This week's class provided a lot to ponder and a laundry list of things I need to improve for my students, mainly presentations.
I am thoroughly enjoying Presentation Zen. This weeks reading assignment got my wheels turning by providing concrete ways to create and improve presentations. The six key principles will prove to be very useful, and I love the terminology in the book--like slideumentation and stickyness.
VoiceThread isn't as scary as I originally thought it would be. I am anxious to create my first VoiceThread and to share this tool with my students. I have a couple of colleagues excited about VoiceThread as well. This summer we hope to join our excitement via VoiceThread!
Looking at the standards for my subject areas (English and Literature) as well as technology, I was a bit disheartened by the gaps that are apparent in my students' technological education. While updating our curriculum there was no discussion as to adding technology standards to our curricular areas. I was surprised by that and continue to be surprised by some basic things that students aren't being taught. For the past two years, students have been given a technology survey at the beginning of the school year, and teachers have been surveyed as to what we cover technology-wise in our classrooms. What's done with this data? What a great question!
Okay, to the point. How can I use digital stories in what I teach? I feel strongly that digital stories, such as august, 1977, will spark student interest. We're also discussing the possibility of students creating their own digital stories in lieu of writing their memoirs. One portion of our memoir unit focuses on students writing "Where I'm From" poems which lays their "story" parallel to a parent's or grandparent's. How cool would it be to turn these poems into digital stories and allow the option of bringing the parent or grandparent into the story as well!?
