PE9_Google Presentations

Google presentation is the last of my google docs blog for this week. With google presentation, you have to option to create an online presentation just as you would if you were creating a power point using Office Suite. With google presentation, you have the option to add slides, with template options, change your slide background or create a presentation theme. You can also add text, images and video to really make your presentation a multimedia show. Just as you would with google docs, you have the option of keeping your presentation private or sharing it with users as your discretion. Google saves the presentation and it is always available for your use when on the go. Please give your thoughts on Google Presentations.

PE8_Googleforms/Surveys

Google forms opens to a spreadsheet allowing you to create forms and surveys. This is a great tool for creating surveys in that, once the users complete the survey, the survey owner can instantly review the results for discussions.

Google forms will allow its users to create surveys and communication documents to help you keep track of important data shared between users, just as we used in our Literature Reviews this month. The surveys are a great tool to use for collecting important data and reviewing that data at a later time. Google forms will compile the data and set it up in easy to read charts for the user to review. Google forms is great when for sharing, compiling and reviewing data.

PE7_Googledocs

Wk4__ETC_Final Video

Web 2.0 Technology and the Classroom

PE6_MovieMaker Audio and Narration

Another blog on MovieMaker. Well, this time I am going to be discussing adding sound so your video. MovieMaker gives you several options to adding audio to your projects. These include narration, background music, and sound effects. With narration, within MovieMaker, you just select narration and record your own voice using your line in function or your microphone. MovieMaker allows you also adjust the volume levels of your narration. With MovieMaker, you can also add background music or audio. This music can be adjusted with your narration to create a full quality video effect. You can also add sound effects and import your own to be used with your clips. Using MovieMaker is a great way to capture the attention of your audience as they anticipate what they will see or hear next, especially knowing that you are the one who created the video. MovieMaker can be saved in various formats to be uploaded to your video camera for playback on your big screen. Or you can save the project as an avi or mov file to be imported into another video format. So there you have it Windows MovieMaker.

PE5_Movie Maker - Creating Titles and Overlays

Add Titles and Overlays

With MovieMaker, you have the ability to add titles and overlays to your video. You can choose whether to add your titles to the beginning of the video as an introduction, before clips, simultaneously to appear with your clips; you can add animation to the titles, and you can add credits at the end of your video. With MovieMaker, I have not found too many things that I cannot do with regard to Pinnacle Studio that we currently use at my school. Before beginning this journey, I was somewhat intimidated with MovieMaker but now I am excited and giving that same excitement to my students. I enjoy changing the fonts and adding transitions to the my titles and captions. My students are beginning to really get the hang of if and spend countless hours now working to create masterpiece videos for school projects as well as for their families at home.

PE4_Movie Maker

Welome to MovieMaker

This week's tool I choose to use is Windows Movie Maker. As a teacher of video, I wanted to make sure that I am really teaching my students as many possibilities with video as possible. Currently, we create and edit our videos using Pinnacle Studio, which is a great video editing tool. But my students do not have access the tool from home. So since Movie Maker and is free and for the most part is already loaded on the computer, I thought this would be a great tool.

Often times when a product is free is it not as robust and somewhat limits your capabilities, but not MovieMaker. This tool is very robust and even the free version can meet all your video needs. MovieMaker allows you to import from your digital or video cameras, vcr, hard drive or cd. Once you have your pictures and or video clips uploaded to your hard drive, all you do is import into your MovieMaker project and now the editing can begin. You have options to to add video effects, titles, transitions, and background music to your projects. MovieMaker allows you to edit your individual clips by breaking them up into smaller clips and trimming your clips to add more precision to your video. Since we have access to flip cameras at school, my kids can use those to capture video at our sporting events instead of using our video recorders. With movie maker, they can come into class, upload the video footage and begin the editing process. This creates a dynamic of collecting video from multiple sources to save for our daily announcements for the school to view. Not to mention that they can work on video from home. Students can even add introduction slides to their video making their clips a more complete and finished product, making my job a lot easier. Once they have their video edited they can save the finished product to a movie file of which can be imported into pinnacle. So there you have it, Windows MovieMaker. A great video editing tool suitable for all you video needs.

BP11_Comment to Leon

 Follow this link to view my comment on Leon's Blog.

BP10_Blog Comment

Follow this link to my comments in Ishia's blog.

BP9_Zohodocs

This weeks web 2.0 that I selected is Zoho.com. Zoho is a collaboration site that will manage all of your personal and business needs. Zoho products include, docs very similar to google docs. It has also has email, chat capabilities,  a calendar and a planner. The chat will allow you to set a page background theme, and the docs will allow you to set up a watermark. So the tools within Zoho are fun to work with.
Zoho collaboration includes in your own wiki, blog, personal and public forum.
Zoho business will allow you to virtually manage all your business needs from, meetings, recruiting, managing staff, invoices, keeping time and much much more. All of the tools can be shared with options for others to view, or edit documents. It is a great collaboration tool.

This is a really robust tool offering you many options on a personal and business needs.

The reason I picked this tool is because not only can you work from the Zoho website. At my school we have implemented a social networking tool for our students and Zoho docs is imbedded right into the tool. With Zoho docs, me and my students can create and share documents with one another. I like the fact that I can create a document, share it with my students. They can create their response to my document and save it to their digital locker for me to view and grade later. So Zoho is a tool within a tool. My students really like the fact that they can create a paper, have me view it before printing out a final copy. Also, this year, my district is really cutting back on our ability to print. Using Zoho documents for my students work gives them the opportunity to create it and save it or they can email me the zoho doc for grading. Really cuts down on printing. Also, students can share documents with one another and this is a great feature when they are creating working on projects.

BP12_Zohodocs

 PB9_Zoho Docs

PE3_IMovie

          
      

PE2_iMovie

  

PE1_IMovie

BP8_Web 2.0 Gaggle Commercial


  

BP7_Comment on Emil

Follow this Link to my comment Emil's blog.

BP6_Comment to Lauren

Follow this Link to my comments on Lauren's Blog.

BP5_Gaggle

Gaggle.net

The web 2.0 tool that I selected to use and write about is called Gaggle. Gaggle is a Web 2.0 tool that can be used in any educator's environment of students from grades 4th - 12th grade. Personally, I would probably not use it for students any younger. I have given access to one of my classes and I cannot keep the students off of it. Currently each day, my students come into class and must make a post on their social wall for all students in the class to view and comment for their bell ringer. I must tell you that I have not problem getting the even most shy student to use the tool and comment. My students look forward to using it now each day in class. They are even on Gaggle at night before going to bed talking about things like basketball tryouts and being nervous. While other students are encouraging them.

Gaggle is a social networking tool that can be set up for your school allowing all teachers and students as powerful, yet strictly monitored means of communicating using chat, blogs, a social wall, message boards, and email. Gaggle allows its users to set up a home page wall similar to iGoogle with a Social Networking Wall gadget added to post comments and create friendships similar to that of Facebook.
With Gaggle, students can send each other and teachers email. I have chosen to limit incoming email to teachers and students at our school only and not the general public. Teachers can email students their assignments for students to work on before coming to class.Within Gaggle, students have access to the Web 2.0 tool Zoho Document which allows them the ability to create text, word processing, spreadsheet documents and presentations. They can store the files in a digital locker for the student to save and/or edit at a later time. The files created can be emailed to their teachers for grading or shared with other students to work on especially in completing a group project. Thus reducing the need for printed paper, especially at a time when schools are going green.

Students have the capability to create blog, respond to message their class and or school message board and participate in Chat. Gaggle also offers GaggleTube which is school friend YouTube for students to view videos as necessary. Students can add widgets to their home page such as mail, digital locker, chat, message boards, blogs social wall calendar and weather of their town. They can also add third party widgets to include news, and educational widgets really having to ability to personalize their homepage to make it work for them. Also, within Gaggle, there are multiple training videos for teachers and students to learn more about how to set up settings, personal and student preferences for each application. All activity on Gaggle is also strictly monitored by Gaggle support as well as the school administrator. Therefore, Gaggle, is a Web 2.0 tool that every educator can take advantage of with the ease of knowing their students have access to 21st century tools to help to engage students in the learning process. To find out more about Gaggle,  just click the link. Gaggle Website address