What is multimedia? Wikipedia gives a good overview and lots of examples...
George Lucas Educational Foundation sponsors a website called "Edutopia" with great resources (articles and videos) about integrating technology and using multimedia with your students. Students Find Their Voices Through Multimedia
Teachers at AHST created a project that was both a learning experience for them and a resource for the community. "There is a business looking for a small town in which to relocate. The would bring 250 jobs and many new families to your community. In order to decide, they visit websites of several towns in Iowa to learn about that community. Create a presentation that will convince them to move to your town." City of Avoca
Apple has a great site with examples and lesson plans of using iLife in the classroom.
Scott County, Kentucky schools have great examples of digital stories by both teachers and students.
If you are using a Mac computer, you may want to download Flip4Mac that allows you to play Windows Media Player videos with QuickTime.
A blog is simply a "web log" - no software required, just an Internet connection. Educators are using this medium to create a quick and simple way to communicate with their students. You can now add video too! Look at this example of a multimedia newsletter from Harlan Community Schools. You might want to limit who can comment on your blog, however. Look at the Education blogs by content area listed on answers.com.
Another good option for communicating with students is to set up a discussion board. I use QuickTopic.com - it's easy and the only people privy to your topic are those that you invite.
Before next week, read Marc Prensky's article "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants", part 1, and join our online discussion.
31 comments:
Thanks for a great first session on multimedia. I thought I'd jump right in and get a blog going.
Way to go, Dominic!!
Good article on Digital Immigrants and Digital Natives. No wonder students today think differently than I do. I wanted to copy the article and then read it, but I didn't.
I see the digital natives coming to life in my grandchildren. It is scary what a 5 year old can do on the computer. As a digital immigrant, we are so used to the old ways that it is hard to change. I am willing to try!!!!! The problem is that what we learn is outdated so fast. It is hard to keep up.
Thanks for the link to the HCHS Newsblog!! It is very easy to control/delete comments from within the blog so there isn't to much worry on my account about inappropriate ones. Chad Bruns
A truly worthwhile piece of writing. You can not argue with it's logic and examples.
One of my favorite passages reads - "A frequent objection I hear from Digital Immigrant educators is "this approach is great for facts, but it wouldn’t work for 'my subject.'" Nonsense. This is just rationalization and lack of imagination."
We rationalize so much in education, in small town Iowa, that we've lost our creativity.
Was I guilty of this as and instruction. You bet. Did I break out with some creavite ideas and expand on that. You bet.
Technology is easier to operate and learn and 100 times more powerful than when I taught TWO YEARS ago!
As an immigrant, I struggle with my "accent", printing of emails, printing of everything actually, all of the time.
It takes a shift in thinking and a CHANGE (run for the hills) that requires daily thought and effort.
We are teaching almost 90-98% and in some classrooms 100% we are teaching legacy content, not future content.
What is encouraging is our staff is eager to learn and will get a lot out of this class, paired with the future professional development in technology and the new machines I truly believe we will move quickly towards reaching the needs of the "Digital Native"
Good article. I copied it for some of the elderly (over 40) staffers. My accent is so heavy no one can understand me. Took my laptop home for the blizzard and it got a lot of use--by my eighth-grader!
Thoreu would pass a kidney if he were alive today. Where is there a place for serenity? We're all so connected. Where is our self in this mayhem? The Natives practice rude by being constantly conneted externally, but seldom connected internally. Should this be that encouraged or do we need a retreat to find our real, non-native selves?
I, too, was tempted to print off the article because I like to underline and mark it up. But I resisted.
Can't wait to tell my daughters (who have blogs of their own)that I have a blog- they are well aware of my "accent!"
I would call myself a Digital Nomad. one who uses the technology for my purposes, but do not need to know everything about a computer.
Many of our students know the ins and outs of using a computer but cannot divide 5 by 3 without a calculator, nor can they change a tire, or have the least understanding of the world's geography.
You would be amzed at what a three year old can do on a computer after just a couple of sessions. His life in twenty years will definitely be different. I hope we can get him ready for it.
testing the blogging thing...
i'm still trying to figure out if i am a native or an immigrant maybe i'm a half and half
I feel I have a lot to learn, but I'm willing to get my feet wet! Just point me in the right direction. Of course since I'm a Digital Immigrant, I had to read a hard copy of the article . . . and . . . I used my yellow highlighter (hard to do on the computer screen)! Looking forwad to "learning new ways to do old stuff".
testing
I'm in and ready to learn more.
Kay Teach
testing
I'm the immigrant. I will never know as much as my own children do already. But I am willing to learn. I wish everyone on staff could have visited Westside. We need to be willing to try new things. The possibilities seem endless.
OK, I now have a hotmail account, a google account and a "Coach Johnson" blog. I feel 10 years younger.
It is above my head i don't understand why people can't just talk and do simple research
Such great comments and deep thinking going on! The best thing I see happening is not only your thinking, but your enthusiasm for learning new things (blogs, instant messaging, and podcasting) in just two classes so far! And, the wheels turning in your heads for how to best use these technologies that are "natural" to most digital natives. We have to be willing to teach them using their language as much as we can - to reach them and help them learn using some of their tools which are very "engaging" and motivating for them. You all inspire me!
testing my google account
Check out the Wikipedia entry on multimedia. Wiki has some great entries on a variety of subjects. I'm planning on using the Wiki entry on calculus to help write a new course description.
I guess I would consider myself to be pretty much a digital native. As I was reading through all of your comments about wanting to print stuff off to highlight and take notes, I was thinking, "Well, why not just copy the text into a Word document and use the color pallet to change the highlight feature to yellow and then you have a digital copy of a highlighted text?" There are ways to do the things we've always done using this technology. I think that the article is absolutely right when it says that digital natives THINK differently than digital immigrants. And just like with everything else we experience, just because it's different doesn't make it wrong.
Ok I read the really long article and did find it interesting but also very overwhelming. I think I fall somewhere in between native and immigrant, but I can't believe how much technology has changed since I graduated college.
I would assume this article is primarily directed at the digital immigrants and yet it is rather offensive to that group. The point of the article is to persuade the immigrants the importance of advancing their technology, yet the last couple paragraphs are offensive and could put up walls of resistance. Here are some quotes from those paragraphs.
"It's just dumb (and lazy) of educators - not to mention ineffective..." "It's high time for them to stop their grousing, and as the Nike motto of the Digital Native generation says, "Just do it!"."
I just think there are more polite ways to get a point across, which was accomplished prior to the last two paragraphs.
Lisa - I agree that Prensky is a bit condescending to digital immigrants. Many of the digital immigrant teachers I've worked with are using technology with their students in ways that amaze me! And, I've worked with some digital "natives" fresh out of college who think that integrating technology means they can create a powerpoint presentation! Just because they grew up "wired" doesn't mean they will necessarily teach that way - because they were not taught that way.
Great idea Joni, but being an immigrant it is work for me.
Testing
If you are still struggling to get your instant messenger going...I finally got mine to work by creating a hotmail account. (As opposed to the school address, a yahoo, or midlands email address.)
Have learners always been at a different level of learning than the teacher? The biggest difference is that the learners may be more advanced than the teacher with the present mode of learning.
Learners have always needed to learn the way the teacher presented the information, which may be significantly determined by the curriculum, professional development, and available funds.
The research has changed significantly to indicate that the brain learns differently than in the past. The thought that all learners learn differently now. - What about those that have not had the exposure yet? We may need to be careful about thinking there is a catch all delivery method.
We do need to be proficient in the latest teaching methods to help reach all learners.
I agree with the basic premis that young learners have different experiences and learning styles than I had at their age. I am, however, amused by his urgency for old dogs to learn new tricks BECAUSE the young pups are already too hard-wired to adapt to our methods.
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