Thursday, July 15, 2010
Photostory
Recently learned how to use PHOTOSTORY on-line to place photos in a certain order, type text on them, read aloud over the top of each photo, and add music. It is a VERY easy user-friendly and FREE program to download! Teachers could use it to teach content, librarians could use it for orientations or booktalks, and students could use it to do just about anything: show what they've learned, explain literary elements of a story they read, tell their own story, point out the most important information from a chapter and connect the content with visuals, etc. The educational possibilities are endless! And FREE! :)
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Electronic Readers
I just spent an hour playing with Amazon's Kindle and the Nook from Barnes n Noble. I will always love actual physical books and I do not believe they are going to leave us, BUT these book-reading gadgets are totally awesome and are revolutionizing reading, and after monkeying with them and seeing all they can do, I plan to get one, use it, and explore with students and teachers different ways we could use these educationally.
As an avid reader, an English teacher, and a Literacy Coach, I have always encouraged students to annotate on the texts they read with markings, notes, questions, etc., either by writing on the page itself or using post-it notes. Research clearly shows how much this aids in comprehension and allows the reader to more easily look back at specific areas. So, when I first heard of the Nook and Kindle, my immediate thought was that comprehension and turning back to significant sections was now going to decrease and thereby dumb down the reading and learning experience. HOWEVER, I am happy to report that these devices DO indeed allow you to high-light, make notes, place post-its on certain pages, etc. Not to mention that a difficult vocabulary word can be immediately defined! Holy educational tool Batman!
They are too spendy right now for a whole class to use, but I am thinking maybe I could purchase 10 of them, then a class could work in groups of 3 to read, annotate, and discuss text together. That's just one idea. I look forward to hearing from colleagues about other teaching and learning uses for these devices.
Very cool!
As an avid reader, an English teacher, and a Literacy Coach, I have always encouraged students to annotate on the texts they read with markings, notes, questions, etc., either by writing on the page itself or using post-it notes. Research clearly shows how much this aids in comprehension and allows the reader to more easily look back at specific areas. So, when I first heard of the Nook and Kindle, my immediate thought was that comprehension and turning back to significant sections was now going to decrease and thereby dumb down the reading and learning experience. HOWEVER, I am happy to report that these devices DO indeed allow you to high-light, make notes, place post-its on certain pages, etc. Not to mention that a difficult vocabulary word can be immediately defined! Holy educational tool Batman!
They are too spendy right now for a whole class to use, but I am thinking maybe I could purchase 10 of them, then a class could work in groups of 3 to read, annotate, and discuss text together. That's just one idea. I look forward to hearing from colleagues about other teaching and learning uses for these devices.
Very cool!
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