Reflections: Final Door Scene 4

I enjoyed putting our own touch into the final step of the door scene project - it's nice to see all the different ways you can mold something with a personal touch - and everyone's is so different!  This project was fun in each step - my group made me laugh a lot & I can see how students would enjoy it as well.

I am a big fan of iMovie and have used this program to make my cousin a birthday card (using the "adventure" trailor) - which I will not share because there are a few inside jokes in there & everyone may think I'm weird.  I also have made 3 videos for another grad class - one being an introduction to a presentation on the importance of implementing PE & Health into the classroom.  This one is much more basic than the others I've created - but wanted to post it up to show that I've been using what we are learning in our class!  

"MOUSE PARTY" - tech for a Health classroom

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/addiction/drugs/mouse.html

I wanted to share a cool website that has an activity that you can use on a smart board.  For the other 2 Health Educators out there, this is a great High School activity - I've used it during my student teaching and the students seemed to really like it.  For everyone else, it's still kinda cool to look @!  

This activity shows the effects of different drugs on the brain.  They use mice for the idea - and you can use the smart board to drag a mouse into a chair - which then shows an animation of each particular drugs effects.  The animation shows what happens in the synapse and which neurotransmitters - such as dopamine and serotonin- are affected and HOW they are affected.  This in itself is difficult to understand - this does a great job of explaining why a user feels a "high" with the 7 different drugs they use.

They use COCAINE, LSD, ALCOHOL, METH, ECSTASY, MARIJUANA, and HEROIN.

It's kind of cool to have the students guess which drug they think the mouse is using before you drag them into the chair - each mouse shows a behavior that is usually seen when someone takes that particular drug (the mouse on METH is scratching itself, the mouse on ECSTASY is kind of dancing b/c it's considered a "club drug," etc.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJmiN2FYnao

App Review: Cartoon Studio

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cartoon-studio-free/id362033057?mt=8

APP:  Cartoon Studio

Cost: Free

*Upgrade $0.99

Grade Level:  4th-7th

Overview:  Cartoon Studio 

Kids can make a cartoon / comic in a creative way.  Fairly easy to use - students can import characters for the cartoon with people provided, import photos of family/friends/themselves or an easy search on google (celebrities, sports figures, etc.)  You can choose what to write in each bubble & you can choose your own background (indoor/outdoor).  This would be a great way for students to take background pictures of anything they want using the camera option on the IPAD.  You would get to see what children are interested in.  I think even students who don’t particularly like cartoons or have little interest in making them will have fun with this one.

Ideas for classroom use:  This would be a great way for kids who love to draw or are interested in comics to become excited in creating a digital story project/activity.

-Kids could come up with jokes

-Creating character conflicts in books/stories/movies they are learning about

-Kids could create scenarios for bullying, conflict resolution, communicating with others, etc.

PROS:  

-Great option for those students who love comics & cartoons

-Students can create pictures of characters & backgrounds - imported from camera or google also

-Pro version is only $0.99

-Options to send cartoon through e-mail, blog, facebook, etc.

CONS:  

-Only 3 cells - unless you upgrade to the pro version

-Limits use of your own characters unless you upgrade

-Ads at the top --> cupid.com popped up as my ad with a picture of a teen looking for a boyfriend.  Probably not a great thing for the students to have to look at when they are creating comics/cartoons.

Upgrade:  $0.99 for Cartoon Studio Pro

-no ads

-create more than 3 cells

-loads more characters

-loads more backgrounds

-delete & insert cells

ART PACKS available with more backgrounds/characters

Door Scene Part 1

The Door Scene activity we did in class was both fun and difficult.  It was difficult collaborating on all our different ideas and decide on which ones we were going to use.  Like someone else stated, the zoom capability was limited, so our "shooter" had to walk in and out to capture what we needed.  The limits on no editing was also what took us a long time - we'd seem to shoot a good scene, but 1 thing didn't go as planned.  So instead of cutting that small part off, we had to re-shoot multiple times.  I did have a lot of fun though and laughed with others in the group at the silly things.  

Our group did forget some of the parameters - such as making sure the entire scene took place 5 feet within the door.  We didn't have enough time to finish the video so as discussed in class, the tension kept building and then the video just stopped.  I wish we made it back to the class in time so we could have seen the other videos though!!  I was curious as to what everyone else came up with.  I know students would have a great time with this project - it was fun & allowed for original ideas!

OHLER Book Thoughts

I’ve felt that most of the information I’ve read thus far in our DST class book has been interested.  A lot of the questions we have all probably thought about have been brought up - such as costs, time and how to go about implementing DTS into the classroom.

One area that especially drew to my attention was in Ch. 2 under the title “Creativity and Originality.”  The quote that said something like “creativity seems to be at the odds with the world of standardized testing and getting the right answer” made me think about this one struggle when it comes to implementing creativity into the classroom.  The book also stated that teachers can see evidence of creativity skills in students that apply to the real world (with DTS), but are not being addressed in school.  This made me think of a video I just recently saw in my “Creativity in the Classroom” class by Ken Robinson entitled “RSA ANIMATE:  CHANGING EDUCATIONAL PARADIGMS” (very good clip to watch from YouTube!)  Many subject areas (Math, Science, etc.) have to deal with standardized testing.  This creates a barrier to spending the time a teacher may need to start implementing DTS into the classroom.  Although we know that the time may be well worth it in the end, these teachers have a constant focus on getting their students to pass tests and the curriculum they are teaching may already be jam packed.  School personnel and administration may not be completely accepting of this time needed - especially with the “No Child Left Behind” act - which makes schools more responsible for the success of the students.  Although all subjects have standards they must follow, the content areas with state tests will have the most struggle with trying new classroom techniques. 

Back to the Ken Robinson video which can relate to the standardization issue, Robinson explains that the current education system is designed and conceived for a different age (the intellectual culture of the enlightenment and industrial revolution).  An increase in ADHD is partly due to an overstimulating nation with children not being able to focus because schools are filled with “boring stuff.”  Also the clip states that ADHD increases with standardized testing and that children learn better in groups than separately.  A solution to the education systems many problems is to go in the opposite direction of standardization.  I think that standardization doesn’t easily allow for the implementation of creativity in students and the acceptance of DTS in many of the classrooms.  A major struggle will be to convince others that DTS can only help the learning system if done in the right manner (example from the book: time spent versus benefits derived).  

One more resource in case anyone is interested...there is another youtube clip by Ken Robinson called “Do Schools Kill Creativity” that is also great!

Digital Storytelling Project - Group Update

I've been getting more excited about the project - now that our group has created a FOCUS on what we will be doing it on.  When I first heard about the project, I honestly thought "oh crap what am I going to do." After getting into a great group, I am really enjoying it and all the ideas we've come up with.  My mind is always thinking about new ways I could use digital storytelling in my future classroom.

My group - Dan, Aaron and I - are using iMovie to compile all of our work & ideas into a digital story.  (i have a slight obsession with iMovie now and have literally spend hours on trying to create some digital stories for my own use & for some creativity projects in another class of mine - OBSESSED!  And I also created one using music and pictures from my recent family Philly trip and sent it to my dad - it turned out so cute & makes me look very "techie?" "techy?")  Our focus is on the importance of creating emotions within students and the different types of ways to do it (audio, visual, etc.)  We each came up with 1 main idea from our subject area of expertise - with the exception of Aaron who came up with a great idea which can be incorporated in different types of classes.

We all came together with ideas in the first class and then decided to split up some work we could do individually and keep in touch and let each other know how we were doing.  We met at Starbucks last week and complied some stuff together.  It was so nice to see everyone helping each other out - Dan and Aaron worked for a couple hours until I could get out of class and meet them.  I feel that the group dynamic has been great - I've rarely been in a group where when you say "ok - everyone get this done by next week" and they ACTUALLY DO IT.  It felt great to see our progress and be with friendly and optimistic people.  Aaron was helping Dan with his audio section and through this whole process so far, each person has been helping one another out if another lacked knowledge on how to do something.

The majority of what we have left to do is to shoot a video clip to put onto the digital storyboard and a little bit of editing.  We plan on shooting the video clip after class on Tuesday and then hopefully just a few touch ups!  I'm very excited to see what everyone else has come up with and all the hard work of the others in class! :D