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Sunday, July 15th, 2012

I have to say that when I saw today’s Daily Create I wasn’t thrilled.

Make an annoying 30 second pre-recorded telemarketing call.

It didn’t sound like something fun to do so I put it off for most of the day. Without Cogdog’s Seven Day Challenge for the Daily Creates, I may well have skipped this. However, since had already completed the first few challenges I figured that I should continue…

I know that editing is everything and that I went on for way too long but so do the telemarketers! I ended up enjoying this process much more than I thought that I would. Thanks CogDog for the challenge.

How I Did It

I wondered if anyone had created a real script for telemarketers to use. Indeed, top-telemarketing-tips.com existed. As I have experienced, they recommended using the callee’s name repeatedly, building a personal connection and, of course, explaining why they are so awesome.

I also found that the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecomunications Commission (CRTC) listed some common telemarketing scams.

Armed with this knowledge it took just a few minutes to write an annoying telemarketing script on my iPad. I thought that I wuold try out one of the teleprompter apps I had downloaded a while back but didn’t like them at all. I found another free one (Listec Promptware Plus) that allowed me to easily see my script while recording.

I did my recording in Audacity and added a fog horn from iLife.

I uploaded my final version to Soundcloud and created a quick image using Microsoft Word clip art and cruise ship from Bret Arnett’s photostream to accompany it.

Within minutes my Soundcloud was spammed with a comment – kind of funny given the topic of telemarketing and unsolicited information!!

Posted in audio, bunk5, Camp Magic MacGuffin, ds106, magicmacguffin, openonline, tdc188, The Daily Create | Comments Off on In Praise of External Challenges

Movies by Numbers – Number 5

Saturday, July 14th, 2012

For my third video assignment this week, I chose Movies by Numbers. My task is to artistically present a single number through visuals and relevant music. There is to be no narration and only the visuals and the music should tell the story.

I used Compfight to search for CC licenced images that have the word “five” among their tags. The music I chose is Take Five by Dave Brubeck. I used Animoto once again, so I added Animoto’s own videos to my story. Animoto lets you determine the beginning and/or the end of each video, so I stopped the countdown videos immediately after number 5 and I did the same with the clock.

Here is my video:

The most complicated thing in this assignment was creating a full list of images used so that I could give attribution where it is due. Here it is:

Creative Commons images used:
cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by Tabsinthe: http://flickr.com/photos/tabsinthe/4820084267/ cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by woodleywonderworks: http://flickr.com/photos/wwworks/3196112134/ cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by Lst1984: http://flickr.com/photos/lst1984/493522912/ cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by Pink Sherbet Photography: http://flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/2001899627/ cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by Javier Volcan: http://flickr.com/photos/jdvolcan/5456792325/
http://flickr.com/photos/neychurluvr/3369607260/
cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo by Jon Matthies: http://flickr.com/photos/jmatthies/7181077141/
cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by Michael | Ruiz: http://flickr.com/photos/simax/3390895249/
cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by Amrit…: http://flickr.com/photos/aksphotography/367363319/
cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by ncracker (Boyan Syarov): http://flickr.com/photos/syarov/4534118874/
cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by christing-O-: http://flickr.com/photos/christing/2457051794/
cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by { pranav }: http://flickr.com/photos/neychurluvr/3369607260/
cc licensed ( BY SA ) flickr photo by ginnerobot: http://flickr.com/photos/ginnerobot/4552277923/
cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by flyzipper: http://flickr.com/photos/flyzipper/432622379/
cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by Pandiyan: http://flickr.com/photos/pandiyan/75545427/
cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by Leo Reynolds: http://flickr.com/photos/lwr/101655312/
cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by jenny downing: http://flickr.com/photos/jenny-pics/2681981423/
cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by bara-koukoug: http://flickr.com/photos/bara-koukoug/6941685781/
cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by YanivG: http://flickr.com/photos/yanivg/96918791/
cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by gonzalo_ar: http://flickr.com/photos/gonzalo_ar/644154294/
cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by bitzi ? ion-bogdan dumitrescu: http://flickr.com/photos/bitzi/230188091/
cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by bobbygreg: http://flickr.com/photos/bobbygreg/168206195/
cc licensed ( BY SA ) flickr photo by marfis75: http://flickr.com/photos/marfis75/5780056202/
cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by voyageAnatolia.blogspot.com: http://flickr.com/photos/fotogezi/3511876129/
cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by tochis: http://flickr.com/photos/tochis/3124403063/

Technorati Tags: ds106, VideoAssignments, VideoAssignments449

Tags: DS106,, VideoAssignments,, VideoAssignments449
Posted in bunk4, ds106, magicmacguffin, openonline, VideoAssignments, VideoAssignments449 | Comments Off on Movies by Numbers – Number 5

My DS106 Compilation

Saturday, July 14th, 2012

cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo shared by zachstern

For my second video assignment this week, I chose to make a video compilation of some of my digital stories. At this stage in the course, it is logical that I want to look back and reflect on what I have done so far. This compilation consists of visual and design assignments and some of my Daily Creates.

I used Animoto to create the video, which is, I suppose, a shortcut. Animoto does the boring, repetitive part of the job for you and it even gives you a large choice of video styles and background music. It also lets you upload your videos to YouTube, which is what I did this time.

And here’s the final result:

Technorati Tags: ds106, VideoAssignments, VideoAssignments113

Tags: DS106,, VideoAssignments,, VideoAssignments113
Posted in bunk4, ds106, magicmacguffin, openonline, VideoAssignments, VideoAssignments113 | Comments Off on My DS106 Compilation

Check this craziness out greekgirl008

Saturday, July 14th, 2012

Check this craziness out greekgirl008

Posted in bunkx, magicmacguffin, openonline | Comments Off on Check this craziness out greekgirl008

Jay Mathews’ Best Teaching Strategies Contest

Saturday, July 14th, 2012

This piece by Jay Mathews is a week old, but the writing project summer institute has kept me so busy I haven’t had brain space for anything else. Not sure I really do now, but I’m not going to let that hold me back.

A while ago Mathews decided to host a contest to find the best teaching strategies. The reasoning here is quite sound, he wanted to highlight specific positive things happening rather than just vague educational ideas.

The winner with the best teaching strategy is an eighth grade teacher at a private school.

Here’s how her immigration project works: Her students are grouped into make-believe families. They pretend they are immigrating here in about 1900. In language arts, they blog about the experience. In science, they study the diseases that afflicted immigrants. In social studies, they analyze immigration laws. In foreign language, they take a look at countries that provided the most immigrants.

I love this project. It is engaging, builds connections, and allows for student choice. I would love to see projects like this happening all over the place.

I have two problems however. The standards that policy makers love keep this from happening in our public schools. If the project was planned around social studies standards on immigration and teachers tried to include diseases in science class there wouldn’t be enough time to teach the required science standards. The way our standards are designed completely roadblocks making meaningful connections in this way.

My second issue is more nit-picky. This isn’t a teaching strategy. This is a project. It is an awesome one that I would love to participate in but it isn’t a strategy. Highlighting effective, interesting teaching strategies is worth Jay Mathews’ time still.

Mathews’ posts typically have dozens of comments. This one has only five. What does that mean? Does that suggest that people aren’t interested in this topic?

Posted in bunk4, magicmacguffin, openonline | Comments Off on Jay Mathews’ Best Teaching Strategies Contest

Intersection

Saturday, July 14th, 2012

Posted in Animated Gif, just plain blogging, magicmacguffin, openonline | Comments Off on Intersection

Choice Words: Chapters One and Two

Saturday, July 14th, 2012

This summer there is quite a bit of discussion happening all around the place focused on Peter Johnston’s new book, Opening Minds. As I am often behind the curve, I’m still reading Choice Words, Johnston’s first book (or rereading as the case may be).

Jason Buell, a brilliant, thoughtful, hilarious middle-school science teacher across the country from me, and I made a plan to read it together hoping to keep each other focused. Our deadline for the first two chapters was today and I made it! Here are my thoughts on those chapters. We (Jason and I) would love to hear your thoughts as well.

My big thought so far is that I am torn between feeling depressed and feeling thrilled. I feel depressed because Johnston’s points about the power of language reinforces the idea that ever little thing I do, no matter how small, impacts my students. I’m thrilled, however, because this suggests that if I am thoughtful about language and use it well, I can get a huge bang for my buck, a lot of impact for a little work.

On page eight Johnston writes about the thoughtfulness necessary with language:

As teachers we have to decide what to be explicit about for which students, and when to be explicit about it.

Then on page nine he continues this idea:

Language, then, is not merely representational (though it is that); it is also constitutive. It actually creates realities and invites identities.

When we explicitly use language thoughtfully we help students see themselves and their world anew and identify possible futures. Just through the words we chose. Amazing.

Chapter Two is Noticing and Naming. Like chapter one it is chock full of powerful thinking. My focus stuck on two parts: another reason language matters and the importance of the positive.

On page twelve Johnston discusses the way we acquire language, without really noticing what we are doing. The problem, he says, is that

many children graduate high school with little change in their level of awareness, leaving them unprepared to manage the effects language has on them and on others.

It seems that we, as teachers, need to not only be very purposeful about how we use language but we also need to be helping our students recognize that and analyze language around them. A big task.

The last bit I couldn’t let go of is on page thirteen and goes far beyond language to me into our beliefs about children and their capabilities.

Focusing on the positive is hardly a new idea. It is just hard to remember to do it sometimes, particularly when the child’s response is nowhere near what you expected. Indeed, the more we rely on expectations and standards, the harder it is to focus on what is going well.

He explains that helping students see what they can do well encourages agency. It helps students continue to grow. It is too easy in education to work from a deficit model, to notice and focus on all the things our students cannot do or cannot do well. In some ways it is natural as our job is to help them learn to do those things. It is detrimental however as it means we miss all they can do and often end up setting lower expectations as a result. Focusing on the positive helps them and keeps us moving forward as well.

Posted in bunk4, magicmacguffin, openonline | Comments Off on Choice Words: Chapters One and Two

Using Keynote to Make a Movie

Saturday, July 14th, 2012

I never intended for this to take as long as it did… those are turning out to be famous last words here in my summer of ds106.

As explained in the video description, The Daily Create #187 said:

Make a video of what is playing on channel 106 on your cable (or make it up).

Rather than completely make it up, I was inspired by a tweet I received this morning about a video posted to YouTube by CGP Grey

I have been wanting to make a video that explains something and this one was great! I wondered if Keynote could be used to create the bulk of a video like that so I tried it out with this one.

It’s not perfect and for some reason I couldn’t add any photos when I exported it to iMovie but I liked some parts of it (particularly the rotating ds106). It was an interesting experiment that was far more time-consuming than anticipated. Maybe it should be worth some visualassignment points!

How I Did It

1. Created slideshow with Keynote

The actions proved to be useful for video.
Don’t forget that you can order animations by opening the drawer.

2. Exported to QuickTime

3. Imported to iMovie

4. Split in a few places

5. Added beginning of CGP Grey’s video about The Difference between the UK, Great Britain and England

6. Added iLife sound effects, Hallelujah chorus and text

Posted in bunk5, Camp Magic MacGuffin, ds106, magicmacguffin, openonline, tdc187, VisualAssignments | Comments Off on Using Keynote to Make a Movie

The Start of ISTE (weeks later)

Saturday, July 14th, 2012

The first official day of ISTE was mostly focused on the awards’ ceremony. Luckily my husband and I wandered out onto the wonderful terrace at the convention center and ran into Lisa Parisi, Brian Crosby, and David Jakes.

Jakes was working on his Ignite presentation for the next day. Somehow this led us to a discussion of the flipped classroom. I have shared my thoughts on this topic previously but Jakes, ever the positive one, suggested that this is a topic around which there is a lot of interest and conversation. His theory is that we should be using that level of engagement as an entry point rather than simply brushing it off.

He asked us to consider the positives of the flipped classroom. Parisi quickly responded that the engaged lessons happening during classroom time is the one positive. Jakes’ argument is that those of us with issues about flipping classrooms should grab those positives we see as a way to push forward. A new way for me to think about this.

This led to a brief conversation about the idea of ‘yeah, but…’ One argument is that responding to a new idea with ‘yeah, but’ not only shuts down that conversation but makes it less likely that people will come forward with other new ideas. Jakes writes often about how words matter and I completely agree with that. Thinking about how an idea or response is phrased does matter and is something I need to remember. (Especially as I read Choice Words.)

This brief conversation, with so much food for thought, was just proof of the idea that the best parts of ISTE are often the unplanned meetings and discussions.

I hope I haven’t misstated anyone’s ideas or thoughts here.

Posted in bunk4, magicmacguffin, openonline | Comments Off on The Start of ISTE (weeks later)

"I Am No Man"

Friday, July 13th, 2012

cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo shared by Dunechaser

I am back at Camp Magic MacGuffin after I was absent last week. This is the second week of video and it took me a couple of days to go through last week’s materials and pluck up the courage to use Windows Movie Maker for the very first time.

The assignment I chose is Return to the Silent Era. The goal is to take a scene from a modern movie and render it in the style of the silent era.

I chose one of my favourite scenes from LOTR - the one in which Eowyn kills the witch king. I had just watched Return of the King for the thousandth time and it struck me that this scene would look good in black and white. I was lucky enough to find a clip that already had subtitles, which made my task of turning it into a silent movie much easier.

I was surprised at how intuitive Windows Movie Maker is. I had wanted to learn how to mash and edit videos for some time, but had always put it off. I was afraid it would be too hard. I have only made this one clip so far and the task was relatively simple. I just added two effects (“black and white” and “old film”) and I added some Bach. I didn’t remove the original audio, but I muted it instead.

Here is my clip:

I Am No Man – Return To the Silent Era from Natasa Bozic Grojic on Vimeo.