For my research, I typed "digital storytelling" into my yahoo search engine, and clicked the first site at the top of the page. It was a link to the University of Houston that completely explained the idea of digital storytelling. Not only that, but it had a variety of other places you could navigate to within the website that can help put your story together, such as movie and sound editing programs, and how to get started. I think I am going to find this helpful for the project at the end.
On the home page to the site I looked at, there was a short video clip about digital storytelling. In it was a series of video clips that were just pieces of American history, from Neil Armstrong stepping on the moon to the space shuttle blowing up in '86. It also showed a short clip of a larger story that a man had put together about his dad being a pilot in WW 2. Just these brief clips were enough to touch me, as I remembered the events in my life, big and small, that affected me greatly.
Digital storytelling is not necessarily simple. As with anything involving the creative process, it takes time and energy for a quality completed project. I just hope that I will be able to do the medium justice and create something that matters.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Global Education Communities
When I first read the criteria for this assignment, I was unsure of what I was supposed to do. What is a global education community. So, I did what any rational college student working agains a deadline would do: I googled it, and clicked on the first site I came upon.
All I can say is wow! I am pretty impressed with what I saw. For anyone who does not know what a global education community is, it is basically a group of people from around the globe gathering together in an online community, searching for various ways to connect. It might be through an environmental chat thread. Or helping gather research for a project being don around the world. One of the coolest ones I found was a link to a site where teachers could connect their strongest writers to a GLOBAL community of writers. In this particular community, young people can read other young people's writing, gaining inspiration and even lending a helping hand. If I had a place where I could have developed my writing when I was younger, then I wonder how much better I would be now?!
Basically, these global communities are similar in thought to the old "pen pal" idea of my days. Write a letter to a child across the world, telling them about your life in the U.S. Then, they would write one back and tell you about their life wherever they are. It was always a nice thought, but snail mail can be frustrating, and writing when your heart wasn't really in it was always more of a chore. But in these global communities, students can receive near instant feedback from a new friend across the world, download and share pictures, and again an appreciation of what it's like in other cultures. Pen pals for the digital age! What a great idea!
The site I found had a lot of jumping off points for teachers to guide their students as well as become involved in a community they are interested as well. It takes signing up to participate in the various threads, but it's nothing more than we do for hotmail or eLive anyway. The site's address is: http://globaleducation.ning.com/ I really reccommend it. I can't wait to find ways to integrate this into my own classroom someday and see what happens.
All I can say is wow! I am pretty impressed with what I saw. For anyone who does not know what a global education community is, it is basically a group of people from around the globe gathering together in an online community, searching for various ways to connect. It might be through an environmental chat thread. Or helping gather research for a project being don around the world. One of the coolest ones I found was a link to a site where teachers could connect their strongest writers to a GLOBAL community of writers. In this particular community, young people can read other young people's writing, gaining inspiration and even lending a helping hand. If I had a place where I could have developed my writing when I was younger, then I wonder how much better I would be now?!
Basically, these global communities are similar in thought to the old "pen pal" idea of my days. Write a letter to a child across the world, telling them about your life in the U.S. Then, they would write one back and tell you about their life wherever they are. It was always a nice thought, but snail mail can be frustrating, and writing when your heart wasn't really in it was always more of a chore. But in these global communities, students can receive near instant feedback from a new friend across the world, download and share pictures, and again an appreciation of what it's like in other cultures. Pen pals for the digital age! What a great idea!
The site I found had a lot of jumping off points for teachers to guide their students as well as become involved in a community they are interested as well. It takes signing up to participate in the various threads, but it's nothing more than we do for hotmail or eLive anyway. The site's address is: http://globaleducation.ning.com/ I really reccommend it. I can't wait to find ways to integrate this into my own classroom someday and see what happens.
Monday, July 11, 2011
The blog I'm following: Tech Fridge
I decided to follow TechFridge because it has so many links to helpful information about the subject of teaching. Of course, I have struggled with this in the past, because sometimes, it is hard to make a lot of sense out of a blog that mainly lists links and does not do a lot of actual blogging. However, this all changed when I got my new iPad. A lot of the links were about how to use the iPad in education. And a lot of those links had even more links with even more information! It was incredible as I read what my iPad can do for me in the classroom. I spent a good amount of time downloading new whiteboard apps and even a networking app it was talking about. I look forward to more uses as time goes on.
The blog did do a lot of talking about this year's ISTE, which is the International Society for Technology in Education is just now over, and the blogger had attended, so I read some updates about his interactions with many participants he had met over Twitter. This, if nothing else, cemented in my mind the fact that whether I like it or not, I probably need to get on Twitter, or I could mis important networking opportunities. As late in life as I am picking up this career, I need all of the extra help I can get if I want to become the best I can be. For me and my students.
The blog did do a lot of talking about this year's ISTE, which is the International Society for Technology in Education is just now over, and the blogger had attended, so I read some updates about his interactions with many participants he had met over Twitter. This, if nothing else, cemented in my mind the fact that whether I like it or not, I probably need to get on Twitter, or I could mis important networking opportunities. As late in life as I am picking up this career, I need all of the extra help I can get if I want to become the best I can be. For me and my students.
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