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Artifact 2

Artifact 2 Audio Recording of Enrico Fermi and the Dead Cat , by John Barnes. Created for Multimedia Tools in Education. By Antonios Roditis I selected this audio recording for my second artifact from the course since I found its recording to be a useful exercise in preparing a reading for my students. An audio recording of more esoteric stories like this one is particularly useful for students who require modifications for accessibility or learn better when read too. Recording the story was somewhat difficult as I wanted it to be easy to understand and it was only my second time ever making a recording for my students. The story is one of my favorites, and it is one I have used in the past to gauge my students’ comprehension. Since it is science-fiction and outside the realm of what many of them are used to reading it challenges their ability to simply understand what is happening and usually requires at least two or three readings. It is also rooted in hard science and r...
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Artifact 1

Artifact 1 Movie Trailer for Red Rising by Pierce Brown . Created for Multimedia Tools in Education. By Antonios Roditis I selected the movie trailer I created for our course for my first artifact since I found it to be an interesting and creative project. I've helped students make trailers in the past, but I never sat down and went through the entire process myself. It was actually a fun activity. The novel I selected for my book trailer for our Multimedia course is Red Rising by Pierce Brown. I read it for the first time about three years ago and was instantly hooked. On the surface, the novel appears to be a standard science fiction adventure novel. In reality, it goes much deeper and asks the reader to question political systems, self-determination, and societal structure as we know it. I first suggested it to my students in 2015, specifically for uninterested readers. The response was better than expected, and I actually managed to turn a few reluctant non-read...
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Course Reflection

Throughout my time in our multimedia course, the way I feel I have grown the most is in my appreciation of the power of multimedia tools in the classroom. While I have understood in principal how effective different multimedia tools are, having an opportunity to practice and use different tools has been very valuable in helping me grow as an educator.  The tools that stand out the most to me are screencasting and audio recording. I purposely avoided using these tools in the past since I felt that static text could pretty much do the same thing, and I could show my students in real time in class rather than use a screencast. However, after teaching my first blended learning course, I now see how useful these tools are to duplicate the immediacy that is lost when utilizing distance learning.  I will continue my learning via taking additional courses and continuing to learn about new technology tools and pedagogies to bring to my students, and I appreciate my time learning...
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Graphic Design in the Classroom

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Greetings Everyone, In this post, I will cover my experiences with graphic design elements in the classroom. First off, I want to clarify that when I reference graphic design, I am referencing free web-based tools that my students accessed via Chromebooks. My skills are nowhere near sophisticated enough to instruct students in the ways of photoshop or the Adobe suite of graphics programs. I did learn to use and instruct my students in the use of tools like Storyboardthat for the creation of super customizable storyboards, and Easley  for infographics. Both tools became a regular part of my classroom culture and students really took to expressing themselves visually.  Incorporating graphic elements added a whole new dimension for my students. Especially for those (like myself) who cannot draw well. As an English teacher, I can say with absolute confidence that the classic maxim, A picture is worth a thousand words , does indeed hold true and giving stude...
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Introductory Blog Post for Multimedia Tools in Education

Hello everyone, I am a high school teacher and technology innovation facilitator at Amos Alonzo Stagg high school, in consolidated high school district 230. I am very fortunate to work with talented students and faculty from my community.   I currently teach Junior American Literature, and I am considering pursuing a technology endorsement. Currently, all freshman and sophomores have their own Chromebooks, and I am fortunate that my junior students all have their own Chromebooks while in my class (we have a classroom cart).  By next year we will be fully 1:1. We also utilize Canvas and Google apps for education and have access to different apps and cloud-based programs as needed.  I'm looking forward to learning more about new multimedia technology, tools, and trends I can bring to my classroom. When I am not teaching or taking a course, I can be found chasing my children and understanding why my parents were always so exhausted.  I am excited abou...
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