Wonderful ideas were presented in the video Project Based Learning in Hand by Tony Vincent. Having the chance to incorporate technology in the classroom motivates students to learn more while making it fun. I learned from the video how many options there are for the ipod and ipad. Exploring all the different application that are available can help children communicate their ideas in new and more engaging ways. Planning for projects such as these takes some extra work from the teacher but I think can be very rewarding. No matter how old someone is or how  much education they have, there is always something more to learn and sometimes that learning comes through the student’s perspective on subject matter.

In my elementary education, I never remember having computer technology in the classroom. My limited exposure to technology was a computer lab that we would attend once a week. It has only been the past 6 years that technology has made a difference in my learning and how I put presentations together. I certainly don’t take advantage of the full capability of the iphone I have – I primarily use it to talk, text and occasionally get directions from Google maps. Not being a tech savvy person, I have never really looked beyond the traditional cell phone parts of the iphone. This video made me realize how capable micro-technology is if I just took the time to learn it.

All the attention is diverted to the ipad

image from:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/57634636@N00/5191294140/sizes/l/in/photostream/

Classrooms have come a long way since I was a student.  Tony Vincent’s video makes me think about the many opportunities there are to incorporate wonderful technology ideas into the class. From experiences with my own kids, incorporating ipods, ipads and computers into learning makes them more engaged in the process.  They enjoy the learning more using their familiar technology gadgets than having to look things up in old-fashion books. Hand held devices make learning fun because it is just cool.

Working on my screencast assignment I found myself rerecording because of little mistakes. I recorded about 10 times before I felt comfortable with what I came up with. I realized after a couple times that I needed to just make my browser smaller so that my viewers could see the whole window that I was working on. Working under 5 minutes was difficult as I wanted to show so much  more that you could do on the Shutterfly web page. For those of us that enjoy scrapbooking but just do not have the time this is a great replacement. If you have never checked out all the great photo projects you can do on this sight I highly recommend it for those of us that just do not have the time to put albums together by hand.

A Pecha Kucha is a presentation that is meant to flow quickly by using 20 images that move every 20 seconds. This insures that the presentation flows and keeps  moving at a rapid pace to avoid losing your audience. A Pecha Kutcha should grab the audiences attention with the very first slide and continue to draw their attention throughout each slide with clear, quality images. A Pecha Kucha presentation with blurry and/or obscure images distracts the audience and detracts from what the presenter is saying. When planning a Pecha Kucha one should consider the audience and what will engaged and interest them.

Designing and researching my Pecha Kucha forced me to learn so much more about my subject.  The most difficult part during the planning process was finding pictures that I could use that fit with what I wanted to explain to my audience.  After putting my images together and reading through my presentation, I realized I had too much information for the amount of time allotted. The 20 seconds time limit per slide made me realize I needed to prioritize my information and select only what I absolutely needed.

I feel a Pecha Kucha is a great tool to use with third through fifth graders. At this impressionable age, I feel kids more easily identify with images than text.  Pecha Kucha presentations engage younger audiences with informational images, making learning fun.  I have found the more interesting you can make learning, the more the students will soak up and retain. Teachers that lecture using text-based Power Point are boring and un-engaging if they are just read the information. When a student sees an image while the teacher explains what it may represents, the student grasps the idea easier.  These presentations add validity to the age-old cliche, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

Over the past three weeks working with Scratch, I have experienced many emotions.  I was initially confused until I began to work on my first Scratch project I CAN and found how much fun it could be. I was able to animate, change size and add sound effects into the project. After my first project, I was eager to begin the second. During my work on the project Show off, I found so many cool ways to use the sprites and have them move together. I found the x,y grid to be very helpful, especially when I was moving the girl and magic carpet together. Having never written any sort of computer code or program before, I surprised myself in what I was able to create in Scratch.  I can see how children would find this motivational and engaging. When I created the final project I became very frustrated. This was my first attempt at changing multiple backgrounds which took a couple hours for me to synchronize with the sprites – a very frustrating process. Even my seven year old could tell I was getting frustrated. Her counsel gave me the idea to be the voice of Mrs. Squarehead. We had so much fun recording her voice and incorporating it into the project.  Furthermore, the key to incorporating the background changes was only to use the script broadcast on only the stage or one of the sprites. I spent about 3 hours putting together my final project Alaska.  Hope you enjoy.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alaska48/2988412007/sizes/o/in/photostream/

This week I spent a few hours working on my second Scratch project. I started with the break dancer sprite and loved showing the animation of all of his costumes. I created a story around him showing a couple girls how good he could break dance. The girls than come out and showed off the moves that they have. I loved figuring out how to move the basketball through the basketball hoop by using the x,y grid. It took me a little while to figure out how to get the girl onto the magic carpet and sending them up together in sequence. This was easier than I thought by when using the same movement to the same point in the x,y grid. I hope that you enjoy watching Show Off as much as I had putting it together.

The Breakdancer: http://www.flickr.com/photos/75633876@N00/442588599/sizes/z/in/photostream/