I'm giving a presentation tomorrow on Animoto book trailers. I'm hoping to be chosen to present at the EARCOS conference in spring. (Inshallah!)
Anyway, in my continuing quest to master Prezi, here is my "slideshow."
Friday, October 15, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
I Think I've Got It!
I blogged a while back about being determined to figure out Prezi. Judge the results for yourself:
Now that I have the basics, I will work on finesse!
Now that I have the basics, I will work on finesse!
Monday, October 11, 2010
I'm Such an Idiot!!
In the "If you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?" department....
One of my big gripes with Prezi has been the seeming "wonkiness" of the resizing tool which you use to make text or shapes larger/smaller. It never worked very well for me, and there was no rhyme or reason to whether a selected object would grow larger, smaller, or just sit there and vibrate!
I would sit there and drag in frustrated circles, generally achieving nothing.
Well, ahem. Today I accidentally grabbed an object, and instead of making my usual circle (following the shape of the tool), I just dragged it straight to the left and--miracle!--it grew seamlessly larger. Dragging to the right, it grew smaller.
The perils of rigid thinking, but just look at that tool! Doesn't it imply "drag in a circle?" : )
One of my big gripes with Prezi has been the seeming "wonkiness" of the resizing tool which you use to make text or shapes larger/smaller. It never worked very well for me, and there was no rhyme or reason to whether a selected object would grow larger, smaller, or just sit there and vibrate!
I would sit there and drag in frustrated circles, generally achieving nothing.
Well, ahem. Today I accidentally grabbed an object, and instead of making my usual circle (following the shape of the tool), I just dragged it straight to the left and--miracle!--it grew seamlessly larger. Dragging to the right, it grew smaller.
The perils of rigid thinking, but just look at that tool! Doesn't it imply "drag in a circle?" : )
Friday, October 8, 2010
Media Specialists As Hyprocrites, OR Can We Really Tame the Web?
OK, now that I have your attention.... : )
I'm just commenting on a random thought that crossed my mind as I clicked on my Instapaper backlog, while looking through the 1000+ entries in my reader, after just telling someone yesterday how woefully behind I am on my YA reading, having now taken on the K-5 group, which means I have some serious catching up to do on my children's lit, on top of keeping up with the news. And I haven't read my Twitter feed in weeks!
Yet there I was yesterday, blithely assuring a group of overwhelmed 10th graders embarking on the extensive researched needed for their MYP personal projects, that I would show them the tools that would allow them to manage it all.
Who am I kidding??!
And if I'm overwhelmed, it's no wonder that the students, once we convince them there is more to the information world than Google and Wikipedia, stand stunned by the sheer volume of what's available to them. I used to try to show it "all" to them. Once I'd explained databases and the OPAC, we would spend a few days on "the web." We'd talk portals and search engines and advanced tools and browser add-ons and RSS feeds.
I don't know if any of it sank in. I thought I was preparing them for the vast online world, but I now think less is more. I need to tame myself, not the web. I will now teach a core set of manageable tools and skills, saving broader/deeper instruction for a one-on-one as needed basis. To wit:
1) Basic search skills, obviously. Keywords, Boolean (at least the concept), quotation marks, narrowing domains. A few of the Google options, such as the wonder wheel.
2) Specific portals, two or three depending on research focus.
3) Two or three specific search engines, such as Google Books, Intute, and Infomine. I'm actually not all that fussed about Google Scholar, and tend to mention it in passing, then talk about why it's not very useful, unless you're at a big univesity. Specifically, much of the content is behind a pay wall.
4) Evernote, NoodleTools and Bibme.org. I'm a recent NoodleTools convert. I never used to like it because I thought their citation tool was FAR too lengthy and cumbersome. With wonderful tools like BibMe available, why should students go through that process, if even I wouldn't? They now have a shortened MLA version, however. So I'm trying it this year (mostly for the note cards options), and will survey students for their response to it.
I also used to show them iCyte (which I will use instead of EverNote for middle-schoolers) and Diigo, in the belief that it's good to have options. Now I think it just confuses them. I really love Diigo, I might add, but it relies too heavily on good tagging for its organizational structure. Students still need folders.
I'm still teaching the same content, I'm just increasingly convinced a large part of our technology job is to assess, winnow, and present the most useful options--much like developing a collection.
I'm just commenting on a random thought that crossed my mind as I clicked on my Instapaper backlog, while looking through the 1000+ entries in my reader, after just telling someone yesterday how woefully behind I am on my YA reading, having now taken on the K-5 group, which means I have some serious catching up to do on my children's lit, on top of keeping up with the news. And I haven't read my Twitter feed in weeks!
Yet there I was yesterday, blithely assuring a group of overwhelmed 10th graders embarking on the extensive researched needed for their MYP personal projects, that I would show them the tools that would allow them to manage it all.
Who am I kidding??!
And if I'm overwhelmed, it's no wonder that the students, once we convince them there is more to the information world than Google and Wikipedia, stand stunned by the sheer volume of what's available to them. I used to try to show it "all" to them. Once I'd explained databases and the OPAC, we would spend a few days on "the web." We'd talk portals and search engines and advanced tools and browser add-ons and RSS feeds.
I don't know if any of it sank in. I thought I was preparing them for the vast online world, but I now think less is more. I need to tame myself, not the web. I will now teach a core set of manageable tools and skills, saving broader/deeper instruction for a one-on-one as needed basis. To wit:
1) Basic search skills, obviously. Keywords, Boolean (at least the concept), quotation marks, narrowing domains. A few of the Google options, such as the wonder wheel.
2) Specific portals, two or three depending on research focus.
3) Two or three specific search engines, such as Google Books, Intute, and Infomine. I'm actually not all that fussed about Google Scholar, and tend to mention it in passing, then talk about why it's not very useful, unless you're at a big univesity. Specifically, much of the content is behind a pay wall.
4) Evernote, NoodleTools and Bibme.org. I'm a recent NoodleTools convert. I never used to like it because I thought their citation tool was FAR too lengthy and cumbersome. With wonderful tools like BibMe available, why should students go through that process, if even I wouldn't? They now have a shortened MLA version, however. So I'm trying it this year (mostly for the note cards options), and will survey students for their response to it.
I also used to show them iCyte (which I will use instead of EverNote for middle-schoolers) and Diigo, in the belief that it's good to have options. Now I think it just confuses them. I really love Diigo, I might add, but it relies too heavily on good tagging for its organizational structure. Students still need folders.
I'm still teaching the same content, I'm just increasingly convinced a large part of our technology job is to assess, winnow, and present the most useful options--much like developing a collection.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Eaten any Fast Food Lately?
From Doug Johnson: This would be great for a library display--along with copies of Fast Food Nation, The End of Food, Michael Pollan's books, etc. Or for any nutrition classes.
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