Starting classes with Grade 8 students in a four week time period.

Every grade 8 student that goes through Information Technology Grade 8 class (a 4 week period of time) gets trained in specific things in our school to start them on their journey of their Digital Persona.  They learn how to use Outlook since this is the email that they receive from the district, they learn their user name and password and how to save and protect their data on the server (since where ever they move in the district, this user name, password and all files will follow them) and they learn to be safe online.

Through the process of all of this, they learn a number of software program and web tools that we feel is important for them to learn and useful in their time period that they will be in our school.  The main one is Prezi, an online tool that can also operate offline, and you can brainstorm online using their apps.   The intro to our class and to learning more about the students quickly in the four week period is for the student to do a Prezi of their life.  Below is one small example, but a good one.


There are a number of help/support files and videos.  

The program itself has a number of videos that teach students how to use Prezi, but I show the basics like :

• Select your background
• Change your background
• inserting text
• change color
• change font
• change size
• inserting pictures
• rotating pictures
• changing size
• inserting movies
• 2 different ways - by youtube address and by uploading
• zooming in and out of words, and pictures
• using frames
• inserting arrows, etc
• making a path
• put a very small word in a word
• adding music at the end

Students love to do this, learn something new, and I give them a bonus if they teach another student or even better, a teacher in the school.  That seems to work great.  But that's just the start.

We also

• use Inspiration for brainstorming and organizing
• Use different avatars so they understand their digital footprint.
• Look at real teens talking about what has happened to them when going to far with chats and others,
• I show them google satellite and how it can zoom right in to look in your window or what's in the garage to steal.
• They learn how someone can get your phone number and address.
• Talk about Facebook security.
• Talk about rules for safety.  They use the web tool "Toondoo" for this making a comic book.  Here's an example:  

Online Safety by AwkwardBuckets | Make your own at www.toondoo.com

• They learn about the start of competitions of computers with bibliographies of Gates and Jobs.
• They do some fun web tools that we talk about their usage like
• MyOats
• Wordle
• Tagxedo
• TimeRhyme
• and blogs.

These are but a few things we do in 4 weeks, making the class fun, but informative, and with the specific purpose of starting our students safely on computers and on the Internet.  Hope you enjoyed this.

Babbling about Fotobabble.

Fotobabble  is a program online (Web 2.0 tool) that lets you upload any picture and then using the computer or a microphone record your voice with the picture and you can share it with friends through Twitter, Facebook and many other ways.  There is even a email system to send to your teacher. 

Students need to make an account to get on this program, but it doesn’t take long at all to do this.  They make their account and then get to work. 

What can you use Fotobabble for?  Anything you can think of. Here are just a few examples for using it in a language class:

• ·      Home-made greeting cards
• ·      Talking postcards from different countries.
• ·      Review products, songs, movies, TV shows, anything!
• ·      Citizen journalism: Reporting from the scene of something newsworthy.
• ·      Enhance your Facebook Fan Page
• ·      Provide commentary on a photo found on the web
• ·      Promote your brand, products or services
• ·      Create contests
• ·      Instant photo/voice messaging between iPhones
• ·      Narrate the story behind a special photo
• ·      Talking Photo Facebook status that plays right in Facebook
• ·      Adding a visual element to your poetry or music
• .   Adding comments in Twitter.

It is supported by both Mac and PC, but you need a speaker system to listen to it as well as a mike or built in microphone system to speak into it.  For elementary teachers you should get parent permission before hand, and students should put the content in the general public section so that they can embed the program in their electronic portfolio or share the finished product with their teacher through the URL (email the address to the teacher).  It’s fun, fast, and great for assessing vocabulary, accents, grammaire, etc. 

From Teacher First  there is more information as well as other ideas. 

Thanks to Aaron Davis @aarondavis47 for trying out this great web tool and also the Fotobabble App on the IPads.  One special notation about this App from Mr. Davis, when uploading your photos (you can use the camera on the IPad and record into it as well) to their account from the IPad, you need to get 5 – 10 students at a time only.  When Mr. Davis tried to do it with the entire class, he began to have error messages of “Not connecting” or server down.  At first we suspected the WiFi in our school but later, when the students left, Mr. Davis easily uploaded each and every Fotobabble that previously did not work.  The FotoBabble server got too busy or too many people were using the server at the same time.  Please take note of this small problem.

So plan accordingly, and good luck.  This program/App is fun.  If you don’t believe me read Meg’s Notebook to get her review and some of her ideas on using FotoBabble with a class  trip.  You can follow her on twitter @megsnotebook.  Excellent work Meg!!!

The Wonders of Weebly

My students have been learning a number of Web 2.0 tools, photo modification, sideshows, the need for Avatars, etc.  Because of all of these different programs on different sites, we needed an area where all can be put, and that way, seeing the growth of their learning would help build confidence in students, would help them self-assess, and would help students in comparison, and analysis of different tools with the same purpose.  It is the hope that the students will be able to synthesis all these tools and come up with an analysis of which Web 2.0 tool is the best for what situation.  The  evaluation in this area is to make judgements of each tool with their own defined criteria of needs, for a specific project that is called for in any course or subject, not just my  course.

Weebly is a simple, free Web design and hosting system that takes nearly all the pain out of creating a site.  You use drag and drop features to create the pages.  As a teacher you can set up a class of 40 students, setting the user names and passwords of the students one by one, or by uploading a text file of students names, etc.  The program lets you print out all passwords and as the teacher you can lock up the web sites so no one can see the student sites unless they have a password that you set up.  This is for the security and safety of the students.  


Another excellent feature of this tool is their blog area, which you can use for critical thinking activities and also for peer assessment as there is a comment section for his area.  

Weebly has big gaps in its feature set (when dragging and dropping, sometimes the machine lags in this area and sometimes the embedding feature jams up the visual look of the site but by closing off the site and then opening it, all rights itself.  As a quick-and-dirty site host, it's not bad. I really like its simplicity. You can start by selecting a page layout from Weebly's templates (all of which look good - see above picture), or just start typing on the default template. Adding elements like pictures (via uploads or Flickr), YouTube videos, and Google maps to a page is very simple, just drag and drop the feature.  Adding pages to your site is also easy, a click of a button.   But there are some limitations in this service. You can't put a picture into a block of text after the fact--there are separate module types for text and for text-plus-image. You can't put a headline or a caption on an embedded object (like a Google map or YouTube video);  And I'm not sure about space (how many pages you are allowed).  

At present it suites our needs for our eportfolio.  We'll continue to explore this aspect, and I'll continue to assess Weebly in this blog.

Below is a YouTube video on Weebly.

Here are more Web 2.0 tools that my students will be exploring this year in Grade 9/10.  As you can see below, Google covers many of the aspects of Bloom's Digital Taxonomy with their aspects.

http://blog.kathyschrock.net/2011/03/google-tools-and-blooms-revised.html

Finally, just to see how you too can integrate some Web 2.0 tools into daily practise see the Prezi below.

Bloom's Digital Taxonomy and Web 2 Tools on Prezi

Sharing in the Educational Playground.

It's funny how when someone says something in passing it makes you think and wonder "What were you thinking when you said that?!!"

I told some friends about Sullivan Heights Paper, a summary of the blogs of the research that we're doing for the Tech Grant we received in September. They in turn were surprised at how much we don't mind sharing what we've done so far, the lessons, the rubrics, and exemplars.  I explained that it wasn't so much the grant that got the staff at our school started, it was the idea of sharing with people what we were doing, explaining to others what has worked for us, and what has failed.  This sharing of the adventure of our travels to reach the goals we set in September enhances the enjoyment of this trip.  The "Passion of learning" is what drives us.

Life is too short.  We need to enjoy a few moments in time and think about what we have and how we're fortunate to have what we have.  We were one of the first schools to get the College Wifi (thank you to all that helped support our school in that decision), and we received financial support in implementing some changes in our instruction and assessment methods to change our school environment.  Some examples of what we implemented so far is the welcoming of student technology (cell phones, outside computers, etc) into the classroom instead of banning it, embraced the opportunity these tools give our students in learning as 21st Century learners.  We're hoping to help students to understand how to properly use social networking tools/sites with awareness.  We want students to explore web 2.0 tools to self-assess their learning and enhance their critically thinking skills.  But with this exploration comes the  responsibility and need for comprehension (both teachers and students) in the area of copyright, plagiarism and intellectual property.  We are rich in having the opportunity and ability to delve into various areas of inquiry that each of us are passionate about, growing in our knowledge and skills. 

So I ask the question back to my friend "Why not share?" Twitter has given me numerous occasions to learn from colleagues all over the world.  I have seen opening and closing speakers of a number of conferences that I did not have the opportunity to go to.  These people share with me, why not give back to them?  Why reinvent the wheel?  Two heads are better then one, someone can make what I share better, and then give back to me their opinion.  What better opportunity can you think of?!

Most of us entered the field of education because of the love of seeing a student's eyes glow when they finally understand what we have been trying to teach them.  The rush of pleasure a teacher feels when they say "Oh, I get it!".  That rush is not diminished when it's an adult who says this.  It's flattering when someone retweets you, why not feel the same when someone edits your idea to suit their class.  As in a retweet, mentioning the name of the person is the polite thing, and as professionals I hope we do the same with the rubrics, documents, or anything of a colleague that we wish to use. 

So why not enjoy the sharing.  To people who follow my site, please, feel free to use anything here or at my other sites (excellent Web 2.0 tools at this link).  Just say thanks  and email to say how it worked or how I can improve it.  

This morning I looked at the sunrise here in Vancouver (yes this picture), on a beautiful sunny crisp morning, and I thought to myself, I'm fortunate to be in a job that I enjoy, continuously challenging myself to be better in my field, having the means and opportunity to explore my interest and passion.  Why not share my good luck with others?  I hope this blog and my colleagues blogs help you in some way, shape or form.  Enjoy your day or week.  Enjoy your passion.

Try it for 30 Days

There have been a number of blogs on motivation lately, mostly due to getting motivated for a new school year, and mostly looking at something new for our Professional Development Day (I like starting with something motivational for our staff).  This year's starting Pro D day is on the 21st Century Teacher (not the learner), with the idea of teachers looking at how different students are compared to a couple of years ago, and how learning has changed with students, so teaching needs to changed.  We need to start training for the 21st Century skills needed in todays world (critical thinking and team working a huge part of this).

With this in mind I want to ask our staff to set one learning goal (only one mind you) to do this year.  When you set one goal you can acclaim it.  The idea is also for the teachers to list the goal and then the Professional Development team will pair them up with others with the same goal, or the same interest, so we can start networking in our school.

So what does that have to do with "Try it for 30 Days"?  It's a TED video speech that was really quite motivational.  See below.

This clip is very observant. It's true about 30 days making your action a habit.  It is also true that you need to do one thing at a time, and to make it attainable, and not crazy.  So that starts with goal setting.  Use the SMART goal setting.

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Realistic

Timely

Always remember to make the goal measurable and realistic so you know when you reach your goal.  

That brings me to a web site called "43 Things".  It's a site that helps you list and share 43 things you want to do, and you can update the changes that happen in your life because of these changes.  So make your list, choose one at a time, do it for a month, and make a note of how it's changing you. 

Best of all this is a site that helps you connect with other enthusiasts interested in everything from sky diving to writing a book. So the next time someone asks you, “what do you do?” you can answer with confidence, “I am doing 43 things!”.  Cool answer right?!

For those of you who rather read a paper then Tweet

For those of you who don't like to follow twitter (and I have a few friends like that) there is an alternative. It's called Paper.li.  It's a web site where you can set up an account, connect your twitter account and the site organized the links from twitter into a paper format.  In the setting you state who's twitter account will be followed, what hash tags to look at, how often the paper updates, and so much more.  The web site emails you a link of your paper that you can share with others.  In the end you have the articles all organized for you.  Like a newspaper, the highlights are at the start, then you click on a link and you get the full article.  Also like a paper, if you're not interested in an article, you just skip it.  The paper is subdivided into sections, I have business, education, etc, just like a normal paper.  You can go to the section you wish to read. It's fast, an easy to read format  and with this web page similarity to a  paper, people feel more comfortable reading the information.  Below is a link to my paper, one that I follow on education, Web 2.0 tools and the 21st Century Learning info. 

Just think that this would be great for students using twitter for research, looking through all the material in summary instead of waiting for it to come in one at a time.  Or you as a teacher using twitter to follow an authos and what they post for students to see in newspaper format.  If you are doing a hashtag for your school, consider the paper to summarize all the learning.  Our school is doing a research project where I hope to get teachers to tweet their findings, observations, etc.  Would be great to have it in a summary.   Just a couple of  ideas.  Enjoy and hope you try this.

New Web 2.0 tool - The snacks - Podsnack

Podsnack is a web 2.0 tools that lets you upload a playlist of songs or Pod casts.  There are a number of versions to look at when setting up a playlist and how it will look on your web site.  See below for the one I chose.


There are many more you can choose from, but I wanted to try one that was very difficult.

It's simple to use, and could have possibilities.  But when you get an account with Podsnack you also get a number of other tools to play with.  I enjoyed the survey that lets you email the survey to others.  Great for Marketing classes in high school.  Have fun and try it.  It's still in the testing phase, but fun to play with and free.