For my screencast Changing a Sprite’s Colors, I demonstrated how to make a sprite change colors.
This assignment was a lot of fun. It is a great way to help students who are absent due to a prolonged illness keep caught up with their studies. Or it could be used on a day where you have a substitute teacher. Or to further review topics that students are having difficulties with. The possiblities are endless!
In his video “Project Based Learning in Hand“, Tony Vincent explains how students can use technology like iPad and iTouch to take learning to a whole new level.
My most significant takeaway from this video was how it shows great ways to use alternative technology in the classroom. iPads are an affordable alternative to computers that allow users to do many different things: video, photograph, write, and present. Today, many students, even young students, know how to use these devices because they play with mom and dad’s iPhones. Kids love technology and any method that can engage them in learning is a good one!
As I have done various observations and field experiences, I have not seen a lot of technology used in the classroom. Most classrooms have a few computers that all the students share. The use of iPads in the classroom would allow all students to have access to a wide variety of materials. iPads would be fun to use for an activity like the video scavenger hunt we did in class a few weeks ago.
The presentation ideas Tony Vincent presented were a great twist on the traditional way of learning. Project based learning really gives students an opportunity to stretch their mental muscles and gives them an opportunity to be creative. Students could use the apps he described to create Pecha Kucha type presentations.
A Pecha Kucha presentation is a twist on the traditional powerpoint presentation. It consists of twenty slides, each of which are shown for twenty seconds. Each slide is of an image that connects with the speaker’s topic. The images enhance the speaker’s words rather than distracting from them. Because each slide is only shown for twenty seconds, the speaker has convey his or her information in a manner that is clear, concise, and to the point. A great Pecha Kucha presentation uses high quality images that catch the audience’s attention and connect with the subject material. A great Pecha Kucha presentation gives the audience a good look at the subject and hopefully leaves them interested in learning more.
This project taught me about time management. I knew I only had a limited amount of time to talk about each image so I had to decide what was important and was something I could leave out. I think this is a really good project to help teacher candidates learn how to edit. Some teachers have a tendency to drag their lectures out, and as a result, lose their students’ attention. It taught me about different sources for finding images and some of the rules for using copyrighted materials. It also helped me become a little more comfortable with speaking in front of a group.
Pecha Kucha can be a useful tool in the classroom. As an elementary teacher, I would probably modify the format and just have my students use maybe ten slides. I think it would be fun to do “About Me” Pecha Kucha presentation at the beginning of the school year where students can use family pictures to tell about themselves as an introduction to their classmates. It would also be fun to let students use digital cameras to take pictures outside then create group Pecha Kucha presentation about nature. A field trip to Crown Martin Nature Park would be a great way to find inspiration for this project!
My final Scratch project is called The Chase. In this Scratch adventure, the “coolest cat around” get chased by a silly dog.
I felt a little better about my Scratch skills by the time I was finished with this project, but not a lot! Getting the timing precisly how I wanted was sometimes difficult. I wanted to have a title screen and an ending screen but I had trouble getting my music to play how I wanted it to with the screens changing. One of the things I enjoyed about this project was choosing different sounds and music schemes to go along with the story. I’m getting more comfortable with costume changes and moving my sprites, but still have difficulty with the broadcast commands.
All in all, while often times frustrating, Scratch can be a fun tool to teach children critical thinking skills. I know for me, a lot of my time was spent doing trial and error. I think the main point is that it is important to try and always give your best effort, even if the task is difficult!
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cat_in_a_tree.jpg
For my Scratch story, Underwater Adventure, I decided to use underwater creatures. I really like the ocean stage and there were several sea creature sprites to choose from.
It was a lot harder to write a story than it was to just make something cool. I had to choose characters, and develop some sort of plot (as simple as it may be). It was rather difficult to get the timing of dialog correct, but I figured it out by using trial and error. I like Scratch because you can instantly see what you need to tweak and what works. It would be really helpful for kids to develop critical thinking skills. And it also shows them that it’s ok to make mistakes.
This was a fun assignment. The more I use Scratch, the more I enjoy it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Starfish_Roentgen_X-Ray_01_Nevit.jpg