Students are able to add nearly any content to a [...]]]> You’ve heard of blogs, but what about glogs?  Teachers looking for that next Web 2.0 project idea may want to try Glogster EDU.  Glogster gives students a web-based way to add text, pictures, audio, and video to an interactive web page.  Think PowerPoint meets Google Sites.

Students are able to add nearly any content to a “poster” that allows a viewer to read text, enlarge photos, and play media files.  The glog is simply an interesting way to display content, but having students use this tool gives them valuable skills in the use of technology.

NOTE: This is the EDU version of Glogster.  This EDUcational site protects students in many ways from inappropriate content, and allows a lot of teacher management of student accounts (students do NOT need email addresses to use this application).  There is a NON-educational Glogster site, but it is a completely separate entity.  Glogster will not even allow you to use the same account for both sites.

Here are a couple of interesting examples:

Elementary Science (click and HOLD the mouse button down to enlarge photos)

Middle School science

Social Studies (Election of 1912)

Using Audacity, you [...]]]> Did you know that you can download sounds and sound effects from our Clipart.com for Schools subscription?  These sounds are great to use in SMART Notebook lesson activities, but they are all in the WAV format, and SMART Notebook really only likes the MP3 format.  How do you convert them?  EASILY of course!

Using Audacity, you simply open the sound file you have saved from the clipart site.  You then use the Export feature to save it as an MP3.  If you’ve ever recorded student voices, the Export feature is old hat!  Do you need to see this in action?  I thought so–look at the video below for help!

By the way, when you log into http://schools.clipart.com  at school, the clipart site is ready to use, but from home you need the user name and password.  You can find them in First Class by going to District Conferences, then K-6 Technology, and opening the Websites for Teachers file.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is a common experience with Audacity, Photo Story, Windows Movie Maker and many media-creation tools such as Photoshop, Premiere, [...]]]> Your students just recorded a poem with Audacity, and they swear that they saved the MP3 file in the right location, but they don’t understand why the program is asking them to save it again.  What’s happening?

This is a common experience with Audacity, Photo Story, Windows Movie Maker and many media-creation tools such as Photoshop, Premiere, Flash, etc.  What happens is that Audacity (we’ll use that as an example representing all of these types of programs) wants you to save a “project” file where you can keep editing your work in ADDITION TO the final audio (or movie) file that gets posted on your website or played using Windows Media Player.

If students are simply creating a one-off recording of what they did in science this week, then they should just create the MP3 file and not bother saving the project file.  As long as the MP3 file is created first, it’s okay to close Audacity without saving the project file.

Photo Story and Movie Maker are a little different.  With those programs you SHOULD save the project file.  This allows you to return to the editing of the photo story or movie and make minor changes or simply create a final version that can be played on a different device.  For example, let’s say a group of students makes a video of their Reader’s Theater performance.  They add opening titles, closing credits, and some music.  They save it to show the classs on the SMART Board.  You like it so much that you want to put it on your website.  The problem is that it’s such a huge video file; what can you do?

Because your students saved the PROJECT, you can open the video project in editing mode, and go to the final step to export the video as a smaller file size.  This is a really convenient way to modify files for use on the web.

How can you harness the interesting educational possibilities of the blog?  Your Schoolwires Centricity teacher website is the perfect starting point, and the latest Tech Talk [...]]]> What qualifies as new media for Media Monday?  Certainly photos, video, web 2.0 applications come to mind, but would you consider the blog a part of new media?  Of course!

How can you harness the interesting educational possibilities of the blog?  Your Schoolwires Centricity teacher website is the perfect starting point, and the latest Tech Talk instructional video is a hilarious romp through the steps required to use this simple, yet powerful, tool.  Episode 8 is posted now, and you can browse all our episodes at Tech Talk’s blog.

In second grade at WAS, Sarah Gutierrez is working with her students as [...]]]> If you’ve spent any time in an art museum, you know the term “mixed media,” but when it comes to technology, we don’t have oil paint, newsprint, and feather dusters glued to the monitor. Instead, we have digital art, video, and sound.

In second grade at WAS, Sarah Gutierrez is working with her students as they create digital stories illustrated by them using Microsoft Paint. Paint is a simple art program that is worth giving your students some time to play with. While creating original art is easy with Paint, it is also possible to manipulate photos as well. The video below is just a basic introduction to the drawing aspects of Paint, but it’s a good start!

Check the video on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQaJJ-AW19M while our tech gurus fix our embedded video function.

Back on March 11 (my [...]]]> Welcome to the newest category on the K-6 Tech Talk blog: Media Monday!  With the proliferation of audio and video in our lessons, it makes sense to take time each week to have a look at some of the aspects of technology related to audio, images, and video.   This week we’ll review Audacity.

Back on March 11 (my sister’s birthday!) we learned that directions for Audacity are in your school’s Faculty Share technology folder.  They are still there: a Notebook file with arrows and step-by-step directions for linking what you record to objects in Notebook, as well as an Audacity quick-start guide.  If you look below, you’ll be able to view a video as well.

Click here to view the embedded video.