Those Crazy Animals

This is a fun movie to make. We both enjoyed the pictures of all the animals we got to view in our search. Alexis has a good spirit, strong in life and leadership. I wish I would have had more time to do this project. I can see using this in the classroom. It would create an atmosphere of learning, because all the kids seem to enjoy making the blogs and movies. It's a great and creative way to teach. All my kids want to do projects now. Well, I guess practice is coming for me now.

service project

It has been fun working with one of my kids on this project. I'm trying to lead her to questions that are broad and then more narrow for the unit question without telling her what to do. She seems to like the ideas to be hers, so I am dressing it up just a little. All the ideas do belong to Alexis. She seems to be interested in how different species of animals will take on traits of another species with which they are in contact. I will try to get her to think deeply about this and not just search for an easy concrete answer. For example, do animals get lonely enough that they will be friends with something they would normally kill. What would cause an animal to put aside it's natural instinct to kill. What level of thinking is this for an animal? Is it just an adaptation to their surroundings and constant contact with each other that breaks down the walls? I hope my student enjoys the assignment. Getting a blog started also means the need an e-mail. All that part is a pain in the but because she is under 18. We have some notes on how we started in this google doc. You can view Lexi's blog from my dashboard or on the link.

imprtance of a PEP

This week we learned about making a personal electronic portfolio (PEP). This shell can be used when trying to get a job, or letting others have a better understanding of our lives. A PEP can contain audio or videos or any other links to documents or other files. This will be an ongoing portfolio, because my life is still going on. As long as we continue to learn, we will be able to add to our profile or the content. I used a digital video on my front page to help create a feeling that I want people to feel about me. To get a better understanding of how I work. You can also use icons, but I have not mastered my tools yet, but with time and experience, my PEP will blossom like a desert flower that just tasted it's first drop of sweet sky nectar.

Spreadsheets in the Class

How can a business run efficiently if the employees spend all their time entering information into a computer by hand or having to use type writers? The answer is they couldn't. A spreadsheet is a way to catalogue and analyze data. You can use formulas that could make calculations that would normally take hours.

Students could log in the types of plastic containers they use at their homes each week. They could also log the amount of containers they use for each product for a week. The spreadsheet will do all the totals for you once you have implemented the correct formulas.

An inquiry-based approach, taken on such a project as how to clean up the oceans is truly the only approach that one could take. There is no manual that says, "When the oceans are full of our discarded, reusable waste, then just rotate the.....", so we will need to ask many questions, explore every avenue. A childs mind works in remarkable ways. I told my son, "You know it's 238,857 miles to the moon.". He then turned and asked me, "yeah, but how far is it to the other side of the moon that we can't see?". I had no answer. My point is, the thought that two brains are better than one is true. Can you imagine a billion brains?

Students will be able to increase their awareness about their own plastic usage. Calculated on a spreadsheet, the results are undeniable. Put into a chart and it becomes an image that makes a huge impression, gains attention, and would be easily read, which is helpful for some like me. How could this be an effective tool if your goal is to change legislation concerning plastics? Is the amount of trash in the oceans going to effect our lives? The lives of our children? What are the true consequences of convience?

Let's Make a Movie- The tools of the trade

Let’s Make a Movie – The Tools of the Trade


This week was an exciting week. We got to put together a movie, with sound clips, video clips, and different transitions to each clip. We are trying to get a point across about the devastating effects of plastic pollutants after a hurricane, on the oceans. We took video clips from either the internet or from our cameras. We also used still pictures from the cameras and internet. Music was added to the movie to help “set the mood” , and to get our point across in a strong way. We wanted to capture the viewer’s emotions, so that the information might be taken home and thought about more seriously.
The internet is full of useful tools to help make digital movies. Audacity is a tool that we used to edit the audio sections of the movie. In it we are able to adjust the volume of the music and add narration on top of it. Another tool we used was Zamzar. This tool allows us to take certain videos off the internet and use them in our movie. Sometimes the videos will not upload into movie maker, so Zamzar helped us get that done. Movie Maker is a program on the computer where the entire movie is made. Here we are able to put all of our still shots and videos in a timeline, create transitions to those slides, trim and splice to fit, and add music and narration. Freeplaymusic was a good tool for getting non-copyrighted music for the background. This site told you what kind of a feel each song had. This was nice, considering there is lots of songs to choose from.
The safety of the students is always a concern when using the internet. The tools that I have listed were all very safe. They seemed to have good security. Also, these tools were free. That’s great for teachers and students both. We all know that teachers don’t make a huge salary, and we definitely know that students, for the most part, are broke. That makes safe free tools a huge plus in my book.
Here’s our digital story, our conglomeration of internet tools, our attempt to educate and inform the masses about the problems with all the plastic items in our lives. Hurricanes are going to hit, they are going to cause a lot of damage, so the need not just to be prepared, but to help the environment after the storm is becoming monumental. Works cited is at this link.

Let's Make A Movie

We are going to make a short informative movie using digital storytelling elements. The point of view as mentioned before is informative. We will be attempting to show how the use of less plastic containers and better hurricane preparedness could be useful in the aftermath of a hurricane. With the use of emotional content we will push the devastating effects of hurricanes and their role in polluting the oceans and beaches with our own pollutants. The gift of voice will be in the form of a narrative using music to infer the heaviness and importance of the content. With the element of economy, we will be sure to keep our content concise and to the point without overkill. Pacing follows the same lines as to the point. See this google doc for more details.

Digital Storytelling

Place-based storytelling is a theory used behind digital story telling, where connections between past and present help guide us into the future. Others are slidecaste, Slideshare, and voice thread. I'm not really sure how to explain these.
In future curricular integration, the slideshare could be a useful method in determining the amount of devastation that is caused through the plastic pollutants. What can we learn about the degrading prcesses, The leaching of toxic chemicals used in the manufacturing of plastics, Where does all the trash go, what changes can be made for solutions, etc. As seen in the slideshare, the size of the "plastic continents" are growing.