Picasa Slide Show

This was another fun application that I wanted to play around with much longer. :)  I was a little surprised at how relatively effortless it was to do everything and create the slideshow.  It sounded a little complicated at first and then Skip made it look so easy to do, but he always does so I was still a bit skeptical.  Once I started playing around with it, I was really enjoying myself and I began to check out the options available.  

I chose to show a very fun night I had this past December, celebrating the holidays with my family.  My mom, little sister, my boyfriend, and myself went to meet up with and spend New Year's Eve with my Grandparents and a couple of my cousins. Along the way we had to stop and get fireworks.  Although I would enjoy taking other wonderful family memories and creating slideshows, I do not think I would have a problem using it in a classroom and explaining it to my students.  I think this would be another good tool to recap events in the classroom and show to the students (or other classes, parents, etc) once in a while.  It would be fun to take candid photos throughout a semester and then piece those together in a fun slideshow with humorous captions.  It would also be nice to focus it on one event or field trip that the class went on as well.  This could be used as a presentation tool for students to use in reports or if a student wanted to create a slideshow as an alternative option for an assignment.  They could piece the bits of information as captions or explanations for the people or places that the pictures display.  Another fun assignment would be for the students to find photos of their favorite place or anywhere in the world that they would want to visit and have them create a slideshow about it.  There are many ways that this could be tied into assignments or research, and it would be great to be able to use it on the computers in the classroom.  

Comic Life Poster

          

 This program was very fun to use, and I had a great time playing around with it while I was deciding what I wanted to do.  I thought of many different applications that I could do in my life for trips, events, and family gatherings.  There were many ideas that were flowing while I was looking through my pictures.  I felt that this program was fairly easy to use, and it would be interesting to see other options that could add to the poster.

    I think that kids would have a great time playing around with this program and creating projects for school.  It would be a great addition to reports if a student could use technology to make a poster to go with it.  I really enjoyed the animal life "life of the polar bear" poster that was created in the movie examples, and it was put together so simply.  Skip gave us some good examples to look at in different subject areas.  I thought the "Who Am I?" poster was another good one that could be used for many different people in history.  I also thought it would be interesting if there were a way to use the pictures taken from the digital microscope to create another informative poster.  This really could be used in various ways as either homework assignments or to place around the classroom.  Fun pictures could be compiled and put up, or classroom rules could be placed on one to hang in the room as well.  I also thought that it could be placed in the room to remind the students of language rules and reminders.  I am just really excited about this program and how simple it seems to work in many ways. 

Digital Video

   This video project was one of the first that I have completed in this application, but I found it very enjoyable and easy to navigate.  I could definitely see the ways in which these projects could be used in the classroom fairly easily.  If the teacher has access to one or more digital cameras, many pictures can be taken of field trips, outings, studies, people in the school, and many other events.  

          I used it for this project to show the places and events that my boyfriend and I have been able to go to together.  We have had some great memories, and I tried to show a few with my video. It has been a nice journey so far, and I was also hoping to capture that. 

          I can tell that I would gain more comfort using imovie the more often I use it and the more projects I complete. I felt as if there was still so much more that could be done with this movie, and I found other options in the imovie program as well.  It would be fun to play around and create other movies just to become more familiar with the tools. 

           I think it would be very interesting to see what students would create with their movies.  They could use it in teams and make projects for certain subject areas, such as history.  I think if they found pictures that they could use about an event they were studying, they could create a pretty good movie discussing it in an interesting way.  They could also use it to show the life of a person they are talking about it class. One student could also be chosen to use the pictures taken during a school outing and put together a movie highlighting what they were able to see and learn.  It would be a great way to recap the event for the class and to see what the student gained from the trip.  The possibilities seem to stretch on and on when I think of using it in the classroom.  There are so many options- for class and for fun. Students could use it as a "show and tell" tool to showcase a recent trip or vacation, and it could also be beneficial for a student to create a movie about their own family culture or history. It would be a great way for the students to get to know each other and learn more about each other, and they would all be learning a little more about technology and its uses.