Ed Tech in the Classroom

A Vision of the Student Today

Note to Office 2007 Users

If you use the new Office 2007 it is important to save documents in the previous format (1997-2003) since ISY does not yet have this version and the school computers will not be able to read your files. After creating your document click the Office Button in the top left corner of your screen and select Save As, then the 97-2003 version of your application (e.g. Word 97-2003, Excel 97-2003, etc.).

For convenience, you can set this format by default, so you never have to worry about changing the setting. Simply follow these steps (see image below):

 a. Click the Office Button

 b. Select Options (Word Options, Excel Options, etc.) at the bottom of the window

 c. Select Save

 d. Use the drop down menu at the top to select default save format (97-2003)

(Big shout out to Larry over at  Mansfield University;s SL& IT program for this useful tip!) ;-)

A Blogger Code of Conduct

Having just assessed my ICT students on their knowledge of The Core Rules of Netiquette (adapted from Virginia Shea's book), I was intrigued by today's New York Times article "A Call for Manners in the World of Nasty Blogs. The article discusses the pros and cons of developing an online code of conduct for bloggers. Regardless of our view on this issue, as educators we need to warn students of the harm  in cyberbullying and flaming. Most of all, we need to remind them to remember the number one rule of netiquette: Remember the human.

The Evolution of Beauty

The short Evolution by Dove shows how the "effortless" the beauty we see on billboards is created. It's a powerful portrayal of how our perception of beauty is distorted by digital tools and the media. All teens and adults should watch this, not just those learning the joys of photoshop! :-)

IM Lingo in the Classroom: What to do?

Over at my class blog, I'm noticing some IM language creeping into student comments. Seems I'm not the only teacher wrestling with how to handle changes that are popping up in student writing. Blog conversations among international teachers are taking place Over at The Thinking Stick where Jeff writes a thought-provoking post entitled "Futr Lang".

Over at The Committed Sardine, Ian Jukes' posting of an article entitled "Students Use IM Lingo in Essays" generates more dialogue among teachers. As I say in my comment there,

"Language evolves over time. Compare the English language used in Beowulf to that used in Lord of the Flies. I suspect that it won’t be long until it will be perfectly acceptable to use “u” for “you”. Plus, the IM language of today will probably be obsolete within a decade or two. Until then, we need to assist students in being articulate in multiple settings, whether it be in cyberspace, on paper, or in a podcast."

(image adapted from Creating Passionate Users)

"Sing or dance while the music is being played..."

Alan Watts meets South Park. What a combo!

Click here to learn about music and life. It's a cartoon, and is one minute long.

(Thanks, Christian for hookin' me up.)

Teacher as this.........          ...................................... or this?

"The teacher is no longer merely the-one-who-teaches, but one who is himself taught in dialogue with the students, who in turn while being taught also teach. They become jointly responsible for a process in which all grow."

~ Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

I think that the more I "let go" of having all of the right answers, I might just become a better teacher. (images by Hanach Piven via moonriver)

EARCOS 2007

Well, we’re all here at EARCOS 2007 ETC: all 1,700 of us. Teachers at international schools from all over Asia have gathered to be inspired, share our ideas, and network. With keynote speakers such as Ian Jukes, Jean-Francois Rischard, and Dr. Mechai Viravaidya 

I’ve truly been inspired!

(That’s me on stage, introducing one of the speakers.)

There are some great teacher blogs out there that are written by international teachers. Check out  Jeff Utecht's The Thinking Stick. He gave a fantastic presentation on how to get started with podcasts, which inspired me to get my kids to use podcasts for their upcoming poetry unit.

Grammar Podcast

Dear Little Ms. Blog:

Most of my high school students wander campus with earphones in their ears. Is there any way I can use their MP3 players or ipods to support what they learn in my classes?

Little Ms. Blog:

Yes, there is. Welcome the world of podcasts. At i-tunes podcast directory, click on the “education” category, and download the podcast of your choice.

My favorite is Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing. I’ve downloaded all her episodes, and have posted them to the school’s main server. This way, students can quickly upload them onto their MP3 players or i-pods and use them as a supplement to grammar lesson. Check out the site, or download the podcasts for free through itunes music store.

What a great way to reach the auditory learner! Better yet, Grammar Girl’s website has a visual component.

Rock on, Grammar Girl!

Future Schools

As Christian over at think:lab writes,

If you haven't had a chance yet to read Alvin Toffler's (author of Future Shock) recent interview with Edutopia, this link will whisk you away into a land of provocative ideas lasering in on the future of learning.  He's not pulling punches, to say the least.  In particular, I deeply appreciate the following challenge he offers towards the end of the interview:

So, let's sit down as a culture, as a society, and say, "Teachers, parents, people outside, how do we completely rethink this? We're going to create a new system from ground zero, and what new ideas have you got?" And collect those new ideas. That would be a very healthy thing for the country to do.

Imagine if we took Toffler's advice? What might happen?

James Daly of Edutopia: Walk me through this school you'd create. What do the classrooms look like? What are the class sizes? What are the hours? 

Toffler: It's open twenty-four hours a day. Different kids arrive at different times. They don't all come at the same time, like an army. They don't just ring the bells at the same time. They're different kids. They have different potentials.

"The New Face of Learning"

Over at think:lab I came this review, which links to Will Richardson's article in Edutopia.

"...

what happens to traditional concepts of classrooms and teaching when we can now learn anything, anywhere, anytime?

...we have yet to reconsider our traditional school model, which is based on the obsolete idea that knowledge is scarce."

All educators should make this article required reading!

(image by David Julian)

MAET i-video "Just Listen to Teens"

Developed as an i-video to encourage adults to listen to teens.

Day of the Long Tail

Created by Peter Hirshberg of Technorati. Refers to a Wired article and new book. Details at www.thelongtail.com

Gotta love those wikis

The  solar-system-shaking news that Pluto is no longer considered a planet sent wikipedia writers scrambling to ammend the online encyclopedia’s definition of Pluto.

As for textbook publishers, that’s a whole other can of worms that you can read about here. (excerpt: "If you're looking for the most accurate information about the solar system, the Internet trumps science textbooks.")

I’ve been considering using wikis in my classroom, and have  been doing some research on how to set one up. Over at the  MAET showcase, there’s an informative, easy-to-download  powerpoint that explains what a wiki is, and how educators can use wikis as a classroom tool.

Want some info on the use of wikis in the classroom? Check out these del.ico.us links.

Other helpful links are as follows:  Edublogs, which offers free wikispace, Freeware Wiki, Pbwiki for educators, and a review of pbwiki via edugadget. And last, but not least: a very helpful link for tech teachers: Edugadget

Does anyone else use wikis in the classroom? If so, do you have any tips for the novice wiki-ette?

Update: Want to read a great article on Wikipedia? Check out the 31 July, 2006 issue of The New Yorker article entitled "Know It All: Can Wikipedia conquer expertise?" This piece argues the pros and cons of wikipedia. A must-read for all educators.

Life Stories Get Interactive

Looking for a neat tool for creating personal histories? Check out Dandelife, which allows users to create a life timeline (which can include blog posts, hyperlinks, and UTube videos), then make connections to other people's stories- a sort of "social biography network." Here's a sample.

Thanks, Jeremy and Clancy at Kairos

Videocast on Weblogs in the Classroom

I know that videocasting has been around for a while, but I'm just now getting into it. I posted my very first videocast here. It's all very exciting stuff.

Any educator interesting in using blogs in the classroom knows about Will Richardson's blog. Today, over at Blogs in the Classroom I found a great link to a short videocast on weblogs in the classroom. (Check it out!) Unfortunately,  Will has beaten me to the punch and stolen my idea for my next i-video. His ponytail must be giving him his inspiration. ;-)

(image via marcelotas)

What's Cool

In creating our i-images and i-videos this week, we've been talking a lot about the "coolness factor" and how it influences our audience. The general premise is that if we educators can present an idea as "cool", then it has more punch. Over at Creating Passionate Users, I came across a great post "How your product can inspire The Nod"

"The Nod"..."that acknowledging, approving, knowing, we're-special look."

You know what I'm talking about. When I got my first i-pod, I instinctually gave "the nod" to students I saw with the white earphones. Now that I HAD the i-pod, I suddenly saw others with theirs, and we shared knowing looks as we passed in the hall. Even Sandal Man mentioned that he had a Mac because it was "cooler."

According to the post,

To give The Nod is to recognize and appreciate another person who "gets it", whatever it is. The Nod is NOT simply a "you have something I have" look....

When we give The Nod to another, it's NOT about the thing we have in common--it's about what having that thing says about us.

I have to wonder: are we MAET year three students buying into the "coolness" factor presented by our professors? And more importantly, are great ideas "cool" to begin with?

Some of the greatest ideas presented us through the ages aren't cool, and no matter of marketing them will make these ideas cool, unless they are watered down.

Take the idea to "Love your neighbor as yourself." Not cool 2,000 years ago, not cool now.

Take Mohandas Gandhi's "An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind." Yeah. A real cool idea that has really caught on, eh?

I like "big idea" premise. What I resist is making the "big idea" a message.  I'm resisting the sound bite of the compressed "punch" that emulates the media. I feel like I'm working as a propagandist who's selling her message, not an educator who's pushing her students to examine various sources and allowing them to make their own choices.

Font Matters

Yesterday during Friday news, year three grad students in the MAET program presented their images. This is the one I created. I toyed with the idea of using a Lichtenstein painting and inserting different fonts in a series of three to demonstrate how font can change the tone of a piece of art. In the end, I decided to use the phrase "I love you" in various fonts on a series of nearly identical images to demontstrate how font and placement of words add meaning to text. The big idea I was trying to portray is this:

It's not just the WHAT, but the HOW. Sometimes, how something is presented can be just as important as the content.

As Virginia Postral says in Looks Matter (Forbes Magazine), "Appearance matters....sometimes it's not just what you say but how you say it."

In web design, print, and publishing, font matters. Font communicates meaning. Imagine the font in the Lichtenstein painting with a cute curly-Q, whimsical font. Not the same message, eh?

(image via artchive)

On an added note, if you're really interested in learning more about font, check out Valerie Kirschenbaum's Goodbye Gutenberg. It's a fantastic coffee table book that everyone picks up. Kirschenbaum, a teacher in the New York, claims to be the first female in 500 years to design her own font. It's a must-read for all teachers interested in literacy and the visual arts.

-Little Ms. Blog

Copyright Issues and Creative Commons

It's worldwide movement, folks. A kinder, gentler way to share work. Check out Creative Commons.

Where The Big C says: RED LIGHT! NO TRESPASSING! ALL RIGHTS RESERVED!

Creative Commons says:

Green light. Come on in. Some rights reserved.

I've used the following two flash movies with middle and high school students as an anticipatory set for discussing copyright issues. I've also used them as models for showcasing the capablities of Flash.

"Get Creative" (7 Mb, Flash, available for download in Quicktime)

"Reticulum Rex" (7 Mb, Flash, available for download in Quicktime)

These files can be downloaded as quicktime files so viewers don't have to rely on an internet connection for access. Flickr's Creative Commons shows how symbols beside images give viewers instant knowledge of what type of image is available for use by other creators.

Every educator should watch these videos, or at least take a look at the Creative Commons site.

-Little Ms. Blog

i.images

What's an i-image?

i-image samples- various designers, although we aren't sure who they are.

"perspective" image by Diane Franklin

Website Credibility: Helping Students Find What's Credible

How many times have we heard our students say, "But it MUST be true: I read it on the internet!" One of the most effective ways for students to understand the idea that ANYONE can post ANYTHING on the web is to show them examples of hoax websites. Here are a few links I've used in my classes:

Mankato, MN - check out number 10! ;-)

Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division:  After my students view the site, I link them up to this wikipedia article.

AIDS Facts: Students believe that this site is credible until they dig a little deeper.

Interested in viewing other hoax websites? There's a long list here with short descriptions of each site.

(image via techtarget)

Do you have any other resources for teaching internet credibility? - Little Ms. Blog

Imagebanks: Cool links to Free Images and Video

If you want to get a head start on any piece of multimedia or digital design project, the best thing to do in preparation is to get familiar with free image/video archives. It took me about an hour to register onto these databases and to find a way to navigate around the images that aren't royalty-free. But, once you're in, the world's your oyster. (Thanks to Brown Belt for most of these resources!)

Image "L'art de vivre" by René Magritte

via artchive.com

Log on and click resources:

Archive.org A great site to access royalty-free paintings by artists. Most images belong to the public domain, and each artist has a page with a bio and list of important works. This is a massive collection, and the most comprehensive one that I know. I've been using this site for years, and students love it as well.

Jet Propulsion Lab The JPL has a fantastic amount of free pictures and multimedia content for use in education.

Imagebanks that require short log-in process- user name and email required: (thanks to Little Miss Brainy for the following link!!!)

Macdesktops: This is a fantastic site for all types of educators, especially if you're interested in manipulating photos or looking for a creative background for your original shots. Check it out!

Imagebanks that require a long-log-in procedure: (I suggest that you give all false info except your email address. No need to distribute unnecessary bits of identity if it isn't needed.)

iStockPhoto.com iStockPhoto is the cheapest way to acquire royalty free stock images.

Corbis Corbis is a leader in the royalty free image world. You can download comp pictures without watermarks to mock up designs

Getty Images Getty is another great royalty free image site. Their comps though have watermarks. (Tip: go to "Creative" and then search "Royalty-free")

UPDATE:

Check out Photographic Libraries Free Public Domain Images and Clip Art

Check out Lucy Ravinsdale's suggestions at  Amatuer Photos and Copyright friendly Pics for Education

If anyone has any other free image database resources, leave a comment, and I'll update this list. Cheers, mates! ;-) - Little Ms. Blog