My Wordle

I created this wordle from a list of words my class had collectively thought about hand held learning. I like the look of these 'word clouds' because they are attractive, aesthetically pleasing and give instant information. The larger the word the more it appears in your passage. These are already being used in advertising and on media. I have seen the University use a wordle on their website. I think this could be used in the class room as a way of displaying ideas and thoughts in a clear interactive way.

here is a presentation showing how to use wordle in the classroom. I like the idea of using it for poetry and to introduce new vocabulary.

div style="width:425px" id="__ss_585291">Using Wordle In The Classroom

View more presentations from murcha.

My animoto

Today I uploaded images and music to create a video in animoto.


Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

We used collaborative learning to create a video with pictures and sound. The video was about hand held learning.  We used wordle to create the title screen then used image chef to create several word mosaics to create slides about mobiles. The word mosiacs are not the best as the pictures would be clearer if they had a larger amount of words. The image chef site is also not suitable for children as it has links to dating sites on it.

You could use the word mosaics to create the names of your class groups or a sign on the door of all your pupils.

The animoto site is good for creating quick movies as it does the linking between static images for you and also adds a patterned background making it look very professional. We only used the quick 30 sec free demo. This would be good for displaying pictures of a class trip or photos for a presentation.

To add music we experimented with Dance ejay 2005. This product is specifically designed for school and therefore has large buttons, interactive colours easy layout and instant playback. This is an excellent product for children who like music but struggle to read notes or follow it on paper.

Last week

So much to reflect on this week

I had an iphone for the week - what did I learn. I found the iphone easy to access the internet compared to my blackberry. If an area has good wifi then the iphone is good for quick google searches and instant information. Unfortunately I did not have many apps stored on the iphone and did not have a password to access the store. This I found could be disruptive when teaching, if you were trying to use an app during a lesson and all the iphones did not have the same software i think pupils would become disruptive and switch off quickly. There is this culture now that the internet and technology should be quick and people do not like waiting. I found this out myself last Thursday.

Movie editing

To edit our movies we had to convert the flip camera videos to windows media files. This was so we could access them on other computers. This was a huge problem. I spent 3.5 hours trying to convert them. I first tried zamzar. This not only took a while but the files once downloaded were corrupted. I then tried win X
after this the files were not corrupt and could be viewed on the screen but when trying to upload them to windows movie maker they did not have the correct file name and were unable to be recognised. The one I found that worked eventually was Freeware.

On reflection any task you wish the children to do you should know exactly how to do it yourself. You should know what programmes work, what is installed on the computers and how to do it.

The holistic approach

I would see myself as having a holistic approach to teaching. I believe that teaching should be based around the child's needs and be individualised. I developed this approach while working at The New School, Butterstone. This special needs school works on the basis of every child being individual and every child having an IEP. The reason for this blog is because I was wondering how to bring ICT into my theory? Can ICT be a benefit for every child? Last week on facebook I got a link from another blogger who visited the school.
Blog post

On reading this post I reflected that ICT can not only be used in the classroom but as a way of getting your message across. The approaches we use as teachers can go around the world in seconds using the web. Perhaps one day a visitor to my class will be blogging about their experience and what they have learnt.

The 2nd animation

The groups second attempt at animation.

In response to comments

How did we make the animation and what did you use?

We first started as a group by designing a storyboard.
We used plasticine to make the characters because it is easy to manipulate and reshape. Other materials like playdough would colapse. We used digital blue movie cameras to record the animation. Instrustions. These cameras take a series of pictures. It takes a total of 15 pictures to make 1 second of animation.

We then used Audacity to rcord sound for our animation.

Where did you upload to?
The animation was then uploaded to YouTube

Benefits to children's learning using movie making?

There are several benefits to children's learning. I would use this style of animation at the end of a topic to consolidate learning. The pupils would enjoy the task and not realise they were sharing their knowledge with others. It is also active task which would involve lots of different types of learners. In particular it would help kinaesthetic learners. The movie making process also allows the teacher to evaluate their own teaching and assess the pupils.

Roles in collaborative process?

I found it easier to have a role in the first attempt at animation. I found the second attempt difficult because it was rushed. I feel that children would need a large amount of time on this project as I did not like the pressure of having a short time limit. In the first attempt I moved the camera and in the second attempt i was looking after the computer. I liked both roles but found it is important to communicate. Mistakes that appear in the second film are down to a lack of communication.

Advantages and disadvantages of collaborate working?

As with all tasks there are advantages and diadavantages to working as a team. For the movie making their are more advantages. There are so many jobs and tasks involved in the process that it helps to have a group of 4 or 5. There is also the added benefit of more creative ideas. I would find it very difficult to do animation as only one person.

Voices of The World Task

Our group had to created the task for April.

This is an online wikispaces page

Our task is for each group to create a PowerPoint of easter customs in their country. Add your voice using Audacity. Then publish online with my plick where you can sycronise the slides and mp3.

Here is our example URL

This should be our example embedded:

Easter in Scotland