South Carolina DEN

Photo Story 3 has made quite an impact on digital storytelling in the classroom. Offered as a free download from the Microsoft website, this application is surprisingly easy to use!

Photo Story is an application that allows you to import digital, still images and create a photo slideshow that you can share. So imagine this, you start off with images from your digital camera or from StreamlineSC. These images are brought into the application where you can crop or add cool effects (like “sepia” for that old-timey feeling). Each image can be edited on it’s own, allowing you to really get creative! Once you’ve finished, the final product is actually a video file that can be viewed by just about anyone.

With Photo Story, you can add your own narration to one or every image in your story, as well as use music to set the tone. The application allows you to use mp3 audio, or get around that good ‘ole copyright law and create your own music. While the music you create won’t be earning you any platinum albums, you’ll still be able to set the mood for your story.

As you edit your story, pictures are placed into a “slider” that allows you to track changes using icons, or re-arrange the order of your show. Recorded some narration for a particular picture? No worries! If you move that picture in the story, the narration and changes you made to the photo will travel with it.

One of my favorite features of Photo Story, though, is the ability to customize the motion of your pictures. Let’s say you’re telling the story of a Civil War soldier. You’ve downloaded a file from StreamlineSC that shows a group of Civil War soldiers at one of their camps. The story begins with this picture, but then zooms in tight and rests on the face of one of the soldiers in the group. You then begin to tell the story of how this young boy went off to fight in the war, highlighting the famous battles he fought in and the generals who led them. Each picture fades in and out, creating a seamless flow of images that tell a story. Pretty neat, huh? Some might even have a name for that effect (hint, hint).

Or imagine you have pictures taken from around your school. You put them together and, with the help of students from your classroom, add narration that describes each photo. You record the voices of your students to coincide with the pictures you’ve taken and - POOF! - you now have a virtual tour of your building. Can you imagine greeting a new student with an iPod and allowing them to tour the school with one of your students?

There are limitless possibilities for Photo Story in the classroom. A common use for this application in education today is a student-created book talk. Using their own artwork, students get the chance to re-tell a story. This is an excellent alternative to a book report, and presents you with the opportunity to very easily integrate technology into the classroom.

Other Photo Story examples include digital scrapbooks for an “All About Me” presentation, history report using photos of photos of key figures, science project visual for presenting findings, and… well, let us know! Please leave a comment about how you have used (or would like to use) Photo Story in your classroom or school. Got a link to one of your videos? We’d love to see it!

The South Carolina Leadership Council treated DEN members to dinner in Columbia last night. Dinner with the DEN is a treat, but being able to share technology tips with fellow educators takes the cake!

Cathy Nelson, Library Media Specialist and DEN member, shared two great sites:

Cameroid
Fun image generator for those who have access to a Webcam.

A flickrstream called “Interesting Snippets”
The photos consist of metaphorical creative commons pictures that have added motivational or thought provoking phrases, quotes, and understandings that have many uses. The idea I shared was to get to the photostream, use the slide show feature, and just let them rotate through (roughly 250 pictures) for educators as they wait for staff developments to begin. I suppose they would be good for parents at parent meetings in the same way. I noticed as I searched for them again tonight, others have picked up on this, like Dean Shareski and Alan Levine. They are tagging the photos “interestingsnippets.” The originator of the idea simply created a set named that. It’s a good idea, and one that can grow now that a seed of an idea has been planted and a tag has been formed and implemented.

Donna Teuber shared this tip:

Olympus has several cameras in the SW series that are shockproof and waterproof. These cameras are very durable in a school setting where students may be dropping cameras or taking the cameras out in the rain. The cameras are shockproof when dropped from 5 feet and some models are waterproof up to 33 feet. The cameras are also crushproof up to a weight of 220 pounds.

Thanks for the tips, ladies! Got a tip for the DEN? Let us a know all about it and we’ll post it here on the blog. You can post a comment here or email it to the Leadership Council at sc.den.leaders@gmail.com.

Just wanted to make a quick shout out to all the SC DEN members…and anyone else reading this

What have you done with Discovery OR technology & education lately? Comment here and let us know what is going on in your school/district.

I’ll start…

Last week, my district had a pre-conference event for SCASL 2008. We talked about Web2.0 tools. One site I highlighted was Blabberize. You can download an image from StreamlineSC, upload it to Blabberize, select the mouth or “talking” area of the image, and record your own voice. Then you play the blabber and the picture talks!! There are so many ways you could use this in the classroom.

-introduce a new topic/theme/lesson

-pose questions for your students

-allow students to record reports on this famous person

and more!

Leave us a comment so we know you are out there!  We miss hearing from ya!

I’ve had the opportunity this school year to pilot a project to use GPS receivers with students at the elementary, middle, and high school levels in Richland County School District One.  The funding was provided by Ida Thompson, Director of Instructional Technology Services.  The project has definitely been the highlight of my year.   I had no idea when I started that it would be so much fun! Here are a few of the projects that I’ve collaborated with teachers on this year:

Judy Spear’s third grade class at Bradley Elementary School learned about latitude and longitude and compass reading as part of a South Carolina history activity.   We planted questions around campus about South Carolinians who were important during the Civil War.  The students were divided into groups and they used the GPS receivers to locate the questions.  The groups answered the questions after returning to class.  A second part of the project involved sending a travel bug and hitchhiker around to different regions of South Carolina.  We tagged Bradley, a dragonfly, with a Groundspeak travel bug tag, and left him in a cache that the class created.  Students brought in items to place in the cache. They also wrote a letter telling the cache finders about where Bradley wanted to travel.  Bradley made it to the sandhills and coastal regions before disappearing in a horrible cache theft.  Before his disappearance, the students had a great time following his adventures on the geocaching.com website.

Stacy Allendorf’s sixth grade science classes at Crayton Middle School learned about plants using the GPS receivers to navigate to different locations on campus.  They recorded observations about plants and trees in each area. 

Another Crayton teacher, Carol Lumpkin, had her eighth grade geometry students use the receivers to determine the slope of a hill.  This was a great real-world application because the principal needed to know if it would be possible to plant grass seed on the hill.  The students had a wonderful time thinking about how to best determine the slope. 

I’ve also had the opportunity to provide staff development on GPS receivers for teachers in our district.  This summer, teachers used the receivers to hunt for “Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader” questions.  The teams had a great time using the receivers and answering the questions.

In all of these activities, the teachers and I were able to incorporate great resources like United Streaming videos and Google Earth. 

Try geocaching with your family this summer and then begin planning how you can use this great tool in the classroom.

Donna Teuber

Have you heard about ning.com? When I received the S.O.S. from Kathy Schrock I didn’t believe this could be true. A social network that you can set up privately so you can use it in your classroom. This is a great social networking site where the social network can be private to only those invited. Our students use MySpace, Bebo, and many others. How can we use this technology to promote learning in the classroom?

There are a few issues with the site:

1. There are ads on the page BUT they relate to your topic. The google ads are all educationally based on my network.

2. The site seems to have some issues with IE7. Sometimes the page loads with errors and won’t let you go anywhere. I am hoping this kink gets worked out. It seems to open fine with Mozilla Firefox.

If you want to join in on the experiment go to techforschool.ning.com and request an invitation.

Have you signed up for TeacherTube? If you haven’t been there go! This site was launched March 6, 2007. Teachertube is a place to post educational videos you or your class create. Registration is FREE! TeacherTube is committed to stay educationally focused all videos uploaded are asked to address a specific learning objective and/or provide professional development for teachers.

Presently, you can watch and download videos such as Technology Fear Factor, Make Classroom Posters with Microsoft Excel, Walkthroughs and Learning Objectives, and Mrs. Burk Perimeter Rap. You can even tune in to specific channels such as World Languages, Physical Education and more.

Become a part of the TeacherTube movement today!

MaryAnn Sansonetti

SC DEN Leader

RCSD1 Technology Educator

Unitedstreaming-ETV streamline videos have become an important resource in my classroom.  Many topics are covered in short, easy to understand content for all subject areas, many with blackline masters to go along with the content.  Content can be searched by grade, by subject, or by standard.  The best part, in my opinion, is that once I find a resource to which my students respond, I can store it for future reference under My Content.  This feature allows you to collect, organize, share, and retrieve unitedstreaming media resources, assignments, quizzes, writing prompts, etc. in one convenient place.  When you have found a resource you wish to use, simply click on “ADD” in the lower right hand corner of the information screen of the resource and this resource will be added to “My Content”.  To access “My Content” once you have logged in, simply click on “My Content” in the upper left hand corner next to your name.  It really helps with planning and organization.

Beth Thrailkill

STAR Discovery Educator

NBCT Richland One

Blogs are becoming increasingly popular in education, and teachers are eager to begin using blogs with their students.  Blogs are a wonderful instructional tool because they allow students to publish their writing.  Students can post research notes, keep online journals, publish creative writing, and collaborate with other students on class projects.

Many school districts block access to blogs because much of the content is inappropriate for children.  Luckily, some blog sites are becoming more teacher-friendly and giving teachers more options in setting up blogs which are password protected and private. 

21Publish has just redesigned a blog service called 21Classes. 

21Classes allows a teacher to set up a classroom blog and add students to the class.  All students have their own login names and passwords as well as the ability to create a blog.  The teacher can create the student accounts or students can be invited by e-mail to join the class. The teacher has a community blog page where all news and assignments are listed.  The community blog is interconnected with the individual student blogs. Teachers can also create team blogs which allow everyone in the class to post to the blog.

There are many privacy options that the teacher can choose from in setting up the blog.  It is possible to make comments available to members of the community blog but not to the general public.  The teacher can also lock down student accounts so that students cannot publish their blog to the public. 

Teachers can easily set up a 21Classes account by going to the website and signing up. The free access allows a teacher to set up a class with 50 students.  Each student has 2MB of disk space allowed.  An upgrade package is available.

Donna Teuber

RCDS1 Technology Educator