TECH PLAY 4 


WHY I SELECTED CONTENT OBJECTS OVER INFORMATION LITERACY
I selected content objects over information literacy because I felt that my student would benefit more if they had access to apps that would helps to build skills that would improve their performance inside and outside my classroom. Even though the app I chose to expand on, www.Learning.com, is one that we utilize in the classroom on a dialy basis, it has projects and assignments for the students to complete that teach them about information literacy, like the lesson on WEB SEARCHES, and many other technology focused TEKS.

TOOLS EXPLORED

This one was a bit difficult for me this week because I completely cracked the screen on my iPhone 6S Plus on Friday. (I forgot that I placed it on back of my truck while putting my son in his car seat and drove off. Thanks for Find my iPhone app! My phone would be lopst without this app...) My screen is completely shaterred and unreadable, making it iimopossible for me to play around with them on my phone and I don't have an iPad nor iPod. So my thoughts on these apps are truly from reviews that I have read about each that I chose. (Sorry Professor Lee). 

Technology Applications focuses on the teaching, learning and integration of digital technology skills across the curriculum. "Digital technology" refers to the use of computers and related technologies such as digital cameras, scanners, probes and handheld digital devices. The TEKS for this course curriculum has 7 strands:

1) creativity and innovation

2) communication and collaboration

3) research and information fluency

4) critical thinking

5) problem solving and decision making

6) digital citizenship

7) and technology operations and concepts.

So I chose a few apps few that would support these strand listed above. They are hyperlinked back to the apps website for future exploration.

The first app selected was:

iBrainstorm

This is a multi-device collaboration tool for brainstorming ideas, thoughts, and discussion topics. It is used like a pinboard with sticky notes and the ability to draw out your visual ideas. This app can keep groups in tap with updates for projects while distanced from each other. We don't have to all meet up to share ideas anymore. Here is a video to show some capabilities that the app can do.

Brainsparker

This app gives creativity prompts to brainstorm new ideas, trigger creative thinking, overcome blocks, inspire creative writing and spark innovation. This is something that I woluld like to utilixw in my classroom to get my students brains moving to thinking about a topic and then expanding their thoughts about it. 

Critical Thinking Basic

This app helps you rate and reflect about an idea, a point of view, a decision, a work, and more, against nine simple universal standards of reasoning. It aims to assess and improve the quality of a reasoning. Many times my students are afraid to think on their own and would rather ask me, "Mr. Robertson, Would do you think I should do now?", or " What else should I do to it?".... instead of thinking for themselves. I feel this can improve their thinking skills by challenging them to answer the quotes. The answers then would be answered with thinking skills and prior learned knowledge or experiences.

Math Land

 
With this interactive gaming app, students will be asked to exercise logical and critical thinking but in the comfort of gameplay and puzzle solving.  Mathland supports the development of maths skills, trains memory and logical thinking.
Being that I am an ex-Math teacher, our students need as much assist in math as any other core subject. Math just seems to be the subject that more student stray away from the most, but the most important of the core subject in my opinion. Not knocking reading, because thats very important also. 

Google Docs

Before taking this class, I have known about Google Docs but have only used it at a minimal. This is a great tool for groups at large to access updated information all at one location. This is also a tool we use in our current course for information to be displayed, viewed, and edited. 

Google Docs is an online word processor that lets you create and format text documents and collaborate with other people in real time. Here's what you can do with Google Docs:

• 1. Upload a Word document and convert it to a Google document
• 2. Add flair and formatting to your documents by adjusting margins, spacing, fonts, and colors — all that fun stuff
• 3. Invite other people to collaborate on a document with you, giving them edit, comment or view access
• 4. Collaborate online in real time and chat with other collaborators — right from inside the document
• 5. View your document's revision history and roll back to any previous version
• 6. Download a Google document to your desktop as a Word, OpenOffice, RTF, PDF, HTML or zip file
• 7. Translate a document to a different language
• 8. Email your documents to other people as attachments

This video explains Google Docs more in depth.

Evernote

This app helps you take notes, capture photos, create to-do list, record voice reminders--and make these notes completely searchable, whether you are at home, at work, or on the go. The app is used on Windows OS, Linux, and Mac OS X platforms. Each platform have different features though. Here is a video to for more information.

Learning.com

This app allows teachers to give assignments, journals, and exams to students aas their learn digital literacy skills through engaging digital content that acts like a cartoon series. It shows the student how to perform certain task and then asks the student to answer questions based on information that was just explained to them in the videos. This is an all around tool. After a student completes an assignment, Learning.com grades the work and dispalys it on the teacher's gradebook within the program. This is a program that I utilze daily in my classroom because my district has paid for it to be used. Even though, it is very useful tools that keeps the student engaged in meaningful learning and is TEKS centered. This program allows students to work at their own pace but needs some tweeks to it. I wish it had capable of transferring the grades directly into my school districts gradebook. It also gives the teacher the abiltiy to control how a student can complete assginments, whether in linear order or non-linear order. I have mine set to linear order so students can't jump ahead to lessons that we have not be taught yet. This tool is aligns great with the TPACK model because it is created around the TEKS and curriculum standards.



Here are some screen shots for the lesson titled "Web Searches"

This is the teacher view page that explains all that needs to be taught to the students: Vocabulary, Estimated Time, & Objectives

 Here are additional notes for the teacher. It gives discussion topics to get the students motivated for the upcoming information.

This page displays the multiple subjects that the lessons covers, some even outside of the technology classroom.

And this page displays all the standards that are covered by this lesson.

And this is a screenshot of the lesson: It provides audio and visual content to inform and entertain to students, It provides a page bookmark to let you know where you are throughout the lesson (locasted at the bottom right...4 of 40). It posts instructions for the students to complete a task (far left in light blue section).

This technology helps out my classes and the student can access these information anyway with computers, tablets, smartphone apps.

TECH PLAY 3

TECH PLAY 3

I am excited about this project because I choice to find apps that can be associated with the Creating portion of Bloom's Taxonomy. The three apps that I played around with were:

1.) iMovie

- a movie application that allows Apple users to create movies on their iPhones or iPads.

This app teaches creativity through proper editing and storytelling.

The Pro's for this app are as followed, you can:

• create movies and trailers using a non linear editing format.
• add your own pictures, videos, and/or audio
• video duration can be as long/short as your want it to be.
• transitions between clips like fades in, screen flips, horizontal stripes fading out, etc.

The Con's for this app are as followed:

• There are no video tutorials to show you features and functions of this program.
• Hard to get the hang of when you first start using it.

Over I like tghis application because woth all the pictures and video take I take on my phone, I can then instantly start editing them together into a movie instead of having to sync to the computer then use a video editing program, like iMovie, to create the video.

2.) Toontastic Jr. Pirates 

- a storytelling app that allows you to make your own pirate-themed animated movies.

You must buy Toontastic Jr., but the themed versions are FREE.

This app teaches storytelling concepts through imaginative play.

The Pro's for this app are as followed, you can:

• Be creative in your storytelling process
• add your voice to the narration
• add pre-selected music
• animate/move the characters with the touch of your finger
• select a beginning, middle and end scenario 

The Con's for this app are as followed:

• Your duration for each scene is pre determined. You must fit all you content into the timeframe.
• no closeup/zoom in ability
• you are forced to a specific story theme. Only pirate theme characters. Can't change characters.
• you don't have much time to get your thoughts together before the app to record your voice.
• cant add additioinal characters or background scenes.
• cant change the direction of the characters stance, left facing or right facing.

3.) Puppet Pals

- a storytelling app that allows you to make animated movies by selceting your choice of characters and scenes.

This app teaches storytelling concepts through imaginative play.

The Pro's for this app are as followed, you can:

• can pause your recordings and then continue on at your own pace.
• can change the size of the characters by zooming in to make them bigger and zoopming out to make them smaller.
• can change the facing position of your characters, left facing or right facing.
• pre-created scenes and characters along with the choice to add pictures from your phone's photo gallery for characters and background scenes.

The Con's for this app are as followed:

• characters don't show movement of legs walking and arms swinging as you move the character along the scene.
• cant add pre-selected or uploaded music unless it is recorded thru the microphone of the phone as part of the narration.

Final conclusions

As I played with these three (3) different apps, I noticed the similarities are they all have create a final movie production. Now Toontastic Jr. and Puppet Pals have common similarities like:

• you moving the characters around the screen during recording
• they have pre selected scenes and characters
• they are animated
• have 3 stages of a movie: beginning-middle-end.
• allow you to be very creative. 

iMovie stands out as different from the other two (2) because it allows you to create real life movies from real life video clips and photos.

I would like for my students to utilize iMovie while in my class to create a student lead movie production. Students would be very interested in beimng able to show off their creativity skills when given a certain prompt to create a storyline. The thing with iMovie is that you will need to gather your own characters, find background scenes, and record using a video camera. 

I think the two animated apps (Toontastic and Puppet Pals) would be a cool tool to use in writing/reading classes. It would allow the students to bring their writings to life using their own imaginations.

TPACK MODEL

I feel that tese apps all fall in the TPCK because after the content has been presented to the students through teaching and content alignment, the teacher gives his/her expectations for the assignment, and the students then take technology to produce the final product, a video file, displaying the expectations and content needed to madter the assignment. 

HOW ELECTRONIC/DIGITAL PORTFOLIOS COMPARE AND DIFFER FROM PHYSICAL (NON_DIGITAL) PORTFOLIOS

One thing that I noticed that is the same between the two platforms are they both could provide the same information. The difference is that a digital portfolio allows the viewer to choose what they would like to view in the order they want to view, where the physical portfolio is already aligned in a way where the physical documents are placed in a specific order for the viewer to view. Once you physical portfolio is printed, any changes must require access to the medium used to create it and a printer to print the revised work. A digital portfolio, requires access to the online medium used to create the portfolio but these changes will revise themselves once you clicked edit and publish. There is no need to print anything out and bound to a folder. Digital portfolios allow the designer to add music and videos that physical portfolios would only have links to those medias. And you would still need to copy and paste or correctly type those links into the web address search box to see/hear the media.

Some affordances, for the tool would be have a computer, internet access, imafge saved to desktop or storage devices, knowledge of medium being used. I personally would s=choose the digital format because I like that technology goes everywhere with you even if you forget it at home. Meaning, if I left my physical portfolio at home on the day i need to present, I would be in serious trouble. I then would need to goleave to fight traffic and time to go back home and then come back to the site of the presentation or if I had saved on a USB flash drive, then would need to go print out and bound into a folder. But if I used the digital format, even if i left my cell phone/computer/tablet at home I could still have access to my information by logging onto a computer at the location.

And another thing I realized was with a digital portfolio you can make insant revisions. Funny I found this out by rereading what I had posted and started to see my own mistakes and misspelling.

My page is www.snaptureit.wix.com/krobertsoneportfolio