Thursday, July 12, 2012

Challenge 1 Reflection

I enjoyed these programs in our challenge. I found both the picture collage and animoto very easy & fun to use. I did not like the cropping feature of the picture collage; drawing with your finger what you want cropped is creative but I really wanted a straight line and couldn't draw one if my life depended upon it. Animoto was fun and I enjoyed the ease of use and that it had music to choose from that could be used in our videos. This was important to me since I tend to listen to pandora rather than purchase music on iTunes. HD slide show was definitely more complicated to figure out but with that complexity there are a lot more options for picture editing. I did purchase a song and made a video of pictures from my sons high school graduation. It came out ok but this program is too complex to use with kindergarten students. With that said, i can see myself using it for sideshows for families about their children for special events such as open house. As i am typing this reflection i am wondering if i could import a digital recording of the kids singing or talking to go with the pictures, I will need to go exploring this. I can see myself using animoto & pic collage with kindergarten kids. They could pick out pictures or maybe even take pictures to tell a story. They love seeing pictures of their work & of themselves. One thing that has struck me is I am much more willing to just go try things out & get help if I can't figure it out than previously; this is what kids do with technology...try it & if it doesn't work try it another way. I have always believed that I was pretty good with technology but now I think I am much more engaged with it & motivated about how to include it in my classroom.

Reading other people's blogs is fun but time consuming. Keeping them on Module One is fine; however, I have not been able to open Amy's blog in the last week or so...it just keeps saying loading but never loads. I know I am not the only one who is experiencing this.

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