Final Thoughts

I learned a lot from being in this Multimedia in Instruction class. There are so many tools that we investigated and used that I never heard of before. I was really excited to get more familiar with blogs. I heard of blogs but I never read any or used one. I am so happy that I now know the usefulness of blogs and how they can be used in the classroom. I know that I will be using blogging in my classroom. I think blogs are a great way for students to share their ideas with each other and others outside of the classroom. I also like the idea of using a blog to keep in touch with parents and the community. Blogs have so many uses and I think that they should be incorporated into curriculum more often.

Blogs were not the only tool that I was excited to learn about. All the other Web 2.0 tools were interesting to look at such as gliffy and wikispaces. I never knew that there were so many tools out there that teachers could use in the classroom. Especially so many free tools! I think it is great that there are programs that teachers can download for free to use in their classroom. It can be hard for teachers or schools to come up with money to spend on multimedia tools, so it is really helpful that teachers can get great educational programs for free.

I think one challenge that I may face with incorporating multimedia tools into my lessons is making sure that the technology is adding to the lesson or unit and not just there for a “wow” effect. It is extremely important that the students get something out of using the tools; they need to be appropriate and educational. I think it will be much more time consuming when putting technology into my lessons because I will have to spend time exploring the tools and making sure they will be beneficial for my students learning. However, even though incorporating multimedia tools may be a challenging time consuming process, it is well worth it. A well thought out lesson that uses multimedia tools can extremely beneficial for the students’ learning.

Another challenge I think I may have is keeping up to date on all the new tools. I never heard of many of the tools we talked about in class, so it just makes me think about how will I hear about any new tools after the class ends? I wonder if there is some sort of newsletter or magazine I could subscribe to that talk about all the new innovating educational technology. It would also be helpful to have workshops that talk about and show how to use new technology in the classroom.

I am extremely happy that I took a class that taught me about using multimedia in the classroom. I am taking away a lot of new and useful information about multimedia in classroom. I think every teacher should take a class or workshop about using new and exciting multimedia tools. I also believe that every school should make it possible for teachers to learn about these tools and help them with incorporating the tools into the curriculum. If used correctly multimedia tools can enrich learning.

What's In The News?

Educational Blogging

Laurel A Clyde. Teacher Librarian. Seattle: Feb 2005. Vol. 32, Iss. 3; pg. 43, 3 pgs

Summary:

The article “Educational Blogging” looks at the uses of educational blogs. Not only are blogs used for students but blogs are also helpful for teachers and the community. Some blogs are written by subject experts who provide teachers with useful information to share with their colleagues and students. Blogs can also be used to post announcements that parents and other members of the community can have access to. The article states that blogging “has the potential to motivate students, to build online collaboration, and enhance learning opportunities”. Blogging can promote literacy through dialog and storytelling and can provide prompt feedback for students and teachers. With using blogs, students can write about topics important to them and share their ideas with their peers. The article gives some great sources of different educational blogs that can be helpful for teachers. One website is http://educational.blogs.com/ which has links to different blogs teachers have created and links to blogs where teachers can communicate with each other and share ideas about curriculum topics. Another site that the article talks about is http://weblogg-ed.com/. This site also has different blogs that can be useful to teachers and students and has a link to http://edublogs.org/ where you can sign up and create your own educational blog. This article talks about all the wondrous aspects of blogs and how they should be noticed more in the classroom. Blogs need to start being supported by school libraries just how other tools are supported, because a good blog can be just as useful as a book.

Response:

I really enjoyed reading this article. I think blogs are a great tool to use in the classroom and this article reinforces their importance. I also really liked all the good links the article provided. I checked out a bunch of them and they had some really good information on them. I really liked http://edublogs.org/ and I signed up to make my own blog. I like this blog better than Blogger because its main purpose is for educational blogs. I would recommend others checking it out.

Questions:

Would it be better to have one main blog for all the students to post on, or should every student have their own blogs?

Would it be best to read over blogs before students post them, or let them post and then look over them?

Are their some rules and regulations that teachers need to follow when using blogs in the classroom? Such as should students use fake names and are their certain topics that shouldn’t be discussed?

Learning from Experience

Throughout my educational experience I have encountered a lot of lessons that were not well designed. Not only were lessons not well designed but some of my classes in general I didn’t believe were well designed. The one class that stands out in my mind that I would have loved to re-design is my freshman year (in high school) astronomy class. I thought astronomy was going to be an exciting and interesting class, I was wrong. All my teacher did was lecture. The class was extremely boring and I did pretty badly in the course because I had no motivation to learn the material. I believe that if my teacher would have used more interactive lessons, such as using multimedia, then the class would have been a lot better.

A typical day in my astronomy class went like this…

• Take roll
• Hand in homework
• Listen to the teacher lecture for about 45 minutes and try to take notes
• Get homework assignment for the night
• Leave class

Sounds exciting don’t it? Who wouldn’t want to take a class like that! The first thing I would re-design is how she gave lecture. My teacher just talked that was it. She showed pictures sometimes but she never had notes written down for us. We had to listen and then write down what we felt was important. I hated that. I wished that she had notes for us or at least had slides up with notes. It would have been much easier to study if I had concrete notes.

Another thing that I would do to re-design my high school astronomy class is I would add a lot more multimedia. One simple multimedia aspect that I would add is showing movies about astronomy. I took an astronomy class last semester at Drexel and my teacher showed us movies about stars all the time, they were interesting to watch. I have seen a lot of different simulations about the universe, stars, and planets on the internet. If my teacher had only known about these different simulations class could have been so much better! There are all different types of sites where you can go onto and “travel” through the universe. Here are a few examples of different simulations that can be used while teaching about astronomy.

Virtual Journey into the Universe

http://library.thinkquest.org/28327/main/cockpit.html
Virtual Space Tour

http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/virtualspacetour/
Celestia

http://www.shatters.net/celestia/index.html

I think that by using more interactive ways of teaching students are more engaged. When students are engaged they learn more. That is why I believe using these fun, educational, and interesting simulations about the universe would help further student learning. I think that my teacher could have also used multimedia in assessing us. Tests with multiple choice, true or false, and fill in the blanks are not the only ways to assess student learning. My teacher could have used more performance assessments dealing with multimedia to assess us. I think that these types of assessments are fun to do and can be beneficial for those students who are bad test takers. One type of assessment that I would have done if I was teaching the class is to have the students break into groups and become a team of astronomers that discovered a new planet or star. They would use video cameras (supplied by the teacher or school) and make a “special report” talking about their discovery. This assessment would not only be fun but would also show the teacher the knowledge of characteristics of stars and planets the students have acquired.

Multimedia lessons and assessments can be incorporated into any subject area. Teachers need to know about multimedia so they can incorporate it into their classrooms and lessons because it is extremely beneficial for their students. I wish my astronomy teacher knew more about multimedia because I believe I would have enjoyed the class more and learned more if multimedia was incorporated.

A New Way to Read Books

The other day I was watching The View, and Whoopi Goldberg was talking about this new device she ordered from Amazon.com. It is called the Kindle and it is a wireless reading device. You can download books and newspapers to it from Amazon.com. I thought it was awesome. Downloading books onto it costs half the price of the book or even less! Just think about how much you spend on text books for school, a lot right? Well what if you could just download them all onto this reading device? It would cost less and you would never have to lug around all those heavy books! I wanted to learn more about the Kindle so I looked it up on Amazon.com. It is a little expensive ($399 to be exact) but I think it is worth it. Go to the link I have provided and watch the video that explains the Kindle. I think it is pretty cool and I think you will too!
http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Amazons-Wireless-Reading-Device/dp/B000FI73MA

After the Bell, Beyond the Walls

“After the Bell, Beyond the Walls” by Eric Langhorst is an extraordinary article that talks about how and why teachers should integrate technology into their classrooms. Langhorst asks the question, “Do you use technology to extend your students’ learning beyond the classroom walls?” I think that from a lot of teachers the answer to that question would be no. I think that a lot of teachers are still in the mindset that chalk and talk is the best way to run their lessons and just give worksheet homework for outside of class. However, they need to be informed that using technology can really enhance students’ learning, in and outside the classroom.

The article talks about different types of technology that teachers can use with their students. Teachers or students can publish text, graphics, or videos by using internet tools such as blogs, wikispaces, podcasting, or video sharing sites. These applications allow students to “visit with one another, entertain themselves, and view media of their choice.” I think it is a great idea for teachers to make class websites where all these applications can be available to the students and where they can upload media that they have created. I think a class website it also important to students can ask questions when at home and another student or the teacher can log onto the website and answer the questions. Not to mention, a website could be a place for the teacher to upload assignments so that if a student is absent they can go to the website and be able to see what they missed that day.

One use of technology that Langhorst talks about is studycasts. A studycast is an mp3 or podcast that can be uploaded to the class website and then the students can listen to them on their own time. They can use iTunes and put them on their iPods, or they can get the studycast onto a CD and listen to them on their CD players. These studycasts explain important information about upcoming assessments. Langhorst explains how studycasts are a great tool for those students who have reading disabilities because they can repeat the studycast as much as possible. I think this is extremely helpful. Not only can a studycast be helpful to those students who have learning difficulties, but a podcast or mp3 could be made for those students who need to have tests read to them. By listening to the test the teacher has more time to help other students rather than just having to sit and read a test the whole period.

The one assignment that Langhorst describes that I really liked is the virtual book club. He made a blog about a book where students could go to discuss and ask questions to each other about the reading. He also go the author of the book to join the blog to answer questions and help further understanding of the book for the students. Langhorst explained that, “The book blog provided a different, richer experience: Reading the book became a two-way street in which inquiry was possible for both reader and author.” I think that is amazing! I wish I could have had an assignment like this when I was in 8th grade. Reading a book and being able to talk to the author and ask questions would be helpful and interesting. The blog was not only used for discussion. Students also uploaded videos and audio files of interviews and other assignments they did that dealt with the book.

This article really encompasses the essential conditions for technology integration. It has great examples of how technology can be brought into the classroom to enhance the students’ learning. The article explains that using technology is not only important in the classroom but outside the classroom as well. It is also important to make sure the technology you are using is relevant to what the students are learning, and that it’s not just a “wow” factor. Technology use needs to improve student learning not just impress them. However, there are ways to impress and excite students with technology while enhancing their learning experiences. Langhorst says in his article that, “We cheat our students if we continue to think of school as a class period that beings and ends with a bell.” I think this statement really sums up his whole view on technology use. Technology is important to use in the classroom but it is just as important to use outside the classroom. Students should be learning and exploring different tools and ideas all the time, not just in the classroom. Therefore, we cheat out students if we don’t emphasize the importance of outside classroom exploration and using technology is a great way to further exploration and learning.

Web 2.0 Tools

This week we were introduced to some new Web 2.0 tools. These new tools (that I must admit I have never heard of before) are Gliffy (http://www.gliffy.com/) and Wikispaces (http://www.wikispaces.com/), not to mention this blog itself is a Web 2.0 tool. I was very hesitant about using both Gliffy and Wikispaces.

I was hesitant with Gliffy because I wasn’t too sure how to use it at first. I didn’t know you had to drag the shapes over to the page that you wanted to use; I kept clicking on them hoping they would pop up on the screen. I also wasn’t too sure of how to connect the shapes at first. It took me a little while of playing around with the tool before I got used to it. After I finally got the hang of Gliffy, I thought it was a great tool. I think that students would enjoy using it in the classroom. It could be used for brainstorming before writing an essay or starting a project. I also think that if students do use Gliffy to make concept maps, it would be extremely helpful to the teacher because of the neatness. Some students don’t have the best hand writing and it can be hard for teachers to decipher what they wrote. Using Gliffy will definitely help out with that. Since it is typed, the teacher won’t have any problem reading what the student wrote!

Here is a great picture of flowchart that was made with Gliffy. Imagine what you could make!

Just like Gliffy, I had a hard time figuring out how to use Wikispaces at first. I kept trying to search around for other people’s pages but I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t getting any search results. Finally I figured out what I was doing wrong and ended up finding a plethora of great Wikispaces. Making my own Wikispace wasn’t too hard, but I think I had an easy time making my page because I went through the tutorial of how to make one. That was extremely helpful! I think that using a Wikispace as a teacher would be very helpful. One reason is because teachers can find a lot of interesting information on different Wikispaces. I believe that the Wikispace i created will be helpful for many people. I made mine on rubrics, which I feel is a very important aspect of grading that all teachers need to use. Take a look at my Wikispace at http://rubrics4u.wikispaces.com/. Teachers can also use them for homework assignments or explaining upcoming projects. A Wikispace can also be a page of resources for students. With enough creativity, a Wikispace can turn into pretty much anything! I think it would be cool to have students make their own Wikispace on specific topics and then share them with their classmates.

Web 2.0 tools are extremely useful for both students and teachers. I think that the Web 2.0 tools and other multimedia elements can go hand in hand. You can use video clips or graphics on a Wikispace or you can use your Gliffy products on a multimedia presentation such as PowerPoint. With a creative mind I’m sure you can come up with a ton of ideas of using Web 2.0 tools and other multimedia elements together to create a great lesson or activity for students.

Reflection on the Impact of Multimedia on Student Learning and the DDD-E Model

Chapter one of Multimedia Projects in Education by Karen S. Ivers and Ann E. Barron focuses on the impact of multimedia on student learning. Ivers and Barron bring up excellent points of why to use multimedia and how it can influence higher learning for the students. Some points that I exceptionally liked that chapter one brought up about why using multimedia in the classroom are that using multimedia helps students apply real-world skills, it is active learning, it promotes creativity, and using multimedia in the classroom prepares them for the future. I think that being able to use multimedia to present real-world skills is extremely important. I think that when a student learns new knowledge that they can apply to their lives, then the knowledge sticks with them. So by using multimedia to show students how the information is important to them not just in the classroom but in their own lives is very important. I also think that active learning and creativity is very important. Active learning makes learning more fun, which in turn will have the students more motivated to learn. Also, being able to use creativity through multimedia will help with the students learning because they will be excited to share their ideas with their peers and teacher and show off their creativity. Lastly, multimedia is important to use in the classroom because it does prepare students for the future. Technology is a big part of life today and if students are unable to use that technology at a young age then they will be behind and confused in the future. Let’s say a class uses excel and the internet to do research in a classroom project, the students will then know how to use those tools which are used often in the workplace. The students will have a better advantage in the future if they are already familiar with these tools.

Chapter one also focuses a lot on Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. I have learned about this theory in a lot of my education classes and I believe that it is a particularly important theory to be familiar with. Teachers should know the different learning styles of their students so they can present information in different ways to get through to their students. It is stated in the chapter that “well-designed multimedia applications present content in several media formats and allow students to use their own individual learning styles”. This is important to remember when designing a multimedia project. Since every student learns differently, the teacher could designate different jobs to each student in a group that goes along with their style of learning. Such as one student who is good with text could be the one who looks up information while another student who is a spatial learner could be the one looking for pictures and animations to go along with their project. Each child should be able to take full advantage of their learning strengths, and the teacher should make sure this happens.

Another important idea in chapter one that I enjoyed reading about was cooperative learning. I am a full advocate of cooperative learning because I think being able to learn from peers and not just the teacher is important. I also believe it is important for students to be able to work together to accomplish a goal. One cooperative learning technique that the chapter discusses that I really liked was the jigsaw technique. This technique has the students get into groups and every student gets assigned a topic which is a part of the whole lesson. Then “expert groups” are made of the students that all have the same topics and they get together and gather information. Then each expert goes back to their home group and explains what they have learned to the others. I like this idea because I think students enjoy learning from each other and it makes them feel important when they are the one explaining their expert knowledge to their group. Each child is equally important, which is extremely vital.

Chapter two of Multimedia Projects in Education was just as interesting as chapter one. This chapter focused on the DDD-E model, which stands for decide, design, develop, and evaluate. The chapter explains that good instruction involves careful planning and the DDD-E model helps out with the planning. It is not just important for a teacher to know about the DDD-E model, students should know about it to. I think that in the first month of school the teacher should explain this model to their students so that when they make their own multimedia project, or really any project, they use the same careful planning as the teacher does. When Deciding on what the project is going to be, it is very important to make sure that it is relevant to what is being taught (or learned in the students case). With the Design of the project outlines and flowcharts should be made to promote the careful planning. When Developing the project it is extremely important to collect and create all the media elements and to make sure all the technology needed is available. Because problems sometimes come up with developing and presenting a multimedia project, it is imperative to have a back up plan. I have been in classes where the teacher relied way too much on using technology and when the computer or other multimedia tools weren’t working, we would just sit around for the class period doing absolutely nothing. Therefore, I think it is crucial to also have a back up plan. Back up plans are also good just in case a group of student finishes quickly then you can have something else for them to do. Lastly, when Evaluating the multimedia project it is important to reflect on your project. A teacher can reflect to see if the project was relevant and helpful and if they would use it again and the students can reflect on how they felt they did in presenting their project.

I think that the DDD-E model is extremely helpful and I will definitely use it when planning lesson and when preparing for presentations and projects for classes. I think it really helps in organizing ideas and getting the best information into the projects. Both chapters had important and interesting information and ideas about multimedia in the classroom that will be tremendously useful in the classroom.

When I was searching the web for some more sources on multimedia and student learning I came across this report that I found really interesting. It’s called the Jason Multimedia Science Curriculum’s Impact on Student Learning. I didn’t read all of it because it is pretty long but I skimmed through it and read the section that talked about multimedia. It discussed different aspects of multimedia used which I thought was interesting. One statement that I really liked from the report was, “According to both teachers and students, computer use served a variety of functions. For example, for students in isolated environments like those in the community served by Pine Mountain School, the JASON Project was a way to expose students to the world outside, and the Internet was an integral part of that strategy” (Jason 29). I really recommend looking over this report, it has a lot of interesting ideas in it. The website is
http://www.jason.org/public/Content/Year_3_FinalReport.pdf