Sunday, January 30, 2011

Chapter 6- Teaching with Multimedia and Hypermedia


Multimedia- means “multiple media” or “combination of media” (i.e. videos, photographs, sound, etc.)

Hypermedia- means “linked media” or “interactive media” (i.e. the word apple would get everything related to apples even Garden of Eden.)

For deaf, hard of hearing students

Impact of Hypermedia on education:
            -Increased motivation
            -Flexible learning modes
            -Development on creative and critical thinking skills
            -Improved writing and process skills

Hypertext was a term that was coined by Ted Nelson

(Page 173) When teachers want to select or design a hypermedia and/or multimedia applications for the classroom they should look at these set of principles:
            -Utility
            -Usability
            -Aesthetics

Aesthetic is an important part of a learning process., it enhances curiosity, creativity, and decision-making skills. (Page 174)

The three recent development and trends of hypermedia that are used in education are:
            -Web 2.0: Users as designers
            -Convergence of offline (disc) and online (Internet) development
            -Increasing ease of use (programs such as Adobe Dreamweaver and Photoshop).

Examples of hypermedia products:
            -Interactive books
                        -Interactive storybooks (target: younger students)
                        -Interactive texts (target: older students and adult learners)
            -Instructional software
                        -Tutorials
-Drill and practice
                        -Simulation
                        -Instructional games
                        -Problem solving
            -Ebooks
            -Reference materials
                        -http://Encarta.msn.com
                        -http://www.encyclopedia.com
                        -http://www.wikipedia.org

(Page 180) Teacher and students use the following types of multimedia/hypermedia tools: presentation software, video production and editing systems, hypermedia development software, virtual environments and immersion tools, and Web 2.0 authoring tools


(Page 181) The sources of multimedia/hypermedia authoring materials are: audio, video, photographs, graphic images, and text.


(Page 183) Figure 6.2 Explains the sequence students should do when they are making their own hypermedia.
1.     Review (existing products)
2.     Research (background on your topic)
3.     Storyboard (each frame/segment)
4.     Develop (frames/segment)
5.     Link (parts together)
6.     Test/Revise (with users)

(Page 185) The best way to assess a student’s work on multimedia/hypermedia is to give the students certain qualities to look at for an effective hypermedia product then encourage student self-assessment, which will lead the student to further exploration and collaboration. Another approach is to let the students work on the project of their peers and give each other feedback.

The presentation software tools were first used in business and industry. The presentation was effective for being able to demonstrate, illustrate, and clarify information. This is the reason that it was used in K-12 and in universities.

In the next 10 years we are likely to see the explosion of video editing and production.

Apple included a free software iMovie to computers and it made a widespread to all kinds of people including consumers and educators. Educators found that it could be used in the classroom for student-created presentations, video lectures, video portfolios, demonstration of procedures, etc.

Virtual Reality (VR)- Computer generated environment that can give life-like simulations based on real settings. (i.e. a game of golf in Wii)

The five types of VR:
-Full immersion systems (Person uses helmet, goggles, etc. to see computer generated environment.)
            -Web-based VR (K-12) (i.e. Secondlife)
            -3-D models (3-D replicas of objects or location)
            -Geospatial technologies and Geographic Information (i.e. Google earth)
            -Quicktime VR (QTVR) (K-12)

As in the Web 2.0 article the six main types of Web 2.0 are: blogs, wikis, podcasts, e-portfolios, social networking communities, and video and photo sharing communities.

Avatar- A 3-D image of yourself in a computer generated world.

The types of multimedia authoring tools are: presentation software, video production and editing systems, hypermedia development software, virtual environments and immersion tools, and Web 2.0 authoring tools. 

Chapter 5- Teaching with Software Tools: Beyond the Basic Programs




The three of the most widely used software:
            -word processing
            -spreadsheet
            -database programs

Computers can enagage, motivate, and extend the way we think, act, and feel

6 general software support tools:
            -Material generators
            -Data Collection and analysis tools
            -Graphic tools
            -Planning and organizing tools
            -Research and reference tools
            -Content-area tools

Puzzlemaker

Smart Draw

Desktop publishing- Uses a combination of software, microcomputer, and printers to let individuals become their own publishers.

(Page 143) Desktop publishing can help students in the classroom:
-Practice in grammar, spellng, and communcation (using communication to apply language skill to make brochures interesting).
            -Methods of reporting reseach findings
            -Opportunities for creative works

Test generator- Teachers inserts questions and the program prepares the test

(Page 145) Advantages of a test generator:
            -Test creation and revision procedures
            -Random generation of questions (helps with “wandering eye” syndrome)
            -Selection of questions based on criteria
-Answer key (helps teachers when the test is generated the correct answer is given to save teacher time.)
-Test item bank

Different generators:
-Test generator
-Online rubric generator
-Worksheet generator
-Puzzle generator
-IEP generator

Cloze means fill-in-the-blank

Graphic document maker- make award certificates and greeting cards
PDF and Forms maker- viewing and sending document as images

(page 147) Data collection and analysis tools include
            -Electronic gradebooks
            -Statistical packages
            -Student information systems
            -Online and computer-based testing systems
            -Student response systems

Tom Snyder’s Graph Master and The Graph Club 2.0

(Page 153) Teachers feel students are more motivated about writing their own stories when they can illustrate them. Teachers also feel pictures make flyers; books, etc look more professional.

Centron’s Lesson Power

Freemind

Cmap

Teacher Planet

Computer-assisted design (CAD) more sophisticated graphic production tool that lets more precise drawings such as houses and cars.

Morphing- Is short for metamorphosing, which is an animation technique that makes one image slowly turn into another image.

AutoCAD

Students who struggle with reading or writing can use text-to-speech such as StarChild

Reading tools to see student’s reading level and using methods such as cloze

Readability calculation software

Renaissance Learning’s Accelerated Reader

Friday, January 21, 2011

Web 2.0


Web 2.0 is more of an improved website that has more participation such as the blogs and wikis. Not as one sided. Today, you do not need to be skilled in web design or other professions to be able to put your voice online, anyone can do it and this gives us more perspectives of different people around the world. People use Google, Wikispace, Facebook, Blogger, etc.

A universe of blogs is called a “blogosphere.”

CV a British resume “Curriculum Vitae”

Vlog is like a blog except its on video instead of text

David Warlick tries to redefine literacy. “If all our children learn to do is read, they will not be literate.”
-Debates also that its scary that we know nothing of the future that can help prepare the students.

E-learning is important, can be accessed through electronics such as phones, laptops, etc. This makes the information needed more accessible for the students.

The tools available for interactions and inputting your voices are the following:
For more of one on one conversations
-Emails: An electronic mail which you can receive anything from documents, discussions, announcements, etc.
-SMS Text: This is a message sent from one user’s phone to another user’s phone
-Instant messaging: This is a more speedier version of emails which instantly send back and forth among friends or professors and usually used for long conversations.
-VolP: This is through video or through computers usually like a telephone call via internet
FOAF- This is abbreviated from “Friend of a friend.”

Another way to communicate using voices but not as one on one but from one to multiple people
-Static content web sites
-Dynamic content web sites
-RSS: “Really simple syndication” or “Rich Site Summary”
-Blogs
-Podcasts
-Folksonomies
-E-Portfolio
The other way to communicate from multiple people among multiple people are the following:
-Content management systems (CMS)
-News servers
Forums Discussion
-Chat: Group of people chat about a certain topic and discuss amongst eachother
-Games: Such as World of Warcraft where people play together and can chat through video, text, or voice.
-Wikis: can be used for many people to discuss a topic or an idea.


RSS is a technology lets people on the internet subscribe to the website and usually the web sites are changed or new contents are added regularly.

RSS lets us decide what information we want to come to us.

 www.bloglines.com. Its free.

RSS logo with the letters XML on it, can be found on top of a site or sometimes hidden on the bottom

Several things that RSS can be used for
-Professional Development
-Time Saving
-Up-to-the-minute content specific feeds in your teaching area
-Information coming from contrasting sources
-Sharing what you are doing with other educatiors
(all this can be found on page 27-28)

Negatives of using a blog for the classroom:
-Blogs give too much freedom to students
-Teacher cannot block what comes in or out of the blog
-Student and parents can see too much work of other students
-Students will feel competitive with other students when they see the other students work and comment
(found on page 29)

The teacher Chris Burnett changed her mind after trying the blogging and said it has never motivated students more. Students submitted writings that were not even assignments and even during the summer too.

Unlike powerpoints and other parts of the classroom, blogging is shown to the world and teachers are not the ones in control anymore, parents can also be involved and help and see among other students rather than just the homework or papers their child brings home, they get to be a part of the classroom and be able to participate if they wanted too.

Darren Kuropatwa taught his students to blog their pre-calculus and calculus work online and now they get many references from educationalist and mathematic teachers. He taught his students that it is their responsibility to publish their knowledge to add value to the world (page 31)

There are not always positive things happening on blogs there are bad things such as death threats, inappropriate pictures of younger girls who are looking for dates. These are the several bad things that can happen while blogging.

Clip art is boring and we should encourage students to be more open so why not digital pictures and use flickr to upload their pictures. Students to go out to expose themselves to the world and take pictures can learn more such as London buses having three numbers, or people sell at 50% off or half off why is it different? Try to go out and learn things that you are around everyday and take pictures of patterns or colors or anything interesting.

The Edublog award recognizes students that use education discussions and new ideas of web technologies in the classroom. Students are noticed by being diverse and imaginative and rewarded for 10 catagories, several are:
-Best Newcomer.
-Most influential post, resource or presentation.
- Best teacher blog.
-Best group blog
-Best individual blog

Blogs to read!

David Warlick’s 2 cents’-worth: http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/
The E-Learning Queen: http://elearnqueen.blogspot.com/
Mark Berthelemy’s Connections: http://www.berthelemy-
family.org.uk/blogs/index.php?blog=5
Stephen Downes’ OLDaily: http://www.downes.ca/news/OLDaily.htm
  Weblogg-ed News: http://www.weblogg-ed.com/
 David Jakes:
 Miguel Guhlin:
 Wes Fryer:

Guideline to help my thinking of activities as a first activity in blogglng for the students;
-Keep activity simple
-Plan my idea then test it before I give it to them
-Give them the activity with a positive smile and hope that it works out great
-Overlook the blog and then explain on your blog why this activity should be used or warn them why this activity has failed.
(page 54)

There are groups in the world who:
-Heard of blogging and those who haven’t heard of blogging
-Those heard of blogging are split into two groups of
            -Use it with their pupils
            -Don’t use it with their pupils


Reasons that podcast are a great idea
            -You can listen to old lectures and use it to review for tests.
            -You can improve your grades
            -Get a better understanding of class lectures such as powerpoints
            -Use to clarify
            -Get another chance to gather information if the teacher is speaking too quickly or trying to keep up as they are taking notes
            -Can be used when a student is absent to catch up
            -It can be mobile

Things needed for a podcast are a good microphone, a sound editing software, and a music software.

Free places to keep your video blogs (vlogs)
http://www.dailymotion.com
http://www.blip.tv
http://www.ourmedia.com
http://www.youtube.com

Social bookmarking- sharing a list of your own favorite websites with others and you can see everyone else’s.