Thursday, March 26, 2009

I'd Like to Thank the Academy...

More than anything, this year has been about trying out new technologies to use in my teaching. So, it only made sense that when it came time to report on what I've learned, I did so by learning something new -- iMovie, Flip cameras, and digital recorders.



The goal was to make a fifteen minute documentary-style film to demonstrate all that we (I and two other colleagues) have learned this year and how it has impacted our professional lives. I wanted the works -- moving images, stills, interviews, voiceovers, music -- basically everything you'd expect to see in a documentary. Mostly, though, I didn't want to stand up in front of my peers and talk a lot.

Ultimately, it turns out that everything about this project was really very simple and painless. As a group we worked well together, quickly separating the project into manageable parts that we could all work on individually and piece together later. We did all of our recording individually -- each of us armed with a Flip camera and a digital recorder, both of which turned out to be more than easy to use. Turn them on, press a button to record, and press a button to stop. In fact, with a little practice, I was able to record on each one-handed without even looking at the device. (Very important if you've looked at the video already.) Both the camera and the digital recorder can plug directly into the USB port, so downloading was equally simple.



Using iMovie was a little more complicated (especially since I haven't been on a Mac in a decade), but it was important to use since Windows Movie Maker doesn't allow for layering sound. We wanted to include voiceovers on top of the recorded audio from the camera, as well as a background music track. In total, I think it took about eight hours to edit our 15 minute video, but that also allowed for our learning curve. At my best, I could complete a two minute segment in about 15-20 minutes. What was especially great about iMovie was how easy it was to drag in the video, audio, and music clips. Everything we filmed imported directly to the project, and everything we recorded was held in an iTunes folder. There were also many, many music jingles which we were able to drag into the movie without worry about breaking any copyright laws.

In the end I felt really satisfied with the movie. It accomplished all of the goals we set at the beginning - especially the one about not wanting to speak at our presentation. I especially loved how when we started the movie, everyone looked up from their laptops and stopped typing. It held everyone's attention (at least for a little while), and on a day of "Look at me! Look what I did!", I guess that's the best you can hope for.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Game On, Kiddos!

Since introducing my two pre-elementary school children to college basketball this year, it seems to be all they ever talk about lately. My five-year-old is very interested in who each team is, where they are from, and which team I'd like to win. His first question most mornings is, "Who won the game?" Lately, his newest question is, "Who does Barack Obama like?"

My two-year-old is all about Tigers and Wildcats. She likes to growl a lot.

So now that I've set them up with a desktop computer, and because ESPN makes it so easy and cool, I thought it would be fun for the three of us to sit down and fill out our brackets together online - also, I thought it would be a nice way to introduce them to an online activity other than something on PBS and Nick Jr. There was no expectation that they'd have any idea what they were doing, but once we were finished, I realized that their two brackets had as much of a chance as mine did. Suddenly, bragging rights in the Olivo household were up for grabs. Game on, Kiddos!

Yes, I realize that I'm more than five times their combined ages...

Selecting winners of each game went something like this: After some initial picking (I had to choose some obvious ones for him. Was I really going to let him choose Binghamton over Duke, even though green Bearcats are much more interesting than Blue Devils?), we started going through the team names and locations. I'd ask if they wanted the team from Texas or the team from Minnesota, and they'd choose. Then I'd ask bulldogs or tigers, and they'd choose. Sometimes I provided the choice by school colors and uniforms.

In the end my two-year-old daughter picked North Carolina, my son picked Connecticut, and I ended up with Louisville. Oh it's on like Donkey Kong!

Now aside from the obvious spirit of competition in our household, I found that this turned out to be a great activity for the three of us. First, we were able to talk about the different teams and where they are located - It turns out my son loves geography and we had a map up on a different browser tab so that I could show him the difference between the UConn Huskies and the Washington Huskies (we all chose UConn). We were able to look at the flow of the brackets and see how 64 teams could be narrowed down to one by removing half of them each round.

Most importantly (and especially thanks to Barack Obama) we were able to see how the web can be used to bring people together around one activity where everyone can participate. Looking at other people's brackets has really opened up my son's eyes that the web is much more than a bunch of Curious George games and Wordgirl video clips. It is a way for people to connect to the rest of the world. Now that the games have begun, we can start checking in on other people and see how our selections stack up, and suddenly, this activity becomes much greater than the sum of our own little household.

First Day of the Rest of Forever

This is my first post on my new site. Thanks, Blogger! I'm fairly excited to begin, and after six months of posting on the November Learning site, it's nice to be off on my own. My own little island as it were -- complete with my own name in my domain. I guess I am master of my domain.

Anyway, over the next few months, I'll be reposting a lot of what I've written previously, mostly because it's so hard to let go. I certainly can't imagine that anyone is depending on my archived posts to get them through the work week. But, you never know.

The link above will take you to my old site. You can also find it on the toolbar on the right in the Blog Roll.