How do I...

I'm a little slow to figure out new technology, but once I use it a few times I'm usually pretty good at navigating my way around. The first time I used zooburst I struggled with all of the options and how to manipulate objects in the book (figuring out how to delete an item once I put it in the book seemed to take forever!) Unfortunately, zooburst is so new that they don't offer a good tutorial on their website (they say it's coming though) so I played with it a lot in order to figure out all the options. I still haven't figured out how to use the augmented reality part, so I'll work on that next. I know my students will need time to play and figure it out as well (although probably much less time than I did) At any rate, I decided to create a tutorial for questions that I foresee students asking while learning how to create stories on zooburst. My hope is that it will be helpful to students as they begin the process of creating digital stories while simultaneously limiting 'teacher trouble shooting' time. I also hope this document is useful to those of you who would like to start using zooburst to create digital stories in your classes. We will start our stories soon! Excited!

Google Forms!

Our amazing tech guru, Chrissy, taught me how to use google forms today. I created a questionnaire to put on our Spanish class blog for our unit on shelter.

Strippers or Zoos?

Okay, so I know it's mid-March and I should know exactly what I'm going to do for my final project... but.... you guessed it! I don't. I thought at the end of course 4 I had it all figured out. My students were going to make common craft style videos to tell stories in Spanish. It all sounded so exciting, until I started to really think about it. Primarily, I thought about how much time my students would be spending drawing their stick figure people, animals, objects, arrows, etc. that are all essential parts of a good common craft video. I did a quick calculation and realized that the enormous amount of time they would not be engaged or using Spanish would be colossal. I realized that I needed to figure out a way to limit the "art" time and focus on actually speaking, reading, writing, and listening to Spanish...in other words, using the language. This is, after all, what is going to help my students become better Spanish learners. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to stifle creativity and art, but I want to limit the amount of time we focus on that part of the process. Additionally, I started thinking about managing all those little papers that would make up their common craft video and immediately had visions of kids shoving them into their disorganized folders, coming to class the next day and declaring, "Srta. Montegna have you seen my stick figure of the dog for my story about el perro gordo, I swear I put it in my folder!" So, I started doing some research into other storytelling options and I found two that look really promising; Stripgenerator and Zooburst.

Stripgenerator is basically an online comic strip. It is a bit limited in terms of character options, colors (everything is black and white), etc. but maybe the simplicity is actually a good thing. How many times have I stood for an eternity in the cereal isle of a large American grocery store with glazed over eyes and drool pooling at the corners of my mouth because there were too MANY options? Maybe the simplicity will allow students to avoid spending hours searching through different avatar options. Maybe they'll have more time to actually work with the language. The other plus about Stripgenerator are the sharing options and embedding options, allowing students to post strips on their blog or share on Facebook. I also appreciate the intuitiveness of the website. It's easy to use from the start.

Zooburst is another great tool for storytelling. It's a digital storytelling site that allows users to create 3-D pop-up books. The nice part about Zooburst is the ability for student to not only write dialogue in their stories but to also use their own voices to enable their characters to come to "life". As a language teacher, this appeals to me since it allows students to practice their speaking skills. Like stripgenerator it has some sharing options, including embedding. An interesting part of Zooburst is that users can experience Zooburst stories in augmented reality with a webcam. It's $49.99 a year for the full options (including voice) so it is an investment, but that fee also comes with the ability for teachers to set up a virtual classroom space within zooburst and give students their own usernames and passwords. This classroom management piece is important to me as I've experience frustration with Voicethread and other sites which makes the management piece and therefore the implementation of technology in the classroom painful at times.

So, now the question becomes, which digital storytelling method do I want to use with my students? Should I let them choose? Or should I make it simple for them so they are not left drooly-mouthed and glazed over in the middle of Spanish class?

Final Project Idea (a rough sketch)

For my final project I am envisioning stories. Stories written by, illustrated by, and told by students. The process by which students will create and present their stories to a wider audience is where the tech piece comes in. I see a lot of possibilities with having kids create stories using the Common Craft style. I've asked my 5th graders if they would be interested in creating stories using this method and they all shouted "¡Sí!". That was encouraging.

I found an educator out of Hong Kong who is creating Common Craft style videos in the classroom with her students. Donna Ellery who teaches at Discovery College in Hong Kong. Here is an example of one of her students who created a Common Craft video on "How to Make a Microphone".

After reading over the Utech tips for creating these videos in the classroom, I'm a bit intimidated to say the least. The method that Donna and her students used to create these videos was using iMovie for post production/editing and then importing the videos into Garage Band in order to do add the audio track (the kids used microphones they created in science class to do this which REALLY sounds intimidating). I know I've been taking this course for almost a year now, but the truth is I'm still not all that tech savvy. I've only used iMovie once and I've never used Garage Band. And that's just the technology piece, I still need to consider how the project will be organized, time lines, grading, etc. I have a lot to think about. The project seems gigantic and complicated and may give me a tech headache... but what I'm most grateful for is that I have the opportunity to work with students who are excited to create and tell stories in new and interesting ways. This may be challenging and my learning curve may be the size of Everest, but I expect it will be a fun, interesting, and learning centered journey getting to the final product.

To be continued.... stay tuned!

Technology: Solution or Problem?

UGH! I've been annoyed with technology lately. I know it motivates and engages students. I know that it can literally open up the world and brings it to their fingertips. I know that using technology in the classroom gives students skills that they need for the digital world. I know that students ask me on a weekly basis, "Can we use the computer?". They love it, they crave it, they would probably marry it.

So why am I so frustrated? Last week, I planned lessons that incorporated technology and the technology failed to work properly.... again. When I only see kids every other day for 45 minutes and we spend 10 minutes trying to figure out technology, I see it as wasted time. I have an amazing tool that can help student learning if it works properly, but 7 times out of 10 it doesn't. The website I'm referring to is Lingt Language. It was created by an MIT student who was studying Mandarin and wanted a better way to learn. It's an amazing tool when it works. Teachers can tailor make activities that have students reading, writing, listening, and speaking on the computer. Here is an example of one activity that I created.

The problem is that the listening portion and the voice recording portion works sporadically. You can't always hear the questions being asked and the students aren't always able to record their voices and play it back so they can hear their own language learning. Students are still able to read and write, but the strength in this website is in the ability to listen to speech and use oral language to express oneself. I really want to use this technology and the students want to use it too, but when technology fails to work so much of the time, I begin to lose faith in the power of technology.

There is one simple solution. Turn off the computer and talk face to face. Remember that? The way we all learned to speak language is still the best (and most reliable) way. ¡Vamos a hablar!

What Kind of Learner are You?

We all have a mix a learning styles and so do our students. Below is my learner profile. I like to hear and see while I'm learning.

Click here for a glimpse at your own learner profile.

2010 through the eyes of Google

I definitely googled, "Thailand Political Crisis" a time or two.