Summary of Group Plan for Comic Life

The title of our workshop is Comic Life: Learning Can Be Fun! The goals of the workshop are to encourage technological skills, implement learning applications in which students utilize Comic Life to support comprehension and skills development in all subject areas, and for teachers to utilize it as an instructional tool. The presenters' objective is to demonstrate its basic applications, in addition to some examples that depict how easily Comic Life can be integrated into the curriculum.
Comic Life is easily implemented with few prerequisites. Teachers must have basic computer skills, a computer and access to Comic Life software. In addition, the presenters will use a projector to present a PowerPoint that provides directions and samples of the different Comic Life projects. The teachers will be provided with hard copies of the directions and computer access to create their own Comic Life strips.
For project members, this workshop has developed valuable skills and ideas for the teachers to implement within their own classrooms.

ComicLife Example "Trail of Tears"-Eighth Grade Social Studies

The purpose of the ComicLife example is to encourage students' curiosity about the "Trail of Tears" using a medium the students associate with entertainment.

The URL is http://trailoftearscomiclife.wikispaces.com/

Comic Life Article

I found this article about Comic Life to be very interesting. Not only did it explain how the software works, it also provided examples of many different ways it has been used in classrooms across the curriculum. For example, one history teacher used Comic Life to depict the rise and fall of Mussolini. The author explains that Comic Life helps motivate students. It is very visual and allows students to be creative in their learning. I was not aware until I read this article that you could use filters to make the images look like you have drawn them. I also didn't realize you could transform your pictures to black and white, make them grainy for effect, or overlay them with colors. Sounds like fun things to try! The author concludes the article by writing that only Mac users can benefit from Comic Life software. While that may have been true when this article was published, it is not true today. Comic Life is available for Windows users. Thank goodness or I would not have been able to explore this neat software!

Kenny, J. (2006, June 2). Stories for the visual generation. The Times Educational Supplement , p. T29.

My Comic Life Experience

For this project, I asked each of my kindergarten students to bring in three to five pictures that they could sequence to tell me a story. Once students sequenced their pictures, I typed their dictations to tell their stories. When the story was finished, I asked if they wanted to add speech or thought bubbles. Then I asked students to give titles for their stories. Here is one example...

I loved doing this with my students! They thought it was cool because they were in their own stories. It was easy to do, too. I wish that my students could create their own Comic Life pages. However, as kindergarteners, my students are not ready to tackle Comic Life on their own. They need assistance putting their words into print. However, I think Comic Life is a great storytelling tool that could be used by students, teachers, and even parents. I also learned by viewing the samples created by my team members that Comic Life can be used in other ways across the curriculum as well.

Emerging Technology That Supports Communication and Collaboration

According to Egbert, technology is a wonderful tool to use for building communication skills. I agree! However, as a kindergarten teacher, I feel somewhat limited. Most of my students are unable to write or type what they want to say. Therefore, I would be the one actually using the technology to record their dictations. I feel that my more advanced students could handle typing sentences/stories, doing email through kidmail.net, or talking to pen pals through http://www.epals.com/, but most of my students would not be able to do it on their own. I still see the value of such technology use, but I feel younger students would not benefit as much as older ones.

Egbert, J. (2009). Supporting learning with technology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Summary of Group VoiceThread Workshop Plan

The group plan is entitled "Using VoiceThread: Let Your Students Be Heard!". Our goals are to increase technology integration and student engagement. Our objective is to show how to set up VoiceThread and examples for K-12. Our plan is to introduce teachers to VoiceThread to help increase student engagement.

Teachers can use VoiceThread with no prerequisites. They will need computers and microphones along with images that can be scanned or downloaded. Examples will be shown during the workshop. Links to these examples are in another blog portal entry. Please view these for examples of science, math, and language arts examples. A survey URL is included that the teachers will respond to. Please let us know if you have any questions or thoughts about our plan.

As the group leader, I would like to say how much I have benefitted from the group plan and will be sharing with my fellow teachers what I have learned.

Article About Integrating Technology

King-Sears, M.E., & Evmenova, A.S. (2007). Premises, principles, and processes for integrating TECHnology into instruction. Teaching Exceptional Children, 40(1), 6-14. Retrieved August 20, 2009, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1346029571).

In this article, the authors provide information about why and how technology should be integrated into instruction. Teachers should integrate technology in instruction because it can help prepare students for careers in a technological world, especially students with disabilities. By utilizing technology, teachers can help meet the diverse needs of their students with and without disabilities. The integration of technology also enhances the learning process when teachers and students access technology daily in meaningful tasks rather than by teaching technology as a separate skill. In order to utilize technology effectively, teachers must keep abreast of the newest technology available. It changes so quickly!The authors provide four principles teachers should follow to effectively integrate technology. They should choose technology that aligns with the curriculum to ensure that it promotes students’ learning and is not just busy work. Teachers should match students’ instructional needs with the technology. They should make sure the content is neither too difficult nor too easy for the students. Teachers should choose technology that helps students with special needs blend in with their peers whenever possible. For example, teachers may select headphones that are similar to those on an IPod rather than bulky ones. One final recommendation was that teachers should choose the most cost effective alternative when selecting technology. They should ask if the technology is really necessary and if there are other ways to get the job done.The authors concede that making decisions as to which technology to use can be overwhelming. They offer the acronym TECH to help teachers through the process of making choices where technology is concerned. Teachers should first target students’ needs and their learning outcomes. They should then examine the technology choices available and decide what to use. Next, teachers should create opportunities to integrate the technology with other instructional activities. Finally, teachers should handle the implementation of the technology and monitor its impact on students’ learning.

Tech Savvy Teachers' VoiceThread Samples

Interested in using VoiceThread but not sure what you could do with it? Check out these great examples to see how VoiceThread can be used in all grades and across all areas of the curriculum. The possibilities are endless!
Sheila's Sample for kindergarten Language Arts: The Three Bears
Betty's Sample for 5th grade Science:Destructive Forces
Lindsey's Sample for 5th grade Math: The Number Game
Brian's Sample for Science: The Solar System
Charlotte's Sample for 9th grade English: Collaborative Peer Editing

VoiceThread projects

Our group has been diligently working on their projects. We have a kindergarten VoiceThread which utilizes the "retelling of a story". Then we have two fifth grade VoiceThreads. One is in math where students gives steps in a process. The other is in science and it activates prior knowledge. Two upper grades projects are completed. One is in English where students use collaborative peer editing and the other is used as an informal assessment tool that checks what concepts the students learned during a week's discussion.

The Three Bears VoiceThread

I teach kindergarten. I used this VoiceThread as documentation of student progress toward meeting the GKIDS language arts standard of retelling a familiar story with a beginning, middle, and end. Students told the story The Three Bears in their own words.

The Three Bears

VoiceThread Reflection

I found using VoiceThread to be very simple. The site (www.voicethread.com) walked me through the process of creating the presentation. It is easy to do, even for a beginner like myself. VoiceThread can be used by teachers and students in all grades and in all areas of the curriculum. The possibilities are endless! The next time I create a VoiceThread presentation I will use an external microphone. My sound quality was not what I wanted it to be. I had a lot of background noise that I believe could have been avoided had I used a different microphone.

VoiceThread Article

Bomar, S. (2009, March). A PRE-READING VOICETHREAD: Death Comes for the Archbishop. Knowledge Quest, 37(4), 26-27. Retrieved September 12, 2009, from Professional Development Collection database.

This article describes a pre-reading strategy developed by a highschool honors English teacher and the school library media specialist (SLMS). In an effort to boost student interest in the novel Death Comes for the Archbishop, the teacher and the SLMS had their students research various topics related to the novel and present their findings in VoiceThread presentations. The students formed two- or three- person groups and chose topics which had been specifically selected by the teacher and SLMS. The topics ranged from the book's author to the historical setting of New Mexico. It was hoped that the students' research would make reading the novel more interesting and that the students would enjoy learning a new way to show their information (VoiceThread).
Although I would not be able to do this same project with my kindergarten students, I found this article very interesting. I liked that the teacher collaborated with the SLMS and dared to use new technology with her students. By having students research related topics prior to reading the novel, the teacher linked prior knowledge and provided schema for the students to build upon while they read the book. The teacher mentioned that the students struggled to use the Web 2.0 tools for academic use even though they were quite comfortable using them for recreational use. It was a learning experience in that aspect as well.

Emerging Technology That Supports Content Learning

I enjoyed reading chapter two in Supporting Learning with Technology by Joy Egbert. She made me think of something I had not considered before. In one section, she discusses how the physical layout of classroom computers can influence whether students use them effectively or not. She recommends dispersing computers around the room in different learning areas so that students use them in various content areas. She also recommends that they be situated in a way that allows students to easily collaborate with the teacher and with each other. She does not advocate lining computers in rows and/or separating them with dividers. Who knew we were doing it all wrong at my school? I can't wait to share this information with my principal, tech lab teacher, and other colleagues.

Egbert, J. (2009). Supporting learning with technology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Voicethread

Tech Savvy Teachers are developing our voicethread projects. We have a science VT that assesses prior knowledge, a reading VT that requires student to tell a story in their own words, and a math VT on fifth grade level. We are beginning our thoughts on the workshop plan and the team members are working well together. I appreciate all the comments and thoughts given in the googledocs page.