RR 5 Zany and Trendy a mixed match

Courses: Computer Applications in Business Course # 8200210

Introduction:

My students, grades 7-8, will be collaborating on a digital storybook project using the artwork they created for their Trendy and Zany business brochures about a Popular, Successful and Trendy business. These brochures tell the story of its success, pictures or images are used from the business website and clip art/Gif files. For the brochure, FREE interactive websites such as; Picnik, Wordle, or Dabbleboard are used to design or redesign/recompose images and photos, create posters, and to help display images and photos in their brochure and then in the digital storytelling project.

Key Terms: collaborating, researching, analyzing, creating, engaging, comparing, presenting

Task: Students will research trendy companies on the internet that offer a service or product that is similar (ex: Toms Shoes) vs. (ex: Vans Shoes).

http://www.toms.com/our-movement http://www.vans.com/

Students will compare them using a Venn Diagram and an Excel Spreadsheet and then create a brochure using Microsoft Office Word or Publisher. When they are done, then the students will collaborate and tell the business success story using Digital Storytelling Software like Prezi or HyperStudio. Their digital storytelling project will tell the process they used to choose the business through and then tell its story with zany or recomposed images/graphic.

This project will relate to the following standards for Computer Applications in Business 2:

Develop and apply word processing skills utilizing current technology

Perform activities using the worldwide web

Develop and utilize business-related soft skills

Develop and apply spreadsheet skills

Develop and apply digital design skills

Resources:

TED Seminar Video-8 Secrets to Success -Richard St. John (4 minutes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6bbMQXQ180

Successful Businesses http://www.ehow.com/successful-business/

Tips for Digital Storytelling: creating, timing, transitions, images, audio and video http://www.techlearning.com/printablearticle/8030

How to prepare before creating a Digital Storytelling Project http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/jan02/banaszewski.htm

Digital Storytelling Software: Create astonishing presentations live and on the web http://prezi.com/ HyperStudio: a powerful, educational tool for both educators and students. It allows one to easily create multimedia projects that can be used for presentations http://www.uen.org/utahlink/tours/tourFames.cgi?tour_id=14179

How to create an Excel Chart in Microsoft 2007 http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/demo-create-charts-in-excel-2007-HA010200499.aspx

Upload photos from websites or from a file and edit them to create a new look. Then the edited version automatically downloads back to your computer or flash drive http://www.picnik.com/

Dabbleboard gives you drawing and graphic tools to create on a white board and you can upload images/pictures from files and then download them back to the picture file on the computer http://www.dabbleboard.com/

Create word clouds http://www.wordle.net/

A short video on creating a tri-fold brochure using Microsoft Publisher 2007 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxgcql3dvZ4&feature=player_embedded

Short demonstration on using Microsoft Word to make a tri-fold Brochure http://www.microsoft.com/Education/themebrochure.aspx

Compare similarities and differences. Print this out or draw your own. http://www.sdcoe.net/score/actbank/tvenn.htm

AR 4- Prezi as a Teaching Tool

I started this hands-on activity for my Fundamentals of Technology for Educators course at UCF and wasn’t sure to compose a presentation for the adult learners I see every day in my computer lab or to set myself into “trainer” mode as I did for my internship this past summer.

The textbook, “Teachers Discovering Computers: Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom”, has relevant material for software products that I would really like to show in either a PowerPoint or similar presentation product and point out how important drill-and-practice software is for learning basic skills and remediation. Our students would not stick with the adult education program as well as they do without the computer lab. The relationship between video games and educational software was pointed out by Dr. James Glee how learning principles used in video games known as “social achievement skills”, are present in well developed educational games. Interactivity is one of the essential features of digital media applications.

Interactivity!

So this week the activity was to practice using digital storytelling techniques by choosing one of two free, online presentation tools and to then embed it right in our blogs. I quickly chose Prezi, a new way to create astonishing presentations live and on the web. It took me a whole afternoon to get use to it and by Friday afternoon I felt like a pro or things “All Prezi”. The content was from a Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation and workshop I held this summer. I changed it around a bit and shortened it up. I was happy to get away from PowerPoint and try a “new presentation tool” I can use professionally at a later date. I have used Zoho Show and presented it to teachers and felt a similar newest when learning Prezi. It is not the same but still different from Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007. There was different preparation like loading images that were only pdf, or images. Similarities were when I download or inserted a video; I converted it to a Window Media Video File (WMV) from a larger format-Flash Video (FLV file), commonly used for YouTube videos so it would be compressed and able to insert into presentation software. I also converted any documents to the pdf format before downloading it. A lot of skill has to go into a produce like this. I also used as website called Veezzle.com that gives you rights to photos that can be used and distributed online or in your work.

So I went to town…I made it short for my own sanity… and have learned a new presentation tool that is very impressive to use as a trainer or workshop presenter. Presentation tools whether used by the teacher or student can enhance the way students learn. Being interactive helps students remember what they have learned. As a teacher, it is a very engaging tool to use, to keep content interesting and helps engage the student. This is 21st Century Learning after all.



prezi.com/ncunzriilm_c/using-prezi-as-a-teaching-tool/

Using Prezi as a Teaching Tool on Prezi

RR 4 Oh, Megabytes!

HyperStudio is a powerful, educational tool for both educators and students alike. I would like to purchase the software program as a Digital Storytelling tool. I would like to introduce it to my department; Adult Education and see if I can use it to create multimedia projects that can be used for presentations, student-learning modules, electronic portfolios, and even quizzes and tests that grade themselves (Alldredge).

This would be an effective teaching and learning tool for 21st Century classrooms.
My operating system to test this software is a laptop Toshiba Satellite T135.

Toshiba Satellite T135

The Operating System is as follows:

Operating System – Windows Vista,
Processing Speed-1.73GHz,
Memory (RAM) 2.0 GB,
Screen Resolution-1280X800
Video Card- Generic PnP Monitor on Mobile Intel(R) 945 GM Express Chipset Family
Removable Media Options: CD, DVD, Flash Drive

HyperStudio 5
The Specifications for the Software is as follows:

Minimum System Requirements:
System: Windows XP SP3 or later, Windows Vista SP1 or later and Windows 7
Processor: 1 GHz Intel or equivalent
Memory: 512 MB RAM
Video Card: 100% Direct 9.0c compatible
Display: 800X600 16- bit color
Free Hard Disk Space: 850 MB for 32-bit OS, 2 GB for 64-bit OS



I selected my Control Panel and System and Maintenance window to access all this information. I also have to think and convert at the same time. One thousand megabytes is about one Gigabyte (1000 MB=1GB). It is confusing to read the conversion from the book for this scenario so I use what I already know about Megabytes and Gigabytes. The O/S and the software requirements should give me no problem during this installation. The Laptop operates on Windows Vista which meets the minimum requirement.

The processing speed is 1.73. Memory 2.0 GB is larger than 512 MB needed for the installation. DirectX 9.0 is compliant with 128 MB RAM. My total available graphic memory is 224 MB. That will work. I can change the display size of my screen resolution to meet the software requirements. I have done this before on my MAC. The Hard Drive storage is 147 GB on the Toshiba.

Reference:
Alldredge, C. T. (n.d.). Welcome to HyperAbout Studio: Software for a MediaCentric World. Retrieved 03 04, 2011, from Hyper About HyperStudio: http://www.uen.org/utahlink/tours/tourFames.cgi?tour_id=14179