Voila! Here is my curriculum project about linear perspective. Enjoy!

New Voicethread reflection of my tech growth during my graduate class in multimedia authoring. https://voicethread.com/new/share/6138633/

Learning from Twitter

What did you learn from using Twitter?  Think about the content that you gained from those you followed as well as what you learned about Twitter itself.

A colleague of mine referred to Twitter once as the "lazy man's research." I thought this was kind of funny, but it is a great way to get some research done that has been filtered by users that you know are good sources of information. I learned that I can find good sources by following reliable and reputable educators. I learned that Twitter is a great tool for large groups of people to chat. I recommended it to a colleague who had a friend teaching in Korea and he wanted their students to connect. This would be the perfect tool for that. I also like how you can select things to read at a later time by creating a collection of tweets. It's like making a Twitter "to do" list.

 Who was the most interesting person or persons that you followed?  Why?  Be specific and provide examples. 

Jeff Herb is one of the Tweeters that I read regularly. I like his tweets because they link to a variety of sources and media. He not only tweets, but blogs, creates podcasts and screencasts. One of the things I like is that he creates a lot of tutorials on things that I often find the need to learn. One recent post was about getting started in the Google classroom. I was excited when this came out recently and have been interested in learning how to use it.

Do you think you’ll continue to use Twitter personally, professionally and/or both after this assignment is complete?  Why or why not? 

I'll definitely continue using Twitter. I like how it is a great resource to find good articles on education topics. I like how specific it is. The educational topic chats were fantastic, I thought. I don't know that I"ll spend a lot of time on those, but I like how they are archived and I can go back and look at them. I think this is a great way to get in touch with some really well-known people without feeling like you're bothering or stalking them. : )  I also hope to pilot a class in the future that would cut out the textbook. If all students created a PLN on Twitter, they could have really good sources and I'd also be able to use Twitter to put together a good reading list. 

Free Tech for Teachers-A Great Resource

I'd like to introduce all my colleagues who haven't yet discovered Free Tech for Teachers to this great resource for all things tech in the classroom. The author is Richard Byrne, a google-certified teacher who blogs daily and reaches about 60,000 subscribers. He has won numerous awards, including 5 edublogs awards for best resource-sharing blog since 2008. He also maintains several worth checking out, such as iPadApps4School.com, Android4Schools.com, and PracticalEdTech.com. 

This site offers links to many free educational resources on the web and as apps for mobile devices. There are a number of great tutorials that instructors can watch to hone their tech skills. One resource link I particularly found helpful was his alternatives to YouTube. Often, you can't access this website in a public school, and it's not always appropriate to deal with the advertisements that appear on many YouTube videos. The resources he links to are education-based and many are commercial-free.

One of my favorite features is that he reviews and provides resources for both iOS and Android platforms. He also has spaces where readers can contribute their ideas and resources, which opens up the resource bank even more. Not only does he offer assistance with technology, but also addresses some issues that teachers face including how all of this technology works with the Common Core requirements and flipping the classroom. 

I think my favorite feature is to search through apps by keyword. I've killed hours reviewing apps on the appstore; even though there is an education filter, it helps to know that some of that legwork has been done in Richard's recommendations. I highly recommend checking this out so that you will be able to use the internet or your mobile devices to their fullest potential in the classroom!

ScreenCasting for Class

To view in Youtube, visit http://youtu.be/rU59uacniWk

Using Animoto for Class

This week I put together a short video using Animoto. The goal was to present the changes that Classical artists made to the human form, focussing mostly on the female body. There are some features in this product. First, you can easily upload and move images around. It looks a little like a powerpoint slide-sorter layout, so it's easy to navigate. Also, you can upload your powerpoint or Keynote as jpegs into Animoto and bam! it's done. Add your text, videos, and music and your set. However, there were some drawbacks as well; the text slides have a character limit that makes it difficult to communicate some information. You'd have to create several strings of text slides to get everything in. Second, I had a hard time finding out how to embed a YouTube clip into my Animoto. As of publication of this, I'm still looking for instructions on how to do that. Finally, I couldn't find a way to have some slides be presented longer while others are on screen for a shorter amount of time.

But I still think this is a useful tool for students. I can easily upload it to my online classes for them to view. It's more likely an even better tool for students to use to demonstrate their understanding of material. I think it could be great for vocabulary lessons where words are presented followed by images representing that word. What a great way for students and teachers to be creative!

We Want Video!!! Streaming video in higher ed

As I was reviewing an article for class, I found data that supported what many of us already know. Faculty and students love video. We want more of it. But we're not using it. Why? Obvious reasons that we can all relate to are used as excuses. We don't have time, resources, or know-how. Watch the presentation to hear some details about the study by NYU, Intelligent Television, and the Copyright Clearance Center from 2009. 

View on YouTube