This has been a very hectic and anxiety filled week. The first week of a class always makes me very anxious, because you are never quite sure what to expect as far a course work. In the past classes I have taken with Louis, the weekly sessions always seem so overwhelming. But usually by weeks end, I somehow get it all done. This week I am not quite done yet. I just got my book yesterday, so I don't have all the reading done, so all the questions aren't done either. I am excited to meet my two new team mates on Tok Box tomorrow. I am bummed that I'm not with my guys, Matt and Andy. I have been with them since the beginning of the LMS program. But, they say change is good.
This week we were assigned two projects. They worried me at first, but they turned out to be pretty cool. For my presentation I decided to go with SlideRocket. It was pretty easy to work with, much like doing a power point. But I am having a major problem embedding it. I was able to put the link in for my presentation, so at least it can be seen, but I'm really worried about not being able to embed it. A huge thanks to Mike Gielow for teaching me how to embed an HTML. I have never had to do that before. Unfortunately, like I said, I can't get it to work for my presentation. But I did get it to work for my graphic!! :) I used ToonDoo, the world's fastest way to make cartoons! (That's what they say). I did find it pretty easy to make it work. I only tried the one option to make a graphic. They had another one that allows you to make a cartoon book. That looks like a lot of fun. I would like to try that with a class some time. In my SlideRocket presentation I gave an introduction to the Newbery Book award. The 5th grade class is beginning a unit on Newbery books, so I thought this would be a good way to begin. I also think that the older children (grades 4 & 5) would be able to make their own presentation on their Newbery book using SlideRocket. I also think they would be able to use ToonDoo as another fun and different way to present their Newbery book.
I still have a lot of reading and questions to answer before Tuesday, but I think I am going to make it. It is such a relief to be able to check off the assignments one by one as they get finished. One week down, five to go!
Wanda---
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the cohort! I thought your blog was very intesting and practical. I too sometimes feel overwhelmed, but somehow manage to get it done. Also, like you, I used ToonDoo, and was pretty impressed by its applications. I've included a website that has a sample lesson for ToonDoo at the bottom of my comment. Anyway, good to have new people in class, hope everything stays well.
http://toondooguide.wordpress.com/toondoo-and-your-students/
Hi Wanda,
ReplyDeleteDon't worry about the work. Although there are a lot of assignments, much like you found out this week they are usually fun and really not that hard to complete. Also remember that you always have classmates who can help if you ever get stuck or need a hand.
For my graphic I used Go Animate, which was an easy way to create an animated cartoon. I think both of these would be a good way to deliver content to a class in a way that they would find amusing. I also like your idea of letting the students create their own cartoons. How would you have the students present their work in this case?
John,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragement! As for presenting the student cartoons. I would use the media cart that has a computer and a projector. The students would either have to remember the URL for their cartoon, or put it on a flash drive and then present with that. I think it would be a lot of fun.
I'm still with you Wanda! Just not on TokBox. I also used ToonDoo and loved it. It was pretty easy to use and it gives you a lot of options to creating comics. I'd love to be able to find a relevant way to use this with students. I think my students that read a lot of graphic novels would love using the site.
ReplyDeleteI used slideroll for my presentation and it was easy to use too. I struggled with embedding it too but I gave Louis a call and it took seconds to figure it out. You just have to get the code, then copy it and when you're doing your post, click on the icon all the way to the right in Angel (I forget what it's called) and paste your code. Then click on that icon again and it should be there. That would make more sense if I remembered what the icon was called.
It's the "source" icon. It allows for html to be copied and it's the last icon on the right.
ReplyDelete