Google Maps

View Burnett River Water Pollution Sites in a larger map

Photo used in this example is a copyright free image found using google.

This is a small example of a virtual field trip. My Mother's year 7 class is studying water pollution in 4th term. We are going to travel to several places along the Burnett River and photograph visible signs of pollution. These photographs will then be uploaded like this one onto a my map in google maps. This is the basis of a virtual field trip.

In the classroom, google earth can be used to study the areas surrounding the Burnett River. Population density, industry, suburbanisation can all be seen on the interactive whiteboard. The images on google maps can then be viewed as well. The students are then able to draw conclusions by comparing and contrasting the statistics gained in google earth and the images from the virtual field trip.

The students will then be presenting there findings to their parents using a slide show presentation and a science experiment. The students will be taking complete control of organising and interactive audio visual presentation for their parents at the end of term.

Animation

We will be exploring still frame animation. The following is an awesome link that was discovered by a student I did animation with last term. I have never seen anything quite like it. I shudder to think how long it took to set up and do. Awesome grafitti artist though!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuGaqLT-gO4

Animation is a great way to engage people of all ages. We will be exploring still frame animation made with digital photographs. This is awesome, and I think that it has many applications in subjects such as science. However, the production of this type of animation can be time consuming and uses an awful lot of memory to produce, even if you downsize the images.

If you want to use animation as a form of exploration, art or drama type medium, I would prefer to use a form of vector animation where the file sizes are very small.

This is a web site that I just created a little animation on in about 5 mins. It free and would be great for developing little stick figure animations. These could explore, characterization, narrative, perspective, all sorts of things. They take up no memory and are easy to produce. If you can use microsoft paint, you can use this.

http://www.mediafire.com/?ywhnhmimnmx

The link above is to my Animation assessment project from last term. This animation was designed and constructed by me as an example of how animation can be used to assist in the teaching of reading skills. The original plans where to include a voice over as well so the animation could be played with or without a story teller. Flash also gives you the option to make things interactive as the button on the first screen does. Flash animations have great potential and could even be designed as a pick your own adventure storytelling tool. Flash is quite complex to use but I am sure that simpler versions fo this type of thing can be done using a program like movie maker.

Video

I have raided the family album and put together a little video from some pictures on my hard drive. Now movie maker itself is really easy to use. Just import your stuff and do the old drag and drop.

Audacity, free downloaded audio editing software was likewise really easy to use. Although I did only use the basic cut functions and as I play around with this sofware I am sure it was many more capabilities. I look forward to exploring this further as I get time.

The only small hickup I encountered was the song file from I tunes was an m4a and I needed to convert it to an MP3 to work with it in audacity. I found a free program online to do this called AltoMP3Gold and the link is http://www.download3000.com/download-altomp3-gold-count-reg-33828.html.



Enjoy my little 'Let's Fly A Kite' video.
(The audio backing sone 'Lets Go Fly A Kite' has been removed due to copyright)

Image manipulation with Picnik

Hello Hello Hello. PICNIK

I have found my new favourite web site. This is awesome and so easy to use. It has some really cool effects, you can do scrapbooking in it and its FREE!!! Woohoo.

Some of the really cool effects are only offered if you become a premium member, but for only about $30 Aus for a year, I think I might just have to sign up.

Here are a few of the photos I played around with. I put on the before and afters so you can see the effects a bit more clearly.

These are pretty funky and I have sent them thru to a teacher friend of mine who is doing Pop Art with her year 11 art class.

I love the 1960's chic!

This could have so many applications on education esp in art subjects. But i'm more excited about the applications for photography, I am very interested in increasing my skills in this area and it is now an education subject in many high schools.

Hi There Voki

Podcasts and Vodcasts

Hiya
I have just created my podcast site. Here is the link if your interested.

http://bub80.mypodcast.com/index.html


And this is my feed read address

http://feeds.feedburner.com/bubsblogfeed

My feeling so far.

I am feeling a little out of my depth and very behind at the moment. But I am sure as I get into the lingo it will become easier and I'll learn to love it. I am certainly enjoying learning about all the great recources avaliable to us online. It is amazing!

Here are the results for my learning style inventory. It is definitely accurate when it comes to the solitary aspect. I don't like to work alone. I am sure that will surprise you (ha ha) I am not really a talker. ; )

Visual 14
Social 17
Physical 10
Aural 20
Verbal 12
Solitary 5
Logical 13

Blogger

This is my first delve into the wonderful world of Blogging. I am very excited to learn about these new electronic tools and to imagine their application in my future career path.

In the future I am hoping to pursue a career in VET training and my Blog will reflect this. I am also studying some education courses and have several people close to me whom are teachers including my Mother. My Blog will also suggest uses in classrooms in both primary and high school.

As more and more training is offered online I can see how a Blog could really aid in an e-learning journey. As an example, if I was running an online training course for retail training, a Blog could be used to monitor each trainee involved. The trainee's could post snippets of their experiences and how they were feeling, giving great feedback on stress levels, how students where managing work loads and keeping an eye on any gaps that may appear in the training course. They could also post documents that they have created or photos associated with aspect of training such as visual merchandising. It is a less formal environment than an e-portfolio or a blackboard type site and could really encourage students to engage with their trainer and each other.