13 March: Digital Stories 1

What? This week we learned about Digital Stories. This week me and my partner came up with a topic and created a storyboard for a digital story. 

So What?The examples that Dr. Waters showed in class helped us to see that digital stories have a big affect on people and can really help get across a message. My partner and I decided that using a story to show the dangers of eating disorders could help our students better understand how serious and important this issue is. Students are always using technology whether it is cell phones, computers, or watching TV. Students are strongly affected by images and using technology like this can speed up the process of helping them to understand different topics.  

Now What? 
I know that in the past I have seen videos like this and have strongly been affected. Although I had seen them I didn't know how much went into making them. When completing this story board I saw how important every feature to the video is. Music for example really helps set the tone and mood for each video. Now I know that when I create digital stories like this for my students I need to pay attention to every detail. I could use this tool for future assignments by having students make digital stories about subjects and topics they think are important. 

13 March: Vidcast Reflection

The Vidcast that we did was a How-to procedural instruction video named Daily Food Plan assignment. This assignment would be used for the Health Education Standard 2 Nutrition and Fitness. The assignment would meet objectives; A. Evaluate how the United States Department of Agriculture's Seven Guidelines and the most current Food Pyramid can enhance proper nutritional choice and B. Analyze and employ healthy food choices (e.g., reading food labels, calculating calorie intake).

 I thought this would be a good video to teach students how to complete and track a daily food plan. This daily food plan helps teach students how to track and improve their nutrition and fitness habits on their own. Using a how-to video could help the students by being able to go back and watch the video when they get confused or don't have the teacher for immediate help. This video will also help for visual learners who need to see what they are doing before they can do it. 

Some drawbacks to using this series would be that the students are limited to only the information provided by the teacher in the video. Also if a student doesn't have access to a computer at home they will not be able to access the video when they need to.  

I  plan to use this tool as an extra way of giving instruction for assignments. I know as a teacher often times you give assignments at the end of class when students are anxious and not paying attention. Having examples or extra instructions on my website can help my students to look up instructions when not in class or when confused. 

06 March- Vidcast

What? 
This week we learned about Vidcasts and different applications you can use to make them. We learned how to use Photostory, Jing, YouTube, and how to save them into mp4, etc. 


So What?
This was an all new experience for me since I had never used any of these applications before. These are just a few of the new amazing technology we have today. Having technology like this makes it so much easier to work with students who are struggling or just with students in general. It helps the student to have guidance from the teacher when the teacher is not around and especially helps the teacher not have to explain the same thing over and over again. 

Now What? 
This technology will be a great use to my future students. This new information shows me that giving instruction can be done in many different ways. This technology will be perfect for my visual learners when my verbal instructions aren't enough. This is not just a tool I can use in my teaching and instruction but I can also use it as an assignment for my students. My students can use these tools for performance assessments and projects.