Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Trying out Edistorm with my students...

My students and I are trying out Edistorm tomorrow for the first time.  Students have learnt all about viruses and how they affect their computer, what exactly they do and how to combat them.  The idea is to have the students brainstorm as a group, all that they have learned.  This is a project for assessment of their learning, but in a process manner.  Students are to summarize as a group all they have learnt with a visual aide (the noteboard in edistorm), then vote on the best ideas that they have to present.  Each person has 10 votes to do so.  At the end of the voting, they clean up the ones they don't want to be included in their report (delete the onces that did not get many votes) and convert the report to a pdf file and email it to me .  Our first attempt is wide open for students to try in 2 private sessions, with 15 students per group.  The maximum per group is 20.  


Let me explain a bit about Edistorm before I continue on.  To get started using Edistorm log into an account that you will create, and click “create a storm.” Then a new blank canvas will appear. To the left of your canvas you will see sticky notes. Type on the note and press add note when you’re done. Above the sticky notes are the color selections of the notes, if you wish to use this to identify what brainstorming ideas are submitted by which students.  The note will then appear on your canvas where you can drag and drop it into place.  A ‘storm’ is a brainstorming session and we can choose to keep it private (so that only we can view it) or public (so that everybody can view). A third option, private storm, lets us share our storm with up to 20 people whom you specify. The private storm feature is not free.


Stay tune to see how it goes.

Just had to add this from someone else's blog.... Thank you soooo much!!!


From E-Learning Provocateur- 

The A to Z of learning

It all started with a tweet by Anne Bartlett-Bragg (@AnneBB) observing an instance of the term s-learning representing social learning.
Amused by our industry’s obsession with single letter prefixes, I replied facetiously that I preferred the term slearning – simply because it sounds so awful.
Then Anne suggested we play an alphabet learning game, and she proposed the first term: a-learning is awful learning? action learning? adaptive learning?
Well that was a red rag to this nerdy bull, so I replied with b-learning is book learning. In the blink of an eye we had roped in Penny Wheeler (@pennyjw) and Claire Brooks (@clairebrooks) as we embarked on a
26-letter journey of frivolity.
Letters
All fun aside though, assigning 26 letters to learning is a lot harder than you might think.
Sure, you can make up anything (eg zebra learning). But if you adhere to the spirit of the game and confine your answers to terms that are pedagogically meaningful, the level of difficulty rises significantly.
More than just a game, I found the exercise prompted me to critically reflect on the broad range of instructional approaches that are adopted in the digital age.

So what did we come up with?
• a-learning is awful learning, action learning, adaptive learning
• b-learning is book learning
• c-learning is Confucian learning
• d-learning is distributed learning
• e-learning is enhanced learning
• f-learning is free learning
• g-learning is great learning, generative learning, granular learning
• h-learning is hidden learning, holistic learning
• i-learning is incidental learning, integrative learning
• j-learning is just-in-time learning
• k-learning is kinaesthetic learning
• l-learning is learning to learn
• m-learning is meta learning
• n-learning is new learning
• o-learning is objective learning, organisational learning
• p-learning is learning from other people
• q-learning is quantum learning, quick learning, quality learning
• r-learning is research oriented learning
• s-learning is social learning, socially networked learning
• t-learning is transformative learning
• u-learning is universal learning
• v-learning is video game learning, voracious learning
• w-learning is we learning
• x-learning is xenogamous learning
• y-learning is Gen Y targeted learning
• z-learning is Zen learning
No doubt you noticed that we tended to avoid the obvious (eg electronic learning, mobile learning).
In fact, I think it’s quite a thought-provoking list.
Wanna play?
Twitter birdAnyone can play the A to Z Learning Game.
Simply follow the #azlearninggame trend on Twitter and chip in the next answer.
Just remember to use the hashtag, and try to pick something unique.
If it’s abstract or obscure, justify it within the 140 character limit.
Go on, have a go. I dare you!

They say teaching goes in cycles, from cooperative learning learning years ago to diversification now, bits of the old, with the new....  This list makes me think of that and the changes that teachers are always going through.  Thank you so much for making me smile on this post.  ;)