Introduction:
This assignment forced me to confront the tagline I use online, namely that I am passionate about faith, history, technology, and the interplay between the three of them. I have never really expounded on what I mean by that, and this assignment was a great opportunity for me to flesh out these ideas and the reason I am passionate about these specific ideas.
Furthermore, I wanted to make this assignment a way to also introduce myself to my students. As this assignment is intended to be included on our Moodle, I needed to find a tool that would be appealing to the students, which could also incorporate my personal photos.
Finally, I spent time reflecting on the importance of storytelling in teaching. Levine (2010) reflects that the story is more important than the tool and that the first place to start is on outlining the story. This is where I began with outlining my own journey to see how I came to pick the three keys of my life of faith, history, and technology.
Selecting the Right Tool:
After reflecting on the story I wanted to tell, and keeping in mind that story was more important than the tool, I did need to pick a tool. One of the challenges for this assignment was to try a tool I had not used before. I have used Pixton, Prezi, and other tools that Levine (2007) had listed but I wanted to expand on my own technical competency.
Keeping in mind the Bates and Poole (2003) SECTIONS framework, I set to look at a number of tools. One that caught my eye was PowToon which had also had a free Educator account promotion a few weeks ago. I had a PowToon account as part of the applications that I have added as part of Google Apps for Education (GAFE). Looking at the tool and playing around with some templates I found that it did cover some of the key areas of the SECTIONS model.
Ease of Use – PowToon is fairly straightforward to use and has a lot of key features to add images, different styles of text, backgrounds, fonts, etc. It was easy to upload my own photos as well as include other photos from the web. Pontoon also has the ability to search through Flickr images which are licensed under Creative Commons. PowToon also has a lot of its own clipart and built-in animations which are easy to work with. It is also easy to edit down to half-seconds. It also has built-in music options or the option to upload another song. One downside is that it does not have an undo button or function.
Cost – Powtoon does have a free account but it does have some limitations. The free educator account that I have does allow for more features and templates, but had limitations for publishing. In order to publish a high quality final product, I would have needed to pay a premium fee. However, I did not feel that the overall look and feel of my story was lost with a lower quality end product.
Novelty – PowToon is not overly new but they appear to keep adding more features. There are some features which are available in other online story creation tools but they have incorporated them on a limited scale on this project The various animation are quite novel and were intriguing to use and I imagine it would also be intriguing for students to try them out as well.
Speed – PowToon was easy and quick to use. There were no delays in using this online service.
Moreover, I looked at the ISTE Standards for Teachers (2008) and felt that by engaging in telling my own story with this online tool I was practicing Standard 3 which states that teachers should “model digital age and working,” I also believe that I have addressed the first standard which deals with facilitating and inspiring student learning and creativity by showing my own willingness to try a new tool.
Classroom Considerations:
As mentioned earlier, I envisioned using this story within my Moodle course as a more creative way to do a teacher introduction while also sharing a bit of my own personal story in a creative manner. I could also share this with my regular classes.
I believe that it is important for students to have a connection with their teacher and to know a bit about their lives. When students see what their teacher is passionate about it can encourage them to pursue their passions. By showing how three different parts of my life intersect and how it is a journey of constant learning, I hope to inspire students to see learning as a life long journey.
This story, linked specifically to my Moodle course of Socials 11, fits well as the course explores history. Technology and faith are topics that are naturally linked to any investigation of history and so the story may spark in students an interest or new way of understanding the modules as we go through.
Overall, this was an interesting process and I believe that I have gained some new technical competencies and have a better sense of even my own educational journey.
References
Bates A. W. & Poole, G. (2003).A Framework for Selecting and Using Technology. Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education, 4,75- 108.
International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National educational technology standards for teachers. Retrieved from: http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_for_Teachers_2008.htm
Levine, A. (2007). 50 Web 2.0 ways to tell a story. Retrieved from http://50ways.wikispaces.com/