celtx - Integrated Media Pre-Production

celtx - Integrated Media Pre-Production

celtx is an incredible piece of software. It will (or should) change the way that we do media projects with our learners. While I'm sure that many teachers have learners plan media projects out before doing them (ever try doing ad-lib with ESL students?), many others say "Go create!" This software provides a nice, intuitive framework to do the preparation necessary to create better projects and to structure the learning process to get more out of a project than the final product.

When I talk about media development, I'm referring to all sorts of media, from text to video to audio. This can be used well with expository/narrative/etc texts, screen/play-writing, audio/video (program) planning, and many other projects.

For language teachers, this process not only makes the production process better, but it also provides a great opportunity to structure the prep-work to accomplish language goals. The interactions and sub-production work (brainstorming, note taking, interviewing, script-writing, etc...) are where we, as teachers, should be focusing our attention. These tasks are where much of the designed learning should come from.

The biggest drawback of celtx is that it is only available to share in a propriety format (software is free, so I'm not complaining too much). So, you are going to have to have everyone involved load it on their machines. Not THAT much of a drawback, I guess.

Dan

ImageChef - Customize Photos, Clip Art

Here's a neat site that enables you to customize some images for your blog, web pages, and so forth.

You might find this useful when designing buttons or other graphics for your WebQuests.

Mr. Picassohead

Thanks for Elizabeth Hanson-Smith for bringing this to my attention (though there's no link on her post :)

Similar to the sketch program that I blogged about the other day, Mr. PicassoHead is a Flash interface that enables you to create a Picasso-esque picture in minutes. Not only is it fun, but this can be used with students in many ways: discussions on art/artists, creating characters for stories, or even an interesting twist on topics of bodyparts.

This one should be a little easier to save your finished product than the sketch application. All you have to do is email the finished product to yourself. However, I chose that option but haven't received my email yet (couple hours later).

Realistic face sketch

This blog points to an interesting Flash application. It is a face sketcher that really requires no drawing skill.

This is a fun tool, but it could be more than that. It could encourage students to create their portraits or for characters in student created literature.

Check it out. I spent way too much time on this one, but it was really fun :)

My wife wasn't very impressed with my sketch, but I got a kick out of it.

Unfortunately, it was really difficult to get the image this far. The designers did not intend for you to be able to save these images, so they might not be happy if I'm doing so (I apologize to them if they'd rather I not do this). I had to hit "Ctrl PrtSc", open my image editor, open a new image (should default to size of your screen), paste (Edit >> Paste), then crop out everything you don't want, then save.

Have fun