BP5_Little Bird Tales

My Comments on a Web 2.0 Tool Review
A colleague posted an excellent review of the Web 2.0 tool, "Little Bird Tales" on her site. 
Click on the image above to read her blog and my comments.

BP4_Exploratree

Why use Exploratree?

Exploratree is a tool to guide students through the thinking process.  As educators, our task is often to move students beyond the lower levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy into higher-level critical thinking.  This Web 2.0 tool contains a library of template maps.  Each and every one is customizable, and there’s also the option to build a map from scratch.

The platform is fairly flexible.  It’s possible to upload pictures and insert hyperlinks to other media or websites.  It functions similarly to Prezi, in that the white space can zoom in or out.  One of my favorite features is the sequencing tool.  You can design a template that prompts students complete it in steps.  Scaffolding is important, especially if the assignment centers on a complex topic.  Sequencing is also helpful in presentation mode, as you can reveal information layer by layer for your audience.

“Sending” vs. “Sharing”

Exploratree has a couple of share options.  1) You can “Send” your thinking guide to a friend or group.  This allows them to view and edit your guide.  2) The other option is to “Submit for Commenting Only”.  The viewers will not be able to edit it, but can make comments.  3) The “Share” option is for collaboration.  If you “share” it with a friend or group, they can all participate in building the thinking guide.

Quick Facts

Pros:

Excellent library of pre-made templates, customizable, various possibilities for collaboration, educationally sound.

Cons:

A little bit tedious to learn the formatting tools, no ability to publish a “final page to the web” (without editing options), does not appear to offer synchronous collaboration the way Google docs does. 

See My Example

Here’s a test map that I set up.  The intent of this map to help students relate to a topic personally, then expand to think about its local and global affects.   Click on the image.

PE3_iMovie

iMovie ’11 Essential Training (3)

The end of Section 7 includes a segment on “Editing to the Beat”.  Who would have thought that one could create beat points simply by listening to the music and typing the “m” key in time with the music?  I really like that.  

An Example of "Beat Markers"

You’ll see a quick test I made below, using this technique.  I ran into some difficulty the first time through, when I didn’t add enough pictures.  It seems like there’s not much room for re-ordering photos or clips once they’ve been set to the beat points.  Probably my inexperience holding me back.  I’m sure this will improve with practice and further experimentation.  

Valentine's Day 2011
Longwood Gardens, PA
Here's what I ended up with:

Hmm... I am still trying to figure out why it's such poor picture quality.  I've tried exporting various sizes, and changed it from a "Widescreen project" to a "Standard project'.  Still no luck.  Any suggestions?


 I've Completed the Training!  

PE2_iMovie

iMovie ’11 Essential Training (2)

I’ve covered a few more sections of the training.  Section 7 involves audio, and I was looking forward to learning more.  Well, the tutorial fellow got me all excited when he demonstrated how you could set equal volume levels across multiple clips.  It’s so beautifully simple!  This feature will save a lot of time on group video projects, where each person contributes a portion and one person combines all the clips.  I happily opened an old project to try this new technique.  Much to my dismay, I couldn’t get that “audio wave form button” to display!  Oh, sadness. 

All my advanced tools are displaying, but not the magic button.   

Here’s a screenshot of my predicament:

Does anyone have a solution?   

This is how it displayed in the tutorial:

PE1_iMovie

iMovie ’11 Essential Training (1)

Section 4 was all about organizing your footage and projects.  Up until this point, iMovie’s methods of saving and creating “events” were a bit of a mystery to me.  I was muddling through, at best.  Now I feel like I have a better understanding.  The “Event Library” allows you to organize, rate, and store clips.  I really like the ability to mark your footage as good and usable, in their words “favorite”.  It can save time during the editing process if you have a lot of clips to go through.  See the screenshot below to see how I marked a clip.

The “Project Library” is essentially a folder for all of your edited projects.  You never need to click “Save As” in iMovie, because the program has a built in auto-save feature. (This freaked me out at first!)  Within the project library, it’s possible to duplicate a project and re-edit it.  (Say if you want to create a long & short version of the same movie.)

I went ahead and trashed any unimportant projects and renamed some to be more organized.  I’m turning over a new leaf in iMovie! 

*iMovie Fun Fact – this program doesn’t have it’s own trashing system.  It sends discarded files to your hard drive’s trash bucket.

*My Progress  - Completed through Section 4

BP2_VoiceThread

Why Choose VoiceThread?

Voicethread is a multimedia collaboration tool.  Its flexible design and various security options make this an excellent choice for K-12 educators.  Teachers can set up a discussion based around an image, audio, or video, or they can allow students to construct the body of the thread themselves. 

What is the Sample Below?

My 4^th-5^th grade students will be building an “Instrument Invention” later in the school year.   I intend to use Voicethread as a platform for them to “show & tell” about their instrument.  They will also be required to record a short performance demonstration, and provide constructive feedback for a classmate.  The sample will give you an idea of the kind of collaboration that could take place.  (These are fake “students” for the sake of my cheesy sample.) 

Quick Facts 

Pros

 - 5 Methods of Commenting - video, microphone, telephone, audio file, or text
 - 2 Share methods – link or embed code
 - Comment Moderation – teachers can act as a “human filter” if desired
 - 3 Privacy Options – threads can be public, restricted to those who have the link, or restricted further to only include people whose names you’ve selected
 - Endless Creative Uses!

Cons

Grading – could become unmanageable for large classes
External Linking – potential safety issue for young, independent online students

My Personal Challenges for Implementation:

Class Size – Realistically, small groups are more effective.  A single Voicethread can contain “thousands” of comments, but for classroom purposes 10-15 students is more manageable.  My 4^th-5^th grade class alone is 188 students.  I have no choice but to assign smaller groups and create separate threads for each one.  Talk about administrative hurdles!

Proper Use – I will need to coach my students on where and how to comment, as well as why they should not follow the “external linking” without parental guidance.  I haven’t seen any questionable content on the public threads…but I don’t feel like getting my head chopped off because of a child’s natural curiosity. 

Additional Note for Educators:

There is a K-12 Voicethread account for educators, which narrows the “public” threads down to content that has been approved by teachers.  The cost is roughly $1 per user.      

   
 

BP3_iGoogleScreenShots

Here's how I set up my "Personal Learning Environment"
Admittedly... I was resistant at first!  (I'm pretty attached to my Firefox Bookmarks Toolbar.)  However, I have quickly seen the error of my ways and am already loving the fast access.  Now I never have to fear running out of room on ye olde toolbar...

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ETC

The "To Do" lists are another favorite addition.  Thank you Ms. Hanaway for helping us get organized.  I think this is going to set us up for success through the whole EMDT program.