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Friday, March 26, 2010

CEP 812: Project Description Blog

An educational need or opportunity:
One issue I deal with is teaching my students how to thread the sewing machine, operate their sewing machine and sew specific stitches using proper techniques. It's very hard for me to demonstrate for them how to do something because they can't all gather around me and clearly see what's going on. In the past, I've created finished samples of what is expected from them, but that doesn't really show them HOW it's done. It just provides a visual of the final product. The videos address the varying needs of my learners:
1. Those who have trouble comprehending a text-only or text and 2-D image only set of instructions.
2. Those who have trouble with the visual-spatial relationships and need to see the 3-d images in motion
3. Those who need to be able to review a process several times to truly understand it.

How you plan to address this educational issue with technology:
I'm not entirely sure yet. I would like to create videos so that they can reference them over and over if needed. I feel that the book/pattern instructions are very difficult to understand (sometimes I don't even get what they are asking you to do!) and videos would be much easier. I think it would be helpful if I was able to project the videos at the beginning of class for all to see and provide explanation. Then, they could ask questions and I could clarify information. As the students then attempt the processes on their own, they could then use the videos as a reference.


Relevant research and resources (from the Internet and elsewhere):
- Brabec's article talks about multimedia/nonlinguistic representations and the positive effects of students partaking in these technologies through cooperative learning.
- Differentiated Instruction and Implications for UDL Implementation: Tracey Hall, Nicole Strangman, and Anne Meyer, http://www.cast.org/publications/ncac/ncac_diffinstructudl.html

A plan for the portion you will implement during this course and the portion you will implement after this course completes:
I'm currently brainstorming a project for my advanced sewing students to do for their capstone of the class. I think it would be great to potentially have these students create the videos because they are the ones that would really know what would be helpful for learning since they experienced it recently. (I learned to sew a long time ago, so I forget that certain knowledge shouldn't be assumed!) The students would complete these during class time and work in groups of 2-4. The equipment we have access to for creating the videos include several digital cameras. (I will also check with our Media Specialist to see if we can utilize any other tools she might suggest.) The videos that the students create will be initially saved to the students' school accounts. Eventually, we will then upload them to a variety of online resources, mostly for home viewing. Because our school blocks YouTube and almost every other video hosting resource (even when embedded in applications) we will likely store these files in a folder that can be accessed by the entire class for school use. I think it's important to still upload them to an online storage so that the students can view them at home and show friends/family their work. My hopes for the finished products are that they will:
- be detailed with verbal descriptions and imagery (possibly using Digital Storyboarding)
- be creative and unique (each group should employ their own personal touch throughout)
- utilize the concepts of design that we learned early on in the course throughout the tutorial via their graphics and camera shots (design principles and elements such as balance, line, proportion, scale etc.)
After this course completes, I would like to continue this work over the summer to create additional videos for various projects for my students.

How your project addresses the four common places of education:
Someone teaching: Me + the students when they create the videos (they become the "teacher" as well)
Someone learning: Current students and future students
Some subject matter: Sewing (threading the machine, sewing stitches, cutting patterns, ironing, etc...)
In some setting: Sewing Lab

Sunday, March 7, 2010

CEP 800: Digital Story

Click here to view my digital story...