The students were able to clarify the one hundred and fifty words making the words clear within the context of U.S. historical use and present applications. Some of the difficult words were “war”, “rights”, and “freedom”. The word “war” meaning a conflict between nations has many different uses and connotations today. For example of the difficulties students faced with applying the word today is the fight against terrorism which sometimes do not have a state. Does the word “war” still apply and if so is it clear enough to promote the values the students wish to apply? For “freedom” the definition to do as one desires when applied means “anarchy”. Many students acknowledges that “responsibility” was the better word in association for “freedom” when applied. The difficulty for many of the students is simply reading. Many of them are not trained on how to read effectively. I provided them with reading prompts and question games to develop a mindset for reading. Another difficult habit to implement throughout the quarter was building their creeds step by step a little bit at a time. Many of them wanted to simply complete it in a day, which when compared with the posted exemplars failed to meet the agreed upon standards of quality and clarity. Those who accepted the idea of writing as a process of growth and development faired very well. They weren’t set back by editorial mark ups, but found them as useful tools for improvement and as an easy way to do make up work. Others simply turned in work with expectation that it would be enough to “pass”. Some of the final products were truly impressive.

The purpose of blendspace is a to collect and find and share resources for classroom presentation and use.

The advantages of blendspace are the ease of use and speed of access to many resources. The disadvantages are its lack of real interactivity. Scan the QR Code to look at the Debate blendspace resources.

Edmodo is an excellent educational tool with options like facebook. Paul Murphy Edmodo.

Voice Thread

1. Register at the Voice Thread website.
2. I added a previously made power point presentation with the create icon.
3. I uploaded the power point via the add media icon.
4. 
5. Add commentary and/or video commentary using the tools at the bottom of the page (leave the cursor just above the base line border of the layout and the tools menu should appear).
6. For commentary click on the microphone icon and for video commentary click on the video camera icon.
7. 
8. Each page can be commented on individually or in series by clicking on the arrow key on the video timeline at the bottom of the layout.
9. The work is saved automatically and can be viewed, reviewed, and edited at the voice thread homepage.
10. English Class Competition Review

1. Log-in to Prezi following the Prezi prompts.

2. Upon entering your home page on the Prezi site it should look like the screen shot below.

3. Click on create a new Prezi.

4. Depending on what you want to present, pre-formatted presentations are available for use.

5. Each layout is a post-on layout. You can type onto the layout and add images where needed. The insert and customize icons are at the top center of the site.

  3. There are effects that can be added to each of the layouts depending on what you are presenting.

6. For this presentation I used that basic format for a CNMI history presentation.

7. Upon completing the presentation you can manually save the presentation or Prezi will save it for you.

8. CNMI History Prezi

Powtoon is a great way for beginners to develop their movie making skills. 

First sign up for powtoon. 

Second opt to use one of the templates to get familiarized with the powtoon creation process (recommended watch the tutorial). 

Third play with the program to choose characters and backgrounds and texts and/or voice to create a powtoon project. 

Here is my powtoon clip: Persevere.

 

Prezi vs Voicethread

Prezi is easy to use and has a three dimensional template to work with. Its notable feature is its zoom in and out presentation format which allows the presenter to visually key in on certain aspects of their presentation. It is a cloud based system. The templates are all formatted so the variety of creativity is limited, but is an excellent tool to engage users with presentation materials.

VoiceThread is interactive.  A presenter can create a presentation, add audio, and receive feed back and develop follow-on sharing. The templates are formatted, but the variety and integration of visual, audio, sharing, posting, and even zoom makes VoiceThread an excellent stand alone teaching tool. It can be used as a supplemental center instructional or as extra instruction, or even remediation.

I would recommend VoiceThread due to its versatility.

Wordle allows students to see key ideas in a creative format.
Advantages is that is allows interesting eye catching text patterns.
It also breaks down the text into prioritized sizes for easier identification.
Disadvantages is that it does not allow students to perform the analysis of priorities and it is also limited to the text provide.

Wordle runs with Java. Be sure that Java is downloaded and activated before using. Additionally, Wordle runs better with Firefox or Safari.

1.      Access Wordle site via wordle.net

2.      Click on the create tab

3.      Paste or type your desired text into the space provided or paste the url into space provided

4.      Click “submit” and wait for the program to create a wordle cloud

5.      When the text is completed save the text as a png