Video Explanation of Your Student Activity

[C.J. McHugh]

During the week of Week 4: 7/29/11 - 8/4/11, please respond to this
discussion topic with the link to the video explanation of the student
activity you created using either Jing or Voicethread. Feel free to
also provide input concerning any likes, dislikes, questions,
concerns, constructive comments on peer work, etc. During week 5,
we'll take some time to

[Colleen Kingsbury]

Of the Google docs assignment? 

[Douglas Sherman]

http://screencast.com/t/UBq09LNbDC

[Colleen Kingsbury]

I don't think it is too bad for my first attempt. :) 

http://www.screencast.com/t/rWcMavIaL0K

Colleen Kingsbury

On Sat, Jul 30, 2011 at 1:56 PM, Douglas Sherman <dms...@gmail.com> wrote:

http://screencast.com/t/UBq09LNbDC

[JerryLangan]

Hey Douglas,
Your video looks good, but it kept freezing up on me while I watched.
I really only saw a minute or so. the topic seems interesting and I
like the fact that you are getting the kids writing.
I know that they would like the topic and may get into the weekly
writing after looking at these animals.
God Luck!
Jerry

On Jul 30, 1:56 pm, Douglas Sherman <dms5...@gmail.com> wrote:
> http://screencast.com/t/UBq09LNbDC

[JerryLangan]

Hey Colleeen,
I am looking forward to seeing your video after your comment. I tried
to get it going, but the screen froze before during download.
I will try again later
Jerry

On Aug 1, 9:00 pm, Colleen Kingsbury <cholohankingsb...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> I don't think it is too bad for my first attempt. :)
>
> http://www.screencast.com/t/rWcMavIaL0K
>
> Colleen Kingsbury
>

> On Sat, Jul 30, 2011 at 1:56 PM, Douglas Sherman <dms5...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >http://screencast.com/t/UBq09LNbDC

[Colleen Kingsbury]

Hi Jerry,
I hope you are well. I really hope the link/video works!!!
Colleen

[Malone, Hagar]

I liked your concept, Douglas. This kind of opportunity would give
those students who do not like to write or who can't write well an
alternate way to do the work. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get
much past the introduction before the presentation froze up on me.

[Malone, Hagar]

This was a fun way to introduce your project and to capture the
students' attention.

On Aug 1, 9:00 pm, Colleen Kingsbury <cholohankingsb...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> I don't think it is too bad for my first attempt. :)
>
> http://www.screencast.com/t/rWcMavIaL0K
>
> Colleen Kingsbury
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

> On Sat, Jul 30, 2011 at 1:56 PM, Douglas Sherman <dms5...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >http://screencast.com/t/UBq09LNbDC

[sinisko...@pvbears.org]

Hi Douglas. I also had the same problem with the video freezing at
first but then it did work when I went back a 2nd time to try it. I
really liked the video--it seems like something that your age group
would find really fascinating.

[J.Cogan]

Very good idea! What a great way to get kids writing, or speaking in a
more formal voice. I'll bet this will go over quite well in the class.
Will students have access to others work prior to doing their own
work? I have not played with the program enough to know if responses
can be set to privatet. Again, I really like the idea and may do
something like this in Language Arts class in the future. Also, your
video worked fine for me.

[Angela Byrne]

Hey Colleen! I thought this was a great way to introduce the project to your students! I'd bet they will be very engaged in doing this activity.

[Angela Byrne]

Hi Doug! I thought you did a great job! Your students will definitely be motivated and engaged. I really liked your choice of strange animal photos!

[cgr...@stjw.org]

> http://screencast.com/t/UBq09LNbDC
>
Hi Doug! Great video and collaborative idea for the kids. I love the
angora rabbit-definitely need one of those in your classroom! With all
that hair, you'll need to purchase the Dyson Animal Vacuum - you can then
use its
"bagless, non clogging " theory as your next lab project! Ha! Ha!

Seriously, it was very good, and I especially liked the part where you
challenged the kids to tell you what to do if an animal got close to them.

Claire

[cgr...@stjw.org]

Colleen,

Nice video (I'm a Beatles fan, so you really caught my attention!)
My grade partner has done videos before and the kids loved hamming it up
( my own son even dressed up as a cockroach and did a rap song one
year-never thought I'd see that happen!)
Videos bring out the creativity in kids and your video was the inspiration
for my assignment. I have a particularly difficult group in one of my
classes; I am going to try this make your video in an attempt to engage
them early on during my Outspace month in September.

Keep up the great work!

Claire>

[Colleen Kingsbury]

Thank you Claire, 

I appreciate your comments. I am interested to see your video. I love the Beatles too, they are a great band. Thanks again

Colleen 

[cgr...@stjw.org]

Trying to do mine now on jing and I'm struggling.
c>

[Malone, Hagar]

My students are mostly Bethlehemites and are fiercely loyal to their
community. They think that they know all about their city, but
there's always more to explore and do. My VoiceThread presentation is
an assignment that will help them explore and learn. I can't seem to
make the URL into a hyperlink, but you can select and right click.
You will have an option to go directly to my presentation.

http://voicethread.com/?#q.b2170594.i11577477

[Malone, Hagar]

On Aug 3, 3:14 pm, "Malone, Hagar" <hmalon...@gmail.com> wrote:
> My students are mostly Bethlehemites and are fiercely loyal to their
> community.  They think that they know all about their city, but
> there's always more to explore and do.  My VoiceThread presentation is
> an assignment that will help them explore and learn.  I
>

[Angela Byrne]

http://voicethread.com/share/2170344/

I liked this activity for student use, but I can't help but think mine is slightly boring. I would have liked to add some additional animation, but wasn't sure how. I also found it a little difficult to speak and use the mouse to "doodle" at the same time. It felt clumsy, but I guess it would get better with practice. :)

[Angela Byrne]

Nice job! Clear and concise instructions. Love the pics of Bethlehem!

[cgr...@stjw.org]

I agree with Angela. Nice clear pictures of Bethlehem and surrounding area.
Did anyone have a problem with making more than 3 videos and being told
that is all that you get free? #4 will cost.

Claire

[Malone, Hagar]

I liked your presentation--very clear in your expectations. Not
boring, just very straightforward. Not everything needs to be
entertaining. If you go to Wordle.com, you will find a word cloud of
Dr. King's Dream speech. The words most frequently used and
supposedly the most important ones in it are larger than the others.
It's eye opening. Even if you don't find it appropriate for your
presentation, it could be a tremendous visual to your classroom
discussion.

[Malone, Hagar]

Problem with using Voicethread, and Google Docs, and many of these
other collaboration tools. Students are to be 13 to use them. That
means 8th graders--and not all of them. If we're going to be so
concerned with copyright and bibliographies, then we need to pay
attention to this item in the use policy of the software.

On Jul 29, 3:07 pm, "C.J. McHugh" <mchughcornel...@hotmail.com> wrote:

[Malone, Hagar]

I wish I could say that I took those pictures, but I found them on
Google Images. Very clear and crisp. As for the instructions, I have
learned over the years, that I cannot leave very much open to
interpretation. The parents will say that the student didn't
understand. Even if I give further verbal directions in class, there
will be a battle. Besides, each instruction point then becomes an
item on my rubric. That's something that parent's can argue about.

[sinisko...@pvbears.org]

Awesome job on the project, Hagar!

[J.Cogan]

http://voicethread.com/?#u1899660.b2171485.i11585141

I chose VoiceThread for my project because my goal is to have students
work together to find errors in writing and make improvements to
writing. I think if I used VoiceThread more I would like it more than
I do. I think the idea is great, but the functionality isn't that
great. Maybe it is because I don't fully understand it. For example, I
thought that when I was making my audio comments I could zoom in on
the slide to emphasize it, but I couldn't figure out how to do it, or
it just isn't possible. It took a long time for me to gather the
documents I needed from the PA Dept of Ed and then I was reluctant to
finish the project because I wasn't familiar with how VoiceThread
works. But, it is now done. I won't promise it is something I will use
with my classes, I'm just not sure 5th grade students are capable. But
maybe worth a try. :-)

[Malone, Hagar]

Is this the vocabulary you would normally use with 5th graders. If
so, there won't be a problem. If you are concerned about the
understanding, experiment by making it an added assignment for a few
of your brightest and best and see what happens. Get the students to
tell what you liked or disliked after they do it. At that age, they
will definitely let you know. Then you will have a gauge of what you
might need to do--tweek it or ditch it. If you think it still has
merit, then rework it, even if it means using another program that may
provide more flexibility.

Zooming in would have been helpful as you noted. The concept is sound
and definitely is important. The only negative that I see is that you
started your narration for many slides with the word "okay." I
realize that I use it myself in class as an attention-getting phrase,
but when you have control over the script, perhaps it would be better
to vary that first word or phrase.

[Drew Dymond]

I did voicethread because it looked user friendly. I had all kinds of
problems getting the video to play without an echo. It took me a
couple of days to produce this two minute video so I don't think I
will be using it again until I cool off a little bit. I must have did
30 takes to get the video to do what I wanted it to do but it still
has an echo. The more takes I did the video quality got worse so I had
to upload the video several times. I do like Jing though, I just have
not figured out exactly how I would use it yet. No guarantee that this
link will work, I am having trouble with that as well.

http://voicethread.com/share/2171967/

[Jason Smith]

Hi Hagar, I enjopyed your voicethread. I agree that your directions
are very clear and concise. Bethlehem is a cool place. I inserted a
comment in your voicethread.

jason

> > we'll take some time to- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Jason Smith]

Hi Doug,
Great ideas for using voicethread.

I liked how you used jing to screencast voicthread as you explained
the project.

jason

[Jason Smith]

Very entertaining,

I thought you did a great job

jason

On Aug 1, 9:00 pm, Colleen Kingsbury <cholohankingsb...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> I don't think it is too bad for my first attempt. :)
>
> http://www.screencast.com/t/rWcMavIaL0K
>
> Colleen Kingsbury
>
>
>

> On Sat, Jul 30, 2011 at 1:56 PM, Douglas Sherman <dms5...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >http://screencast.com/t/UBq09LNbDC- Hide quoted text -

[Jason Smith]

Here goes
http://voicethread.com/share/2172302/

Has anyone figured out to reorder the sequence of the comments. I
wanted to put my audio comment to all of you first but it ended up
last. They seem to be ordered by the time they were enetered, but I
would like the ability to reorder them.

jason smith

[cgr...@stjw.org]

Hi Drew,
Sorry to hear you had so many problems-I've had a few days like that too
where I wanted to throw my laptop into the bay!

I am curious-you said 30 times-did you have to pay to use this service
after the 3rd time? I tried to use it and was continually sent to another
page to pay after the 3 time I used it. So I ended up with Jing. Although
that didn't exactly have a clear mode of directions. Once I finally got it
I wrote down the directions for myself.

Going to watch your video now-will get back to you on it-I'm sure its fine

Claire>

[Jason Smith]

The rent is too damn high party???? Almost seems like something on
Saturday Night Live
is this real??
I was laughing out loud as I watched this. I did hear the echo but it
wasn't too bad.....didn't distract me from listening to the person
speaking.

jason

> > > Nice job! Clear and concise instructions. Love the pics of Bethlehem!- Hide quoted text -

[Jason Smith]

Hi Angela,
I didn't think it was boring at all.

I'm a little confused as to how all the students projects come
together, but I don't think I was supposed to based on the info given.
Will each group have a voicethread? Then each student must view each
group's voicethread and insert comments to each one?

jason

[cgr...@stjw.org]

Drew,
Cool concept! This will get the students thinking. I see what you mean
about the audio-I really had to strain to hear it. Do you have an external
mic?
I bought one at Radio Shack last year for my son's history day project but
then found that he was borrowing a mac to do movie maker. It was too late
to return it, so I threw it in the travel comp. bag. Wow, was I glad I had
it for this project! I used it on my Jing and I thought it made the
difference. It was just a cheap $15.00 gigaware but really was a help.
I'll be posting mine soon. A million takes later I got one but forgot to
say my purpose and why I chose JIng. I guess I'll write it on the email.

Good job-keep up the good work.

Claire>

[Drew Dymond]

Claire,

I didn't have to pay but the more takes I did the video quality
worsened. I really wanted my comments to come first then the video to
play and the only way to do that was to record over the video. Maybe
they only allow you to do three voice threads. I kept on editing the
same voice thread so maybe that is why they didn't make me pay.

[cgr...@stjw.org]

Jason,

How funny! I just bought the second season of SNL (I was only 17 when it
came out!) and it could be a skit from there! Belushi and Radnor are
looking down smiling!

Claire

[claire grace]

Jody,

THIS IS SO AWESOME! As a teacher who needs to focus on writing, I
loved this! We are really stressing differentiation in our classrooms,
and I believe that this particular writing module could be
incorporated into a day when a group of students, who I don't need to
spend extra time with on grammar, could sit and analyse this for
writing skills. I really liked this concept.

Claire

On Aug 4, 4:25 pm, "J.Cogan" <cogan.j...@pvbears.org> wrote:

[claire grace]

Drew,
That gives me an idea. I'll go back and edit one of the first 3-maybe
I can redo one then without paying.
TY.

Claire

[JerryLangan]

Here is my voicethread for my PSSA writing prep.

http://voicethread.com/share/2169611/

[sinisko...@pvbears.org]

http://voicethread.com/share/2173012/

I finished!! I don't know about the rest of you but I could use a
summer vacation again after we finish this course! It sure has
challenged me. I had some difficulties using the pen and the
microphone together. In fact, I couldn't get them to work
simultaneously and you'll see on the one slide, I had some "extra"
pen marks. I had hoped to use the pen more often as I think that
would have been more ideal for my purposes. I also thought my audio
got better as the slides moved on. I know that I have a tendency to
say "you know" and "ummm"--you can let me know if it was too much or
not. Thanks and good night.

[sinisko...@pvbears.org]

I agree with your thoughts on the functionality. You can zoom in on
the slides when viewing it but it would be nice to do that for
emphasis while presenting. That's why I wanted to use the pen feature
to emphasize certain things but I really found that hard to use as
well.
Theresa Sinisko

On Aug 4, 4:25 pm, "J.Cogan" <cogan.j...@pvbears.org> wrote:

> > we'll take some time to- Hide quoted text -

[sinisko...@pvbears.org]

In voicethread, if you go to playback, there is a choice for starting
it immediately upon opening. Perhaps if you do not check that, you
will have a chance to add comments before the video starts??? You
could also imbed the video in a powerpoint and add a slide or two up
front where you explain the requirements before the video
plays.......just an idea for you. I must have done at least 30 takes
as well.
Theresa

On Aug 5, 9:01 am, Drew Dymond <ddymon...@netscape.net> wrote:

> > >> > Nice job! Clear and concise instructions. Love the pics of Bethlehem!- Hide quoted text -

[paul naser]

http://voicethread.com/?#u1902516.b2173168.i11595672

For my voice thread project I chose to add on to a project I already
do in my classroom.

Every year I do a unit on solving word problems, I teach them a 4
step method, and also teach them how to identify all the necessary
information within the word problem.

After I teach the 4 step method I then break the students into
partners and assign them a word problem. Their job is to break the
problem down into the 4 step method using powerpoint. The one part I
will be adding is that they will now be narrating their powerpoint
using voice thread so that other students can later follow along.

Students will be evaluated by their peers to see if they followed the
4 step method


I chose voice thread for this because is allows someone to upload a
powerpoint the easiest. It also does not make you do an email check -
as students will not be able to do this on district laptops.

The voice thread allows the project to be more authentic - I think
this was good for a first attempt

[Douglas Sherman]

This is a great idea! I live in Bethlehem and barely know anything
about those things! I could benefit from doing this project. I also
like how you give student choice for creating their digital brochure.
The one I like best would be students using voice thread. Other
students would be able to watch and comment on them, and learn even
more about Bethlehem.

On Aug 3, 3:14 pm, "Malone, Hagar" <hmalon...@gmail.com> wrote:
> My students are mostly Bethlehemites and are fiercely loyal to their
> community.  They think that they know all about their city, but
> there's always more to explore and do.  My VoiceThread presentation is
> an assignment that will help them explore and learn.  I can't seem to
> make the URL into a hyperlink, but you can select and right click.
> You will have an option to go directly to my presentation.
>
>  http://voicethread.com/?#q.b2170594.i11577477
>

[Douglas Sherman]

Hi Theresa,


I taught math for a year and finding ways to effectively integrate
technology were always difficult. The collaboration project for
systems of equations is perfect. Each student could work on equations
individually and then check one anthers work to find the solution.
That is a great unit to tie into. I also like the idea you mentioned
with word problems. Those typically have multiple entry points and
students may find it interesting how other classmates went about
solving the problem. These are great ideas, and I hope it all works
out when you go to use it!

On Aug 6, 2:25 am, "sinisko.ther...@pvbears.org"

[rmacey]

Sorry this is a little late, I had troubles last week. I'm not sure
if I did what CJ actually wanted, it seems different than everyone
elses, I used Jing to capture some screen images and linked videos. I
put the PowerPoint on my teacher website for students to view at
home. I hope this works!!
http://www.pvbears.org/19332085132842350/lib/19332085132842350/_files/critiquing_guidelines.ppt

[Paul Naser]

I did something similar using voice thread. I like hooking the voice to the PowerPoint

Sent from my iPhone

[Jason Smith]

Hi Theresa,
I thought it was very good.
I wish I had a resource like that when i was in high school.
jason

On Aug 6, 2:25 am, "sinisko.ther...@pvbears.org"
<sinisko.ther...@pvbears.org> wrote:

[Angela Byrne]

Hi Jason,
Sorry if it was a little unclear. Each group of students would create a "group" voicethread. Then students would be required to view work by other groups and insert comments. I'd like them to see the different perspectives others took on MLK as well as learn a little more about him.
Thanks for the feedback!
Ang

[Angela Byrne]

Thanks for the suggestion Hagar! I have used Wordle in several professional development workshops and I like it. I've been out of the classroom for the past 3 years, so this technology is new to me, and I have to imagine how I might use it if I had students.
Ang

[Angela Byrne]

Paul,
Nice job! I agree, adding the voice element will really get them engaged. After a while, creating PowerPoints get boring for them, you know, "been there, done that." Having them write a script before going to the lab is also a great idea. That should cut down on the time needed to add the audio.
Ang

[rmacey]

Hi Doug,
I liked your video and think it would work well with students,
especially with the topic/visuals you chose - I check out those videos
and photoshows on MSN all the time. Nice job.

[rmacey]

Angela,
Nice job, teaching and education shouldn't always be song and dance
(coming from a music teacher!) I think your activity is good with
clear directions. It is a more serious or somber topic, dressing it
up or making a cartoon would take away that seriousness. I'm sure Dr.
King had funny jokes and stories, but we don't want to downplay his
achievments and message with trying to make it entertaining for kids.
Remember to be yourself teaching whether you're using technology or
not.
Rachel

[paul naser]

Doug

i think your assignment is great and highly engaging

It grabbed my attention and will definitely grab other learners
attention

On Aug 2, 9:38 am, JerryLangan <Langanje...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hey Douglas,
> Your video looks good, but it kept freezing up on me while I watched.
> I really only saw a minute or so. the topic seems interesting and I
> like the fact that you are getting the kids writing.
> I know that they would like the topic and may get into the weekly
> writing after looking at these animals.
> God Luck!
> Jerry