Multimedia Project - Voice Thread

Wow! Voice Thread is easy to use. Simply upload a Power Point presentation, click record, and you have full narration to your presentation. It was so easy, I only had to record once, and for me....that is saying something.

As a classroom teacher I will use Power Point type presentations often. What happens when a student is absent? How could this technology help him/her catch up? All a teacher needs to do is upload the power point, then press record, possibly even while giving the presentation. Then students who missed the presentation, or need extra help, could review the presentation. Additionally, if a teacher knows there will be a sub, this is a great way to ensure the material is covered in the manner the teacher had planned.

My Favorite Web 2.0 Tools

What is Web 2.0?

It is the interactive internet of today. In the early days of internet, web sites were an electronic to read information on a given topic. Web sites were not interactive, did not have video, and could not be modified by the user. Essentially, early web sites were little more than an electronic form of a book or magazine.

Today, however, web sites are interactive. Users can modify pages such as Wikis to share information with others who share one’s interests. Additionally, many web sites include video and audio to bring the information to life. Furthermore, many (if not most) web sites have an area in which readers, consumers, or customers can ask questions, leave feedback, or request a response from the owner of the site.

However, Web 2.0 is not limited to obtaining information. It includes a completely new way of being productive in one’s personal life, or business. The accessibility of the internet, using computer workstations, laptops, tablets, PDAs, and smart phones, has created an environment in which business is conducted “in the cloud,” or on-line. Documents can no longer reside on a single computer, and carrying disks or flash drives has become antiquated. In today’s world, Web 2.0 tools and applications allow for documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and much more to be created without being bound to a single computer, or even purchasing software. Some of these applications and tools are Google Docs, Team Viewer, Delicious, Tiny URL and much more.

How Can We Use This In Education?

Google Docs allows students to use word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations without the expense of purchasing software. Furthermore, with web based files, students can work collaboratively on any project without compatibility issues of different versions of software, i.e. MS Office 2003, 2007, or 2010. Moreover, students need not be in the same physical location, or even be working at the same time, to work together on group projects. What is more, teachers can view and comment on students work in progress. Finally, students will not forget to bring their homework to class, as they have their documents available at anytime, anywhere that has internet access.

One Cool Tool ~ Tiny URL!

The internet has a lot of great information for teachers to share with students, however web addresses are long and complicated. For example, in a class studying asteroids, a teacher might want to share a news article from the NASA web site with her students. The web address she wishes to share is http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/news/wise20110926.html. This is a difficult address for her students to remember, or even type in correctly. One choice the teacher has is to use Tiny URL to simplify the address. The teacher visits www.tinyurl.com and pastes the long web address into the correct field. Then he/she types a simple description to use instead, for example NASAasteroid. Now, the students can access www.tinyurl.com/NASAasteroid which is easier to remember and to type.

Google Docs Group Project - Google Presentation

Google presentation is a cloud based slide show program similar to Microsoft Power Point. It is an amazing tool that will improve my personal productivity, as well as being beneficial in the classroom.

Personally, my family uses MS Power Point every week for a slide show giving the lyrics for the hymns in our Sunday worship service. I would hate to thing of how many times we have left our flash drive at home and I have had to quickly drive back to get it before services begin. This will not happen again, as we will be using Google Presentation and the internet access at the church building.

In the classroom, I will use Google Presentation as a visual aid in many presentations. At times I will still use Power Point to have access to animations such as fade, spin, or bounce. I work with elementary school children with special needs and at times, these animations help the students remember the information. I remember preparing a Power Point to present information for a physical fitness test. By matching the animation to action, such as bouncing to represent a heart beat, students had a a better recall of the information.

For this project, Andrew, Tom, Rachel and I all worked on the same presentation, yet never were actually together or on the same computer. It was exciting to see the project develop. As I was familiar with Power Point, I had high expectations for this program, yet I had never used Google Presentations so I had a lot to learn.

Andrew got the project going by setting up the background, getting our picture loaded, and beginning the bullet points. I added to the bullet points and figured out how to have each bullet point appear with a click of the mouse (after all, if you see all of the points, there is no need to listen to the presenter). The next time I checked back, Tom had added to the presentation and Rachel had joined us and added her part as well.

Check out the presentation, you might not want to pay for Power Point after all.



If you have difficulty viewing the presentation, click here

OTEN 2011

OTEN 2011 was a fantastic conference. The morning started with the keynote speaker who demonstrated the power of placing technology in the hands every student. Next, our own Barry Jahn stunned the class with a remote presentation on the benefits of cloud computing. Finally, in session 2, a demonstration of pod-casting in an elementary classroom was presented. Take a moment to view the YODIO review of the conference.