iMovie training

Participated in an iLife/iMovie 09 training that was offered by my district yesterday. I learned a lot of great tricks like green screen and PIP. Thinking about how a teacher will incorporate digital storytelling in the classroom is a long process. There is so much planning involved. Also, choosing source material, like cameras or online content is a lot of work. I will probably do one on my own first to show the class before I have them participate and eventually take ownership of the process.

creativity, digital story telling and handwriting

Been thinking lately about how digital story telling can really work for a lot of kids who have writing issues, like my son. Digital story telling offers a way to present knowledge/understanding using organization and creativity without the difficult writing/handwriting process. And I mean not only handwriting, but keyboarding as writing as well.

I am going to apply to pilot the use of iPod touch as a tool to create podcasts at my elementary school. I think that until they Touch gets a built in camera, we will primarily use it as a recording device. There are headsets with microphones and earbuds which I am hoping will make it easier to record in a classroom setting. There are always recording issues. The Touches do have wifi and safari for internet access. And there are quite a few apps, but I have to investigate whether you actually create the podcast on the touch or record and sync the audio to a desktop/laptop for the actual creation in like Garageband or whatever.

I am so interested to hear other teachers' opinions about podcasting/digital story telling because of how "wed" to the writing process teachers can become sometimes, for obvious reasons. I think I see this because at the level of language learning/acquisition that my students are, they do almost no writing, just language production. So I know there are alternative means of expression/presentation/assessment that can be used effectively. Storyboarding is a big element in good digital storytelling which is an organizational tool. The editing process is well, just that, editing...choosing the most important material to include and checking for meaning/correctness. A well done digital story can be a very complete representation of a students thoughts/understanding/ideas.

I keep meaning to read more of the text Digital Storytelling in the Classroom, but quite frankly not only is it like a user's manual, which I am notorious for eschewing in favor of just trying things out, but it's also dry as toast and about as indigestible.

I'm proud of myself for finally quieting my mind enough to finish another assignment and thankful that I have 2 days over this teacher's convention that I can spend some time and get things done.

Phrase Assignment

I have finally gotten it together enough to sit down and create the story that I've been thinking about for the phrase assignment. It takes me so long to get from idea to product. Why is that? Anyone have any words of wisdom for me?

Diigo experience

I was in a meeting on Friday with elementary school teachers from around our district. I wanted to share my experience with using Diigo one of the social bookmarking tools described in Richardson's book, Blogs, Wikis, etc. He had recommended it along with Del.i.cious with which I was vaguely familiar. I decided to use Diigo because it archives copies of your links.
So I had started to add bookmarks and give them tags, but I didn't organize them. During the meeting on Friday, I suggested that we look into the use of iPods in the classroom. One of the teachers was interested enough to pilot a project, but didn't have a lot of information. I had 5 great links bookmark on Diigo, so I made a group, searched on the tags ipods and classroom that I had used, invited her and the Assistant Supervisor to the group and now we are all sharing the links and commenting using Diigo. It was so simple and effective. And I looked like a real gear head. Nice.

Allegory

Okay, stay with me. This is going to be really convoluted. But I am trying to arrive at something here. I am trying to make something work in my mind for the Digital story assignment #2. So, somewhere I read an interview with Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame. Ever see any of his movies? Brazil, Twelve Monkeys, Lost in La Mancha? He cited as one of his influences, well 2 of his influences, Pieter Breughel and Hieronymous Bosch. Familiar with their work? Heavy on the allegory. I saw the Bosch at the Prado in Madrid, weird intricate paintings full of social commentary on sin and such. Same with Breugel's early work, although not as heavy-handed, he still painted with an eye to figurative reference. The Grim reaper is allegorical, as it represents death.

So I got to thinking about allegory, and I had the opportunity last week to do jury duty at the Essex County Courthouse. I was lucky enough to be sent to the Absolutely beautiful Historic Courthouse I was not thrilled with having Jury duty, but it afforded me to things. Time to think and the opportunity to see the beautiful EH Blashfield murals that had lovely allegorical paintings about wisdom, knowledge, justice, etc. Again, more allegory. More representational figures that are more than they seem. So now I'm challenged to think about what I can do along the lines of allegory. Like the Keats thing, Beauty is Truth, truth beauty. Or the Platonic thing about the universal...

I'm not sure where to go with this. Although I am reminded of the little tale of the wind and the sun, upon seeing a man with a heavy coat on, begin to debate who could get him to remove the coat. Short story shorter, the sun wins. Much gentler. Still thinking. Will continue this thought.

iGoogle and Blogger

I am adding the Blogger Gadget for iGoogle. I like being able to post from my iGoogle. I have been interested to finally figure out what RSS feeds can be used for. IGoogle makes it super easy to add RSS feeds to your iGoogle page. I have to decide what to put on my Home tab. I may make a new tab to organize my edu RSS feeds and then leave my Home tab for more personal/lifestyle feeds.

Blog Action Day

What are we doing personally to reduce our carbon footprint?

Our family has been making modest efforts to "go green". These efforts include:

1. Making an effort to recycle more.
2. Turning off lights, unplugging chargers and unused electronics.
3. Intending to turn in Jeep for more efficient car in January (Hybrid? Diesel?)
4. Using string bags/reusable bags at the grocery store.
5. Supporting local farmers and being a member of a CSA.
6. Refraining from printing every little thing on my computer. Doing more online.
7. Stopped buying water in plastic bottles, using Britta filter system and reusable bottles.

Wish I could use solar panels!

Here are some tips from Scientific American about solutions for climate change.