Ever play the level in Super Mario Brothers two where you have to jump on the fish to get to the other side of the waterfall? Every time I played that level, I switched over to the Princess Peach character. There’s a very simple reason: she can float in the air for a few seconds at a time. This is an invaluable skill if, like me, you never quite mastered the timing for jumping on the heads of slippery, leaping fish.
Using multimedia and presentation tools on the internet is like jumping on fish. Once you pick the right tool, producing the product is easier, as if it has a will of its own.
Multimedia and presentation options on the internet offer a whole new venue for creating dynamic and exciting presentations for authentic purposes. Here, Multimedia and presentation tools are defined as tools that allow teachers and students to create projects that integrate writing, research and content information with pictures, video and audio. Just like traditional classroom projects, these tools help students to show their acquired knowledge by choosing a medium and selecting visual or audio elements to enhance their presentations. Unlike traditional classroom projects, these tools offer new options, such as uploading a student’s own pictures, videos and audio recordings, as well as saving them to sites that can host the item in perpetuity, allowing interested parties to view and comment on the products. Ever have students throw their projects in the recycling on their way out of the class, stating that they have no room to store it at home? Now, projects can be stored online. Ever have a student complain that he or she was doing all the work because the project was at someone else’s home? Now all parties can have access from anywhere. No room to store 30 projects in a classroom? Leave them on the internet. Students complaining that no one looks at the projects anyway, or parents wondering what their children are doing? Upload finished items to a blog, Facebook, wiki, etc. You can even Tweet about it! Best of all, there’s no more, “the dog ate my homework excuse” as the project is online. Even if the dog eats the computer, the project can be retrieved elsewhere.
There’s more than one way to skin a fish…
There are a number of tools out there for teachers interested in creating projects in the web 2.0 world. In my opinion, the best course of action is to try out some of the tools. Once you and your students are familiar with what’s out there, ideas for their use will come to mind. Here’s a quick overview:
Comics
Students love to read comics. The few that I’ve introduced to my classroom are never on the shelf! During library time, students vie for the Asterix comics, a series that even my husband was excited to hear was still around. Studies have identified comics as a great choice in reading instructional materials. Three reasons seem to stand out; increased student motivation to read due to high interest in comics, accessible reading levels and availability (Lin, 2005). Student interest in comics doesn’t stop with reading. In my subjective experience, students love to create comics (there are weeks when I can barely stop some of the boys in my class) and are always eager to share what they’ve created. Many teachers are capitalizing on this by introducing comics as an option for demonstrating learning.
There are many sites that students can create comics on.
Comic Creator
Comic Creator, hosted by Read Write Think, lets students create simple comics. You can visit Comic Creator at http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/comic/ Students start by giving their comics a name and choosing between one and six panels for their comic. Then, using preset characters, settings, props and dialogue balloons, students can begin to create. There is also a caption box under each frame. The one downfall is that the comics can not be saved. The only thing students can do is print the comic.
Make Beliefs Comix
Another option is Make Beliefs Comix, which can be found at http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/ . This site offers a few different functions, such as the ability to delete mistakes and change a character’s facial expression. The biggest difference, however, is that the comic can be saved by sending them as an email or by exporting them to Facebook. This has immediate applications for the classroom, as it enables students to create comics which can then be emailed to the teacher for assessment.
Pictures, Video and Audio
There are a number of sites on the internet that allow for pictures, audio clips and videos to be put together in a creative way that can demonstrate learning in any of the core subject areas.
Slideshare
Slideshare (http://www.slideshare.net/) is a site that allows users to upload slideshows, documents and videos and share them with others. This ramps the old Power Point presentation up a notch by giving it a world wide audience. To use Slideshare, first I signed up for an account with a user name and password. Pretty simple and quick. Then I created a slide show using Power Point on my computer, which was the part that took the most time. Once the show was created, I uploaded it to my Slideshare account, and was presented with a variety of options, as indicated in the following screen capture.
When I was finished, I was able to embed my presentation on my blog. I could also have sent it somewhere else, like to Facebook. My choice would depend on my target audience.
Voice Thread
Voice Thread is another site that allows users to create slide shows, however, these show can be created directly on the Voice Thread site. There are many educational voice threads. Clicking browse brought up a page with a number of videos. One video, named Math Strategies, showed how students think through an addition equation while another video talked of the aftermath of Chernobyl. Obviously, many people are using Voice Thread for educational purposes.
To create a voice thread, you need to sign up for an account, then log into the new account. Once that’s done, click on the create tab at the top of the screen. Start by adding in content, as specified below:
Next,
Finally,
Vuvox
Vuvox is a site that allows users to create moving displays or collages of pictures and videos. Once I was signed up (again, with an email and password), I could select create under collage. I was then able to upload pictures from my computer and put them on my Vuvox site to choose from while creating my collage. I was also able to select pictures from Flickr once I gave Vuvox permission to access my Flickr account as well as pictures provided by Vuvox for everyone to use. Once I had a store of pictures to choose from, I was able to drag and drop the ones I wanted onto the canvas. Once each picture was on the canvas, I was able to click on the image to access a set of editing tools, which gave me the ability to change the picture by flipping, resizing or cutting out shapes. I was also able to add text and could have added audio, if I wanted to. Once my Vuvox collage was completed, I clicked on publish and was asked if I wanted my project to be saved as public or private. Choosing private only allows the collage to be saved as a draft, so I chose public, which gave me the added bonus of knowing that I was contributing to a collection of work available for all. The work was saved under my collages. To get the embed link, I clicked on my collages, then I copied the code and embedded the collage onto my blog. I could also have sent it to other sites, such as Facebook.
Animoto
Animoto is another site that allows users to create slide shows, but with pizzazz. The slide show will play like a video! To use Animoto I needed, again, to sign up with an email address and password. Once the account was created, I was able to create presentations. First, I clicked on create video, then was asked to select a video style, which is the background that the video will play on, as well as the way the video will unfold. When I chose the video style, I was able to choose between paying for a yearly subscription, paying for a one-time use or using it for free. As this is my first time using Animoto, I opted for free usage. The one drawback to the free usage is that my video was then limited to 30 seconds in length. After choosing the video style, my next job was to upload pictures to the site. Like Vuvox, I could pull pictures from my computer or from Flickr, once I gave Animoto permission to access my account. Animoto also has a store of videos and pictures anyone can use. One great thing about Animoto is the lay out of the pictures after loading them and the easy editing tools it lets you access. Animoto lays the pictures out in an array, like this:
This makes it easy to reorder the pictures, add text, add in new images, etc. After I was satisfied with the image selection, I was able to add in music. Animoto has a store of music users can access, which made it easy to find a selection. I also could have uploaded my own music. Finally, I was allowed to preview the settings on my video and give it a title. When Animoto was finished creating the video, I received an email about the video. I was also able to get the embed code and place it on my blog, or I could have sent it to Facebook, Twitter, Youtube or a friend using email. Videos are stored on the user’s account, so I can go back and remix a video anytime I want.
Jing
Jing, which can be found at http://www.techsmith.com/jing/ capitalizes on the phrase, “a picture is worth a thousand words” by creating this application that allows users to capture screens images. It has great potential to create ‘how to’ clips or videos for all things on the internet. The site advertises that you can use Jing to, “take a picture or make a short video of what you see on your computer monitor and share it instantly via web, email, IM, Twitter or your blog” (TechSmith Corporation, 2010).
Jing is different than the other multimedia and presentation sites commented on in this post. It is a program that you download right to your computer. As such, it requires a time commitment. I spent at least 20 minutes trying to download it onto my work computer, only to find out that it was blocked, which would mean a call into the tech services department. Later that night, I spent about an hour downloading Jing and other updates onto my personal computer at home. Once it was done, it was worth it. Jing places an icon, which looks like half of the sun, on the top of my computer. To use Jing, all I had to do was navigate to a page that I wanted to capture, move my cursor over the sun icon and click on the capture icon when it dropped down. Next, I could drag a box around the page or the part of the page I wanted to capture and sort of take its picture. Jing then gave me the option to add items, like text or arrows, in order to more thoroughly explain what to do with this page. Once the image has been captured and commented on, it can be sent to a few different places. Screencast.com is a site that works with Jing. Links sent to Screencast are saved for the user, which in turn allows the user to decide what to do with them. I was able to access the embed code from Screencast and place a captured page on my blog. Jing also lets you save the image to your computer. I saved my nutrition comic, for example, as an image to my documents. I could then open up the comic from my documents and use the editing features to do such things as color in the comic.
I have used Jing a couple of times throughout this post. Scroll through and take a look at the screen captures and the items I’ve added to aid in explanations. The really cool thing about Jing is, in time, nearly half of what I’ve written here will be obsolete, as I will be able to graphically show what I’m right now asking readers to imagine.
Fish for Me?
As a personal learner, I have to admit that I like playing around with new things and having that concrete experience much more than I like reading about them. Cell phones, board games, models – I always try to use them first and read instructions later, if I’m lost. I have realized that I am creating my own learning when I do this. Learning to use these multimedia and presentation tools was fun because it satisfied the same principles.
Frequently, over the course of the last two week, I found myself showing a tool to one of my children or my husband. Sharing the comic sites with my son was fun. He loves to draw and is currently taking a cartooning class, so it was right up his alley. Soon, he was begging me to show him an animation site, too. As an interesting benefit, my eleven year old son ended up showing me Pivot, a program that allows users to use stick figures to create stop motion videos. Essentially, it works like a flipbook. A series of pictures are created and captured then replayed to create the video. Watching my son, I realized the complex thought processes at work with a program like this. First, there’s the scripting. Next, character selection and creation, followed by character placement, which has to be fairly precise to avoid the problem of characters disappearing and reappearing. All of this, my son did in his head! Maybe I’m just in awe because he’s mine, but I think this type of work has great applications for having students think logically through a number of steps, from the beginning to the end of a sequence. Could there be some overlap into the Language Arts curriculum here?
The sharing feature of each of the tools was probably the best part of this week’s exploration. I found myself thinking about who I could reach with these tools. My neighbor’s daughter is about to have a baby, and I thought, why not create a baby shower invitation with Animoto and email it to the shower guests? My sons had a Halloween party last Saturday. Creating a collage of the photos and mixing in spooky music on Vuvox would make a great keepsake, one that I could post onto Facebook or email to all the parents. And I bet that an eye catching slide show of last year’s camp, created through Slideshare and presented at the next parent information night, would do wonders to boost membership in the local Cubs program.
A Fish in the Hand…
No doubt, there are tools for almost anything that was currently done on paper. The question is, why bother? Traditional projects, done with paper and writing implements, glue and scissors, time and imagination, have proved effective over the years, while multimedia and presentation tools are relatively new domains, untested and ripe with potential accessibility and liability pitfalls. So, why bother? Justifying multimedia and presentation tools in the classroom is a justification of new teaching in changing times and the struggle to keep the classroom a dynamic place that benefits all learners.
Differentiation has become the new buzz word in education. Many districts, mine included, are working towards creating differentiation in the classroom in an effort to stave off the numbers of children who become disillusioned with school due to lack of authentic, interesting experiences it contains. Differentiation is defined as
acknowledging that kids learn in different ways, and responding by doing something about that through curriculum and instruction… differentiation is not an instructional strategy nor is it a teaching model. It is in fact a way of thinking, an approach to teaching and learning that advocates beginning where students are and designing experiences that will better help them achieve.
(Koechlin &Zwaan, 2008)
Four different ways differentiation can be achieved are through varying the content of lessons, the process students go through in order to understand the information contained in the lessons, the product that students are able to complete in order to demonstrate understanding and the environment in which learning takes place (Koechlin &Zwaan, 2008). Multimedia and presentation tools play a big role in creating these differentiations. Want to spark an inquiry unit on various sources of light? Try showing a slide show with many light sources highlighted. Thinking of assigning posters as the final project in your weather unit, but dreading how 3 or 4 students will inevitable fall behind because of manual dexterity issues (ie, they just can’t color or write that fast)? How about using Glogster? Better yet, why not give the students the option to choose the final product? In Focus on Inquiry, a document released by Alberta Learning outlining the best way to teach research skills to students, offering a variety of product forms as a method of creating an authentic, differentiated program is advised. The following chart, adapted from Focus on Learning, shows some product form ideas, broken down into four categories that correspond with four of Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences. Included are some of the multimedia and presentation tools that could be used with to create the product.
Oral Visual
Original product Multimedia or presentation tool that could be used to complete or improve it. Original product Multimedia or presentation tool that could be used to complete or improve it.
Debate Two or more students could make a recording of their ideas, add slides and upload it to Slideshare. Cartoons Use Make Beliefs Comix or another comic site to create the comic and email it or add it to Facebook in order to get feedback.
Song Record a song and create a 30 second Animoto video to go with it. Collage Create an online collage using Vuvox.
Written Kinesthetic
Original product Multimedia or presentation tool that could be used to complete or improve it Original product Multimedia or presentation tool that could be used to complete or improve it
Book review Use Animoto to create a book trailer (The Walking Paper, 2009) and embed it on student blogs with the rest of the written review .
Collection Document the collection and use Vuvox to create a collage. Post the collage to a blog or Facebook, asking for suggestions of what’s missing or could be added.
Pamphlet or brochure Create a non-linear pamphlet or brochure using Prezi, adding in pictures, video and information. Experiment Document an experiment with Power Point, linking together the images and audio explanations into a lab book. (Verrati, 2005).Then, use Slideshare to post the lab book to a blog.
As a classroom teacher, I feel the need to keep up with technology. If for no other reason, keeping abreast of newer ways of delivering content and allowing students to create products keeps me revisiting my program and keeps me from relaxing into a rut. However, I am becoming aware of the reality that the teacher-librarian needs to be the tech and media expert in his or her school. Learning multimedia and presentation tools now gives me a head start for when I (hopefully) jump into the role.
In the meantime, I’ve busily created a sampling of projects using the various tools to accompany my teaching this year. Please scroll through the three previous posts to see this sampling.
Plenty of Fish in the Sea
Is it ever possible to be an expert in Web 2.0? Doubtful. New technology is developing at an astronomical rate and the creations made by people using this technology are multiplying exponentially. Perhaps it is only possible to keep a list of the next few tools to explore. With that in mind, I have a few:
• Prezi is a site that allows students to create presentations by placing text, pictures and videos on to a virtual, endless presentation board. Once the items are on the board, users can set up a chronology for the items and create a ‘poster that plays like a video.’ This has great applications for the classroom as an alternative to posters. You can visit Prezi by typing in the URL Prezi.com. I have worked with Prezi in the past, so I have not included as much detail about it in this blog. I do, however, feel that Prexi deserves mention, as it is free to use and can be used for longer pieces of work that require more text.
• Toondo (available at http://www.toondoo.com/). This looks like a site where students can create their own cartoons.
• Xtranormal (available at http://www.pcworld.com/article/203787/create_your_own_movies_with_xtranormal.html). This is a site that allows create your own movies.
• Openzine (available at http://www.openzine.com/aspx/). This site allows students to create their own magazines. This site has some mature pictures on it’s sign in page, so it may not be appropriate for elementary students.
• Bitstrips (available at http://www.bitstripsforschools.com/). Bitstrips is another comic creation site. Looks promising, but offers only a 30 day free trial, after which a fee applies.
References
Alberta Learning. (2004 ). Focus on Literacy. Retrieved from: http://eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED491498.pdf.
Lin, C. (2005). literacy instruction through communicative and visual arts. Teacher Librarian, 32(5), 25-27. Retrieved November 2, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 891822761).
Koechlin, C., & Zwaan, S.. (2008). everyone wins: differentiation in the school library. Teacher Librarian, 35(5), 8-13. Retrieved November 2, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1502965201).
TechSmith Corporation. (2010). Jing. Retreived from: http://www.techsmith.com/jing/.
The Walking Paper. (2009). Internet tricks and tips, booktrailers trailers via animoto. Retrieved from: http://www.walkingpaper.org/640.
Varrati, R. (2005, September). Multimedia Projects for Technology-Rich Classrooms. Media and Methods, 42(1), 6-7. Retrieved November 2, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 933092141).
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