Digital Text/Powerpoint Presentation

After reading this assignment and understanding what components make up the readability of a website, I started to consider websites I visit often that I either like or dislike. The website for my daughter’s swim team stands out to me as hard to navigate. I then started to contemplate why. It is on a primarily white background and it isn’t as busy as some in terms of the written material. However, it is almost outdated in its approach. In order to get any type of needed document you have to navigate your way through the downloads section resulting in a list of yellow word folders. You then need to find what you are looking for and download it. There are several different swim teams (based on age and level) and I feel that if they had each team as a tab across the top it may be more effective to navigate. According to our Beach textbook, people read online text for a specific purpose and they are looking to find their information quickly. The first time I used this site, it took me a significant amount of time to find the information I was after. Additionally, the site is not appealing. It has files listed on the front page and is lacking visual images.

Here is the website.

A website that I visit regularly and enjoy navigating is the Sesame Street website (my son’s favorite site). This website utilizes bright colors and vivid images of your favorite Sesame Street characters. There are tabs across the top that bring you to various games, and videos, etc. It is designed so that a child can navigate the site.

Here is the website.

I am not sure what kinds of activities I would use in my classroom for this topic. I don’t plan to have my students create websites. However, I found the information useful for myself as I am beginning to create online digital texts. I do have my students create power point presentations and I think that giving them examples of traditional vs. interactive power points would help them in developing effective presentations.

I found creating an interactive power point presentation challenging. I actually do not feel that is was successful. I wanted to create a power point that I would use in my classroom. I have to admit that I have only made a few in my career. I decided to create a presentation that would introduce Greek mythology to my students. I tried to use a storytelling approach in my presentation. However, it isn’t as interactive as I would like it to be. I posed questions throughout, but I think it would be stronger if I linked to other websites. In the original presentation, I had many effective transitions and music throughout. Both features enhanced the overall product. However, when I uploaded my presentation to Google docs all of the features disappeared. I was disappointed in that and I need to see if there is a way to avoid that from happening.

Presentation link

Comic Strip

I created my comic strip using Comic Life. I chose that option because I am not creative at all and I wanted to use my own images in the comic strip. I thought the most difficult part of the assignment was coming up with the topic to base the comic strip on. I finally decided to use several photos from my recent experience on a high ropes course. It proved to be a useful medium to express my emotion on this particular topic. I found the program very easy to use and fun!

I think that the use of comic strips gives students a fun way to practice their summarizing skills. I think I would use this to have students retell a story by summarizing the key points of the story. It could be part of a lesson on the parts of the plot and their comic could follow that plotline. I am starting a mythology unit soon and I am thinking of having each student create a comic strip to tell the story of the Greek god that they choose to study. The concern I have is that the programs didn’t seem to have a lot to choose from as far as images, and I don’t know how difficult it would be to create images of Greek gods.

November 10 - More Podcasts

Initially, I wasn’t sure what I would use a podcast for in my classroom. I am excited about all of the ideas that I read about in our readings for last week and on our Ning. I love the idea of having students podcast for book talks. Book talks always take up a lot of class time and it would be great to give the students the experience of doing a book talk, but not using class time.

Another idea that I had was having the students do a poetry reading. I feel that they often are hesitant to recite dramatically in class, but they may be more comfortable in their own home. Especially, since they can play it and then edit it to improve it. I think it would still be beneficial to share these with the class, but less stressful for the student than presenting in person.

I love the idea of having students write and share via podcast their This I Believe essay. I actually just got the book This I Believe which is a compilation of essays. I also was able to download middle school lesson ideas from their website. I am excited to have my students do something with this.

I created my first podcast to share directions for an assignment. It will work great to catch up sick students. I could probably attach it to my website for students and parents to access. I found it very easy to create and not time consuming at all. I liked the fact that I could write out what I wanted to say and read from it.

Lastly, I love the idea of using a podcast to give the background of a time in history to the students. This would be useful before teaching To Kill a Mockingbird and Anne Frank. Students would benefit by gaining an understand of the time period and I would probably present this background information more effectively if I had it scripted out.

I am excited to start using podcast in my classroom!

November 3 - Podcasts

I have decided to make a pod cast for a recent writing assignment that I assigned to my 7th graders. It is an assignment that I introduced and discussed in class, but also an assignment that requires some participation from their parents. I emailed the parents a brief explanation, but later thought that if I could have attached a quick pod cast, it might have helped clarify any questions or confusion. It also could be useful with so many students absent. I could refer them to the podcast rather than explain it to students individually. The use of pod cast is not something I am familiar with and this is a good introduction to their uses.

As far as Skype goes, I am not clear on how I would use this in my classroom at this time. We have used iChat to talk to my parents. It has been fun for my kids to see Grandma and Grandpa on the computer and it keeps them up to date on the activities in our house.

Here is my podcast:

Digital Video

I decided to create a small video highlighting a northern vacation. I enjoyed learning how to use imovie 9. Here is my digital video. Enjoy!