Presentation Tools ( T9)

Ahhh, now we are getting somewhere. Liked the Slideshare - I've joined a powerpoint sharing group before - I should see if I can find that site, too. So we could create a pp here and then link it to our class web page for students and parents to access, right?

280 Slides is also cool. Wonder why you'd use this instead of Powerpoint? Yes, options are more limited than Power point. Or maybe it's for folks who don't have Power Point installed on their laptops ! ? Here's Sandy's tutorial for 280 Slides. ( Thanks, Sandy!)

We've explored so many different things in this class already, and I am not sure how much I will actually integrate into my classroom, partly 'cause I'm overwhelmed by the variety of tools, and not sure how they will apply in the art room. Guess I have to do some creative reflection on this class when we are finished.

glogster question

Last night I was thinking about glogster and wondered if the creator of a glog can return and edit it? I wanted to save it in the middle of the work, but it was difficult to tell if that was possible, so I left the whole thing up on my screen to finish later. Now I'd like to work on it again. Anyone know?

Glogster

All day it took, mostly 'cause I couldn't decide what to do. Here it is http://hillmjan.glogster.com/Artists-Birthdays/ . Yes, lots of ways to use this. Googled glogster lesson plans and saw a really cute one - a whole class had written poetry and each created a glog of their poem. They were linked to a class glog showing each child's face and first name. Very cute. This could be an easy way to create a quick discussion on an artist - without creating a power point - all the images on one page.

Collaboration tools ( task 7)

Checked out and joined Wiggio. Not sure I'll use it, but hey, it's cool to play with!

Skype is wonderful - I used just the audio when my daughter was in Greece two years ago. The sound of her voice was wonderful and we were able to chat often. Since then, technology has touched both of us via laptop cameras, so if she - or one of my sons- goes far away, we'll become steady users of skype. Lukas is headed to NY state for college and asked me to use Skype instead of my requested weekly phone call.

Skype would be really cool to use with a class from another state or country. Not sure how we'd do it with art unless we shared ideas or critiqued each other.

Task 6 Digital Storytelling

Digital Storytelling seems to offer much wider flexibility as a teaching tool, compared to the online writing tools we looked at previously. Kerpoof and Animoto seem to be much closer to the heart of creativity in writing - and illustrating.

I liked the layout of Digital Storytelling which also gave some helpful prompts and information for teachers like me who are not language arts specialists. Here's another site on Digital Storytelling which is similar. This second site is also brief, to the point, with various types of supportive information.

Kerpoof was limiting because of the precreated backgrounds and pictures. Guess the art teacher in me cannot be subdued. I ended up creating a drawing there, "Ahem." I'll try to create a link.

In Animoto, I made a short video of the quilted accordian book, The Mistaken Anole: An Underwater Odyssey I finished a few weeks ago. Animoto was pretty fun and easy to do, altho yes, no words are included in the story.

Still, after all this, I keep thinking of Flickr and Photostory ....

New Orleans - and back

Whew! My husband and I took 4 kids to theEvangelical Lutheran Church in America's National Youth Gathering in New Orleans.

What a wonderful time! All the kids (yep - 37,000) spent at least 1/2 a day working somewhere in the city on a service project. The total hours of work finally tallied equalled one person, working 4 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 90 + years! My group took a bus to Dr. Charles Richard Drew Elementary, a K-8 school in the 9th Ward, where we scraped and painted classrooms. Our evening gatherings took place in the Superdome, daytime activities took place at the Convention Center. Frankly, it was very moving to be in New Orleans even tho many signs of Katrina in tourist-traveled areas have been revitalized.

Something I'd like to discuss with this group was one popular (rampant) kind of social networking - texting. I have a new respect for the Middle and Upper Division teachers - how do you all control this during class? Talked with my college age daughter about it and she apologetically said that her peers were equally bad - texting others during conversations with her, for example. Clearly this is a case where technology has shot far ahead of current social 'rules.'

Task 5

Online writing. Not sure how I'm gonna use this.

-Tried the Fairy Tale one, and wrote a sentence for the princess's name. A sentence including the meaning of her name. - Oh yeah, and I named the King "King ___" so every time the story mentioned the king, it was "king King ____. " Guess you'd have to go thru the whole thing and discover all the glitches or twists and turns. Pretty prescriptive - not enough options.

-Loved the notion of the Bayeux Tapestry one, both for medieval exploration and the art, but struggled to get it to work. It's pretty cool. Sent this to my daughter (ready to enter grad school) who loves medieval art and she enjoyed building a story with it.
-The Story Creator is pretty cool - reminds me of the "escape the room" games my kids love.
-The Digital Story Kit looked interesting - a building of a video story.
and so on.

Most of these sites look good, but artistically they fall short for me. I wonder if there's a way to scan your own characters in and then build a story. The format of the Make Belief Comix is straightforward and simple to use - makes the story easier to share when building the illustrations are quick to master. Maybe after one or two uses it would become too simple?

So here's my simple comix. Already wanted more emotions than it gave me. Frustrating!