and rubrics any time they want. They can view it on their monitor or print it out if they so desire. Third, I use the VC to post instructional tutorials so that students can get "just in time" instruction. If they have a question either in the classroom or at home, many times the answers are in the tutorials.
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