In this article, Tom Banaszewski discusses his use of digital storytelling with his fourth and fifth grade students. He describes the procedure that he worked through in order to have his students create meaningful writing and storytelling. The students were given the task of writing about "a place that is important to her or him" (Banaszewski, 2002). They took their thoughts about and used iMovie to create a digital story.
As a way to get students to create a story with a clear beginning, middle, and end, Banaszewski provided them with several questions that were to be addressed in the body of their story. These questions addressed the memories, feelings, and the "difference [that] this place makes" (Banaszewski, 2002). By addressing these questions, the students were able to create vivid stories relating their special place to the reader.
In addition to the "how-to's" of iMovie, Banaszewski also discusses how these movies helped create a learning community within his classroom. In order for students to feel free to write about something as personal as their most important place, "all must value each other's ideas and support the belief that hearing place stories from everyone benefits the entire class (Banaszewski, 2002). Banaszewski modeled the process for creating a story and sharing it with the class, thereby instilling the idea of trust and supporting each other.
Banaszewski, T. (2002, January/February). Digital storytelling finds its place in the classroom. MultiMedia Schools. Retrieved from http://www.infotoday.com/mmschools/jan02/banaszewski.htm on October 27, 2009.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Blog 9 - Digital Storytelling
Being the project leader for the Digital Storytelling project really felt fulfilling. I've done my parts for the other projects, but it was totally different being on the "leader" end of it. A classmate and I were discussing our role as project leader for the Digital Storytelling project. She made an excellent point about feeling an ownership over this project. I agreed whole-heartedly with her. While I did my part for the other projects, it's a completely different feeling to have been responsible for the creation of this great workshop.
One thing that I really like about Movie Maker is the ease in using the program. It really is a super easy program to use - merely dragging videos, images, and sounds into place. Everything is very user-friendly, merely right clicking to adjust the effects, etc. It's a program where things are where you'd expect them to be. Want to adjust the fade effects on your sound clip? Well, just right click on the sound file. So simple. It was really beneficial walking through the creation of a movie during our optional session. This really helped me in the creation of our workshop and the step-by-step procedures that we included.
My group was so great to work with on this project. Each member is eager to do what he/she can in order to help with the creation of a successful workshop plan. I enjoy working with this group because each member has something great that they bring to the table, and this helps us with the delegation of the parts of the workshop plan. I am nervous about having to join another group and learn new personalities and dynamics.
I have included the proposal in this blog. I used www.slideshare.net as a resource for embedding these documents into the blog. It's a simple software to use, and I look forward to opportunities to use it in the future.
The project proposal:
A PowerPoint for use during the presentation:
A handout to accompany the PowerPoint presentation and for participants to have for review:
A rubric for use on student created movies:
A survey for participants to take after the presentation, also available online:
One thing that I really like about Movie Maker is the ease in using the program. It really is a super easy program to use - merely dragging videos, images, and sounds into place. Everything is very user-friendly, merely right clicking to adjust the effects, etc. It's a program where things are where you'd expect them to be. Want to adjust the fade effects on your sound clip? Well, just right click on the sound file. So simple. It was really beneficial walking through the creation of a movie during our optional session. This really helped me in the creation of our workshop and the step-by-step procedures that we included.
My group was so great to work with on this project. Each member is eager to do what he/she can in order to help with the creation of a successful workshop plan. I enjoy working with this group because each member has something great that they bring to the table, and this helps us with the delegation of the parts of the workshop plan. I am nervous about having to join another group and learn new personalities and dynamics.
I have included the proposal in this blog. I used www.slideshare.net as a resource for embedding these documents into the blog. It's a simple software to use, and I look forward to opportunities to use it in the future.
The project proposal:
A PowerPoint for use during the presentation:
Moviemaker Powerpoint
View more presentations from eboswell.
A handout to accompany the PowerPoint presentation and for participants to have for review:
A rubric for use on student created movies:
A survey for participants to take after the presentation, also available online:
Monday, October 26, 2009
Blog 8 - Emerging Technology that Supports Creativity and Production
One thing that stood out to me while reading Egbert was the creative thinking process. Egbert (2009) describes the process through three stages. The first stage is “Warm-up” (p. 133) focuses on getting students excited about an activity using prior knowledge and ideas. The second stage “Deepen expectations," is where the “teacher leads students to become more aware of the challenge that they are facing” (Egbert, 2009, p.133) meaning the teacher is in a guiding role in showing students how to face their challenges. The final stage asks teachers to “extend the learning” (Egbert, 2009, p. 133) by showing student how they can connect the information to themselves so that they can try different ideas. I felt that this shows how easy yet involved the creative thinking process can be viewed. It opens up creativity to the student using their own knowledge and helps them see that they are capable of creative thinking.
Egbert, J. (2009). Supporting learning with technology: essentials of classroom practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Egbert, J. (2009). Supporting learning with technology: essentials of classroom practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Blog 7 - Resources for the Classroom
I was talking with our school's math coach, Lynne, this week, and we were discussing the availability of resources and how they can be organized to best meet the needs of the teachers. There are tons of resources out there! From websites to collaboratively created assessment, there is an abundance of resources for teachers! She was reviewing the Wiki of a math coach in our county, and were discussing the pros and cons of the site. Lynne is also creating a Wiki for the math teachers at my school. We talked about ways to make it user friendly. One weakness of the Wiki that we were discussing is the lack of organization. It's important, when organizing resources - websites, created tests, etc - that there be some sort of structure to the website. Whether organized by grade level, unit, or standard, there has to be a structure. I am eager to see how Lynne organizes the Wiki for our school.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Blog 6 - Emerging Technology that Supports Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
Critical thinking is something that we all desire of our students. However, it's something that requires so much preparation on the part of the teacher. We have to lead our students towards creating good critical thinking skills. In her book, Egbert (2009) outlines ways in which we can help to create "critical thinking opportunities" for our students (pg. 107).
1. Egbert (2009) prompts teachers to "ask the right questions" (pg. 107) if we are to hope for critical thinking. Surface questions (ie: what is an integer?) merely serve to see if the student can recall a piece of information. However, they need to answer questions which require them to "meet standards for critical thinking such as clarity, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, and logic" (Egbert, 2009, pg. 107). Rather than asking students "What is an integer?", we might ask students "What are examples of where integers are used in the world?".
2. Egbert also suggests that, in order to prod our students to think critically, we should "use tasks with appropriate levels of challenge" (Egbert, 2009, pg. 107). I think that this is something that, whether we do it or not, teachers certainly know to be true. We want to ensure that tasks are "neither too challenging nor too easy for the student" (Egbert, 2009, pg. 107). Through the use of grouping, technology, types of tasks, variety of questions, expectations, and differentiation, we can provide these challenging, but manageable, tasks for students.
3. As a way to help our students develop their critical thinking skills, Egbert (2009) suggestions that we should "teach strategies" (pg. 107) that help our students to think about their own decision making. By helping students learn to question themselves, we are teaching them to think critically about the world around them.
4. The final guideline offered by Egbert in order to develop critical thinking skills is to encourage the curiosity of our students. As Egbert explains, children often think critically through their own curiosity about the world; "however, in classroom settings they are often ignored, whether due to curricular, time, or other constraints" (Egbert, 2009, pg. 108). We have to allow students to keep asking questions of the world around them .
Egbert, J. (2009). Supporting learning with technology: essentials of classroom practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
1. Egbert (2009) prompts teachers to "ask the right questions" (pg. 107) if we are to hope for critical thinking. Surface questions (ie: what is an integer?) merely serve to see if the student can recall a piece of information. However, they need to answer questions which require them to "meet standards for critical thinking such as clarity, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, and logic" (Egbert, 2009, pg. 107). Rather than asking students "What is an integer?", we might ask students "What are examples of where integers are used in the world?".
2. Egbert also suggests that, in order to prod our students to think critically, we should "use tasks with appropriate levels of challenge" (Egbert, 2009, pg. 107). I think that this is something that, whether we do it or not, teachers certainly know to be true. We want to ensure that tasks are "neither too challenging nor too easy for the student" (Egbert, 2009, pg. 107). Through the use of grouping, technology, types of tasks, variety of questions, expectations, and differentiation, we can provide these challenging, but manageable, tasks for students.
3. As a way to help our students develop their critical thinking skills, Egbert (2009) suggestions that we should "teach strategies" (pg. 107) that help our students to think about their own decision making. By helping students learn to question themselves, we are teaching them to think critically about the world around them.
4. The final guideline offered by Egbert in order to develop critical thinking skills is to encourage the curiosity of our students. As Egbert explains, children often think critically through their own curiosity about the world; "however, in classroom settings they are often ignored, whether due to curricular, time, or other constraints" (Egbert, 2009, pg. 108). We have to allow students to keep asking questions of the world around them .
Egbert, J. (2009). Supporting learning with technology: essentials of classroom practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
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