Here's my VoiceThread Story Although I've worked with my students recording their stories before, recording mine was a little more challenging. I didn't want 2 minutes of me staring at the phone recording. Actually, I tried that, it was pretty boring. So I tried a few apps on my phone (I'm an Android user) like Video Dieter 2 to try and trim some of my videos and MovieMaker to try and integrate the videos and still photos. That didn't really do what I wanted. I looked at SpeaknPhoto, which I've used before and some whiteboard-type apps. None of them really did what I was looking for, so I went with VoiceThread. VoiceThread lets you add content and audio together. It has a lot more features, such as audio commenting. But for my purposes adding my pictures and narration worked just fine. The only problem I have is an account setting. There is an upside down picture of my daughter for my profile picture. Not sure why. I've since changed it, but I can't figure out how to go back and change it for that one project. Oh well! I did everything totally with my cell phone. The hardest part was accumulating the credits for the few photographs that came from Pics4Learning. Most of the pictures were mine, but I downloaded few. I started a 'note' on my phone to cut and paste all of the citations into, but then it wasn't formatted very well to add as a slide to the presentation. Photo Credits Backpacks - Kolk, Melinda. 20150824_122159.jpg. August 2015. Pics4Learning. http://pics.tech4learning.com Books - Price, Kayla. img_20150121_131957.jpg. January 21,2015. Pics4Learning. http://pics.tech4learning.com Education - Melinda. coolword2.jpg. 2004. Pics4Learning. http://pics.tech4learning.com Learning - Wright, Brandie. schoolbusfun.jpg. June 7, 2015. Pics4Learning. http://pics.tech4learning.com Office - Cummings, Laura. dscn2939. September 2007. Pics4Learning. http://pics.tech4learning.com Teacher - BIas, Gene. comp008.jpg. Pics4Learning. http://pics.tech4learning.com After deciding to participate in a one week photo challenge, I needed a plan for the week ahead. I thought about something I could use with my students = letters, numbers, real life places that make you think of fictional places. I decided on Read Widely. We read so much each day besides books. I hope to pay attention to how we read our way through the day and week. Photo #1 - French Silk Pie recipe - a Valentine's Day treat for my husband and daughter.
Working in a K-4 school, I hadn’t given much thought to the use of cell phones in education. The staff in my district waited a long time just to get BYOD for our own use. Among the 10 and under crowd, usually having a cell phone means having a cast off one for playing games rather than a cell phone with a working calling plan. As for policy, our elementary school policy “discourages” students from bringing cell phones and other electronics to school. With all debate centered around whether cell phones should be allowed in high schools, I was expecting to find amazing works being done with them among ‘pro cell phone’ camp. I was surprised to find they are being used in much the same way as my students use iPads – Kahoot, QR codes, visual demonstration of learning. It was a little more difficult to find someone actually using (or planning to use) student cell phones in a project-oriented manner. Enter Jason Heiser, a high school social studies teacher. First, he introduced me to XIM, a photo-sharing application with some interesting features. The idea behind XIM is that photos can be shared instantly to multiple devices. All users see the photos and can swipe, zoom and add comments. One real selling point for educational use is that only one person needs to have the app. Others are invited through a contact list, email or phone number. And the slideshow, or XIM, disappears after an hour. Jason is planning to use XIM via students’ cell phones for a propaganda project. Rather than put posters on the board where it is difficult to see them, students will have the poster right in front of them. With XIM’s ability to zoom students will be able to see symbols and nuances they might otherwise have missed. Students will then analyze the propaganda posters using the SCAM method (symbols, captions, activities, message). Students without a cell phone can use a laptop to participate. What an engaging lesson for students – all students have a front row seat and the opportunity to get a close up look at the works being studied! The cell phone policy at Jason’s school is interesting – although maybe that is in contrast to my very restricted district. In his district, parents receive a form and list of apps that could be used but they only return the form if they wish to opt out. As I thought about it, what initially appears as a passive acceptance system actually places the responsibility on the learner. I like that – rather than worrying about covering ourselves should problems arise we assume that the students and parents will take their responsibility seriously, actually read and discuss the paperwork that comes home and take any appropriate action.
Thanks to all of you who shared great ideas for working with cell phones in the classroom. I’ve certainly learned a lot – and can’t wait try XIM with my students. Working in a K-4 school, I haven't had to worry too much about cell phones in my classes. Most of my students don't realize the difference between the old cell phones they can use to play games on WiFi and actual working phones for texting, constant internet access and, possibly, calling and speaking to another human being. Lately there has been a lot of discussion around high school students and appropriate versus inappropriate use of cell phones in schools. You know the stories - high school students deliberately baiting and antagonizing a teacher only to film that teacher's subsequent blowup and instantly post it on the internet. It is all well and fine for 'outsiders' to say a teacher is a professional and should be able to handle that situation, but having only dealt with a few teenagers at a time myself, I cannot imagine staying calm for too long in a situation like that. I digress - I really wanted to talk about cell phones in college lecture halls. A great video created by students at SFU touches on aspects of the issue such as distractions and the fact that students are in charge of their own learning, the caveat being if they choose to waste their tuition dollars (or their parents!) by not paying attention and taking part in the learning experience it is their prerogative. But an article by Clay Shirky, a teacher, author, speaker and commentator about social and economic internet issues, discusses the effects of cell phone use on not only the students, but their classmates. Why Clay Shirky Banned Laptops, Tablets and Phones from his Classroom relates findings which liken the distraction of peripheral cell phone users to second-hand smoke. He also discusses the factors influencing how much control young adults have over their actions regarding technology and its constant draw. He uses Jonathan Haidt's Elephant and Rider metaphor to describe how a student/rider may not be able to overcome the powerful elephant itching to check that cell phone screen. It's certainly peanuts, I mean food for thought. This week I continued my search through uncharted (by me) territory. First I checked out Edutecher.net. Just a quick word on the directory itself - I'm not sure if it is still being updated. The last blog post was from 2012, the last update to the mobile app was 2013, and I was unable to log in either with my newly created account or with my Twitter login information. It is possible that it's my aging computer's fault, I'm just not sure. I am able to log in on my phone. Other features that would be beneficial to the directory itself would be a way to search by star rating, an indicator as to how many people rated the site or app, and date information. For a site that appears to not be updated any longer - or at least not frequently, it would be extremely helpful to have dates in the entries to avoid old and defunct websites. One site I found was Bitstrips for Schools. Teachers can sign up for a free 30 day trial, after which it is $9.95 per month for a classroom of 30 students. I started out looking at the regular Bitstrips site which was not appropriate for students AND only accessible with a Facebook login. The site is pretty neat - I like the classroom features. It does have a couple of negatives however. The first thing students are prompted for when they log in is a password. There is a feature for teachers to look up passwords, but I can imagine spending lots of time doing that! Then, there are literally 21 steps to creating an avatar. It's a little much for 3rd and 4th graders, my target group. I like the feature where teachers can assign activities to the class. And after classmates make their avatars you can use each other in your comic strips. It looks difficult to get the characters positioned the way you want, but perhaps this is a case where the students will be able to figure it out easier than I can. I'm thinking of trying this site with one of the suggested activities- making a book cover for a favorite book. The regular Bitstrips site requires users to be over 13. I was unable to find any information on the Bitstripsforschools site. I had a moment's pause when designing my avatar as I had to adjust 'chest size' in the process. But when I tested the avatar creator logged in as a student that question was skipped. The next site I investigated was Classbadges. I've been thinking about badges as a motivational tool, so I was pleased to come across this. Classbadges is a free site that lets teachers create classes and badges. You can create multiple classes, upload a CSV file of students, and create your own badges using already made designs or by uploading your own images. I haven't quite figured out how my students could display the badges that they've earned, but it is an interesting idea for a motivational tool. Classbadges is COPPA compliant, so my district would have to add it to the list of sites requiring parental permission or teachers would have to obtain that permission prior to use. The last website I discovered this week was iPiccy. I read about several interesting websites in Untangling the Web. I definitely need to learn more about several of them. But iPiccy can solve a problem I'm having now - I'm frequently unable to post pictures of my students to my website or blog. I've been looking for a way to cover their faces. Some of my attempts were pretty sad indeed. Like this one: Lightbulbs? What was I thinking. I believe I was in a hurry and had 5 minutes to share a photo. iPiccy is a full-featured photo editor with an incredibly easy user interface. It is web-based, so it works across platforms. With a little bit of searching I was able to find a tutorial about how to blur faces. It's not great, but it works. I would rather use little squares to blur...maybe I can figure that out next. And yes, I'm allowed to use the photos of these students. One of my ongoing pet peeves is websites that charge a lot of money after the trial period or trial number of uses for teachers. I know everyone needs to earn a living, but if it is a site with a lot of commercial business, perhaps they can use those incoming dollars to allow a few teachers to use it. And the sites that have educational pricing at the district or building level should offer the first user or two a free account. How do they think teachers will be able to convince administration that a particular site is worth the money if teachers cannot use it on a trial basis. I believe some of these sites need an ambassador-type of program. Last week I contacted Smore about this issue - as soon as I mastered the site and found wonderful ways to use it, I had reached the limit of my 5 free flyers. And you cannot delete one to free up a spot - it doesn't work. I emailed them letting them know that $59 in unreimbursed expenses is too much for me. I offered to review/promote or whatever in return for a reduced fee. I did receive a reply Rachel repliedFeb 1, 16:26 Hi Debra, Thanks for reaching out :) I understand that it may be difficult in some districts to purchase Smore which is why we provide an option for schools to purchase Smore in Bulk. This is a great option for many educators interested in using Smore for a significant discount. Perhaps it could work for the next fiscal year! For more information, please check out our Bulk page:https://www.smore.com/educators-bulk Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any additional questions! :) -- Rachel E. Community & Customer Happiness I emailed Bitstrips as well. And I'm expecting a similar response. But, I'll continue to forge ahead searching for new discoveries. -------- Dembo, S., & Bellow, A. (2013). Untangling the Web: 20 tools to power up your teaching. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin I've never bothered with URL shorteners before. In the time it takes to shorten something I figured I could just type in the whole thing, and hyperlink. But then, in our assignment for this week, the directions stated that you should be able to give the link to someone over the phone. Now that makes sense to me. I started with this URL: http://www.methacton.org/domain/1083 Ow.ly came up with this: http://ow.ly/Y2Tu6 I'm not seeing the improvement. Even worse, I found out that my school district blocks ow.ly EVEN THOUGH THEY USE IT: Methacton Schools @MethactonMSD to host free screening of a film confronting the opioid epidemic, get the details at http://ow.ly/Y0gAX But then I went to tinyurl.com and ended up with this: tinyurl.com/WorTechClub Perfect! I can absolutely give people that link over the phone, And if I send an email and forget the hyperlink it will be fine. I even put the link (and a QR code) on the back of a fun STEAM bookmark! Speaking of QR codes, I've tried to use them a little for things like an iPad scavenger hunt. I've helped other teachers use them for various projects. And I have some students using their MakerMonday time to record themselves reading some popular books so the younger students can borrow a book, scan a QR code and follow along. We've made some recordings but have yet to add QR codes to the books. The process has so many steps! I have 6 iPads for library use, and I would like to have the students using them more for looking up the books they want. So I was brainstorming ideas and came up with a great one - students are always looking for the next book in a series. Creating QR codes to link to the series list will be extremely helpful, and I'm sure the students will make use of it. I picked 10 series - because ultimately I can print these out on shipping labels, 10 per page - and went to Delivr.com. Delivr certainly has a lot of features - you can track who does what with the links and other business-related activities. However, you can only generate 5 QR codes under the 'free' account. They say 5 'campaigns,' and I was expecting it to be 5 different topic or ideas. But it is quite literally 5 QR codes. So when I got to #6 - it said I reached the limit. No problem, I archived a couple and kept going. However. I found out when I tested them the the 'archived' QR codes no longer work. I was quite surprised. Perhaps the data gathering capabilities would no longer work, but I expect the simple linking properties would. Nope, Delivr.com didn't deliver. Now I have a great idea - QR code series lookup - and I need to execute it! I remember hearing that Google Sheets can create QR codes. Can it ever! You used to have to do this: resize your spreadsheet, add formulas to generate the code, etc. etc. Now, thanks to a Google Add On called QR Code Generator all you do is specify two columns, one with the information to be encoded and one with the label or caption: Then click Generate, and you get a document with labels. Fantastic! With the other QR generators I tried I had to open and rename every single code computerspeak into English. This add on takes care of that and generates a new document. I still would like to figure out how to generate a label document so I can print and stick. But in the meantime, voila! I also worked with a few bookmarklets in an attempt to make the whole 'Using YouTube in Class' process go more smoothly. Quietube works very well - especially now that a colleague showed me how to mute the A/V on my projector. So I can keep the projector light off until I've started the video, closed the on-screen pop-ups or adds and hit the Quietube bookmarklet. I still need to be a little bit careful as the students close to me can still see my computer.
KeepVid sounded great as well. We've been looking for a way to allow students to use specific videos in school. But only teachers have YouTube access. KeepVid could be the answer - I can download and then share the links with students. But alas - KeepVid is blocked at school. So I decide to try downloading at home on my personal laptop and saving to my dropbox. Then I can use the dropbox link to allow students to view the videos. Well, KeepVid is a little problematic on a Mac. It doesn't work well in a Chrome browser. I got it to work in Safari after making a few adjustments to my settings. If those are one time adjustments then I think KeepVid will be valuable. I need to check how the video quality is after being download on one computer, uploaded to dropbox and played on another. What do you think - here's one of my favorite Kid Snippet videos. If you don't know Kid Snippets, you really should! Enjoy! Update: I just heard there is a KeepVid for Mac somewhere... if that is a bookmarklet as well I guess I should check it out. Although mine is working fine now. I've reached the realization that my to do list is always going to exceed feasibility. But here's the thing - it's not because I'm inefficient. Or because I can't prioritize. Perhaps I'm unrealistic, but that is part of the phenomenon of a learner in pursuit of knowledge. I honestly cannot think of a time when I didn't have a list of things to try or learn when I have the opportunity. Understanding that, I realize that I have different goals for my personal and my professional learning. Or perhaps my leisure activity and my academic learning. For creative endeavors (knitting, for example) it is often about the process - learning a new stitch or skill. I have plenty of unfinished projects. Yet when in pursuit of academic knowledge I'm looking for end results. I complete assignments in my coursework, whether for fun or credit, self-paced or instructed, online or in person with the goal of completing assignments that are relevant and useful in the Library. I think this might make the coursework harder, but the end result is product - something I can use. Diving into some Web 2.0 websites in various genres provides a great opportunity to see how other educators are leveraging popular tools for use inside and outside the classroom. From the creative genre I decided to take a closer look at Prezi. I used Prezi once upon a time, four or five years ago. It looked so cool when someone demoed it that I had to try it. I have 4 or 5 classes in each grade, K through 4. It is unwieldy to deal with individual projects from so many kids, so I try to create class projects when possible. I remember trying to use Prezi for a class biography project - it was not a resounding success. Yet I keep hearing how cool Prezi is, so I was glad to take the opportunity to revisit it. It seems that most primary teachers are using Prezi for their own presentations rather than have students create with it. A closer look showed me why – Prezi is not COPPA compliant. Children under 13 cannot create content even with parental permission. For older students, however, the collaborative feature and the ease of adding and changing text (demonstrated in Untangling the Web) could allow for some great projects. I do plan on using it for some upcoming presentations – I should be able to wow the Home & School Association! I spend a great deal of time looking at curation tools when I should be spending more time using them. I keep looking for one that will let me organize, file and annotate websites, projects, lessons plans – everything. I thought I had the answer with Scoop.it – until I realized that the ‘free’ version only allowed one topic page with one keyword. I checked out EduClipper once but I didn’t have the time right then to invest in learning what clips, clipboards, and all those symbols did. After reading up on EduClipper, investigating the website and hearing what Adam Bellow had to say about his innovative product (Untangling the Web) certainly changed my mind. I had no idea I could set up multiple classes, allow students (with permission) to access my clipboards, or create their own. It can handle assignments? And I can leave audio feedback for my students? So far, I haven’t been able to figure out the built in citation piece and the eduClip it button is not working for me, but that could be Chrome and my aging computer. If EduClipper does everything educators say it will be worth my time to figure it all out. And then we get to the social arena, and Facebook. My grown daughters, my college friends, and pretty much all of my colleagues at school are on Facebook. I have never had a Facebook. My husband keeps me posted if there is something I should see. I am frequently stressed and pressed for time, I’m afraid I would either feel more stressed if I couldn’t keep up with what everyone was up to and respond or I would spend way too much time on Facebook and be up way too late. There are many aspects of Facebook. Profiles, fan pages, photo albums, games, apps, events, likes, friends, status updates – I see why people like it, a one-stop shop for sharing with friends and colleagues. For the sake of argument, lets assume that teachers are aware of and take appropriate privacy measures. There was a lot of information available this week as Thursday, January 28, 2016 was Data Privacy Day. Hopefully, teachers have taken advantage of Facebook’s privacy checkup and these other recommended steps to keep on top of the problems that have plagued many in the education world. Is Facebook then an ideal platform for connecting with other educators? After reading a bit about how you would find like-minded people and how teachers are forming PLNs using Facebook, I still don’t see a reason to stop what I’m doing now. I’m finding the same professional connections through Twitter (including some groups and regular chats), professional organizations, some informal groups at school, and an online community of librarians. Teachers in upper grades have many positive ways to use Facebook in the classroom. They are leveraging how students are already spending their time and opening ways of communication. From offering opportunities for authentic writing to researching by interacting with real people rather than Wikipedia, Facebook offers an engaging and versatile method for connecting with students. As long as teachers maintain a professional profile and are careful about their interactions with students and parents Facebook can be a valuable tool. I teach in an elementary school. Elementary age children should not be using Facebook, and I prefer to interact with parents via email and telephone. 7 Ways for Teachers to use Prezi in the Classroom. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://edu.prezi.com/blog/2015/4/21/7-ways-for-teachers-to-use-prezi-in-the-classroom
Dembo, S., & Bellow, A. (2013). Untangling the Web: 20 tools to power up your teaching. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. EduClipper: Just-for-us discovery, collaboration and curation. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://blogs.slj.com/neverendingsearch/2013/06/09/educlipper-just-for-us-discovery-collaboration-and-curation/ Facebook for Teachers: 11 Tips for Protecting your Privacy. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.webwise.ie/teachers/facebook-for-teachers/http://www.webwise.ie/teachers/facebook-for-teachers/ National Cyber Security Alliance to Coordinate Data Privacy Day. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-cyber-security-alliance-to-coordinate-data-privacy-day-128312708.html Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/09/teens-social-media-technology-2015/ What's the privacy checkup and where can I find it? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/help/443357099140264 As an educator in the 21st century the amount of information available is astounding. As I adapt and adjust my practice to both make use of these rich resources and prepare my students for their future it can be difficult to weed through the various websites and tools all promising to be the best. Reflecting on how I identify new tech tools, I realize I have a ‘kid in a candy shop’ approach – check out the ‘new’ new thing, the flavor of the day, try a bite here or there. I’ll check out what everyone else is using, I’ll volunteer to beta test – whatever. Play with the technology first, and then figure out how I can use it in the library. (I recently realized I’m a hyperlink addict, but that’s a discussion for another day.) On my quest to learn more about how other educators evaluate web technologies, I contacted Lynda Bradley. Lynda is a 3rd grade teacher, a PA Keystone Innovator, a Google Certified educator and a building level technology support liaison. I first worked with Lynda at the week-long Keystone Technology Summit we both attended last summer. After hearing a little about my approach above, it will come as no surprise that Lynda’s approach to evaluating websites is a bit more teacher-like. First and foremost, she says “Just like the snitch in Harry Potter, I always start at the close.” What concept or outcome are you looking for? Having a goal or outcome in mind steers the search in the right direction. Don’t get me wrong – when I plan my lessons I certainly know what I’m looking for but when I look at through the numerous tech tools available it’s the glitz and not the goal that sometimes catches my eye. It might be a subtle shift in mindset from ‘what can I do with this cool website’ to ‘what cool website can do XYZ’ but it is enough of a switch to change the focus for evaluating a tool. .comLynda also mentioned favoring interactive websites that provide immediate feedback to the students. For reinforcement of a concept, letting students know right away if they are correct is key. We’ve discussed video frustration (I suggested SafeShare.tv and Quietube.com) and the need to preview all the way through, but she mentioned previewing web activities all the way through as well to verify their appropriateness and educational value. Here’s something else to keep in mind – especially if your school uses Google classroom and some kind of blanket parental permission. Some sites will let students log in with their Google username. However, we still need to follow COPPA and verify that the site allows users under age 13. When teachers are looking for something specific, Lynda believes it is all in the search strategy. This comes up constantly in the Library as well – teachers claim they do not get the same search results, and cannot find the same things we find. Lynda says “People ask me all the time how I find things. They say they look and cannot replicate my findings. Use Key Words. Add your grade level. Add if you want a PDF, a PPT, a SmartActivity or an interactive…. Try to make a search as painless and smart as possible.” You can find more search strategies at TeachHub.
Perhaps employing some of Lynda’s strategies will make me feel more like a teacher in a library than a kid in a candy store. But hey, candy’s okay once in awhile, isn’t it? |
AuthorI'm an elementary school librarian fascinated by all things Tech. I'm trying to give my students the 21st century learning experiences that are crucial to their success. Often it feels like a Sisyphean task! Archives
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