Well - today (referring to yesterday, Day 2) was a challenging day.
Turns out the modem (from what George mentioned) had malfunctioned and as a result, we had not internet connection. This coupled with so few teachers at the start of the day - Karen took the group who were present and did a digital media presentation. As to be expected, Karen did a wonderful job with the teachers actively and enthusiastically participating. I hope to see some of the finalized projects - some, even few the short time frame, compiled some pretty convincing footage!!
After the 10:30 am snack break, we had a large influx of teachers. So the newcomers again came with us next door so that Karen could continue working with the morning group.
We started with no internet connection, so Bev took the group through a digital story telling workshop, which nicely flowed with what Karen had done with the early morning group. So the flow ran from viewing some samples that Bev had access to, to the participants creating a map and then having the participants draft up a story based on the map. The idea was to then move into Audacity to create the narration for the story that would then be imported into Windows Movie Maker.
Well - we found two issues:
Not sure of the computer configuration but we could not get the microphones to function. We left this with the IT group to work on. Hopefully they can get these to work.
The computer hooked up to the Smartboard did not have Windows Movie Maker - so either we get IT to install or we hook up a laptop to the projector and demo using it.
So - for today - will we get access to the Wesley All Girl School? I do hope so for two reasons - (1) it is getting really crowded after the 10:30 break as we are getting more and more teachers and (2) I want to get 'working' - that's what I'm here for and I feel like I'm not doing a whole lot!
Now - if I finally get to work with my group, the plan would be as follows:
We need to pick up where we left off and that is continue to work with wordpress.com blogs. From yesterday, I would reivew and cover the following:
Creating an account using (preferably) their Gmail account
Register a new blog
Create a 'post'
Insert an image
Change the theme - appearance
The next exercise would be to have the teachers create groups based on their disciplines and discuss how they see a blog could be used. After their discussions - the teachers would then post a blog entry which summarizes how they see how a blog could be used in their discipline.
We'll look at a few more features that teachers could use in their blog - for example, embedding a video from youtube.com. Youtube has developed into an excellent resource of information. Of course, there are video's that will need to be screened out. Having said this, if one takes the time, he/she will find some classroom ready videos. As well, the embedding process is very similar among the various web tools. For this reason, knowing how to carry out this process will allow the teachers to use it in other areas.
Another area to consider is the work that is carried out from the 'dashboard'. Virtually all blogs and wikis have a dashboard related feature. This is the backbone of the tool where all faucets of the program come be controlled. The mere awareness will provide the users the starting point to access when working within these tools.
Using the dashboard, we'll look at a few more of the features available:
sharing with others
modifying pages and posts
working with comments posts on their blog
'Widgets' - looks of little add ons to enhance the layout of the blog
For information purposes, there is another easier method of blogging and that is using Posterous.
Once we've done our review work and the introduction of new features of the Wordpress log, I'd like to review Prezi.com. We ran into technological issues so as an add-on, we looked at Prezi in the last half hour. I know that the group would like to get a better handle on the workings of the program so we need to spend a little more time on it. I'm hoping we'll be able to embed their prezi file into their blog.
Wordle & Tagxedo - these can be a powerful tool that I would like the teachers to be exposed to. Once we spend some time on how to manipulate the tool, I'd like to take and embed the Wordle file into our blog.
The next exercise would be to have the teachers create groups based on their disciplines and discuss how they see a Wordle / Tagxedo could be used. After their discussions - the teachers would then post a blog entry which summarizes how they see how a blog could be used in their discipline.
Depending how the class goes, we'll have a look at Glogster (http://www.glogster.com/ ). Basically we'll be creating electronic posters. We'll go through the process of creating a glogster and then embed this into our blog.
The next exercise would be to have the teachers create groups based on their disciplines and discuss how they see a Glogstger could be used. After their discussions - the teachers would then post a blog entry which summarizes how they see how a blog could be used in their discipline.
Turns out the modem (from what George mentioned) had malfunctioned and as a result, we had not internet connection. This coupled with so few teachers at the start of the day - Karen took the group who were present and did a digital media presentation. As to be expected, Karen did a wonderful job with the teachers actively and enthusiastically participating. I hope to see some of the finalized projects - some, even few the short time frame, compiled some pretty convincing footage!!
After the 10:30 am snack break, we had a large influx of teachers. So the newcomers again came with us next door so that Karen could continue working with the morning group.
We started with no internet connection, so Bev took the group through a digital story telling workshop, which nicely flowed with what Karen had done with the early morning group. So the flow ran from viewing some samples that Bev had access to, to the participants creating a map and then having the participants draft up a story based on the map. The idea was to then move into Audacity to create the narration for the story that would then be imported into Windows Movie Maker.
Well - we found two issues:
So - for today - will we get access to the Wesley All Girl School? I do hope so for two reasons - (1) it is getting really crowded after the 10:30 break as we are getting more and more teachers and (2) I want to get 'working' - that's what I'm here for and I feel like I'm not doing a whole lot!
Now - if I finally get to work with my group, the plan would be as follows:
We need to pick up where we left off and that is continue to work with wordpress.com blogs. From yesterday, I would reivew and cover the following:
For information purposes, there is another easier method of blogging and that is using Posterous.
Once we've done our review work and the introduction of new features of the Wordpress log, I'd like to review Prezi.com. We ran into technological issues so as an add-on, we looked at Prezi in the last half hour. I know that the group would like to get a better handle on the workings of the program so we need to spend a little more time on it. I'm hoping we'll be able to embed their prezi file into their blog.
Wordle & Tagxedo - these can be a powerful tool that I would like the teachers to be exposed to. Once we spend some time on how to manipulate the tool, I'd like to take and embed the Wordle file into our blog.
The next exercise would be to have the teachers create groups based on their disciplines and discuss how they see a Wordle / Tagxedo could be used. After their discussions - the teachers would then post a blog entry which summarizes how they see how a blog could be used in their discipline.
Depending how the class goes, we'll have a look at Glogster (http://www.glogster.com/ ). Basically we'll be creating electronic posters. We'll go through the process of creating a glogster and then embed this into our blog.
The next exercise would be to have the teachers create groups based on their disciplines and discuss how they see a Glogstger could be used. After their discussions - the teachers would then post a blog entry which summarizes how they see how a blog could be used in their discipline.
Wordpress (Blog site) http://wordpress.com/
Prezi (presentation tool) http://prezi.com/
Wordle (word cloud) http://www.wordle.net/
Tagxedo (word cloud) http://www.tagxedo.com/
Posterous (instant blogging tool) https://posterous.com/
Glogster (electronic poster generator) http://www.glogster.com/