ETC_Final Project

Target Audience

The Relevant and Innovative Learning Scenario (RILS) target audience for this project will be elementary school children. This is to include students ranging from kindergarten to 5th grade. As part of the Rhythm-n-Rime.com learning experience, the website will be set up to offer curriculum for all elementary school children. The target of this project includes all regular and special education students.

Materials

• · The Rhythm-n-Rime Conservation Elaboration video
• · Internet access
• · Conservation vocabulary list
• · Song/Poetry Journal

Objectives

• This RILS learning experience will help the students to identify what acts of conservation will save our natural resources. 
• They will be able to discuss exactly what can be done to save those resources.
• Upon completion of the project, each participating student will learn the conservation vocabulary and created a song or poem that includes one additional conservation technique.

Procedure

1.  Each student will be introduced to the “Conservation Elaboration” song. They will be able to play it as many times as they would like. In addition, they each will receive a list of vocabulary words taken out of the song.
2.  Next, each student will be invited and given a pass code to an exclusive Rhythm-n-Rime social network.
3.  The “Toonti.com” site will act as an interactive medium as well as a social network.
4.  The site will offer links to other conservation sites and fact lists to help the students learn more about conservation.
5.  Each student will be expected to contribute questions or information they have learned from outside sources via blog response, journal writings or in the forum.
6.  There will be a vocabulary test administered via the site. This will provide a gauge of how well the video/ song helped the students to comprehend conservation.
7. The next step will be for each student to write a poem or a song. They will be required to introduce one new conservation technique with the poem or song. There will be song and poetry templates on the site to assist them with this project.
8. The songs and poems will be posted to the site.
9. Next, each student will be assigned another person’s poem or song to read or listen too. Afterward, they will add one more fact to the other people’s poem or song. The students will then create their own verse or line to add to the original poem/song.
10. It is then returned to its original owner for a final reflection of their work. A simple question is posed by the instructor, “How could your work of been better?” Then, it is posted in the community.

Web 2.0 Tool

The Web 2.0 tool I have chosen is “Toonti.com”. It is a personalized social community in which collaboration and web 2.0 tools meet. It’s Facebook for education and children. We are going to incorporate it into the Rhythm-n-Rime.com playbook. This tool fits what we are trying to accomplish by providing a platform that can host an interactive and collaborative learning environment. It gives us the ability to use various methods to change up the educational process.

Social Participation/Social learning

The process of utilizing a social community will require participation. However, this will be reinforced when their finished product will be read and elaborated on. Each student will be assigned another person’s poem or song to read or listen too. Afterward, they will add one more fact to the other people’s poem or song. Then, their work will be posted on the site.

Making Connections

The use of audio, visual and text based lessons allows Multiple Intelligence learners with many avenues by which to learn about conservation of resources. These different mediums allows them to connect through their own personal learning style. Additionally, the students can connect on a local and global sense with reference to how important it is for the world to conserve the earth’s natural resources.

Create/Produce

The students are required to create a poem or song about the conservation of resources.

Assessment

The assessment of this project will be done via two avenues. First, there will be a Pre-Post and Post survey administered to help understand the students feelings about the new learning method. Secondly, the vocabulary test will identify how much the student remembers in terms of content.

Reflection

Every student is required to make an entry into their own blog on a daily basis. At the beginning of every unit, they are asked to describe what they know about the topic that will be discussed. Then, everyday they are asked to describe what they learned so far. At the end of the unit, they are asked to review everything they learned and write about it.

In addition, they are asked to write down what it is they do at home which is considered conservation of resources. This way they are able to see everything they learned, how it applies to themselves or what they can begin to do in the future to conserve resources.

PE5-Toonti

 As I discussed in my last post, this week I learned about Toonti the social community maker. Social communities can spawn collaborative learning which leads to the development of critical thinking skills,  the synergistic creation of knowledge and meaning and trans-formative learning.

In last post we had just learned how to personalize the Rhythm-n-Rime community site. Now, We move on to personalizing the design of the site. There is a design wizard which helps to create the preferred color scheme of the community. We chose to use black, white and purple to help accentuate our site. The wizard asks if you would like pictures or a prepare web banner uploaded during this process as well. The site is cosmetically set up and ready for the fun to begin.

Next, we set up all of the admin controls in the admin console. This helps to manage our site efficiently. We set the content control to allow submissions of events, journals, photo albums, journals and suggestions by members in the community. The privacy settings are set to allow all members only to see and participate. Within the console, Google analytics can be set up and followed. The old polls taken are available to be viewed and a place to upload a newsletter is available.

The community is ready to be utilized for facilitating collaborative learning.  Below is the newly created Rhythm-n-Rime social community.

Rhythm-n-Rime Social Community

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PE4-Toonti

This week we are to learn and become adept at another Web 2.0 tool. The Rhythm-n-Rime.com experience is being created with tools to facilitate multiple intelligence and brain-based learning while using synergy through collaboration. Therefore, I chose “Toonti” to help achieve those goals for this project and the future. Toonti is software which enables people to create powerful  social communities. It allows there to be subgroups under the Rhythm-n-Rime larger community. This will allow for each age group and subject matter to be grouped to be effective.

After selecting Toonti, it was time to set up the Rhythm-n-Rime.com social community. First, go to toonti.com to begin. You can register by signing in with a Facebook membership. Then, you must create a group which will be given a web address with .toonti.com for easy navigation. Our group name is Rhythm-n-Rime and the web address is rhythm-n-rime.toonti.com.  

Rhythm-n-Rime Toonti Opening Page

Since everyone’s needs are different,  Toonti allows each group to customize their own site. The site offers a choice of tools with each community. They offer the choice of bulletin board, featured journal, blogs, polls, Activity news, shared news, events, forums, suggestions section or a self created category.  Each site can be personalized to their intended program. We created the Rhythm-n-Rime community to include a blog, featured journals, bulletin board, photo’s section, members list, forum, Poll section, Knowledge section and What’s up section. In edit mode, I formatted each section to an applicable size and function. In my next blog I will discuss personal design, inviting members, administration controls and more.

BP6_Linking to Anothers Blog

Follow this link to my comments on Les Brown's blog.

BP5_Linking to Anothers Blog

Follow this link to my comments Chandra's blog

BP4_GoAnimate

Go!Animate is my Web 2.0 tool review. It allows its users to become cartoon characters and act out different situations. What an unbelievable tool for providing a platform for creativity and educational enrichment. The tools are very easy to use and understand. It has a free option or a low cost full service option. It's easy to sign up and provides an very informative tutorial walk through. 

Go!Animation.com

There different levels in which customers can earn badges and different animation features for free. You can see their opening offer immediately upon sign up. They send messages as seen below.

New Badge and Perks

The tutorial walks through all the steps to making your own set and characters. The background tab lets you pick different settings for your video. You can pick from outside to office to a classroom. Next, the main character is selected. Each character can have unique characteristics, different clothes, shoes and accessories. After constructing the characters it is time to pick out a name with a particular voice and some even have accents. It is a lot of fun to create your own characters! Then, you have to write a script for the characters to act out in a sequence of frames. The characters can be made to have expressions, sit, stand, dance and much more. The details of the situations are up to the creator. It could be discussion, comedy, drama, speech or any other creative message.

I highly recommend this web 2.0 tool for those of us who are looking to add creativity to their existence. Whether, in the classroom, in business settings or just to have fun it provides a creative platform to motivate and help spread knowledge through cartoon! Everybody loved cartoons as kids and we all have a little kid somewhere inside of us.

PE3_iMovie

                                               Conservation Elaboration


 Here is the end result of our fantastic journey! Now our best creativity can be put into a video for the whole world to see!

Here is my Lynda iMovie certificate.

PE2_iMovie

Hello again! Now it is time to add audio to our video clip/power point. First, we have to import the audio file we want to use to go with our video. It is really cool to be able to put into iTunes and be able to grab it directly from there while working in iMovie.

 

Audio for Movie

Once, we have located our audio file, we drag it to the place in the project where the audio is to start. Above there are arrows demonstrating this. The green running under the slides is the actual audio file. Next, we use the slide timer and Precision Editor to sync everything together. Click Clip Adjustments to put the correct time for each slide. When everything is perfectly in-sync it is time to make our video!

There is a share link at the top of the iMovie menu bar. Click the link and create a quicktime movie! Next, I will show you the fantastic movie we have created.

PE1_iMovie

Today is about learning to use iMovie to enhance our projects and classrooms in a professional way!
My journey began with a Lynda tutorial extravaganza and ended with a quality piece of work. We are going to make a Conservation movie putting Rhythm-n-Rime together to make a jam!

First, we created a song and a power point called the "Conservation Elaboration". Of course this is an original song created by my wife, Theresa Shoup! The first step to creating a viewable movie was to import our power point into iMovie.

Power Point to Imported to iMovie

In Power Point under file choose save as a movie. Be sure to save to a file that is easy to find.You can see the diagram below it shows save to a movie. It will be saved to a movie file that will import into iMovie.

Drop Down List

Next, go into iMovie under file again and locate the import button. A drop down will appear like the one below. Label it create a new event and import. It will be put into iMovie as a movie clip.

iMovie Drop Down List

Next, take the clip and put it back into separate slides to work with.(Right click on clip to find button to perform task)  Now, we are ready to add the audio in our next blog.

BP7_One Minute Video

     Go!Animate is an awesome product! Try it today!

BP2_SweetSearch

BP2_SweetSearch

I went in search of a Web 2.0 tool that could offer a way for people looking to learn a one touch option. Our Rhythm-n-Rime.com website will provide poems, songs and videos in conjunction with curriculum that covers a wide array of subjects. Therefore, I felt it was important to find a Web 2.0 tool that would make retrieving credible information for students and teachers easy. Everyone appreciates one-stop shopping and SweetSearch.com offers that for information. Most of you are probably thinking why do they need more than Google. SweetSearch is billed as a “Search Engine for Students”, but it is much more than just that. One valuable attribute is every website linked to SweetSearch is evaluated by research experts to insure its creditability. The website is better than Google because it is organized into categories and then subcategories by subject. The first page offers seven links to choose from with each page designed to attract different ways to search for information. “SweetSearch4me” is for the emerging learners, while “SweetSearch2day” is about new information for the day. It offers daily words, daily news stories, daily interviews and questions of the day. “SweetSearch for School Librarians and “SweetSites” for students and teachers are about providing guides to how to do research to breaking up educational websites into subject categories to make research easier to do. The next two links provide sites for social studies and biographies. The last link is about providing methods and steps to follow or not follow when doing research. Under every link is many more categorized subjects organized to lead the learner to more information. No more of the going through card catalogues for hours or sorting through page upon page to find information about a certain topic. It is now right at our finger tips with a couple of clicks we can find all the information our hearts desire. I set it up to begin using myself and I know it will come in handy for people visiting our site too.

SweetSearch.com

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iGoogle Tab 1

iGoogle Tab 2

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iGoogle tab 4

BP1_Welcome to My Blog

Max "The Genius"

Welcome to the Wizard of Rhythm-n-Rime. This blog will be dedicated to demonstrating how poetry, rhythm, rhyme and song can make learning easier and more fun than anyone could ever imagine. In today's world, it is becoming a pressure cooker for educators to produce at higher and higher levels. As a result, children are being put into rigorous training and the fun is becoming less and less. Brain based and multiple intelligence theory show us that people learn in many different ways. The Wizard is on a mission to help children and teachers bring the funk back. Stay tuned as we sing and dance our way to becoming genius.