Herman Wood

iPhoto Projects for Middle Grades

I've heard concerns expressed that projects are great, but teaching must come first. What about learning? Do students learn as much or as well from doing projects? Are students more engaged with the curriculum when listening or when they're constructing? Please join the dialogue by sharing your thoughts as a comment for your first assignment.

Your second assignment is to create a digital project you can use in class with iPhoto. I'll begin by showing you a few things, then let you work.

There are plenty of resources to help you if you need to finish later:
Here's the link on our resources to the documents we created to help you with iPhoto '06: http://www.cobb.k12.ga.us/instructionaltechnology/mac/resource_files/iPhoto_6_manual.pdf
You have iPhoto '08? Well, http://www.cobb.k12.ga.us/instructionaltechnology/mac/resource_files/iPhoto_8_manual.pdf

From iPhoto, you can print photo books, greeting cards, and calendars, as well as create slide shows with music or other audio that can be burned to DVD.

Higher Order Thinking Skills & Photostory 3

I asked a new teacher this morning if she was familiar with Benjamin Bloom.  As always, I was rewarded with "Of Bloom's Taxonomy?"  Do you think his work is still relevant?  One of his former students, Lorin Anderson, has suggested an update.  An article in techLearning, http://techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=196605124 does a good job of summarizing her work for us.  Two point stood out to me:  The additional cognitive objective of Creation has been added and lots of "digital" verbs have been added (googling, for one).

Can students create in the digital world?  (If you have any doubt, check YouTube.)  Are students doing the digital verbs on their own without us?  If they have access they are!  It's just as big a part of their world as cassette tapes were to mine.

One of the tools you can let them create with is Photo Story 3.  I'm attaching a PDF for you to use to help you learn how to use it. 

Download PS3.pdf

You can also use Atomic Learning at this link:  http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/photo_story_3 (login required).

If you'd like to know more about Dr. Anderson, go to:  http://www.andersonresearchgroup.com/index.html  She's in the neighborhood- just over in Columbia, South Carolina.

As a comment, please tell me about your plans for students to use Photo Story 3 in your classroom.

GarageBand Introduction

GarageBand is a fun tool that can used to create music, either with built in loops, touching keys on the keyboard, or via a MIDI instrument attached to the computer. It can also create a podcast or score a movie!

Even a musical imbecile like me can create an nice introductory piece for a slideshow or movie!

We have created written documentation to help with using the program. You can find it at:
http://www.cobb.k12.ga.us/instructionaltechnology/mac/iTools_06.html

You should start by trying to create a short 15 to 30 second loop that could be used for introducing a slide show or movie. The first handout in the series, GarageBand Music, will take you through that.

The other documents can also help with podcasting and attaching MIDI instruments.

As always, Atomic Learning (login required) provides great information as well. Here's the link to the basics:
http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/garageband3_wn

If you teach music, there's lesson accelerators that may also help:
http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/la_gstaff_gb3mac
http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/la_noteval_gb3mac

Being a musical imbecile, I don't feel qualified to comment on what level the lessons are appropriate for.

Georgia Educational Technology Conference

I'm at the Georgia Educational Technology Conference down by the airport. I am posting from every session, but on my personal blog. Please feel free to go read at: http://edtech.typepad.com/theblog/

Curricular Websites & Internet Resources

Internet resources for the curriculum are nothing new. What is new, are the ways we can use the resources in the curriculum.

One of the most powerful ways we can use the web is by going directly to a primary source for data. Rather than reading a summary in Time magazine or online, we have the ability to go look at the same data that Time looks at- a primary source. Where do we find the data? It depends on what type of data, of course. Fortunately, the Landmarks for Schools project, an effort of David Warlick, has compiled an extensive list of sources of data. Go to: http://landmark-project.com/page.php?stamp=&pn=4&psn=&cat=22

Please take a few minutes and look through the sources cataloged here. How could you use them in your curriculum?

Google has been on the forefront of using data in unique ways. Their Google Earth Program is quite amazing. It is approved for install on district computers. It is loaded on the Mac laptops at Lovinggood and the computers by the windows in the Media Center. The icon looks like this:

If you want it on your teacher laptop or other computers, place a work order to have the install done. Just for fun, let's take a look at a tour I created: Download Tour_of_the_SEC.kmz

Please open Google Earth and explore for a few minutes now.

There are some great projects outline now in several curricular areas! Here's links to them:
Social Studies: The Sojourn Project- used Google Earth to share their tour of historic Civil Rights sites: http://www.sojournproject.com/blog/
The Google Earth component: http://miramonte.acalanes.k12.ca.us/bbcswebdav/institution/MHSwebsite/sojourn07/Journey/Welcome.html

Language Arts: Google Lit Trips- Follow the path taken in literature in Google Earth: http://web.mac.com/jburg/iWeb/GoogleLit/Home.html

Earth Science: Google Earth for Earth Science- a whole website devoted to using Google Earth in Earth
Science: http://www.eastchester.k12.ny.us/schools/hs/teachers/fermann/GE.htm

iTunes, believe it or not, is a terrific catalog of educational podcasts! Open iTunes, click the iTunes Store and look for link labeled Podcasts. Search there for podcasts in your area. Please feel free to look at a prior post on podcasts for curricular areas: http://tiscobb.typepad.com/herman_wood/2007/09/lovinggood-ma-4.html

Finally, let's not forget Nettrekker! Please go to Nettrekker now and do a search on standards for your curriculum: http://www.nettrekker.com/

Mrs. Crumley has compiled quite the list of websites to help you herself! Please go to her blog at:

http://lovinggood.typepad.com/rcrumley/

Lovinggood Mac Basics: Navigating the Interface

Teachers should meet with Mrs. Crumley prior to the project to have her set up a login for use with your project.

At the bottom of the screen will be the dock. The dock is where shortcuts to many of the software applications on the Mac are. Here's the icon for the primary web browser on the Mac:

Three dots are at the top left of almost all open windows on a Mac. They look like this:

The red dot closes the window, the yellow dot "docks" the window, and the green dot optimizes the size of the window for your screen:

Closing a window on a Mac does not close the application. It's important to close applications by clicking the name of the application and scrolling down to "Quit Safari", for example.

If too many applications are open at one time, the computer's performance will slow down. This can be a big problem with multimedia! I know of one DVD project that took 12 hours to burn to disc because of just such an issue.

INFORM

INFORM is a service that the district uses for registration for staff development and more. Go to: https://cobb.edmin.com/ to sign in see what's available.

To register for Professional Learning, go down the navigation on the left side of the page to INFORM, then click on staff development tracker. The first option is usually highlighted, which is the Staff Development catalog.

Nettrekker

Nettrekker is an amazing resource available to Cobb teachers and students. First, let's take a look at basic information: http://tiscobb.typepad.com/newteacher/nettrekker-di.html

While on the Cobb network, you are able to go in without a login. You, and your students, can create a login so that it can be used from home.

Here's a link to a quick reference guide: http://www.nettrekker.com/pdf/di/nTdi_Quick_Ref_Guide.pdf

Here's the link to Atomic Learning Resources for Nettrekker: http://www.atomiclearning.com/nettrekker_di