BP8 - link to my comments on Tobin's Blog and Cherylee's Blog

Click here to see my comment on Tobin's RILS blog post.

Then....

Click here to see my comment on Cherylee's blog post.

RILS - WordPress

WordPress 101 – Blogging for Beginners

DeAnna Martin

Brief Overview: This Relevant and Innovate Learning Scenario introduces learners to the web2.0 tool of WordPress.  Students will be able to set up an account, make a blog post and comment on other student’s posts.

1. Target Audience- Small group of staff members at Bridgewater Academy, a Charter school in Myrtle Beach, SC.

2. Materials–

·      PC or MAC, 1 per student

·      Broadband Internet Connection

·      Valid Email Account

• Digital Photo

3. Objectives– At the end of this scenario the learner will be able to:

·      recall the website, WordPress, and enter their username and password to obtain access to their personal blogging site.

·      design their own blog including themes, pictures, posts and comments.

·      create posts for their own blog and comments on others blogs.

·      discuss through comments with other bloggers on topics of interest.

·      deliver relevant and meaningful content to an eclectic audience

4. Procedure–

Prior to the implementation of this scenario, the instructor should set up a username and password at www.WordPress.com. The instructor should also navigate through the site and become familiar with the administrator panel for their site.

·      Introduce WordPress to Students

First, ask students to log on to www.wordpress.com.  Explain to them that this is web software that you can use to create a website or a blog.  The purpose of this RILS is to set up a blog. Each student will need to create an account to begin.  Once they each have an account, the setup can begin.

The instructor needs to compile a list of the blogs sites so that the students can access classmate’s blogs in order to follow them and leave comments.  They can send out a Google doc asking for the info and sharing it or have each student email the link and them just compile a mass email and send it out to the students.

·      Walk students through a short tour of the site, highlighting the most important dashboard features, such as:

1.           Settings

2.           Posts

3.           Appearance

4.           Tools

Once comfortable with the dashboard page the students are ready to start customizing.  Starting under the Appearance tab they will find a link to themes.  This will give them a chance to choose a theme that best fits the site and/or their personality.  Remind the students about picture size and relevance before they begin the scenario.

·      Tasks to Complete

After the students have an overview of the tools and their theme picked out, they may begin the tasks as follows.  First they must create a new post for their Bio/Introduction post.  They must add a graphic/picture to this post.  Here is an opportunity for students to talk about themselves and their interests.  A good idea for a picture would be of themselves or of them and their family.  It could also be them doing something they love, like a favorite hobby.

The second task is creating another post on any topic they choose.  This post must also have a graphic/picture. 

The third task is slightly involved, because it is multiple posts wrapped up into one task.  The student must comment at least once on one of each of their classmate’s blogs.  If there are 9 students in the class, each student will have at least 8 comment posts.

The fourth task is to comment on the instructors post about the scenario.  This post should ask questions like:

·      What was your favorite part of this task?

·      What was your least favorite part?

·      What areas did you struggle with?

·      What areas were easiest for you?

5. Emerging Technology – WordPress

http://www.wordpress.com

WordPress is a web2.0 tool that is used to create websites and/or blogs.

6. Social Participation/Social Learning– WordPress is built around social participation.  Users will post and comment on other posts as part of their learning and collaboration.  They will also be adding photos and getting to know each other outside of the work/school environment.  They will be creating an introduction/bio post first and may choose the topic of their second post on their own.  The students must comment on at least one of the posts for each of their classmates.

7. Making Connections–

This scenario provides several exposures for making connections:

   Connection with Previous Knowledge

1.    WordPress’ blog posting tools are very similar to any type of word processing tool we are familiar with, such as Microsoft Word.  Learners will relate their previous knowledge of these types of programs while also learning the new options and functions that WordPress offers.

2.    Connection to Self

This blog is about the learner, who is also creating the content, written and media driven (pictures).

3. Connection to a Local or Global Audience

The learner’s blog will be viewable by anyone in the world.  By using tags to classify their posts, it will be easier for people all over to connect about specific ideas, posts or categories. The learner may also seek out other blogs outside of our class and make their own network with bloggers of their interest(s)/category(s).

8.            Create/Produce – The end product will be an actual blog that they have created for themselves and can continue to use in the future.

9. Assessment – The final product will be evaluated using the following rubric:

	Excellent 15	Good 10	Satisfactory 5	Needs Improvement 0
Posts	User has made two posts on their own blog following the guidelines: 1.     intro/bio 2.     topic of their choice	User has only made one post to their blog	X	No Posts were made to blog.
Comments	User made at least 1 comment on at least 1 post by each classmate.	User made at least 1 comment to more than half of their classmates	User made at least one comment to a classmates post	User made no comments to classmates posts
Image(s)	Image is sized appropriately for the blog and is relevant in someway to the post	Image is either not the correct size or not relevant to the post	Image is too big or too small in the post.  Image is not relevant to the post	No Image was used.
Overall Look	Theme is relevant and appealing.	X	X	Theme was not changed from default and is distracting.

10.          Reflection -

Student Reflection

Students will reflect on their experience through a comment on my blog post about reflection.  They will reflect on what they liked, disliked, thought was easy and hard.

     Teacher Reflection

The teacher will be able to reflect upon this learning scenario via the comments feedback from the students, assessment of their final products, and observation of their levels of engagement throughout.

PE5 - WordPress

The last 5 sessions of this online training covered many customizing features including building link lists, working with comments, adding users, customizing the appearance, advanced techniques and maintenance.  You can see in the picture below that I learned how to add links(blogroll) to my webpage.

Two of my favorite lesson here were how to import posts from other(previous) blogs and editing/adding widgets.

For my RILS project, my goal is to have my group make accounts and understand how to post and comment.  Technically, these last few sessions were just for me in the future.

Here is my certificate of completion!  

PE4 - WordPress

I have decided to become efficient in WordPress since I am planning my capstone around developing a site for Martin Productions with it.  I am just under the 3 hour mark in my 5 1/2 hour journey.  While most of this information has been rudimentary, there are small tasks/skills in each section that I would not know on my own, if not for sitting through this and practicing the skills as I go.  Having said that, let me share with you some of my journey!

The first three sections were geared towards understanding the tool and getting signed up for an account.  Once that was completed we jumped right into navigating the administrative side and designing the basic layout and theme of our site.  This part is hard for me, I probably tried 10 different themes before committing to one, which I probably will change again!  Here are a few that I tried, the last being the current look of my site.

The program then took you through all of the posting options, from basic to advanced.  The posting tool box is similar to most blogs and/or word processing programs we have used.     However, walking through all the options made me feel more comfortable with using this tool to it's full potential.  The Admin Post panel looks like this....

Luckily this format is familiar to me and not intimidating at all.  The tutorial walked me though each icon in the tool bar (the second row of tools is called the kitchen sink, I thought that was funny). There are many ways to alter/protect posts, you can even password protect posts.  I personally was thinking if you have to password protect a post, you probably shouldn't post it.  While only people with the password could access, we all know that it could easily get into the wrong hands.  

The next session focused on adding, editing and customizing pages.  One of the options I really enjoyed learning was the ability to take features away from certain pages.  For example, on my contact page I do not need or want a comments box.  I simply need to list the contact information.  In the admin panel you can change that feature for that particular page, which I did.

The next session was based on multimedia.  Wordpress lets you post most document styles, but does not support movies/audio.  To get around this issue you must have your media posted somewhere else on the web and link to it through the url. While this is a slight inconvenience, getting around it isn't really a big deal.  You just use a video hosting site, like YouTube or Viddler, upload it there and then use the url link.

The last sections I completed this round involved managing posts, tags and categories.  This was important for me to organize my posts and site as well as for my future navigators to get around easier.  The more user friendly my site is, the more likely they are to return.

And the Journey Continues....

BP7 - one minute video(picnik)

BP6 - Link to Rebecca's Blog

See my comments on Rebecca's Blog!

Thanks for sharing Rebecca!

BP5 - Link to Kat's Blog

Check out my recent post on Kat's Blog media[by]design.

Thanks for sharing Kat!

BP4 - Picnik

This week I worked with a program called picnik. This tool allows you to easily edit your photos and save them directly to your computer.  While most of the editing tools are free, some of the more advanced tools are list as premium and you must upgrade to a paid membership.  The cost is minimal, but the free tools are enough for any novice.This is a shot of my original picture, which was taken by a firefighter, seen here to the right, on the ladder of his fire engine.

Original

The first tab of tools, called basic edits, includes cropping, rotating, exposure and color settings and the ability to resize the photo.  I opted to crop the photo to eliminate the pile of back packs and dirt patches.  I also saturated the colors for a bolder look. 

The second tab of tools is named featured.  This tab has a list of featured options, which mostly were directed to Halloween themes because of the season.  I did not use any of these tools for this edit.                                                                                                                                                                 The third tab, labeled effects, lists all of the different ways to customize your photo.  There are many color options, pixelation, focal points and plenty of others.  A few examples are shown in the photo seen here.  I chose the focal point tool which led me to the next screen shot of my progress.  You can see that i set the focal point on the kids and staff making the flag.

The fourth tab allows you to add text to your photo.  They have many fonts and styles to choose from.  I added two text features to my photo.  The first was a title that I set to the right of the photo.  The second was my business name, martin productions, that I put in the bottom right hand corner.

The fourth tab, stickers, allows you to add pre made graphics from different categories.  I opted not to use any stickers for my photo for two reasons. 1. They were mostly childish.  2. I didn't think that this photo would benefit from one.  

The fifth tab, touch-ups, had a few tools for enhancement, like red eye reduction.  Most of these tools were only available in the premium package and I did not need any of them for my photo.

The sixth tab, frames, lets you add frames or change the edges of your picture.  I opted for a red and blue frame to go with the flag theme of the photo.

The seventh tab, advanced, housed five specific tools, none of with were offered in the free version.  These tools included cloning, dodging, burning, paint options and a levels option to alter your colors.

The last tab, titled seasonal, let you pick from a variety of overlays. I found one under the Fourth of July section that I felt would add impact to the picture.  This allowed me to overlay a flag on my photo and then decide the percentage of fade to use.  This was my last step before saving the newly edited picture to my computer.  This is my finished product.

I enjoyed working with this program.  The fact that most functions are free and that the interface is easy to use made this tool more appealing.  The kids will enjoy this at school and I believe it may be basic enough for my mom to learn. Let the fun begin!

PE3 - iMovie

This is my third and final post about my training in iMovie on Lynda.com.  I am pleased to announce my completion of the training program!

I was excited to learn about the voice over feature and the new audio editing techniques.  I use to record my voiceovers in audacity while i watched the clips in iMovie, now I can do it all in one program. I am very pleased with the new audio manipulation features, including editing to the beat.  This will eliminate some extra work when trying to match up your photo's or video's to the music and/or sound effects.

I am posting a short video that I created using iMovie.  It is a quick introduction about myself and I enjoyed making it.  The only part I regret is not having any pictures on this computer!  

Thanks for taking the time to watch!

PE2 - iMovie

I am officially 2/3 of the way through this training series on iMovie from Lynda.com.  These sessions focused on slightly more advanced features in iMovie, including editing and working with different effects.  One of my favorite new tricks, is creating a still picture from your video clips.  This tool is very handy.  I also am excited about the one step effect of flash and hold last frame.  This will enable you to stop the video and hold an a certain instance and pause there for a moment.  This effect could lead to entertaining video that catches action that may be funny, dramatic or a moment you just want to highlight.   Here is the example that I made using footage from our school dance.  It would be hard to explain this not using a video.

As you can see, I  chose a specific point in the clip to capture and hold and then the clip continues to play as it normally would.

I was excited to learn that iMovie has the capabilities of green screen functions.  This was one concern I had in the past, after briefly using Premiere in my first graduate program. This function can lead to very creative experiences.  You can impose backgrounds behind you and I once used it in a book and zoomed in as if the book were actually playing a movie.  It was an effective idea and gave my project something unique.

The last part of the session taught us how to make a movie trailer.  This was fun for me, and I used video I had recently downloaded from our Fall Festival at school.  The kids would love to see themselves dancing on a movie trailer.  I may use something like this to promote the sporting events or the yearbook at school.  iMovie lets you edit the titles in the template so that you can personalize it to your needs. 

I am excited to finish up this tutorial and post my personal bio on here.  This will give my cohort a small insight to who I am, since I just joined then as a certificate student.  Until then....

PE1 - iMovie

Today I made a new friend, her name is Lynda.  This site's training videos are stellar.  A special thanks to Garrick Chow, who escorts you through this series. He walks you through step by step, showing you all the basics and then digging further into the tools capabilities.  This is the first of three posts I will make.  The entire training is over three hours long, so i am breaking it down into three sections.

I just completed the first four sections of the tutorial.  These sections covered importing, interface navigation, organizing clips and an overview of the program.  Most of the content in sections 1 - 3 were review, but section four on organizing clips was interesting.  I do not see myself necessarily using this part of iMovie(seems time consuming), but I do understand why one might. iMovie lets you rate clips, for easy deletion or use, spending if you rate it good or bad.  It also lets you tag clips with keywords.  If you were creating a movie on the soccer team, then you could search for clips that were tagged for easy searching.  This could eliminate long navigation times through all of your clips, especially one you have used the program a lot.  As you can see in the screenshot below, the different tags show up as different colors on your clips.

ORANGE - tells you that this clip has been used.

GREEN - tells you that you have marked the clip as a favorite, or good.

RED - tells you that you are not interested in this footage and that you may delete this clip.

BLUE - Tells is that there is a tag on this clip.

PURPLE - Tells you that there are people in these shots.

 I am excited to continue my journey with learning the ins and outs of iMovie through Lynda.com.

CS1 ADDIE

Often in my life I jump right into things with no real hammered out concept. I have an idea of what I want to do, in my head, and I go for it.  The idea of sketching out concretely what I need, want and have to include has somehow skipped my development process.  This often requires me to backtrack and fix the things I have overlooked and not accounted for.  Fortunately for me, and my students, the ADDIE framework could save me time in the long run, helping me plan out my journey, to prevent all the backtracking, and develop something solid from the beginning.

The ADDIE model is based on five main components that are broken down to include many aspects of your final project/course.  The five main components are:

Analysis
Design
Development
Implementation
Evaluation

When we break each component down, we find the meat of our development process.  This is where we work out all the details, basic and ellaborate.

In the Analysis section we "analyze" many areas including, but not limited to, the design of the course, the audience, objectives, goals and delivery method(s).  These areas can also be broken down further.  For example, Audience and be analyzed many ways, including who is your audience, what do they already know, what do they need to learn and so on.

In the Design section we will create a model for our course on paper.  First the structure is laid out, then the content developed, including dates, topics, strategies, assessments and resources.  It is recommended that you also develop a "schedule" for completion, setting aside specific time for you to work on the course.

The Develop section is where I usually begin in my process.  I dig right in to the creation, with no road map to lead me.  This part of the process would go smoother for me if I were to follow the first two steps.  Here in develop we, believe it or not, develop the actual content of our course.  This is where our ideas become tangible.  When you believe you have a finished product, you want to go back through, from the beginning, making sure that everything is in order, easy to follow and ready for consumption.

The Implementation phase is when we actually put our course/project into action with our audience, whether it be students, co-workers, etc.  The actual teaching begins and consumption occurs, which will lead us into the last phase of the ADDIE process.


Evaluation happens when the course is over.  This is where we evaluate student outcomes, teaching strategies, activities and student feedback  This phase is important for improvement and effectiveness.

According to intulogy.com, the ADDIE model fits well into an ideal-world situation, which most of us know is not usually the case.  Sometimes your final outcome is time driven over quality driven.  That is where this model seems to fall short, because it is sometimes a question of what can we do within the time frame we have to complete this course/project.

The ADDIE model is a complete, start to finish, planning and execution tool.  This model can save you frustration in the middle of development by covering all the details from the beginning to the end.

The most helpful site to me was the Instructional Design Using the ADDIE Model site.  This site gave me the most details in each step of the process and broke it down in many ways for easy comprehension.  They present an overview in chart formation on the home page and then give you all the details in the tabs section labeled by the steps in the model. If you want to research information on using this in a business setting, then the intulogy site would be most helpful for you.  This site looks at the model in many ways, including an in the workplace section. Whatever the field you are in, this is a good model to investigate for a step by step explanation to developing a useful tool.

References

Analysis. (n.d.). Creative Outsource Training Solutions by Intulogy. Retrieved November 2, 2011, from http://www.intulogy.com/addie/analysis.html

[Untitled graphic of ADDIE model] BINTI SALLEH, N. F. (n.d.) Retrieved November 2, 2011, from http://www.google.com/imgres?q=addie+instructional+design+process+chart&hl=en&client=safari&sa=X&rls=en&biw=1393&bih=695&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=3yM8isyn1WL7bM:&imgrefurl=http://mpt1393nurfazilasalleh.blogspot.com/p/reflection-development-process.html&d

State University. (2009, August 12). ADDIE Model        - YouTube    .         YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.    . Retrieved November 2, 2011, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu6kVPuhCog&feature=related

Instructional Design Using the Addie Model. (n.d.). Raleigh Way's Test Page. Retrieved November 2, 2011, from http://raleighway.com/addie/index.htm

BP3 - introPlay

I searched and searched for a food log or journal that my kids could use for health class, but none were what I was looking for, so I had to think outside the box.  When my students move into health class with me they lose their PE time, so I began searching for a fitness log, which led me to introPlay.  This is something we can do class-wide during health to encourage physical activity outside the classroom.  This   app can be used in many different ways.  You can keep a log of your exercise activities for personal knowledge or you can compete with fellow "players" in an introLeague, where your points earned are matched against other players in your league.  You can also interact with others in the online community.

This shot shows what the site looks like when you first register with introPlay.  The idea behind this application is to compete with other "players" by completing and logging your daily activities.  Each item logged is worth a certain amount of points. As I progressed with the app I created my profile and started personalizing my page, as you will see in the next screenshot. 

I then began researching the introPlay app on the web, but I wasn't finding anything that was remotely tutorial.  I then started to explore when this site was created, thinking that it was new site and that is why I am not finding much information on it.  According to Aaron Toponce, an introPlay employee, the site was launched in May of 2007.  This baffled me, so I went back to the site and began investigating on my own.


I believe one of the reasons this site does not have many outside tutorials is that it is very easy navigate, learn and use.  The kids will be excited to compete with each other and to learn how to use this new tool.


I wanted to find other ways to access introPlay, so I typed introPlay app into my search engine.  This is how I found workout olympiad, a face book app for introPlay.  This will entice my students to use this app even more.

I am excited to use this myself, and as a natural competitor, it will be hard for my students to keep up with me(unless they cheat).  That is the one of the two downfalls I have found with this app.  Not only can the students cheat by entering incorrect data, they have to pick from a specific list of activities(89 in all).  Hopefully the app will grow and the amount of activities can grew as well.

BP2 -iGoogle

First of all, I am in Love, Love, Love!  I can not wait to set our Administrative Assistant up with this.  She will be buying me lunch on Monday!  It took a little bit of time to set up, but well worth it.  I am excited to keep learning these great technologies.