Now this is cool: Thanks Kevin.

A PhotoFriday Tag Galaxy from Kevin’s Meandering Mind by dogtrax I have no idea what practical use this application might have, but TagGalaxy allows you to use tags from Flickr to create an entire world of photos. I used the photos from our collective PhotoFridays project (launched by Bonnie to great success) and, although there are not quite enough photos there yet to cover the entire TagCloud world, it was still pretty neat. I used screenshots to capture the PhotoFridays TagCloud because I can’t find the way you might embed the actual world into a blog. But you can do it yourself. Just go to TagGalaxy, write in the tag “photofridays” into the prompt and give the world a spin. I think it will be cool to come back and do it again later this summer, when the pool of pictures gets larger.

Make Belief Comics

By Troy Hicks on News and Notes

Recently, I was alerted to a new comic-making tool: Make Belief Comix. Here is a sample of what you can do:

And here is a more thorough explanation from the creator of the site, Bill Zimmerman, who emailed me the following:

Dear reader,

I want to share with you news of my newest educational project and also
ask for your help to make it succeed.

I have launched a new web site — http:// www.makebeliefscomix.com –
where children and adults can create their own comic strips.  They can
select from 15 fun characters with different moods  – happy, sad,
angry, worried – and write words for  blank talk and thought balloons
to make their characters talk and think.  There also are story ideas
and prompts to help users create graphic stories.

This site can be used by educators to teach language, reading and
writing skills, and also for students in English-as-a-Second-Language
programs to facilitate self-expression and storytelling, as well as
computer literacy. Some educational therapists use it with deaf and
autistic people to help them understand concepts and communicate.
Parents and children can create stories together, print them to create
comic books or email them to friends and family.  Others will find the
site a resource to be creative, calm down and have fun.

Because so many Spanish-speaking users asked us for the ability to
write their cartoons in Spanish as well as in English, we recently
upgraded the site to accept words written in Spanish, including
appropriate accent marks. This can be a useful tool for someone who is
learning Spanish as well as someone whose first language is Spanish.
In time, this feature will be extended to other languages.

I am hoping that you will share http://www.makebeliefscomix.com  with
your colleagues, teachers, students or readers of your publications and
resource lists.  The site is free with no advertising.  Any help you
might offer in getting word out about this project is very appreciated.
If you can suggest other people or groups whom I might contact to make
them aware of the site please send me their names, email addresses or
phone numbers.   Relevant Internet resource sharing groups would be
helpful, too.  It takes a community to build a useful resource like
this one.

As one who learned to read with comic books, I know that creating comic
strips can help people tap into their creativity and practice their
language and storytelling skills.  The site is free and stems from my
lifelong mission to create resources that help people find their voice
and express themselves. The concept for makebeliefscomix.com is derived
from my earlier books, Make Beliefs and Make Beliefs for Kids of All
Ages (which can be found on my other web site:
http://www.billztreasurechest.com).  A Make Beliefs interactive feature
appeared for 13 years on my syndicated Student Briefing Page for
Newsday, and in National Geographic’s World Magazine.

I hope you like http://www.makebeliefscomix.com and will use it in your
work and personal life.  Your feedback is welcome and very helpful.

With thanks and every good wish,

Bill Zimmerman
(wmz@aol.com)

Along with ToonDoo, which I was introduced to last semester, I am thinking about how I might use Make Belief Comix in my ENG 315 class this semester, so this was a timely email from Bill. Please contact him with questions.

Way to Go, Edublogs!

Posted by: dogtrax in Homepage, Other

James Farmer sent out an email this morning, proudly announcing that the Edublogs network now has 100,000 edublogs. That is an incredible number, I think, and I hope that more and more teachers are finding their way to free Edublogs and its network (did mention it is free?).

I also noticed a link there, explaining 10 ways to use Edublogs in the classroom:

1. Post materials and resources

The web is a fantastic tool when it comes to distributing resources – all you have to do on your edublog is upload, or copy and paste, your materials to your blog and they’ll be instantly accessible by your student from school and from home. What’s more, you can easily manage who gets to access them through password and plugin safety measures.

2. Host online discussions

If you’ve ever struggled to create an online discussion space – you’re going to love what edublogs will do for you. Students can simply respond to blog posts and discuss topics you’ve set them without the added complexity of using a bulletin board – commentators can sign up to receive emails when their comments are replied to and you can easily manage and edit all responses through your blog’s administrative panel.

3. Create a class publication

Do you remember the good old days of class newspapers? Well, they just got a lot easier with your edublog – you can add students as contributors, authors and even editors in order to produce a custom designed, finely tuned and engaging collaborative online publication by your class.

4. Replace your newsletter

Always enjoyed photocopying and stapling pages and pages of newsletters on a Friday afternoon? Though not! It’s ridiculously simple to post class information, news, events and more on your edublog

5. Get your students blogging

It’s all very good sending your students off to blog sites, or even creating them for them, but you need to operate as a hub for their work and a place where they can easily visit each others blogs from. Your edublog can be used to glue together your students blogs, and besides which, if you’re asking your students to blog… you should certainly be doing it yourself.

6. Share your lesson plans

We all love planning and admin, right? Well, using an edublog can turn planning and reflection on classes into a genuinely productive – and even collaborative – experience. Sharing your plans, your reflections, your ideas and your fears with other educators both at your school and around the world using an edublog is a great way to develop as a teacher, and a brilliant use of a blog.

7. Integrate multimedia of all descriptions

With a couple of clicks you can embed online video, multimedia presentations, slideshows and more into your edublog and mix it up with your text and static resources. No cds required, no coding necessary – just select the video, podcasts or slidecast you’d like to use and whack it in your blog to illustrate, engage and improve your teaching toolbox.

8. Organise, organise, organise

You don’t only have to use your edublog as a pedagogue… you can equally easily use the tools to organise everything from sports teams in your school, to rehearsals for the upcoming production. You can set up as many edublogs as you like, so don’t be afraid to use a dedicated one for a dedicated event – your can even use it as a record to look back on down the line.

9. Get feedback

There’s nothing that says you can’t allow anonymous commenting on a blog (although you’re also entirely within your rights to put all comments through moderation!) but why not think about using a blog as a place for students – and even parents, to air issues, leave feedback or generally tell you how great you are.

10. Create a fully functional website

One of the great things about edublogs are that they are much, much more than just blogging tools. In fact, you can use your edublog to create a multi-layered, in-depth, multimedia rich website – that hardly looks like a blog at all. So, if you’d rather create a set of static content, archive of important information or even index for your library – you can bend an edublog to suit your needs.

Peace (with edublogs),
Kevin

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30 09 2007

Toying (again) with J

Instructionally Investing in VoiceThread

I’m always trying to share powerful online tools with my hesitant teacher friends.  I want feel comfortable with them myself and I need the inspiration of those who have been here working with them before me.  Techies like Kevin and Wesley continue to move me on.  Here are some of Wesley’s favorites and I am proud to say that I have been working with a few he has listed below. His focus for this post is one that I want to work with more and hope I can follow his lead with Voicethread

1. del.icio.us social bookmarks
2. Flickr
3. PBwiki
4. Google Notebook
5. WordPress

Voicethread Pros:

1. Digital storytelling is a pedagogically sound activity for learners at all levels in all content areas.
2. VoiceThread is simple, focusing on still digital images and recorded audio narration.
3. VoiceThread stories are immediately web-accessible via a link or HTML code which can be embedded on another webpage.
4. VoiceThread permits MODERATED feedback, so teachers can control text and audio feedback to their students’ shared digital stories.

This is tied to the pedagogic ideals of “constructivism,” which holds that learning power is inherent when people are actively creating things. When you create something, whether it is a physical or virtual object, people receive meaningful feedback that can be used to measure as well as reinforce their own learning about an idea or skill. Does it look right? Does it work? Does it sound right? Does it fulfill my purpose? What do others think and say about my creation?

When the creation of a digital story is wedded to a capacity for global feedback, the potential power of that constructivist feedback loop is multiplied. This is the promise and reality of VoiceThread. I am amazed by the feedback we’ve received on Rachel’s recent VoiceThread, “Getting a New Haircut.”

I’m always interested in digital storytelling work and Wesley shares that here.  Thanks so much for this!

This week I’ll be starting a multi-week workshop with teachers in Del City, Oklahoma, focused on digital storytelling and the Oklahoma Digital Centennial Project. Each teacher is receiving their own, new MacBook Pro laptop. We’re going to focus our efforts on MAKING STUFF together, and “making stuff” with students. We’re eventually going to explore and use the iLife applications iPhoto, iMovie, iTunes, and Garageband, but we’re going to start with VoiceThread. Why? Because VoiceThread is simple and powerful, permitting immediate publishing on the global stage for global feedback. Placed within an instructional context with an instructional purpose, I think VoiceThread has more immediate potential to help teachers have personal “a-ha” moments for how they can meaningfully use digital technologies in the classroom with students than any other digital tool I’ve used to date.

In talking with Karen Montegomery at length this morning, I came up with an idea for a simple but powerful collaborative project using VoiceThread and focusing on the desire most teachers (as well as librarians) have to help their students become more enthused about reading books. I’ve created a wiki site for the project (http://greatbookstories.pbwiki.com) and named it “Great Book Stories.” The site just includes a link to one digital story I created so far, but I am going to get my own children to record some VoiceThread “great book stories” this evening and add those links. I’m also planning to use this project as our first activity Thursday night for teachers in our Del City digital storytelling workshop. The idea is basic: Narrate five pictures to share why you love a specific book, and why other people should read it. If you’re interested in contributing, please check out the site and the guidelines. The password to edit the wiki is “share” without quotation marks. Here’s my initial example about C.S. Lewis’ book “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardobe.” Please add your own comments and feedback to this VoiceThread!

I was thrilled to learn today from Karen Montgomery that VoiceThread has added an entire section to their website titled “VoiceThreads in the Classroom.” This page is accessible at the bottom of every VoiceThread page, using the link labeled “CLASSROOM.” A step by step printable guide (PDF) is even provided. I love the introductory paragraph of the handout, titled “Participation is not optional.” This reminds me of Quyen Arana’s comments about how important PARTICIPATION and ENGAGEMENT are for student learning at the EncyloMedia conference last week. Below this heading, the VoiceThread in the Classroom handout states:

A VoiceThread allows every child in a class to record audio commentary about the ideas and experiences that are important to them. Whether it’s an event, a project, or a milestone, children can tell their story in their own voice, and then share it with the world. For teachers, a VoiceThread offers a single vessel to capture and then share all the diverse personalities of an entire class. A VoiceThread can be managed with little effort, creating an heirloom that can be shared by students, parents, and educators alike. You can hear the pride and excitement in their voices as the students “publish” and archive their work.