February+11

Sharing**
 * __// CLASS CANCELED DUE TO WEATHER //__
 * Life Support: Young People's Needs in a Digital Age (Randy)
 * [|50 Reasons Not To Change] (Randy)
 * Google Stories (Randy)
 * Teaching with the Interactive Whiteboard (Randy)


 * Review Last Week's Assignment**
 * Voice Thread Assignment


 * Sharing Your Web 2.0 Tools**

//Shawn -// [|Tikatok] Storybook creator This site lets students create story books and illustrate them online. You can create one from scratch or you can use a Storyspark which is like a story starter. These can be sorted by topic, which make the stories more personalized to each students interests. A cool component of this site is that it gives "hints" along the way while a child is writing to keep the story focused and organized . //Jamie// - Glogster Multimedia, interactive poster Imagine making a poster board as your visual aid, but instead of talking with this in the background, the poster board does the talking for you. I think the Dominoe example shows off what this tool can do quite well and I'm super excited to talk about it.

//Bridget -// ToonDoos Dominoe example I wasn't sure how to post an actual example here, but I thought this website was really neat! In the past, I've done projects where students have to modernize what we're reading but maintain the same theme-- I've done it with Macbeth, Beowulf, and some short stories. From what I can see, there's no sound involved... but it does take some creative effort in designing the setting and the characters' appearances. Normally, students just make videos or act out the skits in class, but this could be another alternative. Alone, I don't think it meets the standards of "digital storytelling" that we've seen so far, but it could work as //part// of a digital story (if there is a way to put it into another form of media?).

Short version of what I would like to do as large culminating digital story... [|Animoto] Heather A

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Practice Story on Perfect Peach (Christina)

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a a a a Bridget C. ToonDoos and Dipity I really liked the ToonDoo website for my 8th graders exploration of the Holocaust. Although I am not a fan of comic books myself, I have recently been "sold" on the concept of using graphic novels as part of my curriculum. Maus I and Maus II had my students completely enthralled. As part of their final project, they could use ToonDoo to create a comic to demonstrate their response to whether or not a Holocaust cold happen again. I also like Dipity (similar to OurStory and the other timeline software highlighted on the Web 2.0 tools page). I learned about it from Jann Leppien, creator of the Parallel Curriculum who works in close partnership with Carol Tomlinson, guru of DI. She highly recommended Dipity as a tool for instruction with gifted kids in the regular classroom as part of differentiation because of the connections they would need to make with story and visual imagery.

//Shawn-// **
 * 2nd Project Story Ideas**

//Bridget - This is a case study we usually read in class to introduce students to Macbeth's dangerous ambition as a result of a prophecy from three witches. Instead of simply reading it, though, watching the story unfold digitally would be much more effective in capturing students' attention.

__Beginning__: //Three girls training for ice skating (or some other sport) championship; hard work, long hours, etc. __Problem__: Psychic predicts that one girl will win, and her ambition immediately becomes intense-- wonders if it will come true; friends outperform her in practice...begins to doubt if it will come true-- decides she must //make// it come true __Solution__: The morning of the competition, turns off other girls' alarm clocks and turns phones to silent-- sabotages friends' chances of winning; they don't wake up in time __End__: Girl wins championship because her main competition doesn't show up __Transformation__: Changes for the worse-- from hard working, dedicated, nice girl to power-hungry, dangerously ambitious cheater

This case study naturally leads into a discussion about ambition, appearance v. reality, competition, fate-- key issues in Macbeth! **


 * //Jamie//



Christina: We're about to start a chapter on mixtures and solutions in science and I thought using a digital story to introduce the chapter would be a great idea. I'm going to tell the story of how a mixture and solution are created and then compare/contrast their characteristics.

Characters: peanut, raisin, M&M, almond, cranberry, water, kool-aid Problem: no one wants to eat any of the snacks by themselves and they're getting stale! Solution: the snacks decide to combine themselves into a mixture of a delicious trail mix that everyone loves! They realize that they can create a mixture by combining different types of matter, but that if they get tired of being together, they can easily separate and go their own way.

Then I'm going to show the water and kool-aid combining to form a solution to go along with the trail mix as a healthy after school snack, but I haven't completely thought that out yet.

Bridget C. I'm going to create a digital story about the real myth of Perseus with elements (speech bubbles? new narrator?) that reference the modern day Percy Jackson, both the novel series and the recent movie. Students will ultimately be making a three-way comparison between the real myth, the novel, and the movie. They will be expected to review interview scripts and footage from the author (Rick Riordan) and director (Chris Columbus) as well as garner student input on what is known about the real Perseus.


 * Storyboarding**


 * Work time**


 * Assignments for Thursday, February 18**
 * Finish up your first digital story and post to this wiki page.
 * Using your chosen Web 2.0 tool and the story core you shared above, create your second digital story and post/link/embed the story on this wiki page.
 * Develop a blog post where you reflect on your second digital storytelling experience. This can be done before or after you have shared it with your class.
 * Read chapters 7 & 8 AND chapter 9 & 10 in the //Rethinking Education...// text. After reading the two chapters, visit the Discussion Forum. Pull from the chapter a passage, paragraph, sentence, etc. that provoked your thinking. Write a short reflection on how it engaged your thinking in general or, more specifically, connects to digital storytelling. Please post your contribution no later than Tuesday evening. Between Tuesday and class, revisit the forum and engage in a conversation with your classmates on the topics for the week.
 * If you have access to a video camera, please bring it to class on Thursday, February 18. Also bring the cable that will allow you to connect it to the computer.

** Next Meeting: Thursday, February 18 - 4:00-7:00 PM New Topic: Catch up on digital stories #1 and #2; video in digital storytelling**