The K-12 Online Conference invites participation from educators around the world interested in innovative ways Web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to improve learning. This FREE conference is run by volunteers and open to everyone. The 2009 conference theme is “Bridging the Divide.”
This year’s conference begins with a pre-conference keynote by classroom teacher and international educator Kim Cofino the week of November 30, 2009.
The following two weeks, December 7-11 and December 14-17, over fifty presentations will be posted online to our conference blog and our conference Ning for participants to view, download, and discuss.
Live Events in the form of three “Fireside Chats” are listed on the events page of our conference Ning and Facebook fan page, and live events will continue in 2010 through twice-monthly “K-12 Online Echo” webcasts on EdTechTalk.
Everyone is encouraged to participate in both live events during and after the conference as well as asynchronous conversations. Over 122 presentations from 2008, 2007, and 2006 are available, along with archived live events. Follow the K12 Online Conference on Twitter and Facebook!
Use only copyright-free, free images found online, not any student originals.
Don’t require narration.
Have students use the music provided in PhotoStory, or don’t require music.
If using Windows Movie Maker, use the AutoMovie feature to automate the process.
Experienced digital storytellers strategies:
The student’s content/story can be a longer, more than just a poem, etc.
The students can bring in their own images.
Use Windows Movie Maker and include video.
Include narration.
Include copyright-free, free, music downloaded from the Internet.
Edit the transitions.
Edit the Photostory animation.
Create original music using the free site Aviary: Myna.
Each day tell the students what they are expected to accomplish, referring to a project checklist or a scoring guide.
During the lesson, display a list of tasks that they are to be completing.
Using a project checklist or a scoring guide, assess students’ progress every day or two. This could be done during class by checking with students as they work, or by accessing the students’ project folders on the server after class. Students could also reflect on their progress at the end of hour, making notes on the project checklist.
Students have limited storage space on the server. If they receive messages indicating they are out of space, they may need to delete old files, or move the project folder to a flash drive. (Be sure to copy the project folder, not just the files in it.) It is a good idea to have a couple flash drives available.
Insist that student stick to using only copyright-free media.
Insist the students create a project folder and store all source files and the project file there.
If Windows Movie Maker can’t find the source files for the product, right click on a missing file (big red X), and choose Browse for Missing File. Then navigate to the . This typically occurs when sources files aren’t stored in a project folder, or source files are moved after being imported into the project.
When using Windows Movie Maker, if students do not want to use the audio included with the video and want to record new narration and also include music, they will need to use Audacity. Movie Maker provides only one audio track. So the narration and music will have to combined into one track in Audacity.
Xtenda machines won’t work with such a project. Windows Movie Maker runs on only one station at a time, and there are not ample USB ports available to plug in head sets.
Don’t allow students to check out headsets until after the projects due date. Otherwise you have fewer headsets available during class time.
Sample Lesson Outline
Day 1 Project Folder, Images, and Source Document
Share an example photostory project.
Demonstrate how to create a project folder.
Demonstrate how to locate and download copyleft/creative commons licenses images.
Discuss aligning images to narration and how many images are needed (illustrate big concepts).
Demonstrate how to collect source documentation while downloading media.
Students create a project folder, find images, and document sources in a Word document, saving everything to their project folder.
Day 2 Images and Source Document
Student continue to find images and document sources.
Day 3 Title Image, Images and Source Document (depending on the length of the written material, more days may be needed to collect images).
Demonstrate how to create a title slide in PowerPoint. Save as jpeg instead of a PowerPoint file.
Students create title slide in PowerPoint and save and jpg file in project folder.
Students finish finding images and documenting sources.
Day 4 Sequence and Edit Images
Demonstrate how to import and sequence images into Photostory and some image basic editing features (crop, effects, color adjustments).
Students import images, sequence, edit, and add text.
Day 5 Sequence and Edit Images, Rehearse
Students finish image editing.
Students match narration to individual slides, rehearsing reading.
Day 6 Narration
Demonstrate the headset controller for volume and mute. Also show how mic flips down on left to be placed between mouth and nose.
Demonstrate how to record narration with headsets.
Students will record narration.
Day 7Music (Depending on the length of the written material, more days may be needed to record narration.)
Supplies: headsets
Play 3 videos, each with different music to demonstrate how music overrides images.
Demonstrate how to use provided music or import a music file, and set volume for music.
Students finish narration and add music.
Students create Source slide in Powerpoint, copying text from the Source document, and saving it as jpeg file in project folder. Import the Source image into the project.
Day 8 Finish and Produce
Demonstrate how to finish/produce the project.
Students will finish and produce project.
Day 9 Share Stories
This can be done in the classroom with a projector. You will need Windows Media Player 10 installed on the station.
If you want to allow students to comment digitally on each others’ projects, embed the videos in a blog.
Embed only 1 video per post.
Take the class to a lab if you don’t have adequate station access in your classroom. Watch the videos as a class. You can view the videos from the student folders on the server, even though they are available online, to avoid using bandwidth and ensuring that the video plays quickly and smoothly. You should not have students watching videos individually in most cases, because this will use significant bandwidth. Also, all students would then need earbuds/headsets to hear the audio.
After each video, have students leave a comment on the blog post. A lesson on commenting will result in better feedback.
It will be a simpler process if students are not required to have accounts in order to leave comments, but yet comments should be moderated before they appear on the blog.
I would recommend creating a free account at Vimeo to upload the videos. Register for a WordPress.com blog to post the videos and allow moderated comments.
Willard R-II now has a Google Apps account, which is basically a personalized Google suite of tools. Previously we’ve been using the various Google tools by having students and teachers sign up for individual accounts. This Fall, as students were attempting to register for Google Docs, their mobile phone numbers were requested as a means of account verification, which put a stop to the registration. Google Apps gives us the ability to create multiple user accounts simultaneously, with any email addresses or verification process.
All the High School students currently have Google Apps accounts, which includes access to Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Google Sites. The students can access any of these 3 applications by accessing the web addresses listed below, and then entering their original Novell username and password. Students will be asked to change their passwords upon first login. Teachers can print a report of students’ login information by following the directions in this handout. Teacher accounts will be created upon request.
The interface is basically the same as Google Docs, but with our logo. To learn more about Google Docs, you can access my handout and screencasts on the Fusion: Google Docs webpage. Willard High School Teachers: if you want an account just send me an email. I’m available to help introduce this tool to your students. Scott will be adding a link to the Google Docs App to the High School Website homepage.
Google Docs benefits:
create documents, spreadsheets, or slideshows that are stored online (like Office, but free and with limited capabilities)
web-based program, no software to install; no more issues about differing versions of software at home and school
access documents from any Internet connected computer; students can access files from home;
share a document with many other users, giving them permission to either edit or just view the file; this feature can be used by students to “turn in” their assignments digitally to their teacher; no more stacks of papers to take home for grading;
use the comment feature in Docs too leave feedback for students without editing the content of their document
simultaneous editing of a file by multiple users makes it a great tool for group assignments and peer editing
a revision history will show what was contributed by each user, and also allows for the restoration of previous versions of the document if so desired
publish your document on the Internet with 1 click
upload office files to store/edit in your Google Docs account (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
download Google Docs files to your computer
subscribe to a document and receive email notification when a change has been made by any users
