Welcome
Welcome to EDIT 3220, a class devoted to providing ideas and training on how to use technology in the K-12 classroom. You might want to bookmark this page, as it will be continuously updated with new information on assignments, as well as technology, throughout the semester. The course will be paperless so all content that you need to complete your projects will be posted on this page.
Zoom Meeting information:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://gcsu.zoom.us/j/7502380853
Meeting ID: 750 238 0853
– You will use Livetext as well as your Google Drive account in this course. Make sure you have access to both and know your usernames/passwords
Syllabus
Class Padlet: EC 1, EC 2, SPED
Here is a quick screencast that shows you how to embed a YouTube video into your Weebly
Creating a Film
For this project you will work individually or in a group to plan, film, and edit a 3-5 minute film that aligns with the school curriculum. Project requirements (check the rubric for specifics):
- Camera work shows purpose and forethought, mimics professionals
- Lots of different angles are apparent throughout the film
- The audio quality is good and all dialogue is easy to hear
- Background music and sound effects are included
- A green screen, split screen, or picture-in-picture is utilized
- The production is 3-5 minutes in length
- There is some alignment to curriculum
We will have a film festival on May 3 to screen these projects. Do a good job!!
Explain Everything
For this project, you will create a lesson, tutorial, review, or some type of combination. Here are the parameters:
- You create it from scratch using the Explain Everything app on your iPad
- You use at least one photo or video that you have taken from the iPad in your Explain Everything project
- It lasts a minimum of 2-3 minutes
- It is aligned with your curriculum
- It includes your voice for delivering content/instruction
- It mimics something your students could do for you using Explain Everything on their device.
An excellent project will be:
- Very creative, with attractive colors, fonts, and layouts
- Have clear audio, good pacing, and clean animations
- Utilize advanced features like integrated video, a web browser, file integration, or even something like app smashing (you put a Keynote presentation, Book Creator project, or iMovie project into Explain Everything to add even more to it)
Ideas (just a few to get you started):
- Bring a science experiment to life
- Showcase math happening in the real world
- Capture images or videos to then write on, talk about, move around, and animate
- Model physics using videos and animations in Explain Everything
- Animate a historical event using images and graphics
- Use cartoon characters and other elements to bring a creative story to life
Excellent Online Resources for Teaching and Learning
For our next assignment, you will create a presentation to share with the class that details a really useful online resource for the classroom. While you don’t have to use one from this website, it is a great place to get started as it includes many curated websites and apps that have been determined to be very useful for K-12 education.
This ensures we don’t get a lot of duplicates.
Your presentation should include:
- An overview of the resource
- Training on how it works
- Screenshots or, even better, a screen recording
- Ideas for ways it can be implemented in the classroom
Electronic Whiteboard
For this project you will use the whiteboard to teach a lesson to the class. You will need to form groups of 4 students and plan about 10 minutes of instruction to deliver to the class. The instruction should be on something related to your content area, and you need to take full advantage of the whiteboard’s functionality. This includes interactive exercises that get students up to the board and engage them in the lesson. You can have questions, writing exercises, integrated video, and links to external websites. The more functionality you utilize, the stronger your grade will be. Be creative with your layouts and make sure to utilize plenty of colors and images throughout the presentation. There is a rubric available on Livetext that you can reference when creating your project.
Here is a video of how to use the software we covered in class
Here is the example I used in class:
Using a Promethean or SmartBoard at your school? Download the software to your personal computer so you can create lessons from home!
Google Educator
Google Educator Level 1 (test costs $10 to take)
Do the training and then take the test
This certification will 1) prepare you for technology integration in your classroom and 2) help you stand out when applying for a teaching position.
You need to complete the certification and upload proof of it to the assignment in Livetext no later than April 30th.
Professional Website
You can use this website as a model for your project
This might be the most useful project you do in the course. When you are finished, you will have created a website that showcases you as a teacher. You will be creating your website using the excellent free service Weebly.com
If you want a custom domain (for instance, www.drchrisgreer.com) then you can register one here and point it to your Weebly website.
Your website needs to be, at the very minimum, 7 pages and contain content related to:
1) what you teach
2) your philosophy
3) examples of your work (technology and other), embed your technology projects on a dedicated page for greater visibility
4) your overall experience
5) a link to your resume
6) lots of your own images
If you want to ensure a solid grade for this project, you should go above and beyond these minimum guidelines.
You can also showcase any research, presentations, work experience, or a variety of other topics.
This website will be due on our last day of class. It is important that you don’t wait until a few weeks before to finish it, as it will take a while to gather the needed materials to complete it.
Book Creator Assignment
You need to create an 8-10 page book on something that can be found in the Milledgeville area. It could be a location that has a historic or ecological element. It could involve how math is used on a daily basis. It could look at a person or place that is uniquely important to the area. The book must include:
- 8-10 pages, minimum
- A video that is filmed and edited using iMovie. The video should be 1-2 minutes in length
- Photographs that you take with your phone or iPad
- Supplementary photos that you find online
- Text that you have written. Do not copy and paste from anywhere
- A pleasing layout using fonts, images, and shapes that are available in Book Creator
This book is due two weeks from now in Livetext. Pay close attention to the rubric in Livetext as you create your project, it can guide you as far as what to focus on.
The use of still images to tell a story or relate content can be a fun and engaging project for your class. There are several different software packages that are freely available for this type of project, but this semester we will look at iMovie since it works so well on our iPads. Your assignment is to create a digital story, which will consist of still images as well as narration. The images should have transitions as well as movement to keep the video interesting for the viewer. For an A on this project, it must:
- Be 2-4 minutes long
- Include LOTS of high quality images (average 5 seconds per image). They should not be blurry and should not have watermarks
- Include background music for some or all of the video
- Include substantial narration that is clear and easy to hear (at least 75% is narrated)
- Cover a subject that aligns with your curriculum
Here are some links for you to learn more about digital storytelling. Some contain ideas as well as actual examples of student products.
Using digital storytelling in your classroom
The elements of digital storytelling
More information on storytelling and how it relates to education
Video editing and digital storytelling
Welcome Message
Proposed Schedule:
| Jan 25 | Class introductions, basic tech, social media |
| Feb 1 | Searches, social media, iPad basics |
| Feb 8 | Digital storytelling introduction |
| Feb 15 | Using Book Creator (field-based) |
| Feb 22 | Professional website creation, design |
| March 1 | Using Electronic Whiteboards |
| March 8 | Teaching demonstration with whiteboard |
| March 15 | Google certification |
| March 22 | Explain Everything |
| March 29 | TBD |
| April 5 | Online Teaching/Learning |
| April 12 | The best online resources |
| April 19 | How to produce and edit digital video |
| April 26 | Editing session for videos |
| May 3 | Last Class, wrap-up websites, film festival |
Hardware and Software
Using search engines activity
Download free software to prevent viruses
Do not fall for phishing scams. They can be very clever and many people cannot tell the difference.
Google is a powerful search engine, but many people don’t know some of the advanced ways it can be used. Try to answer these questions:
- Find some PowerPoint presentations or PDF files that can help you teach the structure and function of cells in the human body.
- Name the many bands/artists that have covered the song “Wagon Wheel”
- How many times is my last name mentioned on the Georgia College website?
- Find some of the critics’ reviews of The Walking Dead during previous seasons, but without worrying about coming across a spoiler from the current season.
- Your cell phone has started dropping the Wifi connection on a daily basis. It happens at school and at home. How could you solve this problem?
Social Media
General rules to follow:
1. Do not Facebook, Twitter, or IG “friend” your students
2. Consider changing your last name once you begin teaching
3. Consider creating a new account on Facebook/IG/Social Media for online contact with students
4. Make sure your stuff is private. Make VERY sure. Go and view it as someone else and as the general public to make certain
Locking down your presence on the web can be tough, but now is the time to do it. Google, Twitter, Tik Tok, IG, Vine, Tumbler, etc need to all be examined.