My Final Blog: A Reflection on Production 1

So let me start out by saying that I enjoyed this class.  It was kind of a bumpy ride for me in that there were some assignments that I really enjoyed working on like the digital stories (even though I already knew how to do that), and some assignments that I really didn't see any use for with my particular field of teaching.  Let me first try to explain my thinking about some of the assignments I had some type of problem with.

I'll start with the Visual Vocabulary Project.  I'm really not a fan of doing power points, so this one didn't start out well.  I tried to find a topic that I was interested in and that I thought I could find a group of words with good symbolism.  I chose football.  Now on my nice 27 inch Mac computer screen in my office at school, my power point looked good.  I felt pretty good about it.  Then I got my grade ... 85.  Okay, now I'm not a grade whore that has to get an "A" at all costs or it's the end of the world.  My problem though was that the comment posted on my blog was, "The addition of sound at the beginning was a nice touch.  good job."  Okay ... so why the 85?  Obviously there must be something that wasn't good about it that caused my grade to drop.  I asked, didn't really get an answer, but ultimately it wasn't eating at me so I let it go.  A few weeks later we were talking in class about the look of assignments on the blog itself.  Okay I now had my answer.  The power point looked great on my big computer screen, but it didn't look so great on the blog.  Fair enough.

The other assignment that I really didn't see any use for me personally was the poster.  At least at first, but I'll get to that in a moment.  This was the last assignment, and I honestly felt like it should have been one of the first or second completed in the course.  I just felt like this was something that I would never ever have any need to do in my class.  I actually told a couple of my colleagues that the only time I could imagine me needing to make a poster like this would be if I was an administrator, and if that was the case I'd be making enough money that I would just hire someone else to do it for me.  I of course did it, and I'll admit I was happy with the way it came out.  (And I learned a lot about Flickr doing it.)  I still felt that  I would never need to do something like this again.  Well never say never.  Some of my TV students entered a safe driving film contest, and our school was selected as a finalist.  We'll be making a public service announcement on the dangers of texting and driving in case you're wondering.  In the spring we will be meeting with representatives from the festival sponsors to make a formal presentation to them.  Enter Mr. Poster.  I thought this would be a great way to add to our PSA, and point out more of the dangers of texting & driving, give some statistics, websites for more information, etc.  Oh, and since I'm not an administrator yet, I'll be making the poster myself.

I really enjoyed making the digital stories.  I guess I better since it's my job at school.  Both "My Dog Mickey" and "CHS: What are you in to?" were fun to make, and after showing them to people I think people really liked them.  Which as a producer is what you're looking for.  Podcasts 1 & 2 were also a lot of fun.  I had never made a podcast before, but I'm thinking about starting to use this as an assignment in my Intro to TV and News classes at school.  I think the students will enjoy making them, and it will introduce them to another form of media.

So overall I enjoyed the class.  In addition to the digital stories and the podcasts, I really liked the collaboration and interaction with the Wiki projects, and the text was informative too.  Not a bad way to spend two hours every Thursday night for a few months.

      

Poster Presentation

Flickr Poster

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References:

Flickr.com. (n.d.). Retrieved December 6, 2010, from http://www.flickr.com

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. (2nd edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Wikipedia.org. (n.d.). Retrieved December 6, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flickr

Theories used:

Visual Literacy: I used pictures to represent and reinforce the information that was presented.

Cognitive Load Theory: I used short, to the point phrases to get the basic information I wanted the viewer to come away with, and not be bogged down with too much information that it was confusing.

Dual Coding Theory: I used a chart like picture to reinforce the information that was presented in an easy to look at and understand way.

Podcast Two: "Taming a Liger - Chapter 18"

Dunn, Jeff & Palmer, Adam.  Taming a Liger: Unexpected Spiritual Lessons from Napolean Dynamite.  Colorado Springs, CO.  Think, 2005.

Podcast One: Taming a Liger

Dunn, Jeff & Palmer, Adam.  Taming a Liger: Unexpected Spiritual Lessons from Napolean Dynamite.  Colorado Springs, CO.  Think, 2005.

Digital Story 2: What are you in to?

Digital Story 1: My Dog Mickey

Blog 2: Questions for Will Richardson

Question 1

In chapter 3 of your book, you talk about blogging with your students.  While I think this could be a very useful tool for things like homework and group projects, I did get a little nervous when thinking about using it for corresponding with students and allowing students to personalize their blogs.  

When I was first hired at my school district, I was told that I should never use email to correspond with students or parents about how they or their child was doing because it was a legal document that could come back to bite me.  I understand that the primary subject matter of the blog would be assignment related, but if a student isn't doing well and feels they weren't graded properly, couldn't they use their teacher's responses against him or her?  Do you think there is any reason for a teacher to be concerned with using a blog to communicate with students?

I would also be concerned with allowing them to personalize their blogs with pictures and personal posts.  I think if the blog is for school business it should steer clear of any personal material.  Something a student posts could be viewed by them as innocent or no big deal, but it could make someone else (another student or a teacher) viewing it uncomfortable.  Just wondering what your thoughts on this are.


Question 2

In chapter 8 of your book, you talk about live streaming in the classroom.  This is something that I have brought up with some of my supervisors over the past few years.  Before I started teaching I worked for ABC News in their digital news division.  There we were responsible for producing original online only content as well as re-packaging other ABC News material for video on demand clips.  But another aspect of our programming was to look in on live webcams around the world.  

At my high school we broadcast the daily morning announcements each day, and I think it would be fantastic if in addition to being seen on the televisions in the classrooms and the on the local town access channel, we could also be seen on the web.  My question is that since I am dealing with 16, 17 and 18 year-olds, what security measures do you think would need to be put in place to ensure that we don't broadcast something inappropriate that gets us in trouble?  The kids in the news classes are generally really good kids, but they're still kids.    

Visual Vocabulary Project

VV PP

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Blog Assignment 1: Visual Literacy

Can you read a map? How about a street sign? Does the symbol below mean something to you?

If you answered yes, then you are visual literate.  Visual Literacy is defined as, “the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image” (Wikipedia, n.d.). You’ve heard of the old saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” … well that’s visual literacy.
Think about all the images we are bombarded with each and every day. The logos on the orange juice container and cereal box, the weather symbols on the morning news, the street signs as we drive to work or school, and that’s just a few that we encounter before 8am. The list could go on and on.

Some researchers argue that using visual literacy in the classroom leads to increased learning by students (Stokes, n.d.). And I would agree with this. In my high school where I teach, we have a number of ESL students. Well for these students, reading may be difficult while they are tying to learn the English language, but the use of pictures, charts, maps, symbols, etc. would certainly make learning easier for them. An example of this would be how using a diagram or chart can help a student understand how facts are connected. As opposed to simply writing a list of facts in a notebook that may not seem connected at all.

Just stop and think about the society we live in today. Everything comes at us fast and we need to react and comprehend it quickly, or the information will blow right past us. Check out this YouTube video I found to see what I mean.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQNbAtK3c3g

Webliography

Picture this visual literacy activities. (n.d.). Retrieved September 15, 2010, from http://museumca.org/picturethis/visual.html#one

Sims, E., Butland, G., Cook, J., & O’Leary, R. (2002). Visual literacy: what is it and do we need it to use learning technologies effectively?

Stokes, S. (n.d.). Visual literacy in teaching and learning: a literature perspective. Electronic Journal for the integration of technology in education, vol. 1 (1), 10-17.

Visual literacy. (n.d.). Retrieved September 15th, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_literacy

Visual literacy across the curriculum. (n.d.). Retrieved September 15, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQNbAtK3c3g

Visual literacy k-8. (n.d.). Retrieved September 15, 2010, from
http://k-8visual.info/

My PicLit

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Post One

Here's my first blog post for Production 1.  I don't have much to say.  Maybe I will in future posts.