Web Based Material and Animation in the Classroom

After searching for a while to find a good article that combined web-based multimedia and animation, I came across an article called “Teaching Effectively with Multimedia.” It gave a great summary on how teachers have a great advantage today of using the internet to teach in a new and improved way.
The web combines animation, moving pictures, and sound to be incorporated into lessons to help students extend their abilities of a subject manner. For example, they can watch science experiments in action, see microorganisms up close, and use their mouse and keyboard to navigate through interactive material. Multimedia conveys information quickly and effectively to all students while keeping them interested in learning.
This article exclaims how school purchased multimedia works well (such as CD’s and videos) but they can be limited because of a schools budget. Another negative of these tools is that trying to set up a VCR and TV for video, or CD-ROM players can be challenging and finically difficult. Online multimedia makes it easy to reach out to students. Whether a teacher only has one computer in the classroom or several, they can not only take turns learning from the web but can find the same information and materials at the convenience of being in their own home.
More information and research should be done on using animation in the classroom. Also more articles on teaching and these two topics would be helpful for those who want to experiment with using multimedia in the classroom.

Article:
http://www.visionlearning.com/library/module_viewer.php?mid=87

Using Digital Images for Learning and Teaching

Digital Images are pictures that may have begun by commercially designed clipart or have been created by a student or teacher themselves. This visual imagery can be used to present thoughts and information to students in ways that help their understanding and engagement. More technology and web services help support digital images by offering learning, teaching, and assessment activities.
Some ideas to use with students digital imageries are as follows:
Using digital technologies when creating a poster can help them store, adapt and reuse easily. (This is exactly what ch. 5 in our textbook teaches us about!) Student posters are a great way to give examples and context using digital images.
Digital storytelling is something that I only heard of through this article. It provides a way of telling a personal narrative of individuals using images. A great example of digital storytelling can be viewed at http://www.youthtrainingproject.org/article.php?list=type&type=4
At this website you can view digital stories that are created by current and former foster youth. These young adults learn how to use the computer programs, write and record their own narration, include pictures, and choose soundtrack for their digital story.

I believe that in this technology era using digital images and all the activities that come along with that (such as digital storytelling) can be a great tool in teaching. Students not only will learn more about technology through this but will also learn how to be more creative too. More research would be helpful on how younger students, such as K-5th graders can participate in using digital images. Another great benefit is having a learning session for the students on how to use digital cameras, find clip art on the computer, find photographs through the internet, scan photos, and save and edit images on the computer.


The Article:
http://www.swap.ac.uk/elearning/ELTEP%20info%20sheet%203.pdf

Using Storyboarding as a Teaching Tool

Storyboarding is the use of a series of pictures in separate frames to outline or brainstorm ideas about how to tell a story. The article that I found concerning storyboarding discusses the theoretical underlining’s of a storyboard and explains the techniques for using this excise in a classroom.
Storyboards provide the visual component and the primary component, for communicating with one’s self as well as with others. For this reason, they serve as very powerful tools for learning and education, as well as for organizing thoughts, stories, and projects. It is simply a planning device used to sketch out the actions of a story. The objectives of a storyboard for students are: The student will demonstrate a basic understanding of culturally diverse written texts, they will apply knowledge of literary elements to understand diverse written text, they will use a variety of strategies, apply critical thinking skills, and produce an effective composition for a specific purpose.
Storyboarding allows students to draw their ideas before writing them in words. This helps visual students access the pictures in their head and gives them an opportunity to translate their picture ideas into words. I believe storyboarding is a great technique because as a visual person, I know I would be able to understand a story better due to the visualization of storyboarding. I believe they can be used from grades of kindergarten to high school, or even in the technology world such as, filmmaking, engineering, and writing books.
Teachers can assign storyboards as a prewriting activity or to help their students identify and analyze theme, and to make comparisons with different stories. One other way to use storyboarding in the classroom is to make one class storyboard. Have students draw a major event from the story that they are reading onto a post-it note. Make sure the students write a caption that depicts their scene. Each student can then stick their post-it note on a tag board in the order that the story occurred.
I would like to read more on storyboarding to find out how they can be used with technology. More research on student’s gained knowledge after using or creating a storyboard verse those who did not create a storyboard would also is very interesting.




Article:
http://b3308-adm.uhcl.edu/School_of_Education/SoE/Writing_Project/demo/demo05/CWallace.ppt