My Digital Story Adventure!

In my current graduate school class involving technology in the classroom, I am in the beginning stages of creating project ideas and guidelines for my students to produce a digital story.

Teaching 8th grade physical science honors students, there are many exciting concepts I could choose for this project.  Later this year, we will explore the topic of energy.  To promote a green planet, we will discuss the importance of using a variety sources of energy to run our planet.  This topic is great for my students to focus on, since it directly affects them and is easy to get their hands on.

Various technological tools that my students could have access to would include computers, cell phones, along with programs such as PowerPoint and iMovie.  My favorite software I will promote is Photo Story.  In this user-friendly program, students insert pictures along with text, adding their own or pre-made music to the presentation.

Now that I have my very own classroom webpage, I can post valuable links to good resources associated with this topic for students and parents to enjoy.  One site I like is earth911.com, where you can search for local recyclable centers.  Another general site that I enjoy for all topics of science is ted.com.

I will let you know how the planning of this project goes...   Wish me luck!

Brian

Digital Story Presentation Tips

Digital storytelling presentation

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Week 7, New Computer; My Dream at Life and Work!

I have technological issues.  Why is it that I have to wait 10 minutes for my computer in my classroom to load for the day?  Why can’t I close my laptop at home without it falling apart?  These are just a few of the many issues I am currently facing while balancing teaching, a gifted endorsement class, and a grad school class.  With plenty of online coursework between the three things, is it vital to use an efficient computer that gets the job done in a fast time-frame.  At school, I am stuck with a computer from the early 2000s with Microsoft 2003 and barely any memory.  Connected to a SMART board, it consistently becomes disoriented and locks up.  At home, my computer constantly shuts down and is becoming slower and slower, even though it’s only 3 years old.

The point of this blog is to discuss how fast technology outdates itself.  My current goals are to purchase a new computer at home and await a promised newer computer from our administration at school.  These devices are only so many years old, yet incapable of performing tasks that I need to complete at a high-efficiency rate.

So, after reading the special feature in chapter 4, I am still undecided on what computer to choose for my next personal laptop.  Apple?  Windows PC?  What model/type of Apple should I get?