Animal Homes RR#5

This week we were asked to create a digital storytelling projects for our students. When I began thinking about what I wanted to do, I mentioned in my Activity Reflection that I would like to use digital storytelling to create a project based on animal homes. With that in mind I wanted my students to be able to create a presentation that would allow for them to show what they learned about different animal homes. As I continued thinking about what I expected and what they were really going to be able to create, I began to think of ways to cater to ALL my students. My class is a first grade regular education classroom with students at varying levels. I continuously differentiate my classroom instruction due to their various needs.  I thought I would need to consider this when it came to what was expected. So my plan is to pair up my students in groups of two (high/low). This would allow for a much smoother completion of the project and I feel my lower students would not feel intimidated by this.

Taking into consideration all my students abilities and needs I am now able to describe the project. In the first grade curriculum there is a time in the year we talk about animal habitats. I will begin with the book, The Log Hotel written by Ann Schreiber. In summary, this book is about an old log that begins to decompose and talks about all the many animals that use it for a home. After reading the story and discussing the various animals that the students saw we will create a graphic organizer using, Kidspiration, and list the animals from the log hotel. The following day the students will go on a field trip to the Environmental Center and use digital cameras to find various animals and their homes. We will look at birds, lizards, bugs, and other critters. The students’ jobs will be to take as many pictures as they can, with the help from parent chaperones, of all the different animals they see.

The following day we will begin by discussing and de-briefing on our prior day events. I will begin pulling pairs to the back table to give them their pictures and talk about the next step. While I’m with groups the other students will begin exploring and using yahooligans and askkids science link. Students will begin to explore further into animal habitats using the pictures they took. It will be their job to create four sentences per picture to describe their animals’ homes. While at the back table with my groups I will use my classroom laptop to introduce Prezi to the students. I will walk through a quick tutorial with them and then let them start creating. Ideally, I would have a parent volunteer in the classroom helping with this program as well. Students will now download the pictures from the environmental center and from The Log Hotel book to include in their digital story.

This seems like it will be a daunting task to have first graders create these digital stories, but I think with parent help and small group instruction many of these presentations will turn out great. My hope is to be a facilitator in this process, which seems impossible to me right now because it’s not actually happening. I’m excited to do this with my students and I will be sure to post a few when completed.

 

Activity Reflection #4

This week we were asked to create a presentation that explains the benefits of digital storytelling. As a result, I decided that I would create my presentation using a program called, Prezi. Having never used this before it was something that I was really excited about. Not knowing what to expect in my creation, I was a little disappointed because I thought navigating through this program would be a bit harder. Just kidding, not disappointed at all!! Prezi was so easy to navigate through and I loved the fact that your whole presentation was right in front of you. The only downfall was that you could not copy a picture and paste to your presentation, you actually had to save it and then insert your picture.


After viewing the video about digital storytelling I couldn't help but notice that everything about digital storytelling was positive. Its benefits are endless for both students and teachers and it is such an interactive way for students to participate in their learning. So being the devil's advocate I had to try to find the downfalls of digital story telling. After reading an article written by a freelance digital story facilitator http://www.panos.org.uk/?lid=23126I I found that digital storytelling does have its downfalls. The article states that sometimes digital stories are created and this is not always the best option. So I thought what better option would there be? A traditional speech in front of an audience that you have to be directly engaged with? I do agree with the fact that when students or teachers see digital stories they get a sense that when they create it must be done in a certain way that has worked for other people. A lot of what I learned about digital storytelling talks about the freedom of individual learning styles. I think if students and teachers can get away from what they want people to read and hear the better their presentations will be received.

Benefits of Digital Storytelling on Prezi

So after about two days of working n this assignment I still feel that I
could have done a little better with the graphics that I used, but I think my content serves the purpose. After spring break I will use Prezi with my first grade class because I think it will be a great learning experience for them. We will create a nature walk presentation. I hope to be able to download pictures from my digital camera that we take from our nature walk. We will talk about animal homes and I will use pictures from the book, The Log Hotel to create a presentation that will inform the audience of all the different animal homes.

RR#4 software learning gains

　

This week I was asked to choose one software program for my classroom. The best part: price was not the concern. After looking through the three software catalogues my choice was from www.journeyed.com. I chose a program called kidspiration because of the number of writing graphic organizers that were available on this program. Wanting to steer away from the traditional chart paper organizers I found this program to bring out a more innovative way for students to participate during writing. Kidspiration now supports higher-resolution monitors with a larger visual workspace and is compatible with SMART Technologies.

Specifications	Asus Intel Pentium Inside	Kidspiration 3.0
Operating System	Windows 7	Windows XP, Vista, 7
Processor Speed	2.20 GHZ	266 MHZ
Memory (RAM)	4.00 RAM	128 MB Minimum
Screen Resolution	1280x768	800x600
Video Card	Mobile IntelR 4 Series Express
Removable Media Options	DVD RW Drive Z2400 Series

 

　

Software installation at my school must first be approved by administration, once approved, the software is loaded by the tech facilitator at my school. The Kidspiration software that I chose included a statement that said, “no academic proof required.” Not wanting to make an assumption I’m interested in knowing what this means as my only thought could be that it might have to do with the licensing? After reading chapter 4, I learned a lot about my computer hardware than I ever knew. I was particularly interested in memory and how it is stored in my computer. The human brain retains a lot due to our memories, but it is limited. I guess I really was interested in the capacity of memory that a computer has. The chapter talked about how program instructions and data are transferred into memory. This is where I learned about bytes and that these are where memory is stored. Figure 4-9 gave me a good visual of how memory works. The stadium seating analogy is much like the filing cabinet or schemata that you hear about in psychology.

 

I also learned a lot about input and output devices on our computers. I know that output devices are those that give us or show the information that we need (printers, monitors, etc.) and input is what we essentially use to tell the computer what we want. With so much information, my brain is crammed with information that I will eventually file in my memory in hopes that one day I can use it. Knowing the basics about your computer is important because you will need it to know if a program that you want to buy will be compatible. The constant creation of new software programs that keep getting better and better demand that we know the basics of our computers.

  

 

　

After finding the program, I was asked to compare my computer's specification to the system requirements for Kidspiration. When trying to figure out just what type of computer I had, this became the hard part. I’ve often looked at the little stickers that are attached to the computer and thought that was pretty much all I needed to know about the hardware. With a little more research I went to the start button, then to my computer and right clicked on properties when I got to there. As I did this a screen popped up with all the information that I needed. These were my findings for both my computer and software.

　

RR#4 software learning gains

This week I was asked to choose one software program for my classroom. The best part: price was not the concern. After looking through the three software catalogues my choice was from www.journeyed.com . I chose a program called kidspiration because of the number of writing graphic organizers that were available on this program. Wanting to steer away from the traditional chart paper organizers I found this program to bring out a more innovative way for students to participate during writing. I also found this software now supports SMART technologies and can be used with higher-resolution monitors.

After finding the program, I was asked to compare my computer's specification to the system requirements for Kidspiration. When trying to figure out just what type of computer I had, this became the hard part. I’ve often looked at the little stickers that are attached to the computer and thought that was pretty much all I needed to know about the hardware. With a little more research I went to the start button, then to my computer and right clicked on properties when I got to there. As I did this a screen popped up with all the information that I needed. These were my findings for both my computer and software.

 

Specifications	Asus Intel Pentium Inside	Kidspiration 3.0
Operating System	Windows 7	Windows XP, Vista, 7
Processor Speed	2.20 GHZ	266 MHZ
Memory (RAM)	4.00 RAM	128 MB Minimum
Screen Resolution	1280x768	800x600
Video Card	Mobile IntelR 4 Series Express
Removable Media Options	DVD RW Drive Z2400 Series

 I was curious when I saw the words, "no academic proof required" because in those words my thinking is that this software would be easily loaded onto my hardware at school with no real problems. My school district policy states that we are not allowed to download any type of software without the permission and consent from an administrator. You must have written approval from administration, who in turn have the tech person at the school install the program.

In reading chapter 4, I learned a whole lot more about my computer then I really knew. I was particularly interested in memory and how it stores data. I was interested in the transfer and how this happens. I learned from the reading that when the computer transfers instructions into memory it does this through storing bytes. The visual of the stadium seating was helpful in understanding how this takes place. The differences between RAM and ROM were clearly stated and I now understand that the acronyms RAM and ROM actually do stand for something important. Most never worry about what is running a computer system, they are more interested in the fact that it is working correctly. Knowing how much memory a device can hold and and the storage capacity was knowledge that I used to fix my own home computer. My solution was that I needed to buy more memory. Knowing what an input and output device is makes it clear on how we receive information (output) from our devices. (monitors, printers, etc.) This assignment was difficult for me because I am one that didin't really care to know how the hardware works. My only concern has always been that it is working correctly.