EME5050 - Activity Reflection #5
This week has been a real learning process...
In our graduate course on the fundamentals of technology for educators we have been learning how to teach students to create digital stories. This week we started putting our plan into action by creating a curriculum page for the type of digital story we would like our students to create in the future. This curriculum page was created using a wiki of our choice, and I chose Wikispaces for Educators. It is a free Web 2.0 tool and was a great tool for creating my curriculum page that was in the standard format for a WebQuest. My curriculum page is "still under construction," but I'd love for you to take a quick preview. The following is my reflection of creating my curriculum page using Wikispaces, but first, I'd like you to use this link to take a quick look at what I've done on it so far.
I started out this post by saying, "This week has been a real learning process." It was a good learning process now that I look back on it, but as I was in the midst of it, I felt very frustrated at times. This was probably because I felt I had to go out of town for business unexpectedly and the hotel where I stayed didn't have adequate Internet access and I was stuck in a storm for 48 hours. I did make it through, and I'm really excited about the idea for the digital storytelling project I'm working on, but I'm really "feeling the growing pains" now. I am also very excited about getting to share my digital storytelling idea with teachers in my district. The first group with whom I will work on it will be the new virtual teachers we will be hiring soon for our new virtual school which is called the "Clay Virtual Academy."
The idea for the digital storytelling project I'm developing is for our future virtual students to complete a WebQuest in which they learn how to create an e-resume (electronic resume) using the PhotoStory 3 software program. You've already had a quick peek at the project, so I believe you know how I've started structuring the WebQuest. I am looking forward to completing the development of this digital storytelling project and to the point where I'm actually training teachers how to use digital storytelling with their students.
As I said, this week has been a real learning process. I learned how to create a Voki which is the customized speaking avatar you saw at the beginning of my WebQuest. The voki I created is named "Virtual Vincent." All I had to do to add him to my wiki was to copy and paste html code. It was really pretty simple. Something else I am glad that I learned this week was how to use a wiki to create a WebQuest. I've done that before using Word, but it is nice now to know how to create a WebQuest using a different tool. One stress point was when I had a little trouble figuring out how to embed the Table of Contents at the top of my WebQuest. When I finally "caved in" and looked it up in the "Help" section of Wikispaces, it became so clear and now it's a "piece of cake."
This week I learned how to use some new Web 2.0 tools, and I feel I'm the better for it. I'll end with a "play of words" on my last name (which is Paine). I can literally say, "If there's no Paine, there's no gain."
Ruth- you have given me a lot of insight and some good ideas to use in my webquest. I have to tell you that I got so frustrated with the embedding of the table of contents I gave up. I looked through the turorials, but didn't find anything. I decided to link a webquest to my wiki page and use the wiki page as a parent guide. I absolutely adore your avatar and I think this would be a wonderful tool to use with all students. I'm having a hard time finding appropriate tasks for my 1st graders to handle. Anything that talks to them and is interactive seems to work well. I'm sort of jealous when I look at all these great things that our classmates create. I often wish I taught in the higher grades, but I love the challenge of finding things that will work.
ReplyDeleteYour digital project seems very interesting and I love how you have the kids find out about their names. Making those personal connections to these projects help students own their learning and they stay excited when it's about them! Great post and I look forward to your final pieces.
Ruth-I would love to collaborate on all these topics with you! I'm in desperate need of some tech support:) If you want we can do a live chat in our my UCF. Let me know and we will talk soon! Thanks
ReplyDeleteWow, Ruth! You said you learned a lot working on your post - well, I learned a lot FROM you post! First off - that voki - where did you learn about that and get him from? Did you create him from a wizard or something? That was really cool - and such an ingenious way to start off your assignment - with a "character from the future". Awesome!
ReplyDeleteSecondly, I love your idea - from the whole concept of learning about the careers of the future (in a direct time frame for when they might be looking for jobs themselves!) to the meaning of their names to the personal interests they have - such a great lesson with so many possibilities.
Your wiki was set up logically and efficiently. Good work. Have you started implementing this lesson with real students yet? I will be so curious to find out what they come up with.
You wrote, "I felt very frustrated at times. This was probably because I felt I had to go out of town for business unexpectedly and the hotel where I stayed didn't have adequate Internet access and I was stuck in a storm for 48 hours." Been there, done that. Twice this term, I have been out of town - once for a week of business, and another for a week of pleasure. It is sooooo frustrating relying on hotel Internet access! Sometimes I would think I was still connected, send something or post something, only to be offline, and have my work disappear. I hear ya on that frustration!
I'm looking forward to reading more about your project.
~ Christi S
Christi,
ReplyDeleteThe voki is a free Web 2.0 technology you can find at http://www.voki.com/. I learned about this site last year and it has really been updated significantly since then. I think you will enjoy using it, and...it is FREE!
Best of luck with your final project and portfolio for this class. Thank you for you kind comments.
:) Ruth