Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Podcasting in the Classroom: Photo Story 3


This podcast was created to provide students an overview for using Photo Story 3.  But most importantly, my 4th grade students are publishing their stories, while participating in digital storytelling.



Connie Malamed provides a great blog post to validate the use of digital storytelling.  I am looking forward to engaging students within the world of digital storytelling.

Student projects to come...

Monday, December 5, 2011

Digital Storytelling Grant

The following grant was written to provide students and teachers with training on digital storytelling. The project was designed to apply 1:1 computing and hands-on technology to enhance student's digital literacy. The program engages students in e-reading, e-writing, and video production, while using the iPad 2 Learning Lab.


Social Bookmarking: The New Webquest

Social Bookmarking

Social Bookmarking is like your browser's (i.e. Internet Explorer, Fire Fox, Safari, etc.) favorites button, but it’s on the web. So, you get an on-the-go favorites list. One presenter compared compiling reliable websites to creating digital playgrounds for student exploration. In a sense, social bookmarking provides students with a guide to acquire worthwhile and appropriate information. Basically, it is like a web quest with a sharable URL. Diigo and Sqworl both provide a snapshot of the websites homepage, which follows what research tells us about facing book covers toward students.
  1. Diigo (check out this Diigo starter sheet)
  2. Delicious (check out this Delicious starter sheet)
  3. Sqworl
  4. Scoop.it
  5. MentorMob
With the holidays approaching, my wife and I have been having a difficult time finding a gift for our nieces and nephews.  Our nieces and nephew's list has been distributed to several people, and after a purchase is made we find out someone else has already bought the item.  This can get annoying; so, I suggested social bookmarking for the kids gift list.  Let's see if this works.  Now, I just have to train people how to use the web tool. 

What other forms of social bookmarking are out there?  How are you utilizing it within your classroom?

    Sunday, December 4, 2011

    Writing in Math on the State Test

    Here is an instructional unit I developed to improve students' writing in math on the state test.  The unit was created using the Kemp model for instructional design.  I know it is sad that I have to do this, but tests scores are politician's bread and butter. 

    This is the report with an introduction to the instructional problem, needs analysis, facilitator guide, and student guide.




    Student Products

    To present the information to students, I created a Student Guide, Prezi presentation and Xtranormal video.