April 20

I believe in the realm of digital storytelling the most important key factor is drawing your audience into the topic. While the topic at hand may not be interesting to all, you must find away to intrigue your viewers. Ira Glass promotes the idea of sequencing events in an antidotal way. He believes you must present questions throughout your story that you will eventually answer and then conclude your piece with a moment of reflection. Glass finds however, combining those two elements to be difficult. Either you build suspense successfully and the reflection is a disappointment, or verse versa. I too, believe that to captivate your audience there must be a level of suspense and an idea of the unknown.

While all those things sound like great ideas, creating it is the hard part. My digital story-telling project will focus on “How I got into the cattle industry.” I will provide a quick background of my life without directly answering, how I became involve with cattle. The conclusion of my story will touch on the many aspects of my life that are now affected by my involvement in cattle.

March 30

This project was unlike any group project I have ever done. I really enjoyed working with my group members, sharing ideas and communicating our thoughts on our portion (needs assessment). What I found to be the most beneficial was week two, the question and answer session on the main discussion board. I feel I learned a lot from reading others questions and the group’s responses about the other two groups. By having to answer questions on my own group, I believe this pushed me to become even more of an expert in my field. The biggest challenges for me occurred during the first week of the project. Partly because I was unable to attend class (out of town) the night we were giving instructions. I struggled with communicating with my group members, because I was trying to communicate through e-mail. Finding our groups private discussion board was the true key for finally making contact. Even though we were using our group’s private discussion board, we exchanged telephone numbers. This method was faster and we were able to communicate our thoughts more clearly. Once each group had posted their project on the main discussion board, it became apparent which group’s information was straightforward. The learning activity was easy to read and understand the process of the information. Where many people became confused was identifying the differences between a needs assessment and an evaluation. I think that the needs assessment and evaluation have overlapping characteristics, which can make deciphering between them challenging. I truly believe this is where the question and answering portion of the project was so educational and beneficial. We the students were able to help our classmates understand the new material.

March 9

I have found that group projects can offer advantages and disadvantages, no matter what age you are or the level of education. Unfortunately, with all of the technology available there is no longer one place you check for communication. We have school e-mail, personal e-mail, work e-mail, and discussion boards. Unfortunately, my e-mails were getting lost in translation. Nevertheless, when I finally figured out where the communication was taking place and phone numbers were posted I was then able to offer my assistances. Personal I do not enjoy group work, it probably stems back to middle school when the teacher would pair me with other students and our group work became my work they all got to put their names on. Regardless, I have enjoyed working with the two Greg’s on this project. During our main group-based part, I have learned what a needs assessment is and look forward to using this instrument more in my own classroom to assess student’s prior knowledge before beginning a new unit. One aspect I do enjoy about working in a group situation is being able to share ideas and receiving support and feedback. Each individual in the group can offer a variety of thing from a differing viewpoint to helping you remember to include a citation.

Feb. 23

Technology offers learners an additional method of gaining knowledge. As I have gotten older, I have had to adjust what methods of learning work best for myself. As a child, I hated reading; therefore, any opportunity to view media or listen to audio was ideal. As I continued my education, I have learned the benefits of reading and researching material. Presently I rely on technology to teach, prepare lessons, and learn new information. This is most effective for me because it provides a variety of options. I can download a podcast on the daily news, pull up today’s newspaper, or review united streaming clips on historical events.
Many times, I have prior knowledge on the subject or topic I am researching, and the internet allows me to narrow my focus and locate exactly what I am looking for.
While technology can provide endless possibilities, sometimes I rely too heavily on a sometimes unreliable source. The school I work in pushes the implementation of technology within our lessons, however what happens when the internet is down, or the mobile lab does not work, or the LCD projector breaks. I have to remind myself to be prepared because all machines are capable of breaking and then what do I do with 33 students who cannot complete a web quest.

Feb. 9 Classroom Technology

I strongly feel that technology in the classroom can be a tool to utilize and explain information or a hindrance in obtaining knowledge. In order for technology in the classroom to be successful it has to be implemented properly. For myself technology offers an additional differentiation of material and as a visual learner I benefit from the extra opportunity in understanding a new concept. One of my first experiences being taught with technology was with the use of power point presentation. In high school I struggled trying to take notes in a lecture style class, therefore the ppp allowed me to visual see and organize my notes. Many times pictures, sound bites, or video streaming clips were integrated into the ppp, as well. In my own classroom I try to use technology as a means of helping students understand the material. As a high school social studies teacher I feel that one of my jobs is to familiarize students with a research/gathering information process using the Internet. When teaching the Holocaust, I use our departments mobile lab, allowing each student the use of a laptop in the classroom. I then provide students with a web site and questions they have to answer. This allows students to use technology to research a important topic in history and to achieve a feeling of self exploration. I like using this activity because it is another opportunity to help students feel comfortable researching on-line.
I rationale using technology in the classroom when I feel the benefits out way the cons.