Expressions in English

Spreading the Word about Blogs

I recently presented a seminar about blogging at a conference in Western Australia.  I am convinced that this type of technology tool can really enhance the learning experience for students in our schools.

Those of you who are visiting this blog for the first time, welcome, and please feel free to explore all of the extra stuff that is located on the navigation bar to the right of the screen.

Please follow the links to my classes and to the students’ individual blogs.  Once there, I would encourage all of you to leave some comments and become part of the interactive process that is an essential element of blogging.

Remember, if you want to start blogging, but don’t know how, contact me via the contact page and I will do what I can to support and help you.

Our Learning is Animated!

This term (Term 4) we are focusing on the topic of Animation.  Students have been exploring a range of different animation types, such as line drawing, stop motion (clay etc) and computer animation.

After completing a short research project on an animation topic of their choice, students spent some time trying to create a line drawing animation using small flick books.  Some of these went well beyond my expectations – great stuff kids!

The main project for this term is to develop and create a computer animation using line drawing or stop motion techniques.  Students will be able to create drawings using a range of computer software choices, or use digital cameras to take photos of clay creatures they will make!

These will then be transferred into a software program called Animation Shop for the final compilation of their animation.  I hope to put some of the best examples up on this blog once they are all finished – stay tuned!

Radio Shows? Done and dusted.

The editing on Garage Band wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.  The main problem was that students occasionally still used last names, or mentioned the school name, which I had asked them not to do for privacy reasons.  This meant that the editing took a little longer than anticipated, but the actual program on the Mac was very easy to use.

I am planning to put the class radio shows onto each of the class blogs…just depends on space and file size and download issues…what a steep learning curve it has been!