Two websites that might be interesting

I just came across these two sites--haven't had a chance to explore either in any detail, but they both look really interesting!

Free software for making animated movies:
http://www.xtranormal.com/

An online hosting site where adoloescents can post their writing and media work, and view and respond to he work of others:
http://www.youthvoices.net/

Site for Publishing Stories

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone knew of any other publishing sites for fiction stories. A fifth grader in my class has written some fiction stories and would like to continue writing them and I introduced him to FanFiction, where he can publish his stories and others can comment. Is there any other sites that he could utilize? Thank you!

Teresa's video

Hello everyone--

Here's the link to Teresa's published video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUapJa6k_Gs

She's so very disappointed about not having been able to show it to you in class, but I'm sure you'll all watch it and appreciate it very much. It's a lovely account of Teresa's life and the things that are important to her (I especially like the bit where she's at Montclair Uni!).

Well done, Teresa! And thank you for sharing something so personal with us!

It was great seeing everyone's work!

Here's the link to my video just in case you guys want to get scared lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTAXg6_QzOg

Inspire Change

Hello Classmates sorry this is a bit late. But here is my companion piece. I hope you enjoy this. http://inspirechange1.blogspot.com/

The Summer of George Awareness Group link!

Sorry everyone, the previous link does not really work, so I am posing it here again. You may access the Summer of George Awareness group and the video trailer here

The Summer of George Awareness Group

Hello everyone! So here is the link to the Summer of George Awareness group, where you can also access the video trailer. Enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/#/group.php?gid=194489822225&ref=ts

Here is my video on Romeo & Juliet. You can view it on my Facebook page - Juliet Capulet:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?ref=name&id=100000522708474


You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzrTsw-RqsA

Medi 503: Kevin's Revenge

Here is the link to Kevin's Revenge:

http://www.facebook.com/#/video/video.php?v=1286870978696&ref=mf

Wacky Wonka Remix (Kelly, Erika, & Noelle's Project)

Here is our video & link to Charlie's facebook page (we have it set that you don't need to be friends with Charlie in order to be his friend). Enjoy!

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?v=info&ref=profile&id=100000439977364 (or search for "Charlie Bucket")

YouTube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvVC2vDq2sE

The Art of Multitasking

I just saw this commercial and it reminded me of Kevin Leander’s case study of students multitasking in the classroom. Because many schools have turned digital, students are now required to carry and use their laptops throughout the day. Leander explores the case study of Mia who uses her laptop in a class. She pays attention and participates, but also writes a blog on Xanga at the same time. When her teacher walks by, she quickly opens a Word document and types a sentence regarding the class discussion. Because Mia can multitask and get away with it she will use the computer how she does at home and not in the way her school has intended.

This commercial is very similar. A man in a meeting “invites” Facebook onto his phone. Because of the capabilities of his phone (which the commercial is aimed to promote), he is able to open an Excel document so no one will see that he is trying to access a “fun” social networking site at the office. His fellow coworkers approvingly look on at him.

See everyone tomorrow. I am exited to see the final projects!

My video project can be seen here.

Share with you my movie project: My Smart Dog Bella

Finally I published my final version of movie project on Youtube:

Also, if you would like to be friends with Bella Yorkie, please invite him as your friend on Facebook. His email is mathsciencecoach@gmail.com

MSU email

When I entered my MSU email today, all of my folders are empty. Does that happen to all of you?

Project

Hello Classmates! Its been a while but I am sure that you all have been very busy (to say the least) This link is a shortcut to Deb & my project on Change. We are very proud of it, we hope you enjoy it as well. We've spent countless hours perfecting it-and this is as good as it is going to get! Whew!!! It was a ton of fun but nerve wracking as well especially for a Gemini. Is been has been posted on you tube (wow what an ordeal that was) , Twitter, and Face book. We hope it develops a following. Enjoy!

Just to wrap up - I have been exposed to a variety of different forums to conceptualise ideas for not only my personal stuff but ideas that I will integrate into my classroom. My only regret was that my video was just a tad too long for Voice Thread. I really wanted to post it on there. I will hopefully post something in the future. I have discovered so many different websites. Some on my own some with assistance. Thanks Dr. K and fellow classmates for all the suggested readings, postings, websites, and various links-they were amazing.

Do They Delete the Animal's Facebook Page?

This is the day due for conceptual essay and Google Docs journal. I can't believe the time runing so soon.
I created a faux Facebook for my dog Bella who is the main character in my movie project. However, I heard people said they will delete your Facebook page if the owner is an animal. Is that true?I post some of Bella's pictures in his photo album. It is very funny to do so.
The content in the Facebook only can be shared with invited friends. How can I send its URL to Dr. Knobel? Unless Dr. Knobel creates a faux Facebook page
particularly for MEDI 503 and then we can become friends.

Wrap Up: what I learned from MEDI 503

This class, MEDI 503, is almost going to the end, but our learning new literacy with new technologies is just started and will keep going and going….
To exam what new things I learned from this class, those can be:
● knowing new technological tools to exploit in real life, including
● Windows Movie Maker and its knowledge and skills to edit video clips and
produce personal movies
● to convert a video project into a movie video and publish it on the web, such as
Youtube and Facebook.
● to make use of Google Docs for a personal journal or a collaborative tool in the
classrooms.
● conceptually thinking more deeply about copyright issues and fair use of copyright
materials in regards to the cyber environment.
● to be aware of internet privacy issue and how to protect personal data being abused via
web.
● knowing what is “remix” or “remix culture” in terms of digital media, and what we can
remix and what we can’t.

Thank you, Ms. Knobel, for introducing us the variety of new technological tools to be used especially for teaching. There still a lot of new knowledge and interesting tools can be learned in the future, which I don’t get a chance to explore within this short time. Some of the tools are very useful, for example, to use Windows Movie Maker to make movies. I am thinking to run an afterschool club to introduce students how to use free video editor to make their own movies and post them on the web.

In the beginning of this semester, I was so nervous about making a narrative movie and writing a “conceptual essay”, as well as using Google Docs to create a “theory-and-learning journal.” Now, I am very confident with those tools and almost finished all of the assigned projects for this class.

Finish Movie to convert a movie project into a movie video

This midnight, I tried to fix some problems in my movie project. Those problems include that the music imported from outside became not working, and the video motion became interrupted and delayed. I assume these happen because I have saved so many versions of movies that I ran out of computer memory. After I deleted many outdated movie files, and downloaded again music pieces, these problems still exist. I decided to put my movie onto Youtube to see whether it is my computer’s problem. However, when I uploaded my movie onto Youtube, Youtube rejected it because of invalid format. I thought it should not have any problem to post Windows Movie Maker movie onto Youtube. I search solution from internet and finally I found my answer from Youtube sites: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIA7pkNFJrA&feature=related
and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOE-Sx9QvYA
These two youtube videos solved my problems, and then my movie project became a movie video and can be uploaded onto Youtube or Facebook. Meanwhile, the good news is the music track and motion problems in my movie project were solved too. Now in my movie project, music is played well and motion is moving smoothly. I love try and error because I learn from it. I need to jot down this experience to share with others and for my own reference. It was midnight,and I was content to go to sleep then.

Audacity

Has anyone downloaded or used Audacity, the free software (http://audacity.sourceforge.net) to edit audio? From what I understand, it's similar to GarageBand for Macs. I read about it in one of the New Lit article on podcasting by Chris Shamburg. He recommends it highly and says it's fairly easy to use. Just thought I'd see if any of you had any input before I downloaded it. Thanks!

"Save the Date" as a text message?

Hi there,
I just received a "Save the date" as a text message for a friend's wedding in April.
Is this the way of the future or just a ploy to save money? haha
thoughts?

-Stephanie Morales

Final Reflections

Now that our semester is coming to a close I just wanted to share my final thoughts regarding this course. I've said it in my journals, but I can't say it enough how different this course was in comparison to the others I've experienced during graduate school. For the first time, I actually felt like a "student" again, experimenting and exploring the world of the unknown. Despite my frustrations with Movie Maker, I am as I'm sure many of you are, so proud of all my group has accomplished. I've never "bragged" so much about a project or assignment, as I have been doing with our re-mix video. I showed my group's re-mix video to my class, and they are anxious to learn more about Movie Maker themselves. I hope that similar to my experiences, many of us have truly learned a great deal about becoming more aware of tapping into "Mindset 2" and the World of Web 2.0 and incorporating those ideals into our classrooms to better understand our students.

Erika Pavlecka 12/2/09

Lolcats iPhone App/Memes

Last night as I was watching TV, a commercial came on that caught my attention. The commercial showed images of the Internet meme lolcats. Lolcats is a website where humorous pictures of cats are submitted and captions are added to tell viewers what the cats may be thinking. Also, viewers can rate each picture on a scale ranging from awful to excellent. The captions are written in interesting ways. For example one picture shows a cat sleeping with the caption “I’m in ur bed zleeping.” Another picture shows a cat with a completed Rubik’s cube with text “dere, all done I thought u said dis was hard?” Words are shortened as they would be in instant messages or texts.

The narrator in the commercial stated these cats have been pushed too far (exploited by lolcats) so they decided to retaliate. Basically this television channel created an iPhone application where the lolcats became “meowcenaries” and have to save their president from the Evilcat.

In the text memes are described as “contagious patterns of cultural information that are passed from mind to mind and directly shape and propagate key actions and mindsets of a social group.” Good memes have distinct characteristics. They include longevity (how long they last and are passed to additional people), fidelity (they resonate with viewers) and fecundity (the ability and speed in which they are replicated).

In this commercial there was no real mention of what the lolcats website was, but it was funny to me, and I’m sure others who have seen the site and know the popularity of this Internet meme. Here is a screenshot of the game and its description.

Experimenting with FanFiction.net

The concept of "Participation" that I am exploring for the final essay has led me to make a new leap and join FanFiction.net. Today I have published my very first story - actually, the very first chapter of my very first FanFic. As I mentioned in my earlier journal on fanfics, I wanted to explore the possibility of creating an alternate version of a story as this was not directly described in the section of the text. So I have begun a story entitled "The March Into Darkness," which will track Anakin Skywalker (of Star Wars lore) in his early career from the time he is roughly 18 years old until the time that he becomes Darth Vader. The first chapter I have written reveals how Anakin meets Obi-Wan Kenobi, and trust me when I say that it is much more than the simple hand-shake exchanged in the movie Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace!

From the little I've seen of it, FanFiction.net is an incredibly well put-together website. I first had to create a login name and password. I also needed to accept the terms and conditions of the site and its policy regarding posting stories. I was able to upload my story into the site using a tool called "Document Manager." Once the story is uploaded, I selected the "New Story" feature in order to publish the work. I needed to provide a title and short summary of the story. I then needed to provide the language that the story is in (i.e. English) as well as a rating (i.e. T, which I think means suitable for teenagers). I then provided two genres (Science Fiction and Tragedy), chose the category "In-Progress" as opposed to "Complete" as I will add more chapters later, set the world to "Original," and designated two of the characters used to Obi-Wan K. and Anakin S. I then chose my saved story to publish and selected the option "Publish New Story." A message appeared letting me know that the story was successfully published but that it may take 4-8 hours for the story to be available through the search engine. I later received an e-mail with a direct link to the story, so you may access it here. In case the link does not work, the URL is http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5549787/1/.

It is exciting and a little bit scary to open up your writing for the world to see and pick apart through commentary. I hope that someone does find my work and provide some feedback. I will continue to track this and let you know the results. I also plan to try reading a few other stories in the same genre to get others' ideas of the Star Wars universe and leave some comments for them as well. This is essentially online FanFiction networking at its finest. Hopefully I will be able to make a few contacts so that I will become better known in the world of FanFiction.net, and then this could lead to more viewers/readers. Fanfiction is a terrific example of participation because it encompasses different levels of participation. There is the authorship end of the spectrum, but then there is also feedback and networking. It is a great place to promote literacy in both reading and writing as other people who are more experienced readers and writers can leave tips for those who are just learning.

This would be a wonderful tool to use in the classroom if there was a way to make sure that the participating students were protected from potentially giving out too much information. Perhaps the teacher could instruct the students on how to set up accounts so as not to provide too much information. Or perhaps FanFiction.net could accommodate schools by offering separate secure sites where students can post work and then choose who can see that work and who can comment on it. There are some good security measures already in place on the site. For example, users can choose not to display e-mail addresses or locations on their profiles. They can also choose to block certain users, but I would suggest an option to have an "Add Users" list as well so that a person can choose to block everyone except those people he or she would like to be able to view that person's work (i.e. classmates).