My Flip Book on Web 2.0

Here is my final Summative e-Book created with Google Docs and then with FlipSnack. Sorry ladies. Kevin told me you guys had been traveling so I just went ahead a did all the work. Not saying it couldn't be better... so if you want, please take the liberty to change the content and make it look better. You can always make a new flip book.

Kevin thanks for showing me FlipSnack. I use to use a site called Calamao but it started putting advertisement on the bottom of my PDF's. Things not appropriate for school.

Let me know if there is anything else I can do on this project to make it better.

Enjoy!

Using Diigo for Learning in My Classroom

Diigo is a fantastic tool to use while conducting research because of it's ability to annotate web resources. While it saves all the notations you made in your favorites, it's true power lies in the fact that you can actually share content with other people who are parking on the same research. This of course is an effective tool for classroom research as well as in the business world, and for personal use. While we've been studying how to use Diigo, it came to my attention that not only is this a tool for teachers but considering I am a tech coordinator for a campus, I should actually try to use this to teach the teachers I work with. After, to a certain degree, the teachers are my classroom.

Frequently I am attempting to provide teachers with new resources. I find often they are bombarded with information and the amount of time to assess the usability of these tools is challenging. If I could get my teachers to all subscribe to Diigo, than when new resources become available, whether subscriptions the school is providing, or websites explaining new software we've obtained license a license for, I could highlight the key uses as well as provide sticky notes on the actual websites. Pushing this out to the teachers would give them a chance to skip directly to my highlights, giving them a concise and poignant summary of how they could use the content and showing them what is truly important to know.

Using Diigo to make notes on a web page

The beauty of Diigo is the ability to share. Not only would they be able to see what I believe is important for them to know, but they would also be able to see feedback and thoughts from other teachers. In many ways, this would give me a more practical and useful way for teacher to share ideas about how to use the new softwares for subscription we are adapting.

The other beauty of Diigo is the fact that it allows for screenshots. Screenshots would allow me to make a collection of information for the teachers to see in my favorites on Diigo. They could click on my account and at any given time teachers could review all the content that I have shared.

And of course it goes without being said, that in through the process of doing this, teachers would also be learning how to use Diigo. I believe through this practical use of this service, they would actually be able to think of ways to apply this powerful tool to their classrooms as well.

My Public Service Announcement

Wow! I totally get what you mean by a clear, concise, and poignant message to be captured in 30 seconds! I have worked hard before, but almost 8 hours of work that shows itself in just 30 seconds!!! Therefore, if I have 30 seconds to make a point...it most certainly be a pertinent topic, stating a fact/reality, tugging on the emotional aspect of the human mind, and presented with an impact. That's what successful billboards and advertisements aim to do. With regards to bringing this into our classroom, what an intelligent way to teach relevance, research, authenticity, and MAJOR annotation skills? However, I fell victim to visiting sites which then took 'more' time than was necessary. Then, I needed to find out if they were credible sources...except for the obvious names, I am still not certain about some of the sources and really needed to just 'keep on my focus topic.' So, this is certainly a skill that needs to be pointed out, modelled, and finessed or research can get stressful. The idea of filling out the PSA template was the BEST, focused guide -thank you Kevin! Otherwise, I could have gone off target (distracted)at several points. With Animoto, while I realise my PSA didn't come out as poignant as I initally designed and planned...I felt this was due to the lack of 'character spaces' that was in this case, not available. However, I guess this is exactly what you mean by with this amount of time, and only these many words...how would you make a point to be remembered? Digital Story telling tools give us background, sound effects, font effects, the internet at our disposal for information and images....so decompress ALL that to make a point!

Here is the link to my PSA.

Children Belong in School

This was a really fun assignment, although also quite time-consuming. The part I envisioned taking the most time was the making of the video, but in actual fact it was finding appropriate photos. Finding appropriate photos for my theme was a little difficult, then when I thought I'd found the perfect ones, they would be copyrighted. Aargghhhh! It took hours of trawling the websites Kevin recommended before I found ones I could use (at one point, I jokingly had an inner debate about whether it was ethical to go out onto the streets of Kathmandu to take some photos myself. I didn't obviously.)

The final product is one that I am proud of. It might not be the most 'put-together' PSA out there, but, having never made a video before, I taught myself how to use we-video (thanks for the recommendation Kevin!) and imagined ways I could use it in my classroom. Slow and lost internet connectivity were maybe my biggest frustrations, but that seems quite churlish given the content of my PSA.

This learning activity came at a perfect time for my students and I, as after our autumn break we are starting a persuasive writing unit. The objective of the unit is to persuade a village in Nepal to use the new water system that the Finnish government provided them with (article here). A simple and effective way for students to present to these villagers would be through a PSA, and I may include that option in the final choices of summative assessments. Furthermore, we used Diigo as a class to read the article mentioned above. I created a group for that class, shared the article, wrote guiding and check-in questions throughout and asked students to highlight unknown words. It worked like a dream! My students were also very happy to be introduced to this software as it will help them immensely with their research and when they do group research.

A class I'll definitely use PSAs in is grade 6 advisory (homeroom) class. This year our service learning project is to clean up our school and parts of Kathmandu. We have a core group of students who are in charge of videoing our litter picking outings and other activities throughout the year and creating a PSA to share with the school seems like an ideal learning opportunity, both for the grade 6 students and the rest of school.

 

My Public Service Announcement - China's Air Pollution

Well, hope you guys can enjoy the video I made. Not the funnest thing to look at... I promise living in Shanghai has it's positives as well! It's not all doom and gloom :). Actually I have noticed over the past 4 years living in this city, that the air is slowly getting better. As for some other cities, I have seen it decline.

Anyways, this was a fun assignment to work on. I was taken back by how long it actually took to do. Part of this is me needing to use a VPN in China and the connection not being as quick as I would like, but simply editing and putting everything together took some time. Yes, I cheated and made my video over 3 minutes. I realize now if I had stuck to just the 1 minute expectation, it would have gone way quicker. 

To create I used iMovie on my Mac and then uploaded to YouTube.

Let me know your thoughts....

Again, this assignment would be great for students to do research and than post what they learned in a compelling way. Kevin, you asked earlier which of the videos on the plastic bags were more persuasive. I actually thought the one with all the images was. I guess they both had just as much research involved but seeing the still images helped it sink in more than the video.

Is it Blogging or Not?

As the discussion for blogging goes on and whether we need to be teaching students how to blog continues, I would like to bring a few thought to the table.

First, I think that the use of blogging in a classroom is a great tool and one worth using. The ability to be able to post opinions and have other comment on those thoughts is great. I do believe that blogging needs to be taught in school but maybe not the way some would think it needs to be taught. I would challenge that simply giving an assignment where students post a paper or a "one time" blog post is NOT blogging or teaching students "how" to blog.

For me, blogging is a constant habit of journaling online. The actual formality of how one writes is not as important. While keeping thoughts concise and to the point is key, knowing how to be persuasive as well as opinion driven, it is the consistency of how often one writes and the ability to keep a continual voice and/or authority on a subject.

As I mentioned on a comment I wrote to Sarah's post, Andrew Sullivan in his video mentioned that you are not actually blogging unless you are posting more than 2 times a day. If you do anything less than this, he suggests it's simply a webpage. I completely agree with this.

I applaud teachers that could actually find a way of implementing an environment of true blogging for their students. The most natural way would be allowing the kids to actually create a blog site and posts regarding a particular subject they are found of, and to keep the site going for a period of time.

I've seen a ton of teenage boys that like to play "tech support" or give buying advice on gadgets. My wife has been wanting to do a blog site for healthy eating and recipes - especially where to buy the needed groceries in Shanghai. Another example of a blog that caught my attention was a photographer in Kuwait who was taking a picture every day for 365 days and posting his thoughts on the images. I found myself going back to the photographers site daily to see his new posts and even after the year of pictures, I chased down what his new endeavors where. Blogs can contain many different forms and subject matters. But to really be blogging - it needs to be something that brings the reader back for more.

Again, if a teacher could find a way to capture students interests and have them keep a blog going throughout the semester, for example - that would be truly blogging. Anything else is simply a one time paper online.

Let's consider really using the rich format of blogging in our classrooms as a tool to teach our students to have a persuasive voice, provide new and compelling thoughts daily, and to be experts in their own way. That's true blogging!

Should Teachers Use Classroom Time to Teach Kids How to Blog?

BLOG – To Do or Not To Do

Why Blog? How early to effectively Blog? What to Blog? Let’s understand this 

weB LOG shall we? Let’s back up and reflect some....

As a starting point:

Inventions, creations, opportunities, events ... life in general evolves because the human faculty is not only the breeding ground but also the impetus of life as we know it. There is the natural train of human thought:

Thought – idea – perception – curiosity – plan of action – excitement – uncertainty – recognition - success – failure – reaction – recovery – resilience – accomplishment -adjustment – CYCLE repeats.

Personal train of MY thoughts, please FEEL FREE to fill in this process.

Blogging allows an open forum whereby thoughts can be voiced, transferred into action, put down on paper, or simply ‘put down.’ For those who have ACCESS... 

there is not a thought/voice/action that needs ever to be put down.

One reaches one’s reasoning through an interactive, informed, enriched, and opinionated discourse – one that can be achieved via blogging. Is this not what we hope to achieve as educators when we talk about maximising ‘student engagement?’

An article by Lorrie Jackson in Education World simply describes blogging as:

“a method of online journaling. Take a look at any blog and you'll immediately see the connection between it and a traditional diary.”

Therefore, thoughts, comments, answers to situations, or questions about issues are posted…only this time, the recipients extend to a global audience. A database that can nurture you or caution you...either way you are on a more instant, connected journey of not only self-discovery but also of self-enhancement. As part of this journey,

Einstein intuitively knew that thinking is speculative and how personal beliefs and theories distort what we observe. Once he observed jokingly, “If the facts don’t confirm your theory, change your facts.”

I believe ‘success’ and ‘value’ are resonated in most schools’ core philosophies.

Moreover, as Andrew Sullivan goes on to bluntly putting,

“…don’t fool yourself…um…when you’re blogging, when really you’re just putting 

stuff up online,” and that,

“…a blog to live really has to be probably 4 or 5 times a day.”

What does a live, vibrant, engaging conversation look like? Answers to ‘Should teachers take out classroom time to teach Blogging?’ To, ‘Why I, an 8 year old, should be allowed to have my own mobile phone.’ Or to, ‘How can you help me understand what the stance on vaccinating my new baby in light of some vaccines adverse effects?’ Blogging, as Sullivan continues to explain,

 “is a dialogue, not a monologue.”

Is your immediate circle of friends/colleagues knowledgeable to sufficiently answer these entries? Or can you be heard without going through a complicated web of 

bureaucracy?

THEN, DO BLOG. 

Take the time in which you have today’s future for more than 6 hours a day in your classroom to avail of this instant platform.

Start off small, start off true, start off simple. Be present. Be open. Be safe. Set an example. These are entries that spark, engage, and challenge our minds in order that 

we evolve to the potential inherently wired in us.

Resources:

Einstein’s Insights into Human Nature
http://www.dailygood.org/story/241/einstein-s-insight-into-human-nature/

How To Blog Like Andrew Sullivan

http://socialmediaclassroom.com/community/wiki/introduction-blogging