Students are using the web in ways that teachers are not considering. There is a site called http://www.fanfiction.net/book/ where students are writing about books they have enjoyed. Some are writing new chapters, others are suggesting alternative plot twists, and some are just sharing why they enjoyed books or characters. There is a lot of reading and writing going on at the site. The site has just cleared the statistics, which showed something like 300,000+ posts just for Harry Potter.
A young girl named Laura wanted to do something special in memory of her grandfather. She created a blog called Twenty Five Days to Make a Difference. http://twentyfivedays.wordpress.com/ Laura has exceeded her own expectations. Her ClstrMap shows that people from all over the world have responded to her “caring” blog.
Children are teaching their parents how to use cell phones. One of the cell phone companies has even spoofed this with a back to school commercial.
Kids are publishing video and music to the web. Kids have created many of the helpful tutorials on the Internet. How many teachers have published anything?
Young people are playing games with people half a world away. They are experiencing all types of simulations through virtual worlds like Second Life.
Students are networking with MySpace and FaceBook. Some are even creating online study groups.
How many teachers are taking advantage of what is available via the web in their classrooms? The students are taking advantage of these tools when they get home!
There was an article I read online that talked about the way kids read today, it’s online. Students like to read from a computer screen. They read about all kinds of things. The parents don’t understand because they like the confines of the book covers.
Kids today are leaving their parents and their teachers behind as they explore the world through the Internet. Smart teachers will talk to students about what they are doing on the Internet and with technology in order to know how to reach students on their terms. If their interests are with cell phones, we need to find a way to use cell phones in schools. If their interests are in virtual games, we need to create them. If their interests are in making movies, movies need to be a way an assignment can be completed.
The students who graduate in 2009 will be the first graduating class of digital natives. Have their needs been met in school? Or have the students left their teachers (and parents) in the digital dust?
Monday, July 28, 2008
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Educational Use of Screencasting
How effective do you envision them to be, to different groups of educational professionals?
I imagine that most groups of educational professionals will appreciate the clear, direct instructions given via screencasts. For the tech savvy person, a one time viewing of a screencast will get him on his way. For a tech novice, the ability to watch the process multiple times is available. The ability to choose whether to watch all the way through, pause, or replay allows the viewer to tailor the training to his or her needs. I can imagine teachers using screencasts to leave student assignments if planning an absence, or to demonstrate a process that may be tricky. Screencasts can be posted to their web sites for reinforcement of classroom instruction or to convey information to students who have been absent. When students begin to have their own CLC email accounts and can use the tool, I can see them demonstrating knowledge of a process by screencasting the steps. I believe that educational professionals will find numerous ways to use this tool and embrace the possibilities that it affords.
Do you believe video and textual training tools to be different, do different people respond to either or both?
Text and video training tools are different. A text-training tool leaves a lot to the imagination, while video tools fill in the gaps with the images that are shared. Video training is multisensory and that is a benefit to more learners than learning from text. I would think that anyone would be able to follow a video tutorial while most user manuals are considered doorstops. People usually prefer to try to muddle through and figure things out on their own rather than to suffer through the reading of dry instructional content.
Other than the basic elements of design, what specific design elements do you think should be adhered to when designing these short-training tools for educators or students?
Bottom Line: Screencasting is a cool tool for school.
I imagine that most groups of educational professionals will appreciate the clear, direct instructions given via screencasts. For the tech savvy person, a one time viewing of a screencast will get him on his way. For a tech novice, the ability to watch the process multiple times is available. The ability to choose whether to watch all the way through, pause, or replay allows the viewer to tailor the training to his or her needs. I can imagine teachers using screencasts to leave student assignments if planning an absence, or to demonstrate a process that may be tricky. Screencasts can be posted to their web sites for reinforcement of classroom instruction or to convey information to students who have been absent. When students begin to have their own CLC email accounts and can use the tool, I can see them demonstrating knowledge of a process by screencasting the steps. I believe that educational professionals will find numerous ways to use this tool and embrace the possibilities that it affords.
Do you believe video and textual training tools to be different, do different people respond to either or both?
Text and video training tools are different. A text-training tool leaves a lot to the imagination, while video tools fill in the gaps with the images that are shared. Video training is multisensory and that is a benefit to more learners than learning from text. I would think that anyone would be able to follow a video tutorial while most user manuals are considered doorstops. People usually prefer to try to muddle through and figure things out on their own rather than to suffer through the reading of dry instructional content.
Other than the basic elements of design, what specific design elements do you think should be adhered to when designing these short-training tools for educators or students?
- I believe that the context or purpose for the instruction should be made clear.
- The window should capture only the document/application being discussed–eliminating any unnecessary computer desktop clutter (cognitive overload).
- The person creating the screencast should identify him/herself in order to answer any questions or so corrections/suggestions for the screencast can be shared.
- Students may be better screencast instructors for other students because they share generational communications skills and an innate understanding of technology.
- Each step of an application's use should be given its own screencast so that learners can view only the segments they need.
- The instructor needs to use a microphone in order to have clear audio.
- I believe it is better to use slow and deliberate motion with the mouse versus hurried jerky motions.
- Scrolling is fine, but it shouldn’t be an abrupt up and down motion, just scroll one way or the other in a smooth motion.
- The trainer should sound interested in the subject.
- I find it comforting that there are little issues in the screencasts, it makes the viewer realize that technology is tricky for everyone and that the trainer is human.
Bottom Line: Screencasting is a cool tool for school.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
What You See Is What You Get and I'm Okay With That
Would the Internet be as appealing if the web pages were uniform? The world isn’t going to accept just chocolate and vanilla (ice cream) or black and white (TV) anymore. We’ve gone millions of colors beyond those days!
One of the beauties of the web is that there is something for everyone. Another is the joy of the hunt. We all know the information is out there; it's just a question of using the right search terms, in the right search engine, to find it. It's very satisfying to conduct a successful Internet search. The other cool thing about the web is that every site is different and we can learn a lot from the pages we visit as we prepare to create our WebQuests. We can see what colors go well together and what fonts look suitable for children. We can examine where the navigation tools are located and decide how to create them for the students’ ease of use. We can notice how much text leads to overload and think about the benefits of clean margins. We can notice ways to grab the students’ attention so they’ll be interested in venturing on their quests. Every site represents the personality of the person who created it. Most people just want to make a mark on the Internet. There aren’t many expert web designers; the web hasn’t been around long enough. Mostly there are people who have something to say; and now have a forum in which to say it to THE WORLD.
At one point our county wanted all the schools’ home pages to be identical. Each was to have a picture of the school and information about how to get there and who runs the place. Some schools protested and said that didn’t fit the need for the community. For now, we are given the liberty of having unique school homepages; which I believe is a valuable glimpse into each school’s culture.
While I say that I wouldn’t want every website to look alike, I am very grateful for standards and protocols so we can all communicate with one another. I understand that we need a certain amount of uniformity in order to make the system work. Most of the uniformity lies in the foundational elements that we don’t see when we surf.
Let’s hear it for uniform resource locators, Internet and file transfer protocols and originality of content and layout. They allow the Internet to work and give it personality.
One of the beauties of the web is that there is something for everyone. Another is the joy of the hunt. We all know the information is out there; it's just a question of using the right search terms, in the right search engine, to find it. It's very satisfying to conduct a successful Internet search. The other cool thing about the web is that every site is different and we can learn a lot from the pages we visit as we prepare to create our WebQuests. We can see what colors go well together and what fonts look suitable for children. We can examine where the navigation tools are located and decide how to create them for the students’ ease of use. We can notice how much text leads to overload and think about the benefits of clean margins. We can notice ways to grab the students’ attention so they’ll be interested in venturing on their quests. Every site represents the personality of the person who created it. Most people just want to make a mark on the Internet. There aren’t many expert web designers; the web hasn’t been around long enough. Mostly there are people who have something to say; and now have a forum in which to say it to THE WORLD.
At one point our county wanted all the schools’ home pages to be identical. Each was to have a picture of the school and information about how to get there and who runs the place. Some schools protested and said that didn’t fit the need for the community. For now, we are given the liberty of having unique school homepages; which I believe is a valuable glimpse into each school’s culture.
While I say that I wouldn’t want every website to look alike, I am very grateful for standards and protocols so we can all communicate with one another. I understand that we need a certain amount of uniformity in order to make the system work. Most of the uniformity lies in the foundational elements that we don’t see when we surf.
Let’s hear it for uniform resource locators, Internet and file transfer protocols and originality of content and layout. They allow the Internet to work and give it personality.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Del.icio.us is Better than Good!
For several weeks now, I have been using Del.icio.us for a graduate class and I am sold on the concept. At first I was skeptical, but after using it for a while, I am a convert.
For those of you who may not be aware of Del.icio.us, it’s a “social bookmarking” tool. It allows the user to post bookmarks to a website. The user can login to Del.icio.us and view his/her bookmarks from any computer, anywhere.
Additionally, Del.icio.us allows you to “tag” each site with descriptors that are meaningful to you. It’s a very useful process because it allows for easy access to the desired bookmark information.
The social part of the site is that you can share your bookmarks with others. My grad class has put this to use because we have created common tags for major course topics. We can see what classmates have discovered about the topics and take advantage of the information. The applications for sharing bookmarks are numerous. Science teachers, for example, can share sites they’ve discovered that help students make meaning of the content. This could be done on a school, county or state level if common tags are developed.
One of these days when I have a little free time, I want to streamline the tag names I have chosen and clean up the site names so that they are obvious and clear. I believe it will be a worthwhile investment of my time, because Del.icio.us has the only bookmark list I need.
For more background go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del.icio.us
If you haven’t checked out Del.icio.us, I highly recommend that you do. Give it a try!
For those of you who may not be aware of Del.icio.us, it’s a “social bookmarking” tool. It allows the user to post bookmarks to a website. The user can login to Del.icio.us and view his/her bookmarks from any computer, anywhere.
Additionally, Del.icio.us allows you to “tag” each site with descriptors that are meaningful to you. It’s a very useful process because it allows for easy access to the desired bookmark information.
The social part of the site is that you can share your bookmarks with others. My grad class has put this to use because we have created common tags for major course topics. We can see what classmates have discovered about the topics and take advantage of the information. The applications for sharing bookmarks are numerous. Science teachers, for example, can share sites they’ve discovered that help students make meaning of the content. This could be done on a school, county or state level if common tags are developed.
One of these days when I have a little free time, I want to streamline the tag names I have chosen and clean up the site names so that they are obvious and clear. I believe it will be a worthwhile investment of my time, because Del.icio.us has the only bookmark list I need.
For more background go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del.icio.us
If you haven’t checked out Del.icio.us, I highly recommend that you do. Give it a try!
Monday, July 14, 2008
Digital Imaging Software
As an absolute novice using PhotoShop Elements, I am really amazed at what it can do. I watched several tutorials in order to get started because there are a number of intimidating tool palettes. One tutorial by Corey Barker called Photo Fun was amazing. http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/
Corey was able to take an ordinary photograph of a car and turn it into a cool poster quality image.
There is power in this program. We can make our own posters from pictures that are meaningful to us, take care of old photographs with the spot healer, and eliminate any distractions that may have been captured in a photo. I think I could get addicted to scanning in old photographs and creating digital scrapbooks using PhotoShop Elements. I look forward to the day when I have the time to do that. I have always enjoyed taking pictures and now I can see how to take that hobby to the next level and really do something meaningful with the images. There are endless possibilities.
I will now be forever skeptical of any images that I see. I'll wonder if the image is actual or has been altered. There was a magazine that moved a pyramid in a picture in order for it to appear in cover photo with other pyramids. We know that images of models have been "doctored" for years. I now see that it's really easy to modify anything in a picture. I wonder how wise it is to put images on the web that others can manipulate. You could see your face in a compromising position through digital enhancements...
Photography's Pandora's Box has been opened...
Corey was able to take an ordinary photograph of a car and turn it into a cool poster quality image.
There is power in this program. We can make our own posters from pictures that are meaningful to us, take care of old photographs with the spot healer, and eliminate any distractions that may have been captured in a photo. I think I could get addicted to scanning in old photographs and creating digital scrapbooks using PhotoShop Elements. I look forward to the day when I have the time to do that. I have always enjoyed taking pictures and now I can see how to take that hobby to the next level and really do something meaningful with the images. There are endless possibilities.
I will now be forever skeptical of any images that I see. I'll wonder if the image is actual or has been altered. There was a magazine that moved a pyramid in a picture in order for it to appear in cover photo with other pyramids. We know that images of models have been "doctored" for years. I now see that it's really easy to modify anything in a picture. I wonder how wise it is to put images on the web that others can manipulate. You could see your face in a compromising position through digital enhancements...
Photography's Pandora's Box has been opened...
Saturday, July 12, 2008
PhotoShop Elements
Hello Cohort
I am really excited about the opportunity to play with PhotoShop Elements. I have been doing some research on it and this is what I have learned. If you order PhotoShop Elements for your school computer from the Howard County purchasing site, it's $26.75.
http://www.howard.k12.md.us/purchasing/contracts/Software/Adobe/AdobeLicense.html
If you want a copy of the loading CD it costs extra > click in the upper right where it says Adobe Media for more info.
One of the Tech Resource teachers said if you purchase a copy for your school computer, you have the rights to put it on one computer at home for that price. (I believe you would need access to a loading CD.)
I know a teacher now who is really in to digital scrapbooking. She uses the full blown version of PhotoShop but says that PhotoShop Elements is amazing, and, perfectly adequate for the needs of most people. If you are interested in pursuing digital scrapbooking, she recommends a book called Digital Scrapbooking by Kerry Arquette to get you started.
I came across a site this week that says that Mark Twain was a scrapbooker:
http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/scrapbook/index.html
Here is an example of a school objective for scrapbooking:
http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/learnmore/activites_scrapbook.html
I really wish we had the the money to buy PhotoShop Elements for our labs, and to have time to use it. I believe that it would be a terrific way for a number of students to shine with creativity.
I'd love to hear your ideas for using PhotoShop at school.
I am really excited about the opportunity to play with PhotoShop Elements. I have been doing some research on it and this is what I have learned. If you order PhotoShop Elements for your school computer from the Howard County purchasing site, it's $26.75.
http://www.howard.k12.md.us/purchasing/contracts/Software/Adobe/AdobeLicense.html
If you want a copy of the loading CD it costs extra > click in the upper right where it says Adobe Media for more info.
One of the Tech Resource teachers said if you purchase a copy for your school computer, you have the rights to put it on one computer at home for that price. (I believe you would need access to a loading CD.)
I know a teacher now who is really in to digital scrapbooking. She uses the full blown version of PhotoShop but says that PhotoShop Elements is amazing, and, perfectly adequate for the needs of most people. If you are interested in pursuing digital scrapbooking, she recommends a book called Digital Scrapbooking by Kerry Arquette to get you started.
I came across a site this week that says that Mark Twain was a scrapbooker:
http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/scrapbook/index.html
Here is an example of a school objective for scrapbooking:
http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/learnmore/activites_scrapbook.html
I really wish we had the the money to buy PhotoShop Elements for our labs, and to have time to use it. I believe that it would be a terrific way for a number of students to shine with creativity.
I'd love to hear your ideas for using PhotoShop at school.
Monday, July 7, 2008
You Be the Judge!
Assessments are necessary to measure understanding. Thankfully, they don't have to come in the form multiple choice questions and ScanTron sheets very often. Students enjoy projects that are reality-based. It's all the craze on TV these days, and it's working in our classrooms too. Students are engaged in learning with the challenge of authentic assessments. The challenge of authentic assessment also belongs to the teacher. Authentic assessments are time-intensive and require scoring guides or rubrics. The beauty of the rubric is, the students have a tool that allows them to evaluate their own work. Sorry Randy, Paula and Simon – you aren't needed in the classroom. A student can be his own judge.
Responsibility for
Understanding
Begins with the student when given
Real-world assessments and
Indicators that are
Crystal-clear
Responsibility for
Understanding
Begins with the student when given
Real-world assessments and
Indicators that are
Crystal-clear
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Taking Time to Smell the Roses!
It was such a beautiful day that I decided to go for a walk. I took the subway into DC and wandered around for about four hours. I feel energized when I am in a city. I enjoyed the sunshine and the light breeze. I hadn't taken the time to visit the National World War II Memorial until today. It was beautiful. The sound of the fountains was really refreshing. I didn't encounter crowds until I arrived on the Mall where the Smithsonian Folklife Festival is being held. Take some time for yourself! Happy Independence Day!
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