Creating the Rubric

Creating the rubric was easy after having done the project myself. I think if the assignment would have been to create a rubric before the project was assigned then it would be rather difficult to assess the elements of the digital story. I was able to reflect on aspects of creating the story that I had trouble with or that I would have done better on, and I selected those for the foundations of the grading rubric. I thought it would be important for students to develop a solid and thorough story map, seriously considering the content of their story. I also thought it was important for students to be creative and really strive to find unique elements to add to their story. I also thought it was important to assess the students use of technology. Did they use it to the best of their abilities? Did they try to learn new things? Did they utilize the transitions, auditory, and visual technical elements available in the movie making program? Finally I had the students assess themselves and their work: Did they do their best work, could they have done better?

I'm pleased with the outcome of the rubric, I think it's a good rubric to use in an actual classroom setting where the students are expected to create a digital story. If I were teaching this I would outline clear outlines in the beginning of the project, teach editing tools in the classroom, and give the students more specific guidelines in creating their stories.

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Digital Story Rubric


Evidence of Planning= 30 points

(15 points) Story Map is a thorough plan of the digital story
(15 points) Story line is engaging (it has meanining, climax, conflict, resolution, etc.)

Creativity= 30 points

Digital story contains unique elements:

(10 points) visual
(10 points) auditory
(10 points) content

Use of Technology= 30 points

Used the movie making program to the best of your abilities:
(6 points) read tutorials if there was an element that was unclear
(6 points) editing
(6 points) sound bytes
(6 points) smooth transitions
(6 points) story line flows with editing elements

Rate yourself: 1-10

How do you think you did?
Are you happy with the final results?
Would you have planned more if you had more time?
Would you change anything about your video?
Could you have used class time more wisely?

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Total= ______/ 100

Digital Story

http://www.youtube.com/user/Techcl8

Created this video and had a pretty okay time doing it. I had an exceptionally fun time with the sound effects.

I'm not all that pleased with the footage, but it works...

It makes me laugh still and I've been listening to it for quite some time.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the project. I wish that I could have done more with the clips in the way of collage. I would have liked to paste a variety of images into the frames and had them floating. I wasn't able to figure out a way to do that with this program.

Story Planning

Line goes for a Walk



Beginning: Line (a pencil) decides to go out for a walk out in paper land. On his walk he goes to visit his girlfriend, Linetta (a pencil). They chat for a moment and together they decide to go to “Creativity Land” where they can frolic and have much fun with their day.


They stroll along…


Middle: Once at adventure land they discover a variety of amusements including the “Ruler Ride” the “Compass Spin”, the “Interactive Color Wheel” (where they put on paintbrush suits) and “Marker Land” (where they put on marker suits).


Conflict: While in marker land, the two lovers get lost in all of the marker chaos. Line confesses his undying love for Linetta and all that entails. They shout to each other yet still are unable to locate one another amid all of the chaos. Linetta preaches the only way they will find one another will be to change out of their marker suits.

Resolution: The two quickly change and are able to locate one another wearing their natural suits and reunite once again. They embrace lovingly.


End: Line and Linetta stroll happily out of “Creativity Land” on their journey home, vowing to never return to marker land and leaving behind a beautiful work of art consisting of lines, shapes, color mixing concepts, and marker doodles.
Line Goes for a Walk…

Narrative:

This story will come to life using actual art supplies. The objects will be moving by their “jackets” or human hands. I envision the filming to be slightly angled from a top sort of view. The two pencils will spend a good amount of time on the “Ruler Ride”, the “Compass Spin” and at the “Interactive Color Wheel.” This will consist of the bulk of the story, their adventures in “Creativity Land.”

The story is both a “what is” and “how to” regarding the elements of design. It is also a love story that reveals to us a life lesson: during times of confusion and chaos, we are able to connect with greater truths.

Ed Philosophy Details

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5EeN8jShzk

Here's the link to You Tube. The making of this short video was pretty fun. I had some trouble in the beginning and throughout as well. Every time I couldn't figure out how to do something I got a little frustrated. The tutorials weren't very helpful because I was using iMovie 2008, or something. The newest version is different from the version in the tutorial. The tutorials that were available in iMovie were geared more towards video editing, which is something I think we will be doing next semester which is pretty exciting. I think if the images (students) were actually moving then the video would have been more fun to make.

I'm quite pleased with the way it all turned out. The music really makes it all come together. I think I could have shortened the frame of a few images and made them at 2 seconds or less. I liked where the song ended up and that's why I kept it at the length that it is. I would have liked to do more transitioning with the images but I couldn't figure out how to do some of the more interesting stuff like in K. Oleska's video. I would have also liked to change where the song started and ended or clipped the song a little, but I also couldn't figure out how to do that. I think if I were working with Photoshop and some sort of music making program then I would have an easier time making it all come together better. I still wish that I knew how to utilize some of these programs more. Maybe I could take a class on video editing, music making, and Photoshop all in one!

Ed Philosophy

YouTube video

Tools for the Mind

I. Stacy Naden suga_bb@yahoo.com November 12, 2007
"Tools for the Mind" Mary Burns

II. Overview

This article was about teachers using and implementing technology into the clasroom, what sort of technology tools are commonly used, to what extent they are utilized, and potential ways to implement deeper understandings through using technology. The article states "schools have conflated technology use with instructional quality." Some of the most common uses of technology are power points, word processing, Internet, Publishing, Web editors, spreadsheets, databases, and emails. The author then states why these tools aren't being utilized and follows up with examples and ideas for utilizing technology in the classroom to promote higher level thinking.

III. Bulleted Reference Points

• online collaboration
• content- oriented simulations
• spreadsheets
• databases
• higher order thinking skills
• critical thinking
• thinking inductively
• thinking deductively
• geographic information systems

IV. Reflection & Significance to me

This article was interesting to read due to the simplicity of the argument. I can see how teachers are not utilizing technology to inspire critical thinking. However, I don't believe that the goal of many schools or teachers in general is to motivate students to critical thinking. Reflecting on the educational system that I grew up in, this goal was certainly not prevalent. I see a focus and a trend in some of the classes that I am currently enrolled in to focus on the outcome of the learning, through education. I don't really see a focus toward higher level thinking at the middle shcool level. Perhaps I am thinking about higher level thinking at a middle school level in too complex of terms. In my understanding, students are directed to take information, recite, remember, use, know, understand, and use in daily life in order to achieve higher level thinking. In which case, yes, sometimes this is achieved at the middle school level.

Watching the video...

Reflection:

The presentation of my power point needs to be prefaced with the fact that I had many technological complications upon recording myself presenting. I attempted to record myself with a friends' digital camera. This option proved to fail after three or four attempts at wishing the camera would record for longer than two minutes. As you can probably imagine, this amount of time was not sufficient to capture the full four and a half minute presentation. This effort failed and I was bound to return on a later date with more sufficient equipment to record myself with.

Efforts to record resumed on Friday afternoon after school let out, after substitute teaching. As one can probably imagine, Friday afternoon isn't the best time to get a whole lot of work done, considering the burnout factor. However, I was very determined to complete this complicated recording stuff and call it a day. I then attempted to record myself presenting with my very own digital camera. Initially I was hesitant because I didn't know how to record a video, then I quickly read the manual and realised that it sounded pretty simple. However, after presenting and recording and once again failing because I wasn't able to determine if my camera was recording the audio or not, I resolved to record myself with a UAS video camera. Attempt #4 proves faulty as the video camera was unfortunately checked out to me without a video tape.

Moving on, I decided to borrow a friends video camera. That same day, I picked up the borrowed video camera and returned to school. Friday after school at some hour after everyone else has gone home for the weekend, I hopelessly attempt to record myself again. It seems simple enough, press record and off you go! Well, not really quite so simple, as the fifth attempt provided the video camera with a still frame, apparently I pressed a button that I was unaware of and the camera recorded my voice without me. The sixth attempt didn't quite work because I somehow managed to erase the power point from the computer and it was only projecting on the projector. Ahh, so then the seventh attempt proved to be the one that actually worked. Yet, by this time I have had more than my share of fun with the whole ordeal.

I titled the video "The Outcome of Many Failures". The enthusiasm and quality of my presentation personality has no real value to me and I hope that I never feel quite that frustrated when attempting to teach an actual lesson. The video is viewable at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Y4eBLDlewNY and the power point presentation has been appropriately formatted and is now viewable at: http://www.slideshare.net/suga_bb/plastic-bags. My weaknesses as a presenter are of course; my enthusiasm, my obvious frustration, my slightly monotone speaking voice, my incessant blinking, and my general angry appearance. I'm pretty embarrassed about my presentation as a whole and I really hope I never encounter such difficulties again. My strengths as a presenter include: I enunciate well and I can be heard, I don't seem to have too many annoying fidgeting habits (but those really only come out when I'm nervous). When I'm nervous I often fidget by moving my arms and hands around due to the abundance of moisture that accumulates on the palms of my hands. Overall, it's really difficult to watch myself. I assume I'll get more comfortable with it when I have more experience as a teacher.

I would modify the video by starting fresh with a new topic for a completely different project, say a project about my educational philosophy. I would like to be done with this project and not have to ever do this presentation again. I feel more confident about recording myself and I also feel slightly more tech savvy. I know my past difficulties and would do everything in my power to prevent these errors from ever happening again. I guess I would modify the video by deleting it from existence. Which I would like to do as soon as possible, although it really makes me laugh now. Perhaps it can make others laugh as well.