7.20.2009
7.19.2009
Multimedia Class Summary
I feel this class has prepared me to be more of a 21st Century Librarian. Before I talk about the tools I’ve found especially helpful, I want to mention the confidence I’ve gained in using some of the technology resources we’ve experimented with. At first it felt a little overwhelming (not always a bad thing, by the way) learning about so many different multimedia tools. But now, I’m realizing a major take away point--it’s important to feel comfortable trying out all sorts of multimedia resources. Playing around with tools like Windows Movie Maker, Voicethread, Audacity, Podcasting, and Picassa was helpful because it made me realize that if I messed up, it wasn’t the end of the world, and in messing up, I would probably learn something I wasn’t even trying to learn. Although many students are digital natives and remarkably comfortable with being uncomfortable when it comes to new technology, a good portion are not. As I work to incorporate tools like Audacity, Evernote, and Voicethread into my teaching, I’ll need to remember that. Both classroom teachers and students need ample time for practice, and a reminder that floundering a bit is a part of learning.
Using a bunch of tools at once has also forced me to come up with my own system of organizing resources. For me, Evernote was a great way to keep track of all the different websites and programs we used. Google Reader was another organizational tool that made it easier to keep track of blogs I am following and the newest posts on those blogs. I think Google Reader will be what I use to continue tracking and contributing to my personal learning network. Currently, I plan to follow Joyce Valence and Will Richardson. Both of them seem so active and knowledgable about the Read-Write web. I’ve been keeping track of Joyce Valenza’s tweets and in the short time I’ve been following her, I’ve gotten some great ideas. Also, I thought both Richardson’s blog and book gave great suggestions for how web 2.0 tools can enhance the curriculum. In addition, our own cohort members and Kristin have provided great ideas and help, and I consider them an important part of my personal learning network.
Some of the tools we’ve learned about I will use immediately in the fall in collaboration with classroom teachers. I’m excited to use Wordle with our psychology, natural resources, and animal science classes, who come to the library on a weekly basis to find relevant articles using the AEA Databases. Students who have just exited the ELL program are often enrolled in the latter two classes, and copying and pasting the text to a Wordle maker will help students recognize important concepts. Students in World History class do layered curriculum projects for each unit. One option for students is reading a related fiction or nonfiction book and writing a response on it. This year, I’m going to work with the World History teacher to encourage students to complete a Voicethread that can be shared with other students. I think they will enjoy this option. So many of our teachers require powerpoints for presentations, and students seem pretty bored with it. I think students will be excited about this new presentation tool. It’s terrific that students are able to comment on each other’s presentations—this really establishes a learning community. In all of our English classes, students are required to read at least one SSR book, in addition to class texts, and after reading they create some sort of presentation or project. I’d like to work with at least one of the English teachers on teaching students how to use Movie Maker or Voicethread for book projects.
For my own Library Skills class, I’m excited to show students how they can “train information” to come to them using Diigo and RSS feeds. The sticky note and highlighting feature of Diigo lets students “talk back to the text” which encourages active and critical reading. I also like how students can use the search feature to see what others researching the same topic have found. In our multimedia class, Kristin stressed the importance of having one email account to register all of our new multimedia tools to. I’m going to do the same thing with my library skills class—all students will set up a gmail account, and establish a common username/password for the tools that we learn. In both Library Skills and collaboration with other teachers, students use the AEA Online Databases consistently. The databases they use the most are WorldBook Online, EBSCOhost, Student Researcher, and SIRS. However, students don’t often use the Clipart database or AP Image database. I’d like to work on encouraging students to use these databases more by incorporating them into new and exciting projects. Personally, I hadn’t used Atomic Learning very much, and I found it to be beneficial in this class.
Overall, I’m enthusiastic about incorporating multimedia tools into my teaching and work with other teachers and students. I’m also eager to learn how others in my Personal Learning Network are doing that as well.
Using a bunch of tools at once has also forced me to come up with my own system of organizing resources. For me, Evernote was a great way to keep track of all the different websites and programs we used. Google Reader was another organizational tool that made it easier to keep track of blogs I am following and the newest posts on those blogs. I think Google Reader will be what I use to continue tracking and contributing to my personal learning network. Currently, I plan to follow Joyce Valence and Will Richardson. Both of them seem so active and knowledgable about the Read-Write web. I’ve been keeping track of Joyce Valenza’s tweets and in the short time I’ve been following her, I’ve gotten some great ideas. Also, I thought both Richardson’s blog and book gave great suggestions for how web 2.0 tools can enhance the curriculum. In addition, our own cohort members and Kristin have provided great ideas and help, and I consider them an important part of my personal learning network.
Some of the tools we’ve learned about I will use immediately in the fall in collaboration with classroom teachers. I’m excited to use Wordle with our psychology, natural resources, and animal science classes, who come to the library on a weekly basis to find relevant articles using the AEA Databases. Students who have just exited the ELL program are often enrolled in the latter two classes, and copying and pasting the text to a Wordle maker will help students recognize important concepts. Students in World History class do layered curriculum projects for each unit. One option for students is reading a related fiction or nonfiction book and writing a response on it. This year, I’m going to work with the World History teacher to encourage students to complete a Voicethread that can be shared with other students. I think they will enjoy this option. So many of our teachers require powerpoints for presentations, and students seem pretty bored with it. I think students will be excited about this new presentation tool. It’s terrific that students are able to comment on each other’s presentations—this really establishes a learning community. In all of our English classes, students are required to read at least one SSR book, in addition to class texts, and after reading they create some sort of presentation or project. I’d like to work with at least one of the English teachers on teaching students how to use Movie Maker or Voicethread for book projects.
For my own Library Skills class, I’m excited to show students how they can “train information” to come to them using Diigo and RSS feeds. The sticky note and highlighting feature of Diigo lets students “talk back to the text” which encourages active and critical reading. I also like how students can use the search feature to see what others researching the same topic have found. In our multimedia class, Kristin stressed the importance of having one email account to register all of our new multimedia tools to. I’m going to do the same thing with my library skills class—all students will set up a gmail account, and establish a common username/password for the tools that we learn. In both Library Skills and collaboration with other teachers, students use the AEA Online Databases consistently. The databases they use the most are WorldBook Online, EBSCOhost, Student Researcher, and SIRS. However, students don’t often use the Clipart database or AP Image database. I’d like to work on encouraging students to use these databases more by incorporating them into new and exciting projects. Personally, I hadn’t used Atomic Learning very much, and I found it to be beneficial in this class.
Overall, I’m enthusiastic about incorporating multimedia tools into my teaching and work with other teachers and students. I’m also eager to learn how others in my Personal Learning Network are doing that as well.
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