Fusion Finds

My daughter brought home a “foldable” filled with notes on mathematical thinkers, perfect content for a Photostory slideshow. I put her to work, assisting me in preparing for my first Digital Storytelling workshop.

Download Mathematical Thinkers

We found Photostory, free software from Microsoft, very easy to use. The program leads you through the steps of creating a digital story. Recording a separate audio file for each slide worked great. Customizing the motion and adding text was easy. The provided music options are a great time saver for those not wanting to find and import music. If you can’t find any tunes to your liking, you can import you own music. The trickest part was creating title and credits slides, since the program doesn’t provide options for creating such a slide. We used PowerPoint to create a credit slide, saving it as a jpg. We then imported this jpg into Photostory, just like we did all the other images.

We uploaded the production to Archive.org, because it is free and not blocked by the school’s filter. Then I used the Embed Media button in Edublogs to embed the production in this blog post. If you intend to embed the production in a blog post, be sure to click the Settings button during the Save Your Story step of Photostory, and choose “Profile for computer -1 (320×240).” The default setting is too large.

tag: edtech, k12, Photostory, PowerPoint, Digital Storytelling, Archive.org, math

My daughter and I are participating in Project BudBurst. First, I downloaded the Project BudBurst Activity Guide. We then used the provided map to select a plant that we hoped to find in the lot across the street. We needed to find a specimen that hadn’t budded yet, or at least not bloomed. After printing a field guide and locating our plant, we determined the latitude and longitude of the plant. We recorded our observation with a photo, a description of the weather, and the phenological stage of the plant (first bud burst, first leafing, first flower, and seed or fruit dispersal). We will record our observations each day, studying the timing of the life cycle events. The data that we report online will be compared to historical records to document the effects of climate change.

The site for this online collaborative project includes options for classroom participation including Teacher resources and student games (K-6).

Image Credit: Takshi* CC: by-nc-nd
tag: edtech, k12, Project BudBurst, plants, life cycle, phenological stage, science, collaborative project

A couple of my favorite tools just made some upgrades.

Picnik, the online image editor, is now offering all their features for free, on an ad-supported version. Previously some of the cool features were disabled on free accounts, requiring a $24.95 annual subscription for full access. As long as the new ads in the footer can be ignored or don’t feature provocative content, this is great news. Premium users now have the benefits of an ad-free experience, and a few other features.

Google Docs: Documents now has a new edit toolbar. The changes are cosmetic and office-like. I’m glad the “Check Spelling” has been moved to the toolbar.

New Toolbar:

Old Toolbar:

tag: Picnik Google Docs K12 edtech photos documents

During the holiday, we attended several parties and family gatherings. As I captured the fun with my camera, everyone wanted copies of the pictures. As I promised to send them, I realized the images were too many and too big for email attachments. Burning them to a CD and sending it snail mail would work. Fresh in my mind was also the conversation with my brother-in-law about backing up family photos. The more I thought about it, I decided a Flickr Pro Account was the way to go.

For about $25 a year, I can upload all my photos at their best quality, set them as private, to be shared with friends and/or family, or public. The images can then be downloaded, prints ordered, even coffee mugs created by me, and designated family and friends. I then also have a complete backup online of all my photos. I’ve been using a free account for months. A free account limits how many photos I could upload and display, and prohibits the download of the original file. So, as a Christmas gift to myself, I signed up for a Flickr Pro account.

Looks like Lee and Sachi LeFever of CommonCraft had some of the same ideas when they made this video.

Download Online Photo Sharing in Plain English

On my Flickr webpage you will find a handout and a series of screencasts on how to use it.
tags: Flickr photosharing LeFever CommonCraft photos

[bubbleshare 106755]
Willard Staff: If you are not able to participate in one of the BubbleShare workshops this month, or would rather learn on your own timetable, you are in luck. The Fusion: BubbleShare webpage offers a handout and short video tutorials (screencasts) to lead you through creating and sharing photo slideshows. And, there’s more! If you want to earn 1 Salary Advancement Workshop hours while you work, you can enroll in the free, online professional development, Moodle course: Bubbleshare. This course uses the handout and screencasts on the Fusion webpage to lead you through the steps. Work at your own pace, when it fits in your schedule, from any computer with Internet access. Just in time learning, at your convenience!

Don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions or suggestions. I’m happy to provide you with additional assistance.
tag: edtech k12 Bubbleshare photos slideshow professional development