Friday, 28 March 2014

Final Vision Insights

Oh my goodness, I didn't realize what a large topic "The 21st Century Classroom" is until I started my final project! I should have listened to a wise peer in this class who suggested I could do my final project on just "the flipped classroom" aspect of the 21st Century Classroom. So as a result, I have ended up with a general "overview" of a very large topic. It also made me realize that for a teacher to practice the pedagogy of a 21st century teacher it can involve a lot of changes which is a little overwhelming. But I also found that as I broke down all the aspects of the 21st century classroom it also allowed me to see it as made up of a lot of different parts put together, so I could begin by focusing on one part at a time, such as examining the physical space and technology components, and then move onto using different assessment methods etc., rather than changing everything at once! And most classrooms are in a state of transition between the 20th and 21st Classroom, so there already are many components of the 21st century classroom present.

 I have chosen Google Drive to do my final vision project. 
image courtesy of doss.deviantart.com
I must say I'm very glad I tried it and it is amazingly easy to use. I like how it is stored in the icloud so that it can be accessed from any device from anywhere. It seems to be very user friendly. I experimented with changing the background colour and font and layout. It was easy to add or delete slides and I like how I could see the slides on the left hand margins so I could get a feel for the overall project as I was working on it. The only thing I was wondering about was if I could add voice recording which I couldn't seem to find. One website I found helpful for explaining more about Google Drive is called "15 Tips & Tricks to Get More out of Google Drive"http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/google-drive-tips-tricks/
Another thing that I am wondering about is when I have seen students projects who have made Power Point presentations, they have somehow arranged for fancy things to happen with the graphics as the page turns to the next page in the presentation. I haven't figured this function out on Google Drive yet or if there is somewhere to set how long each page shows for before it goes to the next page when the presentation is being played. 

 The only potential hurdle I anticipate at this point is transporting the presentation as a document into the final blogpost. Because this is my first time using Google Drive I'm not sure if it will be easy to transport the finished product or not. I'm sure with a little playing around I will figure it out. 
image courtesy of google.com  "Hurdles 2012"

 Another question I am trying to figure out is how to share a huge document on Twitter when there is a 140 character limit. I haven't been experimenting with Twitter as much as I should have been. I'm guessing it must shared as a link or attachment in the tweet that   connects to the large document??
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4 comments:

  1. Aaron Mueller29 March 2014 at 07:28

    Lots of good questions here that I can help with! First off, Google Drive Presenations do not have as many 'features' as the usual "Office Powerpoint" or "Pages KeyNote" programs that are usually on our computers. Because it is "in the cloud" and not installed on any one computer, it is usually not as big, nor contains all the bells and whistles. So, there is not as many options around the "animation" and movement of elements like you've seen previously. But, there are new features coming out all the time. Just this week Google Drive announced a new feature where you can edit and manipulate images in your presentation, right in your slides!

    Also, to embed the presentation in your blog post, you will most likely need a 3rd party tool like http://slideshare.net it is a website that you can upload your presentation too, and then it will give you the "embed" code that you can use to embed into your blogpost here. It is a little complicated the first time, but it is a great idea.

    Also, for sharing your presentation on twitter, you would need to get the "link" for your google presentation (Under the "Share" button on the top right when you are editing your google presentation) and paste that link into a tweet! Then anyone who clicks on the link will be able to see a "view only" version of your presentation! Also, a good thing to try out!

    Anyway, good overview of some of the technical considerations for your final vision!

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  2. dhardman29 March 2014 at 09:17

    Great! Thanks for the help! I will give those things a try!

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  3. Melissa Lee29 March 2014 at 16:41

    Denise, the 21st century classroom is a big topic, but i'm sure you are going to learn a lot of great information about all of the elements that are a part of this. I'm looking forward to reading about it! Even with my topic of supporting inquiry by using technology, I feel like there is so much to explore, I could've spent my entire week just trying new tech tools that I had never heard of before!

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  4. Invergarry Library31 March 2014 at 14:57

    Denise, it sounds like you are well on your way to making the transition to a 21st century teacher! There are ways to add animation to your slides in Google Presentations. In the Insert menu, there is an option called Animation. A side window opens up and you can add your animation features there. If you wanted a different transition from slide to slide, go to the Slide menu and select Change Transition. Again, a side window will open and you can change your transition features there. I hope that helps! Looking forward to seeing your presentation!

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