Week 4
This week in Educational Technology focused on Microsoft
PowerPoint presentations and how they can be effectively used in school
settings.
I have extensively used PowerPoint presentations in
undergraduate courses, and in 12 years of Environmental Education. I think that PowerPoint is a great software
program to help anyone make a visual slide presentation that can include
graphics, animation, sound and timing.
It takes a bit if finagling to get just the right feel for your
presentation, but once you get the hang of it, PowerPoint is just as fun to
create as it is to present and as it is to view. In the article “PowerPoint in the Classroom:
What’s All the Hype?” (http://www.teach-nology.com/tutorials/powerpoint/), I
enjoyed reading about the triple P (PowerPoint
Paralysis). Triple P is when creaters
put in so many graphics, animation and sound that the content becomes secondary
and the audience just zones everything out.
Another pitfall of PowerPoint is when the presenter stands
behind a lectern with their laptop facing them and they just speak to the
laptop screen as they flip through slides.
PowerPoint can be an amazing tool when used to enhance a program. Presenters still need to be aware of personal
presentation skills – eye contact, vocal volume, body language, humor, taking
questions, and reading their audience among other things. Just because a PowerPoint Presentation is
written and on the screen, does not mean that you have to be a robot to present
it.
For anyone presenting a PowerPoint presentation, I would
recommend using a cordless mouse or remote control for an LCD projector. If you can step away from the laptop or
corded mouse and move around the room to engage with the audience while using
the PowerPoint presentation at the same time, it will engage and keep the
attention of the audience much more than someone standing in one place clicking
a button.
We were tasked with creating and presenting a PowerPoint
presentation this week. As I am not yet
teaching, I created a presentation about bird adaptations and showed it to my 9
year old nephew, Christopher.
The 10-minute presentation consisted of a variety of beaks and
feet to teach about physical adaptations that would help birds survive. When a bird’s beak and feet are specifically
designed to help it eat specific foods or move in a particular fashion, it fits
a niche and would generally survive longer.
For example, some ducks have a beak that help it to strain algae and
plants from the water (an easily accessible food source for an animal with a
strainer adaptation) and webbed feet (to help it swim to it’s food and away
from predators). I am most proud that I
was able to draw and scan images to make my point. It was difficult to find free photos on-line
of specific bird body parts. Christopher
seemed interested in the presentation, but I think that I made it a little too
easy for him. I need to hone in on my
age-appropriateness for presentations.
Technology Explorations 11-14
11. Comic Life: comiclife.com
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1.
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Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be
thorough in your response.
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I learned that Comic Life is a software package that allows
user to create comics out of their own images. Users can insert a photo or drawing and then
add captions and word balloons to create unique comics. The completed comics can be printed, or
saved to be posted to websites or e-mailed.
Creating comics inspires students to be creative in building action oriented
works and follow sequential storylines.
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2.
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How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field
or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in
educational settings.
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Although I am not yet a teacher, I think this could be
easily used in English classes to work on story lines and sequential
order. Comic Life could be used in an
ESL class to work on language skills.
I may try to use Comic Life in a science class to map out the scientific
process.
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3.
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Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike;
Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.
Why or Why not?
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I would recommend the use of Comic Life in the
classroom. Although I do not think I
would use it often, Comic Life would be a fun and engaging way for teachers
to ‘mix it up’. By offering students a
variety of software packages and regularly changing the ways students show
final products, students stay more motivated to learn. Offering Comic Life to students on occasion
would motivate them to complete the assignments and showcase their
knowledge. There is a fee for Comic
Life $19.99 for an individual license with quantity discounts. This could be cost prohibitive if the
school wants to install Comic Life on many computers.
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1.
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Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be
thorough in your response.
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I learned that iSpeech creates and provides a Text to Speech
program that allows all sorts of written text formats to be read aloud by one
of 45 different human sounding voices in 27 languages. iSpeech can be used to make audio
recordings for presentations, have an interactive Siri, and can be built into
your own applications as you desire.
iSpeech also have numerous applications for use on smartphones and
on-line that aide in texting-and-driving, caller ID, and translation
services.
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2.
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How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field or
level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational
settings.
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iSpeech could be used to record and playback test questions
for auditory learners or student with visual disabilities. iSpeech could be used in foreign language
classes to hear and review correct pronunciation and emphasis. iSpeech could also be used to record a
script for an on-line presentation.
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3.
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Would you recommend this resource to other educators?
Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why
or Why not?
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I would not recommend the use of iSpeech. I feel that there are other easier to use
Text to Speech software packages, and a few of them are free (DSpeech is one
example). The applications that
iSpeech offers are unique, but I do not think that they are overly valuable
in a school setting.
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1.
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Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be
thorough in your response.
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I learned that Voicethread is an on-line software that
allows users to create slide shows narrated by their own voices. Users and viewers are also able to leave
comments for one another. This is one
of the cloud software programs, so the Voicethread presentations can be
uploaded from anywhere in the world and shared with others world-wide. The Voicethread 4 Education wiki is a
collection of wikis completed by students or teachers for students or as
teacher professional development. It
is a very good resource of ideas and suggestions on how Voicethread can be
used in a variety of classroom settings.
The wiki also have many (possibly hundreds) of Voicethreads archived
for free use. A unique aspect on
Voicethread is the ability of comments to be saved audibly. When adding comments in other programs, most
of the time the comments are written in as text. Hearing another voice from someone
different would motivate students to create a Voicethread and seek
comments. They would then listen to
the comments and hopefully respect the comments more than just a simply
written “good job”.
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2.
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How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field
or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in
educational settings.
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I would like to use this in a Science class similarly to how
I saw a Voicethread from a 9th grade Biology class. The students can post slides of an
experiment while narrating the scientific process. Having students explain their hypothesis,
process and results can help auditory learners retain the information
better. I would post the Voicethread
on the class website and allow other classes and parents comment on the
Voicethread.
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3.
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Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike;
Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.
Why or Why not?
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I would recommend the use of Voicethread to other
educators. It seems very easy to use
and engaging. I have not seen many
other software packages that can have narration ongoing while showing multiple
slides. In MS PowerPoint, each slide
has it’s own separate narration. At $79/year for a single educator license,
it is a bit expensive if a school wanted to buy multiple licenses and that
could be cost prohibitive. If one
teacher wanted to use this software, I don’t think that cost is too high if
it would be used regularly.
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13. Story Bird: http://storybird.com/
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1.
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Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be
thorough in your response.
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I learned that Story Bird is an online software program that
helps students create their own books and poems. Students combine Story Birds combine Story
Bird’s illustrations with their own text to create a brand new book. The books can be posted on websites,
e-mailed or ordered as printed and bound books. A free teacher account can be used for up
to 3 classes and 75 students. Story
Bird helps inspire student creativity and logical thought patterns to be able
to layout and progress through their own story. The teacher has access to a ‘dashboard’ that
allows him/her to check on student work in progress and final products. The teacher also has the ability to manipulate
security settings and to choose what student work gets published publicly.
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2.
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How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field
or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in
educational settings.
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I think Story Bird could primarily be used in elementary and
middle schools to reinforce writing skills and language organization. Students
could be assigned to work in groups to come up with a story that includes an
introduction, body and summary. In a
history class, they could be tasked with writing a non-fiction book about a
specific time period or historical figure.
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3.
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Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike;
Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.
Why or Why not?
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I would recommend the use of Story Bird to other
educators. It is an engaging software
that is very easy to use. The screen
shots to create the stories are very simple, so the students can focus on
writing their stories, not on clicking every button on the page. It is fun and motivational to write a story
and see the book come to fruition right before your eyes. The downside of Story Bird is that since
the writers are limited to Story Bird’s graphics, the story (particularly a
fiction story) could easily be inspired and driven by the graphics instead of
the text. This could be a fault or a
benefit depending on the age and skill of the writers. Teachers can sign up
for a free teacher account for up to 3 classes and 75 students, or the high
end membership is only $99/year for up to 300 students in unlimited
classes. I do not think that the cost
is prohibitive for such an original program package.
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1.
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Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be
thorough in your response.
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I learned that Scribblar is an on-line collaboration tool
that allows user to text-chat, speak live with microphones, share files and
use the same screenshot at the same time (like all using a blackboard in a
classroom). Scribblar is very useful
to collaborate and share files with people who you cannot connect with face
to face. The collaborative white-board screen for Scribblar looks and feels
different than other common software packages (MSOffice), so the user will
need to take some time to get acquainted with the new package. Being able to
connect with other students and teachers from a distance would be engaging
for students who are isolated or who have speech or motor function disabilities.
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2.
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How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field
or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in
educational settings.
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I could see how Scribblar would be very effective for
distance learning and home school programs.
It could be used in a classroom setting if the teacher can set up a
partnership with a sister-school in another area. This would be a wonderful tool to do a
group project with students in two different states or countries. I think it would be really fun to assign a
group project where students in two different countries are comparing their
cultures, language or government.
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3.
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Would you recommend this resource to other educators?
Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why
or Why not?
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I would recommend the use of Scribblar to other educators if
they had a distance learning component to their classes or if they had the
ability to connect to other classes some distance away. Since nothing beats a good face to face
brainstorming session, I would not recommend Scribblar to be used in a single
classroom with students who see each other regularly. I do not want to rely too heavily on technology
and let normal social interactions slip away. For digital collaboration in a
classroom, I would recommend a SmartBoard.
To allow each student to have their own user ID would cost $39/month;
I think that price is unobtainable for most classroom budgets. The free plan only allows 2 users, so that
would not be very inclusive for entire classes.
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14. Xtranormal - http://www.xtranormal.com
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1.
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Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be
thorough in your response.
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I learned that Xtranormal is a software that allows users to
create movies using their own text and pre-set ‘actors’. The ‘actors’ are computer generated images
of people, robots and animals. Users select a background scene and actors for
their movie then type in the dialogue.
The ‘actors’ can have any one of TTS pre-set voices, or users can
record their own voices to use. When
the movie is done, it can be saved and posted on the xtranormal.com website
or shared with a variety of social media websites.
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2.
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How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field
or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in
educational settings.
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Xtranormal could be used easily in a history or social
studies classes. Students could be
tasked with making a movie of a past president explain why he made a certain
policy or decision. Or the movie
assignment could be having two historical figures from different time periods
debate a similar topic (like slavery).
Since I am an aspiring science teacher, I could ask my students to
make a movie where the character is explaining a scientific theory or
debating a principle.
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3.
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Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike;
Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.
Why or Why not?
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I would not recommend the use of xtranormal.com for other
educators. Although it is easy and fun
to use, I think that the voices and characters provided are quite odd. The ‘actors’ sound very computer animated
and the backgrounds are limited. There
is also a fee for the use of xtranormal.com.
Although users can sign up for a free account, they then have to pay
to use the actors and sets. The
Educator Plan is $10/month and does have security and administrator privileges
for students. Xtranormal.com is unique
because it makes movies, not just an animated slide show. I just think that for my purposes, some of
the slideshow makers (PowerPoint and/or Voicethread) would be more useful and
easier to get the content messages across.
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VirtualManipulatives:
http://nlvm.usu.edu
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1.
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Describe what you learned from exploring this resource. Be
thorough in your response.
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I learned about virtual manipulatives at nlvm.usu.edu and http://enlvm.usu.edu/ma/nav/doc/intro.jsp. Virtual Manipulates are math exercises on
the computer set up almost like a game.
Students have math puzzles to solve using spatial solutions. For example, I completed a few of the high
school algebra manipulates. When
solving for x in 3x+2=8, an image of a balance beam appears. The student moves x’s and numbers with
their computer mouse to keep the beam balanced. When the equation is on the balance beam (3
x’s and 2 1’s on the left side and 8 1’s on the right side) another screen
opens and asks the student to solve for x (x=2). I found it very interesting and motivating
to see if I could do the manipulation correctly and solve for the correct
answer. Funded through the National
Science Foundation, Utah State University is creating an eNLVM. This on-line version of the National
Library of Virtual Manipulatives provides lesson plans and activities for
teachers to ues with their students, tracking tools for the teacher to see
how the students are progressing and which student may need more help and the
ability for teachers to share their materials with other teachers.
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2.
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How could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field
or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in
educational settings.
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Virtual Manipulatives are designed to be interactive on-line
math lessons. I could see Virtual
Manipulates through these websites being used in the classroom as a way for
students to practice what was taught to them inperson. They could also be used as homework or to
review before an exam. Virtual
Manipulatives would also be good for English Language Learners. Since math is
similar to a language of itself, those students who have not yet mastered
English can still complete complex math problems visually and spatially.
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3.
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Would you recommend this resource to other educators?
Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth. Why
or Why not?
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I would recommend the use of Virtual Manipulatives for any
math class. These are two free
websites offering lesson plans and activites that are already written. They also have the ability for teachers to
adjust and customize them for specific use, or teachers can create their
own. I do think it would be more
difficult for teachers to create their own rather than using the ones that
are already created. They are easily
accessed and very easy to understand how they work.
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