Here are the responses to my inquiry about new ideas for projects. Thanks to
everyone that took time to help me. I really do appreciate it. I have tried a few
of these applications before and will try more of them. Now to convince the
teachers to try them instead of powerpoints all the time. I'll keep my fingers
crossed. I have a great staff that loves new ideas. I know how lucky I am to work
with them. I know how lucky I am to have this listserv, too!
Again, Thank You!
Kathy
Kathy Spielman
Library Media Technician
Yorba Linda Middle School
4777 Casa Loma Ave.
Yorba Linda, CA 92886
kspielman@pylusd.org
Alternatives to ppt-
This is part of my podcasting page. It will show you my frustration with
powerpoint. I think podcasts and vodcasts might be a way to go.<?xml:namespace
prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
<http://www.gananda.org/webpages/hslibrary/workshops.cfm?subpage=656693>
http://www.gananda.org/webpages/hslibrary/workshops.cfm?subpage=656693
The first page of the workshop is passworded because of a copyrighted video we have
but can't make available on the web. You should be able to get to all the other
pages. To get to them - just click on my home page, and look down the left side of
the webpage. You will see a seciton that says "workshops" When you click on that
you will see an array of workshops. click on Introduction to Podcasting. Again -
you will not be able to get to the first page - but all the other categories under
podcasting are open.
I like Photostory better -- it is more difficult for students (but not impossible)
for students to just copy & paste. We've had a class in here all week working on
theirs & the teacher seemed pleased as well.
There is an online site <http://www.tikatok.com/> http://www.tikatok.com/ where
students can create their own book, have it published and purchase printed copies.
They don't have to purchase, however, & books can be downloaded to one's computer.
I've also used <http://www.animoto.com/> www.animoto.com and
<http://www.voicethreads.com/> www.voicethreads.com -- both have free versions as
well as subscription versions with more bells and whistles.
I've been having fun with Photopeach - here is a slide show from a 2nd gr.
Research group:
<http://photopeach.com/album/luh82h> http://photopeach.com/album/luh82h
With older kids it takes a little planning - just like with ppt, so they don't
waste all their time on the music, etc!
We started to use Animoto and Glogster this year. They are Web 2.0 tools and the
kids have used them with great success. Both sites have educational links.
I feel your pain. Here are a few things students have been using to get away from
PPT.
Photostory - different and fun; very easy to use with step by step instructions
Animoto.com - fun and simple; but limited text; need to create an educator account
for unlimited length of videos; REALLY neat!
Letterpop.com - great for brochures, invitations, etc.again its click and drag
Glogster.com - poster maker
Windows Moviemaker - easy to use; step by step instructions
Some of our students have been making their own videos using Windows
Movie Maker. Sometimes their end product isn't much different than a
PPT, though, if they just download and import images from Google.
How about Glogster, Voicethread or digital storytelling?
<http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/> http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/
The first one is an online poster maker. Voicethread is similar to digital
storytelling. If you google them you will find the websites.
What about creating a web page? I have my students do this in Word and
then, when completely finished, "save as web page". This opens up many
conversations about plagiarism and copyrights etc. My students enjoy personalizing
the page with word art and backgrounds. I find this tool better than using a proper
HTML editor because my elementary kiddos are already comfortable with Word.
We have an intranet portal with some discussion tools similar to a blog.Each
teacher sets-up their own page and has to maintain those conversations. The
software does allow for deleting of threads or specific posts.
Finding the same thing here. Am working on new ideas...just learing photostory
myself. What about podcasts? Have you watched the Extreme PPT Make-over on YouTube?
It's worthwhile, IMHO.
Glogster.com has an education version. Also, students can design their own wikis
(wikispaces & pb wiki are good).
The art teacher and I collaborated on a PhotoStory 3 project in which the
students researched African-American artists, incorporated their photos and
pictures of their artwork into PhotoStory, and then selected music to accompany
from an appropriate time period to accompany the "picture show." The amount of
music available on PhotoStory is phenomenal. We all enjoyed the project, and I
know the art teacher wants to do another PhotoStory with Latin American artists
during this last 9 weeks with a different student group.
No, you will get the same results from PhotoStory--more copying and pasting.
It will produce slides with the added razzle-dazzle of Ken Burns effects.
Most teachers at our school are moving to Windows MovieMaker as the multimedia
project of choice. We've worked diligently to help them design projects that
combine sharing information with storytelling rather than the usual reports--they
are much more interesting to watch.
I just did a project for a graduate course I'm taking and used a comicmaker. The
site is www.pixton.com
Do you use Smartboards? Last year I had a 4th grade class create smartboard
"lessons". They worked in pairs with each pair assigned a country and a famous
structure in the country to research. Each partner researched one of the items and
then created and informational Smartboard page. They then worked together to
create an interactive
activity that pulled the two informational pages together. (3 pages total..country,
structure, activity) They were givien sheets with the info that they needed to
research. The twist was that they were not allowed to "write a book" on their
slide or make it look like a PPT slide. The kids were allowed to write only three
"facts" on their slide
(we streched this a little bit as the fact could contain a few related
items...they really were just not allowed to bullet or write full
paragraphs)The kids each presented the finished product to the class and they all
had a great time. The questions from the audience were amazing and the
responses really showed who did and didn't do their research.
I have recently had a huge amount of success suggesting goanimate.com to my
teachers. It is a Web 2.0 tool and it is very easy to learn. I have taught it to
several classes now and they love using it.
What about a TV ad, short video, claymation video, podcast, or some other 2.0 such
as a wiki, or one of the newer ones I don't know the name of?
photostory. I have the kids do their research and write their scripts. We really
work to refine the scripts (listening to/ critiquing old radio shows gives them
some ideas- their are also some good examples online). Once scripts are done, the
search for the pictures that help to convey their message or help to tell their
story. They complete tjheir storyboards and then we finally sit down and put it all
together. The kids love their projects and the teachers and I feel that they have
used more HOTS and writing skills than with ppt. Hope this helps!
I have my students creating modern day folk tales using photostory right now. This
is the 2nd year I've done a project like this. We talk about the 398 section of
non-fiction, and why folk tales are part of the social science section. I inform
students to the oral history of these types of stories before they were ever
written down and that is why there are so many different versions of the same story.
Photostory is a great modern take on these oral stories. Students work in small
groups (3-4 students) to create a story plan, produce a story board,use some method
of digitally illustrating the story (I share a variety of
techniques that students can use such as; digital photos of dioramas they create,
or of themselves or others in costume, or illustrations on paper and scanned or
created in paint using combinations of clipart and paint tools)
and then adding the narration.At the end of the project we have a film festival and
share all the stories.
They are then placed on the school shared drive so that primary students can
watch them as well.
We have been creating glogs with our students using glogster.com. Glogs, online
posters, allow students to add video, music, hyperlinks, images, and text. The
glogs have been one of the most successful Web 2.0 projects I've ever tried. After
I talked one teacher into trying it, she was so thrilled that she told all the
other English teachers. They've been lining up for projects. We've taken the
completed glogs and embedded them in class wikis. It was also the first wiki
experience for my teachers. Some of the teachers learned to do the wikis
themselves, some I created for them and helped them add the glogs.
Two weeks ago I started using Photostory, the students, 6th grade, picked it up
quicker than I did. I believe it does help with cut and paste, when the students
began recording their voices, they realized they did not understand some of the
words they wrote down and had to go back and find out what they were talking about!
They were less likely to just read a bunch of stuff that cut and paste makes so
easy. So I am still new at this, but so far I'm liking it. Including a citation
page is a little tricky. I figured out that if they did a slide in Power Point,
saved it as an image, they could pull it into Photostory. Down side is I paid
about $700.00 for a set of 30 headphones with microphones attached. Good luck!!!!
You can do some really neat things with photostory.
One thing that works really well for us, as far as student presentations go, is to
have the student write a researched narration to go with their photos. They can
either record the narration right on the photostory , or stand up by the screen and
read the narration as the photostory is projected. I've tried it with history
classes and with classroom novels and it seems to work quite well. They come up
with some prett interesting things to watch.
I do a project with my 7th graders tracking the stockmarket. I give them each
$1000 to invest, they go out and pick up to 5 stocks from the NYSE that will add up
to the $1000. We then use a spreadsheet to track our stocks for 30 days. We talk
about what stocks are, what makes them go up and down, and the economy in general.
We fill out the quarter by working on finding our the price of colleges they may
want to attend, finding the annual salary of the job they want and finding that
perfect house and determining if they can pay for it. We also create a resume and
talk about what skills they need to start working on to get that first job. We do
create a power point, but the students work in pairs and select a country to look
at the currency and economic situation. If you want additional info, lessons or
such let me know.
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