Throughout my entire grade school, I have written numerous stories, acted in a couple of plays, and even took part in a puppet show, but this was my first time having to create a digital story. “Digital story?” I asked myself, “Where do I begin and what will I use?”
Almost overwhelmed by this daunting new task, Dr. Cyrus showed us a sample digital story from last semester. I saw that at the beginning, a small dilemma was introduced in order for the lesson to connect with the story. I also saw that the lesson must be short and simple enough so that everything can be understood within three minutes. Gaining some insight from this example, I was able to have more direction for where I want my story to go.
Since I am a math major, I knew I had to teach something about math, but the subject is quite broad, so I did not really know what to teach just yet. However, when we were given a brainstorm session in which we could discuss with our fellow classmates about our story ideas, I was finally able to decided what to base my story on. Since I like baking brownies and recently purchased a new and innovate baking pan, called the Perfect BrownieTM Pan, I thought why not incorporate baking brownies to teach simple fractions. With this idea in mind, I started the actual work.
At first, I just wanted to take the pictures right away, but I needed help from my sister because I needed her to take my pictures. Then she asked where my storyline sketch was, and I told her that I had it all in my mind. However, she said it would make my life much easier if I had a sketch of my story, even on paper. Hesitantly and hurriedly, I created a storyboard on paper (and what a great decision that was). Then, I ended up having to create a storyboard with PowerPoint in class.
I stayed up until 3:00 a.m. just trying to get the right pictures because somehow the pictures kept on coming out blurry and waiting for my brownies to actually finish baking. I really thought that this was the hardest part of the process, but then I started editing.
I would say that editing was the most challenging part of the project for me because I have never used iMovie before. I had to quickly learn what iMovie could do and could not do. The editing process was very meticulous. I had to enhance every picture using iPhoto to lessen the blurriness and improve lighting, ensure the pictures flowed smoothly by setting where every picture would start and stop panning, and also ensure that the text does not play too fast. I even had to edit my background music so that the ending did not just stop abrubtly. I relied on my storyboard a lot during because I was not able to edit everything in one sitting, so I kept referring back to my storyboard to where my story was going. I am so glad I listened to my sister and Dr. Cyrus and created a storyboard; it gave me one less thing to have to remember.
iMovie, iPhoto, and YouTube can be used across the curriculum, but one tool I used in my digital story that I believe that would really be beneficial to math teachers is Microsoft’s Equation Editor. I used this tool to create all of the fractions and equations in the story. This tool has all of the logical symbols, Greek letters, and other mathematical symbols I have ever used in my entire mathematical career thus far.
Another important lesson I learned from creating this digital story is how can I make this topic of adding simple fractions understandable to others? To my future students? Since I’m so used to working with fractions, I had to make sure that I could still explain the basics of fractions to someone who may have never worked with fractions before. Creating this digital story helped me evaluate and word my lesson in a way that can easily be understood.
I believe having students create a digital story that teaches a topic we learned in the classroom is a great way to assess their understanding because if they explain a procedure wrong, then they might not have really understood the lesson. In another light, students can present the lesson in a different context or explain what helped the individual understand the particular topic can really help others in the class who may not have understood the lesson before.
In conclusion, I am really glad that I have been exposed to this kind of work because I was able to use different kinds of technological tools that I have never used before. I would definitely give this assignment when I become an educator in the future. I would definitely require my students to create a storyboard first because it was a great help to me while doing this project. Also since I was not able to include voice over in my project, I would require my students to include different elements, such as voice over, other animation besides picture-panning, and a small video embedded in their project in order to make it much better than mine and to expose them to even more tools.
YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9JDSV6BCbQ
Almost overwhelmed by this daunting new task, Dr. Cyrus showed us a sample digital story from last semester. I saw that at the beginning, a small dilemma was introduced in order for the lesson to connect with the story. I also saw that the lesson must be short and simple enough so that everything can be understood within three minutes. Gaining some insight from this example, I was able to have more direction for where I want my story to go.
Since I am a math major, I knew I had to teach something about math, but the subject is quite broad, so I did not really know what to teach just yet. However, when we were given a brainstorm session in which we could discuss with our fellow classmates about our story ideas, I was finally able to decided what to base my story on. Since I like baking brownies and recently purchased a new and innovate baking pan, called the Perfect BrownieTM Pan, I thought why not incorporate baking brownies to teach simple fractions. With this idea in mind, I started the actual work.
At first, I just wanted to take the pictures right away, but I needed help from my sister because I needed her to take my pictures. Then she asked where my storyline sketch was, and I told her that I had it all in my mind. However, she said it would make my life much easier if I had a sketch of my story, even on paper. Hesitantly and hurriedly, I created a storyboard on paper (and what a great decision that was). Then, I ended up having to create a storyboard with PowerPoint in class.
I stayed up until 3:00 a.m. just trying to get the right pictures because somehow the pictures kept on coming out blurry and waiting for my brownies to actually finish baking. I really thought that this was the hardest part of the process, but then I started editing.
I would say that editing was the most challenging part of the project for me because I have never used iMovie before. I had to quickly learn what iMovie could do and could not do. The editing process was very meticulous. I had to enhance every picture using iPhoto to lessen the blurriness and improve lighting, ensure the pictures flowed smoothly by setting where every picture would start and stop panning, and also ensure that the text does not play too fast. I even had to edit my background music so that the ending did not just stop abrubtly. I relied on my storyboard a lot during because I was not able to edit everything in one sitting, so I kept referring back to my storyboard to where my story was going. I am so glad I listened to my sister and Dr. Cyrus and created a storyboard; it gave me one less thing to have to remember.
iMovie, iPhoto, and YouTube can be used across the curriculum, but one tool I used in my digital story that I believe that would really be beneficial to math teachers is Microsoft’s Equation Editor. I used this tool to create all of the fractions and equations in the story. This tool has all of the logical symbols, Greek letters, and other mathematical symbols I have ever used in my entire mathematical career thus far.
Another important lesson I learned from creating this digital story is how can I make this topic of adding simple fractions understandable to others? To my future students? Since I’m so used to working with fractions, I had to make sure that I could still explain the basics of fractions to someone who may have never worked with fractions before. Creating this digital story helped me evaluate and word my lesson in a way that can easily be understood.
I believe having students create a digital story that teaches a topic we learned in the classroom is a great way to assess their understanding because if they explain a procedure wrong, then they might not have really understood the lesson. In another light, students can present the lesson in a different context or explain what helped the individual understand the particular topic can really help others in the class who may not have understood the lesson before.
In conclusion, I am really glad that I have been exposed to this kind of work because I was able to use different kinds of technological tools that I have never used before. I would definitely give this assignment when I become an educator in the future. I would definitely require my students to create a storyboard first because it was a great help to me while doing this project. Also since I was not able to include voice over in my project, I would require my students to include different elements, such as voice over, other animation besides picture-panning, and a small video embedded in their project in order to make it much better than mine and to expose them to even more tools.
YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9JDSV6BCbQ
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