Stupeflix

Stupeflix is an online tool to create movies with your photos and  video clips. I found it was very easy to use and quickly created a product with from my garden photos that I had already sent to Flickr. Once you have collected your photos Stupeflix lets you organise and group them into sets to appear in the order that you prefer . You can select the transition effects, add text and music. I used Creative Commons, Royalty Free music from Incompetech.com. A site I have often used with my students.

When you are happy with your arrangement (which doesn’t take long) you can generate your movie. I found the .flv movie was better resolution than the larger YouTube option but both movies were successfully generated in a reasonable time. The finished video can be downloaded to your computer or shared using the link. The final step was to upload it to a site like Edublogs.tv so  I could embed the movie in my blog.

It might sound like a lot of steps to work through but when everything works smoothly, as it did with Stupeflix, it’s worth the effort.

My Garden – 2008 – 2009

Thanks to Free Technology for Teachers for introducing me to Stupeflix

I started this post with a view to have the “Here Comes Learning” presentation below, support my staff Professional Development presentation about the importance of blogging. I’m sure a number of teachers still wonder why they should consider starting a blog. I spent some time working through the considerable information that Will Richardson presents in just the first twelve minutes (the rest of the presentation will have to wait for another post) and now I realise the question is much bigger than just blogging or wikis.

It’s not “Why should I blog?” but “Why should I be connected?”

Will Richardson is a renown author and leader in the field of Web2.0 technologies in education. He was a presenter at the NECC09 in Washington and I, fortunately, was able to attend the session. His message to teachers is that they must be part of the huge technological shift that is happening, that they must use and own the technologies so that they understand them and so that they will ready to teach students what they need to know about using web2.0 technology in ways that are effective for learning.

Here Comes Learning by W.Richardson and SNBeach

Here Comes Learning – Wiki with more links to this presentation

My summary of the Importance of Teachers being Connected by Will Richardson

• Students use the online world for social reasons but, also, increasingly to learn things -see the video about the bow drill which Will mentions throughout http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuFsDN8dsJU&feature=channel_page
• Will quotes Clay Shirky when he says that the ability to form global groups about things we are passionate about which include all levels of expertise and the power of the group in an online world are part of signiificant change – a “Techtonic Shift.
• We have incredible access to raw data (see the Iran tweets, photos). We no longer depend on the traditional news sources to know what is happening. We need skills to critically analyse the information for importance and accuracy.
• These new technologies are having an impact on businesses. Companies monitor the conversation and how people form groups around their products. This is easily seen in Twitter when businesses follow and respond to those who use their product name in their tweets.
• Information Literacy has changed not just the way we write (Twitter and blogs) but the way we read and critically analyse information. New literacy skills are needed and suggested by the National Council of English Teachers :

Develop proficiency with the tools of technology Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments

• Students are using the technologies Primarily to Socialise but now they are beginning to connect in interest based ways tapping into the millions of potential teachers, who are out there, when and where they need to do it

The problem becomes that many children/students have no adults that can teach them how to use technologies for ways that are effective for learning. Teachers need to understand these technologies, understand the shifts, own the technologies and make connections for themselves.They need to take time to immerse themselves in internet type environments to meet the challenge of providing students with the skills they will need in the 21st Century.

The second part of this presentation was concerned with the Professional Development model that will support teachers to develop deep seated skills and connections.

Blogging like anything else has protocols and “political correctness” that you become aware of once you are part of the environment. Linking is one the big must dos, not just because it is the right thing to give credit if you have used others ideas and writings, but for self interest because it helps people find your blog as well.

Others have written about this in a far more eloquent way than I have so the following links are ones that I have found practical and very informative.

This post from the Problogger clearly explains why you should link in your blog and how it can help you develop an audience.

The Edublogger tells you how to link to other blogs and gives the following reasons for linking

1. A person’s blog if you mention a blogger.
   
2. The post if you are talking about a particular post on a blog”

Linking is an important part of blogging but do it for the right reasons. Don’t overlink or it’s a bit like crying wolf. Readers will only follow your blog if you have genuine content with relevant links.

Photo thanks to Flickr

Tux Paint, Tux Typing and Tux Math are three of the ongoing projects belonging to Tux4Kids. Tux Paint, Tux Typing and Tux Math are free software applications that you can download and run on your home or school computers. If you would like to know more, you can read the reviews I have written in my other blog

The aim of Tux4Kids is two fold;

1. to produce free software of educational value so that all schools, children and parents  will have the opportunity to use it
2. to produce an alternative to proprietary software for schools thereby removing the cost and legal barriers to accessing quality educational software resources.

You can find the sites to download the software by clicking on the images below

TUX PAINT                           TUX TYPING                          TUX MATH

Invite To Everyone in FLE.

Please help make a WORDLE.

I’d like to create a Flexible Learning Environment image/logo for the Skype podcasts. Could everyone respond in the comments with 10 words that they think describe a Flexible Learning Environment. It doesn’t matter if we repeat words – that’s what makes a Wordle interesting.

I’ll put them together in Wordle and publish them. It might be interesting to make one now and then repeat the exercise again at the end of the semester to see if we have changed our ideas.

Thanks for your help.

THE FINISHED WORDLE

I liked the way this Wordle is shaped a bit like an arrow – as though we are moving forward. Thanks everyone for your contributions, if you look carefully you should see your name.

I have a subscription to Odiogo which creates podcasts from my blogs. I thought it might be interesting to hear someone else read my blog posts to me. I wanted to see if I could distance myself enough from the original process of writing, to think critically about the content. I’m not a confident writer and have for years avoided writing anything. And I dread rereading my published material for fear of finding mistakes. I subscribed to Odiogo for fun and for the feedback it might provide.

I’ve subscribed to the Odiogo feed in iTunes and now just to see if I could I’ve embedded a player with the feed directly on my blog.The player looks great and is customisable – the screen is blank but I think that is because I don’t have any art work on Odiogo for my podcast. I will be testing this player again on the students podcasts.

The player is free from Podcast Pickle and was extremely easy to set up. I am a fan of this site!

I have spent most of my weekend trying to figure out how to embed sound and video files into the school’s Globalstudent blogs. Globalstudent and Globalteacher blogs are powered by Wordpress just like Edublogs but they are supported by Victorian Education Channel and SLAV (Schools Library Association of Victoria) and so there is no cost to teachers and they are free of advertisements.

However the tools for posting blogs do not include a media player in Globalstudent/teacher and so sound files and video files are not embedded but open in a separate window. Considering Edublogs and Globalstudent blogs are so similar I knew that it had to be possible. Finally after trying many workarounds I discovered the solution with a Google search. Jake Ludington’s MediaBlab had the code that I needed and clearly explains what it all means.

It even explained why the controls on the Quicktime player weren’t always visible. Now when the students post their sound and video files they will play in the same window which is a much more attractive option. The only thing I have to master now is making the videos the right size for the blog page. You can see how it works at Berwick Lodge Home Page. There is a Video example on Grade 6Z’s site as well. In this example you will understand what I mean about getting the size of the video right. If I made the player any smaller parts of the movie were cut off so it is just a matter of choosing the right dimensions when making the file.

This is the workflow to create the following Voicethread.

It is a work under progress but now we know the process from start to collaborate.

Step 1

Students each hand-drew a picture of themselves. (They could have just as easily drawn it using drawing software on the computer, saved it as a jpeg and then we could have uploaded it directly)

Step 2

I used the digital camera to take a photo of each picture and uploaded the pictures to the computer which was quicker than scanning.

Step 3

Open Voicethread and chose a picture to upload which represented the topic (Friendship). We used clipart for convenience but you could use photos or student art just as easily.

Step 4

Add the new identities of the students by uploading their pictures that they drew of themselves.

Step 5

Have the students practice what they are going to say for their comments

Step 6

Connect a microphone and have the students take turns to record their comments on one computer. Don’t forget to switch identities for each student

Step 7

Add titles etc.

Step 8

Use the Share button to send the voicethread to collaborators or copy the link and email it to them. Use the code provided to embed your Voicethread on your blog.

This is part 2 of a series of blogs about using Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom. This section looks at the reasons why we need to change the way we teach to include web 2.0 tools.

What Do the Experts Say About Web2.0 Technology in Education? – Part 2

Steve Hargadon- “Web 2.0 is the future of Education” (Hargadon, 2008)

Hargadon is director of the K12 Open Technologies Initiative at the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), and the founder of Classroom 2.0. The social network Classroom 2.0 has over 13,000 members who are(Classroom 2.0, 2008) interested in Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies in education. He is well respected and very active in writing and speaking about Web 2.0 issues relating to education.

Hargadon believes “that the“ read/write Web, or what we are calling Web 2.0, will culturally, socially, intellectually, and politically have a greater impact than the advent of the printing press. (Hargadon, 2008)

He identifies ten trends that have particular importance for education and learning. I have summarized and combined the trends into categories that I think will make sense and be relevant to our school situation.

Information, collaboration and opportunity are part of our core business as educators. We have a responsibility and a moral obligation as teachers to help students access the tools they will need to make sense of their real and online world. Web2.0 is already part of all forms of modern communication, providing access and opportunities now and in the future so it must be included in the school curriculum.

David Warlick

David Warlick  is an educator, author and consultant in educational technology. He is a strong supporter of Web 2.0 and advocates that teachers take advantage of the unique capabilities of the technology.

“David Warlick has been an innovator and leader in the field of educational technology and a prolific programmer. His classroom blogging site, Class Blogmeister, serves more than 100,000 users, and his attribution tool, Citation Machine, receives more than a half-million page views a day.”(Warlick D. , 2006, p. Bio)

“Blogs have grown like a range fire and they have exerted amazing influence on our lives, causing us to redefine journalism and political activism. Blogs also hold enormous potential for education as teachers and administrators have a new avenue for informing and inviting the broader learning community and for students as they learn to communicate by becoming part of the global conversation.”(Warlick D. F., 2005, p. 5)

He discusses the way our economic system has changed from the Agricultural Age through the Industrial Age to the Knowledge Age that we have today. He explains how and why the curriculum must change to address the nature of information that is a result of technology.

He groups the Web 2.0 outcomes into three purposeful areas for educators and students. Collaboration, communication and information are three essential elements for rich inquiry based classrooms. There is no easier way to achieve these elements than to use the web 2.0 technology.

“Today, the world is a different place. Our sense of the future has changed, our students are different, and the very nature of information has changed. Technology has advanced at a rate that would have been unbelievable to me when I was growing up. As a result, there is a fundamental question that faces us today, as educators and as communities. What do children need to be learning today? ..and How do they need to be learning it?”(Warlick D. , 2006, p. Welcome)

References:

Classroom 2.0. (2008). Main. (Hargadon, Producer) Retrieved Nov 12, 2008, from Classroom 2.0: http://www.classroom20.com/

Hargadon, S. (2008, July 25). Web 2.0 is the Future of Education. Retrieved November 2008, from Steve Hargadon K-12 educational technology: collaborative web technologies, free and open source software, and the future of education. : http://www.stevehargadon.com/2008/07/web-20-is-future-of-education-talk.html

Warlick, D. (2006). Retrieved Nov 12, 2008, from CoLearners: http://davidwarlick.com/wordpress/?page_id=3

Warlick, D. F. (2005). Raw Materials for the Mind. Raleigh, North Carolina, USA: The Landmark Project.

I have already written about Wordle, the application that makes beautiful word clouds, and how it can be used in your classroom. Here are some more ideas on how to use Wordle with your students thanks to Angelia Myers and The Top 20 Uses for Wordle in the Classroom presented by Rodd Lucier. The following are my favourites for a primary classroom

1. Combine student ‘Who Are You?’ introductions, or ‘Superhero
   Traits‘ to develop a class composite;
2. Condense survey data by dumping content of questionnaire responses into the Wordle engine;
3. Combine news articles or RSS feeds on a given topic;
4. Turn an essay into a poster;

Now try and finish the poem using the words in the Wordle.

Whole Duty of Children by Robert Louis Stevenson

A child should always say ______ ____,
And _____ when he is spoken to,
And behave _______ __ ___ _____:

At _____ as far as he is able.

Just for fun – Guess the following famous Australian songs: