Classroom YouTube (TeacherTube) Channel

Many teachers are beginning to use digital storytelling as a method to engage students with course content. Multimedia tools such as PhotoStory and MovieMaker are accessible to anyone using Windows XP... best of all, they are free! Students often enjoy using multimedia technology because it allows them to communicate their message beyond text; their stories incorporate pictures, video, narration, and music.

Students are also motivated by the number of people who will view their product. If it is only turned into the teacher, quality may suffer. Teachers use this to their advantage in a number of ways. The ideas below list ways teachers are displaying students' digital storytelling videos...

• Submitted to the teacher only
• Class viewing of all videos
• Burn stories to CD or DVD as a "video study guide"
• Submit videos to cable access channel
• Upload videos to a YouTube channel

YouTube? For school? The AP History classes create digital stories on a variety of topics. They use each other's videos to create "video study guides" as a way to prepare for the AP exam. They have experimented with a variety of delivery methods... burning the stories to CDs... they have tried DVDs... most recently, YouTube. A teacher can easily create a YouTube account, upload all of the student created videos, and publish to the web. Videos can be viewed from any computer connected to the Internet by students and the rest of the world! That can be very motivating.

It is important to remember that a student's personal information should not be attached to any project posted on the Internet without specific parent permission. This includes names, pictures, addresses, telephone numbers, etc. Take a look at the AP History Channel; contact me if you have an idea for using YouTube with your class.

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Important update... Well, about 48 hours after I wrote the above article, YouTube was added to our list of blocked websites. As I've mentioned in previous articles about YouTube, it does contain some inappropriate material. Fortunately, there is a more appropriate alternative... TeacherTube. I am still researching to see if a "channel" can be created by individual users, but all content is monitored by the education community. Tools are available to "flag" material that may be inappropriate (or no relevance to education). Click the link and check it out today.

PowerPoint Review Games

The March 12th Staff Workshop day was a busy one... Posting second trimester grades, preparing for third trimester, coaches meeting, Gifted and Talented presentation, and technology sessions that included Study Island (Middle School MCA prep), Project-Based Learning with Publisher, and PowerPoint Review Games. A number of teachers have asked me for the information from the review games presentation because they were unable to attend. I've listed some of the review game highlights below and a link to the Tip Sheet:

• Enter 30 questions/answers on one Excel spreadsheet
  
• Select a review game format (Jeopardy or Baseball)
  
• The PowerPoint review game will automatically import your questions/answers
  
• Create a review game today (Tip Sheet)
  

The biggest advantage to these review games is the ability to type the questions/answers one time only... without having to deal with all the different PowerPoint slides. Eventually, I would like to have 6-8 games for teachers and students to choose from. If you have suggestions for a review game idea or how to improve one of the current games, please feel free to contact me.

Cool Tech Tool: OpenOffice

OpenOffice.org is a multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites, the product is free to download, use, and distribute. To help build the community, join us. - OpenOffice.org

What does this mean?

• Multiplatform: The program can be used on a PC or Mac.
• Multilingual: Can be downloaded in a variety of languages.
• Office Suite: Common productivity programs similar to Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.
• Open-Source: Programs that are created by a community of programmers and distributed freely to the public.
• Compatible: Start a PowerPoint presentation at school... save it to your flash drive... finish the presentation at home with OpenOffice... save the finished presentation to your flash drive... present your multi-media lesson with PowerPoint at school.

If you can't justify spending $150 - 250 for the Microsoft Office Suite, you may want to consider this set of free programs. Go to OpenOffice.org and give it a test run. If you are like me, you'll be amazed at the professional look/feel and similarity to MS Office. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

PowerPoint with Purpose

PowerPoint can be an effective presentation aid, when used properly. The technology alone though does not guarantee success. If you have ever assigned students to a PowerPoint project, you have probably sat through a number of presentations like this...

Students, as well as teachers, can get wrapped-up in the "bells and whistles" of PowerPoint. Can you remember when you learned how to change the background, insert a picture, and add animation with sounds? The tools can be fun, but we have to teach students to use them to enhance the content, not create distractions. There are a number of books, articles, and websites that offer suggestions for creating PowerPoints with purpose. Here are some of the guidelines I have found useful:

• Plan and outline the content before you touch PowerPoint
• The "80/20 Rule" - 80% of your time on content research, 20% on PowerPoint
• The "6 x 6 Rule" - no more than 6 bullets, no more than 6 words per bullet
• The "10/20/30 Rule" - no more than 10 slides presented in less than 20 minutes with at least 30 pt. text
• Light background with dark text -or- dark background with light text
• Keep it simple - dissolve/fade transitions, animation only when used to enhance the message, no more than 2, easy to read fonts in the entire presentation
• Cite your sources - under an image, after a quote, and on the last slide for research

It is not always easy to follow these guidelines, but they will help focus the attention on the content of the presentation, rather than the technology itself. Teach your students to ask these two questions:

• How does this slide help my audience understand the information better than hearing it alone?
• Does the slide enhance the content or cause distractions?

With these tips and techniques you and your students will be on your way to making PowerPoints with purpose!

5,000 Videos - Sitting on Your Desk

If a picture says a thousand words, then what does a professionally created video say? We have all seen the power a well-produced video can have in the classroom, but finding the right video can be time consuming and costly. Often, you only need 2-3 minutes of a particular topic in the middle of the 55-minute video. Trying to find the right spot with a classroom full of students can negate any value the short clip may have had on the learning objectives.

This is where UnitedStreaming.com can help. United Streaming is an online video library created by Discovery Education. It contains over 5,000 full-length videos and over 50,000 short video segments... all accessed directly from your computer. Content can is searchable by topic keyword, subject area, grade, or curriculum standard. A list of videos that match your search criteria will be displayed. From this list, you can make the following choices:

• Stream the full video (preview directly from the web browser)
• Download the full video (save the video to your network folder or flash drive)
• Stream the short video segments
• Download the short video segments
• Add the video or segment to "My Content" (bookmarks the video for later use)

Many of the videos also provide related materials:

• Blackline Masters (worksheets, activities, or study guides designed for the selected video)
• Teacher's Guide
• Quizzes (students can take online quizzes related to the selected video)

If you created an account last year, continue using the same username/password. If you are new to the district, or did not create an account, you should have received an email with an attachment explaining how to create your username/password. Please feel free to contact me if you are having trouble logging in or have questions about using this service. The United Streaming Tip Sheet is also available to help you get started.