Week four | Resizing and uploading digital photos
This weeks task was very difficult for me because I was using an old laptop which did not want to support the download of mobaphoto. After searching the web like crazy I ended up finding a site which was only a temporary download (a trial) in which you get the first month free. After the month if you were satisfied with the software you can buy it online. I found it to be a great site and was very easy to use which can be great for those people who are not very good with technology.
You can simply access this site by clicking here
What I found to be frustrating for me with this task was that I could not work out as to why my old laptop was not supporting the software of Mobaphoto. This issue needs to be addressed if using the site in a classroom because not every student is going to have new technology. It is in the best interest of the teacher to ensure that they are teaching on a site that can be downloaded on every brand and model of computer.
Below is a resized picture that I took two years ago as the sun was setting on an Island off Rome, Italy. It is a beautiful picture and is considered to be one of my favourites.
Rome, Italy December 2011.
picture Taken by: Jessica Andrews, 2011
Digital audio recordings | reflection
When I first read the task to download audacity I was very thrilled to have realised that audacity was already on my computer. I have been the proud user of this programme for several years and I have never experienced a problem with it yet. I often used this programme to record my assessment pieces in my drama lessons in my undergraduate degree in theatre. This site enables you to record your voice and then if you make a mistake you able to edit it very easily. Audacity never came with an instruction manual but I was able to figure out how to use it so simply. This is a great tool to use in the classroom, especially for english and drama lessons. I would use this tool in a drama or english lesson because it teaches students to record their own voice and then listen back to it to see how they sound. This is a great task for students learning how to;
- Read plays and then speak them through performance
-Articulate their speech -communication through audio (radio plays, audio storytelling)
As you can see on the top of my page on the right hand side is a voki that I have created. This is my first time creating a voki and I loved the experience. A Voki is a fun and exciting way to communicate with students on a webpage or a blog. It enabled me to record my own voice and then intergrate it into the charatcer that I was able to create. I recorded my voice by speaking into my laptop microphone but it also gave me the opportunity to use my mobile phone aswel.
Podcasting| Reflection
I would defiantly be considering podcasting as a way of engaging learners. There are so many ways students can use podcasting! these are just a couple of what I came up with.
- Audio storytelling
- engaging in History lessons (family timeline) sharing their stories
Video recordings| Reflection
videos are a great way to communicate. There are many reason's many people all over the world create video's and then upload them to a site, such as YouTube these reasons can include;-Entertainment
- Educational purposes
- personal purposes
Whatever the reason may be, we are all guilty of accessing this site and watching the vars variety of videos that can either entertain us or educate us.
Tonight I decided to put my movie making skills to the test and to create a video of pictures with music in the background. I was tossing up a few ideas as to what I can base my video about and I finally settled on a issue that we as future teachers, hope to never witness. It is the issue of Child abuse. I created this video by using movie maker which was already installed onto my Sony laptop. I decided to search the web for pictures and statistics of child abuse and I then incorporated them into the movie. I used a song in the background to help capture the attention of the viewers.
Creator: Andrews (2013)
references: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2003)
When i created this video I wanted it to fall into the category of 'education'. I wanted to educate my viewers on child abuse. I wanted my viewers to feel 'moved' by the pictures and by the music and finally, I wanted my viewers to walk away knowing that the message has been communicated effectively.
Video's are a great way in which students can communicate their learning. In my undergraduate degree, I was asked to film myself reading a monologue. My monologue had to demonstrate my learning by showing that I could communicate emotion by only using facial expressions. This assessment was then filmed, downloaded onto my computer and then made into a movie. This assessment was then shown to the rest of my peers for evaluation and marking. Showing your peers a video that was created by yourself is a great way to show off skills and also to entertain audience members. The task can be evaluated by your peers by commenting on what worked well and what didn't work so well in regards to the monologue.
Students who are assessed through oral presentation can use videos to present, reference and show evidence of their work. This is great for science students who have recorded their experiments and are now discussing their results and findings.
When I completed school, the use of videos were often hard to access. The school did not have the money to supply enough cameras for students and the movie making software on the school computers were often blocked or they required passwords and money to access.
These days, movie making software is automatically supplied onto laptops. Laptops are becoming more sufficient and reliable. Simple cameras are cheap to purchase and every computer has a webcam installed. This makes it more easier for students to access and to utilize videos as a way to present their learning.
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