Week5

This week, I never had time to check my classmates' blogs because I was too busy working on the EDUC463 iMovie project, the digital story telling exercise, the ICT Technology presentation and this portfolio. Since they are all related to the class, I would like to record my experience with each activity in the portfolio.

The EDUC 463 video project is fun. It took me less than 10 minutes to learn the easy-to-use iMovie application. I expect our digital native students to take similar amount of time to learn this software. The actual filming and video editing took me much longer. It took us around two hours to create the story from scratch on storyboard and filmed the movie. Then, we spent seven hours editing the clip. This project tells me that students will probably need more or equal amount of time creating similar project. Therefore, when I am planning video project in my future classroom, I need to make sure I provide sufficient work time for students to film and edit the file.
 * EDUC463 iMovie project**

This exercise also allows me to see the educational values of video production from a student's perspective. First of all, the video production allows me to learn how to make a movie. It is probably the best way for students to learn this process as well. Secondly, I learn to appreciate the cinematography and post-production editing of films. This exercise also raises my awareness of the fictitious nature of videos. Therefore, I believe I can use similar exercise to enhance critical analysis and evaluation of the video text among my students. The learning may be reinfornced by a follow up discussion and evaluation session of other video texts.

Unfortunately, this exercise only allows me to explore the educational values of digital story telling. This tool can be used to deliver lessons, record and observe valuable experiments, record a current events, etc in a classroom. I can definitely continue to explore the usage of this device in these other areas in the future.

The EDUC 482 digital story telling exercise is quite similar to the video project. However, rather than conceptualizing my story by drawing on storyboards, I have to begin my creation by writing a story, which is something more challenging for me. I consider myself as a visual learner. I usually conceive my stories in a series of pictures first. Therefore, it is more natural for me to conceptualize my story on storyboards first before I begin writing the script for my story. I disagree with [|Jason Ohler] that writing is the primary tool in creating a digital story telling. I agree that it is one of the essential components but one doesn't need to begin by writing. I will allow my students use either methods to come up with their stories.
 * The Digital Story Telling Exercise**

This ICT lesson is definitely the most challenging task of the week. The two technologies I have selected for the presentations are GPS and GoogleEarth. I picked GPS while I was browsing the [|www.edutopia.org] site. After I learned more about the limitations of GPS, I included GoogleEarth in my presentation in order to complement the older technology.
 * The ICT Presentation/Lesson**

After selecting the topic, I need to select the appropriate materials for my lesson. I was always aware of the vast amount of materials available for both resources, such as activity/lesson plans, the how-to manuals, blogs, etc. Other than collecting the material, I have to evaluate and filter these materials for our presentation. Since the purpose of this presentation was to inspire my classmates to use these two technologies in their classrooms, I decided to focus more on showcasing the educational applications of the technologies. I included a discussion period to allow my classmates to brainstorm for different teaching ideas involving these tools. Finally, additional information for further researches are provided on a wiki page. The lesson plan for this presentation can be adopted for future technology workshops for fellow educators.

I was introduced to this summative assessment tool in the EDUC 320 Instructional Psychology course. Although I had plans to include this form of assessment in my classroom, I never knew how to implement it in a classroom. I have better ideas of how I can use this tool in my classroom after creating this EDUC 482 portfolio.
 * Portfolio**

Unlike a traditional learning report, students are not retrieving the data and summarizing their learning at the end of a period in a portfolio. They have to actively collect all their artifact or learned materials and record their study processes while they are learning. They simply need to organize their collected and recorded materials at the end of a period. I learned the importance of on-going collection and recording process through mistakes. I forgot to record my learning process outside of the EDUC 482 classroom in the past five weeks. It took me awhile to retrace the whole process in this portfolio. It would be much easier for me to record everything immediately.

If a student collected and recorded her learning diligently, it will take a students less time to summarize their learning through a portfolio than a traditional report. However, it also has its drawback. Students have to spend more time analyzing and consolidating their thoughts when they are writing a summary report. The report writing process will allow them to digest the material from a broader perspective, which is less likely to occur in the less involving organization process involved in writing a portfolio.