Photostory- My Summer Vacation

Finished

I am finished although Tool #7 is out of order.

Tool #7

Wow! What fun. The kids will love digital storytelling. Goodbye oral book reports with a poster. This would be quite useful for kids giving a book review or presenting a topic in science or social studies. I was able to share my vacation to the Bahamas through Digital Storytelling. Talk about "being there". Also quite useful when kids go on field trips. They could create a digital story when they return to share with other grade levels. (This video will not post?) Tried many times. I even removed several of my pictures from the photostory thinking it had too many, which was only 7. When I condensed it I took it down to 5 pictures and it still wouldn't post. Puzzled??
I am now at Barnes & Noble for the "Help Session". Jenny Meyer still can't get it to load. Oh, well, we tried.

Tool # 11 - Reflection

I enjoyed broading my knowledge and learning more about how technology can be useful in the classroom. This past year I used the itouch with my struggling readers and they loved some of the apps I selected. Some of my favorite tools that I learned about were the Google Docs, Wordle, and videos. I would like to do a Wordle activity with my kids. They could create one summarizing things from a book they read. I found the digital storytelling quite easy to use also. Kids would love it! Once again we as teachers who are often scared about implementing technology need to realize how engaging it is for students. They are never scared to try things. We need to play catchup. The only thing unexpected is the amount of time it took. We should receive more than 9 hours of credit. Overall, it is worth the time and it opened my eyes to many more avenues for using technology.

Tool # 11

I think it is important when we are introducing kids to various forms of technology that we cover digital etiquette, digital rights & responsibilities, and digital security & safety. This is no different that when we start the year and introduce the class to rules, expectations, and responsibilites. If children do not have knowledge of digital citizenship then they will feel free to justify anything that is done. Brain Pop is a good website useful for digital citizenship.

Tool #10

Ok, this is right up my alley. I have already been using the itouch with my students. Two of the free apps that I use quite freqently are "Doodle Buddy" and "ABC Pocket Phonics Lite". These are great for my struggling readers. Doodle Buddy is just like a colored marker and a white sheet of paper. I have called out a word and the kids had to write which digraph they heard. For example: ship - the student would write "sh" on their itouch. They love it!! Also, the ABC Pocket Phonics is good for fine motor skills when the kids are trying to learn to write the letters and hear the sounds. So fun!! The itouch is interactive and engaging.

Tool #9

Wow! What fun Skype and Jing are. I like the idea of capturing images to put with text. Many times the old phrase is true...A picture is worth a thousand words. Kids would be able to visualize more clearly with added images. Online pen pals would be great. Also if you capture an image just like a virtual field trip. Skype would be great also if you were trying to learn a foreign language. If a class miles away was trying to teach us Spanish and we were trying to teach them English we would have communication daily. Book reviews and online chats with authors would be another great way to utilize Skype.