Story telling....the digital way

Stories are now available on the Internet.  You can read online books made available by Google or Amazon, or if you're feeling adventurous, you can create your own digital story.  To create a digital story, you can combine voice, sounds, pictures, movies, and written words.  You don't have to have all of these elements, but there are several websites that can help you along your way.

The Center for Digital Storytelling hosts open workshops for teachers to come and create a digital story.  These workshops are three days long, and can be a real help to teachers who are lacking in technology backgrounds.  The Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling published by the University of Houston gives a list of the things necessary to create a digital story.  There are five essential steps; Choose a topic/write a script, collect resources, select content/develop a storyboard, import/record/finalize, and demonstrate/evaluate/replicate.  Each one of these steps is broken down into easier steps for those who need guiding.  They even have a link for downloadable tools for those who are ambitious enough to start now.

Digital stories are a great way to cross the barrier between learning at home and school, all while integrating technology and creativity into the classroom.

Global education communities

Due to the numerous education sites, it's hard to not connect with global education communities.  A cite I found is called Curriki.  This website has thousands of lesson plans that teachers are sharing with one another for grades K-12.  When visiting the site, you can limit your results to grade level, topic, type of resource, and style of lesson (game, unit, etc).  This is more for teachers to connect with each other, but I thought it was too good to not mention.

When it comes to a global community that students can reach out to, http://www.epals.com/ is a great resource.  This site connects classrooms in 200 countries, and is monitored to ensure safety.  Google listed many sites for "elementary school global community" but epals was at the top of the list.  Together as a class, we can choose a country, possibly one we will study, and choose a school to communicate with throughout the year.  Students will email their e-pal and learn about the culture in a place different than their home.  Students can talk about themselves for the first few emails and understand what is similar and what is different from others their age.  There are many conversation starters, the examples below are from http://www.conversationstarters.com/101.htm

• Where did you grow up?
• Do you have any pets?
• Do you have any siblings?
• What did you do this past weekend?
• What are your plans for this weekend?
• What do you like to do in your spare time?
• What is the first thing you do when you wake up?
• What is the last thing you do before you go to sleep?
• What was the last thing you purchased?
• What is your favorite holiday?
• What is your favorite day of the week?
• If you could meet anyone in history, who would it be?
• What do you like to do to relax?
• Do you play any instruments?

Travelling in an online world

I love taking online tours of places that I'll probably never travel to in person.  http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/gal102/americabyair/ gives a tour, and several activities and stories about the National Air and Space Museum.  This is a great place for students to visit and hear first hand stories about people and their air travels.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/03/blue-whales/brower-text shows several pictures of the blue whales that were followed for the National Geographic show that was filmed in 2009.  The pictures are accompanied by an article written by a man who followed the whales.  Many students would be able to dive into the ocean and follow these whales in a virtual world, achieving something they wouldn't do in their lifetimes.

http://sites.asiasociety.org/education/islam_in_seasia/ has an interactive map and several other educational activities for students who are studying the Islamic religion.  It was interesting to click on the different years and watch how Islam spread from 632 to the 1800s.  This may not be an early elementary link, but for 5th, 6th, middle or highschool grades, this website would be great.

The most important thing from reading someone else's blog post is that there will always be links others know about that you don't.  The internet is a huge resource, and when others take the time to record good resources, we should take the time to visit a few and see if we could use them in our classroom.

Assistive Technology in Education

When I started researching assistive technology in education, I had no idea what I would find out.  Assistive technology (AT) is used to help students with learning disabilities, and special needs.  I learned that AT needs to be considered in every student's IEP.  There are many different types of technology that can help students in a variety of ways, and I am glad they have to at least consider AT for each child.  (Assistive Technology, 2011)

“Almost 30 years of research and experience has demonstrated that the education of children with disabilities can be made more effective by ...supporting the development and use of technology, including assistive technology devices and assistive technology services, to maximize accessibility for children with disabilities.”  (IDEA, 2004)

Using a variety of technological tools, students with special needs are able to get help that focuses on their specific need area.  For example, children with autism have a variety of tools available.  Using pictures, students can have their days outlined in front of them, so they always know what is coming next.  Visual calendars also help students with autism see ahead for the month, giving them a routine schedule they can rely on.

The talk pad uses pictures and creates a story format, using the left to right movement, helping students understand sequencing.  The buttons can have a prerecorded story, forcing the student to find the correlating picture, and using Velcro, students can put the story in order.  If students need to be challenged, instead of using pictures, sentences can be used, helping the students read a story in sequence, left to right.
(Stokes, 2011)


There will always be improvements in the technology field, and as teachers, we will not be able to stay up to date 100% of the time.  However, when we share what we know with other teachers, we are bound to find good ideas.  Using help from the resource teachers, we can incorporate the variety of needs in our classroom, so our students can learn to the best of their abilities.

"Assistive Technology in Education." Assistive Technology Partnership - ATP - Home - About Us. Assistive Technology Partnership, 2008. Web. 28 June 2011. atp.ne.gov/techassist/intro.html>.

"Sec. 601 SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS; FINDINGS; PURPOSES." IDEA - Building The Legacy of IDEA 2004. U.S. Department of Education, 2004. Web. 28 June 2011. .

Stokes, Susan. "Assistive Technology for Children with Autism." CESA #7 Special Education Services Index. CESA #7, 30 June 2011. Web. 28 June 2011. specialed.us/autism/assist/asst15.htm>.

fun tech tool - Blabberize

I used blabberize.com to make a picture "talk."  It was pretty simple, the only problems I had were with my computer, and making it stay on the internet.  The fun thing about blabberize.com is that you can take any picture, and make it say anything, for FREE.  I'm sure students would be more interested in hearing a mouse read the story of "The Lion and the Mouse" than hearing the teacher.  It does take a bit of preparation, but it's fun to watch and make.


              
If the embedded video doesn't work, click here

Comparing works

I followed Marina, Mayerly, Kathryn, and Casey this week, along with http://www.assortedstuff.com/top101/.  The authors of each of these blogs, have come up with some great ideas to use in the classroom.  I looked at Marina's Book Wizard link to figure out what level a book was, and find similar books that a student would be interested in.  Mayerly commented on how the information we find is built on the information that others find.  We need to focus on helping our students understand what we want to convey, and make it easy for them to understand.  Kathryn's story weaves information she read off of others' pages, supporting Mayerly's point again.  The way she presented it, hooked the viewer in, making it an informative and entertaining read.  After watching the entertaining youtube video linked on Casey's page http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJn_jC4FNDo I understood copyright better, and had an idea.  What if students were able to create short clips like this to explain their own topic.  In case you don't watch it, this video shows bits of Disney movies to create a different story (kind of like Optimus Prime using the radio to communicate).  Anyways, I think that would be exciting for the students, and could also be presented to other classes, or parents.  :)

http://www.storyplace.org/ has a similar format, in the way that it is has cartoons telling a story.  This is one of the many links on my blog site, and I was pleased to say that it has an Early Ed focus as well as Elementary Ed focus.  The video I watched was teaching about fire fighters and even had a sing along song. 

Copyright issues

Which selection did your choose to read or watch?

https://classes.uaa.alaska.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_85019_1%26url%3d

What is copyright? 

Copyright  is created when the original author or creator wants to protect whatever they have created.  Copyright can apply to published and unpublished items, and makes others ask permission from the original author to use their work.

What are some of the issues around copyright for teachers? Students?

Since teachers use many resources, and often have to copy their workbooks, they face a copyright issue on a regular basis.  Teachers need to be a good example of how to treat others' work in an ethical way.  Through their actions, they need to teach their students about protected property.  This is going to be hard since almost everything is copyrighted.  If the teacher or students takes anything offline, they need to site their source.  When pictures are used on a regular basis, this often becomes hard to follow. 

What is Fair Use?

Fair use allows others to use copyrighted material when a profit will not be made.  In order to determine fair use, certain guidelines exist.  The amount of the product that can be reproduced is limited, and the "nature of the copyrighted work" is considered (US Copyright Office).

What more do you want to learn?

I have heard that Paris Hilton tried to copyright "that's hot" but was unsuccessful.  I would like to know what guidelines they have set up to determine what can and cannot be copyrighted.  I would also like to learn more about how often copyright infringement is actually caught and punished.

So many Resources

Who would have thought that teachers like to share?  Just kidding, I know we all love to bounce ideas off of each other, and the internet just proves that, there are ideas EVERYWHERE!  I don't know how teachers got by before the internet.  Sure there were some creative ideas my teachers had when I was in elementary school, but the possibilities now are endless.  Some teachers are more art savvy, and some aren't.  But throw some dish soap, water, and paint together, blow some bubbles, put it on paper and you have a masterpiece that was easy and fun to make. http://www.playbasedlearning.com.au/
This website had so many fun artsy ideas, it made me want to go make some right now.  Go figure, it's a play based learning website.



Want to go to the planetarium but it costs too much?  Just visit http://www.exploratorium.edu/neverlost/#/navigation/planetarium  One of the many science links on the Exploratorium page.  Students can dissect a cow's eye without the smell and scalpels.  This was one of the links on "The Top 101 Web Sites for Teachers" http://www.assortedstuff.com/top101/

There's a more personal feeling when going to http://mscofino.edublogs.org/ where Kim Cofino tells about her tips for teaching.  It's nice to have another teacher's point of view, but it almost feels intrusive to read her blog.  She's writing about people she knows that I don't.  I do like her tech tools.  Sometimes websites give you things that teachers won't really use in the classroom, but these tools already have been used with the kids, and have been successful.  My favorite idea was to make different students in your class "experts" that way their peers can go to them for help first.

At first, I thought "A Passion for Teaching and Opinions" sounded like a great blog to read, but when I clicked on it, I was instantly reminded of a news page.  Thankfully, upon reading, I found out that it was a blog about a newscaster who was retiring.  Although it lacks the jazzy colors and fun illustrations, this blog has some information that is funny.  Well, his sarcasm amuses me. 

"In an absolutely shocking study, teachers that were efficient with class time actually had students that did better on standardized tests. Apparently not wasting the student’s time might actually help the student become more focused, more engaged, and in the end, possibly more learned.  Wow.  What an incredible surprise."  http://ukiahcoachbrown.blogspot.com/

Although all of these blogs have something to share, I think "The Top 101 Web Sites for Teachers" http://www.assortedstuff.com/top101/ is one I'll follow for a while, and "Irresistible Ideas for Play Based Learning"
 will be one that I reference when I need a creative idea.