Tony Vincent’s video presents a good idea for using the ipods and ipads for student projects through open ended question (along guidelines like the P.A.S.S. skills), and includes modifying questions to place parameters on the project. A task that takes more than 1 class period to finish, rather than an assignment that can be completed within 1 class period. The questions require students to search for the answers using applications, videos (like youtube), websites and other sources to create a project to explain their response to the question. Mr. Vincent included that you could ask the whole class the same question, or ask several different questions.

While these are great ideas, this can only be implemented in affluent areas in which kids can afford to aquire these devices. In addition, the restrictions on time and the material placed on teachers by current legislation causes these projects to be inefficient. If these restrictions were not present, these would be great for high school students to practice researching and presenting their findings to the class. As well, these projects allow students to be creative, and limiting the questions to certain criteria focuses students and is possible to reduce stress for sudents by researching several websites, youtube, and applications before hand and create a handout with the appropriate and relevant topic.

For my screen-cast project I decided to show everyone how to retrieve assignments they have already turned in over WebCT. I choose to do this because someone in one of my other classes lost his flash-drive and rewrote an entire fifteen page paper since he didn’t know he could pull the document off WebCT. So I thought I’d show everyone in case anyone else has lost their jump drive or their computer crashed. It was really easy to use the screenr, even though i had trouble getting the microphone to work. When recording the screen-cast, I kept getting tongue tied and confusing myself with what I wanted to say, but i eventually came up with this. I think in my last attempt I effectively explained each step, although at the end i ramble on, didn’t really know how to end it. i think screen-casting is not only an effective teaching tool in a classroom, but teach people around the world different things, such as DIY (Do It Yourself) projects.

During our scavanger hunt around the UCO, we asked students “What role does music play in your day to day life around UCO?” We took fourteen videos of responses from Students, Professors, and Staff. It was interesting to not only see the different responses to the question, but the different interpretation of the question. Each individual response shows the influence of music in daily life from being a secretary, to an artist, to a musician, to a  student. Everyone listens to music wether its just for recreation, or as part of thier job.

A Petch Kutcha is a presentation using images to help constue a topic while speaking without taking away from the message. The format of the presentation is twenty images that change every twenty seconds, which limits your presentation to 6 minutes and 40 seconds, forcing you to keep on your chosen subject and smothers tangents while speaking. While a bad presentation uses pictures of poor quality, or with little or no relation to the subject of the presentation, a great presentation uses crisp and relevant pictures. In addition, those stiving for a great presentation will keep on point and transition through their presentation using their pictures, rather than just speaking.

The qualities and skills provided by using these presentations are that you have to use your limited time wisely, making sure to stay on topic rather than starting on tangents. In addition, the presentation pictures need to use appropriate, and intelectually responsible, pictures that correlate to your topic, not to mention arranging them in a fashion that allows your speach to transition smoothly from one sub-topic to another.

These presentations could be used at a high school level to present information about history, primarily using images produced by the government, as they are in the realm of public images, which allows me to teach about intellectually responsible use of others works, including pictures, music, and other intellectual property. A project using this format will teach young adults to present information about a subject in a time managed situation and have to filter information about the topic into relevant points, while using appropriate pictures to help guide thier presentation. This also gives students the opportunity to learn public speaking skills, as many young adults, including myself,  fear talking in public during high school as many schools lack the opportunities to exercise these skills.

For my Third Project, I’m continuing to build on my previous scratch projects. I have figured out how to reset your characters to where you want using a script at the beginning of the complete script. I’m relatively ok with the flow and mesh of all my sprite’s scripts, there aren’t exactly lined up but they are close. I think that even though my story line is simplistic and kinda goofy, it still gets my point across effectively and clearly. However, I lost everything that i had not uploaded to the MIT website, because my flash drive crashed, including the full completion of my project, as now its missing the clearification of the allusion, as i had replaced each of my sprite with the flag of those they represented before the crash. I did want to change some of my scripts using the broadcast script to help with the transition with speaking and changing backgrounds and adding new sprites. Although, I am missing some of the final touches I’m still happy with what i have achieved with my project using different scripts and sprites.

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/fknight1/1645810