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Digital Images

Marc Prensky (2011) believes ‘adapting to this new context of change, variability and uncertainty is the biggest challenge we are now facing – as educators and as people’, referring to the digital era of the 21^st Century. Images are constantly seen throughout the classroom and have many uses. By using digital images the students will have a new aspect to help their engagement levels. As learning managers, we must understand how to manipulate images for different uses. To download or upload images, resizing images is important to ensure time is used to full potential (as learning managers, we all know how little time there can be!). Downloading the correct programs can be the quickest and simplest way to manipulate images. A great program Mobaphoto changes the size of a photo for the appropriate use. For example, one of the photos embedded was 6.53GB and was resized for uploading to 28.9KB. Below are resized photos from my mother’s 40^th birthday party:

Digital Audio

Recording audio files can seem to be difficult; however, with the correct programs and equipment can make this process much easier. The program I used was Audacity; it was quick download and easy to use. Reviews suggest it is ‘the most popular open source digital audio editor available’ (TopTenReviews, 2012). Digital audio files can be used for a range of teaching methods; students can be recorded for assessments as well as for students to create audio for their own videos. Digital audio files allow for differentiation for the learning styles of students. Below is meant to be a digital audio recording embedded within a Voki; it should have contained a reading of a book (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows). However, the audio file was oversize (so it was plan B time!); there is still a short Voki and below is the complete audio file. It shows how a book, without an audio recording, can be record for students to listen and follow along with.

Digital Video

Digital videos are necessary in the 21^st Century classroom. Students watch television, movies and internet videos. There are several uses for digital videos within the classroom. Movies can be created and altered. Depending on the grade, students can watch, manipulate or create their own digital videos. Digital videos accommodate for differentiation for the learning styles of students. The program used to create the video (below) was Microsoft Live Movie Maker. It was simple and easy to work with; the review stated it ‘is decent freeware that lives up to its promise of making movies fast’ (Dolcourt, 2009). Below is a video of images, again from my mother’s 40^th birthday party, turned into a digital video.

SAMR Model

The SAMR Model has several appropriate links for each of these technologies. Below is a table setup to see where these are.

	Redefinition	Modification	Augmentation	Substitution
Digital Images	ü	ü	ü	ü
Digital Audio	ü		ü	ü
Digital Videos	ü	ü	ü	ü

This was a very interesting week and I found many useful technologies that I will be able to implement in a classroom. Future students will really enjoy these activities!

References

Marc Prensky. (2011). From digital natives to digital wisdom. Retrieved from http://marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky-Intro_to_From_DN_to_DW.pdf.

Dolcourt, J. (2009). Windows Live Movie Maker. Retrieved from http://download.cnet.com/Windows-Live-Movie-Maker/3000-13631_4-10965753.html.

TopTenReviews. (2012). Audacity 1.2.6. Retrieved from http://podcast-software-review.toptenreviews.com/audacity-review.html.