Why Multimedia??

Why should you use multimedia with kids? Why should kids produce with multimedia? Because that is their medium of choice! That's the way they are wired. You know kids today are different than the kids we were teaching even 5 years ago! Have you read Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants by Marc Prensky? Are you a native - or an immigrant like I am? How does the way we were taught affect the way we now teach?



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Why multimedia? Watch and listen to Dr. Tim Tyson's keynote to the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) on iTunes.



Find a podcast or a video or a vodcast that you can use with a lesson that you are teaching in the next week. iTunes and DEstreaming are great places to start. Or perhaps a podcast or video for your students to listen to can be a resource for your next short, 6-slide lesson.

New and improved Technology Standards!

This summer, the new National Educational Technology Standards for Students were approved. They align with 21st Century skills and are no longer about learning technology, but about preparing students to use tools they will need to succeed in college and the work place.
In the October 2007 issue of eSchool News, an article entitled "NCLB renewal under way" says, "Educational technology advocacy groups are applauding the release of a House proposal to renew the federal No Child Left Behind Act that would direct funds toward training teachers in the use of technology and would help schools with low-income students buy computers and software. Also included in the proposal are measures that would emphasize college and workforce preparedness, 21st-century skills, and the use of data to inform instruction."
Stay tuned and learn to love your laptop!!

Slam Dunk Lessons

Jamie McKenzie created the concept of "slam dunk lessons". In his article entitled 5 Kinds of Slam Dunk Lessons he says, "Slam dunk digital lessons are designed to deliver learning with simplicity, efficiency and ease. They are meant to enhance existing unit plans by adding new information resources where they will do the most good. They are not a case of technology for technology's sake."

He suggests using a 6 slide powerpoint template to create the lessons (however, Word will work just as well, or even a blog.) Each slide/page contains an element of the lesson: essential question, good sources of information, a clear task, assessment to match the task, enhancement activities, and teacher resources.

Multimedia

Did You Know?
Panasonic - A Challenge to Education

Multimedia simply means "able to communicate in more than one way". Some electronic ways to do this involve any or all of the following: audio, video, images, animation, text, etc.

AEA13 Examples of Student Projects created with Multimedia

Podcasting = iPod+broadcast - broadcasting over the Internet, can be saved to an MP3 player or your computer and listen when it is convenient for you.

Example Podcasts:
WillowWeb
Sidney's Podcasts
Education Podcasts from iTunes
download iTunes here

Other applications that are definitely "multimedia".
Google Earth and Sky - satellite images of the entire Earth and now the Sky!

Google Lit Trips - Literature "trips" using Google Earth for K-12.

3D files to download to support Earth/Sky

Resources for digital images:
schools.clipart.com

Resources for digital video:
TeacherTube
Discovery Education Streaming (formally Unitedstreaming)

YouTube