Digital Stories

I have never experience creating a digital story. I have used iMovie to do simple editing like cutting a video down. However, as far as the more advanced editing like adding captions, transitions, and music, I have never done up until now. I now feel very comfortable creating a digital story using the iMovie program. I discovered it is very simple and self-explanatory to use. Even if I were to try something more advanced than editing still pictures into a movie, I feel competent in my abilities to do that. I really like the idea of using digital stories in the classroom. I will be teaching in a deaf classroom, and I feel the deaf kids would really benefit from this technology. Obviously, the music added to the digital stories may not add as much as it would for a hearing student listening to it. However, having short captions paired with pictures or video is very beneficial for them. Also, it would be helpful to include a voice over. That way, students with more mild forms of hearing loss would have the auditory and written language. Here is my digital story that I created about visiting aquariums. Recently, I went to the Chattanooga aquarium and took these pictures. Many of my students have not been to the aquarium before so I think this would be a great way to build their background knowledge before reading or studying sea life or aquariums.

Digital Diagrams

This week's assignment was to create a digital diagram. In the current deaf classroom I am in, we use diagrams often. So, I was excited to learn about digital diagrams. I see some of the benefits of using digital diagrams. They are easy to save and retrieve later, hyperlinks can be included to provide more information, and pictures can be easily added to enhance understanding of the topic. However, this was not my favorite technology skill we have covered in this class. It was very easy and a quicker process than other skills, but I still feel like it is better for students to be able to draw out diagrams on their own. When I was working with the Inspiration technology, I found myself getting frustrated with it because I couldn't get the format just how I wanted it. I think the same thing can be achieved with paper and pencil in a much more efficient and faster way. The picture provided is the digital diagram I created for a 3rd grade classroom on the topic of rocks. There are two notes provided under the rock and sediment headings.

Interactive White Board

I had never worked with IWB or ActivInspire software prior to this class. I was somewhat skeptical of its benefits when I was first introduced to the technology. I was having trouble envisioning elementary kids using it in the classroom. However, once I started my own flipchart, I immediately saw all the possibilities IWB has in the classroom, especially for deaf students. ActivInspire flipcharts provide students with the content in an interactive way. It helps for the teacher to not have to only rely on expository teaching for providing a lot of content information. Deaf students receive very little from straight lecturing; they need a way to interact with the content and be hands-on. With the IWB, they can be interactive because it is very student led. It is also very visual, which any visual aid is extremely helpful when presenting new information to deaf children.

The directions provided in the packets were very helpful when creating my own flipchart. When I was using an interactive tool that was provided in the packet, the directions were very clear and step-by-step. I think there are many more ways to include interactivity with the flipcharts that were not discussed in the packet or class. I think it would be very beneficial to provide additional ideas and examples for interactive tools for those who would like to experiment more with the ActivInspire technology.

Here is a screen shot of my flipchart on the water cycle.