CEDO530 Week 2

This week’s work took forever.  It’s now 6:30 PM on Sunday and this is all I’ve done for the past 3 days.  I can’t wait to get off the computer and put it away.  The dogs aren’t too thrilled about this computer right now either.  Maybe I put too much into it.......  Even though I'm anxious about all the time, overall I'm really enjoying this class.  I like watching all the stories in the different programs.

Voicethread was a new program for me this week.  I know we previewed it in a previous class, but this was the first time I had to actually use it.  This program allows you to add communication (text, audio, video) to a presentation.  I was really excited about the program when we discussed it in class, and I think it has a lot of potential.  In creating my voicethread, I wound up creating several copies of the same presentation.  Oops - now I have to try and figure out how to delete the extras.  I did learn, the hard way, that if you use the audio feature and try to use it for 2 pictures (meaning start on 1 and then advance to the 2^nd), when the audio is done it goes back to the 1st of the 2 pictures.  This made for a really awkward presentation – one that needs to be deleted.  Unfortunately, sometimes we learn the best from our mistakes.  Some ways I could see using this program would be with writer’s workshop.  I especially like this way of presenting for students that don’t mind reading their work aloud, but don’t want to get up in front of the room to present.  This would also be a good program for those students who are perfectionists.  By doing the work before everyone hears and sees it they will then be less anxious when doing the actual presentation.  Ooh, also good for special education students that are in inclusion classrooms for the very same reasons. 

I’m really enjoying Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds.  So far, I like his principles of making Zen like presentations.  While I like them, I think it will be more difficult to implement the principles.  It’s not just so much me making the changes, but also everyone else’s expectations of a presentation.  We almost need to move towards a presentation cultural movement.  Wouldn't it be great if everyone, myself included, did presentations like they were telling a story?

I'm having a lot of fun with Posterous.  I have to try and limit myself on the amount of pictures I'm uploading.  Posterous reminds me of the movie "Julie and Julia."  In the movie, Julie is working her way through a Julia Child's cookbook and blogging about it as she goes along.  I really like Posterous, and at the same time I’m a little nervous, and excited, about what Louis has in store for us to do with it. :)  Any ideas how this can be used with students?  How about students that don’t have access to email?