Storyboards

My previous post about digital storytelling was all about important elements of a story. Digital storytelling can be done by anyone, but captivating an audience takes thought and dedication. There is much planning that goes into telling stories digitally. First, one must decide on a story to tell. In this instance, my partner and I thought it would be nice to have students work on science and character traits. After you have an idea of what you want, you need to plan. An activity plan comes in handy as a teacher because it shows what TEKS will be learned through the making of this video and what the expected outcomes are. After this is when you create a storyboard. A storyboard is a visual map of what you want the video to look like. It shows what the each shot is about and how long it is. When all this is complete, it is time to make a movie! Make sure you keep up with the blog; movie coming soon!

Digital Storytelling

I hadn't learned much about digital storytelling before this class, but I am glad that it has been brought to my attention! It can be a unique project to use in the classroom that will allow students to enjoy what they are learning.

Digital storytelling is a form of film making that allows people to share parts of their life with others. There are seven elements in storytelling that are crucial to the art and three types that can be made. They are to be kept in mind when making these digital stories.

This is effective for student learning because they are more interested in their learning while they are doing something fun and different. It teaches them skills they would not have acquired doing other types of projects or regular work. It may be hard to do in a special education setting, but it is definitely doable.

Emerging Ed Tech

The emergingedtech technology resource ebook is a wonderful tool for educators. There was much to be learned and I will definitely be utilizing it in the future!

I discovered that games are scientifically proven to help students learn. We always knew games helped students, but so much research has proven why it’s helpful. I had no idea here were actual “game-based classrooms”. It was crazy to me that one of the steps in having one of those classrooms was to actually play the games before students got a chance to. Page 25 of the ebook began a list of game websites that worked great in the classroom. I found certain sites like funbrain, Discovery games, sheppard software, primary games, educational games on nobelprize, and childtopia. Of the ten provided, I would use these six more so than the others. There are seven more listed under that and I know I will keep this book for the purpose of going back and looking at them!

I’m glad there was an entire section on iPads. I recently got an iPad and am interested in how I can use it in the classroom. This chapter detailed the different things I could use it for. I like that there were reviews of different apps I could download and why they worked well in the classroom. I also like that it gave me choices. For example, there were four good apps for whiteboards on the iPad, why they were good, and why others were not good. I found it extremely useful that this book included a link to an app for students with special needs.

The picture and image editing chapter was interesting because the information learned there could be used outside of the classroom as well.

How will you use your new knowledge of technology in your classroom?

Lifelong Learners

Technology is being used more and more in the classroom. At early ages people begin using and learning on different types of technology. All students at the preschool I used to work at had scheduled computer time, even at the early ages of 18 months.

I have never used blogs in school. When I was in school we weren't exposed to blogs and on the opposite side of things, as a teacher I have never used blogs in the classroom. I have used blogs to find ideas to use in the classroom, though, and those have proven to be very resourceful.

As a special education teacher, I am not sure how well I can incorporate the use of student blogs. It might work best if maybe I had a blog for the classroom and students helped contribute to it by adding pictures and captions of their work and the things we're working on. They could talk about the things they're learning in the classroom as we go through the year.

Contributing to the classroom in this way moves the participants in this class from students to learners. David Warlick noted the differences between the two in a post on his blog. This will change the way my students participate in the classroom and increase their motivation.

Inquiry and Project Based Learning

Welcome to Ms. Lopez's blog! This blog will be an aid to me and others who are learning about incorporating technology in the classrooom.


As a special education teacher, inquiry and project- based learning may help my students gain a better grasp of subjects and topics. Making connections is important and is a good skill to learn. To understand how these are important to the classroom, we must first know what they are:

• Inquiry-based learning is seeking information by asking questions. It is aninvolveent of the students in their own learning. It is also the movement away from listening to and memorizing facts that can be regurgitated. With inquiry-based learning, students must create a question related to the topic inquiry to be explored, conduct an investigation, gather information, discuss the findings, and reflect on what was learned.

• Project-based learning is a system of learning that promotes the exploration of individual interests through research. It allows students to investigate real world problems and create solutions and ideas based on research and data. This is used in the classroom as a tool to facilitate inquiry skills and helps students become self-sufficient in the quest to answer questions. It builds intrapersonal skills, collaborative efforts, and meets the end goal of learning about topics through real world situations.

Inquiry and project based learning is important to my class and unit plan because they both call for students asking questions and students finding answers. Looking at the essential question "How do disasters impact communities?" there are many ways one can think of to implement inquiry and project based learning. Looking deeper at unit questions, inquiry and project based learning can be used to discover how disasters cause change, how natural disasters affect the world, and how disasters have changed history.