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=Welcome to Paige Somoza's first Wiki for Ecomp 6016!=

__Final Reflections__

In this class I have learned several different things that I can integrate into my curriculum. I have learned how to use PhotoStory, Prezi, and Voicethread. I have learned how to upload videos to YouTube, and have learned how to work with Jing when it is not cooperating. However, the best lesson I have learned is that incorporating digital media into your classroom engages student and helps them learn more. I will admit when I enrolled in this class I found it a bit overwhelming at first. It was during the busiest time in the school year and some of the information was confusing to me. The Media Literacy Project was the first time that I really used PhotoStory. Although I managed making the PhotoStory with relative ease, I had issues with posting it for the whole class to see. After a whole day trying to post, I finally figured out that I could post my video to YouTube. I felt so satisfied after doing it because not only was it my first upload, but I finally had the video up for my classmates to see. After the Media Literacy Project I decided to integrate PhotoStory into my classroom. I read the Najjar article that stated, “Kulik, Bangert, and Williams found one study that recorded an 88% savings in learning time with computerized instruction (90 minutes) versus classroom instruction (745 minutes)…”(Najjar). The students were just beginning their African Travel Project on a limited time schedule, so I thought that this would be an opportunity for them to get the most out of their project. They were each assigned a country and had to research their country online. From this point they had to create a travel journal with photos that they found on the internet to illustrate their experiences. The students loved this, and I even had my vice principal commenting on how engaged the students were. Our next project was the Curriculum Project. I finally chose discussing the six characteristics of a civilization. We study civilizations throughout the year, but I thought with this project I would emphasize this area of study. I decided to be brave and worked on my first Prezi. I liked Prezi because it was new and different, but did not like it for it non-linear approach and the transitions made me motion sick. However, I think that Prezi would be great for students that are non-linear thinkers. Although I had issues with the motion, it might have been how I created my Prezi. Our final assignment was our Key Assignment. After working with Prezi I really did not want to continue on with the civilization theme, so I chose to work with our first unit of the semester, The Five Themes of Geography. I chose to highlight culture regions and culture traits. I usually have the students do a worksheet and then they have to write a paragraph about their culture traits. I thought that this would be more engaging. I also included a song by Daft Punk. I have enjoyed what I learned in this class, especially PhotoStory and Voicethread. We are moving to a program called School Fusion next year and I see Voicethread as a way to involve not only students in their learning process, but their family as well. Najjar, Lawrence J. "Multimedia Information and Learning." //Journal of Educational Mutimedia and Hypermedia// 5 (1996): 129-50.

Key Assignment: []

Curriculum Project: []

=== 6-9.GEH.2.5.2 Analyze and give examples of the consequences of human impact on the physical environment and evaluate ways in which technology influences human capacity to modify the physical environment. ===

6-9.GEH.2.5.4 Give examples of how land and water forms, climate, and natural vegetation have influenced historical trends and developments in the Eastern Hemisphere.

‍ ** Project Completion Date: ** June 17, 2011
==== ‍ ** Goals/ Objectives /Rationale: Students will learn about one aspect of REGION (a theme of geography). They have previously studied the “natural regions,” now they will discover “cultural regions” as well. This will give students a deeper understanding of REGION and concepts such as culture, population distribution, and population density. **====

My curriculum project is ready. Please check it out at
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__Week 6 Reflection__
So I finished my Curriculum Project using Prezi. It will be posted later tonight; I just need to put the finishing touches on it. I liked Prezi, but there were some things that bothered me with it:


 * It made me sick if I scrolled through my presentation too fast. While making sure that my pathways were on target I would quickly scroll through. The way Prezi moves and rotates, I sometimes felt ill. I had to take a break from my presentation and come back to it later.
 * I felt like I was not harnessing all of its power. Although I did the tutorial and experimented with all the tools I often felt that my presentation was disorganized and sloppy. However, I tend to be hard on myself and my work so I will let you be the judge.

There are some things that I liked about Prezi:
 * Although the actions made me sick scrolling through them quickly, I can see how this can keep students attention more than a regular PowerPoint presentation can. Scrolling through it fast is not how I would present the information to the class.
 * Although I did not use the tool, I thought it was neat that you could insert YouTube videos and pictures off the internet my simply inputting the web address in the appropriate place.

I thought that I was going to build off this presentation to create my Key Assignment, but I decided against it. I felt that I covered all the information needed in my presentation. For my Key Assignment I am going to choose something else. I will have that proposal ready tomorrow.

__Week 5 Reflection__
SCHOOLS OUT FOR SUMMER! I am happy to be done with school and ready to focus more upon my projects for this class. This week I familiarized myself with Prezi and downloaded Photoshop Elements to my computer in order to create a fantastic presentation.

Although I wasn’t able to meet to Skype this week I did watch the YouTube video on Social Media. I also read the Pew article. I have mixed feelings about Social Media. I am connected to many people who I love dearly on Facebook. I love that I can share pictures with friends and family, I can reconnect with people from my past, and I have updates on special events from my favorite places in my city.

However, I feel like that “Gotta Share” feeling has become out of control. I don’t want to know what someone is doing every minute of every day. Sometimes people share too much. Furthermore, people are so interested about documenting their experiences on Facebook, Twitter, etc., that they forget to actually enjoy the experience they are having.

This winter we went on a ski vacation with a bunch of friends. Two of our friends were constantly taking pictures and posting them to Facebook. I think that the experience would have been more fun if they were actually fully invested in the moment. But that is just my opinion.

__Najjar Article__
High school history classes that I took usually consisted of the teacher having us read from our text, taking notes on an overhead, doing worksheets, and taking tests. Movies regarding the subject would be shown when appropriate. When I moved on to college of course we would have to read the text, take lecture notes, write papers, and take tests. It was not until I took a class on Eastern Civilization that I realized the value of multimedia as a learning tool.

I had an incredible professor that would make wonderful lecture presentations using pictures, videos, and interesting graphics. His class did not feel like your typical history class. It was more like an adult story time. I was thoroughly entertained, and as a result my interest in the subject grew. I read the required readings with gusto and actually enjoyed writing my papers for his class. I adopted his strategies when I became a history teacher and I see their effectiveness.

While reading the Najjar article I thought about this experience, and this article backs up my belief in the power of multimedia as a learning tool. The first item that stood out to me is that by using multimedia there is a recorded 88% savings in learning compared to your typical run of the mill classroom instruction. As a teacher this is important to me because sometimes one can be hard-pressed to fit in all of that the curriculum requires of you. With the 88% savings in learning a teacher can use the remainder of the class time for projects that deepen the student’s understanding of what they are learning.

Using multimedia also promotes interactivity. Students are not just sitting passively listening while a teacher lectures. They are involved in their learning by interacting with the computer, or a person via the internet. Student directed activities allows the student to discover rather than be force fed information.

The final thing that resonated with me in the Najjar article was when dual coding was discussed. I am a very visual learner. When given directions, if they are just given to me verbally half of it goes out the window. Because multimedia is often not just auditory in nature, it helps those who may have different learning styles. However, teachers must be careful with the multimedia that they use if the illustrations distract from the objective that needs to be accomplished.

__Week 4 Reflection__
This week I spent time figuring out some of the details of my course project. I am excited about this because I seem to gloss over the characterisitcs of a civilization and this project is a way to thread it throughout the units that we study. Tuesday I had the opportunity to Skype with Melda. We spoke about finding valid resources on the internet. She sent us a poem that was supposedly sponsored by MADD. It was not actually sent by MADD. There was product placement for Sprite. I told her about a lesson that I created to teach students how to find valid resources. I will post it below. It is still a work in progress, but I enjoy it and the kids get a kick out of the site.

__Proposal for Course Project__
** The Seven Characteristics of a Civilization **

====** Goals/ Objectives /Rationale: ** Students learn about the seven characteristics of a civilization at the beginning of the year. This project will give students the ability to review what they have learned about each civilization and site specific examples of characteristics for each civilization. This will allow students to have a deeper knowledge of the subject. ====

__Week 3 Reflection__
This week I actually built off our media literacy project and introduced Photo Story to my class. At the end of the year I do a project where they pick a country in Africa that they have to travel to. They research tourist sites, geographical features, religions, food, etc. Usually the students just type out their travel journal entries, create a flag, and create a map. I decided that instead I would change up the project using Photo Story because it tied in with this project so well.

The kids had a great time. Even the V.P. of our school walked into the computer lab and commented on how engaged the kids were in the process. Students had three days in the lab to gather information and today and tomorrow they are presenting their work. So far I have been pleased. I asked the students what their opinions were on the program, and they loved it. We started discussing ways that they could use Photo Story for their personal use as well.

As I begin fleshing out the details of my Key Assignment I am going to keep this experience in mind. This is one example of what the students produced.



__Target Audience Videos__
Target Audience: Canadian Man Sponsor: Molson Motivation: If a man drinks Molson Ice, he is truly Canadian.

(I thought this ad was hilarious. I lived in Quebec for a summer. I spent the night with some friends in Montreal. The boys were watching hockey and drinking Labatt Blue fitting the Canadian stereotype perfectly.)

Target Audience: The voters of Argentina Sponsor: Lopez Murphy Motivation: I see a few motivations. The first part of the ad catches the voters attention, but then the canidate completely turns the feeling of hoplessness to a message of hope. He literally is changing a negative to a positive. This is very smartly done.

Target Audience: Men Sponsor: Viagra Morivation: Viagra wants men to know they'll be having a "good mornin" because they took the little blue pill. Viagra makes men happier.

Target Audience: The people who write filter codes. Sponsor: I think that he is speaking for the community that uses technology. Motivation: Eli is concerned that the internet is becoming more and more specified to the user. This is disconcerting to him because it is limiting the access that people have to information.

** 2. Who is your intended audience? (Please briefly describe your students) **
==== My students are 7th graders who recently transitioned from 6th grade. They have some background of Ancient Egyptian culture, but no background of the Fertile Crescent. They might have some pre-history information. ====

** 7. What is the expected outcome of the lesson? **
That students will have a deeper understanding of how a civilization developed.

__Week 1 and Week 2 Reflection__
Wow, what a crazy beginning to this class. These past two weeks have been a little overwhelming for me. May is a crazy time with teaching, family, this class, and other obligations. Although I appreciate all of the information given, it was a bit overwhelming at times, and I did not know where to start. I really enjoyed some of the topics I was able to peruse. I made my own stationary which was fun. It came in handy for Mother's Day. I used it to make my mother a gift certificate. I really enjoyed watching the links about the Restaurant Project and the World Peace game. Activities like that are so fun for the students and I love the real life aspect of the projects. What resonated with me most is that learning can be play too. Think about baby animals who play. They are preparing for what they are going to do in adulthood. The same idea applies to humans. Children playing and pretending is all preparation for what lies ahead.

Creating my Media Literacy Project was frustrating, and I am a little worried that I did not do so well. I worked once before with Photo Story, but it was for a tiny project. Obviously I had more to learn. Although my project does not reflect it, I actually learned a lot while doing it. Especially when I worked with our librarian. She makes book trailers every month for students and they are fantastic. Unfortunately, it was a little late to make the changes and I still could not figure out to post. I finally succeeded posting my Photo Story on Youtube. That was my first upload as well.

Moving into week 3 I feel like I have a firmer grip on what to do in this class. I am excited to start thinking about my curriculum project.

__﻿My Media Literacy Video Finally__
I finally figured out to post my video for you all to see. First I want to apologize for my voice. I have a cold. My voice normally does not have that much nasal in it.. Secondly, I know my video is less than spectacular, but I really learned a lot from making it. Today I worked with my school librarian who is a whiz at Photo Story and she helped me immensely. I promise that my next project will be much better. Please enjoy! I can't wait to see all of yours.

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__**The World Peace Game**__

I love what John Hunter did with his class. What a great way to get the class involved and invested in the subject. I think that as a teacher that is our main goal. We want students to realize that something is worth learning. I do use simulations in my classroom.

Here are two of them:

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The first activity is a webquest where students have to decide whether their nation will colonize or not. They research a Southeast Asian country, and determine in pairs whether colonization was more of beneficial or harmful to the country. They share their findings with the rest of the class at the Legacy of Imperialism Conference. After all panels are heard the class decides whether they should colonize or not.

The second one is always a favorite with the kids. After we learn all about the Tokugawa Era and samurais, students pretend like they are daimyos and that are trying to recruit samurais to their cause. They create recruitment pamphlets. These get better every year that the kids do it. You can tell that the students are invested in this activity.