Exploring Creaza

After reading Abbie's post about Creaza, I went back to explore it.  I have used mind mapping as a student in graduate school and also in my library class lessons.  I don't remember using it before my graduate studies.  When I first started using it, I realized that I am a visual learner and that mind mapping was a natural fit for me.  It is an important tool to offer students to enhance study skills, research, brain storming, creating, etc.  I do like Creaza in terms of free software products.  I think that is is easy to use and versatile.  I did find myself comparing it to Kidspiration and Inspiration (graphic organizer/mind mapping programs).  These products are not free.  Importing pictures is easier in Kidspiration in that it is a one step process.  With Creaza, I had to upload my pictures into a media library and then select the ones that I wanted to insert into Creaza.  Thank you Sandy, I was able to figure this out after receiving your email with instructions.  I like the fact that Kidspiration has many templates preprogrammed such as Venn diagrams, compare and contrast, and such for different subject areas.  I also like that one can create a graphic organizer of a topic in Kidspiration and then click a button to convert it into notecards so that they can see the relationship between the graphic and written notes.  I have used Kidspiration with students to brain storm ideas for writing poems.  With 2nd grade, we explored everybody books and poetry books about the seasons.  Then students worked in pairs to brainstorm in Kidspiration before beginning to create poems about the seasons.  Mind mapping is a great tool for beginning to explore a unit topic.  Students can explore online encyclopedia articles which give an overview of a topic and simultaneously create a mind map of topics and subtopics in Creaza or Kidspiration that they would like to incorporate into their work or research project.  This activity helps students to see clearly how the contextual framework in encyclopedias can help them to explore a topic and either broaden or narrow the topic down.  Just a final comment on mind mapping.  I am reading, The Element, by Sir Ken Robinson as my summer read book.  He states that "when people are in the zone, they align naturally with a way of thinking that works best for them."  (pg. 96) Then he gives the example of his daughter using mind mapping in her study of the Civil War.  It took her from a place of boredom with the lectures to a depth of understanding and total recall after mind mapping the information that was presented.   The use of the mind mapping transformed the process for her. 

Battle of the Books Animoto

Here is the link to the Battle of the Books Animoto

http://animoto.com/play/fUC2pE4ponLEmG94DKhJTQ

Fun with Animoto

Today I am exploring Animoto.   I made a brief Animoto video using some of the pictures that we have taken in library and here it is

http://animoto.com/play/CfqxLr2G6Gd6c0Q1tH1F2w

I will definitely use Animoto this year to create videos with the pictures that I take while we prepare for battle and during the Battle of the Books for 3^rd through 5^th grade.  In fact, I think that I will make some videos of the battles that took place last year to get the students excited about battling this year.  I took pictures of the students reading, discussing, and journaling in the months preceding the battles as well of pictures of the actual battles.  I think that the students will enjoy previewing these videos as they get excited about battling in the new year.    This was fun and I found that it is very easy to use.

Glacier Adventure in Hello Slide

I am playing with Hello Slide this afternoon after Sandy suggested that I explore it based on what I was trying to do with Flipsnack.  Here is the link to my Glacier Presentation after my first attempt.

http://www.helloslide.com/presentations/433rujz876/glacier-presentation

I noticed that I have to click on the slides that I did not add audio to in order to get those slides to advance.  The accent on the audio is funny at times such as his pronuciation of the word, Glacier.  I like the audio but wish I could record my own voice or a student's voice.  Maybe I can, I am not sure.  I wish this program would allow you to turn the pages like Flipsnack but also have the audio.   

Yoga and Flipsnack

Well, I discovered Rock Your Yoga with Sadie Nardini on the Veria Living Channel (162 on FIOS TV) this morning.  This is exactly what I needed to start my day.  This show is on at 7, 10, and 6 p.m. on weekdays and 7 and 10 on weekends.  You can explore Veria at www.veria.com

Okay, so back to flipsnack.  I took a powerpoint and transformed it into flipsnack.  I am thinking that all changes need to be made before you convert to a pdf and bring into flipsnack.  For instance, I want to add text and maybe audio to my book.  Do I need to do that in powerpoint and then convert to pdf? 

Today, I will continue to explore digital storytelling.  I enjoyed reading Kate's post and thought that I had responded but did not see my response so I will try posting again. 

Exploring FlipSnack

After reading Kate’s post and reflecting, I realized I was not doing something right about uploading my powerpoint to Flipsnack.  When I saved my powerpoint to a pdf format, I did not pay attention to the options at first and saved it as standard.  It would not upload into FlipSnack.  It never gave me an error message but continued to show that it was loading.  I went back and chose the minimum size option and it uploaded without a problem.  Now I am exploring how to customize the flipsnack book.  

Exploring Digital Storytelling

Today, I enjoyed beginning my exploration of the digital storytelling materials. I spent most of today exploring the Digital Storytelling Toolkit and previewing some of the videos that the students have made. Myrta's Story was of particular interest. Myrta is a migrant farm worker who moves from Texas to Utah each year as summer begins to pick fruit in Utah. Her story is amazing. Here is a quote from her story transcript. “My summers spent in and with the land have educated me. I still deplore thinning peaches, but I have an understanding of life and nature that makes my heart race. Every day that I begin before the sun is to my benefit. With this teacher, I have become a better student, not only of school, but also of life.” What strikes me about this particular site is the depth of valuable information and the emphasis on writing the story first. I like the ability to click on the different roles such as producer, writer, director, etc. to find out about what goes into doing each of these jobs in an exemplary fashion. Myrta's video is only 4 minutes, so if you have time explore this one. I also enjoyed exploring Andrei Leonov's flipstack book on Loons. It was a pleasure to see his citation page. I will be taking storytelling later this summer at the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina. It will be interesting to compare live storytelling with digital storytelling and blending them somehow. I wrote a story over the weekend titled, Gulf Stream Gown which combines fiction and non-fiction about retrieving my 33 year old wedding gown from New Orleans. I am now thinking about how I could present this story digitally. I definitely think that the story has to be well written before digitizing and that this is the hard part about teaching digital storytelling as students often want to jump into the technology before the creative writing and/or research is done thoroughly.