Best of the Web

Richard Byrne, the author of the Free Technology for Teachers blog, created this Google doc presentation for a conference. Skim through the slides to discover new resources.



What new sites or tools did you discover that you want to explore? Have you used any of the sites mentioned in the presentation? If you are not already following Byrne's blog in your Google Reader, you should consider doing so.

Not to Be Missed: What Makes VoiceThread Unique

VoiceThread has features that other online digital story sites are missing. It is a highly collaborate site that invites viewers to post text or audio comments alongside of images that the presenter has entered. In fact, the site can easily be used to enter images created by any and all students in a class or group. In that way, the site encourages collaborative authorship. However, the authorship extends further once the images are uploaded as any guest to a site with permission can edit the presentation and add text or auditory comments. Many have noted the best feature of VoiceThread is the ease of adding auditory comments, creating a soundtrack in effect.

What is a VoiceThread?  Check this introduction video.

Looking for samples of ways VoiceThread has been used in a variety of classrooms, K-12? This wiki, VoiceThread4Education is an excellent source. Samples are sorted by grade level.

VoiceThread is an excellent tool to promote the 4 C’s: Communication, Commenting, Creativity, and Collaboration. I am including a link to access from a wiki a Slide Show (use arrow keys to advance through the show) that outlines these four features and also includes  links to specific VoiceThreads that illustrate each concept.

Once you access the wiki, VoiceThread4Education, note the side links to access VoiceThreads by grade level and to meet other needs.

Here is a list and links to some of the model VoiceThreads you will find on the wiki. In addition, the links will take you to the teacher tips about the VoiceThread, and once there, you can scroll down the page, where you will find links to specific VoiceThreads. Once you open a VoiceThread, go through each screen, clicking on the audio and comment buttons, and then use the arrow key to continue to the next frame in the presentation. Be sure to have speakers on!

The listed VoiceThreads below are categorized by the feature they exemplify: commenting, collaboration, commenting, or creativity, though all VoiceThreads are likely to integrate all four features in some way. Check the wiki, VoiceThread4Education, often for additions, and if you create with your students a model VoiceThread, be sure to add it to the wiki.

Commenting

• My Fellow Americans - http://voicethread.com/share/300897/
• Many Voices of Darfur - http://voicethread.com/share/85497/

Communication

• 1st Grade talking about books - http://voicethread.com/about/library/1st_grade__Reading_Analysis_from_Leanne_Windsor/
• 8th Grade debate - http://voicethread.com/share/774475/
• 10th Grade Career report - http://voicethread.com/share/70584/

Creativity

• 2nd Grade - I Spy (photos) http://voicethread.com/about/library/2nd_graders_play_ISpy/
• Year 7 Water Cycle (artwork) http://voicethread.com/share/118753/
• 6th Grade Math (video) http://voicethread.com/about/library/6th_Grade_math_from_Jackie_Ionno/

Collaboration

• 4th & 5th Grade progressive stories http://writeyourstory.wikispaces.com/story++40
• 4th Grade Letters from the Internment Camps http://voicethread.com/about/library/4th_Grade__Letters_from_the_Internment_Camps/

Other Examples shared

• VoiceThread for Online Teaching and Learning http://voicethread.com/share/908650/
• 5 yr old collecting 100 comments for 100th day celebration http://voicethread.com/share/321990/
• 3rd Grade – Strategies to help with bullying http://voicethread.com/share/1814765/
• 5th grade Flip book animations - http://voicethread.com/share/253737/
• Professional Development: Reflecting on NETS for Teachers http://voicethread.com/share/330098/
• Booktalks from Ms. Skalkottas's Class - http://www.mchslibrary.org/booktalks-from-ms-ss-class.html

Thank you to Colette Cassinelli for sharing this excellent information at the June 2011 International Society for Technology Education (ISTE) Conference.

What's Your Lollipop Moment?

Check this TED Talk,"Leading with Lolliopops," by Drew Dudley.




What's your lollipop moment? How does this TED Talk talk to you? What does it mean to you? What does it say about being a leader? What about being a teacher?

Web Writing Tools for Fun and Exploration

In this Alive in Five video, "Web Writing for Fun," we learn of three web writing tools: Fodey, Figment, and MixBook. These tools vary in their functionality. Listen and watch the video, and if you check any of the sites, let us know what you think.

 

Alive in Five has numerous videos explaining how and why to use specific Web 2.0 tools. For instance, here are links to some:
Animoto
Wallwisher
PollEverywhere
Toodoo

Once you are on YouTube looking at any of the Alive in Five video, you'll find more videos in the series.  Breeze around, and let us know which of the videos you recommend.

Skyping with Alan November

Tracy Mercier tweeted out our Skype with Alan November. Later, she collected her tweets using Storify. I am embedding the Storify here to recap some of the points from the Skype. Feel free to comment.

Digital Stories Live On

Here are three more digital stories to get you thinking of ideas and how you might use digital storytelling in the classroom. All were created with PhotoStory 3.

The first was created by a 7-grade student for a social studies project. Each student in the class picked the name of an American Revolutionary War character from a hat. The student then needed to create a digital story about that person using PowerPoint, PhotoStory, or Movie Maker. The student selected PhotoStory.

The second video was created by an elementary school teacher to tell students about the life of Helen Keller based on a book they were reading about her.

The third video  was created to be used with middle school students to give them an eyewitness account of the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. After viewing the stories, feel free to leave comments.

Do these videos give you ideas of how to integrate digital storytelling into your teaching? If so, what new ideas do you have?.

Need Examples to Pump Your Juices for Your Digital Story

Here's some help. I am posting for your convenience some digital stories completed by former EDUC 584 students. Please leave comments, and let us know what you think of the videos and if any give you ideas for your own digital story.

Here is one on using podcasting in the classroom:



Here is another one based on poetry. Here is what the students said about it: "Our group put together a digital narrative of the poem "Nappy-Headed" by Latasha A. Willis. The musical accompaniment is the song "I Am Not My Hair" by India Arie."

These examples were saved in Google as .wmv files. Use the links to access them.

A Teacher's Story You will really like this. It is all about the struggles and joys of teaching.

Shapes focuses on teaching young children about shapes, a geometry lesson for elementary school students. It is interactive and engaging, and asks students to think about shapes that surround them in their everyday world.

Tigers is a photo story about tigers and their life habits, which works well for a science lesson in a study of animals for the elementary school classroom.

Life Cycle of the Painted Butterfly This one, like the one above, works well for a science lesson on animals for the elementary school classroom.

States of Matter is a common unit of study in 3rd and 4th grade classes. Check this video if you do a unit of study on three states of matter or are looking for examples of digital stories for the science area.

13 Colonies is a social studies lesson for the upper-elementary classroom for a unit of study on the early colonies.

A Special Place, can be used in almost any grade level. It shows photographs of places that are special to the storytelling. You can then ask students to write a script for a similar story. Starting this project with the photos will help students to write their scripts.

Holocaust Memories, is for higher-level social studies class; as expected, this one is a serious review of an important event in world history. The photo story would also work well  in a unit of study of Elie Wiesel's book, Night.

What ideas about using digital storytelling across the curriculum did you get from viewing these stories?

Stuck in a Boarding School, but Liberated by Online Edcuation

Stuck in a Boarding School is a powerful blog post written by a high school senior enrolled in an online Advanced Placement US Government History course.

Image from Stuck in Boarding School post

Read this powerful blog post, Stuck in a Boarding School, and the comments following it.  Once you get to the student's blog post, you will also learn that the post is on a communal blog for students enrolled in the Online Girls School AP US Government & Politics course. Each day another student in the class posts on the blog.

Feel free to read some of the posts to find out what students are learning in the history course and what their online learning has meant to them.

There's also an About link to learn more about the school, the course, and the blog.

Later in March, we will Skype with the teacher, Mike Gwaltney, who also teaches in a regular brick-and-mortar high school in Portland, Oregon.

Easy Tutorial to Follow to Help You Get Going with Twitter

This tutorial, created by Shannon Smith, a vice principal explains in clear, simple terms and with excellent visuals how to set up a Twitter account and the very basics of using the account. I highly recommend watching the video to get you going with Twitter. Even  if you are already using Twitter, but still looking for some basic tips, this tutorial will be of value. It is one the most basic and simple ones I have found. I hope it helps. Let me know by leaving a comment.

Master Card, Priceless: Create Your Own Commercial

Jewelry by Alex Koloskov.akelstudio.com/blog

You've seen the commercials: MasterCard Priceless. Why not create your own?Challenge your creativity! Tell your story!

I've gathered some examples from students at the University of Alberta who are required to complete a MasterCard Priceless digital story as a course assignment.

Writes one student, Melissa Comte:

For my ECMP 355 class we had to create a Mastercard Priceless video and I really enjoyed making mine. I used Windows MovieMaker and it was actually quite simple to put it all together. The other day I was going through pictures on my computer from my trip to Europe in the summer of 2010. As I was going through the album, I thought those pictures would make a grate priceless video. Even though we had to pay a chunk of money to go, the memories are truly priceless. It was a trip of a lifetime. Check out my video. Hope you enjoy!


The volume on Melissa's is low, but you should be able to get the idea from the images in the video of her time abroad.


 http://youtu.be/JaGLn1lse8k


Here are a couple others to get your juices going. The volume in these should be fine.

In this one, the student tells a personal story of meeting a family member.




Here's one that took another approach, using Harry Potter to create a spoof:




Here's one final one, which you'll appreciate if you have young children, and even if you don't, you'll find the video straightforward, cute, and entertaining.





Have these students' videos given your ideas for creating your own digital story? What did you think of this class project of creating MasterCard Priceless videos?

Variety of Digital Storytelling Tools

Image: Flickr, laurensimon1

What digital storytelling tools have you used? Look through the list below, as well as think of others.

Below is list from Melissa Comte, an undergraduate education student at The University of Regina in Alberta, Canada.  I've been following her blog, and caught her Tech Task # 6  post with this list.

Melissa selected Google Search Story to try because "it is easy" and creates "a story in an interesting way." She also likes Dippity and Five Card Flickr.

Here's her Google Search Story about her dream to go to Spain and teach English classes there.



Here is a list of the digital story tools that professor, Alec Couros, offered the class:

• Google Search Stories--easy to create stories based on Google searches
• Flcky--generates random 5-photo stories
• VoiceThread--group conversation tool
• TooDoo--easy carton creator
• Pixton--another popular cartoon creator
• Glogster--for creating online multimedia posters
• Wayfaring--for creating personalizes maps
• Flickr--various ideas include 5 frame stories, 6 word stories, pictures with stories
• Blabberize--a strange storytelling tool
• Animoto--alternative to slide shows (sign up for the fuller-functioned Ed. account)
• extraNormal--"if you can type, you can make movies"
• Prezi--another slide show site, known for its zoom feature
• Zooburst--digital pop-out books
• Ahead--impressive zooming presentations
• Dipidity--creative interactive timelines
• Sketchcast--draw and record audio instantly
• Fotobabble--creating talking photos
• Jog the Web--create web tours
• Bitstrips--comic maker
• GoAnimate--make easy cartoons and animations
• Storybird--create short, art-inspired stories
• MapSkip--create stories around places

For more information specifically about how Google Search Story Creator can be implemented in the classroom setting, check this blog post: Tool Review: Google Search Story Creator.

Which of the tools listed above have you used? Would you recommend this tool to others? How can the tool be used to promote literacy?

Skype to Connect Students Across Class!

Click on the bit.ly URL to access the sites! Let us know if you find a project of interest. How would you use Skype in your teaching?