Dean Shareski paraphrases a research study making its way around the blogosphere about children and online predators. Here are the key points, or you can read the original article published in the American Psychologist. The findings in a nutshell are that participating in social networking does not increase risk of victimization by online molesters. 99% …
Category: Educational Technology
You’ll Rot Your Brain: Super Mario Brothers—A Love Story
My girlfriend’s mom never let her have video games because she warned her, “you’ll rot your brain.” Well, it’s happened we just bought a Wii. Our brains are gone. Fried. Even Barack Obama just warned me on CNN that I better “turn off the video games and start demanding excellence.” I’m not a video gamer. …
Digital Storytelling Blog Carnival #2
Welcome to the second installment of the Digital Storytelling Blog Carnival. Some have correctly noted that I’m using the terms digital storytelling here synonymously with digital filmmaking. Whatever you want to call it, the technology gets cheaper and easier to use everyday. Here’s another assortment of articles for beginners and pros alike. Enjoy! Getting Started …
Letter to a First Year Teacher Regarding Using Technology
(Cross-posted in In Practice) Many bloggers have written complaining about teachers not using technology in their classrooms. Rather than complain, Jeff Utecht’s recent post on “Evaluating Technology Use” established a rubric for evaluating technology use. But what if you are a new teacher or you aren’t using technology in your classroom now? It’s not reasonable …
Interactive Sites Part Two
I found two more fun interactive sites. I’m sorry I forgot where I found them. If you told me about them, thank you. Warning Sign Generator lets you create caution signs. Dictionary Page lets you create Dictionary Pages with images. This second site also lets you create some other signs if you look at the …
The Making Of Tales from the Yard or How to Make Heads Roll
I frequently receive questions from teachers on how to get started integrating video in the classroom. This begins a multi-part series in which I share the films we’ve made in my class and how we made them. If you have seen the films, find out how they were made. If you haven’t seen the films, …
Please Join Me at CUE (Computer Using Educators) Conference
If you’re in the Southern California area in March and planning on attending the CUE Conference please make plans to join me for session 2 or 6 in Palm Springs March 6-8. Digital CPR, Bring Your Reading Series to Life with Video Podcasting Friday, March 7th, 11:30 am – 12:30 am Bring your students into …
The Making of: The City Mouse and the Country Mouse
I frequently receive questions from teachers on how to get started integrating video in the classroom. This begins a multi-part series in which I share the films we’ve made in my class and how we made them. If you have seen the films, find out how they were made. If you haven’t seen the films, …
Lucy Caulkins and KidPix
I’m a big fan of the way Lucy Caulkins teaches writing, asking students to focus on elaborating on smaller moments rather than the traditional beginning, middle, and end stories. For example, instead of: I went to Raging Waters. We parked the car. I rode the slide. We went home. I watched TV. Encourage students to …
Inspiration for Filmmakers and Film Teachers
Writing teachers need to have examples of great literature that inspires them and I think anyone undertaking video production in the classroom (or digital storytelling) needs to have some great films inspiration as well. Here’s a couple of my favorites that you may or may not have heard of. I encourage you to reflect on …