Betty’s Instructional Technology Blog

In this workshop, we will cover the following topics:

1. Voicethread- Check out this wonderful resource from Colette Cassinelli. A special thanks to Wes Fryer’s blog for sharing this wiki (and tons of other great resources). I’d also like to thank the Langwitches blog for sharing digital storytelling directions for various Web 2.0 tools.
2. Kidspiration 3 – new great features for searching for graphics, built in dictionary & thesaurus, and math manipulatives
3. Delicious - a wonderful social booking site

The link to the entire presentation can be found at: http://www.gtps.k12.nj.us/technology/Tech_K3/_Tech_K3_files/frame.htm

Workshop participants should complete an exit ticket by commenting on this blog post.

In this workshop, we will be covering the following topics:

1. Google Earth
2. Photostory
3. Delicious

The following is a link to the presentation: http://www.gtps.k12.nj.us/technology/Tech_SocialSt/_Tech_SS_files/frame.htm

Workshop Participants:

Please complete an exit ticket by commenting on my blog.

Our Science and Technology Workshop will focus on using technology to enhance science instruction. The workshop will highlight the following tools:

1. Inspiration & Kidpiration – visual learning software
2. Creating podcasts for science using Camtasia or Jing – based on presentation from NECC
3. Using delicious to organize science web site resources
4. Discovery Streaming to create web lessons with videos & links

The following is a link to the presentation: http://www.gtps.k12.nj.us/technology/Tech_Science/_Tech_Science_files/frame.htm

Workshop participants should complete the following Exit Ticket by commenting on this blog:

1. Name 1 thing you learned
2. Name something  you will try with your students
3. Ask a question/express a concern/leave a comment

Our technology and mathematics workshop will focus on 4 main areas:

1. Using spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel). We will share samples of activities in each grade level from 4 – 8
2. The new math view in Kidspiration 3
3. Bookmarking web sites using del.icio.us
4. Creating Mathcasts

The link to our presentation can be found at: http://www.gtps.k12.nj.us/technology/Tech_Math/_Tech_Math_files/frame.htm

If you are participating in the workshop, please leave a comments as your exit ticket by answering these questions:

1. Name 1 thing you learned
2. Name something you will try with your students
3. Ask a question, express a concern, leave a comment

I will be giving a series of workshops in the next few weeks along with computer lab teachers in my district that focus on integrating technology into various subject areas. The first will focus on language arts literacy. We will cover various ways to use digital storytelling. We will also use del.icio.us, a social bookmarking site, as a means of collecting various web site resources that can be retrieved from any site that has Internet access.

The following is a link to my presentation: http://www.gtps.k12.nj.us/technology/Tech_LAL/_Tech%20LAL_files/frame.htm. Participants should comment on this blog entry for their exit ticket. Please answer the following questions:

1. Name 1 thing you learned
2. Name something you will try with your students
3. Write a question/concern/comment you may have

I came across a very comprehensive resource for all things Web 2.0. It contains information about everything from blogs to podcasts to wikis to digital storytelling to resources like Animoto and Jing and Photo Story and on and on… It also provides resources on digital citizenship issues like copyright and cybersafety. Another link that shows a creative way one district encouraged their staff to enter this Web 2.0 world can be found here. It contains a detailed plan including weekly tasks and incentives provided throughout the year.

 I learned about it through listening to the Ed Tech Weekly podcast from Ed Tech Talk. It still amazes me how much information is out there and how great is it to be able to access it through listening to podcasts and reading blogs. The idea of these “digital subscriptions” coming right to my computer still blows me away. 

Are you familiar with the Discovery Educator Network? Educators from across the country share wonderful resources through this network. Just this week I found two really great resources I can use.

The first was a podcast by Hall Davidson. He provides some down to earth, easy ways to use media in the classroom. The podcast is from back in December. I just came across it this week. Resources for it are posted on his blog entitled, ”Media Matters.” I listened to it from a different blog called “Bit by Bit.”

The second resource, I just found tonight. It contains some nice PowerPoint tutorials on various media resources including Photo story, Adobe Premiere Elements and Web 2.0 tools like Animoto, Del.icio.us, and Voicethread. The link to this resource is: http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/matt.monjan/the-bird-house-your-source-for-geekybird-stuff/ Thanks to the author, Matt Monjan, for taking the time to create these resources and for sharing them with us. I am looking forward to sharing some of these links at workshops I’ll be giving this summer.

We recently obtained parent permission to post a sample student Reader’s Theatre project. The following is a sample third grade project where students created backgrounds in Max Paint , used Photoshop Elements to superimpose photographs on top, and then imported them into Photo story where they added narration. The sample is called “Jessica.” Check out this link: http://www.gtps.k12.nj.us/technology/jessica_movie_for_web.wmv

We have been working on different ways to share our student’s stories digitally. An exciting project was completed by third grade students this year. It involved using Photostory. The goal was to improve students’ reading fluency through a Reader’s Theatre project. We used the following steps:

1. Students selected stories to illustrate and read aloud
2. Students used Max Paint ( a program that is part of Tom Snyder’s Scholastic Keys) to design background images for different parts of the story
3. Digital pictures were taken of the students
4. The digital pictures were superimposed on their backgrounds  using Photoshop Elements
5. The images were saved as jpegs and uploaded to Photostory
6. Students recorded their voices into Photostory
7. Video files were created.

I’ll try to add a sample if I can get parent permission to include student pictures. For now, I’ll attach a sample of the backgrounds without the pictures and audio.

readers-theatre

Students have been working on podcasts over the last couple of months. Two “Blogs” were created to share these completed products. Students did extensive research on the Internet as well as tin the library. I have shared the link to the first podcast before. It is http://rogem6a.edublogs.org/ . A new feature was added. One student used Voicethread to conduct an interview with a teacher in another district. The interesting thing is that the student and the teacher never met or spoke to each other live. Difficulties with schedules made it impossible to conduct a traditional interview. So, thanks to the help of a wonderful educator and skilled technician, we were able to email questions to the teacher and obtain audio clips of the responses. We recorded the student’s questions then recorded the teacher’s answers. The direct link to the interview is: http://voicethread.com/book.swf?b=136299

A second group created a series of podcasts using Audacity and Photo story. To embed the link to the video podcast, we uploaded the Photo story files to Teacher Tube, since You Tube is often blocked in our district. The link to their site is: http://rogem6b@edublogs.org .