Week+4

= Week 4: Movie Maker and PocketCams =

Agenda:
1) Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Reading 2) What Did You Create Today? Article 3) Podcast Discussion 4) MovieMaker exploration 5) Key Terms Associated with MovieMaker

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants:
This is an article written by Marc Prensky which investigates the learning style of today's youth in comparison to the learning styles of previus generations. The main argument made by Prensky is that today's students do not learn in the same ways as learners did even a decade ago. Today's students are digital natives, which means that they have been brought up with technology as a main part of their lives. The learners from previous generations can be considered digital immigrants because they have been introduced to the concept of technology at a later stage in life. I find these terms appealing to my own understanding of the learner due to my background in cultural geography and migration patterns. The digital native has grown up multi taking, or using multiple applications at one time, while the immigrant works in a more procedural manner. This is another aspect that supports my understanding that I am a digital native. During my learning processes, I am constantly using multiple sources to gain information. These sources include the web, instant messaging, traditional texts, and applications such as Google Earth and geopsatial analysis tools. One final notion that Prensky explores is the concept of edutainment. This is the concept that activities can be both entertaining and educational. I believe that as teachers, we should strive to find these activities so that students can enjoy learning and develop a positive attitude to the concept of developing higher order thinking skills.

For a copy of this article, click the PDF link below



What Did You Create Today? Article
This was a blog site developed by Will Richardson, in the aforementioned blog entry he has composed a list of questions that he will ask his children when they come home from school. The questions that he develops are great as they cause the student to consider more than the simple, "how was your day today?" question. Through questions such as these, students can effectively assess their day and parents can gain an understanding as to he personality and teaching style of the teacher.

Podcast Discussion:
As a student I find podcasts very interesting. The main issue that I find so appealing is the mobility in which information can be attained. The student is no longer chained to the desk and they can gain the information on the go by downloading the podcast onto their iPod or mP3 player. As a teacher I believe that podcasts would be an effective way for student presentations but feel that their development may take a while. Therefore, I believe that students would need a number of opportunities to work with the program before being asked to submit an assignment that will be evaluated. Though it may take time for students to develop a high quality piece, I believe that they are a new way in which oral communication can be assessed. Also by having a digital presentation, teachers can asses the presentations a number of times and outside of the classroom. A database of podcasts can also be developed so that student work can be stored and refered to at multiple instances.

Our "Fire Safety" Video Using Windows Movie Maker and an RCA Small Wonder Video Recorder:
media type="file" key="Fire Safety_0001.wmv" width="300" height="300" align="center"

Key Terms associated with MovieMaker:
Codec: Needed for media players to view media files due to compression and decompression of media files Container: What Codecs actually sit in to run. ex: .wmv Format: WVI, MOV