Throughout our Learning with Digital Stories course this summer I continued to be amazed by how much I learned from my peers. I believe I learned the most from their stories and our discussions via Hypothes.is. I was impressed by the quality of their work and the resources they shared on their blogs, whether it be … Continue reading "Final Course Reflection"

It is wild to think this is the end of week 7! This course has gone by scary fast which means the summer is going by scary fast (especially for a teacher). However, it is exciting to know I’m at the finish line and about to complete my Master’s Degree! Crazy! As for my work … Continue reading "Week 7 Reflections!"

TDC1655 Contrasting emotions asked for the created to look for an image that shows a clear emotion and then overlay text of the opposite emotion on that image. Here is my creation:

This week I came across an article titled 10 Best TED Talks of 2014 for Educators. The article itself was from Edudemic.com-a website that I had never heard of before that claims to connect technology and education-a good fit for this course.  I ended up choosing the first video on the list: Clint Smith’s The Danger of … Continue reading "Week 7: Digital Story Critique"

  This week I chose I design assignment from the DS106 Assignment Bank.  I landed on Design Assignment 1974: Favorite Movie Quote.  This assignment asked the creator to choose a favorite movie quote and insert the quote over an image from the movie. I chose Dead Poets Society for a few reasons: It is an amazing movie. … Continue reading "Dead Poets Society"

This week we were given a choice between McIntosh (1989) and Nilsson (2010) for our required reading. I chose to read and annotate Nilsson (2010): Developing Voice in Digital Storytelling through Creativity, Narrative and Multimodality because I am very familiar with the McIntosh (1989) reading from other coursework. Nilsson (2010) features Simon, a nine year … Continue reading "Week 7 Reading Response:"

I chose to do TDC1649-Continuous Line Art-here is what I came up with, which demonstrates why I don’t teach art…  

  How well do you feel you completed the requirements of the week’s assignments (inclusive of at least two TDCs, your DS106 Activity Bank Assignment, response to course readings (grad students only), critique of digital story, various responses to CU Denver peers, and engagement with other online social networks)? I’m happy with the work that … Continue reading "Week 6: Weekly Reflection"

The Daily Create: You and your shadow

For this week’s DS106 Assignment Bank I chose a visual assignment I could see myself using in the classroom. The visual assignment Word Cloud called for the creator to use Wordle.net or a similar site to create a word cloud. I could see myself using this site in a number of ways in my classroom. For … Continue reading "Wordle in the Classroom"

These week I chose to explore TeachingChannel.org  for a video to critique. I specifically searched for videos that discuss deeper learning and collaboration because of this week’s Lankshear and Knobel reading. I landed on a video titled Deepening Text Analysis Through Student Talk. (For some reason the Embed Code wasn’t working) Based on Lankshear and Knobel’s appendix in … Continue reading "Week 6: Digital Story Critique"

This week’s required reading was Lankshear and Knobel (2011) Ch7: Social Learning, “Push” and “Pull,” and Building Platforms for Collaborative Learning.   For some reason I found myself going back to the article throughout the week, and adding on Hypothes.is once more annotations were added. I think part of it is there are so many different beliefs … Continue reading "Week 6 Reading Response: Push and Pull"

Definitely didn’t know what C64 was until today…

  It is crazy to look back and think about week one in this course-things have really changed. I feel like I have hit a rhythm with my assignments, but not in a way I just do them without thinking-like in other courses. Instead, I understand the flow of the course, but the content is … Continue reading "Week 5: Reflection"

I have to admit this week I have struggled-the news is breaking my heart. It’s made me think a lot about my students and how difficult these terrible events are for me to process, never mind a child. My search for this week’s story critique along with the range of emotions I am experiencing led me to Teaching … Continue reading "Week 5: Story Critique"

This weeks required reading Jenkins (2008) Afterword: Communities of Readers, Clusters of Practices discusses the importance of seeing technology and new literacies not just as forms of entertainment or distraction but as tools to be used in the classroom to make lessons more meaningful. It goes on to explain that these tools can be used to … Continue reading "Week 5 Reading Response: DigStory Definitions"

This week, when looking over DS106’s Mashup Assignments I tried searching for something that I could relate to education. I once again landed on something I feel like I could remix in order to use it with my own students, and I used a terrible “teaching” related movie in the meantime. I can’t totally explain why, … Continue reading "Schwarzenegger Mashup"

Here is my take on today’s Daily Create titled Oh…Yeah…. It asked the creator to record our best and most dramatic Oh Yeah, and share. This was my first time doing editing via Audacity, and I have to admit it was pretty fun! Also, as an aside I forgot to blog my Daily Create from last week titled … Continue reading "Oh…Yeah…"

Halfway point! I can’t believe week 4 is over, and I’m that much closer to completing my masters! This week I completed all of our week’s assignments on time, and to the best of my abilities. The one assignment I felt a bit unsure about this week was the Digital Story Critique only because of … Continue reading "Week 4: Reflection"

This week I struggled to find a story to critique that I really connected with and enjoyed. I feel like I’m spending a lot of time searching for videos and watching ones that don’t really work the way I need them to. However, the one I settled on this week I’m really happy with. The … Continue reading "Week 4: Story Critique"

For this week’s DS106 Design Assignment I chose What Are You Missing Nearby. I picked this particular assignment because it felt like something I could realistically use in an elementary school classroom. To complete the assignment I had to find at lest four places to visit nearby. I’m currently living in Boston, and I love teaching history/social … Continue reading "History All Around"

This week’s reading by Davies and Merchant (2007) was titled Ch8: Looking From the Inside Out: Academic Blogging as a New Literacy.  The researchers study their own experiences with blogging, which at first didn’t sound much like research to me, but it really worked for them. As they explain it is a type of “insider research” (Lakshear … Continue reading "Week 4 Reading Response: Blog, Blog, Blog"

Today’s Daily Create was titled Print Out a YouTube Video. Using the supplied bookmarklet I was quickly able to print the Tour the States YouTube video my students love to watch during snack time. Not totally sure when I would use this feature, but it produces some really cool images!

I can’t believe we’re almost at the halfway point! I feel as though I completed all of the week’s requirements, and all in the required time. The one place I feel like I could have improved was my Activity Bank Assignment. As I said in my video post I really struggled to create an assignment … Continue reading "Week 3: Reflections"

Instead of struggling with technology this week I struggled with content. So far I have really tried to have most of my content relate back to my theme of education and diverse learners as best I can. So earlier this week, when I started exploring the DS106 Assignment Bank for a video creation I was … Continue reading "Education.Word.Picture.Story."

I LOVE a good sunset, so I couldn’t pass up a chance to post a sunset picture for today’s Daily Create.  Here is a sunset in Croatia-one of the best countries I’ve ever visited!

This week I chose to examine a TED talk by Carol Dweck on growth mindset titled, The Power of Believing That You Can Improve. I am familiar with Carol Dweck’s work examining the importance of a growth mindset, but I had never seen her present before, so I was curious to see her on the TED … Continue reading "Week 3: Story Critique"

Today I created a video using Movie Maker for the Daily Create “These Feet Were Made For Walking.” I used free music from Movie Maker, and sped up the visuals to make it a bit more exciting. The one thing I’ll keep in mind for the future is how I’m holding my iPhone so I get … Continue reading "Busy Morning Feet"

This week we were asked to read Lankshear and Knobel (2008) Ch1: DIY Media: A Contextual Background and Some Contemporary Themes. In this chapter Lankshear and Knobel explain understanding student’s media practices can help educators create learning opportunities that students connect to, and find meaningful. Much of what was discussed in this chapter brought me back … Continue reading "Week 3 Reading Response: DIY Media & Project Based Learning"

What a difference a week makes! This week certainly felt much better than week one. I feel like I once again completed all of the requirements for the weekly assignments, but through a new lense-a new understanding of what I was doing, and why I was doing it. I also think I was able to … Continue reading "Week 2: Reflections"