Jennie Wilmes, the K-3 librarian at Shedeck Elementary School in Yukon, Oklahoma, has been working with teachers this semester on a new “digital way” to help students learn proper procedures at school. Using some very talented student actors, Mrs. Wilmes created and published six short videos to her Library YouTube channel which showcase proper procedures for using the bathroom, walking in the hallway, attending the morning “sunrise” assembly, eating in the cafeteria, staying safe on the playground, and checking out books from the library. Mrs. Wilmes collected all six videos in a single YouTube playlist, so teachers at Shedeck (as well as parents and students, with assistance) can access these terrific videos. They range in duration from 37 seconds to 1 minute and 57 seconds each. Mrs. Wilmes recorded, edited and published these videos to YouTube using an iPad and the iPad app, iMovie. Check out these super videos featuring Shedeck students!

Technorati Tags: education, library, school, youtube, schools, procedures, media, specialist

Using Student Videos on YouTube to Demonstrate Proper School Procedures originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on May 21, 2013.

If your students create artwork for families in Moore, consider using a free app like AudioBoo to have students add voice narration to their drawings.* Simple expressions of concern, love and support can be very meaningful as well as beneficial. By sharing these with a hashtag on social media, you increase the chances people in Moore and elsewhere can see and be touched by the words and artistic creations of your students.

If your students are interested in helping the rescue and rebuilding efforts in Moore, Oklahoma, this article from NewsOK and this post have helpful suggestions. More resources for “narrated art” projects are also available.

  by  alexphotocamera 

Thanks to Michelle Kassorla (in Atlanta, Georgia) and Lisa Stevens (in Winterthur, Switzerland) for helping brainstorm the #moorehugs hashtag this morning on Twitter.

If you know of another hashtag being used to share messages of encouragement for people in Moore, Oklahoma, please share it as a comment.

* I am not affiliated or connected to AudioBoo in any way, I just love their platform and app for sharing narrated art.

Technorati Tags: audioboo, oklahoma, share, encouragement, pictures, narrated, art

Share Words and Pictures of Encouragement and Love with #moorehugs originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on May 21, 2013.

The problem with my WordPress blog feed being broken started, I think, when I migrated my website to a new web host. The process of migrating my 30+ WordPress sites to new web hosts is still NOT yet complete, but this problem has been a major sticking point I’ve spent 9+ hours vainly trying to figure out the past week or so, over the course of several days. The support team at WPengine, which is the web host I’m now using for speedofcreativity.org, let me know the problem I needed to fix was that somehow extra whitespace or “line breaks” were being inserted into my WordPress blog feed.

I tried disabling all my plugins and also changing my theme, but neither of those ideas worked to fix my feed. I finally fixed the problem by doing two things. First, I removed extra spaces in several of the php files of my WordPress installation, including feed-atom.php, feed-rdf.php, feed-rss.php, feed-rss2.php, and functions.php. I do NOT ‘know PHP’ as a coder, so this was a hit-and-miss exercise. I am sure a lot of the spaces I removed don’t actually matter for my web feed to properly work, but some of them did make a difference. The functions.php file is the longest one of this group, and I didn’t remove ALL the extra line breaks, but I did remove about ten of them. I tried testing my WordPress feed address each time I made a few changes, to see if I could isolate the specific file with the problem, but it never worked afterward.

The second thing I did which, together with the line break removals, ended up fixing my feed, was to use the wejnswpwhitespacefix.php file on wejn.org referenced by Steve Workman on his 2010 post about this issue. This fix requires uploading a new PHP file to your WordPress installation, and adding a line of code at the top of my index.php WordPress file.

I made all my PHP edits in the free text editing program for Mac, TextWranger. It’s a fantastic little program which I use at LEAST a few times per week. The GREP searching functions of it are outstanding and come in VERY handy when I need to find and replace text patterns in a file, including things like line breaks or paragraph breaks.

After I made those changes, I figured out I also needed to empty the cache of my local web browser to see the ‘latest’ updated version of my feed. Once I did that, wha-la! The feed was fixed. Per the helpful instructions of my WPengine support tech, I made these changes first on the “staging server” of my WPengine site.

Next, I used my WPengine site controls to copy my ‘fixed’ site from the staging area over to the live site. This took about a minute.

When I tested my web feed, it was working as it should! My Feedburner feed was also working again, since it had also been “broken.”

I’m REALLY thrilled to have this situation fixed. I strongly dislike situations like this when I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to fix a technical error, and it ends up taking HOURS to resolve it. If you run into something similar to this, hopefully the links and documentation I’ve provided here will help. I love using WordPress for many of my websites, but the need to fix your own problems like this is one of the challenges which comes with self-hosting.

I’ve had my dad report problems with my web feed in the past, and I don’t know if I’ve had this problem longer than a few weeks or not. In the course of my Google research on possible fixes for this problem, I learned that many RSS or feed readers (including Google Reader and Feedly) can actually ignore this feed syntax problem and still resolve/read the feed. Hopefully this is something I won’t have to mess with again. I think when I update WordPress, however, I may have to add that same line to my index.php file again if the updated one is overwritten.

Now, I’ll hopefully be able to post the podcast I recorded 2 weeks ago with Joe Dale! I’ve been waiting to get this silly feed issue resolved first.

Technorati Tags: feed, howto, wordpress, error, whitespace, line, break, fix

WordPress Feed Error with Whitespace or Extra Line Breaks Fixed originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on May 20, 2013.

Ginger Gregory is the Gifted Resource Teacher at Lakeview Elementary School in Yukon, Oklahoma, and currently has 117 videos on her classroom YouTube channel. Ginger has used the six iPads in her classroom and her free, district-provided YouTube channel (since the Yukon school district participates in the Google Apps for Education program) to help her students develop oral communication skills, oral fluency, as well as digital literacy skills this semester. In the following six minute video, Mrs. Gregory and eight of her students explain what they have learned as a result of their assignments this year using iPad videos and YouTube.

It’s exciting to hear about these positive ways Lakeview students and teachers are not only meeting the new Common Core State Standards, which include requirements for students to both use and create information in multimedia formats, but also how students are having opportunities to discuss and practice the responsible use of digital media tools like YouTube. Mrs. Gregory is doing a great job finding ways to not only engage students through technology, but also prepare students to make good choices with technology tools. This “digital literacy” training and practice is more important than ever in our hyper-connected world. Way to go, Mrs. Gregory and Lakeview Elementary students!

While Yukon Schools also participates in the free “YouTube for Schools” filtering program which limits student access at school to only “approved” YouTube videos, it’s very important to prepare students to make good digital choices when they access the Internet OFF the school network. This happens regularly when students use cell phones with data plans or go online at home or other places where Internet content is not filtered.

As of April 30, 2013, teachers and staff in Yukon Public Schools had created 24 different YouTube channels. YPS has over 500 certified teachers, but most do not yet have YouTube channels. YPS teachers were first able to create district-administered YouTube channels a year ago, in the spring of 2012. Teachers like Mrs. Gregory who are exploring the use of YouTube for educational purposes are blazing an important trail as digital learning pioneers for other educators around our district, throughout Oklahoma, and around the world. If you’re interested in seeing other creative ways Yukon teachers are using YouTube to share student work and “flip their classrooms,” check out the channels of high school trigonometry teacher Jim Drummond (25 videos, math problem tutorials), 7th grade geography teacher Phillip Ward (42 videos, student “paper-slide video” reports about Africa), 6th grade social studies teacher Kayleen Browning (6 videos, student skits about ancient Rome), and professional development coordinator Adam Zodrow (7 videos: screencasts about Common Core, TLE and more).

If you’re interested in creating a free YouTube channel, check out these instructions on the YPS Instructional FAQs site. Many thanks to Jake Heister, who taught a wonderful professional development workshop earlier this semester at Canadian Valley Technology Center about instructional uses of YouTube, which Mrs. Gregory attended.

Developing Communication Skills With YouTube & iPad Videos originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on May 16, 2013.

Here are some of the notes I took from the STEM curriculum and activities Felicia and Stephanie have done / are doing at the University of Texas Elementary School.
- They’ve played math pentathlon games with students
- The Austin Children’s Museum has been a huge help and even provides interns to assist with some lessons
- They have an A-B schedule they call green & blue days, so Felicia sees her students every other day
- some of their projects extend over 14 class meetings
- They’ve done digital storytelling integration with language arts
- Texas will have new math standards in 2014
- They’ve signed up for the Tinker Software beta, which is commercial software similar to Scratch, does have curriculum
- Tinker can be combined with Lego WeDo kits
- In May they received 90 Chromebooks through a Google Grant
- First Lego League starts at age 9, Junior First Lego League starts at age 6
- their digital storytelling project involved an interview with an elderly person and identifying a problem they could help solve for them
- Lego Simple Machine kits are great
– can give kids problems to solve, can work in 45 min lesson
- Have used Scratch software for students to create projects linking to social/emotional learning objectives
- students created projects showing tenacity, empathy, etc.
- Scratch has also been used to integratel language arts classes and lessons
- using design thinking resources from the NoTosh Design Thinking School
- Ewan and Tom visited their school after/during SXSW this year
- Stephanie has a brainstorming wall with students listing and organizing questions by whether they are “Googleable” or “Non-Googleable”
- they focus on non-Googleable questions in class mostly
- have 33 Chromebooks for language arts, so 1:1 in that class
- 2:1 for math studetns
- have just had the Chromebooks 6 days, amazing to see how fast the students took to using them and collaborating
- Students recently created presentations on Haiku Deck on the iPads
- Students recently studying habitats, identified the real community problem of Austin not having a real zoo, students discovered the problem and that made a huge difference for their interest, engagement and motivation to extend their learning
- Using Little Bird Tales for digital storytelling, costs $1 to download each story however
– app is $3
- Engineering is Elementary kits have been wonderful to have and use this year too

I recommended they check out WeVideo, which Steve Dembo demonstrated in his Feb 2013 ICE conference preso on digital storytelling

Some notes from what Chris shared about IES Stem projects
- The kids really like the “Dear Mr Henshaw” lunchbox burglar alarm project
- Prosthetic Legs project is the one which has received the most local media attention (see videos in Chris’ YouTube channel for more)
- Currently working on a rockets project

- A VA doctor and also veterans with prosthetics come to school to help students understand the need and the project
- iPad cart is used for some media production like eBooks using Book Creator
- Scratch Club has been huge this year, Scratch (according to Chris) is the IDEAL unit and software program to use with STEM students because of the ways it integrates not only math and computational thinking, but also language arts

Chris’ main STEM lessons website recommendation (which he uses all the time) is eGFI: Engineering Go For It (resources for teachers)

After our meeting we discussed possibilities for changing the STEM schedule at IES, since more TIME is needed: STEM Teachers must seek kids more often to have deep instead of shallow learning

I mentioned Mustang (a nearby OKC-area district) is starting a STEM Program
- apparently it’s a grade 5-6 program

Closing thought: This was a great opportunity to learn together! Many thanks to Felicia, Stephanie, Chris and Adam – We’re sharing this with our other YPS STEM teachers and I hope you’ll share your own STEM resources as you find them too!

Technorati Tags: collaboration, curriculum, elementary, oklahoma, oklahomacity, stem, yukon, austin

Elementary STEM Idea Sharing (May 2013) originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on May 13, 2013.

This spring semester, 3rd grade students at Shedeck Elementary School in Yukon, Oklahoma, worked with their librarian, Jeannie Wilmes, to conduct “blended research” about different kinds of animals. Their research was “blended” because students used both library books as well as electronic resources like the PebbleGo website and database. Mrs. Wilmes worked with students twice a week for two weeks in this project, which culminated in students audio recording their research using the free iPad app AudioBoo. Students were then able to share their recordings with classmates and with parents online. In this five minute interview video, Mrs. Wilmes and some of the Shedeck third graders describe their project, what they enjoyed and some of their lessons learned.

Check out more of the students’ recordings on the AudioBoo channels for Mrs. Doran’s class, Mrs. Filyukova’s class, and Mrs. Forga’s class. It’s wonderful to see and hear the great work that Mrs. Wilmes is able to do with students as a full-time library media specialist. Way to go Shedeck students and educators!

Do you know about mudpuppies, which are sometimes called water dogs? If not, you better check out Cynthia’s report!

3rd Graders Research Animals with 4 iPads, AudioBoo and PebbleGo originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on May 8, 2013.

In his May 5, 2013 article in the San Francisco Chronicle, “FCC priority should be faster bandwidth,” Blair Levin contends the FCC should focus on increasing available Internet bandwidth in U.S. communities. He compares available access speeds and prices in United States cities to Japan, which is leaps and bounds faster and cheaper.

Levin is correct to argue the United States government needs to adopt policies to promote faster broadband access. The FCC and other government agencies also need to pay attention to continuing policies of draconian content filtering in many public schools, however, which sadly remain opaque or hidden to most community constituents besides students and teachers. While some school districts have adopted more balanced approaches to content filtering in the past several years, allowing teachers to bypass content filters and allowing greater student access to websites for interactive publishing, we still have a long way to go. The FCC and other government agencies could do a lot of good by promoting research and amplifying research that highlights these restrictive content filtering policies in some schools.

As educators and advocates for blended learning in our schools, we need to find ways in upcoming months to highlight the digital divide that continues between school and business Internet access in the United States. Many school districts and school leaders continue to resist the imperative to help learners of all ages become responsible publishers online. As more educators work to Map Media to the Common Core in the years ahead, hopefully these dynamics can constructively change without intervention from the federal government.

If you are an academic researcher or someone interested in research to promote improvement in schools, consider researching the need for balanced filtering in education.

Hat tip to Doug Levin for sharing this article link via Twitter.

More Than Bandwidth: FCC Should Address Content Filtering in Schools originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on May 6, 2013.

We need more teachers like Pam and school administrators like Shawn supporting the creative uses of interactive writing in the classroom! Check out and follow more innovative Oklahoma educators from my (now almost 200 strong) Twitter List of Oklahoma educators. Know someone who is not on that list and should be? Please tweet me!

If you’d like to learn how to create videos like this, sign up to attend one of the “steeply discounted” digital storytelling workshops offered by Storychasers in Oklahoma City in June!

Technorati Tags: kidblog, oklahoma, writing, piedmont

Encouraging 5th Grade Writing with Benny the Mastiff & KidBlog in Piedmont, Oklahoma originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on May 6, 2013.

• Chris Simon’s STEM curriculum site
• Amy Luffelhotz’ STEM class blog
• Independence Elementary School’s Scratch Club site
• January 2013 Yukon Review article about kids learning Scratch

Info on the Spring Break 2013 Scratch Camp Chris Simon and I led:

• On NewsOK.com
• In the Yukon Review
• Oklahoma Scratch Camp resources

I have more STEM and Scratch related resources on:

• Deepening our Learning Through Storytelling: creativity, STEM and stories
• Support STEM Skills with Scratch

  by  ScratchEdTeam 

STEM and Scratch Resources (May 2013) originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on May 6, 2013.

Technorati Tags: blog, security, wordpress

WordPress Security Tips (May 2013) originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on May 1, 2013.

First, visit YouTube.com and login with your Gmail / Google account. In the upper right corner of the screen click SETTINGS.

Under your email address click ADVANCED.

Under Channel Settings click CREATE CUSTOM URL:

Enter your desired YouTube channel ID. This will be part of your web address / URL for YouTube, and must be unique:’

You should see a confirmation message after your channel name is set.

You can now upload videos to your YouTube channel, just like you add file attachments to emails.

YouTube now allows ANY account to upload videos LONGER than fifteen minutes, not just accounts connected to Google Apps for Edu. Follow these steps to “verify” your YouTube account using your cell phone number.

Technorati Tags: youtube, channel, id, setup

Create YouTube Channel with Custom URL (April 2013) originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on April 29, 2013.

• $500
• Has HDMI and VGA connections
• LED powered so bulb should last 10 years (yes that’s not a typo: TEN years!)
• Can run on electricity continually or about an hour on the internal battery
• Built-in speaker, but also has connection for external 1/8″ audio speakers

Biggest disadvantage at this point: These are not for sale individually online, apparently, you have to go through a retailer.

Having eyed the Pico Projector since 2008, a small projector like this sounds very appealing. Hopefully we’ll see projectors with even lower price points, and equivalent functions, showing up on Amazon and in Brookstone soon. Brookstone’s “Compact 85-Lumen Pocket Projector” is appealing but not as feature-packed and powerful as the CooLux LED DLP Projector.

Steve showed off the WiPad Pro using the projector today, which is a $400 ($300 with edu discount) RF wireless mirroring solution for the iPad. It does not require Bonjour networking to be turned on, which is a sticking point with some network admins. It’s pricey as iPad mirroring options go but good to know about. See the wonderful comparative table on Tony Vincent’s post, “Mirror iPad, iPhone, iPod to Your Screen for Free,” for more iPad mirroring options.

Follow the iPads for Learning Conference today in Olathe with the Twitter hashtag, #ipadsforlearning. It is presented by ESSDACK.

I’ll be presenting a 3 day iPad Media Camp this summer in both Oklahoma City (June 10-12) and Manhattan, Kansas (July 9-11). PDF flyers about iPad Media Camp are available, please share it with other educators you know who might be interested!

Technorati Tags: ipad, ipads, projector, led, dlp, coolux

The Portable $500 LED Projector I Want originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on April 26, 2013.

As a free audio service with free smartphone apps for both iPhone and Android, AudioBoo is an ideal platform to use on a student field trip to document experiences with both audio and images. This morning I accompanied my 3rd grade daughter’s class to the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City, as a parent volunteer. In advance I created a 1 page flyer for other parents who might be interested in also using AudioBoo with their student group. (Also available as a PDF.)

The version I shared with parents already had the userID and password for the free AudioBoo account/channel I setup included.

Here is an “AudioBoo board” of eight photos and audio narrations our group created today at the History Center.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a picture WITH accompanying audio narration is worth one thousand! Behold, the power of “narrated art / narrated photos!”

Chicago-area elementary art teacher Tricia Fuglestad used AudioBoo with her students on a recent field trip to the Chicago Museum of Art. She also live-tweeted their trip! Check out Tricia’s post about the experience, their AudioBoo channel and this AudioBoo board of their field trip experiences.

Also check out the awesome 69 second video Tricia created afterwards, “Musical Tutorial of AudioBoo.”

Musical Tutorial of AudioBoo from Tricia Fuglestad on Vimeo.

Field trips can rock, and so can mobile technology tools like AudioBoo! Our experiences today reinforce how important it is to REGULARLY challenge students to talk about their learning and even record/share their thoughts digitally. These are skills our students need to practice to develop, and many aren’t doing this enough now! Technology can be a powerful amplifier, and field trips with smartphone-wielding parent volunteers can provide ideal opportunities to use tools like AudioBoo to deepen as well as extend student learning.

Technorati Tags: audioboo, edtech, education, oklahoma, technology, field, trip, school, document, audio, share, learning, history, museum

Document Field Trip Learning with AudioBoo originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on April 25, 2013.

I added this screencast video to my YouTube playlist, “iPad Tutorials.” Access additional resources and tutorials on the “Radio Shows” page of Mapping Media to the Common Core.

The 15 minute audio interview with my wife I referenced in the screencast, “Urban Ministry in Oklahoma City” is embedded below and also available on my Christian blog, Eyes Right.

Technorati Tags: audio, podcast, podcasting, show, radioshow

Create an Online Radio Show with Spreaker DJ for iPad originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on April 25, 2013.

1. Learn How To Become a Digital Storyteller in June 2013!
2. Register for June 5-6
3. Register for June 19-20

(cross-posted from Storychasers.org)

Learn How To Become a Digital Storyteller in June 2013!

Registration is now open for TWO special digital storytelling workshops in Oklahoma City offered by Storychasers. Both workshops will be held at the Canadian Valley Technology Center in Yukon. Registration is available via Eventbrite using the links below. The dates are:

1. Wednesday June 5 & Thursday June 6
2. Wednesday June 19 & Thursday June 20

Storychaser phase 1 workshops are 2 day opportunities to learn the basics of creating a digital story using a “Digital Backpack” of supplies. Participants learn how to use portable audio recorders, microphones, audio editing software (Audacity) and video software (PhotoStory3 or iMovie) to create short, 3 – 5 minute videos using audio and still images. Approximately half of the workshop time is dedicated to individual project work. Participants KEEP their digital backpack equipment following the workshop. Our workshops in June 2013 are steeply discounted, because we are transitioning to iPad-based workshops and liquidating our remaining inventory of digital backpack gear. The original cost of the equipment participants will use and keep following our workshop is $250, so this workshop cost is exceptionally low and a fantastic value. Purchase orders are accepted for payment, please select “SHOW OTHER PAYMENT OPTIONS” below the PayPal logo for more information.

Our current workshop agenda is available online, which provides an overview of activities.

Each day we start at 8:30 am, so please plan to arrive between 8 and 8:15 am to be ready for a prompt start. We end at 5 pm both days. Lunch is on your own and not provided, but we encourage participants  to eat together in groups if possible.

Read more details on the individual Eventbrite registration pages for June 5-6 and June 19-20. Participants can bring their own laptop or use a provided Windows desktop computer during the workshop. Since these workshop prices are STEEPLY discounted, we expect them to fill up quickly. Please register as soon as you can!

Register for June 5-6

Register for June 19-20

Technorati Tags: development, digital, okc, oklahoma, professional, storychasers, storytelling, workshop, summer

Steeply Discounted Digital Storytelling Workshops: June 5-6 & June 19-20 (Oklahoma City) originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on April 24, 2013.

This innovative, three day experience is designed specifically for K-12 and university-level faculty/instructors. In iPad Media Camp participants will learn how to use iPads to create a variety of media products and facilitate these projects with students. Projects can be modified for use in every grade level and content area, kindergarten through college-level. Each day will focus on different products and apps:

• Day 1: Narrated Art, Narrated Slideshows and Screencasts
• Day 2: Quick-edit Videography and Paper-slide Videos
• Day 3: eBooks and Interactive Writing

iPad Media Camp will be offered twice this summer:

• June 10-12 in Oklahoma City (hosted by The Casady School in northwest OKC)
• July 9-11 in Manhattan, Kansas (hosted by the College of Education at Kansas State University)

Substantially discounted “early bird” registration is available through May 11th (for Oklahoma City) and through June 9th (for Manhattan, Kansas). For those traveling to iPad Media Camp from out-of-town and out-of-state, nearby lodging suggestions for each week of camp are available.

Please download, forward via email, and/or print these flyers in PDF format with other teachers, administrators, and staff in your school who might be interested in this professional development opportunity:

• PDF flyer: June 10-12 Oklahoma City iPad Media Camp
• PDF flyer: July 9-11 Manhattan, Kansas, iPad Media Camp

Here are some of the reactions of teachers who participated in iPad Media Camp in summer 2012:

Dr. Fryer made the impossible happen for me. I was able to create movies and books! I’m an old dog and he made it fun and easy to learn new tricks. Great workshop and a great presenter.

If you are interested in coming up with innovative ways to engage your students in class with media they are truly interested in, you need to attend this camp. The things I’ve learned in this camp, and others taught by Wes, have made my class exciting for kids to attend and helped make them responsible media creators.

Go directly to Media Camp. Do not pass GO, do not collect $200! It was so worth my time. Even old dogs can learn new tricks! Thank you for all your hard work.

The curriculum from the June 2012 iPad Media Camp is available online. Curriculum is being revised for summer 2013, but will include many elements from last summer’s workshops.

Check out the two minute video trailer from iPad Media Camp 2012 to learn more!

iPad Media Camp: June & July 2013 in Oklahoma & Kansas originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on April 24, 2013.

YouTube can be used in powerful, transformative ways to support classroom learning, especially when STUDENTS create content shared online. Today, as I helped one of our 7th grade geography teachers wrap up a paper-slide video project in which student-created videos were uploaded to his YouTube channel, we discovered that YouTube now permits “bulk modification” of videos in the Video Manager. This means teachers can now change the settings for 30 videos or more, all at once, so comment moderation is REQUIRED.

Comment moderation is turned OFF by default on all YouTube channels, even if your school district uses Google Apps for Education. When comment moderation is turned ON, the teacher / owner of the YouTube channel has the opportunity to APPROVE any comments which are left on videos in their YouTube channel before they show up publicly for others to view. I highly recommend teachers turn on comment moderation on YouTube videos, since (presently) it’s not possible to turn on comment moderation by default. The following steps are also available as a 2 page PDF file, linked from the “Quick Edit Video” page of Mapping Media to the Common Core.

Step 1: Open YouTube Video Manager

Step 2: Select videos to edit / change settings on

Step 3: Select ACTIONS – ADVANCED. Select COMMENTS.

Step 4: Click ALLOW ONLY APPROVED COMMENTS

Technorati Tags: howto, moderate, paperslide, playingwithmedia, tutorial, videos, youtube, comments

Bulk-Modify YouTube Videos to Turn ON Comment Moderation originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on April 22, 2013.

1. SEVEN SLIDE RUBRIC
2. DAILY EXIT TICKETS
3. PRINTED RESEARCH MATERIALS
4. OPEN ENDED QUESTIONS ARE KEY
5. POWER OF NON-LINGUISTIC REPRESENTATION
6. BENEFIT OF GROUP WORK AND PRE-SELECTING GROUPS
7. TIME MILESTONES
8. MODELING THE PROCESS AND PRODUCT
9. SIMPLE UPLOADING WITH IMAGE CAPTURE
10. ANDROID VIDEO SHARING WITH AIRDROID
11. FOCUS ON IMAGES NOT SLIDE TEXT
12. NOTE CARDS FOR SCRIPTS
13. RECORDING VIDEOS IN LANDSCAPE MODE
14. QR CODES AND LIST.LY
15. CLOSING THOUGHTS

(Cross-posted from PlayingWithMedia.com)

We are hearing more about BYOD (bring your own device) initiatives in many school districts these days, but what kinds of technology integration projects can teachers and students realistically do when some (but not all) students have smartphones and the teacher has one laptop? Today’s smartphone (or the smartphone of four years ago, which students may have inherited from parents or older siblings) can be remarkably powerful, but the BYOD environment can make technology integration even more challenging than a 1:1 situation when all students have the same technology equipment and software. Paper-Slide Videos are one practical type of technology integration project which can work well in a BYOD setting, and in this post I’d like to share some lessons learned from last week when I helped one of the 7th grade geography teachers in our district facilitate a three day paper-slide video project which ultimately culminated in 33 short videos (most less than 2 minutes long) being uploaded to his YouTube channel on Friday. To learn more about paper-slide videos as well as access the rubric and planning guide for this project which we co-created, please refer to the “Quick Edit Video” project page in Mapping Media to the Common Core. Paper-slide videos are BYOD projects your students CAN do with guidance and facilitation. I recommend you give this project idea a try after you review some of these lessons learned.

Phillip Ward (the 7th grade teacher) and I had many cards stacked against us for this project: It is testing time in Oklahoma, so no computer labs were available for checkout and use. The library was closed for testing 2 of the 3 days, so its computers weren’t available either. There are not any mobile laptop or iPad/iPod Touch carts available for any teacher to use in our 7/8 middle school building, so literally the only technology devices we had to use were his Macbook Air laptop, his desktop WindowsXP computer, and any mobile devices the students could bring to class. We designed this project to take 3 days, and serve as a culminating activity for the past several weeks when students have been studying Sub-Saharan Africa. These are some of the key lessons learned and takeaways which I had from this project.

SEVEN SLIDE RUBRIC

The most important tool Phillip and I created together during several meetings in the weeks preceding the paper-slide video project was the three page planning guide and rubric which students used all three days. This was based in-part on a rubric and guide Mary Frazier, a Technology Specialist in Buhler, Kansas, shared online a few years ago at the MACE Conference in Manhattan, Kansas.

I work as an “Innovative Instructional Coach for Common Core” in Yukon Public Schools, and it was very important to both Phillip and I that we built in higher-order thinking questions which would require the students to go beyond fact/recall in the project. On page 1 of the student document, we outlined expectations for each slide of the project. Slide 1 and slide 7 were straightforward: a title slide and bibliography / works cited slide. Slides 2 and 3 were fact slides to build background knowledge. Slide 4 is where the higher order thinking kicked in: Why is this topic important to study and understand? Slides 5 and 6 continued with open ended questions the students had to answer, which do NOT have answers which are readily Googleable.

Page 1 highlighted the key rules for a paper-slide video:

1. One Take
2. Non-stop Video
3. No Editing
4. Quick Publishing

DAILY EXIT TICKETS

Page 2 of the planning guide was the class exit ticket for day 1: Students were required to decide in their groups of 2 or 3 who would be responsible for each slide. Students started brainstorming topics and used provided print articles about their assigned subject (which were almost all different) to begin their research process.

Page 3 of the planning guide was used on days 2 and 3 to actually draw illustrations which would highlight the concepts being discussed. Students needed to at least have their own slides (the ones they were responsible for) sketched out and outlined by the end of day 2 as their class “exit ticket.”

This seven slide storyboard proved to work well for the three class periods students had to complete their projects from start to finish. It provided enough structure and guidance that students weren’t lost or unsure about what to do, but still provided room for student creativity in their projects.

PRINTED RESEARCH MATERIALS

Since not all students had a smartphone with access to the Internet, Phillip prepared packets of 1-2 articles per topic for the students to use for research in the project. This provided students with instructional materials they could read and use for their reports, and also sped up the research process since students didn’t have to find and vet sources themselves.

I wish we could have provided each student group with at least 2-3 printed articles, but it worked with each group having just 1 or 2.

OPEN ENDED QUESTIONS ARE KEY

Another key to the success of this project was the open ended questions list which Phillip and I brainstormed together. This is available as a shared Google Doc. We knew we were pushing students beyond “just the facts” (as Common Core State Standards require) when we heard comments like:

1. This answer isn’t in the article.
2. This is hard!
3. I don’t know.

This was, in fact, my favorite part of the entire project: Getting to have important conversations with students about historical events and current events. Many of these conversations showed how VERY important lessons and cognitive expectations like these are. SO many of our students have no idea that the United States is still at war in the Middle East today, using drone aircraft as well as military and covert forces to kill suspected terrorists on a weekly basis. Many students don’t understand and can’t explain the reasons why the United States chose to intervene militarily in Iraq and Afghanistan but hasn’t intervened militarily in Darfur and didn’t intervene in Rwanda to prevent or stop the genocide in 1994. These conversations reminded me a lot of why high school and college extemporaneous speaking is SUCH A wonderful and valuable event. Students have to understand and take ownership over their learning to a MUCH greater extent when they are required to speak about a topic and even just carry on an intelligent conversation with someone else about it. I wish we made more time in classes for discussions like these. The requirement to ask students to go “beyond the facts” and utilize higher order thinking skills to summarize, synthesize, evaluate and create is one of my favorite elements of Common Core State Standards.

POWER OF NON-LINGUISTIC REPRESENTATION

Many students were challenged by the requirement to draw illustrations which highlighted the ideas they were going to share for that slide in their project. Non-lingustic representation is one instructional strategy which Robert Marzano highlighted in his 2004 meta-analysis of educational research, “Classroom Instruction That Works.” It’s a key part of several of the media projects in Mapping Media to the Common Core digital literacy framework, including Narrated Art, 5 Photo Stories, and Visual Notetaking.

Phillip did a better job than I did during the actual project work “acting like Socrates” when students asked, “What can I draw for this?” Often his answer would be, “I don’t know, what do you think?” This encouraged students to stop acting like dependent learners waiting for guidance from the teacher for everything they did in class, to instead becoming more independent learners thinking for themselves and also collaborating with others.

BENEFIT OF GROUP WORK AND PRE-SELECTING GROUPS

Phillip wisely chose (for his situation) to pre-select and assign student groups. This sped up the process of students getting into groups, and also let him “stack the deck” in some cases making sure students with special needs were paired with other students who could assist them in helpful and appropriate ways. He also avoided grouping students who had historically demonstrated difficulty working with each other.

TIME MILESTONES

It was helpful to set some time milestones for students during day 2 and day 3 of the project. On day 3, we wrote the class “halftime” on the board and told students that by that time they needed to be starting their video recording. When we got to that halfway point in class, we announced it. This helped insure that ALL students started recording in time to complete their video by the end of class, and students didn’t waste too much time on some slides that they didn’t have time to create others. This models the idea I picked up for digital storytelling projects some time ago, “It’s never done, it’s just due.” Students had to go with what they had, and use their time as best they could to complete a final product.

MODELING THE PROCESS AND PRODUCT

Prior to the start of the three day project, Phillip and I had planned a project together using the rubric and planning guide on “China’s One Child Policy.”

Because of illnesses in both our families we weren’t able to co-create this project until the morning of day 2, but that proved ok. I created a sample project (“Egypt After Arab Spring”) on my own before we started, and we were able to show that to students on day 1 as we introduced paper-slide videos. Then on day 2, we showed students our collaborative paper-slide video and they were able to identify several ways it was better as a combined effort. The fact that both Phillip and I took some instructional risks by doing this project and showing students it was ok to use imperfect drawings seemed to raise their confidence in being able to successfully complete a similar project. It also gave us insight into what we were requiring and asking of the students, and helped us identify things we needed to emphasize in our facilitator roles during the project.

SIMPLE UPLOADING WITH IMAGE CAPTURE

One of the best things about a paper-slide video project is that it doesn’t require any technology in the classroom until the final day or phase, when students actually record their videos. I knew the project-turn in process would be important to plan and streamline as much as possible, so we asked each student group to bring an iPhone or iPod Touch with video which they could use to record on day 3. Only a few groups weren’t able to provide one, so I loaned my iPhone to some groups and others shared an iPhone. I brought USB cables for both the iPhone 30 pin connector and lightning connector, and used the free application “Image Capture” to copy the student videos onto Phillip’s district-provided Macbook Air laptop. As I copied each file into a folder for that class period on the laptop with Image Capture, I named the file with the class period, project title, and first names of students who created it. I then immediately uploaded each video to a YouTube channel I helped Phillip create earlier. As I uploaded videos, I used the Mac OS X feature of coloring files to mark uploaded files as “green.” This process worked well and was speedy.

ANDROID VIDEO SHARING WITH AIRDROID

One of our student groups had two Android phones, but no iPhone or iPod Touch. This provided an opportunity for me to test the functionality of the free Android application AirDroid, which I’d learned about earlier last week listening to the first Chromebook episode of GigaOm’s Commutist podcast. (Yes that’s COMMUTIST, not communist – be sure you’re not scanning this post too quickly!) Thanks so much to Chromebook/Android guru Kevin C. Tofel for sharing it!

AirDroid lets you use ANY web browser to download video files from an Android device to your computer, provided both your computer and the Android device are connected to the same wifi network with open ports for this sort of thing. Our district public wifi didn’t work, so I pulled out my Verizon hotspot and it worked great. Next week I’m going to talk with our tech director and network admin to see if it’s possible for ports to be opened on our public network so AirDroid can work on it.

If you know about or have used other solutions for transferring videos from an Android smartphone to a laptop besides Airdroid, please let me know with a comment or tweet.

FOCUS ON IMAGES NOT SLIDE TEXT

Another very positive aspect of this project, in my view, was the emphasis we put on students utilizing drawings / images with MINIMUM text on each slide. All too often we see PowerPoint abused in classrooms when students (and many teachers) fill slides with text. In the spirit of Garr Reynolds’ “Presentation Zen” book, Phillip and I did our part last week to try and shift students toward more visual literacy in their media presentations rather than an overuse of written text.

NOTE CARDS FOR SCRIPTS

It worked well for students to write scripts and notes for their paper-slide narration on notecards. Some used notebook paper and some wrote on their planning documents, but most used notecards.

RECORDING VIDEOS IN LANDSCAPE MODE

We asked students before they started recording their videos to hold their smartphones in landscape, rather than portrait mode. This would avoid “letterbox bars” to the left and right of their video, and make the videos full-screen when viewed on a projector. We also asked them to be sure their video mode rotated correctly, so they didn’t record their videos sideways. Despite our warnings, this generally happened at least once per class period. Thankfully, the Mac software program “TransformMovie” is available with a fully-functional, free trial. It can rotate and “fix” a video accidentally recorded sideways MUCH faster than other free programs I’ve used for this like MPEG Streamclip.

QR CODES AND LIST.LY

We did not ask students to create electronic or “clickable” bibliographies for this research project, but I definitely see good possibilities for this using the free web platform list.ly. For more details see my post last week, “Egypt After Arab Spring: A Paper Slide Video Example and List.ly Bibliography.” I also see great possibilities for using printed QR codes to not only help students connect their smartphones directly to research articles so they can follow links for more information, but also to provide scannable QR codes inside paper-slide videos which link to list.ly bibliographies.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

There were 4 student groups (out of about 37 total) who did not complete their paper-slide video recordings on Friday. Those students are going to finish up on Monday, and Phillip is going to ask all students to respond to some reflective essay questions about the project and what they learned. Feedback so far has been very positive, and Phillip plans to share all the student-created videos in class in upcoming weeks after state-mandated testing is finally over. Once he identifies several of the best videos, I’m going to write a post about this project and share it on the Yukon Public Schools’ Learning Showcase website. I’m also hopeful we can create a short video with student interviews as well as an interview with Phillip discussing the project elements as well as lessons learned.

The paper-slide video products Phillip’s 7th grade students created last week are not Steven Spielberg quality digital stories, but they DO reflect a considerable amount of thinking, learning, and collaboration on the part of students. This is a great and practical “Common Core aligned” media project. Hopefully this example can inspire other teachers at Yukon Middle School, as well as you, to consider a “Quick Edit Video” project like this in your own class.

Consider a paper-slide video for your next (or first) BYOD project with students!

Technorati Tags: classroom, edtech, paperslide, playingwithmedia, technology, video, byod

Paper Slide Video: Your Next (or First) BYOD Technology Integration Project originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on April 21, 2013.

I used these paper slides today to create a 5 minute, 20 second sample project based on our rubric and planning documents. This followed the four basic guidelines of Paper Slide Videos:

1. One Take
2. Non-stop Video
3. No Editing
4. Quick Publishing

I feel a disclaimer is needed because of the second grade quality of my drawings. Remember in a paper slide video project, it is more important to have drawings which are relevant non-linguistic representations of ideas rather then perfect pictures.

I’ve added a link to our project rubric and planning guide sheets (in PDF format) to the “Quick Edit Video” page of Mapping Media to the Common Core. Many thanks to Mary Frazier of Buhler, Kansas, whose excellent Paper Slide Video wiki as well as project planning page (PDF) was a major inspiration for this project.

Back in February at the ICE Conference, I saw Meg Wilson use List.ly to share a hotlist of eBook apps she recommends for the iPad. For this project, I wanted a fast and easy way to create a hotlist of the sources I used for research. I used List.ly and the provided bookmarklet to make a hotlist on an iPad of my project sources.

To create this hotlist, I first signed into List.ly with my Twitter ID. Students and others can alternatively create an account on the site not tied to a Twitter, Facebook, or Google Account. Students could also use a shared class account, although care should always be taken when using shared accounts since this permits ANYONE with the login credentials to anonymously delete or edit the work of others.

I installed the List.ly browser bookmarklet on my iPad and used it to add links to each site I used for research.

Last of all, I used the free iPad app “QR Code Beamer” to create a QR code which corresponds to my List.ly hotlist. I uploaded that image to Flickr and then printed it to include on my last slide.

In addition to planning out our rubric and planning guide for this Paper Slide Video project, we also spent quite a bit of time brainstorming open ended questions about different curricular topics students have already studied a little in class. Our hope is that students will be required to engage in a lot of higher order thinking, especially for slides 4-6 of the project, as they explain the importance and relevance of their topic as well as address open-ended questions. I’m looking forward to seeing the results!

Technorati Tags: paper, playingwithmedia, slide, video, videos

Egypt After Arab Spring: A Paper Slide Video Example and List.ly Bibliography originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on April 16, 2013.

This evening I recorded a twenty minute screencast, demonstrating how to use the FREE software programs Audacity, iTunes, The Levellator, and the websites AudioBoo and DropBox to create and publish a multi-track Internet radio show or podcast. Access more tools, tutorials, and resources about creating radio shows on the “Radio Show” page of Mapping Media to the Common Core. This video tutorial and others are included.

Also, see my October 2009 post, “How I create and publish podcasts” for additional details. My workflow for podcasting hasn’t changed much in the past few years. iPad apps like Bossjock Studio may change it at some point, however! If you’re interested in podcasting from an iPad, also see my March 2013 post and screencast, “Create an All-iPad Class Radio Show with AudioBoo, Bossjock, GoodReader, & SoundCloud.”

Technorati Tags: audacity, howto, itunes, playingwithmedia, radio, show, tutorial

Create a Multi-Track Radio Show (Podcast) with Audacity originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on April 16, 2013.

In contrast [to print books], most screens, e-readers, smartphones and tablets interfere with intuitive navigation of a text and inhibit people from mapping the journey in their minds. A reader of digital text might scroll through a seamless stream of words, tap forward one page at a time or use the search function to immediately locate a particular phrase — but it is difficult to see any one passage in the context of the entire text. As an analogy, imagine if Google Maps allowed people to navigate street by individual street, as well as to teleport to any specific address, but prevented them from zooming out to see a neighborhood, state or country. Although e-readers like the Kindle and tablets like the iPad re-create pagination — sometimes complete with page numbers, headers and illustrations — the screen only displays a single virtual page: it is there and then it is gone. Instead of hiking the trail yourself, the trees, rocks and moss move past you in flashes with no trace of what came before and no way to see what lies ahead.

Read the entire article, it’s excellent: “Do e-readers inhibit reading comprehension?” by Ferris Jabr.

Mobile blogged on an iPhone with WordPress for iOS. (free)

Understanding Why eBooks “Feel Different” originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on April 15, 2013.

  by  dok1 

Since I still receive a ton of press releases and requests to post content via email, a few years ago I also started to use SaneBox. SaneBox is an email “whitelisting” service which also attempts to categorize emails and sort things into folders. It allows you to “train” your inbox, which means giving instructions about how to handle messages from certain senders. Both POBox and SaneBox are services I pay a small yearly amount to use, and I like them both. They have not “solved” my email management challenges, but they definitely help.

The other strategy I’ve employed to try and manage messages from my blog is to use electronic contact forms. Contact Form 7 is a free, outstanding plug-in for WordPress that I’ve used for several years. I started using electronic contact forms on websites sometime in the late 1990s. Even though I have different forms for speaking inquiries, advertising, and other messages, I inevitably get spam on all the forms I have online.

Today I made several modifications to my blog advertising options and procedures, and created a submission form with more “required” text fields. I’m hoping this will reduce the number of inquiries I receive on that specific form which are outside my advertising terms. Here’s a recent example from last week:

The previous request is particularly dangerous, since a stranger is asking to put PHP code on my website for a year. This is something I haven’t seen before and would never do. Now that my advertising terms and request form has more required fields, hopefully it will cut down on submissions like these.

How are you navigating requests for advertising, press release posts, or guest blog posts? I think Tony Vincent and JoAnne Jacobs both have excellent pages and policies about this. See Tony’s disclosure on the bottom of his LearningInHand.com’s About page and JoAnne’s advertising page to see their terms and approaches. Richard Byrne, as far as I know, is doing the best job monetizing direct advertising on his blog of any teacher in the U.S. Check out his advertising information page too. Richard is running more ads than I would or will, but he’s also on another “plane” of blogging frequency than I am or most people probably will want to be.

Technorati Tags: ad, advertising, blog, email, filter, form, spam

Updates to Blog Advertising Options and Procedures originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on April 14, 2013.

Our school has about 800 students (200 per grade) and we are requiring all our freshmen to start a blog about their school experience, and maintain it over their 4 years here. Regardless of what program they choose to create their blog, they have to be organized in a manner that allows different populations to find and read them. And this system has to be robust enough to support 200 additional blogs each year, organized by homeroom and accessible to users with all sorts of ability levels (ranging from highly skilled to terrified, and who are universally too busy to go far out of their way to troubleshoot).

Myron Buck is the High School Information Communications Technology Facilitator at Hong Kong International School and the author of this paragraph.

Read his entire recent post, “The Heir Apparent…” (about Feedly and Google Reader) to get more context. Myron is @myroniusbuckus on Twitter and blogs on the Digital Bridge. I love the term “digital bridge” in the context of educational technology.

Hat tip to Jeff Utecht for sharing his post, “The Bright Side Of Google Reader Leaving Us,” which led me to Myron’s post.

  by  kjarrett 

Technorati Tags: blog, edtech, technology, blogging, playingwithmedia

What Support for Interactive Writing (Blogging) at High School Should Look Like originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on April 8, 2013.

We don’t share this with you at the start of the PD sequence because we don’t want to scare everyone

We call this “Learning to Cross the Street in a Digital World” because we don’t just send kids out to the street by themselves
- we talk about not filtering everything, it would be better if things were open and you can teach kids
- we’ve heard some opting out of responsibility for character development
- digital citizenship is the same: we need to teach digital citizenship just lil we do character development

ISTE Standards
- it is the right thing to do
- it is also required by the state

Research we use is from PEW Research Center
- some of this is for teens
- 2011: percentage of teens who turned to for advice after witnessing online cruelty
- most accounts have
- a billion active users as of December 2012

STUDY: “Teens, kindness and cruelty on social network sites” (Nov 2011)

Kids are on Instagram, parents are on Facebook
- I think kids are logging into Instagram instead of Facebook to get away from adults

Instagram is the same as Facebook, but with pictures

(DISCUSSION WITH SOME TEACHERS THINKING ONLY PEOPLE WHO YOU HAVE APPROVED TO FOLLOW YOU PROFILE CAN SEE YOUR PHOTOS ON INSTAGRAM)

Video: Is Social Media a Fad? by Erik Qualman

PEW Internet: Social Networking Full View (Feb 2013)
- 15% of online adults use Pinterest
- 13% of online adults use Instagram
- 6% of online adults use Tumbler
- 67% of online adults use Facebook
- 16% of online adults use Twitter
- 20% of online adults use LinkedIn as of August 2012

Who is most likely to post reviews online?
- people who are super happy or unhappy
- you need to be aware of how much the Internet will affect business

Twitter and social network site usage
- 78% of users are boys
- the lower your income level, the more likely it is your kids are on Facebook (maybe because of less home supervision)

Report: “The Demographics of Social Media Users — 2012” (Feb 2013, PEW Internet)

I believe there are big Internet and phone addictions with both kids and adults

Digital Etiquette
- politeness counts
- all caps = SCREAMING
- be careful with CC and reply all
- Avatars are people to
- Don’t stand for bullyING

Cyberbullying is a lot of what we are going to talk about today

Electronic Standards of Conduct
- is it appropriate to answer a call during a private conversation? Do you text when others are speaking to you?

Lots has changed, so we are wanting to encourage you to learn about these things
- you might not use all of these things, but you need to know about these things to talk to kids about these issues

Worst thing I can do to my teen today: “Ground her” from her phone

MY THOUGHT: I HEARD SHERRY TURKLE ON THE NPR TECHNOLOGY PODCAST THIS MORNING TALKING ABOUT THE POWERFUL PSYCHOLOGY OF CONTROL WHICH IS AT PLAY WITH OUR PHONES. THIS REMINDS ME OF THE SIGNS I’VE SEEN MORE IN CHECKOUT LINES

Idea from Pinterest eating out: Everyone put your phones in the middle of the table, and whoever picks up their phone first pays for dinner

When it is appropriate to ask permission before posting a message, photo or video of someone?

THIS IS A REAL IMPORTANT QUESTION THAT WE DON’T ASK ENOUGH.

How do you decide what is appropriate for a text or a post?

There are issues here when students are on field trip, even by parents.

We are supporting pro-active board policies on issues like this, rather than just being reactive

How do you decide what is appropriate for a text or a post?

To be literate, competent citizens, students must understand
- how the internet works
- how to access web resources
- how to evaluate web resources
- how to behave in a responsible manner in an online community

Kids do not behave responsibly and that is why we need to talk about these issues

MY THOUGHT: I THINK THERE ARE A LOT OF EXAMPLES OF KIDS ACTING RESPONSIBILITY, BUT WE TEND TO FOCUS MORE (OR EXCLUSIVELY) ON THE NEGATIVE EXEMPLARS INSTEAD OF THE POSITIVE. ONE OF THE BIG DANGERS IN SESSIONS,

Digital Literacy Examples
- Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus: zapatopi.net/treeoctopus
- Victorian Robots: www.bigredhair.com/robots
- All About Explorers: www.allaboutexplorers.com
- Dihydrogen Monoxide Research: www.dhmo.org (WikiPedia hoax page)

So now let’s see how to check for valid sources:
- showing and discussing MLK misinfo site from Stormfront (hate group)

Use www.easywhois.com

Archive.org is Internet Wayback Machine
- this is managed by the government

MY COMMENT: ACTUALLY I THINK THE INTERNET ARCHIVE IS INDEPENDENTLY OPERATED. SEE THIS FAQ.

DigitalAccess: Full Electronic Participation in Society
- 78% of teens now have a cell phone, almost half (47%) have smartphones. This translates into 37% of all teens have smartphones, up from 23% in 2011
- 23% of teens have a tablet computer, a level comparable to the general adult population
- 95% of teens use the internet
- 93% of teens have a computer or have access to one at home. Seven in ten (71%) of teens with home computer access say the laptop or desktop they use most often is one they share with other family members

We updated these statistics last week

85% of US adults use the Internet today
89% of US adults today have cell phones (Jan 2013)

Accessing Internet on cell phones versus home Interent

Accessibility: How do you address these issues for your students?
What does accessibility have to do with equity?
Is equity one of your grant goals?

DigitalLaw
- electronic responsibility for actions and deeds
- cyberbullying
- impersonating
- pirating music / movies
- cite sources properly

MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS: THERE ARE 2 GOOD CURRENT CASE STUDIES WHICH ADDRESS PLAGIARISM ISSUES, SEE:
- “Jonah Lehrer, Integrity and Quotation Fabrication: A Case Study in Writing Ethics” (21 Aug 2012)
- “Why the Jane Goodall Plagiarism Case Worries Me” (2 Apr 2013)

In Clinton, Oklahoma, they are working toward town-wide wifi for all students (they are 1:1 iPads for all students in grades 6-12)
- every student has a Gmail account

Recent case: “Two teens found guilty in Steubenville rape case” (17 March 2013)

“Oklahoma Mom Sues Over Twitter Picture of Unclothed Daughter” (7 Jan 2013)

Forever is a long, long time
- no one is really anonymous
- libel
- copyright violations
- school sanctions
- criminal prosecution

SnapChat is a new smartphone app which is contributing to more inappropriate photos / sexting incidents

article: “Web of Risks” from 2006 in Newsweek

article: “State builds case around MySpace account” (Sept 2008)

“5 teachers disciplined for Facebook postings” (Nov 2008)

MY THOUGHT: WHEN I SIT IN SESSIONS LIKE THIS (LIKE THIS 2012 OTA SESSION: “Face the Facebook: Implications and Consequences for Educators Using Social Media by Colin Webb“) I YEARN FOR EXAMPLES OF POSITIVE DIGITAL SOCIAL NETWORKING

Kids in our schools today are not getting this kind of information

MY COMMENT: OUR SCHOOLS ARE DOING SOME INTERNET SAFETY EDUCATION WITH STUDENTS AS A RESULT OF ERATE MANDATES, BUT I THINK THE FORM THAT TAKES VARIES WIDELY BY SCHOOL AND DISTRICT.

Ryan Patrick Halligan suicide story on cyberbullying

Showing video from www.deletecyberbullying.org

Girls are twice as likely than boys to be victims as well as perpetrators of cyberbullying
- 90% of teens who have seen social-media bullying say they have ignored it, 84% have seen others tell cyberbullies to stop

After 14 cyberbullying can become cyberstalking or sexual harassment
- cyberstalking is continual cyberbully, a form of mental assault, and is covered in Oklahoma anti-stalking laws

Impersonating is posting under another’s identity, emailing using another’s identity, hacking someone’s phone or Facebook

Recent case in an Oklahoma school: A male student’s sister got his phone and posted “I’m gay and I’m coming out” when that was not true
- she did it as a joke, but it had devastating consequences

MTV show “Catfish”
- someone gets together people

Manti Tao case

“Judge hears case of teen punished for Web parody” (2006)
- student taken out of AP classes, put in alt-ed, and missed graduation

“Myspace sites draw penalty”
- Jenks PS

If kids come to you and report cyberbullying, you are required to report it to your administrator just like cases of child abuse for DPS
- the law changed in 2011 in Oklahoma
- question from the group: Do we have this in our staff handbooks? How do we communicate this to staff?

text messaging bullying is the most common form

What schools can do
- ensure cyberbullying is covered by school’s Internet usage policy
- more…

Schools should take action if
- there is a threat that a rational person would take seriously
- disrupts the normal operation of school
- students use websites inappropriately at school
- students encourage others to misuse websites at school
- there is any negative impact on faculty, staff or students

MY THOUGHT: ANOTHER CASE STUDY TO CONSIDER IS THE RECENT ARTICLE IN NEWSOK.COM ABOUT A UCO STUDENT POSTING ABOUT A CLASSMATE, WHO WAS THREATENED BY HER DEPARTMENT CHAIR AT UCO WITH EXPULSION FROM THE UNIVERSITY. I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE THAT CASE CLARIFIED WHETHER THE BLOG WHERE THIS WAS POSTED WAS THE STUDENTS’ OWN BLOG, OR A CLASS BLOG. ARTICLE:

Subject to criminal prosecution:
- threats of violence
- coercion
- harassment/stalking
- more….

Music/Movie Privacy
- global piracy causes 12.5 billion in economic losses every year

MY THOUGHT ON THIS: SEASON 3 OF GAME OF THRONES PREMIER BROKE ALL MOVIE PIRACY/BIT TORRENT RECORDS LAST WEEK

Cite Sources Properly
- Turnitin.com (check for plagiarism)

MY THOUGHT: IT OCCURS TO ME IT WOULD BE GREAT AND IMPORTANT TO AMPLIFY THE POSTIVIVE EXPERIENCES SOME OF OUR YPS TEACHERS (AND OTHER OKLAHOMA TEACHERS MORE GENERALLY) HAVE HAD AS A RESULT OF DIGITAL SOCIAL NENTWORKING, SIMILAR TO WHAT ALAN LEVINE HAS DONE WITH HIS TRUE STORIES OF OPENNESS PROJECT. THEN WE CAN CHALLENGE PRESENTERS WHO ARE SHARING SESSIONS LIKE THIS ON ‘THE DANGERS OF THE INTERNET’ AND ‘BAD CHOICES PEOPLE MAKE WHICH ARE AMPLIFIED BY SOCIAL MEDIA’ TO SHARE THAT PROJECT AND AT LEAST ONE VIDEO FROM IT, TO ATTEMPT AT LEAST A SMALL COUNTER-BALANCE TO THE TAKEAWAY WHICH CAN HAPPEN AT SESSIONS LIKE THIS, WHICH GOES SOMETHING LIKE “THE INTERNET IS A REALLY DANGEROUS PLACE, I DON’T WANT TO PARTICIPATE IN INTERACTIONS ONLINE”

Online Ratings
- Ratemyteachers.com/school
- Pickaprof.com (now myedu)
- Amazon etc Product Ratings
- Yelp/Urbanspoon Restaurant Ratings
- Angie’s List Business Ratings

Facebook requires you be 13 to sign up

Showed news report video of GPS photos sharing where photos of kids are

Smartphone pictures pose privacy risks

“Isn’t that terrifying”

MY THOUGHT ON THIS: I’D LIKE TO KNOW IF THERE HAS BEEN A CASE IN THE US OF A STUDENT BEING KIDNAPPED AS A RESULT OF JUST ONLINE SHARED PHOTOS WITH GPS COORDINATES. GOOD ARTICLE FROM COMMON SENSE MEDIA ON THIS: “Is It Safe to Post Photos of Your Kids?”

Manti Te’o case: Girlfriend Hoax

RSS = repetitive stress syndrome

Keep passwords on your device

Secure your wifi at home
- people can hack into your personal information via that open network

All resources from this presentation are available in Moodle on: k20cloud.net

MY THOUGHT: WHY KEEP THESE RESOURCES ON A PASSWORD-PROTECTED, WALLED-GARDEN SITE? THIS WAS A GREAT PRESENTATION AND THESE RESOURCES ARE GREAT, WE NEED TO ADVOCATE FOR THE BENEFITS OF SHARING ON THE OPEN WEB… EVEN WITH THE OU K-20 CENTER!

Closing thought: Death of a child
- you never think it will happen to you until it does
- if I’d had more information, maybe I’d make a better decision

ILI Conference will be November, date HAS been set!

MY CLOSING THOUGHT: MANY THANKS TO JENNIFER FOR SHARING THIS SESSION. I ALWAYS EMERGE FROM SESSIONS ON THIS TOPIC WITH LOTS TO THINK ABOUT. I RECOMMEND ALSO CHECKING OUT MY November 2009 PRESO NOTES, “Google Profiles, Online Reputation Management, and Digital Footprints.” OTHER POSTS TO CHECK OUT INCLUDE:
- “Beyond the Fear Factor with Internet Safety” (May 2008)
- “Internet Safety Issues with Joel Gabel of Google” (May 2008)
- “Internet Crimes with Larry Boggess of OSBI” (May 2008)
- “Internet Safety Issues: What can librarians do?” (May 2008)
- “Nancy Willard on CyberSafety Issues: Notes from Safe and Healthy Schools 2008 Oklahoma” (Nov 2008)
- “Cyberbullying and Cyberthreats: Responding to the Challenge by Nancy Willard” (Nov 2008)
- “Digital Citizenship in Libraries: Constructively Leveraging the Power of the Social Web” (Nov 2009)

Technorati Tags: digital, ethics, internet, k20, safety, school, isafety, ou, ouk20

Digital Citizenship: Learning to Cross the Street in a Digital World originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on April 3, 2013.

InfiniteWP ROCKS.

If you’re an educator, sign up for the FREE iThemes Education Program, which includes a free membership to WebDesign.com and all their weekly webinars. If you can’t catch a webinar live you can generally view an archived recording later. WebDesign.com is a fantastic way to learn WordPress and acquire the skills you need to teach your students WordPress, even if you’re not “officially” a web design teacher/instructor.

After installing InfiniteWP to a directory on your server, you’ll need to install the free IWP Client Plugin on each of your WordPress sites. After copying the activation key info into your IWP installation, you’ll be ready to centrally manage WordPress updates… and potentially even more if you puchase add-ons.

* Full disclosure: I was a paid content blogger for iThemes (who operates WebDesign.com) last fall. More background is available on my Social Media Consulting page.

  by  thomashubbard 

Technorati Tags: design, wordpress, maintain, websites, webdesign

Update and Manage Multiple WordPress Sites with InfiniteWP originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on April 1, 2013.

Show Notes:

1. Club Penguin
2. A Tour of Club Penguin (February 2013) – 23 minute screencast by Rachel
3. Voice Record Pro ($2 – for podcast recording, editing & uploading)
4. DropBox (free – for copying bumper audio links)
5. GoodReader ($5 – for downloading show bumpers & opening in Voice Record Pro)
6. iTransfer (free – for uploading final podcast via ftp to web host)
7. WordPress for iOS (free – for posting)
8. WordPress (free – content management system)
9. iRig Microphone ($60)
10. Fuel for Educational Change Agents Podcast channel
11. Follow Wesley on Twitter: @wfryer

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Podcast401: Why Club Penguin Is Awesome originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on March 31, 2013.

The August 2005 New York Times article, “New Tools: Blogs, Podcasts and Virtual Classrooms,” featured information about Maine elementary teacher Bob Sprankle and the “Room 208 Podcast” created by his 2nd and 3rd graders. That article, which I first learned about thanks to an online radio show / podcast by David Warlick (now offline), inspired my own work the past eight years with online radio shows both professionally and with students in different classroom contexts.

Now it’s 2013, and iPads are among the most powerful and useful technology tools in many classrooms as well as homes. Today I recorded a fifteen minute screencast tutorial, demonstrating how to create an “all-iPad” class radio show. By “all-iPad” I mean a digital radio show which can be ENTIRELY recorded, edited, and published with an iPad. To do this, students and I used AudioBoo (the “classic edition” iPhone app running on iPads,) Bossjock, GoodReader, & SoundCloud with a self-hosted WordPress site. There are definitely many other ways to create and share classroom radio shows, but this is the best way I’ve found (so far) to create an iPad-only radio show with multiple spots / parts.

You may have noticed I’ve used the phrase “classroom radio show” instead of podcast in this post. That’s not an accident. One of the recommendations I’m including in my forthcoming eBook series, “Mapping Media to the Common Core,” is that we “change our vocabulary” with other teachers when it comes to educational technologies in the classroom. Instead of “blogs” we should talk about “interactive writing.” Instead of “podcasts” we can talk about “classroom radio shows.” We need to avoid terms which sound overly-geekish and like jargon, and instead use phrases which other teachers (even “non-techy” teachers) can recognize, understand, and embrace. This will be the focus of my poster session at ISTE 2013 in San Antonio, “Changing Our Vocabulary as Technology Integration Coaches.” I hope to see you there, and even MORE importantly I hope you’ll be creating more classroom radio shows with your own students in the weeks ahead!

Check out some of the radio shows I’ve been helping 4th and 5th grade students at Lakeview Elementary School in Yukon, Oklahoma, create this semester, as part of their after-school “Storychasers Club.” More are coming!

Special thanks to Joe Dale and Michelle Cordy (UK and Canadian-based educators, respectively) for helping me identify prospective apps to use for iPad-only radio shows and the workflows these apps make possible!

Technorati Tags: classroom, common, commoncore, core, digital, edtech, literacy, podcast, podcasting, radio, student, technology, show

Create an All-iPad Class Radio Show with AudioBoo, Bossjock, GoodReader, & SoundCloud originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on March 30, 2013.

Thanks for reporting this issue. iCloud robots.txt prohibits all search engines to get data, and Google always respects what’s written in robots.txt. Unfortunately this means, that you are not able to subscribe to publicly shared iCloud calendar.

We reached out to Apple to highlight this issue, and their decision is to leave robots.txt the way it is now.

That post was dated 15 November 2011, and it does NOT appear Apple’s position on this has changed. The result of this, for the person I was helping to aggregate shared calendars, is that she has to use Apple’s Calendar program on her laptop to combine calendars. With it she can “subscribe” (as read-only calendars) to both Apple iCloud Calendars as well as shared Google Calendars. This can be done with a Google Calendar without “publicly” sharing the address, instead you can use the “private” calendar address available at the bottom of calendar settings.

Get the read-only address for an Apple Calendar to share by clicking the “radio signal” icon to the right of your calendar & choose to send an email. Send it to the person you want to share your calendar with (along with the “private addresses” of any Google Calendars you want to share) and then they can import the calendar into their Apple Calendar app by choosing FILE – IMPORT.

Technorati Tags: apple, calendar, google, share

Sharing Apple iCloud Calendars and Google Calendars originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on March 30, 2013.

Here are the titles and links to each video individually, including the direct links (when available) of each project on the Scratch community website. Several are remarkable for the computational thinking and creativity which students exhibited in the game designs. I’ve listed my personal favorites first. The key here, IMHO, is “metacognition,” when the students “think about their thinking” and verbalize their process of creating these projects and the ways they overcame design challenges. That is how you know a student “owns” their learning with Scratch, when they can explain their design and discuss it in detail.

Tomorrow on day 5 of Scratch Camp our students will share their projects and learning with parents in our “Scratch Showcase.” Reporters from The Yukon Review and The Daily Oklahoman (newsok.com) have interviewed Scratch campers the past two days, so hopefully we’ll see some mainstream media coverage of our camp in upcoming days. Please copy and borrow any of the Scratch Camp curriculum materials we’ve collected and are using. Chris Simon and I are planning to lead at least one Scratch Camp in the Oklahoma City area again this summer, and will be announcing that date soon on the website of The Div (our wonderful Scratch Camp sponsor).

Don’t Touch the Cat Scratch Project by Michael

Link to “Don’t Touch the Cat” and play it from the Scratch website.

Maze Game Scratch Project by Kaitlyn

Link to “Cool Mazes” and play it from the Scratch website.

Rainbow Race Scratch Project by Wyatt

Link to “Rainbow Race” and play it from the Scratch website.

Alien Attack Scratch Project by Harrison

(Link to “Alien Attack” not available yet)

CatLibs Scratch Project by Geneva

Link to “Cat Libs” and play it from the Scratch website.

Unicorn Eating Hamburgers Scratch Project by Sadie

Link to “Unicorn Eating Hamburgers” and play it from the Scratch website.

Deathball Dodge Scratch Project by Hunter

Link to “Death Ball Dodge – Easy Mode” and play it from the Scratch website.

Pokemon Battle Collaboration Scratch Project by Van and Mason

Link to and play the “Pokemon Battle Collaboration” story from the Scratch website.

Maze Game Scratch Project by Michael

Link to and play “Maze Game” from the Scratch website.

I recorded these videos on my iPad2 and uploaded them directly to my YouTube channel using the free app, “Capture” from YouTube. These are examples of “Quick Edit Videos” included in the “Mapping Media to the Common Core” digital literacy framework.

To learn more about Oklahoma Scratch Camp, check out the audio podcast Chris Simon and I recorded earlier this week.

Technorati Tags: code, edtech, oklahoma, programming, school, scratch, stem, yukon, yukonps, coding

Oklahoma Students Reflect on Scratch Projects at Scratch Camp (March 2013) originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on March 21, 2013.

In his post Jim wrote:

What will it take for us to believe in kids? To honor their expertise? To accept that we don’t have to know everything about technology for our students to use it effectively? When will we understand that our students don’t need a list of steps, a stupid template, a wizard, or someone else’s idea of design to build something great? I, for one, don’t want to see 30 copies of the same (perfect, by someone else’s standards) thing as evidence of mastery. I’m not impressed by the beatifully designed whatever that a student used a canned app to create. I’m far more impressed by the ugly thing that mostly works, but was created from scratch with a healthy dose of critical thinking and problem solving.

I fear that giving in to the Borg (Apple and similar corporations), building dependency on other people’s software and “ecosystems”, and limiting our kids in the name of not being disruptive is leading us down the same path we have gone with skilled labor. We barely think about plumbing, carpentry, metalworking, and shop in schools today, finding ourselves content to simply leave a check for the plumber/carpenter/mechanic when we need something done.

And yet we are facing a shortage of skilled labor the likes of which we have never experienced in this country, which is driving costs of some of the most basic needs higher and higher. The same will soon be true with computing. The number of computer science students continues to decline, yet demand for computing resources continues to increase.

Please take a few minutes and read the entire post by Jim, as well as the catalyzing post by Miguel, “Only Human – #Ubermix = Yesterday’s Solution?” This series of idea exchanges started with a tweet earlier this week:

If you haven’t already, watch the full nine minute version of the video “What Most Schools Don’t Teach” from code.org. Then find ways in your home and community to become an advocate for kids as well as teachers as CREATIVE DIGITAL MAKERS, not just passive consumers.

When it comes to the learning revolution, “there’s not an app for that.” Sure, there are a ton of apps those of use fortunate to have a tablet or smartphone today have and use, but “shiny new apps” are just tools, they aren’t the learning revolution. Plenty of alleged “educational reformers” would be very happy to see passive students using digital screens for CAI out of the 1980s. Those are NOT the “schools of the future” I want for my children or yours. Schools where students are empowered to be creative and to make (among other things) digital apps ARE the ones I want. They are the schools we have the opportunity to co-create TODAY as educators and leaders “in the system.”

If you and your students have iPads to use at school and home, great! CREATE lots of digital content with them and SHARE that content on the OPEN WEB. I agree wholeheartedly with Jim on this point, however. The iPad today is NOT sufficient as a digital tool to empower students to invent the future. If it was, why would I be working on a MacBook Air laptop right now instead of my iPad2 which is sitting on the table in front of me? My iPad and iPhone are incredibly powerful tools, and the apps I own make me as a user an even more powerful communicator. The capabilities of tablet digital devices ARE increasing, but they are NOT on a par with laptops yet. If we really believe in students as well as teachers as CREATIVE MAKERS (which we should) then we can’t settle for JUST providing them with handicapped devices.

  by  Steve A Johnson 

My own kids don’t ‘just’ need an iPad for learning today. They have to have laptops. Why? Because no one can CREATE and SHARE everything we need and want to create and share on “just an iPad.” iPads and other iOS devices are great. I LOVE them and wouldn’t want to trade 100 Android devices for a single iOS device we have in our house. (OK, maybe I’d trade an old iPhone 3G for one…) My point is that as a creative communicator, I’m not being limited to JUST creating on an iPad. Our kids and teachers shouldn’t be either.

GIVE US LAPTOPS AS LEARNERS. Don’t compromise on this issue.

Do you agree or disagree? Have a challenged you in your educational technology comfort zone?

Technorati Tags: create, creative, edtech, laptop, mobile, school, scratch, technology

Let’s Believe in Kids and Teachers as Creative Digital Makers, Not Just Passive Consumers originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on March 21, 2013.

My favorite iPad Media apps:
http://www.ipadmediacamp.com/apps/

My fav iPad productivity apps:
http://www.ipadwithwes.com/apps/

Several lists of apps, which are both iPhone and iPad, on Appolicious – by category:
http://www.appolicious.com/curated-apps?user_id=wfryer

An older list of fav apps:
http://wiki.wesfryer.com/workshops/handouts/ios

If you’re wondering, my current iPad wallpaper is a photo of Mt Ararat and Little Ararat as seen from Yerevan, Armena, included on the English WikiPedia article for “Mountains of Ararat.” It’s shared by the photographer (Serouj Ourishian) under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license. Those are mountains, along with the Alborz (Elburz) mountains in northern Iran, which I hope to behold someday with my own eyes!

Technorati Tags: app, apps, ipad, recommended

What iPad Apps Do You Recommend? originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on March 20, 2013.

The “NINJA SURVIVE” project mentioned in this reflection is available on the Scratch website. The handout for a basic maze game in Scratch is available from the ScratchEd website, and also linked from the “Challenges” page of our March 2013 Scratch curriculum.

Also check out the podcast “Lessons Learned After Two Days of Scratch Camp (March 2013)” from yesterday. Our March 2013 Scratch Camp curriculum is available.

I recorded and published this audio podcast with the free iPhone app iPadio, which is included as a recommended tool on the “Radio Show” page of Mapping Media to the Common Core.

Technorati Tags: learned, lessons, oklahoma, scratch, stem, yukon

Lessons Learned From Day 3 Of Scratch Camp originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on March 20, 2013.

Show Notes:

1. Oklahoma Scratch Camp Curriculum (our new March 2013 version is available)
2. The Div: Where Web Innovation and Creativity Begin (Edmond, Oklahoma)
3. Scratch Club at Independence Elementary School (Yukon Public Schools)
4. Scratch Website (including download links for free Scratch software)
5. ScratchEd Website (resources for educators on Scratch)
6. ScratchTeam on Twitter
7. “Scratching Kids Brains” by Geoffrey Derry (2011 video presentation for the K-12 Online Conference)
8. “Teaching Kids To Think Using Scratch” by Chris Betcher (2010 video presentation for the K-12 Online Conference)
9. Resources for creating “Simulations or Games” (from Mapping Media to the Common Core)
10. Fuel for Educational Change Agents Podcast channel
11. Follow Wesley on Twitter: @wfryer

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Podcast400: Lessons Learned After Two Days of Scratch Camp (March 2013) originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on March 19, 2013.

A 5000+ Mile Road Trip to connect two great EdTech Organizations! 6 Google Certified Teachers and two Apple Distinguished Educators in an RV across the country from California to Detroit, Michigan.

Here are our meet up details for TONIGHT if you can make it for pizza and edtech discussions!

Date/Time: Monday, March 18, 2013 at 6:30 pm (till 8:30 pm hopefully)
Location: Joey’s Pizzeria at 700 W Sheridan Ave (on Film Row)

If time and availability permits in “The 404″ next door, we’ll move our discussions there after pizza and connect laptops to TVs/projectors for some more edtech / geek sharing!

Learn more about the CUE-MACUL Road Trip on their official website (cuemacul.weebly.com), where you can checkout the bios of the amazing edtech yodas who are trekking to Michican and MACUL this week! Also follow the Twitter hashtag #cuemacul for updates!

The crew left Amarillo at 2:45 this afternoon, so we’re expecting them here in Oklahoma City around 7 pm. Hope to see you TONIGHT at Joey’s Pizzeria downtown if you can make it. Please spread the word!

#cuemacul Ed Tech Road Trip Meetup in Oklahoma City March 18th #OkEdtweetup originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on March 18, 2013.

“Confession Pages” are generally Facebook pages created to share anonymous “confessions” solicited via polls on sites like SurveyMonkey in which students share details of sexual encounters, perhaps both alleged and real. They are also used to spread gossip and slander. The challenges posed by “Confession Pages” are a global phenomenon, not limited to a single geographic area or region. This situation highlights the global nature of the Internet and our common needs to address ethics as well as digital citizenship with students and even adults. While these “student confession pages” are receiving increased attention, interactive websites online (including local newspaper websites as well as Facebook) are replete with gossip and slander posted by adults out of formal school settings. These are issues we face as a society, not JUST in high schools and colleges.

According to the February 20, 2013, article on HawaiiNewsNow, “Hawaii schools struggle to stop Facebook confession pages:”

Facebook confession pages promise to reveal dirty little secrets. Iolani School found out about the embarrassing websites about a week ago. School officials said Facebook rejected their request to delete an offensive page. “The seriousness of the harmful comments, the deceitfulness, and the possible bullying on the Facebook pages is really what concerns us,” said Iolani’s director of communications, Cathy Lee Chong. Several private schools have been targeted. Hawaii News Now also found confession pages for at least 20 public high schools in Hawaii. The Department of Education is in touch with Honolulu police, but the scandalous stories don’t fit a typical cybercrime case.

Students are concerned and paying attention to whether or not their own names are showing up on confession websites. According to the February 28, 2013, article “Students confess, flirt incognito” on the Loyola Maroon from New Orleans, Louisiana:

Loyno Confessions, Loyno Crushes and Loyno Compliments, three unrelated pages created by different people in the Loyola community, all sprung up around Feb. 21. The three pages use anonymous surveys hosted by a different website for students to submit their thoughts and have them reposted to the Facebook page. “I think people are mostly anxious to read more. I’ve even got confessions about people waiting to see if their names appear on the page,” the creator of Loyno Confessions said. The inspiration for the pages comes from other schools that have started similar social experiments.

Confession Pages are not just springing up on U.S. campuses. Students, educators and parents in other countries are facing the challenges and issues posed by them as well thanks to the “digital demonstration effect” offered by the World-Wide Web. According to the February 5, 2013, Yahoo News article, “Singapore students spill secrets in campus ‘confession’ pages:”

Singapore university students are hustling to certain Facebook pages to anonymously reveal their best kept secrets, ranging from mushy love confessions to saucy sexual details. Not limited to a pastor’s ears, their admissions are open to all to view, share and comment, Facebook-style. Following a trend led by students in Western schools, unsanctioned Facebook “confession” pages have risen for Nanyang Technological University, National University of Singapore and Singapore Management University. Since its launch three days ago, the “NTU Confessions” page has garnered 3,500 likes and more than a thousand “confessions”, NUS’ attracted almost 6,000 likes within 10 days and SMU’s drew more than 1,000 in one. Confessions are submitted anonymously through a third-party survey site, and the page administrator, who has access to the content, can then post them. Anonymity encourages the students to bare their souls these online confessionals.

The previously cited Loyola Maroon article also cites two well known collegiate gossip websites which were shut down for different reasons, “JuicyCampus” and “College ACB” or “College Anonymous Confession Board.” These examples show how “confessional websites” are not new, and some have faced legal actions which have led to closures.

The English WikiPedia entry for JuicyCampus explains:

JuicyCampus described itself as an enabler of “online anonymous free speech on college campuses.” Through strict privacy policies, it allowed users to post messages and comments without having to worry about identification. Readers were able to vote on which posts they found “juiciest,” or most provocative. As of March 16, 2008 the site contained rumors for 59 colleges and universities.[1] By October 2008, JuicyCampus had expanded to over 500 college campuses. Much of its content was related to fraternities and sororities.

The English WikiPedia entry for College ACB explains:

College ACB described itself as “designed to give students a place to vent, rant, and talk to college peers in an environment free from social constraints and about subjects that might otherwise be taboo” and claims to promote “deep and thoughtful discussion” (Frank, Peter).[1] Recently it was bought by blipdar.com and no longer exists in its previous form. In October 2011, Blipdar was taken offline.

“Confessional websites like these highlight how words can be used for good or for evil. According to the previously cited HawaiiNewsNow article:

While Iolani considers potential legal action, student government leaders are talking to their peers about responsible internet use. The school also has a Facebook compliments page featuring hundreds of positive posts

The same website tools can be used to amplify positive as well as negative ideas, issues, and topics in our schools and communities.

As educators and parents, we need to be aware of the rise of these “confession pages” on Facebook and elsewhere, and discuss them with our students as well as family members. Here are some ideas about some possible “takeaways” or “lessons learned” we can discuss among peers and others when it comes to “online confessionals.”

1. We need to talk REGULARLY with students about the important responsibility of using their words (in digital as well as face-to-face contexts) for GOOD and NOT FOR EVIL. This isn’t something which can be adequately addressed once per year in eRate-required “Internet safety” discussions.
2. Classroom teachers need monitored as well as moderated online spaces (both “walled gardens” like Edmodo / My Big Campus and open web environments like KidBlog sites) which can serve as SANDBOXES for digital interaction with and among students.
3. We need to address ethics and character development in our classrooms as well as homes and churches. This is a great “case study” example to discuss and wrestle with. It raises freedom of speech issues, censorship issues, propriety, libel and slander, gossip, and many other issues WORTH DISCUSSING and debating together.
4. Every one of our schools needs to INTENTIONALLY seek to amplify the “good stories” of learning and student/teacher interaction taking place on a regular basis with social media tools. Our “Learning Showcase” website for Yukon Public Schools as well as our Yukon Public Schools Storychasers YouTube Channel are examples of projects I’ve been working on the past year with this goal. The Lakeview Elementary Storychasers Club website is too.

What else would you add to this list?

How have you discussed “confession pages” with your own students and children?

What is your school doing to address the issues raised by these uses of social media?

Technorati Tags: ethics, facebook, media, networking, social, confession, confessional

Student “Confession Pages” Trend Highlights Free Speech Issues & Need to Address Ethics / Digital Citizenship originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on March 16, 2013.

Why We Need Pi

Looking for an idea to co-create an innovative math video this weekend with your own kids or students? Why not create and share your own Pi Day video?!

  by  amitp 

Technorati Tags: video, pi, day, celebrate

Share the Joy of Pi Day Today originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on March 14, 2013.

Today my 9 year old and I played with some Microsoft Surface Tablets at the Microsoft Store at Penn Square Mall in Oklahoma City. Rachel immediately wanted to find a painting app, since she’s created a LOT of digital art in the past using “Brushes” on the iPad. She created the following picture in about ten minutes using the Freshpaint App For Windows 8 or Windows RT, and was VERY impressed with the realistic paint-effects which allowed blending and mixing. She created this on a Windows 8 Surface tablet using a stylus.

Anyone know of iPad painting apps which have similar “real paint” effects/features? A few weeks ago I created the Appolicious list, “Best iPad Drawing & Art Apps,” but included several of the apps there on the recommendations of others. I haven’t played with all of them yet, most of my iPad drawing/painting experiences have been with Brushes.

It’s GREAT to have a Microsoft Store locally that, similar to the Apple Store, lets potential customers play and use the tablets available for sale! Rachel was VERY enthusiastic about Surface as a result of playing with the Freshpaint app. Check out the November 2012 article, “Freshpaint App For Windows 8 Opens A New Front In Digital Art,” for more on the app.

Have you played with Freshpaint yet on Surface? What are your impressions?

Technorati Tags: freshpaint, microsoft, surface, tablet

Impressed with Freshpaint App For Windows 8 (Microsoft Surface Tablet) originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on March 9, 2013.

Here’s the text for the overview article I wrote to start the series, titled “Why Learn About Webcasting?” What would you add to this overview?

Webcasting is the LIVE broadcasting of a presentation or event over the Internet. Just a few years ago webcasting required a lot of technical skills as well as expensive hardware. Powerful moble devices, faster broadband Internet speeds and advanced video sharing platforms have changed that. This MentorMob series features blog posts and podcasts I’ve shared since 2009 about webcasting using the free service Ustream. Other webcasting options are available, however. Some of the webcasting services you should check out (which can, in most cases, work with both mobile devices as well as laptop computers) are:

1. Ustream.tv
2. Livestream
3. Qik
4. Justin.tv

A “Google Hangout on Air” is another free way to webstream, but I’ve found it works best for meetings where individual people are in front of their webcams. If you’re going to use a laptop and a Hangout on Air to stream a presentation, I strongly encourage you to consider different options for using an external camera and microphone. Those options up the cost ante for webcasting, but they are important for both video and audio quality… especially if you’re not using a mobile device and app.

Consider using a free mobile app to livestream your event if you’re wanting to broadcast FREE or ‘on the cheap.’ Ustream offers 2 options for iOS users:

1. Ustream (free app now includes broadcasting option, previously this was a separate “Ustream Broadcaster” app)
2. Ustream Broadcast For Friends (tied to Facebook)

A tripod with a device mount is highly recommended, however, for longer events. Some examples are:

1. For iPhone 4-5: Glif adapter ($20)
2. For iPad: Makayama iPad Tripod Mount ($75)

Make sure websites and ports required for broadcasting are unblocked on the network where you’ll be livestreaming. If you’re using Ustream, this article details those settings.

If you have a newer Mac laptop and want to broadcast using a DV camcorder, consider purchasing a Blackmagic Design Intensity Shuttle w Thunderbolt or similar device. That hardware accessory isn’t cheap (about $220) but it’s the best/most affordable way I’ve heard of so far to import any DV or composite video source into a Mac via Thunderbolt.

Another alternative is using a consumer-grade, flash-based camcoder connected to a live streaming service. Sony’s Bloggie camera series is an example.

If you have questions about these ideas or resources, feel free to contact me via Twitter!

Many, MANY thanks to the wonderful Jackie Gerstein who showed me MentorMob over wifi on a Toronto bus enroute to UnPlugged 2012!

I met one of the Chicago-based founders of MentorMob a couple weeks ago at the ICE conference. I LOVE MentorMob, I think it’s a great FREE tool to use when you want to “step” people through a series of activities or resources. I created my first “MentorMob playlist” in October 2012: “Community Voices Interview Project Tutorial.” It’s a series of YouTube videos.

How Can I Webstream an Event? originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on March 9, 2013.

I have more iPad app recommendations listed on my apps page for iPad Media Camp (media creation apps), the apps page for “iPad with Wes” (productivity apps) and in my iOS app lists on Appolicious.

Technorati Tags: app, create, creating, ebooks, ipad, mini, 3rd, grade

Prepping a new iPad Mini for 3rd Grade originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on March 7, 2013.

EduBrawl!

The gloves are off and our educator panelists give you a ringside seat discussing the tips and traps on these hot topics being implemented in real classrooms:

Mobile learning & devices,

flipped classrooms,

game-based learning.

A diverse panel represents their own opinions plus the the voice of educators from 2013 survey data on trends and teaching strategies used by educators nationwide. Hear the debate on how change agents bring innovation to schools compared to how a new teacher or experienced teacher are navigating students and administrators demands.

Our conversation is going to be lively! Please plan to join us if you can.

* Full disclosure: My participation in this panel is supported / made possible by We Are Teachers.

Technorati Tags: classroom, edtech, games, gaming, sxswedu, flipped

EduBrawl! Pros Debate Mobile, Flipped and Games originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on March 4, 2013.

Text messaging is one of the best ways to communicate with groups today. For teachers wanting to setup text messaging systems with students, Remind101 is one of the best, free options available. Our OM parent group used Cel.ly to set our group up because it’s easy, straightforward, free, and even has free iOS app. If you’re wanting to setup Cel.ly for a school group, see this celly @ school page.

I setup our parent OM celly group to be open, because I didn’t want to create any barriers to parents getting signed up. If we need to we can change this later we can, but since I chose NOT to ‘list’ our group publicly, other people shouldn’t sign up for it unless they learn about it specifically from an email or note our group sends out.

When I’ve used Celly in the past with university students in classes I taught, I set the groups up as “alert only.” For this parent group, however, I set it up as “open chat” because I want anyone with news or information (not just the teacher) to be able to share it with everyone.

The last page of settings is where I chose to keep our group and its messages private.

The setup for Celly was fast and easy on my laptop at Chick-fil-A on Saturday at noon. After explaining it to other parents and asking them to send the name of our group (preceded by the “@” symbol) to the Celly text messaging number, we had 11 parents signed up in no time! I also helped our OM teacher sign up, so he’ll be able (hopefully) to provide more timely information in the future when we have competitions and meetings!

One parent had suggested we setup a Facebook group to stay in touch, but not all our OM parents are on Facebook. In addition, if we’d used a Facebook group people would have to CHECK our Facebook group to see updates. With a Celly group, everyone will get messages directly on their phones as text messages. This isn’t something you probably want for EVERY organization you’re a part of, but it’s a great fit for this one. Consider setting up and sharing Celly text messaging groups with the folks you work with. It’s free and I think it’s awesome!

If you’re looking for tools to better connect your entire school district with parents, staff and students, I recommend checking out the free “School Connect” app and service. It includes alert messaging among MANY other features, and is used by both Oklahoma City Public Schools (where our three kids attend) as well as Yukon Public Schools (where I work on a contract.)

Technorati Tags: edtech, education, school, text, message, messaging, groups, om

Use Celly to Setup a Free Text Messaging Group Chat originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on March 3, 2013.

Prior to the start of #oklaEd chats I’d only participated in Twitter chats a few times as “scheduled events,” but used Twitter hashtags a lot at educational conferences. Hootsuite is my preferred Twitter client both in my Chrome web browser as well as iPhone, but for scheduled education chats I’ve found the TweetChat website (free) is awesome. I love how it automatically adds the hashtag for the Twitter conversation you’re following, so there is no need to remember it each time you contribute. I actually used two Chrome windows tonight with two instances of TweetChat running, so I could also participate a little in the #urbanED discussions.

If you haven’t yet participated in a scheduled education chat, I strongly encourage you to do so… especially if you’re in Oklahoma! Join our Sunday evenings at 8 #oklaEd chat! Whatever chat you choose (Cybraryman has the best list of educational Twitter chats going) I definitely recommend you try using TweetChat. Any kind of text chat can be overwhelming, especially when the conversations are good. TweetChat can help, at a minimum by ‘remembering’ to include the correct hashtag for your conversation so you don’t have to!

Here’s the archive of our #oklaEd chat tonight. Good conversations! I’m continuing to build a list of Oklahoma educators on Twitter, and if you’re not on that last (but should be) please let me know!

Technorati Tags: education, oklahoma, chat, oklaed

Using TweetChat to Follow Educational Twitter Chats originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on March 3, 2013.

AT THE START OF THIS SESSION I USED HOLLER GRAM (FREE) ON MY IPAD TO SHARE SOME ENCOURAGEMENT FOR MEG.

Meg is going to create a book today as her presentation
- with the presentation content
- going to share via dropbox

Session: iAuthor an iBook
- the word “author” is so powerful
- you wrote a book!
- we all have a story to share
- when we can author our own content, we are offering an opportunity for others to learn from us
- authoring is a powerful part of education

Hearing students’ authentic voice in a way you can share is so important and powerful

When teachers write for their teacher they make it ‘good enough’
- when the create

QRafter App

iBooks are in ePUB format
- allows for reflow able text
- you can make the book interact in a way you want it to act
- book will readjust and flow around ideas
- allows for multimedia
- can embed media

MY THOUGHT: NOT ALL EPUB-COMPATIBLE EREADERS WILL PLAY EMBEDDED MEDIA THAT THE iBOOKS APP FROM APPLE WILL…

tap into text you’ve written, audio you’ve recorded, things you’ve drawn, images and video you’ve taken, and link to the Internet

Why create an iBook?
- to personalize learning

Embedding a video which I recorded this morning with Sue Goreman
- copying the link to Sue’s Twitter ID
- when I paste something, it asks if I want to paste text or a link

We should give students opportunities

other reasons to create iBooks
- show what you know assessments
- research topics
- sequencing events
- creative writing
- retell historical events
- note-taking
- guided writing
- content creation
- language acquisition and immersion
- vocabulary activities

Content creation with kids is and can be amazing

Today we are using the app Book Creator for iPad

Book creation apps I use with students
- Book Creator ($5)
- My Story ($2 with younger students)
- Creative Book Builder ($4 with older kids, can import into Google Docs)
- StoryBuddy ($5)
- eBook Journal ($5)
- Book Writer ($4)
- Picturebook ($3 for school edition)
- Writer’s Studio ($1)
- Demibooks Composer ($6)
- Little Story Maker (free)
- Story Creator (free)
- I Like Books
- Scribble Press ($4)
- Scribble My Story (free)
- Storyteller Deluxe ($2)

This full list is on http://list.ly/list/3QW-book-creation-on-the-ipad (but beware because some of those links are to the Australian iBooks store)

Process:
- curate
- create
- consume

Story of a student after creating first eBook: “I’m a book!”
- the power of publishing

Example book the teacher uploaded to “Showbie” where they manage student work
MY THOUGHT: THIS APP LOOKS GREAT FOR COLLECTING AND MANAGING STUDENT ASSIGNMENTS!
- teachers can provide written and audio feedback
- free for schools now
- login, not with an email tho!
- can give parents a login! They can access all student work and feedback

Schoology can also work, Edmodo
- ME: ALSO MY BIG CAMPUS

We asked students to compose on the iPads in Pages
- they used the ‘speak selection’ option for students to listen to their own typed sentences
used for proofreading

Download the eBook from this session! tinyurl.com/iBookICE

Technorati Tags: author, create, creating, ebook, ibook, ibooks, ipad

iAuthor an iBook: Creating iBooks on the iPad by Meg Wilson originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on March 1, 2013.