Sunday, November 20, 2011

Part B: There's Is an App For That


CEP  Application of TPACK

All students are different and learn differently.  Some students learn better with visual information, others learn better with auditory stimuli, and others learn better through movement. I think I learn best when I am moving.  I think some concepts are best learned through movement.  



I think teachers should use a combination of teaching styles to help all students understand content.  The ways and more times you can display information the better students will grasp a concept.  My students are learning about rhythm in my class. Technology allows me to incorporate auditory, visual, and kenistitic learning styles into my lessons.  I am not a dance expert but it is in our curriculum.  I decided to use the video footage from the game Just Dance(1, 2, and 3), for the Wii.  Students were able to see the dance moves on the wall, student were able to listen to the beat of the songs along with my verbal cues, and all students were able feel the beat while moving and participate in the activity. 


Some of my younger students were having difficulty learning different dance steps, so instead of using the Wii, to produce the multimedia experience, I used a program called Virtual DJ to play video files recorded from the Wii.  Using Virtual DJ gave me control of the speed of the videos. I was able to slow down videos for younger students and once students mastered the movement sequence I was able to speed up the videos to keep challenging students.   I was also able to eliminate any loading time.  Using Virtual DJ I was able to Cue up the next song and even mix it in on beat to keep students on beat. 

6 comments:

  1. Joe,

    The idea to utilize all senses is great! So are the kids playing the game, or did you just record the game and have them follow along with the video?

    It is becoming clear that VDJ is a great tool to use in many curricula. When using the video feature and slowing it down, does the pitch change? Can the original pitch be preserved? I'm guessing this is the Pro version and not the free version.
    -jason

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  2. Jason Kids are playing a recorded game.
    You can use the free VDJ program to correct the pitch after chaning the speed. Look under plugins.

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  3. http://www.virtualdj.com/download/free.html

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  4. I just stumbled on your blog and am loving all of these ideas! How did you record the game from the Wii? I don't have a Wii at school and have wondered if it would be worth the purchase, but I have one at home and would love to do something like this!

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