How can Photostory be used educationally?

You might think, after reading the previous post,

“Wow, what a cool idea for scrapbooking at home.  But how in the WORLD could that fit into the classroom?”

 Yes, I had these same thoughts when I was first introduced to the concept of Photostory.  Well, ponder no more!  Here are some ideas for using Photostory in YOUR classroom!

*  You could take pictures on a field trip and upload them onto the computer.  Students could create an album from Photostory to show off what they learned through the unit and connect it to what they saw on their field trips.  Captions would reflect the pictures represented and the verbal communication could explain it in more detail.

*  You could help students take pictures of things representing math in real life (ex:  angles/lines around a park, decimals around town, geometrical shapes in various houses) to connect what they are learning to how it is used in real life.  Students could work in pairs to create a photostory album on what is seen in each picture and the importance of understanding the math concept itself.

*  You could create a folder of downloaded images (following copyright of course!) pertaining to Social Studies or Science units.  Students could use these photos as an introduction to the unit (previewing and predicting) or a closure to the unit (before a test to show how much they know). 

*  Students could create creative stories (older grades could create them to share with younger buddies).  The stories could incorporate real pictures, pictures created in a different resource or digital photos dowloaded from online.  Obviously, they’d have to go through the editing process and create an outline for their story, but this would be a fun way to provide students with opportunities to express themselves in a new way!

The opportunities are vast for Photostory!  The only struggle would be students who aren’t as practiced with a keyboard or mouse and getting computer lab time (as we all know that’s the biggest struggle of all!).  If you could work past these setbacks, it would be a fabulous way to get those ‘reluctant writers’ a chance to show off their stuff!

Photostory download!

Put down those pencils, pick up the keyboard!

Poor little Jonny.  He hates to write.  He’s the student who can think of about ten million excuses why he won’t ever have to pick up a pencil, but can explain things verbally to you without a problem. 

We all have Jonny in our class.  Most of us probably have multiple Jonnys who work together to fabricate excuses against writing down their assignments.  What can we, as eductors, do to help students put their thoughts down on paper?  We can use the computer of course!

 I had the pleasure of working with the program Microsoft Photostory.   Students are able to create stories from real pictures, downloaded images or videos.  Individual students can use the program to choose the pictures they want to use and then crop/edit them.  After editing them, they can create captions for them, which incorporates the written communication.   Do you think students will think twice about getting their thoughts down on a computer screen?  No!

The students can take the storytelling a step further and add music and/or sound clips to it.  This would incorporate verbal communication into the project, which is part of the student’s Language Arts grade!  Student who are more hesitant about speaking in front of people have the option of typing their script onto the page before saying it into the microphone. 

What a fabulous way of incorporating Language Arts into a technological world. 

The best part?  It doesn’t need to be done in a computer lab!  Students could tackle this assignment as a center activity with a buddy if there are 2-3 computers available for use in the classroom!

How to use!

Examples!

How can Wikis be used in my classroom?

Subject

Ideas for using a wiki in class

Math

*  Students can share situations where they have used math in their everyday life.  This may branch their thinking of why math is important!   Examples could be using fractions when cutting up a pizza or cooking.  *   Students could provide step by step procedures, along with graphic illustrations, to help tutor other students on concepts being learned.  Perhaps they could list out the steps in adding or subtracting fractions using LCM to find common denominators.  Students could learn new ways to think about it by reading other students accounts.

Science

·         Students could write about their findings to certain experiments, walking through the scientific process.  This would include going from materials needed to data collected to conclusions drawn.  Perhaps they could compare their findings with another school that did a similar experiment. ·         Students could create a glossary of science terms as they learn them.  This could include graphic illustrations and where you can see them in everyday life.  An example would be learning about communities and listing examples of consumers vs. producers.

Social Studies

·         Travel brochure of something you are researching.  Example would be creating a brochure of the Middle, Northern and Southern colonies before the Revolutionary war.  This could include what they grew for crops, main ways of earning a living, where they lived, what their religion was like, etc.  This would help illustrate the differences between these three regions. ·         Students could take a position for a debate and argue their points.  Examples could be whether to be a Patriot or a Loyalist to King George the Third at the time of the Revolutionary war.  Seeing other’s pieces might motivate them to change their stance!·         Students could collaborate with classrooms around the world to put a multicultural spin on learning!  Students from Frederick Classrooms could post ideas on what it’s like to grow up in MD while kids from other states or even countries could tell about their traditions, customs, etc.

Language Arts

·         Book talks about different books.  Students could add their own ideas after reading the same book.  Might be a great way to get students connecting and thinking about their reading!·         Creating a story where each student adds a couple lines.  The end result would be very humorous as students would feed off each other.  Criteria might include that students use their Word of the Days, adjectives or synonyms for the word that is not allowed to be used (in my classroom GOOD or SAID).·         Creating a classroom dictionary of our word of the days to include a sentence.  Others could add words they frequently use in their own classrooms!

There’s a wide variety of ideas in which Wikis can be used across grade levels to provide students with the opportunities to use technology as well as share their ideas with other students.  Imagine the modeling that could go on as far as writing, communication and research are concerned!  It gives students the capability to have control of their own learning and the authority to teach each other in a collaborative effort. 

The following provide examples of Wikis in use by companies and classrooms!

Community Wiki

Meatball Wiki

Controversial Topic….to wiki or not to wiki?

As with most new concepts, there are always people supporting it and people criticizing it’s capabilities.  This is no different with the latest technological idea:  Wikis!

Proponents agree that wikis offer beneficial research pages as well as a place for people to collaboratively offer support and opinions on various topics.  Benefits of Wikis include:

• 1. Wikis provide students with the ability to see that thinking is never over!  It is always important to brainstorm your ideas, write about them and then revise to a finished product.  While we do this continuously during Language Arts through written stories, students need to see that this is cross curricular. There is always someone who wants to challenge your ideas and spring new ones off of them.  An example might be when posting information about an experiment.  Someone else might take the conclusions of that experiment and ask new questions which would require new thinking.  Thinking is an ongoing process, just as learning is!
  2. Wikis provide students with a strong sense of teamwork and collaboration, which is of course important in everyday life.  Students might have to post their ideas and wait for someone else to edit or change them.  Through teamwork, they can create a response that is more complete!
  3. Students evaluate and create using their own pondering.  The teacher might give them an overall concept to think about, such as a novel that was just read.  Students must then take it upon themselves to think about their responses, create the wiki and then springboard new thinking off of a classmates response to that same novel. 
  4. Connections are constantly being made to both new and old concepts.  A thought that a classmate writes might make another student think about a concept learned in science or something they saw while they were at the mall over the weekend.  Making connections to everyday life and across curriculums is how students learn!
  5. Active learning  is taking place while students are on a wiki page.  Students must think for themselves, revisit what they already know and add to their thinking in order to complete the assignment.  They can’t just tell what they think, but must also use evidence to back up their answer, therefore they are actively engaged in their learning.

Critics to Wiki propose that these sites are not accurate.  They are pulling sources from a wide variety of people, ranging in age from teen years to senior citizens.  If the page is not set to private, anyone is able to add or delete information as they see fit.  Because it’s used as a resource to gather information for student research, it’s crucial that students realize Wikis won’t always have accurate information.  Either on purpose or by accident, people can post false information.  This would make the research they are doing innacurate!  Anyone can post their ideas/thoughts/opinions to thousands of web users in seconds!

 

If you choose to use Wikis in your classroom, you as the educator will have to take responsibilities to ensure the information your students are finding is accurate.  Fortunately this is easy to do via the history tab.  You can check who has added what information in a matter of seconds.  This will help make the resources more reliable.  In making a Wiki with your class, you can set the page to private so that only those with permission may change information.  This will prohibit vandalism from happening (at least by outside users!).

 

As more technology comes into play, we gain more and more things to worry about!  Wikis are such a valuable tool for helping students expand their minds as well as their skills on the computer.  Despite being controversial, the true question really should be “why not wiki”?!?!

Should you get Wiki with it?

Wikis.  What an odd name!  But these oddly named pages are growing in popularity due to their unique charm of allowing the ‘common person’ to add their knowledge onto a public forum.  So, whether you’re one of those people who has to constantly be ‘tooting your own horn’ with the widespread information you know or one of those people that has a plethora of opinions on subjects in your head but never gets to share them….here’s your chance!

 According to Wikipedia ,  a wiki is “the sum of all human knowledge”. A variety of people are able to add their ‘two cents’ so to speak and thus it becomes a resource collected from people worldwide.  When you come across something you think you have a lot of knowledge on, you can add in your thoughts.  If you come across one of your favorite topics not yet assigned a wiki entry, create one!  The opportunities are endless!  Wikis are created for such things as recipes, historic events/people, group projects, managing documents for major companies or even giving information to universities and colleges!

 

A wiki is an online database that works in collaboration with other browsers to create links from one page to another.  It’s a place to reference facts based on ideas and information taken from various sources.  These pages can be quickly edited and updated to provide users with the most accurate information possible.  The word ‘wiki’ itself refers to the whole product.  ‘Wiki page’ refers to a single page of the database.  ‘Wiki Text’ refers to the language used to create a true wiki.

 

A wiki can be created by anyone.  The pages can be set to private so that viewers can see the information but are unable to add or change any information.  This is wonderful in preventing vandalism against the page.  They are valuable resources to use for information because they are a collections from a variety of sources from teenagers to adults.  The facts represented are more unique than those found in an encyclopedia, as they are a collection of various people’s points of view!

 

So, do you have some insight to share?  Go ahead….get wiki with it!

What can we do about Technology when we have limited resources?

Everyday it’s a constant struggle.

How can I incorporate technology into my classroom when there aren’t enough resources in the school?

How can I incorporate technology into the day when the computer lab is being taken over for county assessments and to fulfill curriculum standards?

I know technology is a motivating way to get student’s attention and have them do diligent work, but I don’t have enough time in the day to crowd around a computer!

 These are all questions I ask myself routinely!  I would love to be able to have a regular computer lab time to visit and explore different programs on the computer.  Unfortunately that isn’t always plausible!  With many counties looking for funding and ways to get technology out to different schools, it’s become increasingly important for teachers to take what resources they have and make technology an integral part of the school week!

You have one or two computers in your classroom?  Why not make this part of the student’s independent block during reading group.  Perhaps you will need to have three or four students around each computer, but they could easily have a task to complete (such as researching from a pre chosen website about a particular topic, playing a math enrichment game or typing a response to a question).  Students in older grades could use online databases to find new information about your Social Studies or Science unit as an extension on ideas already learned! 

Have a TV?  See if your school offers a TVator for teachers to use!  This is a wonderful way to have an awesome website, video clip or reading from the computer visible to the whole class.  Not only is this motivating for the students because it’s on the TV, but it also gives them an extra source of information and a new way of approaching it!

Use computer lab time wisely!  Instead of spending the entire time playing math games, have students create powerpoints (yes it will take multiple periods, but in the end of the final product is awesome!), type papers, research new information, etc.

Even with limited resources, if you’re creative with your time and resources you do have, your classroom can incorporate technology to benefit students, while still involving them in the curriculum. 

So, have you used technology today?!

Powerpoint…”point, click, you’re done!”

welcome-to-sheaville.ppt

abcs-of-fifth-grade-through-pictures.ppt

Every teacher has that moment.  Where they’re out of motivating ways to have students complete projects.  They’ve done the paper/pencil brochure for descriptive writing.  They’ve tried the speech as a character from a book.  What do they do next? 

Why not try Powerpoint?!  According to the experts, powerpointing is

“a high-powered software tool used for presenting information in a dynamic slide show format. Text, charts, graphs, sound effects and video are just some of the elements PowerPoint can incorporate into your presentations with ease”

There are many tutorials online that can walk you through the steps of using powerpoint.  This tool can be as high-tech or as low-tech as you’d like!  The incentives for using powerpoint are:

• creating various different kinds of slides (included can be graphs, pictures, text, comparison charts, etc).

• Use of different fonts to attract attention

• Easy ability to insert pictures and video clips

• use of mouse to move feasibly from slide to slide

• ability to contain a plethora of information on any number of slides

• color and slide design can be chosen by the creator

• class handouts/notes can be printed off easily

Powerpoints can be used for whole group activities.  In this case, the teacher might create a presentation for a more lecture based class.  The students could take notes directly from the slides or on the handouts that are provided.

The teacher could also create the powerpoint as a peroformance based assessment.  Students could work singly or with a partner to open a powerpoint and complete certain tasks, given the directions inside the powerpoint (example: matching letters to appropriate words, dates to important events, etc).

Powerpoints can also be created by the students in a variety of subject areas!

• creating information about important events during a Social Studies unit

• Creating a ‘sliding book report’ where they tell about the different plot elements in a novel read

• creating a math tutorial for younger students to help them with different concepts (how to add, subtract, compare fractions, etc)

• A presentation of review before a quiz/test to share with a buddy group

• A final, end of the year presentation, including pictures of various events that happened throughout the year!

Powerpoints can be incorporated into many different subject areas.  The students get a kick out of using the computer to present their different information! It’s more motivating than a paper and pencil activity, as it provides them with a new and different opportunity!

Powerpoint is very simple to use and navigate.  The following clip provides you with an online tutorial that helps get some of the kinks of the program out!

Examples of Powerpoint used in Sheaville can be found above!