Ancient Manuscripts

The history of graphic communication is so interesting! I got carried away reading and clicking on links and reading further! Yes, I become a history major first and a technology specialist second. Who would have thought the two would collide in such interesting fashion! My first impression is that communication began as pictures then changed to shapes to represent sounds and today we are returning to using pictures to represent words, it seems we’ve come full circle. The scripts were all written using straight indentions that repeated to form a shape and grouped together in a specific pattern and they would write on clay or stone. Contrast in the piece is the lighter color of the indention compared to the natural stone color. Regarding alignment, the writing seems to always be in straight horizontal lines. Proximity of the piece is that it appears that most of the script that has been discovered was written by priests to remember or honor an important pharaoh, event or to record the number of certain possessions.

EDLD 5363 PSA Pre- and Post Production Notes

Our assignment is to create a one-minute PSA. Our group “met” on our class discussion board. Our group members are Suzanne Beaver, Tammy Foreman, Laura Deiss and Jackie Johnson. We began communicating using email and discussed our topic. We decided our topic was Inflammatory Breast Cancer. Our PSA is based on Suzanne’s personal experience with IBC. Suzanne offered her wiki for our group collaboration and wrote a rough draft for our script. We discussed the script and posted shot suggestions. Next, we split the script into 4 parts and each group member edited their part, created video or digital pictures, and voice over audio for the project and posted it on our wiki and sent the files to Laura via email. Laura edited our PSA and posted it back to our wiki. Our group communicated on our wiki any changes and suggestions for PSA. Finally, Laura posted our final PSA to YouTube.

Our PSA is insightful and informative. The only suggestions I have to improve it would be to make sure all of the audio is approximately the same volume. I would have also liked to have more movement in the shots by zooming in and out. Overall I think it was a successful attempt and if someone sees it, visits a doctor, catches their cancer early, and it saves their life, it will be a wonderful thing!

EDLD 5363 Personal Video Project

I used iMovie and my personal photo collection to create this video about my dad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aJEGco5Ea8

This project was challenging but fun. iMovie made the actual making of my movie project very easy. However, it was challenging because there are so many stories I wanted to tell about my dad. It was difficult to chose the right one. There are hundreds of photos to look through and again it was very difficult to choose the best ones to tell his story. It was also difficult to tell his story, because in November 1999, dad passed away, so combing through all of my memories of him was an emotional roller coaster, I laughed and and cried.

The fun part of this project was sharing it with my family. They were surprised, interested and also emotional. I plan to use this experience to create more family memories to share, what better way to share all the photos that I have collected over the years?!

EDLD 5363 Multimedia Video Technology PSA Project

Our PSA topic is Inflammatory Breast Cancer.

Our group members are Suzanne Beaver, Tammy Foreman, Laura Deiss and Jackie Johnson.

The link to our PSA video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kP0XWplvg8

Our group collaborated on our wiki:

http://web30technologytoolboxforteachers.wikispaces.com

My reflections about this project:

This has been a very interesting project. First, Suzanne is awesome! She allowed us to use her story to write our PSA. Each member of our group added our own touch to the PSA. While we saw the project from different eyes, I feel that each of our contributions made our project successful. Even though we do not live close enough to meet in person, we used our group wiki and our school email to communicate. I felt we communicated effectively. We worked through each step of the process together offering encouragement and positive criticism. We collaborated and we have created a PSA that I hope will get important information out there and help save someone's life. Pixar's Randy Nelson mentioned three tips for successful collaboration: "accept every offer, make your partner(s) look good, and it is important to have failed and recovered." (Nelson, 2009) Laura, Suzzane, Tammy and I achieved these three tips, and were successful in our collaboration.
Nelson, R. (2008). Learning and working in the collaborative age: A new model for the workplace. Edutopia. Retrieved April 23, 2009, fromhttp://www.edutopia.org/randy-nelson-school-to-career-video

EDLD5363 Multimedia Week 4 Web Conference

I attended our 9/19/10, 5 pm class web conference with Dr. Abernathy. The chat room was full. Everyone gave suggestions about how to share files and editing tips. Dr. Abernathy confirmed that there needed to be 2 or more voiceover contributions for our PSA, stating that we needed to practice working together, editing files that we did not create ourselves and relying on our group and coming up with a project we can all be proud of. Dr. Abernathy also cleared up the question of how to post our assignment for week 4. We are to post a link to our wiki on the Week 4 discussion board and also post a link on our personal blogs. Dr. Abernathy recorded the session and she will publish the link for the class. She also said she would create a wiki or something that we can all place a link to our PSAs on to share them with each other and also to share with them with "the public." I'm looking forward to seeing all of our PSAs!

EDLD 5363 Multimedia PSA

EDLD 5363 Multimedia and Video Technology

We are required to work in a group of at least 4 people and we are to produce a one minute Public Service Announcement (PSA) about a topic of our choosing. Our group is Suzanne Beaver, Tammy Foreman, Luara Deiss and me. We chose to create a PSA titled: "Inflammatory Breast Cancer: IBC - What YOU Should Know." We have created a wiki that has allowed us to collaborate at each phase of the project. We also keep in touch with email. It has been a wonderful experience. If you would like to follow our experience please feel free to visit our wiki, it is still a work in progress. Then come back next week when we post our finished project!

http://web30technologytoolboxforteachers.wikispaces.com/

Past Learning, New Learning, Future Learning

Past learning, new learning and how this learning will impact your future lifelong learning…that is a huge order. Past learning, well to begin with, I guess I’ll have to give away my age; I graduated from high school in 1980. There wasn’t a computer in our school in any way shape or form. Actually, we were so excited to have electric typewriters for our typing class! My teachers lectured, I took notes, read the book, and regurgitated what I knew. Time came for college, what did I want to be when “I grow up.” I read somewhere how data input operators were going to be in high demand in the future, my future, I wanted to do that. I applied for college as a Data Processing major. I worked with shoeboxes full of punch cards that I carried to a processing window where some guy fed them into a computer larger than my house and in 3 or 4 days I picked up a printout of my data. In hindsight, I was actually a computer programming major. Family circumstances forced me to quit school. About 10 years later, in a much different world, I decided to finish my degree. Once again I wanted to be a computer science major with a math minor. Computers are everywhere; I bought one for my family with a 20 mg HD. I remember thinking, “We’ll never use ALL that space!” My professors still lectured, I still took notes, read the book and regurgitated information. Not much had changed in the classroom. Soon computers became more and more important to everyone everywhere even education, and not just in the high school offices where I worked while working on my degree. I wanted to teach! I quit work and went back to college full time in 1997, but they did not have the degree that I wanted, maybe I was ahead of my time, I wanted to teach people how to use the computer, I did not want to be a programmer, my professor laughed, I wish he could see me now! My family jokingly said that I was on “the twenty year plan” when I received my BA in History, long story…in 2000. I wanted to teach using technology but most schools didn’t have it. However, God had plans for me, and due to a TIE4 grant, and a forward looking school superintendent, my first teaching job was Technology Integrator. My job description was to teach teachers how to use technology in the classroom, really! My goal was to convince teachers that a “student centered” classroom was more effective than and “teach centered” classroom. All of our teachers had a computer in the classroom but other than that, not much had changed even after twenty years and change was certainly going to be--a challenge to say the least, but I loved it! I have never looked back, oh along the way I’ve taught U.S. History, and Multimedia to students, but for the most part, my teaching career has been to assist teachers with technology in the classroom. Today I’m earning my Masters completely online! I AM a life long learner, and I will continue to learn, and I will continue to enjoy sharing what I learn with others.

Web Conference 9/6/10

I am behind a little on my web conference blog. It has been very difficult to get in to the conferences. Much of the time we are having trouble hearing, lots of echoing and delay in the audio, sometimes no audio. Users are having trouble muting their microphones. At times there are some interesting questions typed on the chat, students are great about adding their thoughts and ideas. Our professor, Dr. Abernathy also tries to help clarify questions. At times however, questions are repeated over and over, which gets a little stressful for all. With over 300 students in the class and only allowing 25-30 in the conference I fear many are left out, as I have been a couple times. The link to recorded sessions are somewhat helpful, but sometimes are not available. I think this post is pretty negative, sorry, but I think some sort of section schedule or grouping might help? I'm not sure how it works on the other end of things, but I hope it can be improved in the future, because I do enjoy communicating with others connected to this program.

My PodCast

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My Assessment of Video Editing Software

I am using a MacBook Pro laptop so for this assignment I used Google search and typed in “open source video editing software for Mac” and I received about 451,000 hits. Free video editing software list for all platforms http://tv.isg.si/site/?q=node/873 was a bit dated but offered an interesting list. The list included: iMovie, Blender, Avidemux, Joshaka, HyperEngine-Av, Atomic Learning’s FREE Video Storyboard Pro, and ZS$ Video Editor. iMovie came loaded on my Mac and I have a school subscription to Atomic Learning and I have FileMaker Pro so I wanted to check out Atomic Learnings’s Free Video Storyboard Pro.

First, I looked at Atomic Learning’s Video Storyboard and it is a digital storyboard creater as the title implies, not video editing software. The program allows you to import your media in the storyboard to help guide you later when you actually create the movie. Atomic learning offers great video tutorials that help the user with the software. This is not actually video editing software, but it will be very helpful when I create my next movie.

I downloaded and tried Blender...it sounded great, it offered the ability to create 3D video, I looked at the video tutorials online, and couldn't understand a single word the guy said, and the program itself was so complicated looking, I didn't think I could or even want to try to figure it out, so maybe if I had more time, it might be interesting, but not now, I need something way easier than Blender.

I like iMovie. I’m not what you would call an experienced user, but the drag and drop feature looked easy and the software has tutorials and help screens that allowed me to quickly create a short, interesting video. For Mac users it its free with the purchase of your Mac. iMovie integrates with iPhoto and other Mac programs included on your Mac, that’s a plus. It make selecting media for my project very easy. After creating my video, iMovie offered several ways to share my movie including exporting to YouTube and iTunes, also it can also be exported as a QuickTime Movie. Hands down, for me, a Mac user, iMovie is the way to go!

Week 5 Web Conference

Tonight we met with Dr. Abernathy for our Week 5 Web Conference. We discussed the fine points of our Internship. We had a question and answer session to clarify certain points of the our Internship Plan. Dr Abernathy mentioned the new documents available regarding our internships, they are available on Mrs. Borel's Cohort 12 Wiki. We discussed that some months we might not have activities to report and that is fine, just note that on our monthly report that we must submit on the first of each month. She suggested that we not wait until the very end of our 18 month session to submit our hours, work on them all during the year. She also clarified that our Plan can change, it's a draft, just make sure we get all of the Standards covered within the proper timeframe. This week's conference was very helpful. Thank you, Dr. Abernathy!

Week 4 Web Conference

Our weekly web conference tonight covered Appendix E, F, G, H and I. Professor Borel explained each part of the appendix and helped us understand what is expected of us and where we are headed. She also clarified and gave examples of excepted activities. I feel more confident that I will be able to complete all portions of the required documents. I look forward to the web conferences each week.

Week 3 Web Conference

Tonight a handful of us joined Dr. Borel for the 8:00 pm web conference. It was quiet, it was informative and most of us were able to get on and see each other. It was great to find out that I was not the only one having a little trouble getting around on the course website. Well, not sure if that's great, but I feel somewhat better knowing that "I'm not alone." I appreciate the patience that Dr. Borel has shown us, as well as her support! I know by the end of this program I know we will all look back and laugh! and say, "we said that! or we thought this?" so looking forward to that day!

Texas STaR Chart

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Texas STaR Chart

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Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology

The National Educational Technology Plan 2010 by the Office of Educational Technology of the U.S. Department of Education declared that education must be a priority that is driven by two goals. The plan states that "by 2020, we will raise the proportion of college graduates from where it now stands [39%] so that 60% of our population holds a 2-year or 4-year degree. We will close the achievement gap so that all students – regardless of race, income, or neighborhood – graduate from high school ready to succeed in college and careers."

The plan goes on to say that "all learners will have engaging and empowering learning experiences both in and outside of school that prepare them to be active, creative, knowledgeable, and ethical participants in our globally networked society." Regarding teaching the plan states, "professional educators will be supported individually and in teams by technology that connects them to data, content, resources, expertise, and learning experiences that enable and inspire more effective teaching for all learners."

To reach these two goals the plan suggests that professsional develoment be collaborative, continuous and convenient. The plan recommends that we develop and adopt technology-based content with online learning that creates opportunities for educators to collaborate with experts and other educators and inspires more effective teaching.

I support this plan, my only concern would be that along with the plan comes funding to help achieve all of our educational goals for both our educators and our students.

Progress Report on the Long-Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020

The first Long-Range Plan for Technology, 1988-2000 was adopted twenty years ago. The latest Long-Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020 was adopted in 2006. The first Progress Report on the Long-Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020 discusses the progress of the LRPT from September 2006 to August 2008. These documents can be found on the Texas Education Agency website. Technology has changed and continues to change at an unbelievable pace since 2006. Education has also changed with the introduction of these technologies into our classroom, for administrators, teachers, and students alike. The goal now is to prepare our students to be successful in, as David Warlick states, an unpredictable future, one that we cannot even describe. Legislation was passed by the State of Texas to implement many programs to help achieve this goal. Data from the Texas Campus and Teacher STaR Charts was used to show progress of the plan. The report includes the Interim Report on the Technology Immersion Pilot (TIP) and the Interim Report on the Texas Virtual School Network (TxVSN) as well as a report on all four domains of the LRPT. The services of the education service centers was included in this progress report. According to the Progress Report the programs and initiatives as they impact student and educators are positive. The report states that if the recommendations as set down by the Long Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020 are employed and we teach life long learners of technology for the 21st Century our students will be successful.

Texas Long Range Plan

The Texas Long Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020: Teaching and Learning; Educator Preparation and Development; Leadership, Administration and Instructional Support; or Infrastructure for Technology, is posted on the Texas Educaiton Agency website. The report includes recommendations in four areas:

*Teaching and Learning

*Educator Preparation and Development

*Leadership, Administration and Instructional Support

*Infrastructure for Technology

Domain 2: Educator Preparation and Development states that it is very important that educators stay abreast of all the resources available for professional development. (State of Texas, Texas Education Agency, 2006) They must be willing to increase their personal knowledge of teaching and technology and model that knowledge in their classroom. According to the 2008-2009 STaR Chart a majority of teachers rated themselves at the "Develping Tech" level. According the the STaR Chart descriptor that means most of our teachers use technology for administrative tasks and classroom management. They also use some online resources and less then half of them meet SBEC standards. Administrators of these teachers expect them to use technology and less than one quarter of the technology budget is allocated for professional development.

The Educator Preparation and Development is an area that is getting more attention today. Educational needs should drive staff development and technology needs, not the other way around. Mary Burns and SEDL in "From Compliance To Commitment:..." have shown that professional development should embed technology within the curriculum stressing a minimum set of technology skills within a collaborative, learner-centered environment. This strategy proved to be very successful.

Week 2 Web Conference

Our class was required to attend a web conference for Cohart 12 using a web cam and microphone. We logged on and Dr. Borel set up our accounts so that we could all see and hear each other. We used the embedded chat to help each other get videos on and microphones on or off. We received information regarding our Internship and Field-based Experiences and Activities. We discussed the Internship Handbook found in the Resources/Document folder. My experience using the web conferencing website has been smooth. I have been able to log on and participate in the both the practice and a required web conference. I look forward to learning even more exciting uses of technology as we continue on towards our educational goals. I am a technology specialist and I have been involved in technology since "punch cards" and it is still mind boggling to see what technology can do.