Working with Animoto

I spent some time over the last two weeks learning how to use Animoto, and I was happy to discover that it is every bit as intuitive as it appears. I was able to teach myself how to use it very quickly, and it was easy to create a simple video. I would feel confident asking students in middle school or high school to create their own videos using Animoto.

The most challenging aspect of the whole endeavor was finding "free to use and share" pictures to include in the slideshow. Prior to our class discussion last week, I never knew that I could filter Google Image results by the image's licensing requirements. I did that when searching for images to use in this Animoto. It definitely limited my results, but it was nice to know that I wasn't stealing someone's images! 

I also felt that the available music was fairly limited - although one of the options happened to work well for my video, in the future I see myself uploading music from my own personal library to use. 

Depending on the topics of my future Animotos, I might consider incorporating some images of my own, even if it meant going out and taking pictures specifically for that purpose.

Here is the Animoto that I created, which is meant to be a simple introduction to the book The Hunger Games.

Have you ever used Animoto before? Have you asked students to use it? How did that work out?

Diving Into Diigo

http://edudemic.com/2010/07/5-new-diigo-features-you-should-know-about/

Diigo is a social bookmarking site similar to Pinterest. Its purpose is essentially to store things you might want to go back to in the future. It is a cleaner, more efficient way of "bookmarking" various sites so that when you want to find something later, you don't encounter an endless sea of text.

So far, I have mixed feelings about Diigo. One the one hand, I absolutely love the ability to highlight certain parts of a page, or to place a sticky note somewhere. It's nice to be able to add titles, labels and descriptions.

However, I tend to prefer the visual aspect of Pinterest. I know that some people feel that it's easy to lose track of pins. I find that I avoid this by creating many very specific boards rather than just a few general ones. Instead of "recipes" I might have "breakfasts", "appetizers", and "desserts", for example. This makes it much easier to go back and find things that I have pinned. My only complaint with Pinterest is that I sometimes struggle to choose which board to pin something to. A certain cake recipe might seem to fall under both "desserts" and "party ideas", but I dislike cluttering up my boards by pinning one pin in multiple places. In this area, the labels feature of Diigo is a big help.

I do think it is possible that I might still be on a bit of a learning curve with Diigo. I will definitely keep using Diigo, and see if my opinion changes over time.

For anyone who is interested, feel free to peruse my diigo library.

Have you ever used Diigo or Pinterest? how do you think the two compare?

Getting Into Google Reader

One tool that I rely quite heavily on as a blogger is Google Reader. Google Reader is essentially an online mailbox that keeps all of the blogs you read in one central location. After adding the blogs you want to follow, you can sort them into categories to make it easier to quickly find the one you want to read.

For example, in my Google Reader the blogs that I follow are sorted into the following categories: Authors, Book Blogs, Cooking Blogs, EDUC 584, Favorite Bloggers, Gym Inspiration, and Friends & Family. Each time I log into my Google Reader, I can quickly find the blog that I am in the mood to read at that particular moment. Google Reader has a nice mobile version if you happen to have a smart phone - I often catch up on my blog reading when I have some time to kill waiting in line at the store, or if I arrive early meeting a friend for dinner. I will even log in on my phone while at the gym if I need a distraction from my workout!

The only "danger" in reading blogs via Google Reader - especially if doing so on your phone - is that it can be easy to forget to actually click through to the blog and leave a comment. In my opinion, leaving meaningful comments on posts and involving yourself in the online community is a crucial part of blogging. Reading posts is worthwhile in and of itself, and I certainly don't feel obligated to comment on every post that I read - far from it. However, I do think that the back-and-forth that comes in the comments section of a blog post is a really valuable part of the blogging experience.

One thing I learned while reading Richardson's chapter on RSS is that within Google Reader, you can enter search terms to help you find blogs of particular interest to you. Although I have used Google Reader for years now to organize the blogs I read, somehow I never knew about this particular feature. After I read Richardson's chapter on RSS, I immediately tested this feature out and promptly discovered a new book review blog to follow! I will definitely be experimenting further with this feature in the future.

From a classroom perspective, this feature could be extremely valuable to students searching for blogs that match up with their interests. I would introduce Google Reader and its various features to my students as part of an introduction to blogging.

In short, Google Reader is the perfect tool for anyone who reads more than a handful of blogs on a regular basis, and it is the only reason I am consistently up to date with all of the blogs that I follow (a lot!).

Do you use Google Reader (or something similar)? How do you think you might advise students to use it, if at all?

Blogging with Purpose

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One of our assignments for class this week was to read the article "Online Collaborative Inquiry: Classroom Blogging Ventures and Multiple Literacies". I found this article interesting in a number of ways. 

One statement in particular that really stood out to me was that the technologies themselves are less important than how we as teachers integrate them into the classroom. It is not enough, in other words, simply to instruct students in the basics of Twitter, facebook, or Animoto. Rather, we need to find meaningful ways to truly integrate these technologies into our existing curriculum. Students need to learn which technology to use in certain contexts, and how best to use it. In this way, they begin to develop advanced literary skills. The National Education Technology Standards for Students (NETS) has specific guidelines regarding how students should understand and be prepared to utilize these various technologies. The argument can be made that blogging in particular satisfies most of these skill sets, but it is important to remember that students ought to be well rounded when it comes to various technologies. 

I also liked that the article made mention of the value of the blogging community. Blogging inherently encourages a back-and-forth discussion that can be invaluable in a school setting. Students will be able to share their work and expand their knowledge base by connecting online with other writers, and we as teachers will have successfully integrated blogging into our classroom.

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Animoto in the Classroom

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This week I have spent some time exploring the Animoto website and thinking about how I might integrate this technology into my future classroom. I like that this technology seems to be very intuitive and not at all intimidating - I can see high school students easily learning how to make videos.

I spent some time viewing the Animotos listed on our class page, but I am planning to teach high school English, and most of these samples seemed to be aimed at elementary school children, so I decided to branch out on my own via Google. I am a huge fan of young adult literature. I review primarily young adult literature on my personal book blog, and I even created a unit plan about The Hunger Games for a Curriculum course a few semesters ago. With that in mind, I decided to look for an Animoto about The Hunger Games.

After doing a little searching online, I found the following Animoto for The Hunger Games, and I immediately bookmarked it to serve as future inspiration. I can definitely see myself using this Animoto (or even creating a similar one myself) as part of an introduction to a unit on The Hunger Games.

I like this particular Animoto because it provides a very brief introduction to the plot of The Hunger Games, without giving away any plot points. The images and the music selected both fit the overall tone of the book fairly well, and it's a short enough video to keep a teenager's attention. I might consider using an Animoto like this at the beginning of a unit, and a more complex version further into the Unit - or even asking students to create more complex versions later in the unit.

How do you think Animotos can best be integrated into a unit plan?

What's In a Blog?

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So you want to start a blog, or you've decided that you want your students to start a blog. What now?!

Personally, I would strongly suggest starting a personal blog on a topic about which you yourself have an interest or knowledge base.  Write reviews of your favorite books, chronicle your attempts at cooking new vegetarian recipes, or create an online journal of the crazy things your kids do. If you create a blog about something you are passionate about, you will find it much easier to find the motivation and inspiration to actually write. You will find yourself eager to work on your new project, to explore different features and to find other bloggers with shared interests to interact with. When you have done all of this, you will have a basic understanding of why and how we blog, and you will be better able to introduce the concept of blogging to your students.

In chapter 3 of Richardson's text, he makes the argument that, much as teachers of writing should write themselves, teachers of blogging should blog themselves. It sets a good example for the students, and it hones the teacher's own skill set. A teacher who blogs consistently will be better able to effectively teach her students how to use blogs as educational tools.

I also agree with Richardson's suggestion of starting small with classroom blogs and building on skills throughout the year. I think Richardson makes a fantastic suggestion when he recommends that teachers provide students with a list of blogs to read and explore, as a way of familiarizing students with the concept of blogging. I would think carefully about which blogs I included on that list, and really make an effort to connect with the interest areas of my students. I might include blogs like Cat vs. Human, Post Secret, or It's Like I'm Magic. I might even conduct an interest survey of the class before creating the list of blogs for students to explore. Finding blogs that will genuinely interest students is a great way to make their introduction to the world of blogging a positive experience.

At the outset of the school year, I think the classroom blog should primarily be a place where students can go to look for important information. Throughout the school year, teachers can slowly increase students' involvement with the blog, so that by the end of the year students are comfortably responding to the teacher's posts, creating their own posts and engaging in meaningful conversation via comments.

What are some ways that you think you might introduce the topic of blogs to your classroom? How would you get your students excited about reading blogs and blogging themselves?

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