Prezi-tation

I just watched Ridley Scott's Robin Hood--quite possibly the muddiest movie in the history of cinema. Thoroughly uninspiring, except for one thing: those creepy, deer-poaching Children of the Corn!

Poaching.

Yes, I poach blogs. Deer tend to be messy and smelly, but blogs are a clean kill. Looking around at some of my classmates' blogs, I found one post by David Root someone who shall remain nameless, which talks about using Prezi.

Prezi! I checked out their website, and I was instantly intrigued. It has the potential to create presentations that are infinitely more interesting than the majority of Powerpoints I have seen in my time.

These presentations seem so much more interactive and visually interesting than a series of slides. I could see them being used as end-of-unit projects or presentations, such as a visual timeline of major historical events of the unit.

I feel that presentations and projects can be effective means of assessing what a student has learned throughout the course of a unit. As such, I propose to explore how to have students utilize Prezi to create presentations that will demonstrate their knowledge.

The example on the Prezi site shows how an entire presentation can be zoomed out to reveal that it was all in the mind of a cartoon pig. Imagine that! What kinds of interesting reveals could be created in a project about, say. . . the Salem Witch Trials?

Podcasts!

For my multimedia project, I opted to record a couple of podcasts. To be completely honest, I had originally intended to record a podcast where historically significant figures were asked to sit down for a discussion. As I got working on the project, however, I decided to head the project in another direction. What I have recorded are two roughly sixty-second summaries of potential units. They are intended to give a very brief introduction and to get students thinking and relating to the subjects they are about to study. Each podcast ends with a few discussion questions which I would like the students to consider and be prepared to answer on the first day of the unit.

Here's the link to the new podcast blog:
http://shortyshorts.blogspot.com

The first podcast coincides with U.S. History I UEN standard 4, objective 2: Assess the reasons for settlement of the English colonies. This podcast would open the unit about English colonies. It briefly introduces a few of the groups that formed colonies, as well as their reasons for doing so. The end of the podcast lists the three main reasons for any sort of colonization: gold, god, and glory. The question is then asked, what would convince you to leave your home to colonize a new land? The intention is to cause students to evaluate and synthesize information about reasons for colonization, applying that thinking to their own lives. Hopefully, this will lead to a lively class discussion and increased participation by the students.

The second podcast correlates with standard 5, objective 1: Analyze what ideas and events led to the Revolutionary movement. This podcast has the same aims and goals as the first. Its focus is on the Enlightenment and its effect on the Revolutionary movement. John Locke is discussed--not the John Locke of LOST fame, but the John Locke who developed the revolutionary theory of government. When a government ceases to protect rights or loses the consent of the people, it then becomes the responsibility of that people overthrow that government. The question is then asked of students, is this right? Are there any problems with this theory?

I chose to change the format of my podcasts, because I believe this is something I could/probably will actually use in my classroom. I intend to improve on the formula, making them more funny, entertaining, and/or informative. Nevertheless, I hope that these two examples will give a general idea of what I intend.

For those of you who have actually read this far, I apologize for such dry, uninspired writing this time. My brain farted while recording those podcasts, and I'm still reeling from the smell.

World Domination

Does anybody else harbor secret, irrational fears that Google will take over the world? Do you have nightmares about waking up to find that our world leaders have surreptitiously been replaced by brightly-colored letters in Catull BQ font? At the next State of the Union, a giant, blue G will step up to the podium with his little g flunky strong-arming nosy reporters out of the way. We will all be required to spend the rest of our back-breaking days retrieving search engine queries and performing analytics on websites.

Well, if such a candy-colored dystopian vision of the future is to be true, I want to make sure I'm on the winning side. That being said, here is a great site that is full of tutorials on how to use Google tools in your classroom.

It teaches how to make self-grading quizzes. I think these could potentially be a great way to quickly quiz students. Of course, self-grading seems to imply that they will be nothing but multiple choice, so it wouldn't be the best choice in all situations. It would also require that every student have free access to a computer in order to complete the quiz.

Still, I believe Google has a number of helpful tools for the teacher. I recently watched one U.S. History teacher coach her class on how to collaborate on a paper, using Google Docs. Students were able to write, edit, and discuss the paper without having the hassle of coordinating rides and a meeting location.

Hail, Google! Those who are about to teach salute you.