Podcasting



INSTRUCTIONAL TOPIC:** Technology and Social Studies
 * TITLE:** **Using the Arts and Technology at Rockledge with Grade 5


 * SUMMARY

Technolgy Standards Addressed** Maryland Technology Literacy Standards for Students Grade 5 Standard 4.0 Technology and Communication and Expression A. Communication 1) Select and use technology for communication a) Use communication tools to gather information, share ideas, and respond to questions b) Present information independently to various audiences B. Expression 1) Select and use technology to express ideas a) Select and use the appropriate multimedia and publishing tools to express original ideas with print, drawings, digital images, video, sounds, and/or personal recording b) Present ideas and information in formats such as electronic presentations, web pages, graphic organizers, or speadsheets that are appropriate to a specific audience

Fifth grade students will be given the opportunity to use digital photography and Power Point to tell a story about an experience with a visiting resident artist. The students photographs the artist. A small group selects the images that they think best tells the story of the experience. A Power Point is created and students comment on the images using Voice Thread. To celebrate Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday, a small team of fifth grade students is selected to work in pairs to tell the story of Lincoln's early years. The students work in pairs. One reads/performs the text and the other uses a digital video camera to record the performance. The videos are editied by using Movie Maker. The teacher uses the movie to teach about Lincoln's early years. Students use Voice Thread to comment on what was learned.
 * Description:**

Teaching the fifth grade students to use the technology of the digital camera was not difficult. The students who used it were doing it with out much problem. A few images turned up shaky as we reviewed what was being selected, but the selection team of four did use one because it showed John (the artist's) action. The selection team went through about 75 images and selected 25 to tell the story of John FIshback's Native American Arts residency. This was the class produced project. I created the Power Point and printed out the slides with three images per page with lines for comments. I figured this was a way to manage the discussions on Voice Thread. I uploaded the Power Point to Voice Thread in 9 sections to make it go faster and guarentee that it all loaded. I showed the fifth grade class the Power Point, explained the Voice Thread concept by showing them the video on the site, and then distributed the Power Point packets. Each student wrote on three slides that they wanted to comment on. The results were four students out of 30 wrote nothing and were not included in the final recording. This was interesting, due to the fact that two of these people were on the selection committee. The other 26 students came into the library and commented quickly. I called them in by two's for easier management. Some slides have many comments and similar comments on them. I think that they found this fun. I will show them the final product during their library media time. One unfortunate part of this Voice Thread experience was that even though I had added all of the students and their avitars, I was unable to figure out how to make sure that each voice was uniquely shown. In other word, there is only one avitar and it is mine. One can see all of the comment sections and hear each voice as it comes on, but it isn't the links that you see on other voice thread projects. It wasn't until after ALL of the students had been pulled out of class and done their comments that I got a clue about how to switch the little avitar thing. When I add the names originally, I had even lined up the way that they read according to the comments written on their papers. So I called one student back in and he did a comment in text in his name and avitar. I will know better next time. My teaching Voice Thread was the Abe Lincoln project. I selected the text. Most of what the students read/performed are in his own words. I selected pairs of students from each of the three Fifth Grade classes. I taught them how to use the digital video camera. We experimented with what to do with the words, with props, and with the camera. I directed the performers. We decided that blowing up the words worked the best. I stood off to a side, under, or above the camera for the performer to see. Both partners contributed ideas as to how to use props and the camera. Some zoomed into the performer. One started at the shoes of a performer and came up. There were a few shaky operators, but all in all the experience was successful. My plan was to have the fourth graders comment using Voice Thread. I was unable to have them comment on the Voice Tread itself. I think it was because it was all one long audio file on the bottom. Even though many fourth graders had good comments about what they learned, the Voice Thread reality had to have something at the beginning and not throughout. So I wrote something for the students to say to introduce the piece and five students recorded the intro. Then, after I figured out how to add the symbol and type a comment, I add intrustructions to it. Too bad the instructions are under a a fifth grade student's name. Again, lesson learned.
 * Reflection:**

media type="custom" key="3901873" media type="custom" key="3901959"