Kicking it up a Notch

Kicking it up a notch is another video of the K12 Online Conference that is very interesting. Mathew Needleman introduces the concept of movie making. He gives out many tips that can be very helpful when creating a video. He gives step by step directions on how to use a story board and be successful with it. When he talks about improving your video, he uses examples such as improving lighting and sound, or perhaps choosing correct shots or angles to enhance the video, and make the viewer more interested. He has found that when he uses storyboards in school, some kids really like them and use them all the time, and some throw them away after awhile. One point that I really liked was the one he used stating that most children gain information from movies, tv, media, and iPods, instead of reading from text. Since they gain their knowledge from media, it makes sense to teach them skills about media messages and what is being thrown at them.
I thought Mathew's video is a great source for teachers to see how to increase the quality of work from their students in terms of video. The one statement that he said that stood out in my mind the most was that 90% of school time is spent reading out of textbooks, yet students gain most of their knowledge from media. This hit me hard because it makes so much sense, yet so few people seem to realize it.

Getting Started

The K12 Online Conference is an excellent event that occurs each year. Getting Started by Jackie Gherstein offers her opinion on emerging technology for engaging, thinking, learning, collaborating, creating, and innovating. She is a constructivist who tries to have her students learn by discovery. Using scavenger hunts and webquests is something that she finds intriguing, although she does not use them as much as she would like. Discovery learning is very important for because she feels that students need to learn on their own to grasp the full understanding of learning. She introduces teacher webpages to her students because she feels that they are a big part of technology use in schools today. Another thing she was adamant about was the need for safety on computers. With everything on the internet, students could easily wander to an inappropriate site. She explains excellent ways to prevent this and they have seemed to work with her class.
I really enjoy her descriptions of each way to use technology in the classroom. She definitely has a passion for technology and she shows it through her video. I was really impressed with her methods of indirect instruction and safety. She knows the importance of student learning and works with it well.