Still catching up after PETE&C

What's that you say? It's March 4 and PETE&C ended on February 12? Where has the time gone? I would have loved to have been able to live blog from PETE&C, but I didn't want to have to fight the network, which had to happen quite a bit. On top of that, I had to pick up my materials the first day, and then driving back and forth on top of that made for some long days. I think I might stay at the Lodge next year, which will lead to an even more rich experience for the entire conference.

With that being said, I am going to be getting through as many postings from what I saw as I can, while multitasking at a collaboration day for Science teachers at Warwick High School. Right now, we are viewing an iMovie created by students dealing with the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. I have noticed that they have the Ken Burns effects turned on, but they didn't edit any of the animations. Their content is great, but seeing the same animation over and over makes me a little seasick. That's definitely one thing to keep in mind as you demonstrate iMovie to students: introduce some elements of design into the design of the project. The content is still the number one thing for them to focus on, but the use of the tools will help them out down the road as well.

When working on a project like this iMovie, it is important to reflect on what worked well and what might need tweaked for future assignments. Before working with creation of the project, make sure that research is done, as well as a script. If students get their planning done ahead of time, it will lead to a much smoother creation of the final project. You may want to model this to your students to show them how planning can make a huge difference.

Anyway, I am going to be adding posts about PETE&C as I go until I get them done. Then it'll be back to regular blogginG: talking about other facets of edtech, comics, and hockey.