My trials and Tribulations in PPT

Well, my powerpoint is now complete, but it was a crazy adventure to get there. When you have a vision in your head, you have to stick to it and find a way to overcome the learning curve. I really wanted a Jeopardy game that linked back to the question page after each question. So, I had to first create my "choose a question" page and link the 12 question slides to that one. That was work, but it wasn't a problem. At first I just had ugly boxes representing the question links and I later replaced them with cute thematic clipart.

Here's where the trouble came. I then wanted the game to be able to return to the "choose question" slide after the completion of each question. No easy task. I had such a hard time with this because I may have messed up the creation of my slide set at the beginning. As an amendment, I moved my intro slide to the second, and figured I would manually start the slide show there.

Inserting the music was interesting. I downloaded the Jeopardy song in iTunes which made it a m4P (protected) file. I worked around it by burning this song to a CD and ripping it into windows media player. It felt like cheating, but it worked. I had to clip the annoying intro off, and I had no trouble inserting it into PPT.

Animation was a huge learning curve for me. I know how to animate good old text to show up one line at a time, but I didn't at all know how to animate a picture or ORDER the animations. I really, really struggled with this part. I found tutorial instructions really wishy-washy on this particular instruction. I figured it out just by trial and error, which is sometimes the best way for me to learn computers.

Inserting the sound wasn't a problem, but after I did it all, I realized I should have ensured that the volume on the recording was higher. Oh well, I won't make that mistake next time.

Honestly, I've always wanted to learn how to better use PPT and presentation software. I told myself that I would teach myself one day. This course really pushed me to play with all of the interesting functions in PPT. The funny thing is....I still have more to learn. . .The functions are endless. . .Now, I see myself changing my existing powerpoints with just some text and pictures and animating them a little. They need some spunk. . .

Using presentation software RIGHT!

Powerpoint is a tool that can be used well or poorly. It can be great if it's used as a tool to present pictures, to begin discussion, to see an animation, etc. But words, meaningless sounds, and silly animations really take away from what PPT is meant to do. . .PPT was meant to enhance the visual component of presentations.

Bad powerpoints

Powerpoint was originally developed as a tool to use for marketing development. I found this website http://members.shaw.ca/pappel/bad_powerpoint.pdf very interesting because it blames Microsoft's built in templates on the boring bulleted nature of PPT presentations. It truly highlights how bad powerpoints lead presenters to READ their slides, leading to a lazy and ineffective presentation.

So, a great presentation should be based on the presenter's knowledge; not what is written in the PPT. Here are four great suggestions to avoid the booooring ppts.

1) Make Cue Cards as prompters
2) Make slides that reinforce your words; not REPEAT them
3) Use footnotes if you want the presentation to be later transferable
4) No cheesy images
etc, etc....

Teachers of course try to cater to the various types of learners out there: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. But visual learners are not going to learn by viewing bullets on a slide; rather, they'll learn by viewing pictures, diagrams, and visually stimulating items that are explained well by the speasker. Auditory learners don't learn by hearing a bunch of funky and irrelevant sounds, they learn from a powerful voice and engaging speaker. And kinesthetic learners learn from moving, touching, and exploring--not from moving words on a slide.
http://www.presentationhelper.co.uk/bad_powerpoint.htm

Uses of Presentation Software in the Classroom

Well, I have been finding examples of lessons where it is much neater to use presentation software than the chalkboard. The diagrams, pictures, and graphs are extremely clear, the points are organized and succint, there is flair with bullets and animated effects, and the text is easy to read. It also frees the teacher from any writing/drawing duties and allows him/her to completely focus on TEACHING/LECTURING/catering to students' needs rather than focusing on getting the appropriate text up.

Fancy Ideas. . .

A very cool website that Greg recommende today.



http://www.awesomebackgrounds.com/powerpointtutorials.htm

This website goes through how to add a menu to a presentation, and automatically link to other slides ahead. I had no idea how to do this, and really I still don't, but if I really put my mind to it, I can figure it out. . .

There are also tutorials on converting a presentation to dvd or video. . . Really cool....Hope I can become this techy at some point.

Learning how to use PPT properly

Well, this is not my first time using presentation software--I have used it in my classroom for some lectures. I've chosen to use it on occasions where I feel that I cannot draw something as well as an online/digital photo can--so I've really only used it for pictures and text. Slowly, I learned how to fade in my words one by one--so I could speak to my class in between points. I found that to be a very important feature when teaching. But, I never did anything interesting. Quite frankly, I never had the time to sit there and fool around with my presentations. It took me long enough to write my notes and find appropriate explanatory photos.

I started tonight with this:
http://presentationsoft.about.com/od/nextstepsinpowerpoint/ss/sound.htm

An online tutorial on how to add sound:
http://www.impatica.com/movies/impatica/333/Adding-Sound-XP-v333/Adding-Sound-Introduction-XP-Version.html

I really liked this tutorial that a classmate suggested:
http://www.internet4classrooms.com/pp_animate_chart.htm

And, I used this one for a while playing with little fun animations. As I mentioned on the Sakai discussion board, many of these little animations are useless, but they can certainly make a presentation more fun. Many websites seem to warn though, that users of ppt shouldn't have too much fun. . .A ppt presentation is meant to relay facts, and too many "fun" aspects can be distracting. It's true, animations, sound, etc. cannot be overdone in a lesson or the students will lose focus on the importance of the text and pictures. It will be fun to implement more interesting title pages with these new little skills.
http://www.sresd.k12.mi.us/tis/training/powerpointsound.pdf

That's all for tonight....what is wrong with me? Up until 1:30 am??? Geez. . .

Why digital images are so important, and a couple subject-specific sites.

I just want to remember this list of why digital images are so important. It may become a small part of my argument to get money for digital resources.
• Unlimited Copies - digital image files may be duplicated and/or printed many times
• Unlimited use of the same image - students may use the same digital image in different documents
• Scaled to print in different sizes - high resolution digital images may be printed in large or small sizes
• Shared via e-mail - digital images may be sent to anyone with an e-mail account
• Shared via World Wide Web - web sites can display digital images
• Presentations - images can be used in PowerPoint or other computer presentations
• Digital video - images can be imported into digital video projects and transferred to videotape or DVDs
• Create database - images can be imported into a database, for example, a database on types of plants
• Editing for emphasis- copies of digital images can be drawn on or edited without ruining the original image
• Image storage - digital images may be stored on a computer, CD, disk or web site
• Slide shows - computers can run slide shows of digital images
http://www.picturesmatter.com/SubPage4.aspx?PageID=23&LID=1


Also, here are a few articles on how to apply digital technology across the various subjects:
Math:
www.kent.k12.wa.us/KSD/KR/DIGITAL/math1.doc
Science:
www.kent.k12.wa.us/KSD/KR/DIGITAL/science1.doc

Creating a Slideshow presentation

I bought my digital camera when I stopped in Japan on my way to Australia. It's lasted 3.5 years, and I have more than 2000 digital photos. I do not print these pictures; instead, I keep them as organized as I can in folders.

While teaching science this past year, I wanted to show my students some of my real-life ecological experiences (ie. the Great Barrier Reef). I ended up showing them a brief slideshow copy and pasted images.

Now I'd like to make that better. I have just copied some pictures into Windows Media Maker and I hope to incorporate an audio file to supplement these photos. Coming soon. . . .

Digitizing Images

The Science department at my school owns one digital camera. It's a few years old now, but it still serves its purpose. We take it with us on all our class trips so we can keep mementos of what we saw and what we learned. We also take pictures of major science experiments including fetal pig dissections and Balloon Car Races. We always submit a few of these pictures to the quarterly newsletter to help us highlight the events in science.

There is one teacher in our department who takes digital photos of all his students and uploads them to Markbook for any future reference. I have seen this become extremely useful when this teacher is away and the supply teacher has photos of all the students in their seating plan.

I really liked the idea of photographing a day in the life of my classroom for parent Open House night to illustrate the structure of classes, the equipment we use, etc.
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech148.shtml

If we had more digital cameras available to us, we could then have the students use them for various projects. It would great to see the students use them to track experiments (especially long-term ones), or create a project that involves taking images of changing events (such as the weather)

And 52 other ideas can be found at: http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/gadgets.html

More to add to the list of ideas: (Teachers sharing their ideas)
http://www.brunswick.k12.me.us/lon/lonlinks/digicam/teacher/home.html

Visual Technology

A small idea of creating digital videos:

There is an interesting site called "playing with time" that brought some ideas to mind regarding students' use of digital images. It was really interesting that this particular company "says" that they will lend you a digital camera to undergo an interesting "playing with time project". The ideas seem really simple, (days getting longer, the transformation of an architectural building, etc) but of course can be extrapolated to fit another educational setting. Students can create images, piece them together in a video and explain the event in detail.

An interesting note that creates a strong argument for needing digital cameras in the school.
The web provides many images for students to use as stimuli, but these images are mostly small, and if students want to work within powerpoint, they have to choose images larger than 200 dpi.

A great video explaining the use of digital tools (PPT, photostory)
http://www.archive.org/details/DannyMaasTILTTVFounderProducer

Trying to Podcast using Audacity

Some of the things I've learned while recording my voice and playing with Audacity.

1. Importing Audio is great. Go to Project, import Audio. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to import any music from my iTunes program because Audacity cannot import AAC compressed audio, nor the encrypted M4A format used by Apple for iTunes. I was also unable to import music files from Windows Media player due to patent restrictions, so the only way I was "successful" in this respect was by putting a CD directly into my computer. That was frustrating.
   
2. Silencing pieces of my recording was easy, and I needed to do this to get rid of my little blunders in my voice recording.
3. I also used the "align tracks" function to move my recording around the music that I was trying to import.
4. Exporting the file as an mp3 wasn't too bad. I had to download a zipped LAME file to do it.

I found the instructions at this website to be really clear: http://altec.colorado.edu/howto/audacity/aud_hlp01.shtml

Podcasting in Special Education

Some special needs students have a lot of trouble focusing on a written evaluation and therefore require accomodations that involve teachers reading the questions in a separate room. I acted as a scribe for students writing the OSSLT this year, so I experienced the potential shame behind this procedure. How wonderful is that we can now pre-record our test/assignment questions, and have the students listen and visualize the test question using an iPod. Teachers that have developed comprehensive audio and visual files admit that it was time consuming at first. (But of course, anything that you're just beginning requires getting over a hurdle). Special Education students now feel comfortable and confident to take tests without adult intervention. This is not a way to replace special education teachers, but a way to supplement and complement their actions. Using this practice, they are free to circulate and monitor all students.

http://www.apple.com/education/profiles/louisamuscatine/
http://www.apple.com/education/profiles/louisamuscatine/index2.html

Podcasts can also be created to help lower level readers learn how to read. Using Audacity, teachers can record the books to help these students get through the challenge. They are not embarassed by this practice.
http://www.teachersusingtechnology.com/?cat=29

It's true, Audacity pretty good for a free program

Okay, so it took me a while to actually want to be able to record my own sounds. I procrastinated. Seeing my classmates doing it on the discussion board inspired me to venture through a whole bunch of instructions. I want to learn how to do this properly:

Using Audacity you can:

• record sound at a varied qualities
• dub over existing tracks
• adjust sound level while recording
• import and export different types of files (really important if you want to listen to a podcast on an iPod or mp3 player).
• edit sound files

I like the instructions on how to get everything set up before you begin recording on the following website: http://www.jakeludington.com/podcasting/20050222_recording_a_podcast.html

Well, off I go.

Another Idea! Podcasting Science Logs

Kandas provided me with a link to another great way that I can use podcasting in a science classroom. I never would have thought of this on my own. While doing a laboratory investigation, students often get confused because they don't organize their information well on a piece of paper. They scribble data on a chart, and write very few qualitative observations. If students recorded their notes using an mp3 player or a computer, they could then listen to it later and organize their thoughts better. "Podcasting observations throughout the course of an experiment allows another level of reflection on the experience." http://fcit.usf.edu/podcasts/science_logs.html

Another idea that was mentioned on this website was to use videos or pictures in podcasts to show a chemical reaction that is too dangerous to do with the class. "While nothing can take the place of direct experience in the science classroom, podcasting offers many ways to supplement the students' experience."

Listening to Podcasts

After perusing through many podcasts, here are some that I've found that relate to my teaching areas. One of the general things that I've noticed is that it takes a while to get a podcast going. Most podcast speakers spend time introducing themselves and explain their purpose in detail before they get to the meat of the discussion. I may have been hoping to hear the point a little sooner because I've been trying to peruse a good subsection of podcasts.

It was interesting to hear "Dan" explain negative integers, prime numbers, and misuses of decimals and percentages. To be honest, I found it really hard to listen to Dan as he spoke about Math. I really cannot learn math in this way--I need to visually see it.

http://podcasts.yahoo.com/player?s=0216d078d995c577da8d64c32197b076&e=1

I also listened to a podcast on how to apply my lessons using the SMART board, an interactive tool that I use often. This one was much like a radio show, with multiple people being interviewed.
http://podcasts.yahoo.com/player?s=1238953e3d4d723f9b66081b973cf747&e=47

And to continue my "nerdy" exploration, I listened to another radio podcast on evolution. How exciting! I really liked this one. I think the tone and inflection of the speakers really helped in this podcast. In fact, there was a huge list of these podcasts labelled Ms Chiens Science class podcast. (I guess they're a series)
http://www.mschien.com/podcast/evolution/sams_club.mp3

One more on genes playing a critical role in gender. These are high school teachers (believe it or not) posting daily tidbits of new info. This person's voice was borrring! But, since I actually caught the premise, it was really interesting.
http://podcasts.yahoo.com/player?s=3401a70fe60a6987c739d157273d400c&e=184

That's enough podcasting searching for tonight!
That's all for now.

Suddenly, digital stories excited me!

On Monday I began searching the web for information on podcasting and digital storytelling; two terms that I had never really seen before. I haven't felt like I've done any useful searching until today! I've seen many definitions, practical uses of podcasts, and tonnes of podcasting ideas for elementary education. That's all great, but it's not exciting to me until I see how I could use it in my classes.

The first way that I could use digital stories in my class seems to be the area that receives the most attention--having the students interactively create a digital story on an assigned topic. Every science course that I teach requires a presentation of some sort because I believe it helps them to develop research skills, organization skills, and communication skills. Instead of asking for a 10 minute, on the spot presentation--I can ask for a pre-prepared digital story on the subject. Will I be asking too much? Possibly. The students would require some training, or at least instructions on how to use photostory. If time permits, it is definitely a worthwhile adventure. The students would still gain the skills listed above as well as Technology skills, interpersonal skills, and problem solving skills. And such an assignment would generate interest, attention, and motivation for this digital generation.

When I first started web browsing, I wasn't really aware of the fact that digital stories can be used to inform and instruct. Stories created by teachers can act as a lesson hook, a way to integrate multimedia, a way to facilitate a class discussion, or even a way to make difficult content more understandable.

An article on how digital storytelling can be used in a language arts classroom
http://cs2.cust.educ.ubc.ca/csed/400/csed_readings/display%2024.pdf

A digital story on the use of math in architecture.
http://www.coe.uh.edu/digital-storytelling/arcs.htm

A digital story on the Pythagorean Theorem. It is applicable to grade 8 and 9 Mathematics and ready to use. And I absolutely love it because it contains a few awesome real-life situations!
http://www.coe.uh.edu/digital-storytelling/pythagoreans.htm

A digital story on aging well, including a great deal of discussion about hormones and environmental effects
http://www.coe.uh.edu/digital-storytelling/agingwell.htm

Podcasting in the Classroom

Well, perhaps Apple is tooting its own horn, but the apple website discusses the various uses of a podcast's content. It can be a lecture, a foreign language lesson, a demonstration of biology principles, etc. I've listened to a number of ESL podcasts that are free from iTunes and these podcasts involve a discussion about something related to daily life, but of course, the instructor speaks slowly and anunciates all words. What better way to learn a language than to hear it over and over again?

I've been seeing a LOT of examples all over the web about the uses of podcasting at the elementary level. Students are making them according to a teacher's instruction and it helps with reading, writing, and oral presentation skills. Here is an article: http://chatt.hdsb.ca/~magps/boylit/edweek%20article.pdf

What is podcasting and Digital Storytelling?

A podcast is a series of audio and video files that can be posted on the internet and then played back. The word comes from combining the words iPod with Broadcasting, but does not necessarily mean that an iPod must be the choice of listening hardware--it can be used from any listening device or a computer (Gardner, 2005). The uses of podcasting are endless; they have been used to listen to the daily news, learn languages, hear lessons, help students with reading and understanding, etc. These descriptions are extremely broad--I have to spend much more time understanding exactely how podcasting is used and new and exciting uses.

Digital Storytelling is a short media production tells a story using multimedia tools (graphics, audio, video, and web). It seems as though programs such as Photoshop and Photostory are two of many different types of programs that can be used.

Creating Songs using Garage Band

This is pretty cool! Reading through Candace's posted articles, my focus turned to the article "Learning Math with Music". While I was in teacher's college, I used to highly praise the idea of music and math, but I have never actually done anything even slightly related in my classroom. Why don't I always practice what I preach? Well, maybe because I thought it was impossible. But wow, there truly is a lot of stuff out there.

Garbage Band is a program that is used to make music on Macs. It features an onboard keyboard, a multi-track recorder, and an extensive loop library. There are instructions on how to use the program at: http://www.wikihow.com/Compose-Music-Using-GarageBand
My school isn't quite equipped yet to be able to assign something like this for the kids....but when it is, I'll be ready! I have an iPod, but I need to become much more familiar with how to use it. The article "Learning Math with Music has assessment strategies, and led me to a website full of already made math songs. Wow, this is heaven for a music lover. http://www.songsforteaching.com/ It may be costly to download all the songs you want, but I would certainly benefit from having a couple songs as examples to spark some creativity from the students....

User Friendly Software is a must!

I think we need to further define user friendly. Most educational software that I have seen involves doing more work to create lessons or projects for our students. Now, we all know what a challenge it is to plan lessons--it is even harder if we have to spend time creating our own animations, or student-centred lesson around a particular topic. So, I'll state simply--I am not a fan of software that requires us to start at ground zero. You may as well call that mission impossible. I hope I'm not sounding like a lazy teacher, but it is really a lot of work!Ideally, we need software and applications that are already made to cater to our curriculum in various subjects and grades. It's even better when they are adaptable (another criteria that I've chosen for my rubric) because then you can tweek it to your personal teaching desires. For those of you who teach math, I have come to really love what's out there in TIPS4RM, a resource that has math activities, lessons, and tonnes of technology ideas and instructions. For example, there are pages with instructions on using graphing calculators for various functions, powerpoint modules, geometer's sketchpad interfaces, etc. These exist for grades 7-10 math and are available to all on the ministry website. If you have not already been using this resource, here's where you can find it. http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/studentsuccess/lms/tips4rm.html

Preparing our students for Media Literacy!

We already have a huge job ahead of us, thinking about the best and most interesting way to deliver our curriculum. In doing this, we can easily lose sight of internet safety and call it someone else's job. I love a quote in the article I posted on our discussion board "Choosing Not To Go Down the Not-so-good Cyberstreets"--the more technology around us, the more need for human touch" This is true in so many respects, and it definitely fits into the rationale behind leading the way and showing students the appropriate uses of the internet.
Well, I tried searching for who would be responsible for this and a lot of the same things that we've already said came up. We've already said so much about the importance of educating our students, and the more I researched it, the more it seems to be the individual teacher's responsibilty. It seems that the term being used to decipher this internet training is "media literacy". There's a book by Julie Frechette titled "Developing Media Literacy in Cyberspace" that seems to be all about teaching students how to decipher the validity and worth of what they see on the internet. Teaching this really lays the groundwork for developing critical thinking skills for later use.
I think we all agree that educating our students on how to use the internet safely is a top priority. That poses some problems though, because time is of the essence in terms of curriculum delivery. And from all of our discussions, the importance of "internet training" varies depending on what grade we teach.
If we instill these values on how to use the internet properly at a young age then it lays the groundwork for them being experienced internet practitioners. But, how can we ensure that this is being done?
I attached an article that I like because it is realistic about the fact that we cannot expect perfection from our students in terms of their private use; we can only educate them. I also liked the article in terms of the "responsibility" topic that Christopher raised. At the very end of the article (the beginning repeats what we've said but in an eloquent way), they list "what should be done?" One idea is professional development for teachers on how to teach children about safe internet use. The other suggestion made by the article is that perhaps our ministry needs to come up with objectives on the safe and responsible use of the internet that are appropriate for different grade levels.

A Macromedia Presentation on Web Safety

If I was going to start using blogging as a regular part of my students' coursework, this is a fantastic ready-made presentation.

http://www.wiredsafety.org/wiredlearning/ProfileActivity/index.htm

Internet Safety

It's true! We speak of all these ways that the internet can be used as a positive tool in the classroom, but we must take note of safety precautions. At kidsmart.com (thanks Josie for your link) there are some scary true stories about how kids have used chat sites and had someone "break in", take over the site, and write a tonne of profantities. I have also come across a news story that mentions blogs being used as suicide forums. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/15/scitech/pcanswer/main1209925.shtml
When teachers use the internet as a learning tool, it is important the we teach them how to use it for the correct purpose.

While searching, some simple safety ideas involve not using your real first and last name on a blog, hiding your blog from search engines, never give out personal information (address, cell phone numbers, etc). This particular page is a useful list of the reminders we should be relaying to our students. http://www.netalert.net.au/02321-Safety-Tips-for-Kids-and-Teens.pdf

I really liked "Mrs. Simpson's Blogging Policy" that Josie led us to. I notice that most of her rules are for safety, but she also includes rules such as "no chat language", and "try to spell everything correctly", which are great rules to promote the educational purpose behind the blog--to help students communicate!

More on the pros and Cons of Blogging

The article lists four benefits of student blogging:
1. helps students become subject matter experts.
2. Increases student interest and ownership in learning.
3. Offers students a legitimate chances to participate
4. opportunities for diverse perspectives.
For a further explanation, see the article at:http://www.thejournal.com/articles/16626_4

Of course, despite all of these benefits, another article from "The Journal" discusses how it is a challenge to transform the classroom to make it more relevant to a contemporary era. In other words, some schools need to step it up on the technology front. My school is one of them. We've been fighting hard to achieve internet access in our classrooms, because of course, the possibilities are endless.The article regarding these challenges is at: http://www.thejournal.com/articles/17203

In terms of blogging safety, some school boards (New Jersey High School) license a content management system from Userland.com (manila.userland.com) to control the material that is posted on the blogging site and block access to all users. I'm still on the search for how else to manage blogging safety. http://www.thejournal.com/articles/17306_2

21 classes

I loved the website that my classmate posted: www.21classes.com. I can really see myself using this as an additional means of communication to my students. Sometimes, when a student is away for a few days, I forget to tell them something. I find calling annoying these days because I tend to get voicemail or the wrong person on the telephone. Thanks to Amy for drawing our attention to this site.

Using blogging as a Creative way to promote literacy

I've never written a blog of my own, but I've certainly read a number of them. I have friends who taught English abroad in places like Japan and Korea. Needless to say, these are very interesting experiences that needed to be shared. These friends created blogs and kept up with writing journal entries and posting photos daily. It's especially interesting to read a blog from someone you know because you really get a chance to visualize what that person is learning and experiencing.

Now, I think that people who blog regularly have excellent writing skills. (Hopefully blog writing will wear off on me). This is the MSN and text messaging age where students are losing their abilities to put together a sentence. If we teachers used blogging as a way to ask students to write daily, I think it would make a huge difference. Plus, students may be more inclined to "write" on the internet rather than on a piece of paper. And it can be done in any subject; for example, I could require my students to keep a blog of the current science issues related to what we're learning in class. Hmm....I love coming up with new teaching ideas!

An even more interesting use of blogging is that it can be used as a publishing tool, which of course, is of special importance to high school English teachers. There is an article that promotes using these tools at: http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/TL/2003/02/blogs.php

Hi there! With two years of teaching experience on my belt, I am trying to explore new avenues for student learning. I am basically the young blood in my departments, and I have already gained so much insight from experienced teachers. They provide me with analogies, lab strategies, and interesting discussion ideas. In some ways, these wonderful teachers feel technologically challenged and turn to the "young blood" for assistance in these avenues. But my ideas can only go so far. I need to develop more lessons that involve students actively using technology. They love it, and I love it. So, this blog is about posting materials that I will gain in my quest for new technological ideas and reasons.