Google Earth Planning Table

Location	Activity Description	Google Earth Content
1. Rocky Mountains, Utah	Journal entry on hands and feet and the purposes of their shapes	picture and video of the mountain goat
2.Costa Rica, Tropics	Journal entry on camouflage	Picture and video of the red eyed tree frog
3.Egypt, Africa Desert	Journal entry on transportation	Video and picture of camels
4.Arctic, Tundra	Journal entry on why it is important to protect certain animals, like the polar bears	Picture of Polar Bear

Digital Storytelling Difficulties

I think that doing a digital storytelling project in school would be such a useful and effective project. However, there will be some difficulties in doing so. Especially for younger grades. Very young grades may have difficulty doing the project on the computer. They are still too young to have taht technological knowledge and ability. One way around this would be to brainstorm with the class instead about what should be in the story, what pictures and music should be used, etc., and then the teacher puts it together before showing the final product to the class. Also, if the teacher intends for the class to each do their own video, or even work in small groups, she will have to figure out how to allow enough computer time for them all to put their videos together. She will have to make sure the computer lab is available or send groups to the classroom computers in increments throughout the day. Because this is such a fun project, the teacher will have to give very specific instructions of what is allowed and what she wants the students to produce. Otherwise, there is a lot of potential for students to take too much creative liberity and deviate from the intended lesson objective. In all though, I think this would be a great classroom project!

TPACK

TPACK stands for technological pedagogical and content knowledge. This is made up of three different areas or knowledges. Technological is the knowledge dealing with technology, pedagogical is knowledge about different teaching styles and methods, and content knowledge is knowledge about a speicifc area of study, a specific event, or topic. When all of these are combined, we get TPACK. This will be an important concept for us to remember throughout this class because everything we create and do for our students in this class should be useful. We need to pedagogically teach specific content through technology. If we don't learn how to properly work techonology, we will not be fulfilling one of the areas of TPACK and we will be missing out on great pedegogical opportunities. Techonology can be such a great and helpful tool in the classroom. It is a type of teaching method, which means that it is an important part of TPACK. It is important for a teacher to completely understand this concept so that she can best form a lesson plan that is content specific, pedagogically and technologically appropriate.

Digital Story - Biography of JFK

Digital Storyboard Screenshots

My video is a biography on John F. Kennedy. I tell about the major life facts of Kennedy, basic facts such as when he was born, married, elected president, etc. The video is full of images from Kennedy's life. This would be a very valuable way of teaching about different presidents of the United States, which is an important thing to learn in elementary school. Movie presentations of a persons life allows the students time to relax but still be engaged in the the content as they watch and learn. Also, an teacher can make information in the film more or less detailed, depending on the age group of the intended audience. This allows the teacher to customize what is included in the short film she makes to cater to the needs of her students and be most effective in her teaching. Since most young students enjoy watching movies, this will be a good way for them to be interested in the material and still learn from the content.

skype picture

My Own Website!

The most helpful and useful tool I learned this week was definitely the fact that I learned how to make my own website. I had no idea that it was so easy to get your own free website. This will be such a valuable tool to have in the classroom. It makes it so easy to communicate with the parents and get information to them, as well as helpful for the students to follow along with class requirements and events. It was so great, although at times stressful, learning how to link so many tools onto the website. Now that I know how to do that, though, I will be able to do things so much easier and faster on my own. I am excited to work on my website and to continue to learn and improve on it so that I can do my very best in bringing and using these tools to my classroom and my students.

My Technology Background and Experiences

I have very little technology knowledge. My brothers are all very good at doing things on the computers, but I always let them do things for me, without teaching me. I regret that now. I know how to do very basic things on Word and Excel. I have a blog and regularly post on that, as well as a Facebook. Those, however, are really the only technological things that I know how to work. I am really excited to learn more about everything though because I know that I will need these skills in my classroom.