March 17- Vlog

Hello Everyone! I hope you day is going swell! I hope that packing for Spring Break is almost done too!

So in class we have talked about Blogs and Videos but what about when you combine the two?

Well you get a Vlog. For those of you who don;t know, a vlog is a blog, just instead of typing it out, you record yourself doing it on a video camera or webcam. There are many famous Youtubers who Vlog about their life constantly and even make a living out of it. Below is an example of such a Youtuber:

This is a video of Youtuber DailyGrace who makes daily vlog videos and makes a living off of it. I'm not subscribed but with over 824,000 subscribers, she has to be doing something right. From what I gather, each day is a type of video. For example, Thursdays are "How to" videos where she teaches you how to do something.

Vlogs are a great way to express your thoughts just how you want them expressed. With a blog, words can be misinterpreted or you just don't know how to write it down correctly. With vlogs, its simple and easy to do.

In an educational setting, a teacher could make his/her students do a weekly vlog where they are uploaded to a wiki or something like that. I think if a student does not like typing, or feels more effective doing a video, then a vlog is a possible option to do.

So what do you guys think of Vlogs? Are they a possible classroom tool? leave your comment and thoughts below.

As always, thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day! Take care, have a GREAT Spring Break, and remember...

~Add a little Streiff to your life~

-Joey S.

March 17-Stop-Motion

Hello Everyone! I hope you are enjoying this sunny day and you are getting ready for a nice, relaxing Spring Break!

As excited as I am for the upcoming video project, I started thinking about other kinds of videos students could do if they a.) wanted to do something different or b.) didn't have the means to make a music video

For example, a simple easy video is a stop-motion video. Examples of this includes early South Park and the examples down below:

1.) Here is a music video for Owl City's song "Honey and the Bee." The person behind this drew the characters and then set them up to make a story. The way to make this video is simple because it involves making fun drawings and taking simple pictures. Simple, easy, and all you need is a camera.

2.) Here is the famous Youtube Pes with his video 'Western Spaghetti" This is probably one of my most favorite videos of Youtube because of its creativity and uniqueness. This is more difficult for a High School but not impossible. However, the hours involved in stop-motion are many so a student would need a good month to complete it.

3.) Lastly, here is an up and coming Youtube series called "The Most Popular Girls in School." It is a series that follow these Barbie dolls in high school. Its for a Mature audience so don't show this in class. This is a little more difficult than the Owl City music video but easier than the Pes video so its a good medium to challenge students to.

All the videos here only require a camera and time-lots and lots of time. So, if you're a teacher and want to offer your students an option like this instead of a live-action movie, go on right ahead. Just make sure to give them lots of time!

Overall, videos are a great tool to teach students lessons and can be a refreshing experience. So as future teachers, or even those of you who aren't, would you like to use videos in the classroom or see your kids do video projects in High School? Let me know! And feel free to comment about anything else too!

Thanks for reading and I hope you had fun! Enjoy your day, take care, and remember...

~Add a little Streiff to your life~

-Joey S.

ER-March 10- Board In Class

Hello Everyone! I hope your day is going well and you got a weekend full of fun!

For this weeks Education Response, I want to talk about Video and making videos in the classroom.

As I stated in my last post, I love the idea of video//digital literacy in a classroom. There are so many elements that go into a video, students are bound to find something they like along the way, plus learn something.

Now as I was thinking about videos in classrooms, I never had an experience of having to make a video for class. However, in High School, I did star in a few of my friends videos that she had to make for her video class and I learned how much work went into making a short video. My friend was tasked with the job to make a modern take of a play or book and being s Shakespeare fan, she went with the murder of Julius Caesar.

The video took about an entire day to shoot and that did not include clean up or set-up. She put in several days into a short 5-minute video. She drew storyboards, researched how to use a green screen  made fake blood, design costumes, drove to Pittsburgh for some of the shots, and edited it all together.

I am more than positive that during all of her work for this video, she encountered several literacies and after talking with her, she said she learned a lot about the film industry and the experience of commanding people to work together and make a movie.

This is the kind of learning I strive to have my students learn when they do projects like these. In education, we often struggle with finding an interesting way to present information so the students will learn and half the time, it fails. With a hand-on interaction project like this, students learn much more than what we as teachers plan on them to learn. This is why I love digital literacies!

Overall, what do you all think? Will you plan on bringing digital literacies to your classroom? Feel free to comment below!

Thank you for reading and have a great day! And remember...

~Add a little Streiff to your life~

-Joey S.

RR-March 10-Vivid Video

Hello Everyone!! I hope you are enjoying the sunny weather we have been having! I know I have been! As I'm sure you all know, this week's readings really focused on Digital Videos and the literacies that surround them.

Miller and McVee in both Chapter 3 and 6 talked about Digital literacy and its integration  Mostly about Digital literacy in Ch. 3 and its integration in Ch. 6, but in either case, I found each chapter to be extremely useful.

I enjoyed reading Ch. 3 because of the digital video aspect of it and its use in a classroom. I absolutely love watching movies and my collection of DVDs is going everyday. I was really happy to read about McVee and Miller saw the usefulness of digital videos in a classroom. Although the talk about grammar was a little confusing, I was able to grasp the main idea they were talking about. I think they were trying to tell us that there is so much literacy that goes into a digital video. Not only is the movie itself a work of many different literacies, but the work that goes behind the video also contains many literacies. Take a look at the short Vimeo clip link I posted below. This Vimeo is a storyboard by one of Disney's animators, Heidi Gilbert, about doing Wicked the Musical as an animated feature.

http://vimeo.com/19733014#at=0

You will find that the animated storyboard contains many literacies, such as design, perspective, color, and spacing.

And in case you were too lazy to follow the link (I just kid :P) , here is another example of a student doing another storyboard for Wicked in which she had to adapt it into a favorite T.V. show or movie.

In both cases, a lot of work and literacy went into each storyboard.

Digital literacies contain many different elements which I believe are essential for any student to go out and try. As a future teacher, I know I will strive to do something like this in my classroom because it is fun, yet useful at the same time.

What do you guys think? Do you feel digital literacies are valid? What would you have liked to see in your classrooms growing up?

Thanks for reading and have a great day! And remember....

~Add a little Streiff to your life~

-Joey S.

ER: March 3rd- Pods

Hello Once Again Everyone!! I hope your spirits are high and you have a very exciting weekend planned ahead.

For this weeks Education Response, I want to talk about Podcasts because some interesting things popped up this week about Podcast and I want to share them with you.

Last week I blogged about podcast and how neat I thought they were. I also provided a few links to some interesting Pods so if you wanna check them out, head over to my last few posts.

What I like about Podcasts is you can listen to them whenever and wherever one wants to. Running at the gym, working on the computer, driving, or trying to keep yourself entertained at a relative's house, Podcasts are entertaining and educational.

Now take a look at the video I posted below. It is called Wizard People, Dear Reader . This is originally an audio file of a man narrating the movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and someone took the audio file and put the movie with it. Originally, one was to play the audio file and watch the movie on mute. But it seems someone took the audio file and mashed it with the video on Youtube.

Now while this is an Audio story, it is similar to a Podcast and gave me some ideas of how to do something similar like this in a class room.  For example, I could take a movie adaptation of a Shakespeare play and have groups of students do that same thing for a short portion of the movie adapting the language into a more modern speak to try and make the story easier to pick up.

Most of all, I am excited to do the Podcast assignment in class so I can finally try doing one myself and see what it is like. I think students would cling to Podcasts because it is something new and not often done.

Overall, I really like the idea of Podcasts and I can see so many uses for them in a classroom. What do you all think? Do you think something like Wizard People, Dear Reader (minus the fowl language) could be a cool idea for an English class?

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy your weekend! Feel free to leave a comment or anything! I love receiving feedback :)

Until next time, take care and remember....

~Add a little Streiff to your life~

-Joey S.

PS: Come and see Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson which premiers tonight March 1st at the Old Union at 7:30! I'll be in it and I encourage all of you to come see this hilarious musical!!  For more info, check out our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/events/481699785210204/

RR:March 3rd-Blogs, Wikis, and DS

Hello Everyone! I hope your day is going swell!

For this week's reading, we had to read Wilber's Chapter 3 and 4 which focuses on Blogs, Podcasts  and Digital Stories. As a high internet user, I have come across all three for some time now and each of the three have their own special, unique features that make people love to use them!

Lets start with Blogs since you're reading this on one right now:

As I am sure you are all aware, blogs are basically like an online journal where a person can document his or her thoughts and include pictures, videos, links, and pretty much anything else they feel connects to what they are talking about.

Wilber goes into depth in Chapter three about blogs probably because there is so much you can do with them. Wilber evene goes to the length of listing several links to blogs that range from tech, to English  to science, and to education. I took the liberty of searching a few of those blogs

1. kathyschrock.net/blog I went to this one to find out the page had been moved to http://blog.kathyschrock.net/ What drew me to Kathy's blog was her blend of literacy and technology. At first, I was reminded of this course as well as Prod and Util of Instruc Tech and how both courses blend literacy with technology. Kathy;s blogs really focuses on technology and she connects it to teaching. It is a neat blog to check out and reading her post are fun.

2. http://weblogg-ed.com/ I went to this one to read up on technology only to find out that this one has also moved to http://willrichardson.com/ What I liked about this blog is that Will is an actual person who gives his thoughts based on his own experience with his children and his 22 years as a public educator. If you want to read a blog about neat Education stats and thoughts from an experienced teacher, check it out.

Now let's move onto Wikis:

Simply put, wikis are like a main hub where people can meet, collaborate, and discuss. Mostly, wikis focus around a community aspect which is why it makes great use for classrooms because its basically like a classroom online.  T.O.'s wiki for this class in a great way to check out websites people are talking about, letting us know who is presenting what and when, and a way to form a little community of our own.

The uses for wikis are pretty much endless because as a teacher, we can link our students to whatever we want to show them and have them discuss it online. Some of the example wikis Wilber provides show how teachers really utilize the wikis and I highly recommend checking some out.

Finally, let's talk about Digital Stories:

Digital stories (DS) is just as the name implies-stories done digitally. These can be done with photos, videos, and other multi media modes in order to convey a story. The idea of DS in a classroom is one that fascinates me and I would like to do a little bit more research on it. I'm sure I could use in some how in the aid of explaining a story for English class or something.


Anyway, that is all for now. Thanks for reding this long blog but I hope you enjoyed it! Keep a watch for my ER (Ed Response) next where i will talk about Podcasts and some neat things about those. If you guys have any thoughts, comments, or opinions, I would love to hear them!

Until next time, take care and remember...

~Add a little Streiff to your life~

-Joey S.