I'll admit, it's been awhile since I have posted. Mainly because I have started forming private wikis in my courses for students to share their ideas and resources in a collaborative, yet comfortable setting. I decided to put forth my efforts into creating more intimate and 'risk friendly' environments in my course management system, Livetext. I have found many students sharing, adding and collaborating in the free and open forum, which has been very exciting!
While that has certainly been successful, I have missed blogging. I feel I can balance both now and and am headed in a new direction of blogging. Finding ways to inspire my followers, or those who just happen to stumble upon this blog, to try something new (in relation to technology).
Remember preschool or even your early elementary years when learning was all about exploring and being a risk taker? Now it seems more and more people feel as though using technology, or learning something new is actually time consuming and, well, just one more thing they have to do. When did learning something new become so old?
Let's make this easy: I'll post weekly ways you can have fun with technology and all your have to do is either try it pass it on! I'm launching: TRY SOMETHING NEW TUESDAYS (Mondays are hard to process). Pick and choose what you want to try. For those of you in the education professional, think about if the technology tool I am sharing will enhance or transform your lessons or life. If not, come back next week!
THIS WEEK: Animoto! If you haven't heard of this great tool: here's the link.
http://animoto.com/
You can access it via the web or through the app platform. What a great way to encourage kids to create a video about something they learned and themselves! It's easy, safe, effective and engaging. Teachers could create a short video as they look to flipping their classroom or want to pose a question, idea or content area for others to take notice.
Here's video my son made when he was "Student of the Week". He did this all by himself. All I did was record his small intro. If this first grader can do it, so can you! Endless possibilities. Try it and transform your lessons or life.
Keep the blogs coming. I truly enjoy all you post and plan to try the animoto link tonight. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Shannon! Have your kiddos use it. Online or the app--they will love it as well.
ReplyDeleteI created one for class and it was fun and eassy. I tought it was a simple pictorial introduction to my class...and can lead into the students creating their own introductions to message their interests, background, personalities, etc. The students can also use this as a project in my history classdes to create a pictoral timeline, map collage, century overview, etc. Many possibilities and fun! Ray
ReplyDeletehttp://animoto.com/play/ebKxeiroON1woBxNUTNTYA
Animoto is incredibly fun to use. I would highly recommend paying an annual subscription so that you can use full-length songs. Otherwise I think you only get 30 seconds...here is a video I created for my church's youth group.
ReplyDeletehttp://animoto.com/play/G3xacWv0ggiIm0E1T2k85w
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ReplyDeleteAnimoto is a blast! After I created my video, my kids (11 & 15) created videos, too. I can see many possibilities for students to express themselves creatively AND concisely. This would be a great beginning of school ice breaker or a great end of the year wrap-up project. Animoto can be incorporated into a particular curriculum unit. For example, I could see students applying demonstrating something they have learned or accomplished (in any class) as the subject of their video.
ReplyDeleteHere is the video I created that captured a trip I took to San Antonio.
http://animoto.com/play/0foqm5yt8CoQNuAtpI2Wwg
Animoto was quick and easy to use. I can see many uses for my students to create videos about various history topics and be able to share them with each other easily. My video is a quick introduction to my students and I think this will be a different and cool way to introduce myself to students at the beginning of the year.
ReplyDeleteHere is my video.
http://animoto.com/play/R6OCs2OAnQ01Kr0WZzOJ0g