http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=442
I just watched a great video about publishing ebooks. I chose this video because I love to teach writing and I like the first and second grade age group which is the age of the class in the video.
This video shows how to create and edit an ebook. I think it's a great idea because the kids get to work with technology and work on a more long term project. Most writing, especially at a young age, is personal and doesn't last more than a week for each essay. The students are typically asked to write about an experience or about their favorite something or other. The writing of an ebook takes time. They get to experience the whole writing process of editing and conferencing and fine tuning their project. It allows them to set goals. I think it also motivates them to know that people are looking at their work and you can see this as a feature of the site. They can go home too and show their families what they are working on.
The ebook site works like a blog meets microsoft's paint. The video will give you enough confidence to go poking around to learn it. It's really similar to stuff we use everyday like power point and facebook. Some other cool features include adding audio so the kids can read parts of their work out loud on the book. There is this microphone too that is used to help the kids edit. They read their work in to it and the microphone sort of does some editing and helps the kids see where their errors are. They can also make little videos for pages. Another great thing is, you have to use ink in order to get a better quality to your scan. I know kids love markers more than pencil!:-)
I can't wait to use this. While watching the video, I thought of a few projects I had worked on with teachers and this would be a great addition to those. For example, my friend teaches third grade and every year she does this writing called The Ugliest Gourd. The kids write these silly descriptions about a gourd they pick out. This would make an excellent ebook!
04 October 2010
29 September 2010
Digital Nation
For my technology and education class, we watched a Frontline film called Digital Nation. Like an article we read, they referred to kids as digital natives and adults as digital immigrants. I'm not sure where I fit in all this, maybe somewhere between. I was fortunate to grow up with computers as an allied art in school. Teachers wove them in curriculum when they could. By middle school AIM was out. So, yeah, I guess I'm an immigrant but maybe one that came over when they were like four.
Here's where I consider myself the immigrant. I text. I like it almost more than talking on the phone but the other night I was invited over a friend's house for dinner. The TV was on in one room, another TV on in another room and the lady of the house would not stop with the phone. She'd be looking down, texting, hardly listening to what was being said at the table. I felt like I was intruding. I kept reminding myself I had been invited. The kids in the video were ok with this blackberry behavior. It's fine on public transportation or in a waiting room, but I'm not crazy about it during social time.
One of the things I found interesting was how South Korea was facing this tech addiction issue. I'm not sure how I feel about those cyber dry out camps, but I do like the early education approach. Especially "netiquette." As I've mentioned, I got to grow up learning the basics at a young age, but I'm wondering what kind of access our children have to these types of things. The resource distribution, like everything else isn't the same everywhere. I'm sure most kids have them at home, but my former students had computers once every other week and were often just playing Internet games and not doing projects. In all fairness, it is hard to plan projects just meeting every other week. Additionally, our computer teacher was also the IT person for the building too.
Another thing I found interesting was the virtual intimacy. I loved Bubbe! And the people that were into those games came from all walks of life. I have to admit, I sort of had some stereotypes about the people who played games like that. I also found the second life thing pretty cool. I might approach them about second life classroom for home school kids or kids that can't go to school due to illness.
Well, it was a good video and yes we need to use technology in the classroom. And not just power point by the way. It's just a fancy overhead that has notes typed up instead of hand written.:-)
Here's where I consider myself the immigrant. I text. I like it almost more than talking on the phone but the other night I was invited over a friend's house for dinner. The TV was on in one room, another TV on in another room and the lady of the house would not stop with the phone. She'd be looking down, texting, hardly listening to what was being said at the table. I felt like I was intruding. I kept reminding myself I had been invited. The kids in the video were ok with this blackberry behavior. It's fine on public transportation or in a waiting room, but I'm not crazy about it during social time.
One of the things I found interesting was how South Korea was facing this tech addiction issue. I'm not sure how I feel about those cyber dry out camps, but I do like the early education approach. Especially "netiquette." As I've mentioned, I got to grow up learning the basics at a young age, but I'm wondering what kind of access our children have to these types of things. The resource distribution, like everything else isn't the same everywhere. I'm sure most kids have them at home, but my former students had computers once every other week and were often just playing Internet games and not doing projects. In all fairness, it is hard to plan projects just meeting every other week. Additionally, our computer teacher was also the IT person for the building too.
Another thing I found interesting was the virtual intimacy. I loved Bubbe! And the people that were into those games came from all walks of life. I have to admit, I sort of had some stereotypes about the people who played games like that. I also found the second life thing pretty cool. I might approach them about second life classroom for home school kids or kids that can't go to school due to illness.
Well, it was a good video and yes we need to use technology in the classroom. And not just power point by the way. It's just a fancy overhead that has notes typed up instead of hand written.:-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
