In my new literacies project I definitely realized I was technology immigrant. I started this project designing a website but, boy did I have a difficult time with uploading pictures and connecting separate websites to my own. I became extremely frustrated and I’m sad to say I decided to take a different route to my New Literacies Project. I came about a digital story last semester in our TE401. If you can remember Alison gave us a quick overview of all that you can do on Windows Movie Maker. Now, at that time I thought the idea was very cool, yet I did not have the time to explore the idea of all that it could do…until now. After several hours of just playing around to get the feel for it I attempted to put my depiction of Emotional Literacy into a digital story.
What I like about this technology is that it allowed me to be creative without being exhaustedly frustrated. One of my favorite things to read are inspirational quotes. I know that that’s really cheesey , but ever since 6th grade I have loved them. I thought through this literacy and through this technology I could accomplish both while learning a lot on the way. Although there were many frustrating points, by the end of the project I became quite familiar with this technology. I can see how this technique could be used in various ways for years to come within my classroom.
The most challenging part for me was just learning the ins and the outs. I really found it beneficial to just explore the technology before actually putting literacy into it. By doing this it allowed me to see some of the special gadgets Movie Maker had to offer. Once the project elements were all uploaded the difficulty then became editing and matching up the times. In a way the final product was frustrating to watch because it ran so smoothly that it seemed effortless. However looking back I wish I could have talked a little slower and paused more with the pictures to give a reader a chance to both read and hear each slide appropriately.
By doing a technology project we were asked to step out of the box from the everyday paper norm. And at first I must admit I was extremely frustrated, but the project became to grow on me. I began to appreciate the purpose of the assignment and became thankful I wasn’t writing another 11 page paper. Through this project I was allowed to get out the information I would have written, but through a creative way. I was able to bring in pictures and quotes, both things that I love and are what helps make me, me.
1 comment:
First off, I applaud you Olivia for working through your frustrations and taking the time to learn a completely new technology. It was ambitious and paid off!
I liked how you told readers that it was important to explore the new technology first. I think this is applicable for when one is teaching. Also, one could allow students to explore a variety of new technologies so they can determine which one they are most comfortable with before choosing which one to use for a project.
I also appreciated how you said that the technology project allowed you to think outside the box and was more than a traditional paper. I agree that sometimes I get frustrated because I think, "It would be so much easier to write the paper!" However, I think the real learning comes when we are pushed, which is exactly what this project is. I wonder how one might scaffold this project with younger students so they are pushed but not frustrated.
Along with that, I think that Olivia hit on a good point when she said that the new technology project allows one to use different thought processes. Simliar to what Melanie said, it allows one to truly appeal to multiple intelligences and ways of learning. Furthermore, as we learned students have different entry points, and this sort of project allows students the freedom to enter a project from all different ways. It was so interesting to see how everyones project turned out differently, even in terms of content.
A question I have for Olivia is at what age you would implement this sort of technology? Would you use it in younger grades but with more scaffolding?
I'm also curious as to how long it took you to complete your movie. Do you think with time it would take less time and maybe students could to a quick in class thing?
Lastly, since I did my new technology with blogs; it is fairly simple to attach websites to one's blogs. It would be neat if you had students make digital stories and then put the links in a classroom blog. Just a thought!
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