The inspiration for this post about Search Stories comes from the Stretch Your Digital Dollar blog. The basic concept is to create a story through a series of Google searches. After watching a few sample videos, I decided that I had to try it out for myself. This was a lot of fun, and I think that my students would really love this as a brief writing assignment, possibly to review the plot pyramid (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution). This would also be an interesting addition to student e-Portfolios. Below I'm embedding my first ever "search story." I hope you enjoy it, or (better yet) you create one of your own and then contact me so that I can add a link to it on my blog. View my students' search stories on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/user/pilgreenenglish
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TED--Technology, Entertainment, Design--Talks provide "riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world." Until a few months ago, I had never heard of TED talks, even though they have been around for several years now; recently, however, I have heard mention of TED talks in numerous conversations and on numerous blogs. So far, my favorite TED talks are the ones by Sir Ken Robinson about the status of creativity in the classroom. To view TED talks, visit their website at www.ted.com The "Did You Know" series of videos seem to be a staple in every technology-enthusiast's supply. The videos are great attention-grabbers and conversation-starters when it comes to illustrating the growing impact that technology has on students in particular, and society in general. The version embedded here is Did You Know 4.0, which contains the most up-to-date statistics, but if you search You Tube for the previous versions, you will find them likewise inspirational. Happy watching! Screenr is currently my favorite tool available for creating screencasts. It requires a Twitter account to use, but setup is quick and easy. Screenr allows the user to record the action on his or her computer desktop. If your computer has a microphone available, it records sound, too. The movie file that is create (the screencast) can be embedded on another webpage, or you can provide students with the direct URL to access it. I know that, every time I demonstrate a technology-related activity in my classroom, several students are going to forget what they are supposed to do by the time we march down to the computer lab. Why not create a screencast for students who need to watch the process (of creating a header in a Word document, for example) multiple times? You could even have a tech-savvy student create a webpage and embed multiple screencasts related to the projects you'll be working on all year. Wordia succeeds at "bringing words to life." Search just as you would with any online dictionary, or other search tool. The results are in the format of brief video descriptions of the searched word. Prezi: The Zooming Presentation Editor. Power Point has become the go-to technology product for many teachers but Power Point just doesn't have the visual impact that it once did. Want to wow your audience with a dynamic presentation tool that allows you to zoom in and out? Want to visually represent the big pictures as well as the specific details? Then you need to give Prezi a try. Once I got familiar with the tool bars, I found Prezi to be even easier to use, and much more attention-grabbing, than Power Point. When given the option of using Prezi or Power Point, the majority of my students opted for this gem, even though they had never used it until a month earlier. Note: Click on the image above to link directly to my Prezi on methods of speech delivery. Creating posters with scissors and glue is "so last year." Instead, try creating multimedia Glogster posters (called Glogs). Students can choose from a wide variety of backgrounds and add interest by uploading photographs, embedding videos, adding music, and incorporating visually-appealing text and animations. Glogs are saved on the web, so students can work on the same glog at home and at school, without the hassle of transporting materials. Teachers can set up accounts for their students, and students can view the glogs of their classmates. For an end of the semester novel project, when given the option of creating a traditional poster or a glog, approximately half of my freshmen chose Glogster. I first heard about Flip Video cameras at a workshop held by Meg Ormiston, nearly four years ago. She said that they were the latest and greatest thing, destined to get big in the education circuit due to their user-friendliness and near indestructibility--and boy was she right! These little gadgets are everywhere now, for educational and extracurricular use. The fact that they have minimal buttons makes them simple to use, even for younger students. Plus, they plug into your computer's USB port, and come loaded with their own software, so there's nothing to download (although this can cause problems if you want to import the files into another program, such as Movie Maker). The sound and video quality are surprisingly high-quality, especially for the price point; the only problem I've run to is shooting video in dark areas (such as the school play). Other companies are now marketing their own responses to the Flip, but nobody seems to have caught up quite yet. Another selling point is that Digital Wish is offering a Buy 1 Get 1 Free option on the Flip Ultra HD. Note: For converting Flip video files, try Format Factory. Note: A common accessory that has been growing in popularity is the Flexible Tripod, which users can bend into shape to attach to various items for recording from different angles. When I purchased my Flip video cameras, I also picked up a few of these tripods at my local Radio Shack for about $5 on clearance. Photo Story 3 is a free download from Windows. It allows the user to import pictures and audio, along with narration, to create amazing digital movies. In my opinion, this is one of the best options out there for digital storytelling. It ranks up there with Movie Maker, but gets bonus points for being free, which means that students can download it at home and use it at no cost. (Did I mention that it's free?) I have used Photo Story by importing pictures that I have scanned from books; it's a little more exciting than holding up the book and walking up and down the rows, and more attention-grabbing than Power Point. I've also had students create audio files of themselves reading their personal narrative essays and then combining that audio with Creative Commons photos to create original digital stories (with amazing results). My first Photo Story project involved scanned photos from a comic book version of Beowulf. It was a great way to visually represent a scene from the story, and it really benefited my struggling learners. Crazy Talk is a software program that must be downloaded to your computer in order to use it. It is not free (I purchased the "bare bones" basic package at the educator rate of $39.95, and it has been more than enough to dazzle my students. Essentially, Crazy Talk allows you to use any picture and, after lining up a few dots and dropping in an audio file, animate it! For my first project, I used a picture of Langston Hughes and an audio files of him reading "The Negro Speaks of Rivers." I loved the reaction from my students! Now, this can become a time-consuming project, if you are a perfectionist who insists on everything looking completely perfect, but I have to admit that it is a lot of fun. Also, the company offers a free trial version (the final product will appear with a watermark) so you can try before you buy. If this seems too complex and it's just not for you, I recommend trying Blabberize for a similar effect. The drawback to Blabberize is that the end product is not nearly as professional-looking; however, the time and money saved might be enough to keep you happy. |
AuthorDr. Jessica Pilgreen, Ed.D. Archives
December 2020
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