Go Animate: Fun Digital Story Site

If you're looking for an easy-to-use digital storytelling tool that allows for animation, dialogue, selection of scenery, and other options, look no further than GoAnimate. I suggest everyone try it out this week or next. Here is a quick one that I created to send to my niece, whose birthday is today, Feb. 15. If your students can type even a few short sentences, they can make use of this digital storytelling tool. It can be used to assess student learning in a variety of disciplines or for students to make quick videos reflecting on books they have read or lessons they have learned.

I used the free version to make a 20-second video, but longer ones with more options can also be made with the free version. It is easy to embed the videos in blog posts and to share in other ways. Go ahead, and try out the site, GoAnimate, and post your video in your blog or on your wiki to share with others.

I am thinking that just like Animoto, a GoAnimate should be a required project in the Integrating Technology and Literacy course. What do you think after trying the tool?


Birthday Wish by Judy A on GoAnimate

Animated Presentations - Powered by GoAnimate.


Here's another short one I just made.

Digital StoryTelling by Judy A on GoAnimate

Video Maker - Powered by GoAnimate.


I am actually thinking of upgrading to a pro account, but for now, my purpose was to introduce to you to this tool for making simple digital stories. Although I did not record my own voice, there is an option to do so in the program. If students were working together, they could easily role play a character and take turns doing the narration.

Experimenting with Embedding Rough Draft of Digital Story into a Blogger Post

When your digital story is completed and processed, you have several ways to embed it in a Blogger post. To demonstrate two methods, I quickly made a rough draft of a digital story that still needs lots of editing. Because we need to embed an early draft for feedback, I decided to use this rough cut to demonstrate the process.

I created the draft with iMovie using photos that I had stored in a file. After I created the story as a project in iMovie, I exported it to Media Player, thereby creating a file I could upload. Because this is a rough draft, I used the saved file with the lowest resolution for uploading.

Method One: I uploaded the video to my YouTube account. (Another blog post contains a tutorial of how to upload to YouTube. See that post: How to Upload Your Video to YouTube.) Once the video was uploaded, I got the "embed code" from YouTube's "Share" option. I copied the code, returned to this post, and used the "HTML" view to paste the "embed code" into the post. While I was in the HTML view, I changed the width and height of the video, though you can skip that step if you like. I then switched back to the "Compose" view. Here is the video embedded from YouTube.




Method Two: Blogger has a Video upload feature. The icon to upload is located right next to the icon for inserting a picture. I clicked on the Video icon and used the first option: Choose a file to upload. I located my saved iMovie in Media Player and clicked on the filename. Then clicked to begin the upload process. It took a few minutes for Blogger to upload and insert the video.

When your digital story is ready, let me know if you have questions about embedding it in a Blogger post.

In addition, I would remind you, thanks to Kelly (see comments), to use Vimeo for uploads. You can embed videos uploaded to Vimeo to into blogs, but also once you save them there, you can easily access them in school. Fewer schools block Vimeo than YouTube.

If you have a few minutes, please complete the feedback form. Scroll through to see the entire survey. Thanks.

How to Upload Your Video to YouTube

As you work your way through the digital story telling project, when your first draft of the video is ready and processed and saved as a file, you can upload it to YouTube, which will ease embedding it into a blog post.

This short video walks you through the process of how to upload your video to YouTube once you have a YouTube account. On another note, if you don't already have a YouTube account, you should consider having one to save your favorite YouTubes. YouTube also enables organizing your favorites into categories.

For the digital story telling project, you will be embedding in your blog two drafts of your video, an early draft and a final draft. In addition to using YouTube to upload videos, there are other video sharing sites, and you can also use Google Doc. If I find a good tutorial on how to use Google Doc for this process, I will post it.

Where Can I Find Legal Music for Videos?

cc licensed ( BY SA ) flickr photo shared by craigCloutier

As many of you already know, I am fan of Flickr's Creative Commons for finding images to use in blogs, websites, wikis, and other online spaces. I blogged about this resource earlier, "Need Photos for Your Blogs Posts."

Now, what about music? One locator is Creative Commons Legal Music for Videos. Of the sites Creative Commons lists, which have you used? What are your recommendations for locating music to use legally in videos?

Involving Parents in a Class Blog and Going Global

One of my favorite teacher bloggers, Kathleen Morris, a primary teacher in Victoria, Australia, created a blog post with advice on how to engage parents in a classroom blog.

For those of you thinking of creating a classroom blog to interact with parents, head over to Kathleen's post, A Guide to Involving Parents in A Classroom Blog. Hopefully, her advice will not only motivate you to get started, but also lead you down the path. Kathleen is an experienced blogging, so don't expect to follow all of her advice right away, but let us know which tips of hers you find most useful for a teacher just getting started with a classroom blog.

If you want to see Kathleen's class blog, you'll find it at: 4KM and 4KJ @ Leopold Primary School. There are plenty of blog posts, pictures, and links to explore and get ideas for your own class blog.  Kathleen loves comments, so feel free to leave some on one of her posts. Note this class blog is really the collaborative effort of two teachers, Mrs. Morris and Miss Jordan, both 4th grade teachers, and, of course, their students.

On the sidebar of 4KM and 4KJ @ Leopold Primary School. you'll find links to class blogs and individual student blogs. The students have made made global friends through blogging.

Mrs. Morris' and Miss Jordan's class have been participants in the QuadBlogging Project. Definitely look into the culmination of one of their Quad projects, The Tale Trail Project. In this project, the Australian students in the two classes collaborated with students from Connecticut, Massachusetts, California, BC Canada, and New Zealand to write a sequential story, which they illustrated, and then combined into one oral reading.

Image at The Tale Trail 

Amazing: Hearing Impaired and Deaf Students Connecting Globally

This morning, procrastinating about shoveling snow, I checked email, and saw an incoming tweet from a Connecticut teacher (Joyce Blum) who tweeted 80% of schools closed in Connecticut for Monday.

To verify the identity of this person, who tweeted a response to another teacher, whom I had already tweeted, which put my Twitter name in Joyce Blum's tweet out, I wanted to ensure the tweet was coming from someone in "the know."

Well, once I got to Joyce Blum's Twitter profile, I saw she was a high school teacher of English for the deaf and hard of hearing.

In her tweet stream, I found a link to a blog. Curious about the blog, I checked the link, and there I found myself exploring a neighborhood of blog posts from students around the world, all apparently hearing impaired or deaf. Not only are these students afforded an opportunity to communicate with the written word, which makes sense, but they are also making connections with peers globally and learning about these peers from all corners of the world. This exploration opened my mind once again to the power of blogging as an amazing tool for communication for a variety of purposes.

I invite you to take a few moments, or linger longer if you like, to see how this blog is unfolding. I am wondering what your reactions will be. The blog is at Welcome to the 2012-2013 School Year. The number of schools throughout the world who have joined and the students who have contributed speak to the power of blogging to connect students in ways not easily possible just a decade ago. As I tweeted back to Joyce,

I also learned that she is using Edmodo as another communication tool.

She calls herself a "rookie," but she is already doing amazing things with technology tools to help her students express themselves and expand their literacy skills and global understandings. 

Well, back to shoveling, but blogging surely can draw us in, as we explore the world through the comforts of our own home. I am just amazed at how this teacher has used the medium of blogging to enhance students' literacy skills: including reading, writing, visualizing, connecting, and gaining world views. For students who cannot hear or have limited hearing abilities, the opportunities to explore blogging as a communication medium seem amazing. What do you think? What is your reaction to Welcome to the 2012-2013 School Year blog?

Snowman Images

My hometown, Long Beach, NY, was devastated by Hurricane Sandy. It's a community with lots of spirit and support. I just caught this new effort. Although many are still homeless or are living in their homes while they undergo major renovations, I'm enamored by their creativity. Project 11561 is just one among many efforts to keep up the spirits of the people.   As Valentine's Day approaches, consider how you can run a similar contest in your classrooms and how you might visually represent the works of your students. 

Blogging Tips

Blogging is for everyone - but there are some pitfalls. Photograph: Juniors Bildarchiv/Alamy

Yes, this picture grabbed my attention, but the post's title is what really caught by eye: Top 10 Don't for Wannable Teacher Bloggers . 

Check the post for some motivation to get going with blogging. 

Which advice in the post do you find the most helpful?

The Importance Of Using Images In The Classroom

The Importance Of Using Images In The Classroom is a short piece that reminds us of the power of images. Check the piece and the use of a famous painting, The Scream, to motivate the writing of a poem.

How are you using images in your classrooms? In reading blogs, do pictures draw you in?

Where would you rather be?

Connecticut, Feb. 8, 2013

Hawaii, July 21, 2012

Literacy Shed

Stuck at home with our snowstorm, I'm on Twitter, Google+, reading class blogs, and just surfing around. One of my Twitter friends, tweeted out about this exciting resource that fits with our course, Integrating Technology and Literacy. The site's title, Literacy Shed, caught my eye, so I started exploring, and invite you to, also. Take a look at what the site offers, and let us know if the site sparks ideas for your teaching or in general. Without further ado, link to the site; just click on the image.

Okay, I know you can get lost in exploring the site, but come back here to post a comment to share what you find and like.

Required Reading

In class this week, in one section of Integrating and Technology, we discussed whether the 4th grader of today will be writing the standard research paper when she enters college in the next decade. This article from The New York Times, "Education Needs a Digital Upgrade," suggests we are teaching students for a world that we don't yet know exists. We can't predict the jobs our young children will have in the future. We don't even know what these jobs will be.

To quote from the article, "According to Cathy N. Davidson, co-director of the annual MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Competitions, fully 65 percent of today's grade-school kids may end up doing work that hasn't been invented yet." In her book, Now You See It, Davidson urges teachers to stop teaching according to the Industrial Age model.  

The contemporary American classroom, with its grades and deference to the clock, is an inheritance from the late 19^th century.

She claims that the standard research paper assignment, popular in college classrooms, not only yields awful results, but is not even representative of the students' talents.

Check the article, "Education Needs a Digital Upgrade." In addition to what the title suggests, Davidson advocates for a whole new approach to education, not just in terms of technology tools. Do you agree with the statements Davidson makes? If so, with which assertions? In what directions do you believe education should be heading?

Can Teachers Avoid Digital Resources?

In a recent national survey of teachers, conducted by PBS Learning Media, it was found that a high percentage use digital media regularly in their teaching. The landscape of the classroom has changed from the old days of a reliance on printed books and students writing on paper. The following infographic shows the results of the survey.  Review the infographic. Where do you stand?

Do you agree educational technology motivates students?
What do you see as the benefits of educational technology?
What are the tech tools you use most often?
Consider other data available in the infographic. What is your reaction?

image Image via iStockphoto, sturti

On a related note, the House of Representatives is reviewing a bill to increase access to technology in schools and teachers' professional development in this area.  On Feb. 6, 2013, the International Society of Technology in Education (ISTE) posted this information: "Great Start for Digital Learning Policy in 113th Congress: Comprehensive Technology Bill Introduced in U.S. House of Representatives."

Overall, how do you feel about the influx of technology resources in the educational setting? Would you rather see the pace slow down, speed up, or go in another direction?