My workshop will have teachers creating Edublogs to complement their classroom instruction. Here are the multimedia materials I discovered in my research this week.

Pre-training: http://edublogs.org/eduvideos/251/5minoverview.swf and http://help.edublogs.org/user-guide/

According to many discussions I have had while talking with my co-workers (who will be the students in my workshop), I learned that most of them learn best through video presentations. Therefore, I selected one video that will provide a 5 minute overview of what we'll be creating in the workshop. The other website will be not only helpful as a pre-training tool, but also as a resource tool along the way while creating the Edublog. Students will be able to easily select what they need support with from the extremely organized Edublogs user guide.

Graphic organizer: www.Mywebspiration.com and www.Mind42.com.

As stated in this week's Demo #1, mind maps can be a powerful tool for brainstorming and creating a visual "big picture." These mind maps help support visual learners, but also students who struggle with organizing information. Originally, I was going to use the website http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page, because I have a lot of experience with using FreeMind software on my Apple computer. However, I found their website more confusing and not as effective as the two listed above.

Presentation: http://edublogs.org/10-ways-to-use-your-edublog-to-teach/ and http://help.edublogs.org/webinars-and-live-training/

The multimedia material I will use in my presentation is the http://edublogs.org/10-ways-to-use-your-edublog-to-teach/ website. This will reiterate to the teachers what the Edublgos can do for them and for their students. I chose this website over others because there is a video for visual and auditory learners, but also easy-to-read text that will reinforce the topics presented in the video. I also included the website for Edublog webinars, http://help.edublogs.org/webinars-and-live-training/, to show teachers how they can get support during and/or after the workshop.


Authentic assessment activity: www.goanimate.com and http://explore.live.com/windows-live-movie-maker?os=other

These two websites will assist student in creating and publishing their authentic assessment activity, their Edublogs. The Windows Live website will help teachers (the students) turn their educational photos and videos into movies! Teachers will learn how to add captions, transitions, and sounds to their Edublogs, as they're finishing their Edublogs assessment activity. Goanimate will help teachers make their Edublogs more appealing and exciting for their students. Teachers can chose their animations depending on their subject or grade level to personalize their Edublogs for their students' needs. After researching other websites for creating multimedia materials, these two stood out because of how organized and how easy they were to understand and manipulate.

My Multimedia presentation will focus on helping teachers create and maintain an educational blog, while incorporating many technology programs and tools that are already successful at our school.

http://edublogs.org/why-edublogs/
This website will introduce the Edublogs website to my class of teachers, explain the benefits of blogging and show the help and support that is available. This website will also show teachers how they can integrate Facebook and Twitter, post videos and discussion topics, and engage students in their learning while enhancing instruction through collaboration. The website is an example to Mayer's Coherence Principle: When giving a multimedia explanation, use few rather than many extraneous words and pictures.

Mayer stated that meaningful learning depends "on the cognitive activity of the learner during learning rather than on the learner's behavioral activity during learning" (p. 1). The active engagement with this website focuses on behavioral activity. This website it accomplishing learner-centered learning by "using the technology to help human cognition" (Mayer 2009).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FIk653lvkk&feature=related
This video will show my colleagues how to easily set up their Edublog. It takes teachers through the step-by-step process in setting up their blog by carefully showing them what to do. Due to this fact, the website it learner-centered. Norman (1993, p. 5) refers to tools that aid the mind as cognitive artifacts: "anything invented by humans for the purpose of improving thought or action counts as an artifact." This video is an example of a cognitive tool. This video models what was stated in our Mayer text this week, "The design of multimedia technology to promote human cognition represents one exemplary component in the larger task of creating what Norman(1993, p. xi) calls "things that make us smart." This tutorial video will help promote human cognition with my co-workers (my leaners), and then they will be more cognitively able to promote cognition with their students.

http://edublogs.org/videos/
This website provides easy access to information for teachers, which is an example of technology-centered learning. These videos represent the capabilities of Edublog and supports teachers cognitively. The goals of these video will be promote human cognition by teaching the educators how to adapt the technology to fit the needs their learners.

References:
Mayer, R. E. (2009). Multimedia learning (2nd ed.). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

Norman, D.A. (1993). Things that make us smart: Defending human attributes in the age of the machine. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.