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California State University
San Marcos Student Reports |
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As
the MediaWorks publisher and professional presenters and
trainers, we can sometimes get caught up in the day-to-day
operations and forget just how much impact our program
has on others. This really hit home after we conducted
summer workshops for educational technology students at
CSU San Marcos in San Marcos, California under the direction
of Dr. Kathryn Hayden, Associate Professor of Education
and current California CUE president.
What follows are post-workshop student reports obtained by permission from CSUSM's student discussion boards. These reports are summarized in two sections. The first offers general comments about the program and the second is on how program might be used in the classroom. Student names have been removed to protect their privacy. |
What did you think of MediaWorks?
I think this is a great program for schools to have as well as the average person to have at home, because everybody no matter what job they have can use this product as a resource. I had a little trouble at first because you went through everything so quickly. But as we were given time to practice I started to catch on. It seems like a fun toy to have at home for families to share and bond to create family videos or photo albums, this way every body is involved in the creative proccess. Thanks for showing us this great resource.
I really like the software program and how easy it is to use.
I've been working with PowerPoint for about five years
and was very impressed with MediaWorks. I like it a
lot better than PowerPoint. Great presentation. Thanks!
MediaWorks works! It's a wonderful program that one can use in classrooms. Students have the opportunity to use thier creativity and imagination instead of just putting together ready made graphics.
Great presentation! I was very interested in this new software that you presented to us. I will most likely buy MediaWorks at some point to use in my classroom. I think it will be very helpful to me in the future. Thank you for the enlightening ideas on how to use this program with students.
I love MediaWorks! Everything is so simple to use and logical! This is really a great product.
MediaWorks is an amazing tool! Thanks for taking the time and sharing your knowlege with us! One thing
that really stuck with me during your presentation were the terms you used.......Usability and Stability.
MediaWorks is a great tool. I had a lot of fun when I had the opportunity to try it in class. I had a little trouble at first, but it is user friendly. I want it for my personal use to create lessons and presentations. In school this program makes any subject interesting for students. I believe that the majority of the students want to be a movie producer or a movie director and this gives them the opportunity while they are learning.
How might MediaWorks be used in the classroom?
MediaWorks would be an excellent way to prepare an interesting and fun slide show or video for the class. It would be a great way to introduce a new subject or topic and would also be helpful to show students how to get started on a project. It is a great interactive multimedia tool and children will enjoy the movie format, and that it is pretty different from what is usually used.
I think it would be a good idea to use this while reading a book. Instead of doing the same old boring book report the children could design their own movie or slide show with their own imagination. I think it would let them have their own perspective and make them think while having fun!!
I really liked MediaWorks. Students could use this software by creating a mini instruction video. For example, how to play a game or square dance.
I plan on teaching high school history. If I was to use MediaWorks in the classroom, it would be both for my own personal use, as well as for the students. I would try to use this software to make lectures more interesting, by using videos, pictures or sound bites (rather than just overheads or white boards). I would also have students do group presentations, in which they would pick a topic and use MediaWorks to present it. I would require them to use a variety of resources (text, videos, audios, photos,etc.) to get the most out of this software.
For grades 2-5, I think MediaWorks would be great for students and their teacher to make a movie of themselves and their classroom; transfer it onto a CD; and then exchange it with another school's class or even a foreign school's class. The opening scene could be their classroom, followed by shots of each student (taken by the teacher with a digital camera), and ending with a group shot of them all with their teacher. School name, grade, student/teacher names, etc. could scroll across each frame and maybe the students could get into the building process by picking which kind of transition they want for their individual picture as it comes into view in the movie (zoom, lattice, right/left entry, etc.) and the music for their movie. The possiblities are endless!
I think this program would also be a great end of the year project for students. The teacher and the students could create a video of the class and all things they did over the year. They could then show it at open house for the parents to see everything they did that year. The students could each recieve a copy, and they would have their own video yearbook. There are so many different things you could do with this program, I think it would be a good resource for teachers to have.
I was a tutor in a high school AVID program, if you are unaware of the program it is a college prep class that focuses on helping underrepresented students get into college, and this would be an awesome program for them to use. In AVID each student has to do a end of the year project that explains who they are, where they have been and where they are going. When using MediaWorks they could be extremely creative and make mini movies or narrate a slide show. The AVID program already uses the power point program with TV but this would be even cooler. They also research a college and by using MediaWorks they could gain pictures of the college or university and give a virtual tour of the campus. This program could make a lot of projects a lot more exciting for the students and teachers.
I would use MediaWorks with third graders by first showing them an interesting lesson demonstration with one. I would then allow them to research and create a presentation of their own. They could use their MediaWorks presentation as their visual presentation to the class. I think the students would be very creative with this tool because they can customize it to their own preferences, there are no boundries so I will also have to keep that in mind.
In class I experimented with the paint feature. It has some great additions that word paint doesn't have. I would have the students create puzzles with shapes and take their puzzles apart and trade with other students to put together. The paint feature has a tool which after you create a picture (which can be made of shapes)you can cut the piucture into pieces and move around the screen (puzzle pieces). I would probably integrate a recent lesson with it. For example, if we just learned about bugs and insects I would have the children create bugs/ insects with only shapes learned from our math lessons to create their own masterpieces. This could be for the lower elementary grade levels, 1-3. You could change it and use it for upper grade levels as well by showing fractions in math lessons and splitting the pictures to represent fraction problems. The children/ teacher could use MediaWorks as their resource to make a math lesson more fun in class while also teaching the students better use of technology.
I would use MediaWorks with my high school science students. They could use this to create presentations on science realted topics or I could use it as a lecture tool to show clips of the cell cycles or animals...etc.
I would use MediaWorks for class presentations so that I can incorporate picture slides and video slides at the same time. I want to teach 11th grade history and that program seems to be a lot more functional for this type of presentation than power point. PowerPoint doesn't allow video clips to be incorporated in the same way that movie works does. Power Point does two separate files and MediaWorks allows it to be one file together.
MediaWorks could be used in a middle school social science setting for students to present history reports in a creative manner. They could either use the slideshow and presnt, or make their own movie. I would use MediaWorks with first graders and up to College. MediaWorks allows for students to use paint, make their own graphics,use photos,video, slides, animations, and it sizes pictures thereby eliminating having to hassle with little things like that. It's great for individual presentations, but for elementary grades I would use it for group project presentations, because the different available resources allows for eahc students in a group to choose to incorporate photos, or do the video part.
I would use MediaWorks with my kindergarten class by teaching them a specific lesson and then using MediaWorks to demonstrate certain ideas. I think it would be great to put together a slide show or movie on the subject that you are discussing. I think this would work great with younger kids because sometimes they need a bit more of a visual in order to understand the material. I would also use MediaWorks with other teachers to demonstrate ideas that I have for the classroom.
Personally I would use MediaWorks to show how things work. For example, many science textbooks for the upper elementary grades describe how an experiement works and for some students it is difficult to imagine, but if one had a movie clip it would be easier to visualize. Also, I would love to put together pictures of the class into a movie and have it play at open house for the parents to see!
MediaWorks is an amazing tool! In the state of California, students in 4th grade, are required to study information on the Missions. Usually the students make models of Missions. I think it would be a great idea for students to work in small groups and actually make a movie focusing on a particular mission. Each group could be assigned a different Mission.
I would use MediaWorks by having my fifth grade students create models of planets. I would take pictures of the students holding their planet. They would research information about the planet, size, color, distance # of moons, etc. With the information that they gathered as a class, I would create a movie about our solar system for all of the students to enjoy. This would be a great way to engage the students in interactive learning. Throughout the year you could do many activities like this. We could watch them at the end of the year open house. If parents wanted to supply a dvd/cd, I could make them a copy of all the movie works activities throughout the year. It would be a great memory to look back on.
I think MediaWorks is interesting. I feel that the students will love the program and they can use it to do presentations. It has many exciting features such as painting and music. I don't expect elementary school to do slide show or video on they own. But I think that they can create a presentation as a group project.
I believe that students from middle school and high school would benefit the most with this program. MediaWorks can be used to do a book report in a language class; it can present a special event in history in a movie, etc. I believe that MediaWorks is a very powerful tool that has the ability to encourage critical thinking by doing research and creativity when putting this information together in a presentation.
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