earthtree.org

If your students are accessing an Internet site that has pop-ups that theys need to receive, you’ll have to disable the pop-up blocker. An example of such a site is www.calculationnation.com. Netbooks use the Internet browser Firefox on a Linux operating system (ubuntu). Here’s how to enable pop-ups on netbooks.

• Open firefox.
• Click on ‘Edit,’ ‘Preferences,’ Content.’
• Uncheck “Block pop-up Windows.”

Or if you more control over pop-ups see this video.

Digital Storytelling is an exciting way for students to share the creative energy they’ve put into crafting their stories. Here’s an example of a 1st grade student’s work gone digital. Originally her class created a book with paper and crayons to share with their classmates and families. This work was scanned and the author’s voice recorded. Now she has work that can be shared across the United States to where her grandparents live. It can be shared anywhere! Even more important, is the thrill the student experienced at being able to hear her own voice and see her work in this format. Now she’s creating lists of story ideas and writing more stories than is possible to record. This is a great thing. She’s forced to choose her very best work to publish. She’s thinking and acting like a real author because she is one. This story below is what lit the literary fire for her. Disclosure: The author is my delightful daughter.

For more information on Digital Story telling, be sure to check out these sites.

• Center for Digital Storytelling
• Digital Storytelling Cookbook (.pdf)
• Downtown Aurora Visual Arts (DAVA) 

By the way, the story above was created on a netbook powered by ubuntu. We scanned the images from a scanner using Xsane.  The images were cropped and scaled using GIMP (image editor) . Her voice was recorded and edited using Audacity (audio editor) . Then we pulled everything into Kdenlive (video editor) to create the video file.

If you don’t have Kdenlive installed on your netbook, but would like it, follow the tutorial below that was captured using Screen Toaster. Be warned: The netbooks don’t have the processing power needed to fully edit video. For example when I’ve imported video to cut, splice and render, the preview works in slow motion. This makes it nearly impossible to make fine cuts. So… I would only use Kdenlive on the netbooks to pull in audio and images that are already ordered numerically. This way you can line up the audio and stretch the images to match. Render to .avi or .mp4 (to upload to youtube) and you’re done.

In order to familiarize with some of the tools installed on the netbooks. We are going to use a few to create a presentation for your students. The purpose is to share the learning goals you developed this morning in order to demonstrate Life-Long Learning. If you have something more pressing that you would like to present, please do so.

At the completion of this project you will have a flipchart that you will use to present to your students and/or colleagues. When we’re done, you’ll have these items on your desktop, .xmind, .png, .doc, .aup, .mp3,  .jpg, and a .flipchart.

First create a folder on your desktop titled EETT. This will be where you’ll put everything when you’re done creating.

To start with, let’s use Xmind to organize our thinking. Here’s an example of how your graphic organizer may take shape.

Use Screenshot to capture your graphic organizer if xmind is not exporting as an image. Save the file to the desktop.

Next, open Open Office.org to compose your ideas. Remember to use your ideas gathered from the graphic organizer. We’re going to record your voice next so be sure to write fluent sentences.

Now open Audacity. Using your most sincere voice. Record your writing. Export it as an .mp3 to the desktop.

Use Cheese to take a picture of yourself for your project. Drag it to the desktop.

Open ActivInspire and whip your media into a presentation.

>>>>>>>>>> Please TAKE SURVEY <<<<<<<<<<

The combination of a clean  desktop, an inspired purpose and Google Forms can make collecting information fun and useful.

1. Give your desktop a makeover.
2. Get inspired by necessity.
3. Create a survey with Google Docs.
4. Place directions, survey and resources on desktop
5. Give students time to get to it.
6. Evaluate the data.
7. Share the results

Here’s a great tutorial on from Kevin Riebau on how to permanently tell your computer which application you want it to use when opening certain files.

An issue that keeps coming up – enough to warrant the production of the following 1min video – is that of files not opening in our preferred program. Many times this is due to upgrading software like Microsoft’s Word ’03 to Word ’07 and Promethean’s ActivStudio to ActivInspire. For example, the issue is that when you click on a .doc file, it doesn’t automatically open in Word ’07 (because .docx files do that initially). The idea is that you want to customize what app your files open in – typically the upgraded software or your preferred program. The following movie will show you how to make your files automatically do this all the time and the process can be applied to any kind of files and their associated prgrams (for instance all audio filetypes .mp3, .aiff, .wav with iTunes).

[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/OOjuocXOyGg” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]