Presentation Tools

https://prezi.com/embed/km-8spiqhehq/?bgcolor=ffffff&lock_to_path=0&autoplay=0&autohide_ctrls=0&landing_data=bHVZZmNaNDBIWnNjdEVENDRhZDFNZGNIUE43MHdLNWpsdFJLb2ZHanI5aEQ1TTlsaS84M1RuOXNjNklERFRWYjVBPT0&landing_sign=e8T9IAJX3xSguEyv0Cs8gplS_If24z7tcAi8Tgl34OA

Prezi is used by several of my co-teachers, so I decided to give it a whirl.  I viewed several tutorials, and found the promise of having one done in 20 minutes enticing . . . however, my 20 minutes morphed into 40 . . . sigh.  I’m not sure how I feel about this tool; I see the potential, but had a lot of trouble navigating it.

Above: a science prezi on clouds, designed for 4th or 5th grade.

Well, Buncee promised the same quick and easy.  I decided to go ahead and try using the same data and images, and see what I could come up with, using it.  I am much more pleased with the results — I added a utube video and a classmate prompt.  See what you think by clicking on the link below and comparing.  This went more quickly than the Prezi.

https://www.edu.buncee.com/buncee/v2/717185

You can see from the above that I am leaning towards Buncee — the numerous awards at the bottom of their home page were very impressive, including their “Innovator of the Year” award and their “Best App” from the American Association of School Librarians.

Animation Antics

https://s3.amazonaws.com/embed.animoto.com/play.html?w=swf/production/vp1&e=1466790403&f=UAp002rMBYqv298ogpwLpQ&d=0&m=p&r=360p&volume=100&start_res=360p&i=m&asset_domain=s3-p.animoto.com&animoto_domain=animoto.com&options=

Above: an Animoto video I made, showing nature around our elementary school.       McGill, J.  (2016).  Critters around Stony Point Elementary.

PowToons –WowToons!  It was engaging and fun.  I can see how students would eagerly want to use this tool to create videos sharing their learning with others, perhaps in a “How To” video.  Students and some adults (like me) read comics and graphic novels, so this style of animation is perfect.  When it came time to trying my own project, I chose:

Animoto.  I chose to use this toy in the sandbox, because although I’ve created some videos I still feel new to it, and I wanted to work with some premade images (photographs of nature around our elementary school).  This way, I could tease out a more focused learning target for myself and explore the animation process itself, rather than the whole caboodle.  I did enjoy Animoto and found it very user-friendly, for the most part.  Although I did sign up using my school account, I could not rid the video of the watermark.  Ergh!  Animoto would be a great tool for students to document their work, especially for electronic shared book reports.  (I have used a different tool for that in the past, Google slideshare, but this would add music, etc.)

Wideo.  At first glance, this seemed to me very similar to Animoto.  After viewing a classmate’s incredible video, however, I went back and dug deeper.  Hats off to you, Mia, for showing me more of the potential of wideo!  That brief ‘intro to the library’ video would be perfect on a library and/or school home page website.

Pixiclip.  At first glance, I felt, why an electronic whiteboard?  Then I clicked on the side menu and viewed what others had done.  Several teenagers had clips on how to play video games, and to see and hear them talking while looking at the image on the screen was very powerful.  I could see elementary students using this tool to explain math, using words and pictures to show conceptual understanding (what is a fraction?) or problem solving.

Jing.  Jing is the only video tool in this sandbox that I had previously used.  I made several Jing instructional videos a few years ago, and although they were fine in the end, there were technical challenges that seemed to outweigh the benefit of using it, for me.  Personal opinion.  But it was effective.  Here is a link to a 2nd-grade Jing I made for language arts, reviewing the difference between fiction and nonfiction; it is 3 mins.  http://screencast.com/t/YTg5MzgzZDg

 

Library Website Sandbox-o-rama

Photograph: CCAC North Library. (2008). Library Books. CC by 2.0. Retrieved from www.flickr.com

First, a call-out to the Library Girl, Jennifer LaGarde–

how much fun is that avatar,

and how useful the 5 tips for library websites!

Browsing the cyber wonderland,

two library websites caught my eye:

Newbury Elementary School Library Media Center

http://neslibrary.weebly.com and

Wellesley Middle School Library

http://wmslib1.weebly.com.

Newbury’s home page used simplicity (1 photograph, 1 cartoon), and was uncluttered but informative (text pg. 235); the homepage also achieved harmony using a recurring font color in warm, energetic yellow-orange (text pgs. 79-80, 224-225). The tabs along the top were concise and demonstrated LaGarde’s emphasis on teaching; one of LaGarde’s five recommended elements was lacking, however, that of showing student work.

Wellesley’s home page and website was a different flavor, and designed for middle schoolers (as opposed to Newbury’s elementary level one).  This home page was not quite as clean, but caught my eye as a firm element (the welcome banner and graphic) was juxtaposed with a more fluid element (the Julianne Moore video).  This gave me the idea of balancing a stable image along with a more changeable one (i.e., achieving both similarity and variety, text pg. 234).  The colors were more varied, but kept a theme of earthy reds, browns, and orange to guide the eye.  Tabs were concisely arranged at the top, with drop-down menus.  Another aha! moment was how this website integrated LaGarde’s audience participation recommendation: the home page contains a google form for parents, staff, or students to fill out, for book recommendations (for reading or collection purchase).  This same form also contains a space for the students to write book reviews.  Once more, however, the element of a student gallery of work did not seem to be present.

You can predict from the above that I am a Weebly fan, and want to attempt my library website using that tool.  You have probably also guessed that I want to include a tab for student work.  Three Cheers for Library Girl!

Citations

Reynolds, G.  (2014).  Presentation Zen design.  San Francisco, CA: Peachpit.

LaGarde, J.  (2011).  “5 Things Every School Library Website Should Have.”   Retrieved from www.librarygirl.net

Audible Fun

McGill, J.  (2012)  Ms. Snodwhimple.  CC BY-NC

To hear this crabby schoolteacher speak about the last day of school, click below:

http://blabberize.com/view/id/1457321

Audio Musings

I greeted that Vocaroo link like an old friend,

our school has used it so much!

Lower elementary have used it for students to:

• practice and record fluency,
• read aloud spelling words, and
• read aloud their assigned book.

4th and 5th grades have used Vocaroo heavily in social studies / Virginia Studies,

where the reading is thick and the vocabulary demanding.

Teachers read aloud and record the assigned pages, then offer students the choice

of reading silently themselves, or following along with the recording.

Very popular!  Students bring their own headphones and enjoy tuning in.

I gave the other audio links a whirl,

Speak Pipe Voice Recorder seemed almost as friendly as Vocaroo.

Blabberize, well, what fun!  You’ll see above how I made my evil alter ego talk . . .

Podcasting

I found http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/sciencecasts/ wonderful, content-rich.

Also enjoyed https://themoth.org/podcast, which could advisedly be used with secondary students for creative nonfiction writing prompts. (Warning, screen them first!)

With the help of a specialist at our school, I’ve used podcasts to record student work and post links on the classroom blog.  Students read aloud stories, and in one case performed a student-written play, complete with sound effects.  We used a microphone and Garage Band.  I did not know about Audacity, that is one of the tips I’d like to follow up on.

Additional Audio Asides

I’ve used an online jungle soundtrack as a free-writing prompt — I tell students they need to “listen to the background sounds, and write what they feel inspired to write.”

I’ve also used freesound.org to play sound bites as part of an onomatopoeia lesson.  But this site is NOT one for children, I did not give them access to it, simply played pre-screened audio clips and had them write words they associated with the sounds.

Coffee: Our Best Infographic Friend

Diamonds are NOT a girl’s best friend . . . it’s coffee!

With the school-year clock winding down–but still ticking–

time is being measured for me in cups of Joe.

Let’s sip some (or gulp it), and examine this process.

I chose Canva as my infographic tool,

at first because the tutorial promised to be 23 seconds,

then later because it was so easy and intuitive to use.

My initial vision was a round bubbly infographic,

to resemble the coffee bubbles in your cup;

but I saw a template for the Dolomite Mountains

in these shades of green and brown and

click! I had to use it.

You’ll see from above that the analogous colors (text pg. 74)

are earthy and reminiscent of grass, trees, and coffee beans (pg. 79).

Challenges were abundant; I had to keep removing text,

synthesizing 2 pages of coffee notes into 40 words.

Then came Canva’s free images–what a playground!

The original coffee cup came in bright purple–

click, it turned to black for value contrast (pg. 91).

The biggest visual challenge were the 3 cups of coffee–it was easy to “copy” image,

but then, how to arrange the 3 cup images?

I tried a pyramid; tried 3 in a row, separated; then 3 spread like cards, as above.

What I want to remember to tell my students when it’s their infographic turn:

• collect information first
• start with a plan but be flexible about changing it
• adding images is like cooking: don’t overdo the ingredients

Citations

Infographic Information

Images and template from https://www.canva.com

Coffee Information retrieved from http://coffeeandhealth.org

Avey, Tori.  (2013).  “The Caffeinated History of Coffee.”  Online article retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/food/the-history-kitchen/history-coffee

Text

Reynolds, G.  (2014)  Presentation Zen Design: 2nd Edition.  San Francisco, CA: Peachpit.

Blog Bonus: Bloopers!

Whew!  Time for a coffee break!

Second Post: Jumping In

The above metaphorical image (thanks Mr. McWade, text pg. 111)

is the essence of this week (text pg. 65).

I jumped into the sandbox and played.

Image: Clappstar, photographer. 2006. “Sandbox Jumper.” Retrieved from www.flickr.com; Creative Commons 2.0 (by-nc-sa).

Some of the sand castles I built:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Wanted Poster created using tuxpi.com, suggested classroom uses: spotlighting endangered species (or a choice research animal); student self portraits;

Element Trading Card created using bighugelabs.com, suggested classroom uses: in 5th grade we create periodic table “element trading cards” on paper, so tried digitally;

Foldplay book created using Foldplay.com, suggested classroom uses: in 4th and 5th grades, students create “How To” books on paper, to help with writing and sequencing; I tried my paper version (“How to Make Homemade Grape Juice”) in a digital form.

Citations, Call Outs

Neon Trading Card has research source and image cited directly on it;

all other images (including that cute black doggie, my grandma, and the process of making homemade grape juice):

McGill, J.  Family photos, 1970 – 2016.  CC  BY-NC

Text

Reynolds, G.  (2014)  Presentation Zen Design: 2nd Edition.  San Francisco, CA: Peachpit.

First Blog Post of Libs 602: An Approach

Font:

Alegreya Sans

for simplicity

Text:

shows restraint

(sorry Seth Godin, it’s more than 6 words)

Copyright:

My pictured Wordle is conjured

from page 8 of Garr Reynolds’ text,

“An Approach, Not a Method.”

Copyright and Citation:

Image: McGill, J.  “Wordle from Garr Reynolds’ Text.”  CC BY-NC.

HOME

Reynolds, G. (2012) Presentation Zen, 2nd Ed.  Berkeley, CA: New Riders.

and now with correct edition, also:

Pages 13 & 17

Reynolds, G.  (2014)  Presentation Zen Design, 2nd Ed.  San Francisco, CA: Peachpit.