Week #2 - Digital Storytelling

This week's assignments again have me cleaning up and simplifying. I have found that the process of simplification is not as easy as it may sound. I think one of the reasons for this is that in education we often think of the more you know the better, so we translate that to the more we teach the better our students will be.

I am still enjoying Zen because it is doing two things for me. The first is giving me some overarching ideas that I can try to always have in mind when creating presentations. The second is that it still has some solid concrete steps to follow. I really enjoyed the rules for going analog and concrete process steps at the end of chapter four. The balance between big picture and small directions is just right for keeping me interested and directed in my work.

I think Voicethread as a program is something that almost forces the author to follow the Zen model in that the pictures are the emphasis, text is off to the side, and you are limited, which forces a focus on a key concept or idea. I also really like how my planning went. I planned out my Civil Right presentation in a notebook, sketching out ideas and pictures that I wanted. I then went and found the exact pictures, rather than scanning the thousands of images for hours. The whole planning, researching, and creating process went much more smoothly and quickly then had I stayed on the computer the whole time. I was really happy with the process.

Final point, I think VoiceThread has great possibilities for my students this year as it is a very easy interface. I also like the idea of having other students see, and comment on each others work. I should be a fun option to give students this fall for possible presentations.

Digital Story Telling Week #1

I feel reinvigorated by the first week of this course. The posterous assignment has really been a lot of fun and has got me started thinking about ways to use pictures to tell the story of my class, of my students, of what I'm teaching. So many avenues seem to have appeared before me. I think the most realistic ones for this year are to have students use the posterous assignment for the SLC artifact. The student led conference is meant to have students reflect on their learning during the year and present it to their parents and home room teacher. I've been thinking posterous blogs would be a fun way for some kids to approach the presentation. The second potential plan is to create a picture gallery covering the class as a whole, it would be great to get every student during the year and document the work they have been doing. At the end of the year it would be a great document to show how far they have come in their understanding of the world around us.

The second item I'm excited about is the Presentation Zen book. According to the book, my presentations weren't killing anyone, but they did present a clear and present danger to the sanity of my students. I know I hate the presentations I see at my inservices, why would I put my kids through that like it is a rite of passage or something. Clean, concise and clear are my new objectives, and I love the idea of a handout for the students that they can use to reflect on the presentation afterwards. I think this manner of delivery will also lead to a productive discussion with questions on the handout and the presentation. Finally, I'm looking forward to using this new format to help my students better grasp the concept of taking notes after a presentation and prioritizing information.

Great start to a new class. I'm hopeful that it will continue.