Anwatin Goes Digital

Thing # 23: Teacher Web Page

2009-07-01T09:46:00.000-07:00

I have one and work on it all the time, check it out:
http://anwatin.mpls.k12.mn.us/Ms_Monroe.html

Thing # 22: Online Learning

2009-07-01T09:45:00.002-07:00

I would say MILI was a great example of online learning using a Wiki. I loved the MILI experience and would love to see all the teachers at Anwatin receive the training also. Now if we could just convince "The Powers That Be".

Thing # 21: Podcasting

2009-07-01T09:45:00.001-07:00

I was able to create a GCast for my teacher web page before it got expensive, I love the concept. I listen to podcasts on itunes.

Thing # 20: Micro-blogging:

2009-07-01T09:42:00.002-07:00

I have not yet done the Face Book thing. It seems a bit scary to me, as for Twitter, I neither have the time, technology or interest to follow the life of others, I'm too busy living my own life. You have to wonder about people who Twitter a lot, don't you?

Thing # 19: Screencasting:

2009-07-01T09:42:00.001-07:00

I can see how Jing could be used to train both students and teachers when several computer steps are required. I could have used this for my adult digital photography class. Many class member were PC users and didn't know how to navigate OSX.

Thing # 18: Intenet Radio

2009-07-01T09:41:00.001-07:00

I'm looking forward to using Pandora at home now that I have Comcast. It is too bad most of these sites are blocked at school.

Ok, I just entered the name Kenny Rankin into Pandora. Kenny was one of my favorite artists. He died just a couple of weeks ago, 61yrs. old, cancer- who has time to Twitter?

Thing # 17:Creating Online Videos

2009-07-01T09:38:00.000-07:00

We used Animoto in my digital media classes. The students moved images over from Flickr that they had posted earlier and imported them to create a video. Adding the music was easy and the entire experience was exciting for the kids. They enjoyed seeing their images in a slideshow online.

Thing # 16: Electronic Portfolios

2009-07-01T09:35:00.000-07:00

I have been through training on this site but have yet to introduce it to students, perhaps next year is the year. I use our Anwatin Digital Media Wiki to showcase student work. If we could keep the student work digital I think it would be doable but having to scan student work and then attach it to the portfolio could become a real chore.

Thing # 14: Comic Creations.

2009-07-01T09:34:00.000-07:00

I have used "Comic Life" with students in the past. It was a fun way for students to create a piece about Minnesota History.
It could be a great digital storytelling tool. Perhaps we will do more with it next year. I did explore "Read Write and Think" comic generator some with my digital media classes but not at great length.

Thing # 13: Social Networking.

2009-07-01T09:33:00.000-07:00

I have started working on my own Shelfari. Being a media specialist I like sharing my favorite young adult novels with students, in fact I had thought about creating a list of them for our media web page. Now I think I will just link to my Shelfari instead. Other then blogging I did no other social networking.

Thing # 12: Online Publishing.

2009-07-01T09:32:00.002-07:00

Using Slideshare is a great idea. I could create one and then link to it from my webpage. Also a great idea to share with students so they know what a good presentation looks like. I will definitely investigate further.

Thing # 11: Online Notetaking.

2009-07-01T09:32:00.001-07:00

I have to say I didn't get into using this tool but I definitely would like to use it in the future. I created a lesson using the SmartBoard to help students understand how to summarize. They need a lot of practice doing this. Highlighting is a good first step.

Thing # 10: Digital Storytelling.

2009-07-01T09:31:00.000-07:00

We used garage band and our images in iphoto to create a digital story. Students created spring sounding music using loops and sound effects in garage band and saved it as an ilife preview. Then we created a new podcast project in garage band, brought in our music ilife project, dragged in spring images we captured at "Eloise Butler Wildflower" garden and recorded a poem about spring. When finished we exported the project and uploaded it to our "Anwatin Digital Media" wiki site. It was the ultimate digital storytelling experience!

Thing # 9: Copyright and Creative Commons.

2009-07-01T09:30:00.000-07:00

My seventh grade digital media project using the photos at the "Minnesota Digital Library" was all about copyright. Students emailed the organizations holding the copyright of the images they wanted to use in their "Google Docs" presentation asking for permission to use then. It was a good exercise. I introduced Creative Commons to my digital media classes when we were uploading their images to Flickr. I wanted them to take pride in their work and to create their own accounts and use Creative Commons if they wanted to determine how others could use their images.

Thing# 8: Online Databases.

2009-07-01T09:15:00.000-07:00

Our history day students used the "Historical New York Times" and our 6Th grade students who study Minnesota history used the "Historical Minneapolis Tribune" for their end of the year research project. We are so fortunate to have access to so many online resources. Now I just need to let teachers now that I am available to work with their students so we can introduce these resources to them. I am working this out in my head, perhaps an email to all staff that points them to a wiki that I've created outlining all the collaboration opportunities I can offer and as well as all the resources we have at our fingertips.

I think I will work with my Tech. to create something in File Maker Pro that we can link from our web site that shows all the different collaboration projects I have going on with different teachers, similar to what I saw at the Metronet conference. Perhaps there is a web 2.0 application that will also work.

Thing # 7: Search Engines.

2009-07-01T08:54:00.000-07:00

I knew there were a lot of search engines out there but I was very excited to see PolyCola, KartOO and Gigablast. We made a point to have our students try different search engines, they especially liked those three. I plan to add them to our school web site.

Thing # 6: Online Collaboration Tools.

2009-07-01T08:53:00.000-07:00

We used these in my digital media class both Google Docs and ZoHo. The kids loved the collaboration and sharing features, as a teacher I loved the sharing feature. All my students shared their presentations to me since I also had a Goggle Docs account and ZoHo account. It was easy to "STAR" the presentations that I had viewed and then move them to a folder I called "graded" when I was finished grading them. The kids liked working with teammates, everyone was busy doing their part of the presentation. No longer did you see teammates huddled around one computer trying to collaborate. The Wiki that Guillaume Paek and I had used with his 7th graders was again a perfect example of teamwork and collaboration. The students were assigned to different countries and used different colored pens so we could tell just how much each person contributed. Teammates were able to see very clearly also.

Thing # 5: Libraries and Media Centers.

2009-07-01T08:52:00.000-07:00

We made sure all of our 7th graders had the chance to get a library card. We went onliine with each class and filled out the necessary info. I remember it being a slick process and it worked out great. Students use the online resources through the public library, especially the historical newspapers.

Thing # 4: Online Productivity Tools.

2009-07-01T08:49:00.000-07:00

I really used my teacher web page a lot this year to communicate with parents and students. I added a page for each unit with links to online resources, and attached pdf files with rubrics and step-by-steps information pages. This made it really easy to communicate with parents when they emailed me. I would like to do more with podcasting on my web page. I tried to upload a podcast that I created in garage band and then saved as a AAC file but Urban Planet doesn't seem to support that type of file.

Thing #3: RPC & Dribbling Lessons.

2009-07-01T08:47:00.000-07:00

The Assignment Calculator was a great tool, we used it with our "History Day" student projects and Guillaume Paek used it with his student WIKI project. We also used the Citation Machine and EasyBiB with our students. The seventh graders used CIA World Fact Book for their Global Hunger Wiki project. As for Rubistar I use it and I introduced it to the teachers in my summer digital photography class and they loved it. I just love sharing tools and our students really loved using them.

Thing # 2: Going Deeper.

2009-07-01T08:46:00.000-07:00

I finally got into Blogging and liked it. It was good to reflect on how I used the Web 2.0 tools with my classes and I like the idea of sharing. I was so busy being an elective teacher this year that I really didn't get into looking at the blogs of others until after MILI was over. When I did go back and look at the blogs of others (a couple of weeks ago) I found them very informative. I think a group presentation at the end of MILI (sharing what we learned) would have been a great way to end the experience. I enjoyed presenting at the conference and listening to the other presentations as well. I didn't get into the RSS feeds, I have a hard time keeping up with just emails.

Thing #1:Information Literacy.

2009-07-01T08:43:00.000-07:00

I think the integration of information literacy into the curriculum across all disciplines is the key to building a foundation for lifelong, independent learning related to finding, using, and evaluating information tools, formats, sources, and products. At Anwatin thanks to the MILI Grant we have started doing this through the Social Studies department. The next logical progression for me as the Media Specialist would be to work closely with the Science department. Now that I will be back in the media center full time next year introducing all science students to our many onlline resources is a must. Our MILI team (social studies department) has already been talking about how we can introduce more staff to the Web 2.0 online research tools. We would all like to share our knowledge with others. The article "Truth: Can You Handle It", by Monica Hesse made in her article concerning what happens to the concepts of truth and knowledge in a user-generated world of information saturation? Our students except that the first answer back from Goggle is the right answer, but so often it's wrong. But what is a media specialist to do when Wikipedia is found to be only slightly less reliable than Encyclopedia Britannica (four errors to Britannica's every three). When everyone thinks what is wrong is right, does that make it right? It is for this reason that I ask my students to double check with World Book Online.

Online Photo Tools

2009-07-01T08:41:00.000-07:00

I used "Thing # 15" with my students during our digital photography unit. My students uploaded their images to Flickr. Use dmanwatin as a tag when searching for our images. My students loved the online photography tools! When we used the Minnesota Digital Library to search for Native American images from Minnesota the students needed to include a map in their presentation noting which county the Native Americans lived in. They used Picnik to add arrows to map photos that they used in their google doc slideshows. We also used SplashUp which is very much like Photo Shot Elements.

xtimeline.com

2009-06-01T15:41:00.000-07:00

Looking for a way to add a little research to your student's school diet? xtimeline.com is a great way. I asked my digital media students to create a timeline with 10 event dates. They could choose from the following types of timelines: biography, organization, science/tech. , history, or arts and entertainment. They needed to use research tools such as Nettrekker, World Book Online etc. to find their information. All students used their school email accounts to create an account with xtimeline, they emailed their topic to me and they used a tag: dmanwatin so I could easily search xtimeline's database and find all of my student's work.
This project encouraged students to summarize and paraphrase the information they found on their topic. Each event required a date (month, day and year), a tag and at least two or three sentences written by the student that would explain what happened on that date and an image that relates to the information.
The final timeline can be played just like a slideshow in ZoHo. My student's enjoyed the project.

2009-05-12T12:42:00.000-07:00

Digital media students have been busy creating "spring" music in garage band, taking photos of spring flowers at the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and reading poetry. Students then combined the three items (music, images and poetry) to create a podcast. We hope you enjoy them. They will be posted at my Minneapolis wiki: https://public-wikimedia.mpls.k12.mn.us/groups/anwatindigitalmedia/

Guess What Was In My Mail Box?

2009-04-22T10:26:00.000-07:00

While looking through my school mail I came upon a magazine entitled, "Creative Educator" and inside was an article on "Digital Storytelling". Good timing I thought since that was our topic last night at our Mili meeting. Where has this magazine been and why am I just seeing it now for the first time. Actually I noticed it came to my computer tech. and was put in my mail box my mistake. It's put out by "Tech4Leaning", we have some of their software ( Image Blender, Pixie and Web Blender) so perhaps that's why we are getting the magazine.

Other articles of interest were, "The Podcasting Connection", "Presenting Pop Art", "Investigating Impressionism", "Beginning with Bosch".

Time to Share

2009-03-31T12:10:00.000-07:00

My 8th grade Digital Media students have been sharing their "Women's History" projects with me using ZoHo. This week they are presenting their project to the class so we have discussed what they would wish from their audience: good listeners, respectful, no interruptions etc. It was a good discussion. Students were encouraged to ask questions at the end of each presentation.

I encouraged my students to keep the information on each slide to a minimun, to use notes, keep their eyes on the audiance and to not read from their slides. We talked about the differences between a report and a presentation.

It was wonderful to have all of their presentations in one spot (my ZoHo account). Since they shared them to me we didn't need to waste time logging into each student's account to access their work.

I used a podium and a wirelss keyboard so the presentor could advance the slides while standing up at the podium.

Having the students actually present their work to the class brought a whole new level to the need of finishing a project and handing it in on time.

Homework for Digital Media Students

2009-03-11T15:16:00.000-07:00

We are creating online presentations in digital media using Google Docs and Zoho. I'm using Google Docs with my 7th graders and Zoho with my 8th graders. It was a challenge getting everyone their own account. We are using our student school email accounts and passwords for the most part. I plan to pair students up so they can share their work online with their partner.

In 8th grade I plan to have partners from two different classes share their presentations. The topic in "Women of Power and Influence". We are using resources from our library as well as the "National Women's History Project" site.

The 7th grade topic is "Traveling Through Time in Minnesota". We are using the Minnesota Digital Library and the Minnesota Historical Society for images and content. Students are emailing organizations to get the rights to use those images in our presentations.

I want my students to be familiar with these online document sites because I think they will be the way of the future and a great way to share ideas, plus they can do their digital media assignments at home.

2009-02-19T15:57:00.000-08:00

What fun online tools, I go away from our MILI meetings feeling energized with all the new tools and ideas! The info on avoiding plagiarism from Purdue was so helpful. I think I will link that info to our staff site at Anwatin. Good info that all teachers should revisit. Paraphrasing and summarizing are such important skills for our students to master.

Creative Commons

2009-01-29T20:04:00.000-08:00

I encouraged my digital media students to consider using "Creative Commons" to place a copyright on their images. Sometimes I think my students don't realize just how good their photography is. I'm always blown away by the creative perspective that many of my students use when creating their image. Using "Flickr" was a great way to display their photography. Check it out, use the tag: dmanwatin.

wiki's

2009-01-20T16:55:00.000-08:00

I created a digital media wiki and have started to post my assignments, however, I find my teacher website is the main web presence that I use to communicate with parents and students. I list all my units and add documents under each unit that I have issued to students. If a student has missed days of school I just direct them to my website. I hope to move to my wiki in the future.

Picnik, a fun online photo editor

2009-01-20T16:49:00.000-08:00

My students uploaded three of their images to picnik and then used the tools on that site to enhance their images adding frames, color, text etc. A fun site where you don't need a login to use the site, however, it works really well with flickr.

Wordle and the Hopes of my Students for Our New President

2009-01-20T16:39:00.000-08:00

Last week in digital media I introduced my students to www.wordle.net. I asked them to write in a word document their hopes and dreams for the Obama administration. I reminded them that he will become our nation’s first bi-racial president, his mother a white women from the United States and his father a black man who was born and raised in a small village in Kenya. I asked them to think about “World Peace”, “Global Warming”, the “World Economy” and race relations around the world. They saved their wordle creations as PDF files. I will upload those files to our district podcast server.

Big Huge Labs

2009-01-20T16:26:00.000-08:00

Using "Big Huge Labs" with students was a lot of fun. We created posters, magazine covers and movie posters with President Obama's image.

flickr and creative commons with students

2009-01-20T16:21:00.000-08:00

Last week in my digital media classes we used some very cool web 2.0 tools. You can see my student's images on flickr using the tag: dmanwatin. Today in our MILI session I learned more about Creative Commons. I need to encourage my students you use Creative Commons and copy right their images because so many are beautiful and show that they understand photo composition guidelines.

2009-01-09T15:19:00.000-08:00

I'm finally using web 2.0 sites with my digital media classes.
1.We have uploaded images to "picnik" and have enhanced using the tools at that site.
2. I created a group user login at "flickr" and my students are uploading the best 5 images that they took while on our field trip last fall. Flicker is very cool! We tagged our images so we could easily share them with others and with the click of a button we viewed them in a slide show! Great way to view the work of others.

2008-09-12T12:19:00.000-07:00

I'm excited about the fact that we at Minneapolis Public Schools have our own podcasting server. Like UTube my students will be able to convert their Powerpoint slide shows and imovies to QuickTime and upload them to either a district private or public podcast server.