0 What do you want to CREATE today?

This site was past on to me by a fellow colleague and I thought it was definitely worth sharing. What do you want to CREATE today? is a fabulous student/teacher resource which simplistically identifies the various types of projects/products student may create.

This website, “Mapping Media to the Curriculum” by Wesley Fryer was created to accompany and support his eBook, “Playing with Media: simple ideas for powerful sharing.”  This book was written primarily for educators who are interested in learning more about digital communication.

The site provides the below menu for students to choose from and within each product, you may find the workflow, various tools to create the product, links to tutorials as well as lesson ideas and samples of each product.   What a fabulous site for both educators and students to refer too. Check it out~

0 The Multimedia Project Can Be a Pleasant Experience...Really!

Grrrrrr….Uggg!…..It’s common knowledge that some may regard the multimedia projects as a dreadful, heinous experience - but through detailed preplanning and limited student choices, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

This post will present ideas in an effort to provide a more pleasurable computer lab experience for all….really!

Preplanning

• Create timelines, rubrics and a checklist - share prior to the beginning of the project, so students are fully aware of your expectations.
• Assign group projects instead of individual projects - presenting 4 - 5 projects instead of 18 - 22 individual projects is far less time consuming.
• Incorporate a critical thinking question for one of the cards, by utilizing a higher level question strategy (i.e. If you could.., In your opinion, what is the relationship between…and…, Prepare a list of criteria you would use to judge…etc).
• Introduce/teach a lesson on citing sources and note taking.
• Discuss plagiarism/cut and paste plagiarism.
• Provide student examples of a well-designed project.
• Create a template and/or use a storyboard.
  
  

Student Planning - KISS – Keep It Super Simple!

• Students need to direct their focus from the really cool things the program can do - and direct on the content of the project itself.
• Everything should have a purpose and point to the content…Remind them that Content Rules!
• All drawings/graphics/animations/colors should support the content not upstage it.

Storyboard or template
Templates:

• Your students are early stage users.
• Younger students of 2nd grade or below.
• You are working within a limited time frame
  
  

Storyboard:

• Require students to use a storyboard on Manila paper, divided into sections.
• Require each group, or student, to complete a detailed storyboard prior to beginning work in the computer lab.
• Text should be saved in a word document if there is considerable information. Have students cut/paste word document into slides.
• All pictures should be, both, sketched and colored in detail.Include background and text color.
• Include placement of title/font/color of button(s).
• Students or groups with incomplete storyboards have the most trouble in the computer lab.

Limit Student Choices

• Offer a choice of 2 to 3 fonts to choose from (i.e. Times New Roman, Arial, Verdana).
• Use the same background for all slides.
• In PowerPoint, limit slide transition, object effects, Word Art style/color and sound, to only 2 - 3 choices.
• These limits will prevent the student from wasting valuable time checking out the different fonts and transitions.

Students in Lab

• Make sure students have everything they need (storyboard(s), notes, source information, etc).
• Request assistance from the specialist. The students and you are their number one priority—UTILIZE them!
• Present multimedia projects via videoconferencing. Presentation provides purpose and relevance to the multimedia project.