Desperate SBTS

The Collaborative ABC Project: Using Technology To Tell Stories
Kevin Hodgson & Bonnie Kaplan

Kevin and Bonnie use a wide variety of Web 2.0 tools to tell the story of how they developed and accomplished the ABC project This project asked the contributors to compose a personal digital story based on randomly assigned letters of the alphabet in any application they chose, post it in you Tube and use JumpCut to collaboratively edit the presentation, so the presentation itself employed many new Web 2.0 tools. I was not familiar with just about all of these tools. So the opportunity to participate in the presentation was an education, in addition to learning about the project. The opportunity to receive their information via different web based software programs allowed me to experience these different ways of conveying information for myself, make comparisons, and judge their effectiveness. I almost forgot that this presentation was under the Professional Learning communities banner – as it seemed as much about learning to use Web 2.0 technology as it was about professional community development.
I think this is an important observation. The purpose of organizing people into a community should not be the existence of the community . If we manage to come together as a community – then bravo for us – but if there is no purpose for our gathering, then our interaction will become very parochial and inwardly focused , and we will quickly tire of ourselves and go our separate ways. I think that coming together for mutual support is important, but if there is also not some other goal toward which the group is working, the group will soon collapse on itself. The people of the ABC Project community came together to help one another develop their stories using new Web 2.0 tools– and by so do doing, teach themselves how such a project might work out and to learn from their successes and difficulties. Their goal in so doing was so they could share this experience with others and also so they could become “experts” in this new area of communicating and collaborating – to better provide leadership for such a project in the communities that the work with and serve.
I thought it was interesting that Kevin reported some difficulty with some of the e]web based software that they tried. in particular he stated the JumpCut did not perform as ell as thy had hoped. I am wondering if this is because web based software is new – and the developers haven’t worked out all the kinks? If so – then will Web 2.0 software developers make modifications based on the experiences of user like Kevin and Bonnie? I guess I hope these tools will improve in the areas of users friendliness in the future, for the sake of those of us who will try to encourage teachers to use them in the classroom with children. Or maybe teaching students to deal with the promises as well as the pitfalls of using Web 2-0 tools is part of the lesson plan based on these tools.

As I listened to Kevin’s podcast describing the process of pulling this project together I was encouraged to know that he appears to be in the same boat we are in – just learning about these tools and being excited by them, yet wondering where they will have application in a school curriculum and how to implement them in the classroom. If either Bonnie or Kevin had attempted to implement this project in their own local settings, my guess is that they might not have been as successful. I work for a fairly large ES and I cannot imagine gathering enough people to participate in an experimental project such as the one they attempted. The connectivity afforded through blogging and the web allowed them to include participants from a greater pool of possible participants and accomplish the task.

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New Tools

Learn to Blog : Blog to Learn

Anne Davis

I chose this presentation because of the blogging requirement for this class and I am very glad that I did. If you are confused about the relevance of blogging in the classroom, what a blogging project would look like, or how to set one up – then I would recommend this session to you!  

The presentation includes a webquest that is used to teach students about blogging and a blog that teachers whom she was introducing bogging to had used.  Both of the resources were very valuable to me!  The webquest posted is what the teacher would use to introduce her class to blogging.  It includes an introduction to blogging, a description of the task (or the objectives) that includes links to a class wiki page for each objective , a description of the process or the lesson that would introduce blogging, a rubric for evaluation of their blogs, a conclusion and credits.  The lessons included several features that I found informative or interesting.  A book published by another class about their own experiences of blogging, a link to a wiki page for safe and responsible blogging, examples of actual student blogs, and comment prompts to get students started commenting on their classmates blogs.  I myself learned a lot about blogging from these resources.

This version of Anne’s webquest also includes a Teacher Page that includes her lesson plan for teaching with the webquest.  The lesson described is designed for fifth grade students.  A document named the Six Traits of Writing and Bloom’s taxonomy are the focal points of the blogging process.  Students are encouraged to think and blog about what they are learning in class.  They will improve their writing skills as they practice thinking and expressing themselves by writing for their blogs and posting comments for their classmates.

Also part of this presentation is access to a class blog that was used to introduce educators to Blogmeister (sound familiar?)  It was interesting not only to read the content and the educator students responses, but also to see another group of adults learning how to do this blogging thing.  Included in this blog in a very helpful document – Rationale for Blogging. The third part of her presentation is a slide show about blogging – that introduces beginners to the vocabulary of blogging and to Blogmeister – the software that she uses for her students’ blogs.  Again – very helpful to me.

Choosing this presentation my not have been very much of  stretch – but I am glad that I took the time to explore all three parts of the presentation.  I learned a lot!

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Design Matters by Dean Shareski

I chose this presentation to watch because I myself am interested in design and what goes into a good design. I found some very interesting concepts to consider in this presentation. Dean’s main idea is that design is an important element to teach. To support this premise he cites the work of Daniel Pink and Sir Ken Robinson (one reason I found the presentation relevant). From Daniel Pink he takes the concepts of utility and significance, and how enhancing an item’s significance can actually add to its functionality. He asks how many of us have intentionally included design in everyday learning?
Dean’s has 5 suggestions for teaching design:
1. He emphasizes the importance of planning when asking students to create any kind of digital presentation. This is important for defining the purpose of the project. He points out that writing projects always have a defined purpose. This is also important for the purpose of assessment and analysis. How well does the project satisfy its stated purpose? An interesting observation of his was that teachers who have less confidence in their understanding of the technology being used will feel that they are involved in the project by guiding the students in their planning.
2. Dean believes that visual literacy should be taught. Much of what he has to say on this topic is familiar as it has been shared with us by Karen, including putting cameras in student’s hands, the rule of thirds, the prohibition against clip art, and the use of Flickr for useable images.
3. Less is more deals with the concept of white space to create emphasis and highlight what is important. Less is more in the use of transitions as well – another familiar theme. Transitions can be used effectively to signal a change of pace or idea in a presentation.
4. The use of constraints is also a way of creating emphasis. By requiring students to edit down their work, the teacher requires them to focus on the main idea (another strategy used in writing)
5. Dean believes that we should have our students study good design, that our assessments should include consideration of good design presentation design, and that we can encourage this by exploring the advance features of our software and through the development of personal branding (an individually identifiable logo or technique).
In this presentation, I found further support for the ideas of technology supporting creative learning beyond the reproduction of teaching techniques with technology for the sake of presenting lessons in the latest and slickest format. He emphasizes that just because you can (add transitions or clip art for example) doesn’t mean you should. Dean shows us that how the technology is used to present the students ideas is as important as the ideas themselves. Good design enhances significance. Design matters!

Filed by sepowell50 at 8:32 pm under Uncategorized
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