Move Over Twitter: Periscope Chats Have Arrived

Several innovative educators, Angie Olson and  Ashley Schroeder, have taken the idea of Twitter chats and transformed them into Periscope chats. The benefit of this method is that you see and hear the moderator while texting comments.  Luckily, the moderators use Katch.me, a site for archiving Periscope video streams and comments.

Click on image for a recap of one of the recent Periscope chats, which attracted 127 live viewers and 1675 chat comments.

Check Angie's blog post, "Periscope Chat and TPT Cha"t to learn more about the concept, by clicking on image below.

What is your take on the idea of Periscope live streamed chats with video and the ability to text comments?  How can this social media platform elevate the way educators share ideas for professional development and forging a Personal Learning Network (PLN)?

This post is cross posted on my other blog Integrating Technology and Literacy.

Blabbing About Periscope: Community Building and More

Four of us tried out the new website Blab this week. Blab is a website that enables four people to video conference. In addition, there is a chat window, and anyone can join and watch and text in comments. Plus, others can join the Blab video segment when one of the four people gives up a spot.

Best of all, once the Blab is completed, the person who initiated the Blab can download the Blab. The download provides access to the video part of the Blab, but the comments texted in during the broadcast are not included. The download can be embedded into a website or blog as I have done below. While the Blab is live, anyone on the Blab, including those watching it, can tweet a a link to invite others in to watch and comment.

The topics we blabbed were livestreaming, social media, and specifically the use of Periscope in schools.





Do you think Blab offers features beyond those of Google Hangouts or Skype? Explore some of the Blabs on the site. This is a relatively new tool, so expect updates and changes in the near future.

To get to Blab and to learn about it, go to Blab.im

Thanks for checking this post.

I will cross post this in my other blog. Thanks for checking out our Blab and for expressing an interest in this tool as well as Periscope. If you have questions, leave a reply. Thanks.

How Well Are We Preparing Students For the World in Which They Will Live?

Over the last month or so, these images have been floating around on Twitter and other social media, and at this point, the original source for all is not known.

Thought I would share them with you, as each asks us to re-examine our teaching and how we prepare students today for what lies ahead for them.

http://www.edudemic.com/new-skills-world-looking/

Which of these images speak to you and how?

7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment

In case you have not caught this video of a 7th grader explaining her personal learning environment (PLE), I am posting it now to open up discussion about how students can and will learn using digital tools. Incidentally, this videos was posted to YouTube in 2009.


 

Required Reading

In class this week, in one section of Integrating and Technology, we discussed whether the 4th grader of today will be writing the standard research paper when she enters college in the next decade. This article from The New York Times, "Education Needs a Digital Upgrade," suggests we are teaching students for a world that we don't yet know exists. We can't predict the jobs our young children will have in the future. We don't even know what these jobs will be.

To quote from the article, "According to Cathy N. Davidson, co-director of the annual MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Competitions, fully 65 percent of today's grade-school kids may end up doing work that hasn't been invented yet." In her book, Now You See It, Davidson urges teachers to stop teaching according to the Industrial Age model.  

The contemporary American classroom, with its grades and deference to the clock, is an inheritance from the late 19^th century.

She claims that the standard research paper assignment, popular in college classrooms, not only yields awful results, but is not even representative of the students' talents.

Check the article, "Education Needs a Digital Upgrade." In addition to what the title suggests, Davidson advocates for a whole new approach to education, not just in terms of technology tools. Do you agree with the statements Davidson makes? If so, with which assertions? In what directions do you believe education should be heading?

The Way We Think

Thomas Friedman, author of The World is Flat, and Al Gore, author of numerous books and a former Vice President, both offer commentaries on how the technology revolution is changing the way we think, operate, and educate. Take some time to read these recent pieces by both that appeared in the popular press, and leave a reply.

Thomas Friedman, editorial, New York Times,

OP-ED COLUMNIST

It’s P.Q. and C.Q. as Much as I.Q.

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Published: January 29, 2013 340 Comments

Al Gore, article in Atlantic:

Al Gore on How the Internet is Changing the Way We Think

Megan's Popplet

Megan designed this Popplet that shows how the tool works as a graphic organizer. Thought I would share her Popplet here to make others aware of the site and its capabilities. Looks like a good site to use in class also with a group of students to brainstorm and cluster ideas, or in other stages of the learning process, even for reviewing concepts covered in a unit of study or relating a piece of literature to one's life. In what ways can you see Popplet or other graphic organizers used in the classroom or by students outside the classroom? Have you used any graphic organizers? If so, which ones?