Weel 3 Reflections
“Wow” is all I can say about reviewing Creative Commons information on copyright rules and guidelines! I think I will “bookmark” it so I can refer to it often, and also encourage colleagues in my building to take a look at it! Lots to absorb…and the fact that there are no set Digital copyright rules presents a challenge for teachers. This also is something I wonder if our technology teacher goes over with our students. Thinking maybe she should provide the teachers in the building with some PD on this topic!
I liked the six summarizing statements from researchers Hoban and van Ormer, especially “The use of effective and appropriate films results in more learning in less time and better retention of what is learned.” I use a video series “How the Earth Was Made” to go along with our geology unit on plate tectonics, earth’s layers and landforms. It supports their reading and our discussions as students can refer to both when stating examples.
As luck would have it, we were studying this unit when Japan’s earthquake and tsunami occurred. We followed current events online (projected news video clips from CNN and/or You-Tube) along with the video on Tsunami’s (How the Earth Was Made). I also have students do a Natural Disasters assignment where they work in groups of 3-4 to research a disaster and then create a “newscast” of the event. They must incorporate specific research into the news and create their own short newscast (3-5 min. long). I have used my flip-video to record their work and then we play them back so students can watch their newscasts!
Since reading this chapter and exploring ideas about various ways to do digital storytelling, I am thinking that I could tweek this somehow. Maybe giving them a chance to video it themselves and edit (using Windows MovieMaker) to present to the class! Only problem with this is it would extend the length of the unit, so the question is “will it enhance their learning” by having them do this? Or just make it a fun activity?
I have attempted a short digital collage of a day in the Crazy Mountains, 40 minutes from where I live and where my husbands’ mother grew up. This was done with Picasa then uploaded to my blog.
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A look @ Trespass Basin & Idiot Peak (Crazy Mtns) and front side of Ibex Mtn
Lori, That sounds like a great project, especially the world awareness parts. Do all your kids have tech as an elective? Is there a way that you could collaborate and students could work on your content and their tech skills?
ReplyDeleteLori, I agree with your assessment of the Creative Commons information. It is a lot to take in and PD is definitely in order at our school as well. Digging through it, I ran across the article and forms for getting permission and will be making those available to my students. Guess I'll just make a link using the URL only. :)
ReplyDeleteChristine- sadly, in our middle school they have eliminated the 6th grade tech ed class :( and only the 7th and 8th have it so I also get to try to incorporate the tech skills they need (from absence of their tech-ed class) as well as incorporate more specific math related skills that I think are important for "applied math" that's meaningful and relative to what they are doing in their math classes (as they tie-in to science content). So, to answer your question...I am already trying to do this without the extra time that a tech-ed collaboration could provide!!!!
ReplyDeleteCarol- I think that's a great idea to get the forms available to students/parents in a link (URL)! How likely do you think it is that you'll be able to encourage and get some PD at your school for Copyright info/update??? As much as I think our school/district would benefit from the PD on copyright guidelines...it may be hard to get that to happen here... we'll see!
Lori, Your question, “will it enhance their learning” by letting them do this?” I think it depends on the content that teachers put in that digital story, it must be creative to provide students with scenario where students can use target learning. Story telling is one of oldest ways that educators of all cultural background have used to successfully teach their students and if these stories are contained multimedia elements (videos, images, and music) it will definitely enhance students’ learning.
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