I was reading an article in TechnologyEd (part of Australian Teacher magazine) about ‘Technostress’.
Here is the workflow of my Year 9 lesson on Friday (note: we are a 1:1 laptop school).
Prior to class updated class page on LMS (Learning Management System) to let students know what was happening for the class. Loaded a YouTube link in the collaborative space (social stream) on the class page to spark discussion for the start of class.
Start of class. Linked my screen to IWB using the Apple TV (we have put them in all classrooms to eliminate need for cabling and to provide a method for mirroring that will enable devices to connect regardless of ports they have – Air Parrot helps us to connect PCs via the Apple TV)
Opened LMS class page – showed the YouTube video. See below.
Sparked a great discussion about sexualisation of young girls and entrepreneurship. Not specific to what we are focused on at the moment, but I’m a great believer in starting class with something that prompts thinking and sets the climate right for the rest of the lesson. Brain juices were flowing.
Last student group were presenting a project. Opened my Hapara Teacher Dashboard and went to the student grid view – found the student’s Google Slide presentation and opened it so it was viewable to the class.
After presentation, opened my Google Drive to create a collaborative doc that students could work on to provide feedback about what elements were necessary for an effective presentation. Pasted link in LMS class page so all students could access it quickly and begin offering their thoughts. Advised them to write their name in the doc so that they could ‘pin’ a place in the doc for their input.
Had the doc viewable on the screen so that we could all see the doc forming. Set a time limit to encourage them to get ideas down quickly.
Students identified elements of effective presentations and explained their choices. We then did some verbal analysis of the presentations they had been delivering in previous sessions and identified what they did well and what could have been done better.
Sent them to the LMS class page to click on the link to another page developed to support our Pecha Kucha task – they were just being introduced to the idea. A link to the Pecha Kucha site was on the page. We looked at the page together and played a couple from the most viewed section to learn about the technique.
Class ended. Students were reminded to add comments to the Social Stream on the class page in response to the Tree House Dolls video and to add anything there they see that they think may be worth us looking at as a class.
While I understand that there are teachers who feel stressed by the introduction of computing into classrooms and our constant availability when online spaces become the norm and expected practice in your school, I think some of us who have adapted would find it more stressful to have the technology removed.
Personally, I can’t imagine working differently from the way I’ve described above. I’m not sure my students want to work any differently either.
But I do want to qualify this: our school has strategically provided the systems we need to enable a workflow like mine to be possible. Teachers need support to understand how systems can work to complement one another enabling technology to become normalised practice within a classroom.
I’d recommend a read of the TechnologyEd edition. They do make some good points about the use of email in schools and the changing expectations of school community members when we are contactable 24/7. There was a suggestion teachers might want to delete their Twitter account – not happening here anytime soon!
I teach this wonderful elective at Year 9 called ‘Language of our Times’. It’s wonderful, because I’ve had the freedom to create the curriculum. The premise behind the subject is that we are studying how we communicate in today’s world. So far this year my students have explored the art of presenting well by creating Pecha Kucha presentations (and been supported by the generous Garr Reynolds in the process) and have looked at the way John Green uses social media platforms to grow his audience and support his career as an author.
I thought that sharing a task I set my class to do might be helpful to people out there who are teaching English and perhaps thinking about how they might incorporate something that recognises what might be required if you are intending to write in online spaces.
THE TASK!
Write a Feature Article for an Online Newspaper.
Your focus: John Green and the methods he employs to build his audience.
But first….you need to do some research.
I have created a page in iVE (our LMS) with links to articles about John Green and online videos where John is discussing his life (amongst other things). To do all of this reading and viewing is very time consuming but necessary if you are going to understand your subject matter in depth.
So….you are going to pool your talent and work in groups to do the research. In your group you will need to divvy up the reading and viewing. I would like you to create a shared Google Doc (that you file in the Language of our Times folder in your Google Drive) where you will be identifying what source you have read and writing notes that are visible to all in the group to ensure you come to a shared understanding of John Green and all he does.
Writing the feature article – transmedia article (text, pictures and video)
Necessary elements:
Effective Headline
An inviting lead that draws the reader into the article
Hyperlinks to source material
An embedded video
Suitable pictures that complement the text
References to experts, use of quotes to support claims being made.
A well structured piece of writing that follows conventions for online newspaper publishing (we’ll be looking at exemplar models in class to assist your understanding of what this looks like)
An effective conclusion.
Minimum word length: 750 words
The students did require exemplar models to gain an understanding of the structure of an online news article. While we we working on this task, John Green was heavily involved on promotion for the film of ‘The Fault in our Stars’, so there was plenty to provide as models, like this one here. They really needed to see what a good lead looked like and the nature of writing for online audiences where the paragraphs are often very short and sometimes even just one line.
Quite a bit like blogging really.
I think this is so important to teach our young people. Schools (particularly English classes) tend to get tied up in the mire of the five paragraph essay, when in real life, no one in their right mind is ever going to stick to such a pre-determined structure. Well, not me, anyway.
Demonstrating how to hyperlink text is a skill that often needs to be taught. I’ve written about this in the past. When I went through this with the students, I could hear the ‘aaahhhs’ around the room as they discovered the mystery of hyperlinked text. Who, I ask, is teaching this skill, and how many teachers out there even know how to do it? I’ve shown plenty in my time. Surely this is something that is a fundamental skill in today’s day and age?
I had the students write their article in Google Docs so that I could give them feedback through Hapara Teacher Dashboard (another post I need to write!). This enables me to shoot into their Docs quickly and makes the feedback loop between them and me really fast. One of the features lacking in Google Docs at the moment is the ability to embed a video so the students had to take screenshots of a YouTube video and provide the link.
I do have to say, the quality of the work submitted was pretty high. I was genuinely blown away by the headlines and leads the students came up with. One student had five different headlines written in the planning stages and all surpassed many I had seen in the exemplars we had looked at.
I’ve asked one of my students, Emma, if I could share her piece here. She’s agreed, so take a read yourself and see if you think this piece is as good as I think it is. I’m pretty darn impressed that a Year 9 student is capable of producing a piece at at this standard.
John Green, the Internet Community Puppeteer
John Green
If you are one of the small minorities that aren’t familiar with the name ‘John Green’, you won’t remain that way for long. From humble beginnings, this Indiana-based author has become one of the most successful people on the Internet. Using his large fan base “Nerd fighters” he has made his way to become a young adult bestseller novelist, a famous YouTuber and earned his place on the Time’s list of the most 100 influential people in the world.
As the internet continues to be of larger importance in modern day society, more and more time is being spent in this virtual space. John Green suggested humorously that we should “Just move to the Internet, its great [there]. We get to live inside where the weather is always awesome.” But this is becoming increasingly true, especially amongst the younger generations. John Green has managed to become very influential online, hence reaching out to a larger audience than ever possible before the 21th century. A single “tweet” on his twitter recommending a book can cause the sales to boom the same day. Critics have dubbed this phenomenon the “John Green Bump”.
But how did he become so influential?
His road to fame probably began during project “Brotherhood 2.0”; one of the first vital points in John Green’s Internet take over. In 2007 he and his brother Hank agreed to only communicate through YouTube as a medium. From January the 1 until the 31st of December, the two brothers took turns uploading videos to their YouTube channel, “VlogBrothers” every weekday. The videos had varied content. It usually had the brothers talking about their lives and things that genuinely matter to them while lacing in jokes and trying to make each other laugh. From this project they not only entertained each other but also a large audience that was later dubbed “Nerdfighters”. Currently this channel has over 2 million subscribers alone.
The Nerdfighters are supposedly “made up of awesome”. They are John Green’s loyal army of extremely active fans (some who are well known youtubers themselves). John Green enjoys being a self-proclaimed nerd, “…because nerds like us are allowed to be ironically enthusiastic about stuff… Nerds are allowed to love stuff, like jump-and-down-in-the chair-can’t-control-yourself love it.” And John Green’s ever-abundant Nerdfighters do exactly that. They nerd over and love everything to do with John Green: his merchandise, his books, his videos, his words and him. As a result their influence in the online space is of colossal proportions due to their sheer enormity. They promote John Green and what he does, further spreading his influence amongst the online community, for free.
John Green at a fan meeting
As well as managing the “Vlogbrothers” channel, John Green also produces “CrashCourse,” an educational YouTube channel, where he educates his audience in 12 minutes about world history, psychology, biology, ecology, literature and chemistry. Using humour and entertaining visuals, he makes his lessons more fun and educational. These 12-minute clips are easy to fit within classes or study periods and making them a convenient tool for teachers. His indirect presence further expands his audience as he is introduced to a younger generation of consumers through the internet-savvy teachers.
John Green also puts his dominance on the web to good use for the less fortunate. Using his extensive Internet presence he created “ProjectforAwesome”, (also known as P4A) an event that occurs for two days (traditionally Dec 18-19) annually where YouTubers raise money for a charity of their choice by promoting it to their audience. In 2013 they successfully raised $869,171. That is almost double the amount they raised the year previously, suggesting that his audience has grown considerably larger in just a year.
As an author, John Green wrote the young-adult best sellers, “Looking for Alaska”, “Paper Towns” and the immensely popular “The Fault in Our Stars (TFiOS)” which has been converted into a major feature film adaptation. This tearjerker is rare amongst young adult fiction because it is a cancer book, where the main protagonist is a cancer patient. The book received highly positive reviews with critics such as theNew York Times describing the book as “”a blend of melancholy, sweet, philosophical and funny” and that it “stays the course of tragic realism”. Upon release of the book, it stayed as number one bestseller list for 44 weeks and had 150,000 pre-orders (which John Green kindly hand signed each copy diligently).
John Green’s bestseller, “Fault in Our Stars”
But what has made John and his works so successful?
The answer probably comes down to a combination of free, his endorsements, thanks to his fan base, and the fact that people generally really like it. The proof? Well, the average rating is 4.52 out of five, on goodreads.com, which is very high in comparison to most books (e.g. “Perks of Being a Wallflower” average rating is 4.2). The book was also voted as one of the winners of Goodreads choice Awards 2012 and the winner of Children’s Choice Book Awards for Teen Book of the Year. The readers obviously also seemed to have liked it enough to recommend it to their friends and family. John Green suspects that another factor leading to the books success is the fact that his “readers are evangelists.”
The people who read his books tend to be incredibly devoted fans who want to convert everyone they possibly can into Nerdfighters or at least, a fan of TFiOS, filling up posts and comments with fan art, gifs quoting the novel and screaming pleas for people to read the book. John Green could not ask for a better audience.
Such an audience isn’t to be taken for granted. John Green puts a lot of effort into connecting with his fans. He asks them for their opinion and seems generally curious. He somehow miraculously manages and is active on a vast variety of social media platforms including YouTube, Twitter, tumblr, Facebook, Goodreads, subbable (a sharing platform which he and his brother Hank founded), his own blog and instagram. He sends out surveys to gather data do that he can shape his activities to suit his audience and gauge which social media platform seem to attract the most visitors and how they found out about him in the first place. He calls this survey, “Nerdfighteria Census”. He also arranges fan-meet ups and gatherings so that he can meet his fans and help them to feel closer as a community.
His audience is attracted to his humble, likeable and witty personality, making him an idealistic role model. He believes in self-acceptance, accepting other people and fighting for the right to be who you want to be. He “… tr[ies] to live life so that [he] can live with [him]self.”
Watch a video from his youtube channel Vlogbrothers, “What To Do With Your Life”:
John Green has set a high standard for role models everywhere. His presence on the Internet, as vast and extensive as it is, is not just beneficial for him. It is also beneficial to a lot of people who are influenced by him, those who would like to aspire to become someone like him and also to become someone like themselves. Marketers and authors who wish to promote themselves should also look to John Green for his good use of social media platforms and connecting with his fans. John Green is also looked up to by those who can relate to him and just want to also remind each other DFTBA (Don’t forget to be awesome); borrowing John Green’s catchphrase as both a greeting, farewell and encouragement.
I was impressed. I hope you were too.
What did I do wrong?
I didn’t get my students to create a bibliography and properly cite the sources they had used. Massive oversight being a Teacher-Librarian by trade and all. Something I will need to rectify next time.
I wish I could share all of my student’s work. The time they invested into this task was impressive and I’m sure they learnt skills that might not be being covered elsewhere. I’m loving the opportunity to explore interesting curriculum and teach my students skills and content that I think are important in today’s world.
I’m taking my first ever stint of Long Service Leave this year – it’s been a long time coming.
The family and I are heading off to Europe and the UK for the Grand Tour in the coming months. A full month away from work and school commitments in the close immediate vicinity of one another is either going to make or break us! I’m hoping for the former but assume we will encounter some close to breaking moments along the way too. Let’s face it, we’re a normal family, and normal families aren’t perfect. 🙂
I’ve only had a week off during this school holiday break (I no longer get regular school holidays) and I’ve spent time planning the trip. It’s been a really interesting experience on many levels.
Level 1:
I’ve realised that this is the kind of thing normal people do. (Normal people who’ve worked for a long time and have access to Long Service Leave)
They plan their lives. They devote time to something other than their work. They don’t focus on trying to keep abreast of change and what it means for education.
Hmmnnn… quite the revelation. Will have to ponder on that more in the months to come.
Level 2:
I’ve also been booking accommodation through Airbnb, and it’s been quite the positive experience. For those of you unfamiliar with the service, airbnb is a site that enables you to book accommodation from people who offer rooms, apartments and even whole houses up for rent.
I registered on the site so that I could make bookings and they are pretty thorough in their review of who you are. I needed to provide verification of identity by providing my mobile number, my driver’s licence details (photo evidence) and linking to my Google+ account so you can bet I was checking that this was a https site. For many people out there who remain sceptical of the Internet, this would be a turn off. I accept that a site like this needs to ensure the people using it to make bookings are who they say they are, but my level of comfort using the Internet is different to many people’s comfort levels.
You can select a city and browse for accommodation options at the price point you nominate. When you find something you like you put a request through to the owner explaining traveller details and they decide whether or not to allow you to book their accommodation. Once approved, you begin a dialogue with the owner about the booking. I’ve made four different bookings thus far, and each time approval has come in from the apartment owners in under two hours.
You have access to a dashboard that outlines your trip details, your inbox (for communication with the home owners) your profile and account details. I’ve downloaded the App to my Nexus 7 and it’s a clean mobile interface providing the same detail. I was able to swipe through pics of the apartments we’ve rented to show my friend Helen the other day while we had a coffee. Nice.
The really nice thing is the dialogue with the owners. This is personalisation of the travel experience. Another disruptive innovation that will turn the already fractured travel industry on its head. Interestingly, I feel more connected to the Airbnb accommodation than I do to the hotel accommodation we have booked on this trip. The hotel booking experience seems clinical, compared to the Airbnb experience that feels like you’ve begun a conversation.
Price wise, the deals seem pretty good. I’ve managed to secure what looks like really lovely apartment accommodation options in city centres where hotel pricing was out of range for our budget. We have access to cooking facilities, washing machines and clothes dryers – things that will assist us in keeping costs down – important when it’s a family of four travelling!
Level 3:
Planning a trip like this and doing it all yourself is time consuming. I needed the week off to get my head around it all.
I set up a Google Doc with a table of three columns with the headings ‘Date/Location’, ‘Where we are staying’, ‘Where we are going’. As I make bookings, I add all the details to this Doc so that it becomes our go to itinerary. I’m including the cost of everything and I’ve now transferred those details to a spreadsheet so I can tally accommodation, train/car hire and sightseeing costs. I’ll have my Nexus 7 with me as we travel and I’ll be accessing the Doc through the Google Docs app (and yes, it will be printed out as a hard copy too for emergency access if I’m out of power on the Nexus).
I find myself constantly checking dates and referring back to the itinerary Doc verifying that everything is in sync. Heaven help me if I’ve mucked something up because it’s going to mess up everything if I have! I did book access to the Eiffel Tower on the wrong date after refreshing the booking page and not realising the date had changed. The official booking site won’t provide me with a refund, so, if you know of someone travelling in Paris on Sunday July 20th 2014 (next weekend) then get them to contact me and I’ll send them four Lift entrance tickets with access to the 2nd floor of the Eiffel Tower at no charge. 🙂 (Reading the site suggests they may ask for proof of identity – maybe if I provided a cover letter explaining the situation they would let be be used by someone else? Sure hope so.)
Thinking of using Google’s Tour Builder as well to map the trip out and share it with family and friends so they can follow where we are on certain dates. Will be fun to have a play with that if I can find the time.
It really is. I need to know what I’m thinking of doing is the right option, and more often than not there is a forum thread on TripAdvisor dealing with exactly my query. I quite simply love you 10% of the population who make the effort to help other travellers out with your reviews and honesty. You’re enacting the true ideals of the Internet, making a place of relevance for the population of the world.
Note to self: Do the same on your return. Add to forums. Create a thread if necessary.
So there you have it. Am I looking forward to this trip? You betcha. Can’t wait.
Europe and the UK, brace yourself. The Luca family is heading in your direction sometime soon.
I had one of those moments in my Language of our Times class today when you know technology has become normalised within your classroom.
Poet Alicia Sometimes was visiting, running a workshop to help my students gain insight into how to begin writing Spoken Word poetry. After watching a couple of examples from YouTube and discussing how they might get started, they launched into groups to begin the writing process.
What happened next?
Google Drives were opened, members of the class created a Doc and shared it with others in their group and the writing process began.
Just like that. No prompting. No suggestion that Google Docs would be a good way to collaborate. Nothing.
My quest to discover more about Google Apps and Chromebooks led me to Google’s Sydney offices today, where a session hosted by Suan Yeo (Head of Education at Google Australia/Asia) was being held for schools interested in pursuing this line. It was great walking into a room with some familiar faces, and it ticked off one of those bucket list items for me – getting to see what Google looks like as a working environment. More on that later.
First up. I’ve had a Chromebook for near on a month now. Mine is the Acer model, purchased in large part because of the extra ports, especially the VGA connection that would allow it to hook up easily to projectors and whiteboards at my school. I love it. Honestly, I do. Most of my life is spent in connected environments – I move from home that has constant wifi access, to school that has constant wifi access, and if I can’t find wifi access, I can tether the Chromebook to my iPhone and I’ve once again got the access I need. Earlier this month I attended a day at ISV learning about policy formation. I took the Chromebook with me and used an app called Scratchpad to take notes offline, then moved to tethering the phone when I wanted to check up on websites they’d mentioned, then untethered and headed back to Scratchpad when I’d no need for Internet connection. Right now, I’m on the plane back to Melbourne, using Scratchpad on the Chromebook once again to write this up. Easy.
English: An Acer Chromebook showing the introductory screen walking news users through the touchpad’s features. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Before I left for Sydney yesterday, I uploaded word docs from my hard-drive on my Macbook Pro to Google Docs, so I could access them last night when I needed them. I can look at them on the Chromebook, but can’t edit them – this will come soon enough (end of the year maybe?) when Google releases its Quickoffice app to the general populace that will enable editing of Microsoft software within Chrome and Google Drive. There are USB ports on the Chromebook, and I could have brought one of those with me with the Word docs loaded on that as it’s easy to open the contents of a USB on a Chromebook. My son describes the Chromebook as an ‘on the fly’ computer, and I have to agree. It’s light, smaller than my Macbook and easy to put in my handbag, and it’s become my preferred hardware for using as I sit in a recliner at home and catch up on email and what’s happening in the world of Twitter.
I do have to access the Web version of Outlook to check the school email at the moment, but that’s not really a big deal. Over the past couple of months I’ve become a seriously heavy Google Drive user, preferring to create most documents there rather than using what I now view as the clunky Word options on my computer that don’t offer me the sharing and easy editing options Google Docs do. I’ve been using Google Docs to share meeting agendas and notes with staff, hoping that their ability to easily edit will rub off and they will see the benefits of working this way too. My students certainly can see the benefits. In our latest PBL venture, groups are already creating Google Docs to collaborate on idea formation. They’ve seen the benefit of the comments feature in Google Docs, and I’ve been providing feedback to them when they were creating an extended writing piece. There were times over the recent school holiday period when students and I were online commenting synchronously – a seriously good opportunity for personalising the learning experience.
I haven’t been easy on it either. I’m a 20 tab girl most days – I’ve got 18 tabs open right now and that’s my usual modus operandi. When I was editing student docs, I was flicking between tabs, watching YouTube vids, looking at a constantly refreshing Tweetdeck – you get the picture. One night I did find that Docs were dropping out and I had to kill pages, but they were easily restored by just heading back into Drive and accessing the page again. I haven’t seen that happen again over the last couple of weeks. I’m not bothered by the smaller screen, and the keyboard is responsive, if a bit plasticy feeling. But let’s face it – this is a $295 machine, not a $1200 Macbook. I’m not expecting miracles. The trackpad is nowhere near as good as my Macbook Pro, and I notice that most when I’ve been using the Macbook all day at school and revert to the Chromebook at night. I’ve been solely using this Chromebook for the last 24 hours, and I’ve got to that stage where it’s feeling pretty normal. I know I’ll notice the difference again when I fire up the Macbook again. But. like I say, this is not high end hardware – it’s the on the fly computer and for that purpose, it’s doing me just fine.
Battery life on this Acer model Chromebook sits around 4 hrs depending on what you’re doing with it. If you’re accessing a lot of YouTube vids and streaming content, you’ll see it suck up battery life. The Samsung model has longer battery life (and looks cooler – very Macbook Air looking) but it has only 16 G of hard drive storage. This Acer model has 320 G of storage capacity. That’s pretty remarkable given its size and weight.
I’ve had a lot of fun exploring the Chrome Web Store and downloading apps that I could see used in a school setting. I did sit there the other night trying to figure out what I’d be stymied doing if this was my sole device. I figured video editing would be the biggest problem, but then I discovered WeVideo in the Chrome Web Store and spent the night creating a simple video using it. It was very intuitive and shares the same editing principles of MovieMaker and iMovie.
What appeals to me about Chromebooks in a school setting is the management console that is available if you buy Chromebooks for your students and pay an extra $30 a device to hook them up to this console. It’s there where you can deploy apps and arrange to time the frequent (around every 6 weeks) Chrome OS updates. This way you’d have an always updated computer and could respond to classroom needs if a teacher discovers a new app and wants it available to the students quickly.
I also like the idea of offering the Chromebook as an option for older students who aren’t pursuing subjects requiring access to high end video editing software or tools like Photoshop. It’s an option where they could use Google Apps for word processing and could take full advantage of the sharing and editing options at that critical time of their education. It’s also providing them with an excellent entry point if they are about to move to university environments that are using Google Apps across their campuses.
Now, to the Google session today. What was great about this was the opportunity to hear from real life teachers and technology directors who have deployed Google Apps across their school. I wanted to hear about the migration of staff mail over to Gmail and how that had been managed in terms of people’s level of comfort with security and our duty of care. A representative from the Catholic Education Office spoke how the move to Google Apps was precipitated by the need for the renewal of Microsoft licensing for Exchange. Moving to Gmail saved them money and allowed them to utilise savings for professional development training. They had their lawyers look at the documentation from Google and were satisfied that their security concerns were covered. They now have a vast number of people within their diocese using Google Apps and have been overwhelmed with the buy in from schools wanting to step up and use the system. The point was made by the panel that the tools within the Google Apps management console were sufficiently granular to manage retrieval of data should you need it and disable access if that was required.
Seeing Google in action was very exciting for a geeky person like me. (I never thought I’d ever describe myself as geeky, but I’ve come to terms with the fact that’s probably the best way to describe me now!) I didn’t go into their staff working spaces, but we did get to have lunch there. With a view of the Harbour Bridge and a wide array of food choices at your disposal at no charge, it’s a nice way to support your workers while they have a break.
I do think that Google are offering something pretty impressive for education, and it’s free. From my perspective as someone responsible for eLearning, I want my students and staff to understand the potential of collaborative cloud based software. Like I’ve said here before, using systems like these require an informed populace, people who understand how things work and what you’re doing when you use them. One thing I’m very interested in exploring further is the Hapara Teacher Dashboard, a third party service ($4.00 a student I think) that allows you to oversee what is happening across your school with the creation of docs, blog posts etc. As I explore things further, I’ll try and find the time to share my learning here.
Signing out – Jenny 🙂
*fully composed on an Acer Chromebook.
** Forgot to mention – a Chromebook boots up in around 8 seconds.
You know that feeling when you think things aren’t happening, but then all of a sudden you realise that your efforts are starting to pay dividends? Well, that’s what’s happening at my school (Toorak College) now. I feel like we are making inroads. Kids are using Nings and Wikis and it’s becoming the norm. There isn’t the questioning that used to come with the introduction of new ideas. Teachers are starting to take on board what I’ve been rabbiting on about and they are seeing how effective the learning can be using collaborative tools.
Liana Gooch teaches at my school and was part of our PLPgroup. Here is her guest post. Take it away Liana!
Coming from a country in which bush fires do not feature as a significant hazard as they do in Australia, the events of February 7th 2009 have left an indelible mark on the memories of myself and my students. It was extremely heart breaking to view the images of destruction and loss experienced by those people involved in the Victorian Bushfires. As well as the human cost, it is also essential to consider the havoc wrecked upon nature. A lot of creatures were helpless to escape the fury of the flames and many that did manage to survive have suffered immense injury.
When it came to consider a unit of study related to endangered species with my year 7 Humanities class, I was determined to create a research unit that was not only compelling but also relevant. Students would usually choose to explore overseas endangered species but coverage of the Victorian Bushfires’ impact upon many already endangered species alerted me to taking a more local focus. In the back of my mind I also was concerned about the potential lack of knowledge regarding their own state’s endangered species. My suspicions were confirmed when I surveyed the class about identifying the state’s animal symbol, the highly endangered Leadbeater Possum – only one student was able to identify it. Thus, the inquiry ‘ How can we protect our backyard?’ emerged.
Another focus of this inquiry project would be to expose students to a range of technological tools that would be easily transferrable across their range of subjects. Working with Jenny Luca and Megan Davies, we decided that a wikispace would be an ideal medium for students to post and convey their research to the rest of the world. While the students knew I would be assessing their page, they knew that this inquiry was going to have to be authentic due to the wikispace being open to the public. Students were taught how to manipulate many of the tools available on the wikispace and a lot was learnt through the process by trial and error. As students were working collaboratively it made sense to use Google Docs which allowed students to simultaneously work and edit a written piece together on different computers. It also eliminated the age old problem of when students are absent and have the written piece with them thus hindering a group’s progress. This tool proved invaluable and it has been exciting to observe students use this tool for other projects since this inquiry. Jenny also taught the students about a range of websites where students would be able to use copyright free images for their pages. Another skill gained was the ability to write comments using the pins of Google Maps. One student produced her own clip of a journey through the affected Kingslake area and used voice thread to create her own commentary. Students found the application of technology to be an effective tool which made the learning process a lot more interesting. ‘It is a lot of fun and instead of being boring the work was challenging and interesting so it made it a lot easier to work. It is a great way to become more familiar with internet tools and skills.’ (Hayley)
I wanted students to actively engage with concepts we had explored earlier in the unit related to sustainability. Students were initially exposed to Dr Seuss tale of ‘The Lorax’ which made many of the complex components of sustainability easily attainable. A reflective component of their inquiry which would test their understanding of some of the big ideas would require them to reflect upon how the Lorax would perceive and comment upon the causes and effects of the Bushfires as well as the ensuing actions to reduce their impact. Following through the list of aspects to be explored students would be able to explore a range of both primary and secondary resources ranging from newspaper clips, you tube videos, podcasts from experts and contact with applicable organisations. Students constructed questions to inquire about the actions taken by their selected organisation’s actions to assist with affected animals. Many students were extremely excited about receiving information directly from organisations especially when a lot of the information could not be directly found in the range of resources available online or otherwise.
The inquiry took about three weeks in total during which time students were completed engaged and engrossed in their research. There were several occasions when it was actually difficult to get the students to stop working! It took considerable time to do my initial research and creation of the inquiry assignment. I also had to learn some of the new technological tools before I could launch the project, however the benefits of undertaking a project with which many of the students were so connected were immense. Their understanding of endangered species in their own backyard and the critical role that humans play has been significant. ‘it shows that we have to be aware of sustainable development and reducing our resources for the future. The Victorian Bushfires has decreased the amount of trees, land, homes and animals, and that reduces many resources for the future.’ ‘This project has made me think about animals in a completely different way then I had before.’Rather than just producing an assignment which would only be viewed by the teacher, themselves and family, Students were courageous as they gallantly rose to the challenge of creating commentary which was up to scrutiny by the public. It was also extremely encouraging to hear students comment about taking social action as a result of this project. One student has become involved in adopting a koala and to date, our class are considering fund raising to either help adopt an endangered animal or contribute to a wildlife fund. Another student is starting to consider a career path related to the care of injured animals. To me, this is what learning that is inspiring should be all about – making authentic, meaningful and relevant links to the world around us.
Well done Liana and well done Year 7. You’ve created a rich resource for others to use and you’ve learnt some new skills in the process. Make sure you visit their wiki.
I was reading an online article today from eweek.com called ‘Five trends to watch in 2009’. Their focus audience is small to medium size business. The five trends to watch as they saw it were;
My question is, are we as educators onto this? If we are going to effectively prepare our students for the workplaces they will be entering, shouldn’t we be incorporating some of these applications into our teaching environments and curriculum?
I work in a 1:1 school, but as we see the cost of computers and wireless air devices reduce I could envisage students fronting up in both private and public education with their own computers with internet access at the ready. I’m wondering if schools are prepared for this?
* Update – Many students today have phones with internet access – don’t know why I didn’t think of this when I was writing this post. Just dim sometimes! Once again though, many schools take the no phones in class policy when they should be capitalising on the incredibly powerful tool students have at their disposal.
I know that this year I intend to make greater use of the cloud and create and store more of my documentation using online applications. It just makes sense. It’s something I intend to share with my students and will be encouraging them to use Google docs and notebook.
These are ideas we need to keep at the forefront of our thinking if we are going to best prepare our students for the workplaces they will be entering.
Returned from camp today. Had a great time with fantastic Year 7 students willing to give everything a go. I’m a huge supporter of Outdoor Education camps since I left on my first one two years ago. On that one, we paddled 60kms down Australia’s Murray River and camped on river beaches nightly for five days. HUGE learning curve for me – had to adapt very quickly and stay motivated even though I found it really difficult. At the end of the week I’d felt a shift in me – a sense of achievement and a bonding with a group unlike camp experiences I’d had before. Happens every time I do an Outdoor Ed camp – everyone grows in some way. Last night’s debrief session was wonderful – every student could articulate how they had learnt something and what they were going to take away from the experience – powerful stuff!
Something else that I think is pretty powerful and transformational for both teachers and their students is Google Notebook. At the moment I’ve got two Google Notebooks running. One I call blog ideas. What I do is open my notebook when I’m reading feeds from my Google Reader – it’s absolutely essential to get yourself a Google Reader (or other RSS feed service) if you want to subscribe to websites and receive updates that come directly to you rather than you having to go to the effort of finding the website every time you log on. My Google Reader has literally changed my life (and I’m not kidding!) Back to the point of the discussion – I open the Google Notebook called ‘blog ideas’ and what I can do is cut and paste things I’ve read into my notebook that I think might be a good idea for a blog post. It’s helping me to make sense of what I think is important and is also helping me to write posts on a frequent basis. If you remember, I’ve set myself the ridiculous target of attempting to write a blog post a day. Call me stupid -I’m already saying it to myself!
My other notebook is one that I’m using to collate ideas for a presentation I have to make with a colleague. Because we are going to have to work on this together, I have chosen the ‘Share this notebook’ option that is available to you when you use Google Notebook. This sends an invite to people you want to have access to the notebook so that you can both make contributions. It’s this collaborative potential that I think is transformational for staff and students. Teachers could use Google Notebook (or Google Docs) to work on developing ideas for units of work and students could use them for group projects. As individuals, teachers and students would find the Google Notebook valuable for collecting information from the Web for projects. I showed my notebooks to a researcher from a university in Melbourne and she could immediately see the potential this offered for the work she does.
If you haven’t seen it yet, get yourself a google account and check it out – I’m sure you’ll see ways to use this fantastic free resource immediately. Getting a google account is easy too – just register with an email address, user name and password. Dead simple and the benefits are huge.
I’m really comfortable with my Google Reader and aren’t fussed about opening the notebook at the same time. Download Squad have just posted about a combined feed reader and blog client in one called YeahReader. Here’s how they describe how it works;
“In addition to the usual feed reader tools that let you mark items as read or unread, you can also click a “blog this” button to copy feed items into the blog client. “
They also point out this very valid point which is why I think bloggers should proceed with caution;
“Just be careful to use this power for good and not evil. In other words, if you’re going to say, write about an article you found on Download Squad, please don’t copy the whole article and pass it off as your own work. That’s what we like to call copyright infringement.”
They’re absolutely right – their article is worth a read – I’d encourage you to follow the link.
Download Squad has just posted a report suggesting that Microsoft has proposed to purchase all Yahoo outstanding shares. Here’s what Microsoft have to say in their press release;
Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) today announced that it has made a proposal to the Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) Board of Directors to acquire all the outstanding shares of Yahoo! common stock for per share consideration of $31 representing a total equity value of approximately $44.6 billion. Microsoft’s proposal would allow the Yahoo! shareholders to elect to receive cash or a fixed number of shares of Microsoft common stock, with the total consideration payable to Yahoo! shareholders consisting of one-half cash and one-half Microsoft common stock. The offer represents a 62 percent premium above the closing price of Yahoo! common stock on Jan. 31, 2008.
There’s been talk for a number of years now that Microsoft has been pumping millions into the development of a search engine that would tip Google off the top of the mount. Perhaps they’ve decided now to acquire the next best thing, Yahoo, and see what they can do with this platform that has the brand association they need. If they are successful, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them infuse Yahoo with new tools they may have in development that would give Google a run for their money. Here’s what Ray Ozzie, Chief Software Architect at Microsoft has said;
“The combination of these two great teams would enable us to jointly deliver a broad range of new experiences to our customers that neither of us would have achieved on our own.”
I think Google has Microsft running scared with the introduction of Google Docs and Spreadsheets etc. Interesting times we live in – can’t wait to see how things unfold.
I’ve taken the plunge and decided to become a blogger. I want to learn as much as I can about the Web 2.0 world and think it would be a good idea to share what I am learning. I’m reading lots of blogs via my Google reader and can see that sharing some of these amazing insights will be beneficial for others. One of the blogs I’m following is Commoncraft. I’m really impressed with what this small company is achieving. They create videos explaining Web 2.0 applications in a very easily understandable fashion. Have a look at their latest offering explaining Photo Sharing on the Web.
I’m going to be using this and other Commoncraft videos in my information literacy teaching this year for both students and staff. What’s the point in me standing up and trying to explain Google Docs when they do it so much better in a simple 4 minute video!
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Lucacept - intercepting the Web 