1st Blog of 530, "Digital Storytelling"

What do I hope to learn?

Until 4 days ago, I was under the impression that anytime I put together a Powerpoint presentation for my students, it was a good thing. I knew they were far from perfect, but I felt anytime I could introduce material in a different manner, it would keep my class fresh and alive. In fact, the other day as I showed my Trig class part of a presentation that I was putting together for them to introduce matrices, I recall a student saying, "I've never seen a Powerpoint done for math before". I rather enjoyed hearing that.

Today, I am hoping the presentations I put so much time and effort into writing and editing did more good than harm. I am lucky to be married to a woman who is a very talented artist. At times, I will ask her to critique my work in Powerpoint (I like to put some related illustration or picture into most slides). She will not "sugar coat" her opinion to save my feelings, which I appreciate. Her favorite phrase, when passing along her view is, "Less is More". In this regard, she has saved students numerous times from being overwhelmed by too much information, too quickly.

I hope to learn how to create more memorable and effective means of passing along information to my students. I am looking forward to having my presentation critiqued by the class and Louis.

Similarities & Differences, Homework & Practice and Generating and Testing Hypothesis

Some intro thoughts...

I think the best thing that is happening to me as I venture forward in this Master's Program is the Brainstorming that is occurring in my head. Unfortunately, there is not enough time in the day to put all my thoughts to paper (or to the laptop). This morning I watched "This Week" with Christiane Amanpour (ABC News) as a sort of gift to myself for being so productive in the past 2 days. It had a town hall meeting with members of the Islamic community conversing with Christians about whether or not to fear members of the Islamic faith. A great deal of fascinating dialog was exchanged between the participants.

I jotted down a few ideas, since I was prompted to do so and send it to ABC News. I haven't finished my thoughts - not enough time. So I haven't sent it yet. I won't bore, you, the reader with what I feel are my epiphanies. Although one of them is the new host's name, Christiane Amanpour (Ironic and yet apropos that the host should have a most assuredly Christian 1st name and Arabic sounding surname - looked her up on wikipedia - Iranian Father/British Mother).

I finished addressing 2 of the 3 prompts for our "group discussion" assignments and realized I hadn't entered this blog. I read the 2 chapters of the book Friday night and Saturday morning.

I learned, somewhat slowly, that I should read the chapters from the book first and not do them in the order of how it's written in the overview for the week.

Before posting the blog, I just thought I'd explore the "It's a Wild Ride" site. How cool is that?

Just one more thing before posting the blog, look at the Clay Shirky videos. BLOWN AWAY!!!

I will have to watch them at least a half dozen times to try to understand everything that is being stated, that is to make meaning of all of it. That is to find the similarities and differences to concepts I already understand, so I can comprehend everything that he is sharing.

On to the blog...kinda feel my hands are tied, in that, I don't want to write about the strategies studied this week. I already wrote about 2 of the 3 in my group discussion posts. I want to write about Clay Shirky's insights and my insights after watching "This Week". I can't cause it's late and I have to finish preparing what I'm teaching my students tomorrow.

Similarities and Differences - see group discussion post

Homework and Practice -excerpt from my group discussion post follows...

I do recall a time when a comment to my teacher about an assignment changed the entire class for the rest of the year (and this was one of the very first days of school). I had the privilege of learning the German language for 3 years with one of the best teachers ever. By the end of our second year, we were reading short stories and novellas “auf Deutsch” and novels by the end of our third. Unfortunately, he could not afford to remain teaching at the High School I attended. A new German teacher was hired and in one of our first classes, she brought in magazines written in English and wanted us to cut out pictures of animals to make posters. She called the assignment “Die Tiere” (The animals). Once she finished explaining the assignment, which did not take very long, and was spoken in English, I could not help myself. Without regard to her feelings or the consequences I might incur, I said “Wir sind nicht in Kindergarten” (We are not in Kindergarten). I did not mean to hurt her feelings, but the assignment was so condescending - so much, that I needed to say it. From that point forward, our German class was a sort of cooperative learning group. We continued to read novels and, I believe, taught the new teacher some valuable lessons as well as some German.

Generating and Testing Hypothesis

I haven't read the chapter on this in the book yet (but having been a chemist for a number of years prior to teaching, I have been acquainted with making a living practicing the scientific method) . I have to get to what I will show my students tomorrow. I have generated the hypothesis that "I have shared enough information in this blog that demonstrates I have learned the material for this week and that my instructor will give me full credit for this blog entry". I anxiously await the results of my hypothesis...