Creation activity - gaming and virtual worlds

Hi againand

For this activity I made three different games: a jigsaw puzzle, a sliding puzzle, and a word search.  The link for these games can be found at  http://www.proprofs.com/games/player/pipper2011/

I decided to do these games to see what it would be like to use an online program to make a puzzle and word find.  I didn't want to do a project with second life and create a "world" to have my avatar live in.  I have enough issues with my first life and don't need to be living with virtual issues as well.  (ha ha ha).  Creating these were easy and took very little time and were actually fun.  The biggest issue was deciding what to make and what words to use.

As for uses of these in teaching and learning, there is a benefit to having students make these kind of games.  I remember back in elementary school when we used pencil and paper to make word finds or quizzes as class assignments.  It helps the student to focus and be creative in the project design and the other students who use the puzzles a chance to see how others viewed the project.  It is also a fun way for the kids to learn new words and use those higher order thinking skills we have been discussing.

Let's try the video

OK......here we are again and I'm going to attempt to get the video up.  It was made with Windows Movie Maker.......So here we go!!!!!!!!!!  After trying for over a half hour it worked!!!!!!!!!!!

Creation Activity 5 : video and podcast

http://www.box.net/shared/12r45jyaqttt8x7xuxoj

Hi Everyone

Since I'm not in the classroom everyday, I really don't get to use these tools very often.  I have never done a podcast or record my voice to be put over the internet. I really don't like the way my voice sounds when it is recorded and even when I was in a band, I tried my hardest just to play and not use the mic, so this was a challenge.  I get nervous and really don't know what to say and start to mumble.  This podcast is the best of the mumbling.  As for the other tools (movie maker, imovie, etc.) I use these mostly for my self.  I have included a little picture movie I did for my friends who were married in 2007.  Recently I did a video for my church, with a regular camcorder and dumped the video into window movie maker, edited it, and did other things like transitions and such to it, which was pretty cool.  I wish I had a chance to use these things more often but I don't really get a lot of "hands on" use for these things during the day.

I see how these tools can benefit classroom work and have seen some great projects from the students at my school.  I also see how this type of hands on, or voice projects can benefit different types of learners. This type of classwork is especially great for group work since everyone can have a role and play a part in the creation of the project.  If a student is shy, they can do the voice over or editing, the class clown can act, the artist can be creative, etc.  Overall I like these tools and how our school uses them, particularly in the honors classes and for things such as national history day and program the students put on throughout the year.

Here is a little pod at the link above

I tried to upload a video, but it wouldn't work.  I will try it again tomorrow or later tonight

Creation Activity 4: Collaborative Brainstorming

Hi everyone!  Just got back from Pittsburgh, thanks to the snow, and  I decided to use the budgeting process for this creation activity.  I used Giffy to build a flow chart and found it quite easy and fun. I have never used any of these programs before, except for the time we used Webspiration in class.  I have to say for an online tool this was easy to use.  To me it seems a little like powerpoint, but without the changing slides.  Overall I would use this again.  Here is the link to the project for the budget process that I created.

 http://www.gliffy.com/publish/3024313/

Creativity and the Digital Presentation

It has been one crazy week, trying to run a conference for over 300 people, so I am a little behind.  I have never used anything like Prezi or Glogster before and found the tools interesting and frustrating.  Glogster was hard for me to figure out so I tried Prezi and found it better suited for my needs.  I thought to myself, I have an executive board meeting in Pittsburgh this week and have to plan for the spring conference(usually over 600 attend) and have to plan the agenda so I might as well do a design I can use.

So here it is, it is simple but will work for the group next week:

http://prezi.com/ncohh2yfzpls/acapa-2011-12/

After using it, I can see how it can be used in the classroom to generate ideas and create a flowing presentation, much better than power point.  I can also see how students can link thing together and really "get into" their work.  

Social Bookmarking

I really don't use social bookmarking that much.  One time I created a delicious site with some really great bookmarks(or at least I thought they were), an I forgot to move them over by the September 23rd deadline and now have lost them all :-(. 

Overall social bookmarking is an easy task and good so you don't loose some of your favorite sites, but then again isn't that what your favorites in your explorer are for?

I think social bookmarking can be a good thing, especially for educators and administrators, so they can share resources with each other without emailing the links to each other.  These links are readily accessible to all the world to see.  I do think for somethings like associations, these social bookmarks could be useful because everyone who would belong to the association could access it and add to it for the betterment of the members.

OK, I just have read my first two comments from everyone and don't think blogging is so bad.  I still am having a hard time thinking about what to write, but it seems like blogging is a discussion board that the whole world can see.  The only thing that worries me now is "what does the world think of this blog"