Sunday, December 9, 2007

I have no idea what I should say, when you ask what was a value. The whole class was so great. If the object of this class was to get more familiar with the computer and different programs, well this class did it. I cannot wait until I get my computer up and going, then I am going to do so much. First, I am going to organize my computer. Before, my computer was so unorganized, I could not find anything. It took me for ever to find my lost files. Next, I am going to backflip all the web sites that I think will be useful. Also, I am going to make sure all of my files are backed up so it my computer goes down again, I wont lose everything. I am defiantly going to explore on the web. There is so much information out there I want to use as much as I can to be on top of teaching. The one thing I struggled with in this class, I did not find everything useful for high school math. I know the more I search, on the web, I know I will find more useful actives for high school math. I have no idea why we had to do the blog. I did not find it to be useful. I think maybe it is to meet the writing minimum and to prove we read the articles. But, I did not get anything out of it. I don't think your class needs to be improved. All of your instructions were great. No need to improve.

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Blog #13/14

Before filming make sure the camera being used is compatible with the computer in the computer lab. If your goal is to complete this project then be sure you follow all the directions. Make sure you have a camera with tape. Also, I think if each person in the group has certain duties, therefore the project will run smoothly.

I understand why movie producers do a few takes of the same shot. It helps to have a few different choices for different angles and time. During our production of the "Opposites" we only shot a scene once. I wanted to say something to the others but I did not, I am responsible for not speaking up. Since we had a rap with our video each scene had to been a particular length. So if the rap was about the lunch scene for 35 seconds we needed a minimum of 35 seconds of filming. I noticed a few areas we did not have enough film so I had fun with special effects. I would play a scene over and over again, to fill in the time. If someone saw my movie they would think I was trying to make it look funny. Also, I think if would have been good if we would have had different angles cause they my final movie would have had many more different options. So, When one is filming one should have many different takes, angles, and plenty of film.

Before I read this article I did not think of the importance of student learning to communicate with all forms of media, pictures, movies, audio and text. Back when I went to school I only had to learn the text. Student today need to learn all of it. Their future depends on it.

When the article stated that "Digital videos can enrich almost any content area, from literature to..." I was hope it would mention Math. But it did not. I would love to see many more options to help students in the math department. The article continued to talk about the Civil War. Using the video to teach children is such a great learning tool. If I were going to be an elementary teacher I would make this a project. Since schools don't have enough equipment I would assign a subject to each group. And as the subject comes up in our class I would have that group present the film to the class before the exam. That way each student will have an additional way to learn the subject matter.

Since I want to teach Math at the high school level I would have to be creative on how I could integrate this type of teaching. I think it would be a great way to teach the students. Not only do they learn the subject at hand, but they learn how to do a storyboard, write the scrip, be a director (take charge), edit, etc...

Now I am confused. In the article they talked about using imovie. Then they talked about the digital camera being connected to the computer. In our groups case we could not connect the camera with the computer. So we had to reshot the scenes. I think that maybe I need the software that came from my camera.