CEDO 530 Entry Five

Assessing multimedia projects can be challenging subject. In my content area of history most of my emphasis is measuring specific content-based objectives and I assess their achievement in regards to that. When having students create a multimedia project what also is included is the criteria for creating the project. How to weigh and measure the multimedia project does create a dilemma when creating a rubric. Typically what I have done in the past is weigh the multimedia content as a fairly small portion of the entire project and focus more on the content. When measuring subject specific content through a multimedia project it is careful to assess the actual project in terms of quality of technology usage but most focus should be on content specific criteria.

Creating the Pecha Kucha has been a very interesting experience. The concept truly fascinates me and I enjoyed story boarding the project. Deciding what slides to include and how to frame the story caused me to really critically think about my topic. I used the post-it note method to order my slides and found it very effective. While I am still in the process of creating the actual presentation I've did my best to include slides that would make the Zen proud. My final challenge will be narrowing my information and analysis to twenty seconds per slide as I could go on and on about my topic.

CEDO 530 Entry Four

So I am taking the plunge and having my students make digital stories. The next unit in my World Cultures class is Latin America and one of the lessons in the unit is the impact of the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest. It is a lesson that connects geography, economics, and culture in the region. After presenting a slideshow from slideshare on the Amazon Rainforest (that received honorable mention in the best slideshow contest 2008, and happens to be very zen) to go along with a handout, students will use Animoto to create digital stories with pictures, text, and music. This will be a great way for me to apply and test what I have learned in CEDO 530 and see how students respond. They seem to be itching to do something more on the creative side and this project would seem to fit that. To hopefully make the project more time efficient I plan on placing them into groups to complete it. It may even be fun to view them as a class and vote on "best picture" or something along those lines. If anyone has any thoughts I'd love to hear them...

As for the rest of the work this week I am looking forward to testing out Prezi. I've had several students make them for class projects but never have I actually made one. Students in my Government class are doing presentations and one group used Prezi, which I am excited to see. Most of the students I've had use Prezi really like it and make good presentations. I've truly enjoyed getting to implement the tools we have used in this program and my students seem to be more engaged when using them.

CEDO 530 Entry Three

The concept of Pecha Kucha truly fascinates me. I think a lot of people feel the need to include as much information as possible in their presentations and can lead to long and sometimes boring lectures. A Pecha Kucha is a great way to shorten and condense information and force you to stick to the core message. Each slide is important and only important details that support the core message can be included due to the time constraint. A great activity for my classes would be for students to have to create them. It would be a great way for students to do research and learn how to decipher important facts and information.

I have continued to evaluate and revise my presentations using the zen techniques. Yesterday I even had a great conversation with a colleague who wants to read the book. Although I would not consider myself even close to an expert, I feel much more comfortable with creating presentations and would be able to share a lot with others as I move to rid the world of bad power points.

Looking forward to creating some digital stories. Voicethread was a great tool that will be something I can easily integrate into my classes. I'm excited about finding some programs that would allow my students and myself to create some digital stories.