GarageBand and Podcasting Resources

Posted by Darla on March 24, 2008 in Language Arts, Podcasting, Web 2.0

GarageBand and Podcasting Resources 

Garage Band is a Mac application tool that is known for its use in composing music, but it can also be used to record sound, and add still pictures and movies to Podcasts. Using Garage Band students are able to create newsletters, share their creative writing, put together a book promotion, produce oral reports or replay the events of a fieldtrip. This is a great way for auditory learners to share their knowledge to the world.

Listed are a few easy to follow tutorials and resources to assist in creating classroom Podcasts.

1. Eva La Mar presented at the 2008 NCCE conference in February. Her website has information on how to use Garage Band. Included are some forms to help with planning and organizing: Planning, Process Planning Guide, Storyboard Form, Status of the Class

2. Priscilla Lewis from Shoreline School District has a tutorial.

Click on Documents tab

Click on NCCE 2008 Priscilla Lewis’ Session Handout: Podcasting with Garage Band 3.
3. Learning in Hands has information on finding, subscribing, listening to and creating Podcasts.
4. Apple has an easy to follow video tutorial for iLife Garage Band ‘08 
Under Browse Tutorials scroll to the bottom and click on Create a Podcast

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Reflections of a Writer

Posted by Abbey on March 13, 2008 in Language Arts, Teacher Voices

Here is an example of a teacher who is engaging her students in reflecting on their own progress as writers. Kristen Eckert, a 6th grade teacher, uses Writer’s Workshop pedagogy extensively in her classroom.

At the end of a narrative unit of instruction, she takes the time to allow her students to pause and reflect on how they have improved as writers. Each students collects evidence (samples of writing) of their growth and insights are captured in the form of a digital scrapbook. In this case they use Photostory3 to collect and create their final product. However, there are other tools that can be explored like podcasting, blogs or wikis. This teacher may venture in that direction some day.

You can view this podcast to follow her journey as she explores the process for the first time.

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The Flip Camera for PC and Mac (Movie Maker and iMovie, too)

Posted by Janice on March 10, 2008 in The Arts, Video

As we have gone around to buildings, the ITs have shown Flip Video cameras to many of you. We have 20 cameras that we can check out to teachers who want to do simple video with their students. We have checked out as few as 1 or 2 and as many as 15. Your IT can help you with the cameras and check them out for you if you would like to use them.

Here are two Quick Reference documents to help you and your students use the camera. They operate slightly differently between the Mac and the PC platform so download the one you need for the platform you are using.

flipvideoforpc.pdf and flipvideomac.pdf

For Mac users look at this resource for iMovie. Apple Learning Interchange

For PC users here is a Quick Guide for getting started with MovieMaker moviemaker.pdf The program essentially steps you through the necessary steps to completing a movie. Have fun!
For more on MovieMaker go to this resource put together by LeAnn Sahlin from Instructional Technology.

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Movie Maker 2

Posted by LeAnn on March 2, 2008 in Video

Lesson Plans/Storyboard: Some of the following may give you ideas about students creating videos in your classroom, or discuss more specifics on taking a project from start to finish.

Technical Items to Consider:

  • How are students going to access initial resources? It takes a while to transfer a movie from a digital camcorder to a computer. Only the Multi-Media PCs (tower) have firewire capabilities which decreases the download time. Using Flip cameras may be an option. They can be checked out from your IT.
  • How are students going to share resources and save projects? Folders can be created on the server that teachers and students can access. Talk to the ET/network analyst about what can be done about space limitations since video files tend to be large.
  • How are final videos going to be viewed? The default choice is ‘Best quality for playback on my computer.’ If the final video only needs to be played on your computer (PC), this will make a high-quality, large movie. If you have other plans, you will need to click radio button ‘Other Settings’. The DV-AVI (NTSC) option should work on multiple platforms.

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