Print to Pixel Presentation

Here is our presentation from the Print to Pixel Uncoference:  Technology in the Math Classroom - Print to Pixel

Quizlet Tutorial

Quizlet is a fantastic resource for teachers and students.  It allows individuals the ability to create online study cards for any subject or topic.  In addition, there are a variety of study cards available for users to view and utilize.  Quizlet Tutorial

I have also created a lesson plan for a math class to use Quizlet.  Although it is for a math class, it can easily be used for other subjects.  Quizlet Lesson Plan - Math Specific

Please let me know if you have any additional questions or concerns.

Networked Learning Project - Final Presentation

Thank goodness I was assigned the Networked Learning Project.  I would never have spent the time learning how to use the modes on my digital camera that I have been wanting to use for years.  It was such an educational experience for me and it taught me a lot about researching this topic and resources that are available.

In order to capture what I learned from the NLP, I decided to try Stupeflix to create a movie that would demonstrate the modes I used and some sample photos that I took using each of the modes.  I really liked using Stupeflix and they give you one free movie download for the first movie you create.  It was very easy to create the video and I think it is a great representation of what I learned through the project.

Please enjoy the video and let me know if there are any questions.

Module 5 - In what ways could you leverage the power of the Internet to expand work process and product by students?

Throughout the 5 modules I have been constantly thinking about how I could leverage the power of the Internet to expand my students' work process and product.  Each time I think about a different resource or tool that they can use, I immediately begin thinking about how I would teach the students the tool and how I would assess them to determine if they fully understood how to use it.  With that thought in mind, I am starting to really fall for the idea of badges.

As it was stated in the Connected Learning TV - Erin Knights and Open Badges discussion, badges are being seen more in the STEM fields.  

Luckily I teach at a magnet school that focuses on STEM and our math department in our district is all about STEM!  I think my administration would see the badges as a way to increase our students' understanding of STEM, specifically the technology piece, but it would also be a way to expand their work process and product on the Internet.  Badges could be used to develop students' online skills in an academic setting and it would also provide teachers with a form of "assessment" to determine their knowledge of the online resources that they are using.

In her blog post, Marsha Ratzel mentioned how she sees badges as a way to promote students to independently work outside of school to gain knowledge and understanding of the Internet.  Her blog post started with a comment about online digital identity and I too think that the badges could provide an excellent guideline for helping students establish and refine their digital footprint.  As a teacher I sometimes think that my students do not want to learn when they go home, but then I remember how many of my students talk about watching Animal Planet or Discovery Channel.  Kids do like learning when they leave school, as long as it is something they are interested in.  Why not give them something like badges to get them interested in learning about the Internet?  I bet they will be more likely to learn a new skill if it interests them.

The more our students are producing academic work and using the Internet to do so, the more likely it is that their digital footprint will be more of academic based.  I fear that most of my students' digital footprint now is more social and through the IT&DML program, I am learning more each day on how I can provide them with guidance in creating a digital footprint that is a better representation of who they want the world to see them as, rather than how the Internet sees them as.  If that makes any sense at all.

In conclusion, I see myself investigating the possibility of creating or finding badges that the students could use to gain skills that will assist them with expanding their work and product using the Internet.  I am afraid that there are a number of teachers who try to integrate the use of the Internet into their classrooms without thinking of a student's digital footprint.  In my opinion, it is very important that all teachers should educate their students on using the Internet properly to produce work.  Instead of limiting student access to the Internet though, which some teachers may do because they are afraid of digital footprints, teachers should encourage students to use tutorials, guidelines or badges to learn the skills necessary to continually produce work online.

NLP Blog #4 - Action/Sports Mode and Kid Mode

Initially I was going to use my dog to master the action/sports mode on my digital camera.  Since he prefers to sunbath instead of run around outside recently, I have had to change my subject to my son.  Fortunately he did not have to be prompted to be active, since he is active every waking moment of his life.

What I learned using this mode was that you really needed to anticipate the action you are trying to capture.  My face was glued to my camera pretty much the entire time just trying to get a picture of my son in action and in focus.   By using a sequence of pictures taken while my son was driving his jeep you can tell the movement of the jeep by the position the background is in reference to him.

Initially I was moving with him while I took the first couple of action shots, but I could not really tell they were action photos when I looked at them on the computer.  I researched best practices of action pictures and they a few references mentioned staying in one spot and taking a series of pictures in a row.  I apologize in advance for the transition of the photos, I tried to find the best program to use to have the slides transition quickly to demonstrate the action in the photos.

I also took this photo of my son running with his lawn mower to capture his action.  Trust me when I tell you that I would never be able to get him to stand on one leg ever.  He is always moving!

I also tried to capture one more picture of him running down the driveway with a kite.

I did find that a lot of my action pictures were blurry or at least the image of my son was blurry.  As I mentioned before, I had my face planted to the camera and constantly trying to keep my son in focus.  I read many photography blogs and tutorials that stated that if you wanted to get a good action photo you really needed luck and to be at the right time, right place.

The kid mode on the camera is very similar to the portrait mode except I have seen that the colors are more vivid in the kid mode and the background stays a little blurry to accentuate the main subject.

Below is a list of some references I used to help with mastering these two modes.  I have especially found a lot of information from the Digital Photography School website.  I would highly recommend using this website if you need information on improving your digital photo taking skills.

http://www.cs.duke.edu/~parr/photography/faq.html

http://photo.tutsplus.com/articles/photography-fundamentals-articles/photography-kick-start-guide-basic-camera-settings/

http://digital-photography-school.com/digital-camera-modes

What challenges occur when students are empowered to create online "text" and share globally with others?

I think there are a variety of challenges that exists when we try to get our students to create online "text".  The first challenge is ensuring the students and teachers have the proper training and professional development to take part in the online creation.  As teachers, we should be looking for opportunities for ourselves and our students to become equip with the knowledge and skills to create proper online materials.  This would include understanding the multimodality of text and how we want the text to be represented to the outside world.  Gunther Press provides a great description of the meaning of text and how even changing one word can give the readers a different impression of what the text represents.  Gunther Kress

While providing training and professional development we must also consider guiding our students to appropriate venues to create this text.  I was so inspired to read the blog article from Eric Williams on promoting student engagement: Eric Williams  It made me immediately go to Discovery Education and see what other grants/programs were available to introduce students to areas where they could create and produce content information online for others to learn from.  Programs such as this are wonderful because they provide students with an outlet and a place to put their creations. Finding such outlets though is a challenge, but if a teacher is dedicated enough to get their students online and creating "text" then they will find opportunities such as the one provided by Discovery Education.

When I think about my students and what role they play in creating online "text" right now, I would say that the majority of them are mainly consumers of technology.  The producing and creating that they take part in online is primarily through social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  The videos from this module talked a lot about the minority group of students who were going home and producing and creating online outside of the realm of social media.

Both Henry Jenkins and Mimi Ito mentioned the need for educators to reach these type of students and bridge the gap between what was happening in school and incorporate it to what they were creating outside of school.  Teachers should not just be reaching out to the minority group of students of course, but to all students.  I think it would be a challenge to find an interest that all or most students would be motivated to create online "text" about.  I know most of my students would not be interested in creating video games like the one video showed on the ten year old.  If there was a way to take a lesson and provide students with a variety of online "text" options, I think it would open up more interest and willingness of all students to begin producing content online.

Networked Learning Project - Blog 3

My primary focus this last week was to master the action mode and kids mode on the digital camera.  I like that I am using my PLNs to gather the information that I want to find out about digital cameras.  Pinterest has a nice category about photography, but you really need to search exactly what you are looking for to filter out information that does not apply to your interest.  Here is an image of a small piece of what I found when using Pinterest to help with this project:

I also watched a great video from YouTube about the action mode on my camera.  Although it is from the Dummies.com website, I do not feel like a dummy!

I hit a few hurdles this week though with my progress.  First, my subjects were not cooperative, i.e. my dog and son.  At first my son thought it was great that I was trying to take his picture, but then he wanted his own camera and tried bossing me around the room and taking pictures of me.  Of course he is two, so his finger was over the shutter most of the time.  I was actually worried he would take better pictures than me.  Then I would have felt like a dummy!

I did manage to get a few pictures of him with the kids mode, but I want to practice more before I publish any.  What I learned is that the kids mode is very similar to the portrait mode on my camera, except it accentuates the colors a bit more since kids are usually in more vibrant clothing and around brighter backgrounds.  Initially when I saw a kids mode I thought it was more of an action type of mode, but after researching it, I found that although my son is constantly active, the mode is not made for action shots!

My second hurdle was my action pictures.  I still have not mastered the timing with my shots.  Timing is almost everything with the action mode and I need to keep in mind my shutter lag and try to almost figure out when the perfect shot is going to happen second before it actually happens.  If I can do that I think I will be able to capture a few great nice action shots of either one or both of my subjects.

Wish me luck and hopefully in my final product you will see these two more modes mastered!