BP 8 RILS Links to Comments

Mitch over at The Exploratorium creates a great examination of schoology and aviary. Both of these tools are great resources for teachers that may not have a large amount technology resources but still want the students to be creative.

BP 8 RILS Links to Comments

Take a look on Alonia Moses-Johnson's blog Confessions of a Serial Techy at comments left about Dropbox.

ETC_Final Project

Relevant and Innovative Learning Scenario

Glenn Shelton

Brief Overview: The State of North Carolina requires ninth grade English students to take an End of Course Test. Instead of doing the boring worksheets and games where students recite back the information, I am having my students create the review materials using prezi, animoto, or any other Web 2.0 tool they feel comfortable using. The goal is for the students to create relevant examples of the concepts they have learned during the semester.

Target Audience: My target audience is my ninth grade English I students as they are preparing for the EOC’s.

Materials:  

            Laptop Computers

            Internet Access

            My Moodle Page

            List of EOC Term Created by School System Coordinator

            Tagxedo.com
Teacher Creation

Objectives:

Students will be able to

            1. define the EOC term in their own words.

            2. analyze a resource for its relevancy to give EOC terms.

            3. design a multimedia project that illustrates a term they choose.

            4. create the multimedia project using various tools.

            5. analyze fellow students work.

Procedures:

1. Students
of mixed ability levels
will be placed in groups of 3 to 5

2.
The groups will then be assigned five to six terms from EOC list.

3.
Students will then choose within through groups the terms they want to define

    and give examples of in their project.
(Students can divide up extra words for extra

    credit.)

4. Students will then become the
“expert” on their term and rely on other group members

   
for help portraying their word. (Example: If they decide to videotapea portrayal of

   
“conflict”or help brainstorm ideasto create a visual representation.)

5. Students then click on the
EOC term in a tagxedo creation by teacher (or other

   
student). By clicking on the term, they are automatically led to a Google search for

   
definitions, images, and activities using their term.

6. After completing the Google search, the student will then complete a multimedia

   
project using a Web 2.0 tool of their choice.The product must containthe definition of

   
their assignedword, an example, and a visualization.

7. After completion of their project, the student will then place
it on the class

    wikispace page.

8. Student will then evaluate other student
s’ projects leaving only positive comments

    or questions.

Web 2.0 Tool

1. Tagxedo (New)

2.
Wikispaces (New)

4. Presentational Tool
 of Student’s Choice
(Prezi, Animoto, etc.)

Social Participation/Social Learning:

Within their groups, students will select
the word(s) from the ones assigned to their group they beli
evethey can illustrate the best. Students must analyze as individuals the relevance of the Google search that Tagxedo provided.  They may seek other group members help/ The students then need to design/create a multimedia project that will be posted on the class wikispace page. They must rely on their group members if they decide to videotape and to brainstorm ideasAfter they post their projects on the wiki, each student must comment onotherstudents’ work and respond to comments left for them by other students.

Making Connections

Students will be connecting terms they have previously learned and applying them to real world surroundings. The new knowledge the students will obtain is the application of the literary and grammar term, along with a working knowledge of technology tools.
  The students will connect to other classes covering the same material. The connection to real world is through making all the projects public on the different Web 2.0 tools.

Create/Produce

The students will create a multimedia project and compile them with other groups to form a review for the upcoming EOC
on a Wikispace page.

Rubric

Element	Superior (25)	Excellent (22)	Great (20)	Good (18)
Literary Term	Illustrates/Defines literary term correctly, but in a unique manner	Illustrates/Defines literary term correctly	Defines literary term correctly but fails to illustrate it.	Does not correctly define term.
Illustration	Students produce illustrations using various forms of media.	Students produce illustrations using one type of media.	Students gather various media but fail to produce their own.	Students gather media from only one source or one type.
Presentation	Students use a Web 2.0 tool correctly.	Students use a Web 2.0 tool with minor glitches.	Students use power point.	Students create an incoherent presentation.
Grammar Spelling	Group does not have any spelling or grammatical mistakes.	Group has less than 3 mistakes.	Group has less than 6 mistakes.	Group has over 6 mistakes.

Reflection

Students will determine if they have a deeper understanding of the terms they were assigned
by examining other students’ assignments
. They will use their previous knowledge from the course study and compare example they and their peers haveprovided compared to the examples we have studied in the literature we have read. They will also evaluate their use of technology toolsin comparison to the first time they used the tool or the willingness to attempt to work with a new Web 2.0 tool.

Teachers will reflect on the cohesiveness of the project and if the students were able to create an orderly product that illustrated the students’ grasp of new terms.
by using the above rubric.

 

PE5_Wiki

The second new tool am I using for my RILS assignment at Full Sail is a wiki. I am allowing my students to create a wiki with review terms or examples as they prepare for their upcoming EOC test. My school system uses the moodle platform, and I have tried to use the wiki tool that it contains with frustrating results. The tool is great for listing terms, but is limited with the multimedia it can house.

My first period class wiki.

Even offering extra credit, my students in my first period have not participated in posting terms or examples of the literary terms. The lack of multimedia capabilities has turned the students off from using this tool.

My fourth period has three grade hounds and they have been posting terms extensively.

My fourth period has been a little more active, even using different colors to differentiate their posts. However, if you look at the bottom of the screenshot, you will see the "animoto" tag but no video. My student created an animoto to illustrate a term and the wiki could not accept it, even using the embed code. This is very frustrating, especially to the student who worked diligently, as the students will loose interest quickly if there isn't multimedia present. If anyone has had success using a wiki tool and embedding multimedia creations, I would appreciate any help. Thanks.

PE4_Tagxedo

I am going to highlight two tools for my RILS assignment I am completing for my coursework at Full Sail University. I am going to highlight Tagxedo (http://www.tagxedo.com) first. Tagxedo is similar to Wordle but with two highly useful differences. The first difference with Tagxedo is the ability to select different shapes for your word "clouds".

Tagxedo Home Page

Another great feature that Tagxedo has is an interactive google search. The students click on a word and Tagxedo automatically performs the search for them. This feature I love the most because I am a very practical person and a wordle seems (I know its not.) to be a "glamour" tool with limited use.

Tagxedo I created with a "check"list of EOC terms my students need to know. 

Once a student clicks on term, in this example the term was "personification", then the google search appears. The search will pull up the usual suspects of definitions, but it may pull up interactive sites.

Google search created by Tagxedo for "personification".

 This will be a great tool for students to begin researching concepts, or, as I am using, to review key terms as they prepare for major tests. With the google search feature, I now have literally hours of possible review activities as my students prepare for the EOC.

BP7_ One Minute Video

Here is my one minute video for Schoology!

BP6_ Confessions of a Serial Techie

Check out my comments on Alonia's blog "Confessions of a Serial Techie". She found a great tool called dropbox to use in the classroom.

BP5_ Journey through Full Sail

Prezi Homepage

Check out my comments on Stacy's blog, "Journey through Full Sail". She has found the wonderful tool prezi and we shared some tips to make it even better.

BP4_Google Art Project

The Web 2.0 tool I am reviewing today is the Google Art Project at http://www.googleartproject.com. I actually found the source through the TedTalk gadget on my iGoogle FSO page. The creator, Amid Sood, grew up in India and was frustrated with the lack of access to the greatest museums. He asked for permission to work with some of the world's most famous art museums and seventeen agreed to place their work of art in the project. If you are interested in more of the background, click on the caption for the screenshot of Amid below.

Amid Sood, creator of Google Art Project, speaking at TedTalks.

The site has two features. The first, you can virtually walk around each of the museum galleries seeing different pieces of art and get the sense of ambiance of the museum.

National Gallery in London, England

In the screenshot above you can see the movement arrows to move throughout the museum and the arrow pad in the upper left hand corner, you can see the tools to direct your sight. I find that the controls are difficult to move at first, similar to SecondLife, but once you work with them, they are adequate. I just have to keep reminding myself that I am going through a 3-D world on a 2-D screen:/. Beside the pictures the museum has allowed to be used is a white square that you click on to the painting and background information.

An easier way to see the works of art is by clicking the Artwork button and the art is listed alphabetically withing each museum listing. This is the greatest feature of the project. As an English teacher, I may place a piece of art on my smartboard such as Four Elements: Fire by Joachim Beuckelaer.

Four Elements: Fire by Joachim Beuckelaer as seen in Google ArtProject.

I would ask the students to write a description essay or a story based on the picture. Students today do not do very well with details and I would emphasize the point to include as many details about the picture they can into their story. I would then use the zoom feature of the site and go into the room just above the woman's left shoulder and ask how many students saw the events taking place there.

The piece of art is actually depicting the scene from the Bible when Jesus visited Mary and Martha's house. This Web 2.0 tool will allow me to emphasize to my students the importance of details in writing by viewing various pieces of art. This is not necessarily a tool I could use everyday, but is definitely a tool to use to teach certain objectives. As you visit the Google Art Project on your own, take to realize all the details you can see that you normally wouldn't even if you visited each of the museums in person.

PE3_iMovie

I finally finished the lynda.com course iMovie'11 Essential Training course and earned my handy dandy certificate.

My Certificate of Completion from lynda.com.

I make a little fun about the digital certificate, but I realize the more tools that I can show evidence that I have completed training, the more marketable I am in a tough job market.

I chose to try my new skills and create a short video where I use different audio skills.

Screenshot of my most recent project in iMovie.

 When I finished the course early Saturday morning, I realized that I really didn't have too many clips that lend themselves to different types of audio editing. Being the wearer of many hats, I decided to let my back seat student in my driver ed. car videotape the other driving. I had several minutes of video that I could use but shorten it to the slightly over minute piece below.






As you can see I made sure to hide the student's faces and take audio away from the car to protect their identities as I promised the students. My primary focus was to work with editing the audio. Everything turned out fine except the beat jumps didn't work right when we were merging onto the highway. Any hints would be appreciated. Thanks.

PE2_iMovie

The second thing that caught my eye during the iMovie Training '11 course on Lynda.com was the visualization of the audio tracks attached to the videos. This is significant to me because I have battled hearing loss for the majority of my life. I currently have 40% loss in my right ear and 60% loss in my left ear. Because of this disability, it is difficult for me to distinguish the beat and tone of any music and other audio. The visualization tools in iMovie help me distinguish the beat of background music to place the beat makers. If I use multiple tracks, the visualization tool will make it easier for me to determine which track is drowning out the other audio pieces.

Example of the audio visualization tool in iMovie.

The other part of the tool I thought was of great use was the ability to reduce the sound level of each track. This allows me to take out unwanted sounds (or comments) and makes it easier to keep students identities hidden in the classroom or keep the ambiance of a sporting event without the cursing not suited for children. This tool will be of great use as I become more comfortable taking, editing, and publishing video without worrying if my physical disability will hinder me.

PE1_iMovie

Being an English teacher, I was looking forward to pursuing my master's degree without fear and trepidation. Why? I knew I could write papers without a problem. Therefore, this course has thrown me out of my comfort zone by requiring so many videos. iMovie has been a great help to ease the transition. I am going to post in rapid fire today about iMovie, and this isn't the best way to blog so I apologize in advance.

One of coolest this of interest to me I learned in the iMovie training was the capability to use old HD tape so I don't have to "pitch" my old collection. I had my National Board Videos on "tape" along with children's dance recitals and ballgames. I am so thankful that I have it easier than my parents' generation when they had to transfer the old movie reels to VHS and not just let my tapes gather dust.

Screenshot from lynda.com iMovie tutorial uploading videotape.

Another thing that this video showed was the changing landscape of technology. Those that have been alive longer than 30 years remember the old Beta tapes and the two piece recording systems that were very cumbersome. The HD cameras that is seen the video is no more than 10 years old, manufactured since 2000, and is considered antiquated. We have to continue to change with technology in order to remain relevant to our students' lives. Tools such as iMovie make it easier to accomplish that in our classrooms and lives.

Schoology Continued

I am still happy with schoology, but this week was frustrating. Many of my students lost their passwords and there was not a way to retrieve them. The students had to create new accounts, leaving their old work behind. A suggestion to those that try schoology or any other Web 2.0 tool, create a Google doc spreadsheet with student passwords and logins so you can manage them better, or even assign each student a login and password that they are to use for each tool.

I tried to use their tool to transfer my moodle page assignments, but I haven't had any success yet.

Screenshot of schoology's page to import moodle settings.

I had the students take a quiz using schoology, and they did well with the interface. It was also easier for me to grade and download the grades in an excel document to place them in my school system's grade program.


All of those that have expressed an interest in this tool thank you and it is worth the effort to try it out.

BP2_Schoology

During the next four weeks I will be using a new Web 2.0 tool that I have never used before. These tools may be a little obscure as I drive my students crazy with the number Web 2.0 tools I have already implemented. As I tell my students, I hope to fill my toolbox so I can the right tool for any situation that may arise in my courses.

The first tool I am reviewing, I cheated a little and picked schoology.com. I heard about this tool during this week’s Wimba Archive. The description was intriguing as it was lauded as an alternative to Facebook. However, it is more than that. It has LMS possibilities, even the ability to import your Moodle sites into the platform. You can create online quizzes and assignments along with blogs and discussion boards. Entire schools and even school systems can use it as their basic LMS.

I allowed my students to make accounts and use it in class. They loved the facebook features and didn’t have trouble finding the discussion board I wanted them to participate in for the class period. Many called it a “lame” excuse for Facebook, but most enjoyed the fact the tool met their desires to have social media halfway. Most students placed an avatar picture up without being directed, creating their own personal space. One class completed an online quiz using the platform and did not experience any difficulty. Probably another great benefit is that the students don’t have to have an email account to create an account with the service. This will especially be pleasing to elementary school teachers.

The greatest negative of the tool is managing the multiple types of screens that you can use without confusing the students. It has a gradebook and attendance taking features that can be a great benefit if you are not overly concerned with privacy issues, as I didn’t see any secure connections.

Overall, I was impressed with schoology.com and plan to use it in the future. 

This is the control panel for teachers. You can see each of the courses you have created and the students.

This is a discussion board through schoology. I was just having my students drop me a "hey" line.

This is an activity board from all of the classes.

This an example of quiz creation page.

BP3_iGoogleScreenShots

The Emergent Technologies in a Collaborative Culture course has already paid for itself by showing the iGoogle tabs and apps. Life is already running smoother for me and I haven't been able to create all the tabs I need. Teaching face to face classes and online courses, I am using various LMS systems and numerous Web 2.0 tools. The organization this tool provides is reducing my workload already.

This is my Home iGoogle tab. I have several my personal links I use on a regular basis along with several professional links.

This is my FSO iGoogle tab. As you can see, I am a child of the 80's. I am still adding different tools to this tab.

This is my CBR iGoogle tab. This will end up being my deep thinking tank :)

This is my ETC iGoogle tab. There still part child in me and thankful that iGoogle has themes that relate to my youth.

You can see that I have other tabs for my other areas in my life and learning environment. I may not be a Digital Native, but I am a Digital Emigrant because, unlike a immigrant, I am never planning to return.

BP 1-Welcome to My Blog

Mosaic of 580 Web 2.0 Logos. Compiled by Luc Langley at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/luc/2272723640

Hello everyone and welcome to the ponderings of a mid-life teacher, ME! Life is changing so quickly causing confusion trying to figure ways to reach the students that enter my classroom. I know my students love to create things and the Internet. Therefore, I have embraced the use of Web 2.0 tools. Welcome and follow me as I make changes for my students!