Movie Maker

Movie maker is a program that allows you to upload videos, music, audio and pictures onto a slideshow, that when saved becomes a movie. Last year I was taught how to use movie maker for a subject I was doing. As part of my assignment I had to create a movie that displayed my learning journey through the arts. I loved doing this assignment because I got to present the information in a movie, which was fun to create. I believe assignment tasks like these are great as they are something different to the usual assignment, they give students a chance to express themselves and be creative. Movie maker doesn't have to only be used by students, it could be used by the teacher to create a movie that documents the students work to show other students, colleagues or parents etc.

Please feel free to comment, i would love to hear other peoples ideas about movie maker.

Fodey

Voki Avatars

Voki is a free interactive software program available on the web, which allows you to create your own personalized avatar. In simple terms it is creating a character that will speak a message that you either pre record or type. Once you have created your avatar you can upload it to your website, blog, wiki or email to friends. Voki avatars are great to use in the classroom, the Voki website states that Vokis:
- Motivate students to participate
- Nourish students creativity
- Improve message comprehension.
- Personalize relationships with students.
- Effective language learning.
I think Voki avatars are fantastic tools, they can be used to help engage students and enthuse them to learn about the information being presented through the Voki. I enjoyed creating my Voki, and enjoyed watching my creation once it was made.

ICT Frameworks and Theory

There are many different frameworks that have been developed by researchers to help assist with ICT learning design. Some of these frameworks include the Big 6 Framework, Learning Engagement theory, Dimensions of learning, TPACK framework and many more.

After researching a number of frameworks I found that I preferred the Big 6 Framework. It was simple to use and its instructions were straight forward and non-confusing. According to the Big 6 skills overview, the Big6 is the most widely known and widely used approach to teaching information and technology skills in the world. The Big6 integrates information search and use skills along with technology tools in a systematic process to find, use, apply, and evaluate information for specific needs and tasks. The graph below is a Venn diagram of the Big 6 framework compared to the Learning Engagement theory.

TeacherTube

Based on YouTube, TeacherTube is also a video sharing website. However its purpose is to provide resources for the education industry in particular for teachers. TeacherTube includes various teaching resources such as videos, photos, audios and blogs designed for classroom teaching. Unlike YouTube this site is protected from the inappropriate advertisements that appear beside videos. This makes TeacherTube a safe tool to use in the classroom. Personally I would prefer to use TeacherTube in the classroom as it is a protected site that is suitable and more likely to provide teacher certified resources.

YouTube

YouTube is one of the most popular video hosting services in the world; any user can view, rate and upload their own videos onto the site, for anyone to see. YouTube to me is a fantastic source; I can search millions of different topics and find a related video. Videos range from music clips and cartoons to educational videos which can be used as a teaching tool. For example a year 6 class could be doing a unit about space and in particular the moon. This topic could incorporate subjects such as science, math, geology and history. During a lesson the teacher could show their students the above YouTube clip; it is a video about the phases of the moon.
In addition to this topic the teacher could use the tool Google Earth with their students. The YouTube clip below is a video explaining how you can go on a virtual tour of the moon using Google Earth.




In conclusion I believe YouTube is very useful and can be used in many different contexts, in parrticular to educate and help engage students.