PowerPoint testing and resources

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/on-line_powerpoint.htm

After students have familiarized themselves with PowerPoint, this site, and its practice modules, offer some excellent "Task Assignment" testing resources to ensure students are able to use all facets of the software. The "Task Assignemnts" may not be suitable for younger users, but would work well with 7th or 8th grade students. However, the "Toolbar Quizzes" are appropriate for all ages and the tutorials are also a good resource for teaching elements of PowerPoint.

This site also offers links to other sites to PowerPoint resources on the web, the game templates (Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, etc.) mentioned in earlier posts, and some excellent slide shows available for downloading (NOTE: All downloads should be saved first, then opened with PowerPoint. I had difficulty viewing them as my PowerPoint did not open automatically as I had expected).
Enjoy!

Pics 4 Learning

Browsing for lesson plans that have students utilize digital cameras, I discovered this site:

http://www.pics4learning.com/lessonplans.php

Included are numerous lesson plans for Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies. Although the site is primarily a resource for copy-right friendly images for educational uses, this section does feature lesson plans that entail the use of a digital camera. Some of the interesting examples that I found are, for Language Arts, the "All About Me" lesson, which has students create a presentation (the lesson is based on Power Point) by taking photos of themselves and their friends and creating a digital biography out of the photos. The Science lesson "All About Bats" explores bats and includes a humorous and creative lesson that has students manipulate an image of a bat by putting the head of their pet, or any other animal on the bat. Also included in this section is the great idea of photographing the different stages of a caterpillar's metamorphosis into a butterfly. The math lessons were somewhat lacking, most of them requiring merely the manipulation of an image. For example, students would take a picture and break it down into 4/12 or 1/3 in the "Fun with Fractions" lesson. The lesson "A is for Area, B is for Billion" has students create a math dictionary by photographing imagery that coincides with or helps them remember the meanings of various math vocabulary. A Social Studies lesson that might incorporate the use of a digital camera is "Holidays Around the World" lesson. If possible, students within the class can photograph holidays around their house, the types of foods eaten and capture the kind of images that would reflect this holiday - e.g. a picture of a Menorah to represent Hanukkah. Worth checking out to stimulate some ideas!

Activities using a digital camera

I came across a great website that outlines digital photos and digital video:

http://its.leesummit.k12.mo.us/digitalmedia.htm#Digital_Photos

This site has a link ( http://www.edzone.net/~mwestern/pix.html ) that includes some ideas -all of which can be modified to a specific grade level & student/teacher abilities- for using digital cameras in elementary classrooms. I particularly liked the idea of students taking pictures of themselves as they act out a story they've read or that another student has written. The students then use these photos as illustrations for the story or as a means for telling what happened first, etc. I also liked the idea of students taking their own picture and affixing it to the back of their story as an "All About the Author" page.

In addition, this site also has links that include tutorials for various digital cameras and software for generating digital photography lessons and digital story telling. These tutorials might come in handy when teaching students how to use the digital camera used in the classroom.There are multiple links that can be explored to view ideas for lessons that incorporate digital cameras. Check this site out!

Visual-Spatial Learners

Browsing through some sites that cater to visual-spatial learners, I found some recurring characteristics common to this type of learner (thinker). As their name suggests, visual-spatial learners learn best by seeing and watching as he/she thinks primarily in pictures and relates well to the space surrounding them. While they are able to more easily see the big picture, small details may be missed. Visual-spatial learners read maps well, but struggle with oral directions - which explains why they have such a difficult time listening to speeches from a speaker. These learners do better when they can see a task being preformed rather than just listening to the directions on how to perform it. It is very helpful to show visual-spatial learners an example of the completed project or the desired outcome.

With regard to spelling, visual-spatial learners learn whole words easily and don’t respond as well to phonics-based strategies. They must visualize words to spell them instead of sounding them out. The visual-spatial learner usually writes messily and will prefer keyboarding. They have a tendency to develop their own methods of problem solving and dislike showing steps used to arrive at a solution as solutions are reached intuitively.

Visual-spatial students prefer giving illustrations of the information that they learn. Graphs, charts, handouts that offer stimulating pictures, colors, and visual props appeal to them. Visual stimulation is very important to visual learners. Because of their propensity toward disorganization, it comes as no surprise that visual learners may feel the need to create lists or organizers to keep them focused and on-track.

http://education.families.com/blog/characteristics-of-visual-learners

Also in my search, I came across a fun gimmick that could support preliminary diagnostic assessments when trying to identify visual-spatial learners. The writer of this article, Steven C. Haas refers to this game as “Flip-Turn.” Mr. Haas explains:

“All it takes is any textbook-size book. ay the closed book in front of the student in a position as if it were to be opened. The rules are simple. A flip means reach over, grab the left side of the book and flip it over to the right; a turn means rotate the book clockwise 90 degrees. Then, start out with a single command, like ‘Flip!’ Have the students move the book into the correct position. Then try a double command, like ‘Turn, flip!’ Again, have the students move the book into position, but directly, WITHOUT going through each step. Most auditory-sequential types can handle two commands, but at three or four, they fall apart. VSLs ‘see’ it move in their mind’s eye and then just put it in the correct position.

Mr. Haas PDF can be found at:

http://www.visualspatial.org/Articles/classid.pdf

A great site to help with digital storytelling

I found a great site that provides information about digital storytelling, provides accessible links to technological applications (software and hardware that can be downloaded) and edifying tutorials to help the layperson use such applications.

Great rubrics for evaluating digital storytelling are found in the "Evaluation of Digital Storytelling" section of the site. This section also includes rationale and action research results that demonstrate why teachers should employ digital storytelling in their classroom.

The "Resources" section offers some interesting commentary and articles on digital storytelling. If you're looking for some background information to help with this week's assignment, this is a good place to start.

The "Partners" section provides a list of people and organizations who are using digital storytelling. These people may be contacted for information, or to set up pen-pal like story sessions between classrooms - one of a few ideas that I am looking into for this week's assignment.

The section of the site that generated the most ideas for me with regard to how I could use digital storytelling within my classroom is the "Examples" section of the website. This provides examples of stories and really gets the creative juices flowing as one begins to see what can be done and wonder of the endless possibilities for one's own class.

Here's the site:
http://www.coe.uh.edu/digital-storytelling/default.htm

Digital vs. Analog

I found a great little article that describes the differences between analog and digital recordings that provides some graphs to illustrate what it is describing (great for a visual learner such as myself).

http://www.tricojvs.k12.oh.us/eng/resources/webdesign/andig/andig.html

I didn't realize that on the phone signals are converted from analog, at the end you're using, to digital - outside of your house, and back to analog at the other end of the line. I was under the impression that my phoneline was digital!

It is also extremely fascinating to learn of how often digital sources have to sample sound to replicate original sounds. For example, cds are sampling tens of thousands of times per second to produce signals that match the sounds they record.

The article mentions how "multiple highly accurate digital signals can be sent over long distances through less-than-perfect lines with no loss of information or quality". Which alludes to the fact that digital audio remains "pristine" as long as its storage drive is functioning properly. By contrast analog is more susceptible to the wear and tear of its users (e.g. scratches on vinyl, etc.) Despite this, I am sure I am not the only person who has downloaded music that has blips and skips in it. Sometimes poor recordings are immoritalized by careless contributors!!

Personally, I feel much safer having all of my music in my hard drive, backed up on a memory stick. I ensure the highest bit-rate before downloading, regardless of the storage space that this will absorb, because I know I am assured of a measure of quality that (to my ears) replicates original recordings to their utmost. Digital is also less expensive than analog in the long run.Wikipedia offers a great article that examines the differences between digital and analog. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_sound_vs._digital_sound