Thank you for attending the Blogger and Google Sites workshops at the Google Apps for Education Tokyo Summit. Please keep in touch. Our brainstorming session ideas are in the mind map below. (powered by Bubbl.us) Click to enlarge the image. I'm still updating my Google Sites (from the Tokyo Apps Summit) web site with new challenges. I hope it's of some use to people.
These are links to my workshops on Google Sites and Google Blogger for the Google Apps for Education - Tokyo Summit, February 9th - 10th. (these following workshops are on Sunday, february 10th)
*The extended version of this, which includes reflections, comments, and summaries from Jason Ohler's book (below), is in the PAGES section of this blog, linked to the right.
In November 2012 I attended a professional development workshop on Digital Storytelling, conducted by Jason Ohler. These are some reflections on that workshop, as well as revisions/ additions made as I read through his book Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning and Creativity. For those interested have a read for more detailed study. I'll start with copyright, one of the burning issues.
FROM THE WORKSHOP
A key idea in this workshop that I appreciated was the emphasis on the story and the process, not the technology. I’ve seen in the past how students often get hung up on the technology rather than concentrating on the content and the task itself. This of course may be due to poor planning on the part of the teacher (yours truly) and not scaffolding the process well enough. Key idea: the technology supports or highlights everything else and shouldn’t necessarily be the focal point. This whole idea help limit the habit of students being given high grades because the technology looks good, regardless of the quality of the content. Story telling can be anything. It can be a description of how to conduct a science experiment, a photo documentary, a local news event, or a fictional story about the monsters under your bed. Think of anything that can be told!
OHLER’S DAOW of LITERACY & APPROACH
So how can we approach storytelling? DAOW: Digital, Art, Oral and Written Literacies
Concentrate on the narrative, not the media.
Incidental music – make the audience feel what you want – relative to the theme, topic
30 seconds plus a soundtrack forcing the atmosphere
Remind students to be aware of visual noise; the background that is distracting or irrelevant
Be careful of images used – even on blankets, green screen background images
Story vs Lists – tell a story, rather than listing “facts”, and you get greater student retention
Flow of the story is important: Beginning, Conflict-Transformation, End (table below can be a god start
ing point)
COPYRIGHT
Essentially, anything you produce and put online or in public is automatically copyrighted. You can pay for formal copyright, but it’s slow and can be expensive. (before I put my own original music in the public sphere I email it to myself and make a CD, and mail that to myself for the date and official “stamp”) See Chapter 15 of Jason Ohler’s book.
The United States’ TEACH Act:
For music, video, and animated you can use up to 30 seconds or 10%, whichever is shortest
For words, you can use up to 1,000 words, or 10%, whichever is shortest
For illustrations, photos, graphics you can use up to 5 images from one artist; you can use 15 works from a collection, or 10%, whichever is smaller
In terms of using copyrighted material for education:
Cite the source and creator(s) of the material used
Seek permission but be prepared to be turned down
Pay for it, if you’re willing
I think Ohler makes a very important point in his book: create your own material. GarageBand makes it easy and free (for Mac users), at least. Create your own images and scan them. Ohler suggests also using friends’ materials, as it’s easy to get permission. Use free-use web sites. Use pay-for-use web sites. Use Creative Commons. He does note, using the “rules of respect” noted above if you use other material.
Assess the story without being overwhelmed or overly impressed with the media
Assess everything the student uses in order to achieve the final result, for instance, the story map, the audio narration, the video, etc, (the build-up, not just the final piece of work)
Assess the student’s planning process
Assess the student’s understanding of what Ohler calls “media grammar” – a simple example being an audio narration that doesn’t have inappropriate background noise
Assess the student’s understanding of the content presented
Assess the use of resources
Assess the performance of the student (ie) the ability to act, how well rehearsed a part is, etc
Have students self-assess
SOME SUGGESTIONS(will be updated)
The following are not necessarily only for digital storytelling. TOOLS
IDEAS FOR A SOCIAL
STUDIES CONTEXT(will be updated)
Social Studies is my field of expertise, so I thought I'd add to the post. These ideas can be used jointly (ie) record the audio and
layer it with images.
*Be sure all images, outsourced audio, and documents quoted are sourced AND historically accurate.
*Be certain that whole photos are used, and not altered.
Image-Only
Myths
Journal reading from the "author" with supporting images
Historical Documentaries
A biography of an historical figure
Narrative of an opinion on an historical document (or anything else)
Narrative assessing images in history and describing them and why they were painted, photographed, etc.
Letter writing. Students can pretend to be a person in the photograph, outside the range of the photo, or the photographer him or herself. They can write a letter to a friend, a wife, a commanding officer, or even make a diary entry about the event. Source
Have students create a diagram, such as a table or mind map, and have them explain it through an audio narrative
Describe changes to a region in geography (ie) the division of the "Middle East", with several maps to go along with a narrative
Make a children's story based in history
Draw, scan and produce a storyboard for a period in history
Video
Reenact a scene in history (write an original dialogue; write a dialogue based on modern language and social mores)
film a puppet show (even a simple drawing on a stick puppet, sock puppet, or paper bag); draw a backdrop to scan and use with a green screen
A newscast based on an event in history
A political speech by someone in history
Reading an original poem written about something in history (and use a green screen with an original image or historical image as the backdrop)
Have students create a diagram, such as a table or mind map, and have them explain it with the diagram as the backdrop
Interview a community resident about local history
Film a rant about an historical figure as if they were a roommate
Podcasting Have a look for some ideas on teaching podcasting here or here. Here is a good podcasting pdf file that goes beyond this discussion.
A radio news broadcast of an event that happened yesterday
A radio interview with a person in history
An audio
journal giving an opinion or theory
A political speech by someone in history
A (telephone) conversation between two historical figures
A narrative describing a dinner party in history
A biography of an historical figure
Describe how a device in history looks and works (success can be judged by students ability to figure out what it is)
A radio advertisement for a product of the past
Write an historical rap or song
Write an editorial or an editorial letter outlining concerns of the "consequences" of a present situation (in history)
Keynote/ PowerPoint Presentations (developed by students)
I read an article on the WSJ about the Global Online Academy, which my school has
now become a member of. The article doesn’t debunk a trend in which researchers claim that elite private schools are resisting online learning (meaning the delivery
of online courses), but it does make a valid point that online coursework amoung
private schools is growing and GOA is an example.
GOA is non-profit, though there is a fee to take courses.
The fees pay for basic administration, and for teachers to develop and deliver
curriculum.
A little about GOA.
Students can work at their own pace, but there are deadlines
that must be met. The structure is collaborative in nature, with students
interacting with the teacher and each other. One teacher notes that there is
still “human interaction” but that it is mediated differently. For myself, I
enjoy online coursework, but I do prefer being in a room with people discussing
ideas, problems and solutions. I think the online programs that require
students to do on site training (such as during summers) the best of both worlds
is met. In the case of teaching this is possible due to longer breaks.
What I like about the online world is meeting people living
in all parts of the world. This point is made as a benefit of the program,
along with other “pros”, such as an expanded choice of courses and the fact
that classes are limited to 18 students. (so there can be meaningful
interaction, if all participants engage each other and build a relationship) Drawbacks
can be a lack of intimacy and spontaneity. (you’ll never have the situation in
which you’re in class and jazzed about the topic and choose to carry over in
the pub) I think the most important point, which can be said for any learning
environment, is that it doesn’t work for everyone. Some kids need the four-wall
structure and a teacher in the room. Online learning also benefits kids who are
sick in the hospital, home as a teenage parent, or one who needs an extra
course to finish school on time or early.
The article poses the question: Can it be avoided? I
personally doubt it. I’m not convinced that online learning is going to replace
traditional schools any time soon. There have been arguments that kids will
learn at home, and schools will be places for community building activities and
socialization, like fine arts and sporting activities. It’s possible, but not
soon.
The article also points out the opportunities to break down
cultural barriers. Yes, this is possible, but with any other form of media, it
can be used for cultural conflict as well. People have access to publicize delinquent,
and deliberately antagonizing material.
But all of that can be said for any kind of online learning
platform. I like the potential benefits that GOA provides for students and
teachers. For example, teachers who have to (or choose to) stay at home can
earn money through online teaching. Students can pick up extra coursework, and
possibly courses that are more attractive to their interests.
Perhaps I'm growing older, but didn't we have distance learning by paper just a decade and a half ago?
An autodidact is a self-taught person. Something I love
about this whole story (or experiment, rather) is that it demonstrates how
intelligent kids really are. Being a teacher who has taught second language
learners I have first hand experience with young people who have difficulty
expressing themselves or demonstrating knowledge in a second language, but are
otherwise highly intelligent people.
Sugata Mitra is an education scientist from India. His TED
talk, “New Experiments in Self-Teaching” is something all educators should
study. Mitra suggests that good teachers don’t want to go in the places
they are most needed (ie) impoverished communities/ countries. I have to agree
with this, as a generalization. There are those teachers who love to travel and
teach, but the best ones often aim for the elite schools.
The First Experiment
Mitra embedded computer touch screens into the walls of
public spaces (slums, in particular) in several countries worldwide and waited
for the results. (public "hole in the wall" computers) The conclusion
was that children are not only keen to explore, but they also have the ability
to teach themselves to use computers without guidance: when are interested,
they learn. (he jokes about how an extended version of the experiment, using
speech to text software, led to children having changed their accents to be
understood by the program) Another interesting observation Mitra had was that
over several months children retained more information when they worked at a
computer, but collaboratively. One computer for four students is one of Mitra’s
criteria – forcing collaboration. He concluded in his experiments that one
computer for one child hinders learning. (being at a one-to-one school, I can
see this, though it’s a generalization and very much context-based)
Furthering the experiment, Mitra went into classrooms, with
4 students to 1 computer, and would ask them a tough question for them to
figure out. Eventually they do. One question I have, though, is what quality
the collaboration is. It’s human nature to have a leader and follower, even in
situations of good collaboration, and some know more than others. To be fair, I
haven’t looked at data from the experiments, but how does Mitra learn about the
nature of the collaboration? Was it one student that had the tech skills and /
or mind to figure out the answers? When a group solves a problem we have to
question how they solved it and what contribution each student made.
Self-Organized
Learning Environments
Mitra also discusses SOLE - self organized learning
environments. His experiments are the foundation of this idea that we can
organize our learning independently. (though I’ve not read Mitra suggest this
is the best form of learning, but merely one facet of how we learn) “To go
further, Dr. Mitra supplements SOLE with e-mediators, or the "granny
cloud" as he calls it: amateur volunteers who use Skype to help kids learn
online. (source)” A recent Google Power Searching course I recently took
reminds me a little of the skills needed to search effectively for answers. The
skills learned are not advanced in the sense that it takes a while to learn,
but the search strategies are not always intuitive.
Coursera is a fee online education platform, founded by Stanford University professors
Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng. These courses can be taken online and are provided
in cooperation with 33 high level universities. (at the time of this
publishing)
In the talk Professor Koller discusses the nature of
education, technology implications, and disparity. Koller notes that many jobs
need a high level of education, although many graduates with higher-level
degrees can’t find work. One point that made me laugh (and think) was with
regard to a professor who reaches 100,000 students with Coursera online, and
that to reach as many people in a traditional environment it would take him 240
years to reach the same number of students. I appreciated the acknowledgement
that it’s not only the poor who need greater access to (higher) education, but
also those who are “house-bound” due to a variety of circumstances.
While watching the video, most of my concerns early on were
addressed, adequately. Koller points out individuals who had courses (credits)
recognized by universities, and one family in which the father/ husband landed
a job based (partly?) on the Coursera work he did at hoe while his daughter was
sick and housebound. She also notes how grading is done. I’m not 100% convinced
that identifying the major “common” mistakes learners have and subsequently
giving general feedback to all is the best method. (though better than no
feedback or less-than-adequate explanations) I recently took a Google Power
Searching course online. For the kind of course it was the feedback was
appropriate, but for a full-on university course I would expect more. (even if
it’s free)
The courses are properly segmented, so they are broken down
into units just as traditional study would be. Another great point is that some
cities that have several people in the same course have spawned study groups.
People in some courses have actually connected at restaurants for sessions in
which they support each other’s learning.
The issue of who has access to electricity, let alone a
computer and internet access, wasn’t adequately addressed. Perhaps that wasn’t
the point. It also brings up the discussion of how we break the education
disparity gap. Is it that we need to bring this online education to (what one of
my students referred to as) “education stations”, accessible to everyone.
Perhaps these community learning stations could be staffed by an educator/ tech
specialist(s) to assist with independent learning and technological/ logistical
issues that inevitably pop up.
I’m still in the “balance” camp. I appreciate online study
and have done it with the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), Deakin
University, the IBO and even Google. But even with chat rooms, discussion
boards, Skype and Google Hangouts, I prefer being in the room with a cup of
coffee and people to bounce ideas with.
My Global Issues Network students found and chose this video
as a discussion piece. In that chat they compared it with Khan Academy.
KA is a site with (on average) 10-minute videos about anything you may want to
learn or need to brush up on. Some topics include interactive materials and
assessments. It’s free.
