Final Exam

Here is the link to my Final Exam.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-chhfVrP1CzNzhrOUFWaXpsM2c/edit?usp=sharing

My Prezi Concept Map

I chose to make my Prezi Concept Map about the next Children's Ministry Unit that we will be starting in a couple of weeks at my church. This unit is called, "Early Church". We will be spending 7 weeks on this topic, so I thought a Prezi Concept Map would be a great opportunity to have an overview of what we will be learning each week. The map will help us to see where we have been, and where we are going. I plan on using this map at the beginning of my lesson each week that I am serving. I may even go back and add more content in the future as I use the map week to week.

I purposely chose a template that showed "growth" rather than a hierarchical fashion. I wanted the students to be able to see that the church started with a small number of people, and has continued to grow and grow over the years.

There are a couple of videos to watch on this Prezi. The first is a clip from The Bible Series from the History Channel. This video is embedded right on the Prezi as a YouTube video. The second video can be watched by clicking on the link next to the circle with "The Work Continues". It is a video that was made by my church that shows some renovations that have been made inside of our church within the last few years. There is also a link to The Voice of the Martyrs website available on my Prezi.

To view my Prezi please click - http://prezi.com/cq3iz-aerno7/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Example Concept Map

Here is a link to the example concept map.
http://cmap.ihmc.us/publications/researchpapers/theorycmaps/Fig1CmapAboutCmaps-large.png

Overall Glog Review

This week I created a couple of “Glogs”. Glogs are like virtual posters that allow you to link videos, add sounds, insert images, and be very creative in presenting information. It is true that Glogs have the potential to create extensive cognitive load. As I looked at some example Glogs before creating my own, I definitely felt like some Glogs went over board with too much stimulation. I made deliberate effort to reduce the cognitive load in my Glog. One way I did this was by deleting things on the template that I chose that seemed like distractions. I also tried to pick a color scheme and not use too many colors on my Glogs, while at the same time keeping them interesting through the colors I did choose. Finally, I created one of my Glogs from scratch so that I got to pick and choose everything that was on the Glog from the very beginning. I do think that I succeeded in my efforts.

I think that Swisher and Mayer would not consider a Glog as one piece of multi-media, but rather they would view them as separate multi-media elements. The reason I feel this way is because when you click a link to watch a video or hear an audio recording, those are separate pieces of multi-media that have their own set of “rules” or “guildlines” that make it a good piece of multi-media. I think the template of your Glog is one piece of muilti-media by itself, then each piece that opens up in a new tab or window would be considered a different piece of multi-media.

I think it is true that, “It is entirely likely that almost every Glog ever made breaks all six of Mayer's multimedia principles.” As I looked back at my 500 word summary of the Swisher article and specifically the multimedia principles, none of them seemed to appy, or maybe only part of the principle would apply. The Multimedia principle – Talks about how important it is to use quality graphics as well as present both text and graphic at the same time to be most effective. In a Glog, this isn’t always the case. The Split-attention principle – Focuses on the idea of keeping important information together. Because of limited amount of space in cognitive load working memory information should be kept close together and not split apart in a presentation for example. In a Glog, you may have to click on a link to see some parts of the information, so it breaks this principle. The Temporal contiguity principle – Similar to the split-attention principle. This one focused on the idea of things happening successively in a presentation and having the information and images appear simultaneously during the narration of the presentation. There shouldn’t be too much time lapse of the information so that more meaningful connections can be made. Again, in a Glog, some time will go by as you are opening different links, or listening to different types of audio. The Modality principle – Using both visual and auditory channels to communicate a type of instructional material. The research showed that when both are happening there are better retention outcomes then when just one or the other is used. In a Glog, someone may choose not to do this, or may only use one channel in a certain aspect of their Glog.
The Redundancy principle – Too much information can make one “check out” and how the same information over and over can be too much. Information doesn’t need to be presented in multiple forms, which is a common assumption. In a Glog, there is purposely lots of information to catch the learners attention. Instead of “checking out” one feels drawn in, and want to click on many images to see what they “do”.  The Coherence principle – One should leave out distractions and unnecessary items like irrelevant sounds or animation. It can be confusing and negatively effect learning. In a Glog, this could be true, but sometimes an extra element of surprise could be fun or engaging.

I agree that, “Even if a Glog breaks most of Mayer's multimedia principles it can still be used to facilitate a more complex understanding of topics than many other multimedia representations.” One reason I feel this way is because it can be a very interactive piece of media. There can be many uses of a Glog, as we saw on the online article, “40+ Ways to Innovative Teaching Using Glogster EDU.” Glogs are also “new” and “different” than many other pieces of multi-media that children are used to. When I used my Glog this morning as I taught in my Children’s Ministry classroom, none of the 13 5th and 6th graders had ever even heard of a Glog before. They were very interested in what it was, and were engaged.

I think this is another reason why they are so popular with teachers and students. They are fairly easy to create, and there are so many possiblilites of how to make them and how to use them.

Children's Ministry Glog

The instructional activity that my second Glog is designed to facilitate is a Virtual Children's Ministry Worship Glog. This is similar to number 27, "Virtual Music Concert", from the website 40+ Ways to Innovative Teaching Using Glogster EDU.  I have recorded myself singing and doing the motions to different worship songs.  Some of the songs use sign language and dance as well.  Currently, there are 4 girls in fifth and sixth grade that help lead worship in Children's Ministry at my church every other week.  The songs are picked ahead of time and I record myself teaching the motions to the song.  From there I email the girls the video and they have 2 weeks to memorize the song and motions before we meet to practice.  Once the song is memorized, the girls get in front of a group of at least 50 children and THEY get to teach the song and motions to their peers.  (ages 4-12)  There is background information about how I go about choosing a song that you can listen to if you click the "play" button in the bottom left-hand corner of the Glog.  I have also included 2 examples of what these videos look like, and you can simply click the "play" button on the video inside of the flower as well as the video inside of the hands also on the Glog.  To learn more about Children's Ministry at our church, you can click on the words, "Grace Church" where it will take you to our church's webpage.

This Glog is a type of promotional Glog to encourage new fifth and sixth graders to get involved in Children's Ministry Worship at our church.  There will be a new group of kids moving up this July, and I thought this Glog could be a cool way to virtually show them some of what we do on the Five6 Worship team.

Here is the second Glog I created on Glogster.  This one is all original material... video, images, text, and audio.

http://weare1bt.edu.glogster.com/childrens-ministry-worship/

Parable of the Sower Glog

The instructional activity that my fist Glog is designed to facilitate is an Infographic. This is number 18 from the website 40+ Ways to Innovative Teaching Using Glogster EDU. According to this website, "Infographics are a beautiful way to display graphs, data, processes, and synthesized information."  As I have mentioned before, I am not currently teaching in the classroom so I chose to make my Glogs in a Children's Ministry context.  This weekend I am teaching on The Parable of the Sower from Matthew 13 in the Bible.  I thought making an Infographic Glog about this Parable would be an interactive way to engage the kids and display information.  There is a fun video to watch about the Parable if you click on the image of the hand sowing the seeds.  I also have included four audio clips of myself explaining each of the soils in the Parable mentioned.  A second video can be watched if you click on the plant that is growing fruit at the bottom of the Glog.  This video shows a plant growing in good soil elapsed over time.  I plan on using the Glog this Sunday to help the kids process the new information they will be learning about.  I have a worksheet that will go along with the Glog where they have to fill in the blanks based off of some key information that they will hear from the Glog.
To see my first Glog created on Glogster, click on the link below.
http://weare1bt.edu.glogster.com/parable-of-the-sower

Reflection on Instructional Video

So far this semester I have seen some of the ideas in the Swisher article evolve in several ways.  One of the first projects that we did was to create a Photoshop collage.  There wasn’t any “movement” in this collage but one still had to keep in mind the ideas of best uses of multimedia.  Next, we created a digital story that used still images (with limited movement as photographs were zoomed in on) and the use of incorporating an auditory stimulus as we did voice-over recordings.  People had the option to also include text on their digital story as well (which I did not do because I thought it would be a distraction).  Finally, we have completed our latest assignment of creating an instructional video.  Video differs from the use of still images and digital storytelling as it takes multimedia to the next level as you are the one recording the video and are not relying on still images to tell a story.  It also is different as you also have live movement, not just still images (visual channel) and sound (auditory channel) happening at the same time.  It isn’t just still images, but it is actual movement that is taking place.  Again, one has the option to include text to enhance learning in their instructional video, which can be helpful in this context. 

My video had some of the same principles from the Swisher article that I have mentioned in previous assignments.  The principles manifest themselves differently though across the projects.  For example, The Modality Principle.  This theory basically says that students can learn better in a multimedia message if the words are spoken rather than printed.  The majority of my video did this, just like in my digital story assignment.  According to this principle, there are some cases when text with spoken words can be useful, like in a step-by-step procedure.  This is why I chose to have some text appear in my instructional video to help the learner better follow the instructions.