Digital Video

Week 4 - Engagement Activity 7

My Movie

Reflection: Using Movie Maker & Uploading Digital Video to Blog or Wiki

1. My initial reflection (via email to Heather and Kirschty)

2. My revised reflection, after I realised what I had been doing wrong!

Reflection 1

My reflection on the ease of uploading Movie Maker file to my blog: not easy! I found Movie Maker easy enough to import images to, and to add title and credits pages for my 'movie'. Placing photos in desired spaces and creating transitions between slides was also simple; just a matter of dragging images to the desired positions and dragging transition options to spaces between slides. Movie Maker almost seems too easy! However, my music track goes for too long, as I was not able to shorten the length. The biggest problem I encountered was uploading the finished movie to my wiki and blog, as I could not access the right file name (because it was not displayed at the top of the Media Player screen, and clicking on the movie icon in video file only opened the movie to be viewed) or a URL (because it is not on the Web) to insert in the blog and wiki 'link' functions. (Later note ... I understand this all sounds very confused - I was!). I even considered publishing it on YouTube (something I have never done before), so I would have a URL to create the links within my blog and wiki, but when I chose this option I was lead to create a Windows Live account. I thought this might somehow follow through to instructions regarding uploading my movie to YouTube, but it was not to be.

Once I learn how to upload the finished movie to a blog, wiki, and website, this will be a very useful tool, as it is so quick and easy to create movies/slideshows with. It would especially be useful in the Early Childhood context allowing for quick upload of the day's photos for parents to view their children's activities when collecting them at the end of the day. Even young children could assist to make a movie because of the ease of the select and drag options. Years 1-3 students could make their own movies with limited support from the teacher. 

Reflection 2

So, now I realise that this was all soooo unnecessary! I had been at the computer most of the day on Friday and was feeling quite fatigued, by almost midnight (the deadline!!!). Rather than trying to create a LINK, I should simply have been uploading it to my wiki and blog as an IMAGE/FILE. By making this simple mistake (i.e. choosing the wrong icon/function when trying to add the movie to my posts), I had sent myself on a wild goose chase which resulted in my overestimating the difficulty of this very simple procedure.

So - my revised opinion of the ease of using and uploading a Movie Maker file to blogs and wikis - easy as pie! Movie maker is simple to use - so much so, that even very young children in the Early Childhood context could play a significant role in making a movie - and uploading it to wikis and blogs is very straightforward if you select the 'add image/file' icon rather than trying to create a 'link', when none exists!

I think this would be a great form of digital technology to involve early childhood students with, as it is not difficult to place selected images in desired order within movie frames and add transition effects (they would find this fun and use their creativity). The children could create their own stories, and verbally 'tell' the story on an accompanying soundtrack, in the years before they are able to read and write. Children could contribute to telling the 'daily story' by helping to create the 'movie' displayed to parents in the afternoons. In this way, technology becomes a part of their everyday lives at a very young age, and unlike me, they will not be intimidated into making mistakes by a wrongly perceived 'difficulty' factor. 

Podcasting

Week 4 - Engagement Activity 5

 

Finding and Using Podcasts

  

For young children, Sesame Street podcasts offer fun, engaging, relevant lessons for everyday life, ranging from the concept of a 'tool' to 'having patience'. The larger-than-life characters are hard to ignore, so capturing the attention of young students would not be a problem. It never ceases to amaze me how puppets draw children in and make them believe practically anything!!! As a learning tool, I absolutely adore puppetry for early childhood settings. These podcasts also use a variety of delivery methods, with several small 'acts' to suit young children's short attention spans, and keep them interested. For example, the 'patience' podcast includes sesame street characters 'on the street' interviewing real children and adults, discussions between a sesame street character and a celebrity, animated stories, rhymes and songs, sesame street characters interacting with each other in Sesame Street, such as Bert and Ernie in their house - all discussing the topic of 'patience' within approximately a 5 minute time interval. Sesame Street is an old favourite that spans the generations, making concerted efforts to remain current for the young children of the day. 

Follow the link below to access Sesame Street podcasts: 

https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/sesame-street-podcast/id264537349

For Years 1,2 & 3, the following podcast, Fun Kids A-Z of Wildlife, is contemporary and fun! It is a radio podcast, so no images or video, but maintains focused attention and high energy through introducing some really interesting animals and unusual facts that are generally well appreciated by young children's questionable sense of humour! For example, the Zorilla (aka the striped polecat) is the smelliest animal in the world, and lifts his tail to squirt nasty smelling secretions from the scent glands in his bottom, all over offenders to ward them off! Kids love that kind of information! And there were plenty of really educational facts delivered within about 2-3 minutes. Even I was left wanting to listen to more podcasts about other strange but noteworthy creatures! To put the cherry on top of the cake, at the end of this podcast, it was suggested that children play a game of Sleeping Lions but call it Sleeping Zorillas ... and I am sure I don't need to explain what the zorillas do if all else fails! This is certainly a podcast that makes learning fun. I immediately googled to see what a zorilla looks like, so if this podcast encouraged me to research further, I am sure students would want to as well! I shouldn't have been surprised to see that the zorilla resembles a skunk - I thought a skunk was a skunk was a skunk, but you learn something new every day they say! These podcasts could be used as a hook or engagement tool to encourage children to complete research on a particular animal or group of animals, or simply to just love learning. There is a range of other topics within the Fun Kids podcast range. Here is the link:

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-to-z-wildlife-from-fun-kids/id456672668

The link below is for another Fun Kids podcast, Alphablocks. Each short 1-2 minute podcast plays a game to see how many words children can think of that begin with the given letter, introduced by its sound. This is a game students could play at any time of the day, as a time filler, through which valuable learning can occur. It is fun to listen to the podcast though, because it is lively and fun, and the clock is started and sounds when time is up. The idea is that children call out any and all words they can think of within the ten seconds, that begin with the given sound, while the podcaster lists as many as she can think of at the same time. The children could also count the words on their fingers to introduce a numeracy aspect as well. Then when the podcaster asks, "How many words did you think of?", they could all call out the number.

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/alphablocks-on-fun-kids/id551974120

There are many more Fun Kids podcasts available.