In the first session, Feast 101, we began by logging into Windows 7 Professional. This was my first experience with Windows 7 and I absolutely LOVE IT - the shortcuts are awesome! We further explored Windows 7's Shake and Snap Features, and learned about Gadgets and Ease of Access Center. We then explored the Feast Moodle and set up Twitter accounts if needed to follow the TeacherFeast Twitter Feed throughout the day. After spending some time discussing the educational benefits of Twitter as a tool for communication and professional development, we learned how to shorten long URLs with tinyURL, Bit.ly, and MiniURL.
During this session we also explored the following nine web 2.0 tools: delicious, dimdim, skype, jaycut, prezi, flickr, cacoo, glogsteredu, and jog the web.
At lunch, we found our group members with the color indicated on our name tags. I am assigned to the Indigo group for the rest of the week. Once at our table, we were to come up with a group name and a trainer assigned as our group leader led us in a discussion on how we communicate with students, parents, other teachers, and administration. Our group had a great discussion about using current technology (IM, Share Point, email, websites, Powerschool, Skyward) and some archaic yet still effective modes of communication as well (phone calls, face-to-face conferences, and sending paper notes home).
We did not spend much time on the audio component of the Media Feast session, but we were to create a recording using Audacity, set up devices for recording and playback, record audio, import music files, explore the basics of audio editing, export files to .mp3 for playback on portable devices and computers, and explore various technology and ways to acquire and share audio.
Resources for the audio session:
Audacity
Recording
Free Music
More Resources
Finally, for the video component of the media feast session, we practiced uploading videos and digital storytelling with Photostory and Windows Live Media Maker.
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