Hodag Water Show- Digital Autobiography

Digital Autobiography

http://www.photoshow.com/watch/ek9AT4bb Final Autobiography
http://animoto.com/play/L0fdk6DC5RK0dm0KvMs7ew


•How much effort did you exert on this task?
I explored each of the VoiceThread, PhotoShow, Animoto, and Vuvox tools to narrow down the one I wanted to use. I created two autobiographies. I used PhotoShow and Animoto. I was most pleased with the PhotoShow project. I did like some of the features that Animoto offered, such as cooler music and visual effects, but I had trouble transferring certain photos. Once I completed my PhotoShow project I watched it and decided to go back into it multiple times for more editing and polishing. I also blogged my Animoto project because I really liked certain aspects of it.

•What is the value in completing this course task?
Creating the autobiography was a good way for me to begin exploring the giant selection of digital tools on the internet. I have heard of Animoto before but had never made anything like this on the internet before. I am glad that we were given a selection to pick from. Having multiple tools to choose from, each with their own style, showed me how investigating different possibilities can be very beneficial in producing a finish product.

There was a combination of many different skills needed to complete this task including uploading photos, reorganizing information, graphic design with test and pictures, and linking the project to other digital media. I posted my PhotoShow to my facebook page, the Hodag Water Show page, and my blog at Blogger.com. When I posted it to my blog, it was the second blog I had ever posted in my life. It was a simple task blogging it but it was something I had never done before.

In addition to the technological benefits that the assignment achieves, sharing it with the class will help students to get to know each other better. This will hopefully make for a more comfortable classroom atmosphere in our strangely arranged computer room. This was a good introductory project that was also pretty fun.

•How does completing this course task impact your future teaching?
I could definitely see using tools like these in my secondary science classroom. In the digital world that we live in it is important for students to continue learning new ways to digitally share their knowledge. Incorporating projects like this could show my students how uploading pictures has its benefits beyond using facebook.

A majority of students have already developed the introductory skills that I mentioned before. Using interesting new tools which bring these skills together could help struggling learners spark connections to technology. Reducing students’ fears in technology will build their confidence and hopefully inspire them to explore it further. Using tools like PhotoShare is not reserved only for the struggling students. These tools also allow advance students to take their skills to the next level.

It is fun! It is important to introduce material that is fun to the classroom. Keeping students having fun will help them make deeper connections with the material. Also, it will lessen the “I’m bored” syndrome.

A PhotoShow autobiography could be used to enhance a lab report. There could be an assigned photographer to each lab group during an outdoors field study. During the lab write up after their outdoor data has been taken the students would be able to revisit the photos to refresh their memories. They could use the photos to demonstrate their findings to me through a PhotoShow.

Building a safe comfortable classroom atmosphere is important to the science classroom. Creating a digital autobiography will help students get to know each other better. When students feel more comfortable they may be able to contribute more to a classroom discussion.

Finally, using digital tools can be a great way for students to build skills which are beneficial in other classes and subjects. This project also helped me to create a digital short for my water ski show’s page. During science class, students will be building skills that could later help them in a marketing or webpage design class.