Technology Bits, Bytes & Nibbles

Jim Groom Presentation at K-State, Part 2

Cyndi Danner-Kuhn — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:52:13 +0000

I am so lucky to be part of the amazing group of educators, Michael Wesch, Linda Yarrow, Chad Jackson , Benjamin Ward , Joye Gordon, Steven Kelly, Bill Genereux. We are New Media Literacy Fellows. Michael Wesch is our Chair!!

THESE are my notes from Jim’s presentation!

EduPunk http://jimgroom.umwblogs.org/2008/05/28/edupunk-poster-boy/

ed Parkour: http://edparkour.com/

DS 106 http://ds106.us/

The Daily Create http://tdc.ds106.us/

Taking ed to the streets: #occupytheweb

What is Parkour? from wikipedia: Parkour (abbreviated PK) is a training method which focuses on rational movement in both the natural and urban environments. The focus is to move around obstacles with speed and efficiency. Developed in France by David Belle, the main purpose of the discipline is to teach participants how to move through their environment by vaulting, rolling, running, climbing and jumping. Parkour practitioners are known as traceurs. They train to be able to identify and utilize alternate, more efficient paths. Parkour can be practiced anywhere, but areas dense with obstacles offer many training opportunities.

The notion of physical space and learning……Our campus is our stadium, our everyday space. The idea of not being locked into any one space where everyone is going to do their learning.

Wikipedia, remarkable elements of the web, probably should not have worked, but it has become one of the most important educational resources.

The Open Web! The FA team, the featured article team!! The FA team showed people how to become a featured article on Wikipedia. ALL free.

UMW Blogs, A publishing platform for the Mary Washington community: http://umwblogs.org/ and http://umwblogs.org/courses/

Documentation created by students about Fredickersburg: Fredericksburg, Stafford, Spotsylvania Historical Markers, http://fredmarkers.umwblogs.org/

Literary Journals: http://literaryjournals.umwblogs.org/

Banned art, this is a course space, it is the first hit in google, http://bannedart.umwblogs.org/

wow, the entire UMW university website is now in wordpress!!

WE SHOULD BE SHARING freely!!

A domain of one’s own…….own it!! an address on the web!! You want a record of your academic achievements………

What is a MOOC? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW3gMGqcZQc

#ds106, the tag his student use to get their blogs to aggregate into the DS 106 course site. http://ds106.us/

The effect of the visual is so powerful!! the assignments form DS 106 took on lives of their own.lots of drive by assignment, 4 icon challenge, tell a story!!

The Daily Create; one prompt everyday, wow, give it a try, http://tdc.ds106.us/

The ds106 Radio happened: http://ds106.us/ds106-radio/ Community radio at its best!! a radio station that classes are publishing to…..the radio station is another form of storytelling.

Pedagogy of uncertain…..

Holy cow, the amount of creativity Jim Groom has…..

Physical space and online space, we are only beginning to explore….what does it mean to be in a space, we should be imagining the space and make it happen.

higher ed has given up all it innovations to be safe!!

#occupytheweb with #edparkour

how much of my online identity do I control?

We need to demand more of ourselves…

experiment and explore

It is exciting what the web has in store for higher ed.

SOPA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act It is kinda of the Civil rights movement of our day.

Jim Groom on Blogging in his classes! wow, an I learning a ton, PART 1!

Cyndi Danner-Kuhn — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:42:58 +0000

I don;t often journal, takes notes, and write personally on my blog, it is most a resource sharing blog, but…….Had dinner with with Jim Groom, University of Mary Washington (http://umwblogs.org/) last night, he teaches a Digital Storytelling class, DS 106. He is sharing resources, but right now he is talking about WordPress and how to aggregates feeds using FeedWordPress plugin. Jim has 30 students and all his students have a WP blog, they use specific tags to feed into DS 106 blog course site.

I have 150+ students and one of my biggest challenges is reading/grading everything from their blogs. Using FeedWordPress plugin would push my students blogs posts to my ded318 course blog. Plan to give it a try!!

My dilemina is 1/2 my students have started suing the wonderful piece of software on the Mac iWeb. It does let you make beautiful websites, but to check my 150+ students website/assignment/projects requires going to a Google doc and clicking on each site and wading through it. If I would have them all use WordPress, I could use this FeedWordPress plugin and set up the correct tags that would make their posts feed right into me!!

I have some thinking to do!!! My web server provider, DynamicsDS has assured me it would not be much of a chore to switch from iWeb to WordPress from the server end. But it is Week 3 and students have already added things to their sites, it would be a little re-doing of some assignment. Not really re-doing the assignment, just re-posting in a different spot, WP. They will not be happy!! hmmmm………

Jim showed a WP publication they use at his university called The Eagle Eye, http://eagleeye.umw.edu/, It is a “here is what I did”, a way to promote yourself or each othesr. Very cool!! Faculty are actually doing it.

The Daily Create

http://tdc.ds106.us/

Ok, how could I do the Daily Create in my class, DED 318? Thinking…….

Jim has all these sub sites of his main wordpress site. instead of pages!!

Need to check into…

Buddypress plugin
AddLink plugin

Fold it: Solve Puzzles for Science

Cyndi Danner-Kuhn — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:14:48 +0000

Foldit is a revolutionary new computer game enabling you to contribute to important scientific research. This page describes the science behind Foldit and how your playing can help.

http://fold.it/portal/

Page Contents:

What is protein folding?
Why is this game important?
Foldit Scientific Publications
News Articles about Foldit
News Articles about Rosetta
Rosetta@Home Screensaver
Community Guidelines

FREE Webinar: 11 ways to use Evernote in your classroom

Cyndi Danner-Kuhn — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:08:23 +0000

11 ways to use Evernote in your classroom,
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM PST

12PM – 1:00 PM, central time

FREE Webinar Registration

New to Evernote? Looking for tips and tricks to get started? Learn 11 easy to follow ways to get started using Evernote in your classroom.

A cool NEW way to learn history!! Mission US

Cyndi Danner-Kuhn — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:05:43 +0000

Mission US is a multimedia project that immerses players in U.S. history content through free interactive games.

Mission 1: “For Crown or Colony?” puts players in the shoes of Nat Wheeler, a printer’s apprentice in 1770 Boston. They encounter both Patriots and Loyalists, and when rising tensions result in the Boston Massacre, they must choose where their loyalties lie.

In Mission 2: “Flight to Freedom,” players take on the role of Lucy, a 14-year-old slave in Kentucky. As they navigate her escape and journey to Ohio, they discover that life in the “free” North is dangerous and difficult. In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act brings disaster. Will Lucy ever truly be free?

Other missions are planned for release in 2013 and 2014.

Join the conversation and get updates about Mission US on Facebook and Twitter. For more information, visit the Help page. To share your feedback, email us via the contact form on this site. Thanks for playing!

8 iOS Apps for Super Bowl Sunday

Cyndi Danner-Kuhn — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:43:04 +0000

OK, so I will admit ii, I could care less about the Super Bowl!!

But for those of you that are interested, Mac|Life Magazine has a good list of apps for the occasion.

“The Super Bowl — still our annual sports fixation after all these years — is this Sunday, and the match-up between the New England Patriots and New York Giants should be a real barn burner. Like many of you, we anticipate spending the day staring at the TV, ingesting questionable foods and liquids, and waiting for the commercial that’ll outdo them all, but a handful of apps on both iPhone and iPad can help improve your Super Bowl experience. Between apps tied into the event, NFL-licensed touch screen games, and a couple other curiosities, we’ve picked out eight apps to check out in anticipation of Sunday’s showdown.”

Check it out, CLICK HERE

10 Tech Skills Every Student Should Have

Cyndi Danner-Kuhn — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:04:49 +0000

by David Andrade

Earlier this month, I wrote “10 Important Skills Students Need for the Future.” After reading a few articles about specific tech skills, I thought I write what I think are the 10 Important Tech Skills Students Need.

See the list and why, CLICK HERE

This a very powerful list, with lots of great resources. Don’t skip it, check it out!!

Avid Studio for iPad, Moviemaking

Cyndi Danner-Kuhn — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:52:28 +0000

$5.49

Big-screen moviemaking comes to the touchscreen with Avid® Studio for iPad. We’ve distilled the world’s leading film-editing technology into an easy-to-use app that enables you to edit video, audio, and photos at the speed of your creativity.

Swiftly arrange your clips in the Storyboard, make precision edits using the Timeline, and add high-quality transitions, effects, and a soundtrack. Then share your movie directly to YouTube, Facebook, and more—or export your project to Avid Studio for the PC and continue editing with even more advanced tools.

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/avid-studio/id491113378?mt=8

After looking at it and I do think it looks pretty darn good, but I will still use iMovie.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/imovie/id377298193?mt=8

MacMost Now 665: Simple Spreadsheets Using Pages

Cyndi Danner-Kuhn — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:21:48 +0000

MacMost Now 665: Simple Spreadsheets Using Pages

If you don’t have Numbers, you can use Pages to create simple spreadsheets. Just use the tables inside Pages to create small spreadsheets that can use formulas to perform calculations. You can even sort and use basic and conditional formatting.

I have numbers, but I hate spreadsheets, let me say that again, I HATE SPREADSHEETS!! This is a pretty good tutorials for making a simple spreadsheet in pages.

Google+ ideas for teaching & learning

Cyndi Danner-Kuhn — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:10:02 +0000

Although Google+ is not yet available for under 18s, there are still a number of ways you can harness it for learning in and out of school. Here are a few ideas we have seen from teachers:
(1) Universities- Tking or teaching university classes? Visit the new Google+ community page for universities: http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/universities/
(2) Lesson resources- Looking for a lesson starter? An image to illustrate a difficult concept? Current events? Within Google+ you can now search public posts and web results. For example type [supply demand] into the bar and find news articles bringing the concept to life, images, etc.
(3) Guest speakers- Looking for a guest speaker but can’t afford to bring them to your class or Career Day? Consider having them join via a Hangout, projecting them into your class.
(4) Holidays- Looking for easy ways to edit and create images for the holidays? Within Google+ Photos you can choose “Edit” and then “Creative Kit” to access fun editing tools. Add a Christmas hat, a birthday present, and other fun edits