Prezi, done and dusted

Well that was interesting. Many more new icons to manipulate to my way of thinking, or is it the other way around. Sizing, cropping and rotating button had me going for some time and then there was the text box. What's a girl gotta do to get a Prezi going. Next issue, how do I upload it? Here goes Prezi appear! 

Glogster - It's not a love affair like weebly

I tried and failed with Glogster, nothing loaded, nothing made sense, who wants to start with a nickname to log in  I put my last nickname behind me when I left school. Well today my luck changed, created a small art activity, just unsure of posting. My first Glogster attempt and probably my last.

OK so it's probably fun for some to create using Glogster, I added a few animated tools and then deleted them. I have a feeling that I have been unable to create this before now as many people were trying to access it (CQU students) or maybe I had too much open and slowed my processing speed down. How else can I multi-task if I don't have at least 25 tabs open. Glogster is not a tool I would use in the classroom unless I felt it absolutely necessary for a particular task. Glogster was also way too busy for my liking and there was not many areas to personalise. I found many users in a forum were not happy with the length of time it took to upload photos. Yah! whoo!, I am not alone.

PowerPoint has the same sort of functions but with an infinite number more options, I don't have to open an account to use it, I do not receive incentives to upgrade and part with money. PowerPoint is also private, I don't have to share unless I choose to. At the current time with privacy laws especially in education, I have a growing concern for the continued expectation to register with many tools, giving away personal information and all the while becoming more complacent in doing so. Different password for everything, I don't think so. Am I starting to sound cynical. PowerPoint is also a blank canvas that allows for many styles of creation, learning and teaching.

PowerPoints can be created to help students with inquiry based learning in many learning areas. Students themselves can create PowerPoints to present research and ideas to peers. Finally PowerPoints can be used to help students in literacy, follow a story on an interactive whiteboard, write a recount, view snippets, the list is endless.

Thank you Aunty

Thanks to ABC Radio National, I can now place an mp3 file in my wiki. This link explained podcasting and how to use it in a way that I understood.

Web story

Have also created a web story for Geography. This was also fun to create and is full of links to enhance students' learning. Once again, I see this as a tool for students to work at their own pace or collectively using an interactive whiteboard. Also great for students that have been away to catch up on missed work as someone suggested in the collaborative session last night (21/11/12). Students can also use this format to create, present and reflect tasks that will engage their peers. I see these tools working best with small mixed ability groups not only based on academic abilitiy but technological ability, creative ability, organisational ability, to name a few. Technology allows students to shine in most areas where their high level of certain skills is not always recognised within the school system.

Shake your movie maker

Have created a seperate page for my Art movie maker as I am fairly self-conscious about people seeing this. I guess if I put it last not many people will view it. I hope the people that do view this don't have too much trouble as it is a big file. To upload this to weebly I have to pay for the upgrade. Ah weebly, you try but you won't get any money out of me, yet! I have created a link in my weebly to the movie page in this site.
I can see students having an absolute ball with this, it's just fun and students can work collaboratively to create, present and reflect on not only their own but others work also. Teachers can use movie maker to create engaging lessons or tasks that students can use in their own time or collectively using an interactive whiteboard.

Playing with images

This is one of my favourite things to do, once again technology knows no boundaries, here is my son at the front of his house on his motor bike (or is he). This is an activity any student could create using technology. The students can show their likes, personality or what they may want with technology. This can be a reflective 2D piece of artwork.

Joking around

First attempt at recording my voice, feeling really uncomfortable as I don't like the sound of my own voice. Now really frustrated, then along came Stace to save the day. Where would we be without study buddies. Oh and Blogger tips and tricks and Archive.org helped as we found we had to upload the audio file to then embed it to our Blogs. Archive.org is a non-profit digital library. It offers free access to books, movies & music.