Learning

Adobe Voice

In addition to the workshop on Building a PLN, I am also leading a workshop on using Adobe Voice in the classroom as a tool for students to use their voice to tell their story.

‘Story’ doesn’t just mean fairytale.  It could include:

  • reflection on a book they have read
  • description of the theme or characters in their books
  • explanation of how something happened in history
  • description of a person, place, or thing
  • personal narration of their own learning journey
  • a guessing game about themselves using their voice and images of importance to them
  • a summary of their learning within a unit
  • a weekly check-in in which they reflect on goals they have set themselves
  • recording their voice in a foreign language as they describe images
  • timelines of events in history
  • narration from the perspective of a character or iconic historical figure

The options are virtually endless!

I have been using Voice with students from EC5/6 (5 and 6 year olds) to Grade 4 students (9-10 year olds) and all have been really successful in making powerful presentations.

If you are unfamiliar with Voice, I would highly recommend giving it a go.  It is a free iPad app, and it is beautifully designed with loads of functionality.

In the spirit of sharing new tools,  I have created an Adobe Voice ‘lesson’ using Blendspace.  This used to be known as EdCanvas and I posted about it last year. It can, in it’s most basic form, be a place to store content related to a lesson or unit – videos, websites, images, documents.  Dig a bit deeper and you will see that once you create a lesson, you can share it with a class of students (student and teacher accounts are free).  Students can give the content you post a ‘thumbs up’ or they can add comments about their understanding (or lack thereof).

Click on the image below to go to my Blendspace Lesson on Adobe Voice:

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Learning, Presentations

Building a PLN

I am sharing some ideas with teachers at my school about building a Personal Learning Network. I have put together a Haiku Deck to summarize my main points and then expanded on these in a Smore Flyer.

Part of my job as a Learning Technology Teacher is sharing tools with teachers so I decided to use two ways of publishing that I don’t always use.

Smore is a great way of putting a lot of multi-media information neatly into one spot. They offer free accounts which do not expire but do have a 5 flyer limit.  Educators can sign up for $59USD per year which gives access to many education themed backgrounds, a default private setting, and unlimited flyers (so your kids can go crazy and make flyers too!).

Haiku Deck is a piece of  presentation software with a Presentation Zen feel.  It is minimalist in design and won’t allow you to fill your slides with thousands of words.  Instead, when you type in a few key words or a sentence with your main point, Haiku Deck will offer you pictures that match those words for you to choose as your background images.  All the images are licensed for Creative Commons use. The only hitch with this one is that our tech department can’t help us with the firewall situation that is blocking access to the images via the iPad app at school.  😦

Any suggestions for things to add to the resources below for people new to creating a Personal Learning Network? Your feedback is welcome! Click on the images below to go to the Flyer and the Presentation:

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PLN