Asia's Digital Poem

I just viewed Asia's Digital Poem about "How Much is a Life Worth?". This digital poem was powerful and I know will reach out to my students in East Harlem. The article of how Asia's digital poem came to be is on an archived section of Voices of Urban Education. She did this project with Digital Underground Story Telling for Youth (DUSTY) located in Berkeley, California. I can't wait to show this to my students in the fall to show them the possiblities of digital storytelling.

I also found this insightful article about Co-authoring identity: Digital storytelling in an urban middle school by Alan Davis. It mentions Digital Underground Story Telling for Youth (DUSTY) and other afterschool programs. A must read for anyone interested in creating digital storytelling in their school.

Digital Storytelling as a Reflective Portfolio

I was searching for more interesting information on digital storytelling and I came across this this website electronicportfolios.org created by Helen Barrett. Dr. Barrett's paper on "Digital Sotries in ePortfolios:Multiple Purposes and Tools" is a must read I really like the linking of digital storytelling and electronic portfolio. She used her grandaughter Victoria and made a digital story using only her voice and iPhoto to create the story. There are other interesting examples of digital stories on this site that have inspired me.

Gloria will be happy to know that this site made us of mapping to get the point across.about ePorfolio and digital storytelling. I love that on the map there is an arrow pointing to digital storytelling and it says"Strategies that promote Intrinsic Motivation to maintaing the process for Lifelong Learning. " That to me is the goal of digital story telling with our students.

This site also has a page about "Creating ePortfolios with Web2.0 Tools". It is a very useful website. This was all so foreign 6 weeks ago and now I really can see the possiblites. I guess you can place me in the Lifelong learning catergory anyone want to join me.

Once my collbrative technology digital storytelling project is completed my students will have their first electronic portfolio. Hopefully something the students will look back at with a smile Iknow mine will be from ear to ear.

Digital Storytelling and Apples iMovie

For the collabrative technology project my team and I want to make possible an iMovie. Today while searching I found this directory of additional digital story resources from the University of Houston College of Education I mentioned in my very first posting on Digital Storytelling. Did I mention I love that site. That led me to this site about iMovies in Education. Today I tried my hand at the opening title to the iMovie about the Sistine Chapel project. I worked with 3 fifth grade students who seemed more interested in producing a PowerPoint presentation on this project. Who knows maybe we will do both. I must say that they are very motivated about digitilizing this project and so am I.

Introducing Surface by Microsoft

Professor Ross Todd emailed us the other day about the new Surface computer that is being developed by Microsoft. I am in awe of this new computer and I bit shocked that it is Microsoft and not Apple that is producing this innovation in the the digital world we live in. We discussed in our IST 611 class how this would be great to have in our schools for the little ones, ESL and disabled students. I can envision my library tables will one day become equipped with Surface computers and the PS108 library will be changed forever. I want to thank Professor Todd for making us dreamers of what our world can become.

Digital Storytellling A 10 Step Tutorial and Me

On the website http://www.techsoup.org I found this cool article about "Digital Storytelling: A Tutorial in 10 Easy Steps". I also found on the BBC Wales website a link to digital storytelling. The school shoebox stories are made by students. I need to explore these sites since I will be creating digital stories for my collabrative technology project for IST 611. The topic of digital storytelling appeals to me and I see it as a great tool to motivate my teachers to incorporate and intergrate technology in the classroom. Kelly and I have two great teachers in my school collabrating with us on this topic. They created awesome projects. The first project is a 7th grade special education class that created a poetry quilt. The second project is a 5th grade bilinigual class that studied Michelangelo, recreated the Sistine Chapel ceiling and wrote reports on his life. . I will keep you posted on our progress so wish us luck on our new and exciting project.

Social Bookmarking, the NYCDOE Library Services and ME

Social Bookmarking is the buzz everywhere. This was the big topic at New York City Department of Education Library Services conference this past May. Unfortunately I was unable to attend the conference so I contacted the office to ask where I could find the resources that were distributed. I was kindly directed to the NYCDOE Library Services website which I visit often and told to go to the professional development link to locate the materials. I opened up the powerpoint "Using Social Tools to Promote Literacy". It had some great web 2.0 resources that all related to libraries. I was unfamiliar with these sites so I decided to check them out. Here are a few I thought were interesting.

Springshare

EduBlogs

Visitmyclass

This site let me to a blog "A New Adventure" that I found very interesting. If you get a chance check it out the last post was about Skype.

Another site that related to this week's topic LibraryThing was
GoodRead

A few weeks ago I didn't even know these sites exsisted now my problems is with some many wonderful social bookmaking sites how can I keep up with them all!

Digital Storytelling and Teacher Tube

TeacherTube is a wonderful website. I have to thank Margie for posting this site in the favorite links section on her blog. As I searched this site it occurred to me that TeacherTube and digital storytelling go hand in hand. Once you create your digital story this is a safe site for it to be seen on. Of course you must have your students' parents sign waivers for their work to be posted on the web. Teachers must also sign waivers to have their work appear on the web. You can obtain these waivers at the NYCDOE Division of Instructional Information Technology website. Here is a digital story by 2 third grade students telling of their special places. This video "When I Grow Up" shows the importance of how we must forge ahead with Web 2.0. I found this video so simplistic yet so powerful. This topic is motivating me to want to get busy with my students in learning and creating our own digital story. I even found a third grade teacher in New Zeland that produced a digital story advocating on why students should blog. TeacherTube is a high quality Web 2.0 site that is useful for teachers and students.

RFID we ain't in Mayberry

When I first saw the initials RFID I couldn't help but think of the show Mayberry RFD that was a spinoff of the Andy Griffith Show. Yes I am dating myself although I was a young child when that show first hit the airwaves in 1968.

Before this week I had no idea what RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) was. Who knew that I use it everyday when I cross the George Washington bridge. I also see it used at the Mobile station in the form of speedpass or in cars that have OnStar. To learn a little bit more about this topic I began to search the web and came across this website RFID journal, it offers news and information about RFID and its many business applications.
http://www.rfidjournal.com/

There are articles there about many public and academic libraries across the world that are implementing RFID technology. When public libraries reopened in New Orleans they chose to use RFID. http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/2460/1/1/ What was seemed like a foreign language to me has now become somewhat familar and could very well be an active part of my future in library services. On the downside the article states that library went from a staff of 4 librarians to just 2 librarians.

While reading this online journal it amazes me how many different business implement this technology. I just read in article on the RFID journal lhttp://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/3383/1/1/
that Karstadt, Germany’s largest fashion retail is getting involved with RFID. The article stated that “During the pilot, Karstadt will implement RFID in three separate processes: tracking goods from the time of arrival at a store until the point of sale; performing and managing inventory; and locating goods to facilitate price changes. The uses for this technology is endless. It also got me thinking if companies can track what is being sold and a customer purchases their items with a credit card then companies can track that person too. It all seems a little big brother to me, remember 1984? Is anyone else worried???

VoIP+VideoConferencing=Opportunities in Educational Uses

The topic last week in IST 611 was Voice over Internet Phone. I new a little about the topic since I do use Cablevision to provide my phone service. There are many other companies out there that also provide this service such as Skpe and Vonage. This could be a great way to communicate with my husband Dietmar's family in Germany. If you have a webcam on your computer then you have move to the age of the Jetsons where you can see who you are speaking with. This too could be utilized in schools. My daughter's kindergarten technology teacher just went to Alaska on a research expedition. He kept in touch with students on his blog JacobTanenbaum
He stated that the ship he was on had advanced technology. He also video conferencing to have a converstation with a third grade class. I think that is amazing. I can see the many educational uses for VoIP with my students in East Harlem once I think outside the box.

IST 611 Digital Storytelling

For the next few weeks I will be blogging about Digital Storytelling. This topic holds great interest for me. I can see many wonderful stories that once were told orally now can move forward to the 21st century in the digital environment. I was surfing the net and came upon this definition Digital Storytelling is the modern expression of the ancient art of storytelling. Digital stories derive their power by weaving images, music, narrative and voice together, thereby giving deep dimension and vivid color to characters, situations, experiences, and insights. - Digital Storytelling Association retrived from http://electronicportfolios.com/digistory/faq.html#1 on June 2,2007
I can image the possiblities of our students using this format to tell their stories especially students that have special needs. Students can create digital stories in all their subject areas. A website that I found useful was the University of Houston College of Education http://www.coe.uh.edu/digital-storytelling/examples.htm. When you get a chance check this site out and let me know what you think. I look forward to hearing you thoughts on this topic.