Playing with fire...or Google Forms, and how to be ridiculous when overtired.

Answer at your own risk, I'm feeling punchy. You might even smile...you have been warned!

Woman at Work: a Work in Progress

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My Digital Story is an attempt at introducing the topics of internet safety and cyber-bullying to high school students.  I don't have a classroom currently, but I have observed similar discussions in high schools.  Ideally, these children, who have already had years of access to the internet, already know some rules to keep themselves and their computers safe.  It's my hope that the idea of cyber-bullying has also already been introduced, but I'm approaching both topics as if they may not have been.  I would use this before introducing new technologies (blogger, twitter for research, Animoto, or other Web 2.0 tools) as an ice breaker, and a brainstorming session to make sure the students would be practicing the right methods and strategies, in the school and at home, for work, or for recreation.

This is a VERY rough draft.  My purpose of this draft was to make sure I understood how to use PhotoStory3, and that each part of the technology I intend to use in the final version is working from my home computer with the equipment I have.  Additional images, and fleshed out narration will be added during the next week (when I don't have multiple midterms, observations, and a crazy work schedule!)  I wanted to see how well my microphone picked me up, get use to the recorded sound of my voice, and decided on pacing compared to what I imagined in my storyboard.

 

I apologize that there is not much at the moment to critique - but please fill out the survey, and if you have any recommendations, please leave me a comment! Thanks!

Diigo - I dig it!

 

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Diigo is at it's heart a bookmarking site/tool that is handy even for those who only use one computer for everything.  You can label your bookmarks to make it easier to find them later, you can share your bookmarks and labels, and you can search other shared labels to find sites to add to your collection.  Beyond that though, you can highlight pages, leave sticky notes, collaborate and even mark up images.  While not all of the utility is free, there is enough that is to make it worth using anywhere, anytime.  You can chose to keep bookmarks private as well, so it is not something that should only be used for work!

I have found it to be an interesting experiment at times to bookmark and label, and then follow the labels to other links and see where it takes you.  I think when used correctly, the use of Diigo also embraces the NETS-T #5, because you can use the labels as a form of research into other databases you wouldn't normally know about.  Teaching the use of the technology as well to students can give them streamlined access that a Google search doesn't often provide.  What sites have you found that weren't your original bookmark intention?  Is there any of mine you liked, or others you'd recommend?

GoggleDocs - the collaborative awesome awaits!

Last semester, I had a group project assignment where each individual was assigned their own unique question/aspect to research for an overall research paper.  We had to follow this up with a class presentation, which also had to include a powerpoint style element.  Since my partner and I didn't live close by each other, and had weird schedules outside of the 3 classes we had together, we chose to use GoogleDocs to collaborate our work.

What we both loved about the process was we could each access the document at the same time, and chat through the comment option in real time - no need to text, or IM in a separate window or program.  We could each add in our paragraphs and works cited, chat about transition sentences and even leave links for each other we found that helped the other with their part of the research.  I haven't used the discussion feature of a wiki yet (though I may tonight) but I imagine it functions similarly.

The presentation tool was also useful for us each creating slides before we were able to meet up and finalize it.  The downside to the GoogleDocs is that the options for finalizing and polishing are limited compared to Microsoft Office, or OpenOffice.  I chose to copy our paper into an OpenOffice document, and finish the APA format tweaks, namely the header and pagination styles.

Have you used GoogleDocs to collaborate?  What was your impression?

The Idea Pheonix: Killing and Resurrecting Creativity

Sitting here with writer's block, I decided to search for ways to break the block down in a classroom - maybe helping students know it happens to adults too would be useful, as well as introducing strategies to get beyond the blank page.  What I found were both ways to stifle creativity as well as how to generate ideas in the classroom.

Marvin Bartel posted 10 ways he can kill creativity in his classroom, as well as explaining how and why what we do stifles the creativity and how we can change our responses to encourage creative expression.  He also explicitly allows duplication of his information for Educational Fair Use, which I found to be interesting after our review of Digital Storytelling.  I enjoyed his comments on cliches, especially from an English classroom point of view - while they are not ideal, critiquing the use of them instead of bolstering fresh ideas to move beyond the cliche is a great way of getting beyond the obvious.

Suzie Boss on MindShift had 8 great ideas for generating ideas beyond the graphic organizer method.  What I liked best about her list is that the topics cover a wide range of ways to stoke creative fires in young minds, and old.  I also liked the MindShift site as a whole, and found it to potentially have other interesting blogs for all educators.

What ways have you found you either killed creativity or brought it back?  What was an exceptional class discussion you had and how did it start?