My Digital Story

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

This is my digital story of when I went to Halloween Horror Nights a few weeks ago. This was a really fun project to do, because I love taking pictures, and scrapbooking. In a way, digital storytelling is like an online scrapbook. In my field, education, digital storytelling would be used a lot if most teachers knew how to create them. Instead of giving lectures, they could tell a story through these videos. They would be educational, and at the same time they would entertain the students. It could also be a good way for kids to learn how to create storis with their own pictures. A teacher could give different projects using digital storytelling. One example could be having students practice their presentation skills in front of the class while explaining their vacation. Another could be a group project where students have to work together to put a digital story together. There are so many lessons that can be learned from digital storytelling.

Digital Storytelling

The more skilled we become with computers the more new ways we learn how to do different things. Instead of watching shows on the television, people can now watch them on their computers. Instead of people going to class, they can take online classes. What we learned about this week is similar. Digital storytelling is the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories. Instead of people writing in their journals, or keeping photo albums of events, they can make digital stories online. These stories can contain pictures, music, and words to make your story come alive. Cogdogroo.com gives examples of many different websites you can visit in order to make a video. In class, I visited animoto.com and made my own video about my trip to Halloween Horror Nights a few weeks ago. It literally took about 5 minutes to create, and was very easy. I had never made a video before, so I was worried it might be difficult, but it really was not. If there are people who need help, there is an organization called the Center for Digital Storytelling. They are an international nonprofit training, project development, and research organization that helps youth and adults around the world with their digital storytelling.They not only work to help individuals, but they want to help communities, on a large-scale basis, so that way the community can learn through watching their digital stories. 

This video explains what digital storytelling is, through a digital story. It uses a recorded voice-over, pictures, and music. It explains how digital stories can be created by anyone who has a computer. The video also gives you tips on how to start making one. The first step is to create you story, and keep it brief. Then add some pictures, music, and maybe some sound effects. Lastly, you want to add in titles, and transitions. Anybody is capable of creating a digital story, and there are plenty of websites, and people who can help.

The people who could help the most, if they learn how to do it properly, are teachers. If all teachers knew how to work with technology, and be able to create digital stories for their students, they would learn how to do it for themselves. Teachers could assign a class project to create a digital story of their winter vacation, or a school field trip. I would need to know how to guide my students through the process of making the video. Not only can I teach them how to make their own videos, but I can teach my own lessons through videos. I am positive that watching a digital story about history is way more interesting than reading a history book.

Visual Literacy

This week we learned about visual literacy, which is the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image. Just like a book, a picture can be read and analyzed. Many photographers capture an image to tell a story, express an emotion, or make a point. Being able to analyze pictures will help people throughout their lives, since our culture is very visual. People can learn to be visually literate by practicing visual encoding and visual decoding. Visual encoding allows people to learn by creating their own examples of visuals, like painting a picture, or taking a photograph. People learn through visual decoding when they try to understand and analyze other artists work. One of the videos we watched for class asked the question, “What if we were stripped of our visual literacy?” Every day, people are surrounded by visuals, like road signs, businesses logos, and more. If people did not know how to read a sign, how would they know to stop at a stop sign, or go into the men’s bathroom and not the ladies? Visual literacy is crucial for everyday life. Also discussed this week was the topic of photoshop. According to Wikipedia, “Photoshop is a graphics editing program,” that allows people to fix images on the computer. This could be good for many reasons, but it could also have a negative effect on society. Sometimes a photographer might have taken a dark picture and want to lighten it up, or they want to play around with the colors in the backgrounds, but some editors take it too far. In a video created by Dove, a models picture is completely changed and put up on a billboard for the world to see. They changed many aspects of her face, like making her eyes bigger, and her neck longer. At the end of the video they state, “no wonder our perception of beauty is distorted.” The people who created this video are trying to say that they way people are editing photos is taking away natural beauty, and making it fake. People are beautiful because they are different. There is no reason to fix a picture to take away acne, or bags under the eyes, or to make someone skinnier. 

This video shows how visual literacy is important to everyday life. A guy is walking around, looking at signs to help him find where he needs to go. Without knowing how to read signs he might get lost. Also, throughout the video, a lot of different examples of visuals are shown; diagrams, charts, instructions, pictures, signs, etc. All of these visuals are used daily, and being visually literate can help people read them better.

As an education major, it is very important that I learn how much visual literacy is needed in our lives. Students need to learn how to look at pictures in different ways, and be able to know what they are saying. Visuals are used all over the world, and just like learning how to read needs to be started at an early age, so does learning how to read pictures. Not only will my students know how to analyze a picture, they will be more capable of creating their own. Also, it is important for my students to know about Photoshop and how it can enhance a picture, and also destroy one. I want my children to know that they are perfect how they are, and Photoshop should not be used to fix any flaws they may see in their selves.

Learning Styles

Everybody learns in different ways. Some people like a strict learning environment, and others like a looser one. Also, some people like to learn visually, while others work better by listening. This week we learned about learning theories, and learning styles. According to the pdf file we read for class, “a learning theory is an attempt to describe how people and animals learn.” It is also very helpful for understanding how learning occurs. There are three different theories that can be used to explain learning theories: behaviorist theory, information process theory, and constructivism. The first, behaviorist theory, focuses on cause and effect relationships through the observation of behavior. The information process theory focuses on the change of the information, and everything that happens during the change in the universe. This theory also states that humans have three different memory stores that work to register, process, store, and retrieve the information. The last theory, constructivism, states that people construct the knowledge in their minds by participating in different experiences. If a student is part of an activity, they will learn things on their own that are considered knowledge. There a plenty of arguments against this theory because students may not know how to learn from experiences, and also they might go about an experience the wrong way, which would end up with them not learning anything. People have different learning styles. The main three are visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. If you are visual you learn by watching, if you are auditory you learn by listening, and if you are kinesthetic you learn by doing activities. I know that I don’t learn well from just listening to a teacher, so if they gave me an activity where I needed to listen, I would not learn as much. I took the learning style test, and like I thought I would, it told me I am mostly a visual learner, then kinesthetic, and lastly auditory.

This video shows how everybody has different learning styles that help them succeed. In the beginning of the video, the speaker says that everyone has been told that the best way to study is at a desk in a quiet place, but not all students learn best that way. Learning about these styles this week has helped to understand why people succeed in different ways.

It is extremely important as a teacher to understand the different ways that students learn. If my classroom is only geared towards one learning style, my kids won’t all succeed. Learning styles are probably most important for teachers to understand. If they have a child who is not succeeding when listening to lectures, they would know he/she is not an auditory learner, and can find different way to help. I know that I succeed when taking notes, or reading in silence, but not all of my students in the future will succeed if use my learning style into the classroom. Teachers need to know how to be open to all different styles. They can do activities, give lectures, and read along with students, that way all three learning styles are being used. The best kind of teacher is one who can work with all kinds of students, no matter what learning style they have.

Inspiration Concept-Map

http://mywebspiration.com/view/549582a138f7

This is my concept-map for social tools in education.

Instructional Media

In the recent years that technology has been increasing, so has the use of it in schools. Instead of teachers writing words on a whiteboard, or reading off a sheet of paper, kids are being introduced to lessons through instructional media. This week we learned about multimedia. According to the pdf file given to us, multimedia is a program that can contain still pictures, moving pictures, sound, animation, text, motion pictures, or video, and is considered multimedia as long as any two are combined. This is a very different way of teaching kids, because back in the day teachers never had this type of technology that could benefit students. Instructional media can appeal to many different students who have specific learning styles, and it also helps develop their critical and creative thinking skills. Students can learn how to put presentations together, make websites, create videos, etc. I remember when I was in school, I learned how to make PowerPoint’s, and we would give presentations in front of the class which helped us learn many skills. This week, I learned how to make an appropriate instructional media. Before I read this, when I made PowerPoint’s I used a variety of colors, gave each slides pretty backgrounds, and never organized it well. Reading this pdf file that explains how simple pages are better for learners made me realize there was a lot more to creating PowerPoint’s than I thought. There are four key guidelines that must be thought about while creating the instructional media: contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity. Simple colors, like black and white, work perfect together. There is no need to have a rainbow of colors on each page, consistent colors work better together. You want to keep it simple by using key phrases instead of complete sentences, and use a lot of white space. Boxes will keep your pages organized, and size font 28 will be the best view for the learners. Looking at a simple, organized slide will be easier for them to follow because it will be clear. In the end, more skills are being taught through using the technology, and it makes the classroom more exciting.

I found this video on YouTube.com called “Media Smarts: Kids Learn How to Navigate the Multimedia World.” It starts off by saying how the average American kid spends more than 6.5 hours on the computer or in front of a screen each day. Kids are used to being put in front of a screen, which is why technology in schools is beneficial to children. When they go to school and listen to a monotone voice for a couple of hours straight, their focus will begin to fade. On the other hand, having computers in the classrooms is second nature to most kids these days, and they will be able to follow along well. Not only can you teach old lessons with technology, but new ones as well. A group of 4^th graders learned how to create an animated short, and some kids in high school have learned how to make video biographies. The video also talks about how students use their creativity to write and tell stories through film. Ultimately, this video is adding on to the opinion that technology in schools benefits children by teaching them important critical and creative thinking skills and more. 

As an education major and future teacher, I am going to need to be able to make suitable PowerPoint’s for my students, and know how to teach with technology. I don’t want my students to be bored every day; I want them to be excited to come to class to learn new things. My mom tells me all of the time how much her students love when she shows them videos, or goes on the internet with them. It is a new way of learning that can relate to this generation. I want to be able to put together instructional media lessons, whether it is a PowerPoint, or a video. Once I am able to make my own, I can teach my students how to do it themselves. All throughout life multimedia can be used, and I am going to need to teach my students what it is, and why it is important.

Copyright Video

This is a video from YouTube called "Copyright." It is a cute cartoon that tells you everything you need to know about copyright laws, and why they are important.