The Edutainers

Students Make Radio Commercials

Students, audio, booktalks, commercial, podcasting, podcasts | Posted by david.widener

Apr 13 2009

We have finished our radio commercials using Garageband. Students really enjoyed the project. Each student was to make a 30 second commercial advertising a product like cereal, a restaurant, or other consumer items. I found that most of the students wanted to make cereal or car commercials.

The commercial started with the script writing process. This is the most imortant aspect of the project, but many students do not spend the necessary time. As a result of their cavalier approach to the script, the time involved in recording increasing and in most cases the finished product is diminished. The script is developed from a template that is available for the students in the network folder. After the script, comes the fun part of recording the commercial.

The commercial can have sound effects, music, voices, etc… In Garageband you have many sound effects availabe in the media browser, but you can also get sound effects from findsounds.com, and animationfactory.com. Students are able to alter their voices in Garageband, so it is possible for one student to all the voices in their commercial. One student who did a cereal commercial, created a great cartoon child voice for a cereal commercial. It clearly made the commercial more interesting. When they complete their commercial, students are ask the following two questions:

Is it clear what you are selling?
Are you compelled to do something?

I have included several of examples of the students’ work. Listen and enjoy their creativity.

William's Commercial: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Max's Commercial: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Internet Safety Week

multimedia | Posted by david.widener

Apr 13 2009

We have just finished our Internet Safety Week - March 30 April 1. Internet Safety for middle schoolers is extremely important. Middle schoolers are very active on the Internet and it is important that they be safe and that they learn how to be safe on the Internet. One part of the week’s activities was a poster contest. The contest was open to all students in the Middle School. Students were to design an original poster based on an Internet safety issue. We had forty five students enter the contest and many of the students chose cyberbullying as the focus of their poster.

“Cyberbullying” is when a child, preteen or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones (http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/what_is_cyberbullying_exactly.html). Cyberbullying has created new ways for bullies to harass other students or individuals. The bully can now use e-mail, instant messaging, blogs, chatrooms, web sites and text messaging to attack and harass a victim.The bully is many times not inhibited in any way because they do not see the response of the victim. In other words they do not see the physical and emotional effect on the victim.

In addition to the poster contest, middle school students were a part of a cyberbullying session in each of their homerooms. A 15 minute video was shown that included questions and time for group discusssion. One of the teacher remarked that it was an “eye-opening video.” She stated that the students were very interested in the topic and interested in discussing the issue. The video related a story of a middle schooler in Vermont who as a result of cyberbullying chose to end his life. Unforunately, his case is not the only one. After his death his parents created a web site and became very active in a movement to educate students and parents about the growing threat of cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is unlike the typical face-to-face bullying we see in schools. The bully does not see the consequences of his action. In face-to-face bullying this can be a deterent to the act. This can make cyberbullying more harmful as a result. It is a growing problem, and educating students is one way in which we can hopefully reduce cyberbullying.

Next year we look forward to continuing with our Internet Safety Week activities. It is our hope that we will make a video that features some of our own students, and to have Upper School students speak to the middle schoolers about internet issues.

The top ten for the poster contest are shown below. The students did a great job with the posters. It was something they took very serious and we had great participation. The top ten were chosen by a faculty committee and then the top 3 places were decided by student voting.

Internet Safety

View more presentations from David Widener.

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More Podcasting

Middle School, Students, animation, booktalks, drawing, multimedia, podcasting, podcasts | Posted by david.widener

Mar 17 2009

We have been working in Garageband using it as a tool for podcasts. The first podcast project in class was a poetry podcast. Students created a short script with a sonnet or poem that they would read. The show would have all the parts of a podcasts and include a section for the student to explain or reflect or the self-written poem or the poem chosen.

The next project for podcasting was a group podcast. Students chose a topic important to them. They would write a script, gather pictures, and record and share the final product. The students chose some interesting topics which included: salmonella, Super Bowl 43, why the sky is blue, and drugs. The podcast show was to be a minimum of 4 minutes, longer than the previous project, but no longer than 7 or 8 minutes. Students began their research and writing of the project with great enthusiasm.

The project moved along smoothly and in four days, the students exported their final enhanced podcasts to the network folders for the class to listen to. The end product for all of the groups was well done. Each of the podcasts had detailed content and an excellent selection of pictures. I have included an link to the class podcasting site: The Edutainers.

Here is one of the shows from 6th period that is about college football. This group did their research, and well they knew a lot about the season to start with.

Sam, Andrew, and Josh -- NCAA Football 2008: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

William Wyatt and Samuel-- Dr. Science: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: garageband, groups, podcasting
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Learning to Podcasts

Middle School, multimedia, podcasting | Posted by david.widener

Feb 20 2009

We have just finished our first podcasts. The popularity of podcasting has grown expotentially in the last five years. From a few thousand podcasts in 2004 to over 5 million in 2009. Students listen to this new media more than they watch television, so in the classroom this is an important skill and also important in enhancing learning for students.

This year instead of using Audacity, we are using GarageBand to create our podcasts. One of our labs is now outfitted with iMacs, and the GarageBand software is a part of the iLife Suite installed on all the machines. The students have really enjoyed exploring the new machines and the Apple software. The iLife 08 software has Garageband, iMovie, iPhoto, and iWeb, providing the students with endless multimedia opportunities.

Our first podcasting project was a simple poetry show. Students were ask to go to to http://www.famous-poems.org or http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/ to locate a poem they liked to use for the podcast. We normally have students use a poem they have written in language arts class, but at this point in the year students had not written a poem in their respective language arts classes. After locating a poem, students wrote a script; and then each student recorded their show in GarageBand. Each show constructed contained an introduction, a poetry reading, author bio, interpretation, and credits.

To find out more information about the project check out the podcasting page. To hear some of the students’ podcasts click on the links below:

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Flash Project-Airplane Race

language arts, multimedia | Posted by david.widener

Feb 19 2009

Students after learning the basics of Flash animation and use of shapes in Flash (click on link for further info on Flash from Wikipedia) , to create an airplane race with graphics, animation, scripting, and sound. At this point students, have been working with Flash for a couple of weeks. The completion of this project takes five or six days.

The process for the airplane project is laid out in a guided process that includes document instructions with screen captures and videos of various task, i.e. creation of clouds, that can be accessed at screencast.com . The students throughout the process use experimentation and peer help to complete the project. One student may see another student’s project, and want to duplicate a particular aspect. This is a very important part of the learning process to expand the understanding of the program. This classroom process is encouraging collaboration; and in this case it is not about them necessarily working alone to solve their problem, but helping each other produce or construct the airplane race.

The airplane project is constructed over the course of five class periods, and the final product is evaluated by their classmates on the sixth day. On day 1, students are given instructions that provide requirements and also guide them in the initial set-up of the project. The requirements are very basic and allow for creativity and flexibility on the student’s part. For example, each student needs at least “two planes” in their project, but they are not limited to two planes; nor are the students told what color or size to use for the construction of their animation graphics–-the original graphic size is established. Students can use previously constructed materials, such as the background made in an earlier assignment. Several students choose to use the backgrounds they created as the starting point for their airplane race. The use of these resources saved them time, and allowed the students to experiment more with the Flash CS3 program.

A rubric was handed out to students, to give them a clear explanation of the scoring and the various levels of quality in their work. When the projects were completed students viewed all of the races on the large screen and one of the races was chosen as the best in class. I have placed a few of the races below for you to view:

Angelika’s Airplane Project

Dan’s Airplane Project

William’s Airplane Project

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