My Digital Story

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Digital Movie Making in Engineering

My engineering students are responsible for a portfolio at the completion of each course. I am interested in supplementing their binders with some type of online portfolio. One way that I could use a digital movie is with our "Marble Sorter" project. My students build some pretty neat things with these really expensive lego-like parts. The problem is that at some point, their projects need to be dismantled and the parts stored away for later use. Currently, I have the students take digital photos of their projects and create Word documents that include a picture of their creation, a narrative description, and a print screen of the program that runs their creation. Having them create a movie would not only be fun, but it would also allow them to better document their progress. Right now, my students basically take a picture of the final product and describe what they did. With a digital movie, they could describe and show their progress and make a much more interesting presentation.

Digital Story Telling in Engineering

One of the hardest things to convince my students of in engineering is the importance of keeping a record of their work. They keep and engineering journal for major projects. In that journal, they record the progress of that day and what it is they hope to accomplish next. Students also keep a portfolio where they store pictures and summaries of the work that they do. One project involves a very expensive Lego-like kit. Since these kits belong to the school, it is necessary that the students dismantle their projects when they are done so that the next group can use them. After more than a month of working on these projects, it is somewhat of a sad day when they come down. I already have students take picures of their projects at various stages, upload them to the computer, and make it a part of their project summary. This is effective, but somewhat dry. It would be very interesting for the students to also make a digital story of their project. It would also be a great way to present and sell our program. I plan on trying it next year.

521 Reflection

The most important idea that I take from this class is how to use LoTi to challenge myself in making my projects better and more meaningful. When we first discussed LoTi, I dismissed it as educational drivel. "More theory," I thought--great! It wasn't until I was working on my unit plan that I found some value in it. My unit plan is something that I had done before. But when I took a look at it through a LoTi lens, a started asking myself some important questions: "Are students using this technology as a tool or a diversion? What can I do to move this project up the LoTi scale?" These were questions that helped make my unit plan better. And when I teach the unit later this year, it will make my teaching better as well.

This class was a little more challenging for me because of the start of track and field season, but I didn't thing that we were overworked. I enjoyed Ed's style, and his flexibility.

What's the next course called?

Tech Advantages in a Private School

There are some nice things about teaching in a private school, and then there are some less than nice things. One nice thing about teaching at Thomas More is the relative level of academic freedom that teachers have. What I mean is that if a teacher wants to try something, they try it. Of course this can be a dangerous thing. Teachers need to be held accountable for what they do in the classroom. But for the most part, our administration and executive board trust the teachers in their endeavors. That is one reason why our engineering and laptop programs were able to get off the ground so quickly and successfully. We don't have taxpayers to be accountable to, but we do have tuition-paying parents.

I hear the frustration that many teachers have with trying to get ideas approved, and I am thankful that we have less of that. If Wayne wanted to do Ning at TM, he could do Ning. If someone has a great idea, and we can afford it, we buy it. Flip-side: Unfortunately, we don't quite have the resources for a lot of the things that we would like to do. A silver lining, however: no technology goes wasted.

Perhaps privately funded charter schools lie somewhere in the middle? Just a thought.

Unit Plan and LoTi

For the first time in this course, I really felt a usefulness for the LoTi level system. As I was putting together my unit plan, I found myself referring back to the LoTi website often, and checking to see what level my plan would currently be at. When I finished my solid LoTi level 3.5 unit plan, I found myself going back to the website and trying to figure out how I could make it even higher. That was the first time that I truly felt a sense of use for the sysyem. Now I can see the value of it as a measuring tool, not just a theory. I understand now, how I can use it to challenge myself when trying to incorportate useful technology practices into the classroom.

Brett Favre, Work Samples, and LoTi

So Brett Favre retires. I'm bummed out--not because I don't think that he should. It's just kind of a bummer. Then I find out that I have no clue when it comes to my Work Sample. It's a good thing that I have LoTi to cheer me up. Actually, I don't really want to talk about LoTi except that I really appreciate the classtime that we had with our group members. That was probably the most productive we've been all program (sorry Matt). So what should I talk about? How about my love for these multimedia projects? I actually mean that sincerely. My engineering curriculum is loaded with these concepts, and it's a blast to teach. I just wish that I had the time to apply some of the same concepts to my math curriculum, but, as I stated in my text reflection, that is awfully difficult. As we progress in this class, I hope that some ideas can come to me as to how to integrate some neat projects into a traditional math curriculm.