Evaluation Animation

What is it?

A simulation of movement created by displaying a series of pictures, or frames in 2D or 3D Cartoons on television is one example of animation. Animation on computers is one of the chief ingredients of multimedia presentations. There are many Software applications that enable you to create animations that you can display on a computer monitor.



There is a difference between animation and video though, video takes continuous motion and breaks it up into discrete frames, animation starts with independent pictures and puts them together to form the illusion of continuous motion.


What are the advantages and disadvantages of Animation?

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/A/animation.html

Voki in an educational context

Press play to listen to my avatar.

            
 My avatar has told you that 'Voki is a free service that allows you to create personalized speaking avatars which can be posted on a blog or on your social networking site.Studies show that using technology in education improves students' achievements. Voki is a unique tool which can engage students in creative expressions.

You have to be 13 to have a voki account, therefore this would be used in a secondary school. The voki website states that there are endless ways to use Voki"

Voki can be used in the classroom at can be used for any subject at any level, enabling cross curricular project or assingment work. As you can see I have created my own avatar and it was really enjoyable, it felt like I was just playing on the internet rather than doing any work. As it is fun, but can be used in an educational contetxt, it is a very useful tool, if children are having fun, they will be mor engaged and interested in what they are doing, they will also become more productive. For teachers there is a Lesson Plan database and the Teacher's corner, giving support and ideas.

 

Voki can be used to present work orally, as well as making the work interesting for the student, they can also hear how words are sounded and how they are spoken, it can also build confidence in children who are shy at presenting, it can be a way of introducing technology into other subjects. It can also be used for:-

Classroom Newsletter – Provide information for students and parents using a unique style. Persuasive Speech – Assign a speech and have the Voki avatar give the introduction, three supporting details to defend or rebut a given topic, and the conclusion.
Course Annoucements - Use Voki to create and embed online course announcements for students. It can be a fun and engaging way to present otherwise routine information.
Testing – Give a test with the Voki avatar asking questions or integrate it with a written test to assist students with reading difficulties, second languages, or to clarify questions for all. Merge it with a current online test in order to provide another modality for students.
Vocabulary – Use Voki to present a vocabulary list of words. Using real speech allows students to hear correct pronunciation. Students can stop, pause, rewind at any time.
Foreign Language – Great way to help students learn words through teacher prepared lessons. It also allow students to practice their new language by creating short stories, poems, or content informational pieces.
Poetry and Music Composition – Students create poems or lyrics that can be spoken or sung by their favorite avatar. This can include text-to-speech and real voice. They may even want to include musical instruments.

Information from-http://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/2011/02/06/voki-creates-ad-free-site-for-education-plus-20-ways-to-use-talking-avatars/

Howard Gardener- Multiple intelligences

Howard Gardner theorised that there are multiple intelligences, and that we all use one or two for the most effective learning. Our culture teaches, tests, reinforces and rewards primarily two kinds of intelligence: verbal/linguistic and logical/mathematical. His theory proposes that there are at least eight other kinds of intelligence that are equally important. They are “languages” that most people speak, and that cut through cultural, educational, and ability differences.

The mind is not comprised of a single representation or a single language of representations. Rather, we harbor numerous internal representations in our minds. Some scholars speak of “modules of mind,” some of a ”society of mind,” and in this case it is ”multiple intelligences.” Gardner's intelligences include

• Verbal Linguistic intelligence (sensitive to the meaning and order of words as in a poet): Use activities that involve hearing, listening, impromptu or formal speaking, tongue twisters, humor, oral or silent reading, documentation, creative writing, spelling, journal, poetry.
• Logical-mathematical intelligence (able to handle chains of reasoning and recognize patterns and orders as in a scientist): Use activities that involve abstract symbols/formulas, outlining, graphic organizers, numeric sequences, calculation, deciphering codes, problem solving.
• Musical intelligence (sensitive to pitch, melody, rhythm, and tone as in a composer): Use activities that involve audio tape, music recitals, singing on key, whistling, humming, environmental sounds, percussion vibrations, rhythmic patterns, music composition, tonal patterns.
• Spatial intelligence (perceive the world accurately and try to re-create or transform aspects of that world as in a sculptor or airplane pilot): Use activities that involve art, pictures, sculpture, drawings, doodling, mind mapping, patterns/designs, color schemes, active imagination, imagery, block building.
• Bodily Kinesthetic intelligence (able to use the body skillfully and handle objects adroitly, as in an athlete or dancer): Use activities that involve role playing, physical gestures, drama, inventing, ball passing, sports games, physical exercise, body language, dancing.
• Interpersonal intelligence (understand people and relationship as in a salesman or teacher) and think by bouncing ideas off of each other (socializes who are people smart): Use activities that involve group projects, division of labor, sensing others' motives, receiving/giving feedback, collaboration skills.
• Intrapersonal intelligence (possess access to one's emotional life as a means to understand oneself and others exhibited by individuals with accurate views of themselves): Use activities that involve emotional processing, silent reflection methods, thinking strategies, concentration skills, higher order reasoning, "centering" practices, meta-cognitive techniques.
• Naturalist (connected to the intricacies and subtleties in nature such as Charles Darwin and Meriwether Lewis of Lewis and Clark fame): Use activities that involve bringing the outdoors into the class, relating to the natural world, charting, mapping changes, observing wildlife, keeping journals or logs.

This means that we should valur our children for every inteeligence that they possess and that as teachers we should try to teach to multiple intelligences and modify all our teaching to invole all children.





Information from- http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/styles/gardner.html

Ted Talks

Michelle Obama- A plea for education

This video is of Michelle Obama's plea for education talk in Elizabeth G. Anderson School UK. Michelle is on her first visit as First Lady to the UK.

After watching this talk, I knew I had to write about, although I don’t want to give a commentary of what Michelle is talking about, what I really want to talk about is what I got from this talk.

Firstly, I would have to talk about how fantastic a speaker Michelle is, her tone is passionate, she speaks with flow and grace and this adds to the levels of interest and enjoyment that I had from this talk. As a person she is the perfect example of what her plea is for. Michelle was born in a working class environment and with all the love, support and her own hard work she has got to where she has today, she has got herself to a place where she can influence and inspire so many others to do the same.

 Michelle argues that we are all born with what we need to succeed, and with the right balance of love and nurture in the home, community and school environment we can achieve anything that we want and choose our own destinies. I agree with her, and although she stresses to her audience (Elizabeth G. Anderson students) that they should strive to be the world’s next leaders, I believe that no matter what you want to be, if you want to be a nurse, a dentist, a bin collector or the next Priminister, then you should work hard to achieve whatever goal you have set yourself.

Michelle talks about the world as it is and the world as it should be, and how we can close the gap between the two. She suggests that with a good education, which will either act as a social class vehicle or a way that we can climb to the top to change the world, we all can close this gap between what the world is and what it should be. I again agree with her, however, I feel that this view of the world, whilst it is a lovely image, is a slightly unrealistic view of the world. This is my opinion, hopefully, we all know that a majority of the world are living without basic human rights; we know that people are being hurt, are not living in freedom and are without food or water. But, people are still carrying on as the way they are, so where Michelle makes the bold plea for women to rise to the top, take the reins and close the gap, it’s not about the people at the top, it’s about everyone, it’s about ignorance and for the people that we are ignoring, it’s about not knowing there is another life other than the one they are living. People don't change because they have been told too, we all only change if we won't to change. So instead of trying to change others ways, let’s change ourselves first!


Micheal Jackson- Man in the Mirror
I feel that this video relates to what I have writen.

Ever changing technology in Education

The world of technology has had a significant impact on education and has changed the entire educational landscape. Within the last 20 years we have seen the introduction of  interactive whiteboards, computer suites, laptops and tablets on desks, research online via websites, eBooks and  eJournals it has transformed the way in which students today use techology and it is still evolving.

Whenever students want information of opening up a dictionary or encyclopedia now they just pull out thier phones, tablets or computers and type it into search engines, and becuase of this students can see multi-media versions of the information. For instance, a teacher telling you about the New York City is enhanced by clicking on Google Earth and typing it in, where you can take it right down to the road view.
Of course this readily available information does not aid deductive reasoning skills making your hypothesis or conclusion. It can leave students entirely dependent on technology.

Students can now study from home with education technology that allows teacher and student to interact remotely. Students can download assignments from websites, listen to lectures on podcasts and communicate with the teacher via text messaging. Now a teacher is not limited by the number of chairs in her classroom. One teacher can teach hundreds of student across the country, all at the same time.

Christmas Presents

I had lots of christmas presents this year, my favourite had to be my new iphone,  it turns out my nagging paid off.

It is brilliant its a black Iphone 4s 32g, and I got a orange contract sim, I had a blackberry before that but it just didn't match up to the iphone.






I have already downloaded loads of apps, but the best two I have come across is the Toshiba Remote Control app ( always losing my remote) which I use to turn the T.V over. The second, is Find Friends, it..... is..... amazing! I am following a couple of friends on there and I can see where everyone is using GPS satelite, I even watched my brother on his driving test the other day, but the best thing about my Find Friends app is checking up on my niece (or spying as she calls it) , she is 12 now and she is getting to the age where she wants to go out with her friends all the time, so I just keep check every now and then, but hey what is auntie to do!

My First Assignment!

I had my First assignment for my History of Education module.

  didn't know what to expect from my first assignment but I quite enjoyed doing it, I wrote about the Education Reform act. The research was the best part, it was quite liberating being able to do my own independant learning, something I have never done before. I used mainly used books from the libary and some digital libary journals. At the begining of our Visual Communication Lectures, I learned how to assess a website validity, who it was run by and owned by, was it created for a profit and was it regualary updated.


From this then I used some online sources in my assingnment. In addition to an essay we had to create a slideshow, which I used Microsoft Powerpoint, I have used this a few times so I knew how to use it and found it quite easy and was able to be creative with the design, layout and colour schemes. I think that I wrote quite a factual, well structured essay and I am just awaiting the results so fingers crossed...

Pro's and Con's of Web 2.0 Application

What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 represents a fundamental change in the use of the Internet  from a medium mainly used for finding and viewing information to one which now also realising large-scale personal publishing and social networking.
 
 
 
Web 2.0 tools (blogs, Wikis, social networking sites etc.) tend to be relatively unstructured, easy to publish in, have a high level of interaction, and self-assigned semantics (tagging), and they are often media rich. Web 2.0 is great for chat, banter and networking,
The Web 2.0 application I use reguarly is facebook, I am going to look at the advantages and disadvantages of it.




Advantages of Using Facebook

 Facebook is a social networking site which is free and it's one of the best mediums for communication. With so many users around the world, you can connect to almost anyone, using status, photos, video’s, events, blogs, Skype or promoting a group or company. Students can use Facebook for group study by creating a group only for studying, where they can share any information about projects, assignments, exams, due dates etc. Facebook like button is connecting their user to every other website and if you have a Facebook login ID than you can easily access other websites and social networking using this and without registering. It has a good privacy setting which allows the user to customise their profile to exclude other users from seeing what they have shared. Additionally, it allows for private messaging and chat so no other user can see what you’re sending other than the recipient. You can stop spamming by hiding the post of the spammer or block them permanently.

Disadvantages of Facebook

 If you have a facebook account you will probably know that it can be quite addictive, notifications allow for users to know when someone has shared something with them, however, if you have a mobile app or notification via texts, it’s hard not to quickly check who has posted on your site.

As with any social media site, they can be dangerous if they are not being used correctly, with the ability to search for anyone and message any user, if you’re using Facebook you should really take advantage of it privacy settings.  As it is so easy to set up a profile there is a problem with fake accounts which have proven to be dangerous, furthermore, there have been many cases of cyber bullying, abuse, fake accounts and groups set up with the intent to harass, discriminate or bully. Although it is not a chat room and the people that are on your profile should be your friends, if you don’t set your privacy settings correctly you can be searched for by name!  Facebook does give an option to report abuse, but really such things should not be happening in the first place. There isn’t thoroughness in the age restrictions and younger and younger children are using Facebook all the time, and they don’t all know what the implications of sharing information with other people are. You can locate a post or ‘check in’ which allows others to see where you are at what time.

My opinion is that on creating your profile, everyone including individuals, fan pages and groups should give their address, administrators should send a letter containing a unique code to the address to finalise set up of the account, they should have to type in their code to be verified.

Conclusion

As I have already suggested, Facebook as far as I am concered is the biggest and best social media site, which allow you, in various ways, to keep update with family, collegues and friends. However, it becomes dangerous when you do not use it properly or take advantage of it to bully or abuse others.

My Blog List- The Creative Education Blog

I have chosen to add to my blog list the Creative Education Blog, as it is a good useful education blog with valuable,current, relevant, interesting posts.



As a student of Education thier posts really interest me, such as, 'Back to school- how to motivate your class after summer break' and 'Do you have a student in your class with Anorexia?' to name only two of thier most recent posts. The Blog, as thier slogan reads ' practical teaching advice, ideas and opinion' which is exactly what they do.



Creative Education blog offers paid employment, but they only employ outstanding teachers who are looking to make an impact beyond the school gates by sharing expertise with followers and visitors of thier blog, which gives the blog validity and professionlism. You can also write a post for them as a 'Guest Post' following certian criteria, which is basically the post has to be useful and informative to the reader. It allows readers to easily navigate thier way around the blog and access thier previous blogs via catergories. Some of these include Behaviour, Assesment, Leadership, Ofsted inspections adn many more catergories. They also give access to lesson plans, supporting and enthusing teachers who use thier blog.

The blog allows for comments and  is reguarly updated, for these, and the above reasons, I would suggest this is a really good blog to follow and for a teacher or Education student I would suggest essential.

The journey so far.....

So Far...

Link to my first post.
This is an update on my journey so far. My first ever post, explained how I was on a journey to understanding Visual Communications and writing my reflections into my blog.



In my second post, I wrote about how
 I had discovered the differences and similaraties between websited and blogs. A quick recap, a website: has static content; is formal and usually has one way communication where as a blog: has changing content in chronological order; is informal and is interactive as audience can usually post a comment.



Also, I have told a story by images, produced an animation and created mind maps with Bubbl.us. Along the way I have learned how to blog, be creative and make my blog as interesting as possible,for my post concerning Rugby I intorudced a video to my clip, and I have added links into my posts for extra support or reading. I have added images to all of my blogs to make my blogs stand out and appeal to the reader. I recently changed the layout of my blog profile, including a different design and widening the layout to fit my blogs.I have enjoyed my blogging so far and found that it isn't as hard as I intially thought.

Mind Mapping- Bubbl.us

Bubbl.us

A mind map is a diagram used to visually outline information. A mind map is often created around a single word or text, placed in the center, to which associated ideas, words and concepts are added. Major categories radiate from a central node, and lesser categories are sub-branches of larger branches.Categories can represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items related to a central key word or idea.

Bubbl.us Tutorial (PDF)

Bubbl.us Video Tutorial




Bubbl.us is used to create mind maps. When you fist load up the website, you see a button in the middle of the page that says “Start Brainstorming”. You click that button and you’re immediately in editing mode for your new mind map. No sign up necessary unless you want to save it and you sign up. It is an excellent idea and if your like me and use mind maps after discovery it will become one of your favourite tools. I have 2 exams at the end of January and after using Bubbl.us for myself, I will create all my revision notes using it.

My Bubbl.us

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Animation!

2simple2animate

What is it?
2simple 2 animate is an application from 2simple.com enabling children of all ages to create thier own animations. The application enables the user to draw images, capture images from a webcam or scan images to the computer, additionally it encourages creativity within the user and can be used as a cross-curricular resource. For example, An English lesson, whereby the subject is story writing, the pupils could produce a story and then turned into an animation, deepening understanding and consolidating learning. There is a simple and an advanced level.

Experience with 2simple2animate
I voluntered in 2010/2011 in a year 5 class of a local primary school, during one lesson they were using 2simple 2 animate, they worked in groups of 3/4, they used plasticine to create characters and used the webcam to capture pictures, they moved the plastacine figures to create a story. They all really enjoyed using it and the had a lot of fun, but most importantly how enthusiastic and creative they were when they were using it.

Lesson Plans example for a Year 2 class - Lesson Plan Year 2

This is my first animation- A CatchPhrase, can you guess?

 

I had a lot of fun making my animations and I think that a lot of pupils of all ages would too. It is an easy-to-use application and I embedded the animations on to my blog through TinyPic.



     

And this is my second animation- '999'

Hi Honey I'm Home...

Visual Story Telling

After getting some inspiraton from Flkr 'tell a story in 5 frames' I am now ready to do my own visual story telling in 7 frames, with my friends as my actors.

 

Differences and Similarities: Website and Blog

To discover the differences and simialrities between a Website and a Blog, I had to do some research. I found the definitions on  FreeDictionary:

Website- 'A set of interconnected webpages, usually including a homepage, generally located on the same server, and prepared and maintained as a collection of information by a person, group, or organization.'

Blog- 'a shared on-line journal where people can post diary entries about their personal experiences and hobbies; "postings on a blog are usually in chronological order'

I found this infromation from  Credible Content

You can use both a blog and a website to publish on the Internet. The basic difference between a blog and a website is that on a website your main page remains static (it is constantly changing in case of a blog) and other pages contain mostly static information. On blogs — at least on majority of blogs — you can leave comments and interact with bloggers and other visitors. Most of the times this does not happen in case of a website although even on a website you can have online forums and discussion threads.
 
                                                                                    

Blog	Website
Content is regularly updated	Content is static
Not formal	Formal
Interactive	Usually one-way communication

My First Blog

For a class in University I have been asked to create a reflective blog, sharing experiences of the journey I have taken in discovery of the Visual communictaion with techonolgy world.

I am 22, and like most people of my age, I think that I am up to date with the techonolgy world. At the age of 10 I had a mobile phone, I have used computers throughout my schooling, but the internet and all its acessories is a big, sometimes dangerous, complex world, so I am sure that there will be many things during this blog that I am unaware of, and may find difficult to use. For instance, I have known of the word 'Blogging' for quite sometime, however, I have never really understood what it is or how to use it, or why people use it.

 But I must understand, as the reason for this blog is to understand Visual Communication with techonolgy and as someone who in a few years time wishes to be a teacher of primary education, I must learn the ways in which I can teach children using this method, as it is used on a day to day basis in schools to teach pupils and it is evolving all of the time. In the three years it will take me to become a teacher, I am sure that techonolgy would be much more adavanced than what it is now. A quote from another blog I have read inspired me to think like this, '...like it or not, we all have to adapt to the way techonolgy is shaping education.'