Thursday, July 31, 2014

Experimenting With Moovly for Content Creation

As it often goes when learning how to use new technology tools, it takes a lot of time. UNH colleague Beth Hick and I used Moovly for the first time in making our video. And although it took a few hours of playing, practicing, and revising we had fun making it. Our intent was to keep is simple yet use some of the bells and whistles offered in Moovly to make it more entertaining. 


           

Sunday, July 20, 2014

A Quick Tutorial On iMovie Trailer

This week I was given the task of creating a short tutorial on an app which students and/or adults might find useful.  The first lesson I learned is that I give too much detail when describing a process. Although I know in my head that less is often more, I don't always practice that phrase. My video is 10 minutes long.  I used a Nikon Coolpix digital camera, set on a tripod, to film the iPad screen.  I have yet to figure out how to do a screencast video on the ipad, so I resorted to what I knew about the equipment I had.  I also remembered that uploading and downloading video to Youtube takes some time.  You may view my tutorial on the iMovie trailer here.



At another time I will need to trim the video down. All I can say is that editing takes more time than I often think it will take.  The purpose of this video was to teach the technical aspects of iMovie trailer.  There is the whole aesthetic side of making video content.  This is a demonstration of the technical steps involved with iMovie trailer. Here is another video which I spent more time on the creative content.  NHPS Math Online .



The research was supported by a grant from BrainPOP.


Today I am thinking in pictures...

Images from: Understanding Multimedia Learning: Integrating multimedia in the K-12 classroom
Multimedia offers exciting possibilities for meeting the needs of 21st century learners. The use of multimedia instruction can significantly enhance student learning if properly designed and implemented. This paper describes the way in which the brain processes multimedia information and the principles behind effective multimedia instruction.
This research was conducted by SEG Research. The research was supported by a grant from BrainPOP.
September 2008



















Thursday, July 17, 2014

Digital Portfolio Map Draft # 2 With Reflections


After reviewing and reflecting on the maps of my colleagues and my own initial map I have reorganized the picture of what I would like to include in my digital portfolio.  As is often the case when I have more time to ponder about a task the steps to accomplish the task become clearer.

After looking at both of my maps I realized an interesting difference between the two.  On the first map I was primarily responding to the ED7730 course description in the syllabus.  I was trying to create "what the teacher wanted".  In the map above I was thinking about what I wanted to create to represent myself while keeping in mind the goals and objectives of the course.  This realization is critical as a learner.  We often state that students must own their learning.  The fact that I have been given choice in what to include in the portfolio has enabled me to understand the task at a deeper level.


Monday, July 14, 2014

What Most Schools Don't Teach







Are you sure you don't want ot go into engineering?

A Vision of Students Today

E-Portfolio Site Map first Draft


The web diagram above is an initial picture of my plan for the development of my digital or e-portfolio.  After about 7 sketches I have thought through some of the elements I think are important to include in the portfolio. As an instructional coach I hope to share some of the insights which I have gained this year with other teachers who are ready and willing to become more digitally literate.  My hope is that my e-portfolio will support the process of teaching others.  I also see the e-portfolio as a representation of who I have become as a digital citizen.  I expect that my portfolio will be an evolving, changing, project which reflects my lifelong process of growing as a digital learner.

I have not yet decided upon the platform I will choose to host my portfolio, more time and investigation is needed to make that determination.  At this time I am leaning toward WIX and I like this template.  I will make more time to refine my content and homepage design.  Please feel free to share any comments or ideas you may have with me.  Thank you!


Sunday, July 13, 2014

Educational Philosophy Revisited July 13, 2014

Photo: Francis Ledoux

A year ago I began a journey on the road to "digital literacy".  Last July I wrote the following statement of educational  philosophy...

"Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved"

                                                                 Soren Kierkegaard

This quote has resonated in my mind since I first read it in a philosophy class in college.  I am still trying to articulate the meaning I find in that statement.  Perhaps it expresses something about my educational philosophy?  Perhaps I have always wanted to change it to read: "Life is a mystery to be lived and a problem to be solved"?

I think life is all about the joy of teaching and learning.  My basic tenants of education at this point in my life are:

  • Learning is an intrapersonal experience where "intellectual discourse" may lead to knowing something or changing one's thoughts about something.
  • There must be some form of struggle with the concepts and ideas before you make them your own or understand them (Piaget's idea of equilibration)
  • Our desire to know and learn needs to be encouraged.  The role of the teacher is to tap into the student's curiosity by posing probing questions and offering adventurous experiences.  It is not an option to be uninformed.  Education is power and anyone who says "ignorance is bliss" is self oppressive.

    As a learner and teacher I have been influenced by some of the ideas of Jean Piaget, John Dewey, Rachel Carson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and many others.

As I reflect on my own words posted above and the learning I have experienced this year I think that my basic philosophy of education has not changed. It has, however, been drastically enhanced by what is currently called Instructional Technology and Digital Media Literacy at the University of New Haven.  

In my revised philosophy statement I would add Mimi Ito, Pernille Tranburg, James Paul Gee, Brene Brown, John Seeley Brown, Sherry Turkle, Daphne Koller, Sir Ken Robinson, and William Ian O'Byrne to the list of those who have influenced my ideas about education.  The type of access I have to great thinkers has expanded exponentially since I have begun my journey on the road to digital literacy.

As I continue to review and refine my educational philosophy I hope to explore more about technology in education as it relates to respect, equity and access.  As I analyze the affordances and vulnerabilities of technology I learn that we need to be thoughtful and purposeful about designing learning experiences for diverse populations.  I am keenly aware of the rate of change which is at the core of technology and look forward to continnued imersion in the multimedia aspects of the educational world.

Sunday, July 6, 2014

What Should My Digital Portfolio Include?

Image by David Mulcahy


As I begin to develop my digital portfolio my first goal I have is to reflect on who I have become as a digital citizen.  This year I have learned about many facets of instructional technology and digital media literacy in the IT&DML 6th year program at the University of New Haven in West Haven, CT.  At this point I would like to go back and review all my digital artifacts to explore the digital identity I have created over the past year.  

Midway through the program I created this graphic.

 

The first process I will undertake is to reread and reflect on the multimodal activities I have completed.  I think this process will help me reflect on the digital identity I have created.  In a sense I want to take the time to figure out who I am on the World Wide Web.

The second goal for my e-portfolio may be to frame my past work to present my future self.  In a way I may be introducing myself digitally to an audience.  I am still in the beginning stages of knowing who I want to be and who my audience should be.

The third goal for my digital portfolio may be to have a model for teachers or students.  As an instructional coach I am in a unique position to "pass the word on" about the benefits of e-portfolios.  I firmly believe that I must go through the process myself to be better able to teach others how to develop a portfolio.  As with any concept or idea I think the learner becomes a better teacher after struggling to understand the deep meaning of that concept or idea.

I look forward to this work and hope to gain insights about who I am...digitally speaking.


What is an E-Portfolio?


As a college student in 1979 in Saratoga Springs, New York, many of my friends majoring in art worked to develop their "portfolio".  Their art portfolio was housed in a rather large, perhaps a 3' by 4 ', flat, zip- up suit case with a handle on it.  The purpose of their portfolio was to hold exemplars of their best graphic art work to show to an audience.  It was a space to organize their art work and have it ready to preset for a variety of reasons.  It was cumbersome to transport and difficult to store.

Now, twenty-five years later, I am learning about a new version of the portfolio, the e-portfolio.  So what is an e-portfolio? In the words of George Lorenzo and John Ittelson in their article An Overview of E-Portfolios  ” an e-portfolio is a digitized collection of artifacts including demonstrations, resources and accomplishments, and accomplishments that represent an individual, group, community, organization or institution.  This collection can be comprised of text-based, graphic, or multimedia elements archived on a Web site or other electronic media such as a CD-ROM or DVD."  

In her presentation E-Portfolios as Digital Stories of Deep Learning Dr. Helen Barret points out that e-portfolio can be associated with the terms, electronic portfolio, digital repository, workspace, and showcase.  She focuses in this presentation on why one creates an e-portfolio and the importance of the reflective process in self-regulated learning.  She notes that reflection is the "heart and soul of learning" and that the metacognitive aspect of e-portfolios is its most critical aspect.  You may refer to this page by Dr. Barret to see examples of e-portfolios using google apps at the k-12 and college levels.

There are generally three types of e-portfolios, student e-portfolios, teaching e-portfolios, and institutional e-portfolios. Each type serves a different purpose and may contain artifacts which support different goals.  One may create an e-portfolio to plan an educational program, or to document knowledge and learning, to find a job, or to evaluate performance.

The elements in an e-portfolio may vary.  Common elements are:

  • ·        Table of Contents
  • ·        Mission Statement/Goals
  • ·        Artifacts which demonstrate the purpose/goals of the e-portfolio
  • ·        Reflections/thoughts about learning
  • ·        Resume
  • ·        Select Multimedia representations


Here are some rubrics which give more detail to e-portfolio elements.




Stay tuned for future blog postings where I write about the what, how, why of my own e-portfolio development.