Digitally speaking/Podcasting

Unfortunately, http://www.mypodcast.com/ is not excepting new users at this time. Although, I will come back to the sight in the future if anything changes. On the bright side, I have previous experience with creating podcasts.

Podcasts can be created from original material by students and teachers or existing audio files can be downloaded for classroom use. Creating a podcast allows students to share learning experiences. It can provide them with a world-wide audience that makes learning meaningful and assessment authentic. Teachers can use the technology to provide additional and revision material to students to download and review at home or at a time that suits them. The flexibility it offers makes podcasting a valuable educational tool.

It is easy to see the implications of podcasting for the music classroom. Students can really have their music lesson individualised. A music Learning Manager could have one objective for an entire class, but each student could choose his/her preferred music.

Here is a great link for using podcasts in the classroom:
http://21stcenturyteaching.pbworks.com/Podcasting-in-the-Classroom

Movie Magic

Ordinarily I avoid Movie Maker. I find it to be far too limiting so I like to use Pinnacle Studio that allows the user to make use of effects such as, chroma key (green/blue screen). Although, this program is very complex and I would not expect my students to use it. Unless it were a whole class activity, where I would navigate the program for them. Otherwise, I think Movie Maker would be perfect for beginners. It provides the step-by-step creation needed for new learners. The learning opportunities are endless with movie making. Unfortunately, the time factor would be an issue. Movie-making is a collaborative and exciting way to make learning come alive in the classroom! Oh, the opportunities!

Recently, I have been looking for excuses to extend my movie editing/making skills and offered to create an animated logo for a local business. Here is my first attempt at doing so.

Spell check

After having read Kyle Stein's Blog post about Google and instant spell check, I came to think about how that might effect learners. Blogs do not instantly correct your spelling mistakes. Therefore, despite the 'ABC' (spell check) option available, you are left to your own devises to detect errors. This makes me think about programs such as, Microsoft Word. We have become so reliant on keeping an eye open for that red jagged underline indicating that you have misspelt a word. I think this is one of the many reasons why a pencil and paper are still more valuable to learners than a keyboard. By allowing students to spend too much time using programs such as, Word, are we depriving them of the skills used to identify errors for themselves?

Youtube's got talent!

An online program has been made available recently that is free to all users. U2B Idol is a music video creation tool that will add music to match videos, automatically! Just sing, talk, or do whatever it is you do, into a webcam, and the site will create music to match. You can also upload the video directly to YouTube. Ordinarily, one would need something as complex as Autotune to get this kind of effect. This program does all the hard work for you.

This tool could be used creatively in a classroom. Students could not only write their own music, but sing it and create a music video to go with it too. http://u2bidol.com/

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A picture perfect learning opportunity

MobaPhoto is a freeware tool that works to administer digital photo's. It can become essential to you if you are one of those who stores thousands of digital images in their PC's. MobaPhoto allows you to batch resize, correct red-eyes, crop and rename all your pictures. But this is very basic software. I googled more photo editing and resizing tools and found 'Picasa' and 'Imageshack' (both freeware). Picasa is far more advanced in image correction and editing. It is also very easy to use and provides a step by step guide to use it. It allows the user to transform the image creatively, while Imageshack provides quick and easy image resizing and uploading. It leaves the user with a URL to post to websites, discussion forums and blogs. Here is an example of what Picasa can do to an image. There are many effects options ranging from air-brushing to colour restoration and image cropping. Students can upload their images online and share them globally. What a great way for students to share their learning.

Imageshack would be very useful in a digital classroom if in collaboration with blogs and other online classroom tools. Students could upload images to their websites, wikis, etc.

Later, I came across a site called photofunia.com. It alters the image for you so that it appears to be either on a billboard, a television, someone's t-shirt, etc. Here is an example of how it works.

The "All-knowing-Google"

Google is a widely used search engine that uses text matching techniques to find websites for users. The search engine has become so popular it has made its way into the English dictionary as a verb. For example, "He googled the woman he had met at the party"; "My children are googling all day." These days, when someone wants answers to a question, they automatically turn to Google. But Google is not as "all-knowing" as most might see it to be. Nobody owns the internet. There is nobody sitting at a desk validating information as being correct. So how do we educate the next generation to decipher this information and equip them with the skills to determine what information is correct and what is, put simply, "Google junk"?

The Power of Powerpoint

After having more than 8 years experience using Powerpoint, I did not know about the interactive element offered by the program until recently. I have researched and made use of this and I am impressed. I did not know Powerpoint was so flexible in terms of what it has to offer.

PowerPoint is a wonderful tool for learning in both a student and teacher-directed situation. It allows teachers to explain abstract concepts and offers a new dimension to learning with the opportunity of the use of visuals. Students could use the program as a game show tool in a lesson. On the other hand, if this resource is used inappropriately, I believe it could potentially confuse students.