Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Chromebook: 8 months later

I can see definite uses for the Chromebook that I was given to test.  I haven't posted many accessibility issues because, for my students with reading disabilities or Deafness or autism, we have not had many.

The few we have had included:
  • An inability to configure a visual alert for the student who is Deaf, which meant she had to keep her eyes on the screen and couldn't also watch her interpreter.  She was happy to use the Chromebook to practice math and science skills in advance of the state testing, however, and felt that it helped.
  • Problems with plugins that allowed read out loud that was more appropriate for my students (as I said in my first post, I did not think my students would like Chromevox, and I was correct; they felt it was overkill since they didn't need it to read the entire screen, only the text).
  •  Problems with loading MS Word and PowerPoint files so that students could use the Chromebook to view items that were too far away or to use it as a read aloud for a classroom test.
However, the biggest issue we have with the Chromebook is that for this school year, we have not been allowed to add it to the school network.  Our district is having problems with bandwidth, and has limited teachers to one personally owned device  this year.  And, without Internet access, the device is very, very limited.

In fact, without Internet access the Chromebook is really no more than an AlphaSmart; one without even word prediction because all of the apps for the device require Internet access.  So, we're using it for students to take notes.  The students save their notes to a flash drive by doing a "PDF Print".

I did have a concern that the device appears to not back the notes up when I bring the Chromebook home.  I need to explore this more thoroughly, before I say anything, as I suspect this is my user error. 

I suppose the thing that I will never forget from us using the Chromebook these last few months was when a student used curse words to name a file.  Another student found it and was very upset that a peer had broken the rules.  And, because the device wasn't online, I couldn't delete the file.  I had to take it home, sync it, and then delete.  Fantastic.  But, I work with teenagers, so of course this kind of thing happens.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Misfit Shine

I don't often post blog entries about gadgets in my life that haven't been used in my classroom (even the posts from last year's IRLQuests for 3DGameLab had to do with school since 3DGL is something I really want to use in my classroom), but I kind of feel like I should...

I will also certainly post an update if my opinion changes or the company fixes the item without my having to the refund route.

My Misfit Shine arrived today, and its awful. I'm really quite disappointed because I've been researching fitness trackers for more than a year at this point, waiting and hoping for one that would work with swimming since that is my favorite form of exercise, although I also enjoy using WiiFit and work with a personal trainer.  I had just decided to purchase the FitbitFlex, especially when I saw it at Target, and on sale, when a relative told me about the Misfit Shine.  He's definitely an early adopter of gadgets, and researches as well, although looks for different things than I do. I can’t get it to sync with the app or log anything at all. The company says that Android users or iPhone 4 and under users can still have the device track, even if it can’t log, but mine does neither.
I posted a comment on the Facebook site, and was told to email. The company then posted & tweeted all of the positive comments made within 2 hours before and after mine, but have yet to respond to mine. Browsing the Twitter feed and Facebook page indicates answering email is a difficult concept for them. 
I was a little bit sorry 9 days ago when I ordered the item, discovered that my money from PayPal was gone and I hadn’t received a receipt; the discomfort increased when a visit to the local Apple store showed the Shine available there for the same price. If I used credit cards for optional/recreational purchases, I would have bought it then—but I do not, so I came home and posted a comment on their Facebook page. I was told it would soon be shipped, but received no response to my request for a receipt. This morning, I went to get my mail, and it was in my mailbox. Again, no receipt or packing slip in the envelope, but I did get an email with a tracking number; the email was dated for this morning. USPS says the package was mailed two days ago. But, hey–I had it in hand! Exciting! Until it wasn’t, because I received an error saying my Shine was linked to another account, and that user would have to unlink it. Another quick browse of the Twitter stream and Facebook page indicates this is a VERY VERY VERY VERY common error.  Update: In looking on the Facebook page again, another person has commented on my post that they also had the same problem.







If I don’t receive a response in the next 48 hours (since the company clearly responds on weekends), I’ll be returning the device and requesting a refund, so I can buy a tracker that works, even if it doesn't allow me to use it while swimming.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

What Should We Be Teaching?

I was having a discussion with a non-teaching friend today. When I say non-teaching, I mean she isn't a classroom teacher... She kept saying, "This you need to write about. You should write about this." And so, because she usually gives me pretty good advice, I decided to do just that.

I teach students with autism, and have taught students with other significant (also frequently referred to as severe) disabilities. I've been teaching 15 years, not counting student teaching or time spent working as a teaching assistant through a program my high school offered to students in the gifted & talented group. That program allowed G/T students starting in 9th grade, and all students starting in 11th grade, to be mentored by a professional in their field of interest. I wanted to be a teacher, specifically a teacher of the Deaf, so I started working as a teaching assistant in classrooms that had Deaf students as a 9th grader. It was one of the highlights of my high school career. I gave up my study halls to be a part of it.

My discussion this evening centered around what we teach our students, and the reason that some students hate school so much. I've been saying that I hate teaching core content classes. And that really isn't true: I love teaching history, but I don't like that I can't teach HISTORY. I have to cram facts into the heads of my students so they are prepared for a state test at the end of the year. There isn't time to go back and teach them how to think, to let them show me they've mastered skills that are important for after high school. I know teachers who manage both, and I'm insanely jealous because somehow, I just can't manage. It may be because I first have to teach my students the concepts they haven't yet gotten because they are behind coming into my room due to their disabilities.

I wonder why we stopped offering vocational programs in so many schools. There is no reason that a student who does well in vocational programs shouldn't go to college.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't be teaching history. I am saying that maybe we need to look at what and how we're teaching... not just children with disabilities, but all children. Is it truly that ALL children need to be prepared for a university degree? Is there a reason that it is so awful to give the children choices? It makes me sad that my students don't want to be in my classroom, and they aren't excited about learning. I think I could make them excited...
if I could teach history instead of just teaching a test.

Friday, March 29, 2013

Chromebook: First Impression

I signed up as an accessibility tester for the new Google Chromebook.  I was really excited (probably more than I should be, honestly) to get an email yesterday saying that I'd been accepted into the program.  And for those reading this blog for the first time, I'm excited for a number of reasons: I'm a special education teacher for students with autism, and also teach a self-contained history class, and assist in a team taught (special education/regular education pair teaching) history class.  I also believe in using technology in my classroom, and this gives us another tool to try!  At the very least, we can use it for some of the web creation that we do, like Animoto and Blogging (we use edublogs, because its easier for me to keep track of what the students are doing).  I'm also looking forward to trying out the Read & Write extension for Google Drive since we use RWG in our school district for accessibility.

OK...  back to the first impression...

The machine arrived this afternoon, which was really a surprise because I only received a ship notice 3 hours before FedEx showed up at my door!  Good thing I was home, because it needed to be signed for and I didn't relish a drive out to the nearest FedEx overnight ship terminal (Alexandria, VA!).

The cat was, of course, very interested in the box.  He loves technology, and remains a die-hard iPad fan because it responds to his paws as well as my hands.  

Once I opened the box, the directions were right there for me to find...  Except they were in Braille!  A friend helped me find this: Braille Translator site once I connected the Chromebook to the Internet.
Good thing I found English and German directions right under it (and Spanish, French, along with several other languages!).  It turned out that I didn't need them though...

I took the machine out of the box and was very surprised at how light it was.  I actually think its lighter than my iPad with its protective case.  Its certainly lighter than my Sony Vaio S series (I love it, BTW) which weighs about 6 pounds with the add-on battery.  The downside is that the machine feels more fragile, and I'm a little worried about how it will hold up in my classroom.  Most of my students aren't unnecessarily rough with anything, and we often use my iPad without its protective case (I have to take the case off to hook the iPad to our interactive whiteboard; the dongle doesn't fit with the case on) to play group games or practice in my social skills class.  But, we have had a few accidents this year which have involved a broken digital camera and a dropped whiteboard stylus.

The Chromebook does not have a port that will allow me to hook it to the whiteboard in the classroom.

I tried out Chromevox, and was fairly pleased with it.  Mind now, I'm not blind, and I have no reading disability.  I'll have to ask some students to try out the feature and see if they also find it acceptable.  I am thinking they might not because it reads EVERYTHING, including hyphens and "end parenthesis".  However, I will leave it up to them to decide.  I don't think it will be too hard to get them to use it, because they generally like anything new and shiny.  

I have discovered that PowerPoint slides don't transfer as well to Google Drive, but I'll explore a bit more and see if that improves.

The battery life is advertised at 6 hours, which isn't bad for a laptop, although my Sony is 14 hours with the sheet battery, and 5-7 hours without depending on the settings.  The battery life may have something to do with the screen.  The screen resolution, frankly, was amazing.  It is REALLY sharp.  Again, sharper than my Sony. I didn't realize that the screen resolutions had advanced so much in the 2 years I'd owned my Sony.

I believe the Chromebook will fit in the old iPad zippercase I have, which is nice.  The only reason I don't bring my laptop to school with me more often is because I am not supposed to lift more than 15 pounds: the backpack with the laptop (6 pounds with the sheet battery, give or take a pound), plus the iPad and assorted  school supplies is over 15 pounds.  And the wheeled backpack I bought is a pain in the rear.  Yes, I bring the iPad to school with the laptop because in my team classes, one of my jobs is to make a set of notes for students who have trouble copying from the board.  I can stand in the classroom or move around with the iPad, and cannot do that with the laptop.  However, I can't access the school grading system (web based) or our IEP writing system on the iPad.  I will be testing those out; allegedly both work in Chrome because the district installed that on the desktop machines just after winter break.  

As a side note, I wasn't able to find a Skype client for the Chromebook, and I already know that the Red Cross web-based applications won't work in Chrome.  I've been told the latter by other Red Cross volunteers.  I'm hoping there is a Skype client, because I use that regularly for another group I volunteer with.

For now, this is enough...  

Monday, April 2, 2012

Tech Sweatin'

OK... I promise this is my absolute LAST IRL Quest for the day... 

Its just that I started these in August, never got a chance to finish, and had most of the "bits and pieces" already, so it was easy to blog them.

Well, except this one.  This is a new one...  I just discovered Daily Burn in January when I was looking for a new food tracker and exercise tracker.  I'm way more motivated to workout if I can post it, or earn points for it or ... or ...  I really want to get a Jawbone Up tracker that will track sleep, weight, calories, etc.  I want the Up! because its currently the only waterproof tracker available on the market.  Despite all the noise about swimming being a fantastic form of exercise that anybody can do, none of the weight/fitness trackers are available for those that swim. 

I guess that makes me very much like my students and their video games (check back to see if I think this is a good thing...)


Fill in the Blank with Pixlr

Something Soft:


Something Red:


City Walk with Pixlr

This for the I Love to be IRL (In Real Life)! series of quests on 3D Game Lab. I used some pictures from a trip to Seattle. I love Seattle; I think along with Boston, Seattle is probably my favorite city in the United States. I can't say they are my favorite cities in North America because I've only been to Winnipeg (and that for a conference with precious little time for exploration)as other cities in North American but not within the United States. Of course, I'll readily admit that the two cities could be my favorites because they are among the few cities that I've traveled to for reasons outside of my volunteer work with Red Cross Disaster Services. There is something about seeing cities during disasters that tends to make them "not favorite", even if the people living and recovering from the disaster are amazing. Picture #1: I took this from the hotel room I stayed at during the Microsoft Innovative Teacher conference. Pixlr made it VERY easy to get rid of the one part of the picture I hated, which was the reflection from the plate glass window. I'm so glad I was able to get rid of it, because it is a gorgeous photo.
Picture #2: This picture was taken from the base of the Space Needle (if that wasn't obvious already!). I'm terribly scared of heights, which has ruined several opportunities for awesome picture taking, including from the top of the Berlin TV Tower and the St. Louis Arch (although this was achieved thanks to the students who were with me on that trip who grabbed my camera when it was clear that I was only up there because I felt it was my duty to make sure they weren't killed while that far up in the air!).
Picture #3: This was supposed to be a good photo, but wound up misaligned and far too orange. Pixlr allowed me to rotate it, put a dark frame around it, and tone down the orange... now its a great example of "good bye" and "thank-you" in different languages!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Fakebook Profiles

In the past, I have used a simple PowerPoint template to make a quasi-Facebook profile for a project with the Explorer Unit in my World History class. Its a decent project, but doesn't really require a lot from the students. This year, one of my students found a website that creates a Facebook Profile. The tool, called Fakebook, is part of the ClassTools.Net suite of online tools that are available for teachers. The website is ad supported, but does offer premium subscriptions (a bit pricey unless you truly think you'll use everything on-line... I cannot because we don't have that much computer access available). An additional drawback is that most of the tools on ClassTools are Flash, and so will not work on most mobile devices (even those that say they support flash often don't support much more than games or movies!). This year, not only did we complete profiles for Explorers, but my social skills class also created profiles for "paper bag people". Our paper bag people came from Trader Joe's grocery store bags, because the drawings on the bag are very unique and creative. The students can be very creative with these, and for my students with autism using a fake person was easier than having to research a historical character. Here are a few of the social skills projects, just click on "View Full Screen" to get the full page. We're having a bit of a motivational problem in getting things done in the World History class.

View Fullscreen | Create your own

View Fullscreen | Create your own

Sunday, August 21, 2011

3D Game Lab: IRL Quest-Let's Make A Meal


I made a turkey breast in my slow cooker for the Cooking 1 & 2 Quests. I then added risotto, frozen chopped broccoli, cream of corn soup and some Parmesan cheese to turn it into turkey, broccoli and rice "casserole". Right now I'm only allowed to eat pureed or liquid foods because of some health issues, so I'm afraid the picture isn't very appetizing...

This was quite good, one of the better meals I've made since I started the puree/liquid diet at the advice of the dietician I see. I wouldn't make this if you don't like Parmesan cheese or turkey. I love broccoli, but was disappointed that was it was all chopped together, I couldn't taste or crunch it. Oh well.

3D Game Lab: IRL Quest-Cooking 2


I had already been to the store for the necessary ingredients and started cooking before I came back to this quest... so I took the picture in the kitchen.

If you look closely, you may see the tip of a tail, which is the kitten being on the counters where he is NOT supposed to be.

The meal would be savvy saver: Although the ingredients were expensive since I buy mostly organic and unprocessed items, the turkey breast will make at least 4 meals. Tonight is turkey & rice. Tomorrow is cream of turkey corn rice soup with broccoli. Tuesday is turkey salad for lunch or leftover soup, with turkey salad for dinner.

And easy clean up, too!

3D Game Lab: IRL Quest-Cooking 1

Slow Cooker Thanksgiving Turkey

I chose this recipe because I had a turkey breast in the freezer that needed to be prepared. Unfortunately, I have to be very careful what I eat, so finding a plain way to prepare the turkey so it was useable in multiple meals throughout the week was necessary. I think I would have preferred something a bit more interesting, but that's not possible right now...
I also chose it because, originally, I was supposed to be working with another teacher on a project. I just never made it over to her house because of technology issues and lots of storms.

Tools And Gadgets
Crockpot with lid

Ingredient List
1 (5 1/2 pound) bone-in turkey breast, skin removed
1/2 teaspoon garlic pepper
1 (10.5 ounce) can turkey gravy
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon dried sage

3D Game Lab: Mechanics of Game Based Learning

How might a teacher apply even ONE characteristic of games and game environments (choice, progress bars, etc.) to a typical unit or module of instruction?

As I've gone forward with this, albeit with much frustration on my part, I have thought about how to gamify my classroom in a better fashion. I already do some choice in the classroom, but I think I am going to add more options via a project selection board. I will give the students options on how they can show me what they have learned, including the option to take a test.

I will do this at the start of each unit using a choice board model, and I think I can streamline a lot of the activities including taking a test using various online options. We'll see how this works: it might allow me to do what I love about teaching, which is encouraging the students to be engaged and exploratory while minimizing the amount of time students spend stuffed into chairs and taking notes while I lecture. I hate that version of the classroom even more than I hate all the paperwork that goes along with teaching.


(The above picture is a sample choice board for a math unit from http://daretodifferentiate.wikispaces.com)

Sunday, March 13, 2011

4G iTouches

In December, we received 2 4G iTouches from another Donor's Choose grant. I'm so grateful for the people that continue to provide funding to allow my students access to technology! This time, most of the donors were local people or non-profits, which is a huge leap forward in my mind; as much as I love my friends who donate money to my classroom, seeing that there are community foundations donating to us is just fantastic. Our thanks to the Piedmont Community Foundation, and the other donors (most of whom choose to remain anonymous, which fine!) for the new technology we have to use.
We had also achieved open-access filtered wifi in our classroom provided by the school district for awhile... About 6 weeks. And then the district shut it down because people were using it to stream video which caused the system to crash. The administrative offices decided to limit access to the open filtered wifi system to outside of school hours. Of course, I don't know all of the decision making that went into the decision making, but it seems that if the issue were students & teachers streaming video, you could block it. You could have principals tell staff that this is not an appropriate use of the system.
It just seems counterproductive given budget issues not allowing for purchases of technology, and district policies that do not allow grant-purchased items (items that belong to the school only, and not to the district) to be on the network which prevents Internet access. In this day and age, with so many things depending on the cloud (some of which are FREE), it'd be nice to be able to use these tools with my students. Despite the income level, most of my students have a cell phone that can use apps, and are either Droid or iOS (more iTouches than iPhones), which have options to make reading & writing easier for my students.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Spring into Summer

I have just realized that there haven't been any posts since our February blizzard! And there was definitely technology going on to share... We blogged about different independent living topics, although many of my students treated it like torture. They didn't like blogging any better than they like writing with a pen, and several students chose not to do it at all.
We used The Sims 2 to "practice" independent living skills we were learning about... although we had some interesting issues with the Sim characters. The overriding desire for the Sims to be social led to some unique situations, and I think setting up each computer to host 4-5 Sims may have overtaxed the random event generator. We had lots of fighting going on between the Sims, and in one case, a team burned their house down.
A separate issue was convincing those watching this that the students were not just playing a video game, but instead actually learning... I'd like to do more things like this, but we continue to be hampered by a lack of available Internet connections on the grant-funded laptops.
I haven't been able to get any additional technology via a grant, though I tried to get some iTouches with hopes of using them as mini-word processors and book readers for the students. I'll have to look at that again later, perhaps. A lot of grants for individual teachers are being vetted on Facebook now, and your friends have to "vote" for your grant... And this only works if you have parents with Internet connections, Facebook, etc.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Snow, Snow, Go Away!

There isn't very much to report on the technology in the classroom front because, well, we haven't BEEN in the classroom! We had 3 feet of snow fall between February 5 & February 10. All of the snow put us out of the classroom from February 5 through February 15, with an additional snow day on February 3. We were back last week, but we had an hour delay each day due to the conditions of the roads and sidewalks.

I reorganized groups in all of the classes to accommodate new students added to the rosters. We have restarted having the students work on their amusement parks, but this time I am requiring them to follow just my rubric, and to work in the Sandbox mode of the software. This gives them unlimited money while eliminating most of the complaints from the peeps.

Another apparent issue is not remembering how to make the various roller coasters, and getting frustrated when the rules of physics kick in during the game (yes, Rollercoaster Tycoon follows the rules of physics for their rides!). I'm trying to fix this by making short tutorial videos on the different coasters which the students can then watch as often as necessary. I'm using CamStudio, which is an open source screen recording package. It is the same as Camtasia, but free.

We are all hoping that there will not be any more snow for the rest of this school year.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Disappointment

I have to say that I'm very disappointed in the quality of projects that my students turned in for the last quarter. With the exception of a few, there was very little effort or thought put into the final versions of the games. One group actually attempted to turn in a hand-drawn board that was done in pencil 10 minutes before the final version was due. Another group traced their board, but didn't bother to use a ruler. In all, I only received 5 games total, and none of them included the required typed directions.
I'm not sure what went wrong... I've tried dissecting the problem, and have decided that at least there was some confusion since they were doing both an amusement park in the RCT3 software, and a game board of their own design based on an amusement park they chose. Clearly, the RCT3 activity was more popular than the game board. I was also out of the classroom more than is typical for me between jury duty, some family issues, and LOTS of meetings. But, the students still had 9 weeks with lots and lots of notice about projects, lots of checkpoints where they were told what still needed to be accomplished.
I have decided to let them finish their RCT3 parks for the first part of this quarter, because none of them have anything to present. And, I'm trying to decide how (and if!) I want to let them do anything with The Sims. I'd love to have enough computers to let them each do their own project.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Donor's Choose

Right around the time of semester exams, I was notified that my Donor's Choose grant was fully funded! For those who aren't familiar, Donor's Choose is a website that allows teachers to post ideas for projects they would like to do in their classroom, but for which they do not have funding. It was started by a New York City Public School teacher and initially was only open to teachers from that district. In the years since, it has grown, and been recognized as a great resource for teachers. It is really designed for the teachers in moderate or high poverty schools to try and get materials they need that can't be provided by their school or school district for whatever reason.
In September, when I started my new position teaching students with autism spectrum disorders (those who are in the academic program), I realized that my classroom probably wasn't as friendly as we would like. It was VERY bright due to the fluorescent lighting with the white cinder block walls, and a white linoleum floor. It also had no windows, which meant the room was very dark if we turned off the lights so the students could see our interactive whiteboard. The size of the room meant there really wasn't anywhere for the students to go to cool down if they needed. I decided to ask for some lamps, lightbulbs and a carpet. With the help of some friends, and some people that I've never met, and probably never will meet, we now have ALL of these items... plus the district found funding for an exercise ball, some weighted aromatherapy animals, a weighted lap pad, several different kinds of stress balls, and some curriculum materials.
We're still kind of hoping to find a loveseat or small couch to put back there, and I'll likely have to buy more of the aromatherapy animals because even my students with "just a learning disability" want to use them!

Friday, December 25, 2009

The Sims 2: In MY Classroom?

I teach high school students with a wide-range of special needs from learning disabilities to autism. I've used RollerCoaster Tycoon in all its variations (we're using Gold/Platinum editions of version 3 right now) for several years in many ways. I make my own materials for the RCT units, including tutorials that the students have to go through before they can actually start the project. The students also get rubrics and have checkpoints where they have to show progress; at the end they fill out a reflection paper and do a presentation. My students have enjoyed it, and started campaigning to get me to use the Sims for the next project. I was hesitant---we have 3 laptops, so the students have to work in groups of 2 or 3, and the laptops can't connect to the school network for Internet access. Price is always a factor, so we definitely won't be using Sims 3. I've purchased Sims 2 to try out.
If I do wind up creating a unit based around the software, I will be shuffling groups (I do each quarter anyway), and I will be making each student responsible for a specific section of the tutorials. All students will fill in all questions, but each packet will have a letter or number that codes to questions they are required to do. I think this might prevent some of the "lazy man" I see, and the lack of actual team work in some groups. I know there are some this won't help, but we'll see if this is a step in the right direction.
Now to see if the download code has shown up and to begin the search for materials...

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Reading for Information: Amusement Parks & Board Games

The 2nd quarter project for Basic Skills involves a reincarnation of my amusement park unit. Instead of a PowerPoint project, the students have to create a game board based on the amusement park they've chosen and researched. You can find the worksheets here, and some of them are fillable and savable in Adobe Reader.

The groups also have to create an amusement park in Rollercoaster Tycoon 3. We have several licenses of the software installed on laptops we received 2 years ago from Best Buy's Te@ch grant program. A note: If you own the original copy of RCT 3, you cannot purchase the expansion packs for the water parks or zoo. The expansion packs do not install properly. We had to purchase RCT 3: Gold, and RCT 3: Platinum. The Gold & Platinum versions install and run well.

At the wiki link above, you can find tutorial worksheets for RCT 3. I did not make the worksheets fillable, because it would be too hard to fill them out on the laptop while engaging in the software. The tutorials for RCT 3 require significant reading ability, which is something that most of my students have this year, but if your students do not have a 4-6th grade reading ability, you would be better off doing the tutorials as a group. You can do this by hooking a laptop to a TV with an S-Video output, an interactive whiteboard (if you're lucky enough to have one!), or an LCD Projector to a screen. I plan to give the game a shot on our interactive whiteboard, just because it seems like a really cool way to play.

The worksheets also include a rubric for the amusement parks, and the game boards. I allowed the students to choose the kind of game; many chose a Monopoly-style game, although 2 groups chose PowerPoint games: Jeopardy and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. The last thing that is now available is a PowerPoint webquest for students to complete. The new version has added questions, and a box at the bottom of the page to put the link where they find the picture or text. It also has a project reflection sheet included. My students will likely be using this for their mid-term exams if I can get laptops.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Commercial Advertising Projects

In early November, my students wrapped up their commercial advertising projects. Several of the groups REALLY got the concept, and created an actual advertisement for their products. Overall, it was a success, but there are some things I would do differently. I've implemented some of the changes for the 2nd quarter projects (now almost over... the fall has been chock-full of emergencies and bad news), which I'll detail in another post.
In the meantime, here are some of the best of the group videos:

The Smart Guitar: A guitar that comes preloaded with songs, all you have to do is pretend to strum!


Flavored Air in A Can: The solution for decidedly smoggy, polluted city air!


Flava Flava: Custom sodas for your enjoyment. The soda version of Coldstone Creamery!


The Suit: Clothing that grows with you!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.