Xtranormal Presentation

Dr. Jones

Xtranormal Presentation

I can't tell you how much fun I had planning this presentation! I got to play around making movies, cartoons, and writing scripts! Drama and Art were always my favorite subjects and these programs: Xtranormal, Animoto, and Goanimate are so easy to use. 

I was first introduced to Xtranormal when my practicum teacher used it to create a  fake video conference with a Ear expert. We were working on the Hearing and Sound unit and had some science experts come in to review the program. The kids loved how both my partner teacher and I got to interact with the Ear doctor. She had the program divide the kids into groups and explain the tasks that they had to do. It created such a fun environment from the very start of the lesson that the students were "hooked" until the end and didn't want to go out for recess!

Xtranormal  is very well designed but beware if you are a perfectionist because you can spend hours going over and adding to your cartoon.There are tons of different styles to choose from (cuddly bears and crash test dummies ). If you want to go for the more detailed graphics it could end up costing you. However, as educators we can send an e-mail to their customer service address and get all the fees dropped. I was so impressed with this choice on their part, because this really is a great educating tool. I would caution anyone from letting their grade 4 class go on this site alone or unsupervised just because it does have an age restriction (pg13). I believe they chose this because you can view other people's movies and some of them would definitely not be appropriate for young children. For student use without constant supervision I would recommend  Goanimate because it is also easy to use and especially created for a younger age group. I loved the little props that you can use in Goanimate. It is not 3 dimensional like Xtranormal but it does the trick.

WEBSITES:

http://www.xtranormal.com

http://animoto.com

http://goanimate.com

Mexico2011

Mexico2011

Guest speakers fron the Calgary Catholic Board

Build 21century learning environments

-supporting one another in our practice
 -supporting teachers
-going from the classic lecturer to listener to active collaboration 
-Aisi = Alberta government help for teachers
-searching vs research
I love the term elbow partners, very creative way of saying turn to the people beside you. 
I am pleased to hear that the government did not cut this program completely, though a 50% drop in funding is substantial. The Literacy and numeracy is exactly what my partner teacher was trying to tell me when I was doing my practicum; they are beyond the subjects of Math or English just concentrating on the skills. Need to use technology to support tasks that are interesting. I love the commercial that one of the speakers ended with to illustrate the point that technology can only be used when it makes sense. The man kills a fly with his ipad and smashes the ipad far worse than the fly.
I love the points the speaker is making about the loss of skills in handwriting and wrist and finger strength. I noticed it in my first practicum and especially when I tried to get the students to sew a Christmas craft that I remember doing in grade 3. I was working with grade 5 students and they could not sew for the life of them; the project took all day. If someone had worked on fine motor skills when they were younger or even if I had thought to do some work before then it would have helped them to be more successful.

Be Positive!

I was unaware that showing library movies was illegal in the classroom.I really appreciated the link to the movie data base.