GourdGracious, what a learning curve this one was!! I sailed through the downloads, made the video with numerous trials to capture the fabulousness that surely exists in my voice somewhere, and then tried to upload the video only to find it would not. Although saved in Jing History, my gem of wisdom kept being thwarted partway through the uploading process. By downloading a Windows Uploading tool, the video WAS uploaded by grabbing it from the Videos folder on my computer. Then, low and behold after all those contortions, I had 5 videos saved to a folder in ScreenCast.com. There's nothing like abundance!
It's like growing gourds actually...the plant goes along, and it seems nothing is happening even though the foliage would indicate gobs of growth is present. Then one day, you look under a leaf and YiKes!! gourds exists, bigger than life and abundant as all get-out!! Makes a person believe in magic.
Back to the ScreenCast tutorial: As you know by now, I teach a research class for 7th and 8th grade gifted thinkers. When they are ready to write their paper, one of the tasks is demonstrating how to insert the running head and page numbers. Because everyone moves at an individual pace, this can get repetitive. Here's the fix for that -- not fancy, just functional.
A ScreenCast alleviates the need for walking through the process with each student individually thus allowing for planning and teaching diverse learners. Right now, I am using an educational Facebook hybrid called Edmodo. Edmodo is faster than Edline and works like a secure Facebook between teachers and students. (The students need a password-code to get into the class space.) This tutorial, and many like it covering other details of research will be used to offer guidance on an as-needed basis.
Friday, September 14, 2012
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
....but on to Jing Graphic
When I first took a look at Jing I got confused: Jing, Snagit, Screencast, TechWorld...which was what, where's the heirarchy? I thought I was going to use a new tool and got several things to review that took a while to figure out what was what. I used a page from a recent gourd chapter newsletter to try the Jing capturing capacity, then the Snagit comment box, text, arrow, and color capabilities before realizing I needed to download another tool, the ScreenCast component (then promptly forgot the password and had a midnight trial to get back in). As you can see in this image, the balloons call out the main points if leveling a gourd. This is much improved over the Snipping Tool ragged arrow tool, not only making the lectures and presentations to Master Gardener groups appear much simpler but more professional.Check it out here.My rational brain recognizes this collection of tools as a powerful way to teach different levels of student abilities at the same time. Since I work with 6-, 7-, and 8th grade gifted thinkers doing self-paced individual projects, having prepared information pointing out and commenting on details without having to physically hover is freeing....for me and for the student. I can prepare an explanation and have it ready for viewing while I'm doing one-on-one with another student. In fact, a series of these could be lined up to correspond to many pieces of information that I have to repeat ad nausea (gifted thinkers will tune out information they believe they already know only to find out later they didn't). Demonstrating information with pointing arrows and boxes of text puts the knowledge in context.
Of course, it is the wild-eyed crazy brain that screeches HolY smOKes!!, there's too much! Even though I am more competent now than when I started reviewing for this lesson, I am more than certain there is a long learning curve ahead of me. Yet, in spite of that, these skills tap into the Virginia Technology Standard G: ...plan and implement lessons that integrate technology to meet diverse learning needs. Meeting diverse needs is teaching a class of students moving at individual speeds. Hopefully the school system will catch up with equipment to allow add ons to our browsers. At school we use Internet Explorer, and perhaps Chrome (one some of the laptops). Add ons are blocked. At home I have a better shot at doing our assignments since I will add on tools to supplement Chrome or Explorer.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Double Back to Snipping
 |
| A winter wonder from Beardo.com. Perfect for harvesting gourds on windy, cold days! |
When working with teachers, it will be easy to snip and email an image directly when collaborating on projects together. I am a transient Gifted Resource Teacher and often I collaborate with teachers from different building for differentiation. Because our school system's technology doesn't allow for the use of Google Docs, Diigo, etc...the sharing of information is not always immediate and often done through email. At least with the snipping tool that exists on most of the equipment I can access at school, I can get an image to someone fast, with arrows and captions as needed. Even if I prepare something at home, it's no guarantee they'll be able to receive it at school. I can see now, taking this course, how far behind the school system has become. At least there is some collaboration (ISTE NET S standard #5-Professional Growth and Leadership). Snipping may not be flashy compared to social bookmarking, but it's better than sending whole attachments!
The Cloud and Ethics
In all our efforts to access different products and sharing and collaborating, it has grown on me that there must be ethical situations involving intellectual property rights. Teachers I work with consistently use online graphics and text in their lessons. At what point does sharing become theft? Yes, there are Fair Use Laws and use of someone else's property is permissible for educational purposes but with limits. An fine example of 'use of' without legalities is A Fair(y) Use Tale by Eric Faden. With so much freedom of highlighting, sharing, snipping, capturing, and collaborating, have there been studies correlating the rise of Cloud users with plagiarism? If everything is so accessible and available, the temptation or ignorance of the fact that information belongs to someone might be an issue.
Just my 2 cents ....
 |
| Two Chinese coins together in a gourd shape. |
Monday, September 10, 2012
Diigo for Gourdheads
Diigo is a unique online, cloud, tool for personal research, collaborative efforts, and social networking. The research component allows a person to search and annotate information pertaining to topics of personal interests. Because Diigo enables sharing of bookmarked sources of information, groups can work together on a project by sharing findings and notes that can be seen by all. Taking this activity further into social networking, a person's bookmarked and annotated library of interests can be sharing with the Diigo community at large to locate like-minded folk of the same curious ilk. It can also be used in a classroom setting for students researching personal interests within a larger topic.
As a social networking tool (2.0), Diigo goes beyond previous concoctions of online social skills by combining the online force of connecting with others with connecting the background information that fuels others' interests. It is a scholarly way to meet & greet others, encourage reading, and provide avenues for displaying critical thinking. It is an advantage to have strength in numbers--the more the merrier! With many people converging on a similar interest, more information from as many varied sources can be located and shared. The diversity of viewpoints that generate such varied sources lead to broader understandings and thinking. Sometimes all that's needed is a different point of view to open new interests and further action, you know?
It's like a patch of gourds growing in a field: one plant can use the nutrients available for growth. A moth visits in the evening, pollinates, and hopefully the plant produces 8 to 10 worthwhile, useful gourds that continue on to some purposeful end product once dehydrated and crafted. BUT, grow lots of gourd plants in the same patch, sharing nutrients and flowering widely together, and the many white flowers in the dimming evening light attract lots of moths and YeeHa! a boatload of pollination happens producing more fruit than would have happened otherwise! It's a gourd day!
In the classroom, this same wide sweep of pollination of ideas can happen as students join together and get more out of a lesson of learning that they would have individually. Working with a central topic, students research their personal interests surrounding that topic. Since no one person could ever cover all aspects of an idea, social bookmarking allows students to see different aspects of a project by reading others' notes and highlights. Discussing differences and similarities crystallizes the lesson and makes learning personal.
All the ISTE NETS T standards loop around for student benefit but #1: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning is the standard social bookmarking targets. Getting the students engaged and collaborating is the core issue. By learning in ways that reflect daily life, students incorporate personal connections with personal learning. They are encouraged to see many points of view, reflect upon different sources of information, and collaborate using digital tools. Of course, this presupposes the students have access to this kind of technology. Until my own school system invests in the equipment to support such student engagement, Diigo would have to be left to the realm of a teacher collaborative tool (thus enacting #5 standard: Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership...specifically to improve professional practices by participating in learning communities).
Browsers. It is my understanding a browser is the searching mechanism that allows online access to websites, blogs, images....information. Add ons are specific tools that are tacked on to a browser to do targeted duties, much like a pollination cap on a gourd plant. The plant accesses and carries the nutrients, water, and ground minerals to the fruit but the pollination cap is the add on that has the targeted job of capturing pollen from one flower to another. Right now I use Google Chrome as a browser with the Diigo add on when I'm at home. My machine can accept newer technology, although I seem to be far behind the needs of this class at times. At school I am woefully behind the times. Recently we even lost Microsoft Word and now use OpenOffice. One of the schools has loaded Chrome onto a machine for me, but add ons are blocked. But, add ons at home seem to work o.k. once the learning curve evens out....even then I am, at times, unclear about where or how things happens since there tends to be a fair about of bouncing going on where images or pages move without reason or warning.
As a social networking tool (2.0), Diigo goes beyond previous concoctions of online social skills by combining the online force of connecting with others with connecting the background information that fuels others' interests. It is a scholarly way to meet & greet others, encourage reading, and provide avenues for displaying critical thinking. It is an advantage to have strength in numbers--the more the merrier! With many people converging on a similar interest, more information from as many varied sources can be located and shared. The diversity of viewpoints that generate such varied sources lead to broader understandings and thinking. Sometimes all that's needed is a different point of view to open new interests and further action, you know?
 |
| Gourd blossoms at night. |
In the classroom, this same wide sweep of pollination of ideas can happen as students join together and get more out of a lesson of learning that they would have individually. Working with a central topic, students research their personal interests surrounding that topic. Since no one person could ever cover all aspects of an idea, social bookmarking allows students to see different aspects of a project by reading others' notes and highlights. Discussing differences and similarities crystallizes the lesson and makes learning personal.
All the ISTE NETS T standards loop around for student benefit but #1: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning is the standard social bookmarking targets. Getting the students engaged and collaborating is the core issue. By learning in ways that reflect daily life, students incorporate personal connections with personal learning. They are encouraged to see many points of view, reflect upon different sources of information, and collaborate using digital tools. Of course, this presupposes the students have access to this kind of technology. Until my own school system invests in the equipment to support such student engagement, Diigo would have to be left to the realm of a teacher collaborative tool (thus enacting #5 standard: Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership...specifically to improve professional practices by participating in learning communities).
Browsers. It is my understanding a browser is the searching mechanism that allows online access to websites, blogs, images....information. Add ons are specific tools that are tacked on to a browser to do targeted duties, much like a pollination cap on a gourd plant. The plant accesses and carries the nutrients, water, and ground minerals to the fruit but the pollination cap is the add on that has the targeted job of capturing pollen from one flower to another. Right now I use Google Chrome as a browser with the Diigo add on when I'm at home. My machine can accept newer technology, although I seem to be far behind the needs of this class at times. At school I am woefully behind the times. Recently we even lost Microsoft Word and now use OpenOffice. One of the schools has loaded Chrome onto a machine for me, but add ons are blocked. But, add ons at home seem to work o.k. once the learning curve evens out....even then I am, at times, unclear about where or how things happens since there tends to be a fair about of bouncing going on where images or pages move without reason or warning.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)