VuVox for Presenting and Storytelling

VuVox is a neat tool I learned about from Alan Levine while exploring new Digital Storytelling tools over at Cogdogblog . So far, I have only scratched the surface with this tool and I look forward to playing further. This is a great tool for highlighting photos, but it can do so much more. By adding hotspots, you can add details in the form of text, audio, images and video. This could be a great tool to use for presentations, and for storytelling.

Here is my first attempt. This collage doesn't have any hotspots. But I like the way you can manipulate the images to really create some wow.

On the site, there are videos that show you how to create your collage.




I shared this tool at Digital Literacy Workshop last week and Lynnelle Larson one of our EETT Peer Coaches decided to use this tool for her end of the year presentation at her EETT Peer Coaching class. Beyond the great use of Vuvox, this presentation shows how Lynnelle has played with lots of different Web 2.0 tools in her classroom this year. What a great way for teachers to model new learning!

Mashups

Mashups are when you create a product using a combination of several different Web 2.0 Tools. Last week at Digital Literacy Workshop, we had a lot of fun creating a Mashup using MyAvatarEditor.com, Power Point, Flickr, Blabberize, YouTube and Google Maps. Check out the steps on our Digital Literacy Workshop site. I always love to share how teachers take and use what we explore in class in their own classrooms. Catherine Meissner is a French Teacher at the high school. Her students are doing a project on Quebec. She has them creating Avatars, putting them in a picture using Power Point, adding a voice (in French) using Blabberize, uploading the video to YouTube and then placing the video on a Google Map. Fun!

Here is a link to Catherine's Map.

Prezi

Prezi is an interesting tool for creating non-linear presentations. This is a fun tool to use when you want to try something a little different than PowerPoint. In fact, you can pop your Power Point right into Prezi for a cool new look. I have to admit to just scratching the surface on using this tool. Lots more to learn. What has been fun though, is as I have shared this tool with other teachers, they have wowed me with the great uses they have come up with for using this tool in their classrooms and in sharing with other teachers.

Greg Doud is using Prezi as a tool to review content from his class. This is a very visual way to share information with his students. He used Jing to record his presentation and posted it on his ThinkSocial blog. Students are able to go back and review and replay as needed.

Teresa Creelman used Prezi to share Blooms Taxonomy Across Stages of Language Acquisition. I loved how she used this tool in a very simple way to make a powerful point.

Blooms Questioning with Different Language Levels on Prezi

You can apply through Prezi.com for an Educator Account. This will give you more functionality for free. Thanks Prezi!

NCCE 2010

This year Mount Vernon was able to send over 25 teachers to the Northwest Council for Computer Education in Seattle. I love this conference because although you will find your techs, nerds and geeks like me at the conference, the real common thread is not technology, but innovation and creativity. It is so exciting to see what innovative and creative teachers are doing to engage students in learning throughout our region. I always get lots of great ideas and learn lots from others. Before we left for the conference, most of the Mount Vernon attendees met and came up with a plan for communicating and sharing both at the conference and beyond. We created a collaborative presentation that we could add to throughout the conference. We also created a collaborative Google Doc for note taking and a Twitter account for sharing with others. These tools were both for communicating and for learning how to use these tools for collaboration. Some of us used the tools differently than others, but we were all learning and exploring. It was exciting to talk with others and find out all the great things that they had learned and how they were going to use what they learned in their classrooms.



It is funny how this conference has evolved for me. When I first started going to NCCE, I would just sit back and soak it in. Now when I go to the conference, I find that the highlight is connecting with others who I have collaborated with online throughout the year. This year, I also found myself going to watch presenters, not necessarily to learn something new, but to learn how to be a better presenter myself. Lots to learn at NCCE on many different levels.

Digital Literacy Glossary

This week's Wows! 10-26-09

This week's Wows!

This week's wows are all word related. Vocabulary is such an important part of what we do. Here are a few sights for high lighting vocabulary in different ways.

WordSift.Com: WordSift is a visualization tool for text. With word sift, you can type in one word, or paste a whole paragraph of text. If I type in "ocean" I will get pictures of oceans and a word map from Visual Thesaurus with words related to ocean. If I paste in the text of the "I Have a Dream Speech" I will get a word cloud, similar to a Wordle. I can click on any word in the cloud and get photos and a Visual Thesaurus. This can be a powerful vocabulary tool. It is good to play first and figure out what text gets the most accurate responses.

ImageChef Word Mosaics: ImageChef has some interesting things to do with Text and Photos. Some more appropriate than others. The Word Mosaic Tool works much like Wordle except you can also choose to have your word created with different shapes.

Spell With Flickr: This site lets you type in a word and then it generates an image of the word created with photos found on Flickr. GeoGreeting.com does something similar with images from Google Earth that look like letters. Give it a try, it is fun.

Vision for Technology

This week in our District Tech Meeting, I asked members of the team to share their vision for tech in the Mount Vernon School district. I asked them to share "Twitter Style' using 140 characters or less. I was excited to hear the great insite from the committee. We have a long way to go, but we do have hope and a vision. I took their responses and created a Wordle. This will be a great conversation starter at our next meeting as we look at how the words were weighted and determine what our focus and priorities should be.

• My vision is equal access to technology for all students and staff.
• Pervasive, extended access to knowledge and learning tools that enhance a person's life choices.
• My vision for tech is for all students to have access to computes. In addition, all students get to learn and use at least, basic applications: Microsoft, Internet, Photo, Adobe, etc.
• All students no matter age, grade or ability level have access and ability to use technology. All teachers have the same.
• Equal opportunity and access for all.
• Non duplicated one stop shopping connecting all students, parents and staff.
• Freedom, Fast, Friendly, Functional, Fun
• Tech used to collect, connect, create, collaborate, communicate and solve real world problems.
• Equitable access to transformational learning tools equals student engagement and success in school and life.
• Staff and students doing cool, new, global, rigorous, or unique things with technology. Possibilities are endless!
• Technology is a seamless aspect of teaching and learning, just like pen and paper are now. The world becomes our students limitless classroom.
• An ever expanding gateway to 24 hour engagement, discovery and learning.
• Technology considered an essential learning and teaching tool.

10-12-09 This Week's Web 2.0 Wows.

Now this is very cool and easy to create. With Xtranormal you can create Text to Video animated movies. You pick your characters and scenes. (Limited for the free version). You type in text. Choose camera angles, expressions and actions and a movie is created. At this point, they do not have an education version, but one is in the works. I know that students would LOVE creating digital stories and dialog with this tool. It is also a fun way for teachers to introduce a lesson or give announcements. I shared this tool with middle school Science and Social Studies teachers in August. A few of the teachers have used this tool to share class rules. Here is Xtranormal movie I created as an Ad for Digital Literacy Workshops.


Someone just shared Triptico with me this weekend so I still have more exploring to do. This is a digital magnetic word wall. You put in some words and then the words are turned into word "magnets" which are mixed up at the bottom of the page. Think of the refrigerator magnetic poetry. This would be amazing on a SmartBoard, but can be used with a mouse at a computer as well. The cool thing about Triptico is that not only will it make word "magnets" of any words you select, but it also provides a large selection of graphic organizers as a background. So, you can take your words and put them in a Venn Diagram or a Word Web. You can alphabetize words and much much more. Lots of possibilities here.

I am a big fan of TEDTalks. TEDTalks are inspirational and motivational speeches by some of the greatest thinkers around. Some of the TEDtalks deal directly with education, but many have to do with other issues as well. In this TEDTalk, Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind, talks about Motivation. Would love to hear your ideas about the implications of this research in education.

Discover the Den and Did You Know

This Week's Web 2.0 Wows

Discovery Educator Network:
The Discovery Educator Network (DEN) is a global community of educators passionate about teaching with digital media, sharing resources, collaborating, and networking. With over 100,000 members providing professional development to over 600,000 educators worldwide, the DEN connects teachers both on-line and in-person. Discovery Educators have exclusive access to a wide range of resources, professional development activities, networking opportunities, exclusive Discovery Educator events and more!

I have gained so much by being a member of the DEN.  I have had opportunities to participate in some incredible DEN sponsored events like the National Institute in Berkeley, CA and the Leadership Institute in Silver Spring Maryland.  I've had the opportunity to meet Reed Timor from Storm Chasers and the Deadliest Catch Crew.  I have had the opportunity to learn from educational leaders through webinars.  And most importantly, I have built a great learning network who I call on almost daily for collaboration.

It is easy to become a member of the DEN, just sign up. If you'd like to be more involved, you can commit to becoming a DEN Star.  With Star status you have access to even more resources.  We currently have 3 STARS in the district, myself, Lisa Monson and Michael Guelker-Cone.  We'd love for you to join us.

Did You Know?
More video has been uploaded to YouTube in the last 2 months than if ABC, CBS and NBC had been airing new content 24/7/365 since 1948?

Perhaps you have seen this video Did You Know that came out in 2007 or Did You Know 2.0  or maybe even Did You Know 3.0 .  Well things are changing so quickly that a new Did You Know 4.0 has just come out.  All are interesting videos to watch and are great conversation starters when it comes to talking about how quickly things are changing in our world and how these changes are “flattening” our world.  The last video moves away from the educational aspects and focuses more on the economic implications.  All are very interesting to watch and to think about. I think as we plan for the future of education, we need to keep these changes in mind.  We are moving from a society that consumes content to a society that produces and shares content.  We interact and make changes in new ways. This is not about technology, it is about mindset.

New Digital Media Literacy

Our school district is in the process of getting a new website. We have contracted with a very creative local company called Pondry. Because of this local connection, I have the privilege of following the progress of this new site as it moves from vision, to framing, to design, and then to launch. We are very excited about the possibilities of building a site in this way. As we have thought about and researched what we would like to include on our site, how we want it to look and how we want consumers and producers to interact with the site, we have learned a great deal. Designing a website is definitely a skill and an art. This skill is not just for the creative types like Pondry who have made a business out of helping others create and communicate in this new media, this new media literacy is a skill that we all need to learn in order to be literate in the world we now live in. Dr. Jason Ohler defines literacy in this way. "Literacy means being able to consume and produce the media forms of the day." Ohler suggests that the default media form has shifted from the essay to the multimedia collage. We no longer just consume print in a linear fashion. We read with video clips, images and hyperlinks. Knowing how to navigate in this new media is definitly part of literacy, but literacy is not just reading, it is also writing. We need know how to write in this new media as well. Understanding the elements of art has become a valuable part of literacy as we don't only need to know how to create a good paragraph, but where that paragraph should go on a page and what other elements will be linked to that paragraph. Ohler suggest that this new literacy brings art to the forefront changing the basics from the 3 "r"s, Reading, wRiting, and aRithmatic, to the 4 "r"s including aRt.

There are many connections between the skills needed to develop a new website and the skills needed to be truly literate today when communicating with new media.

1. Know your audience. Choose font, words and images that meet the needs of your audience.
2. Move from linear to hyperlink. There is great power in making connections, everything doesn't have to fit on the front page.
3. Know the rules of the road. Creativity is great, but don't change the rules of the road. People should be able to know where to go and be able to follow your thoughts.
4. Keep it simple. Flashing text and twirling objects rarely add to understanding and enjoyment.
5. Get out a map. Collage should not mean lack of planning. Plan the design and navigation before you jump in to the creating.

On Monday I will be sharing a great web tool called Glogster at Digital Literacy Workshop.

Glogster is a great way to practice the skills needed to communicate using media literacy. You and your students can learn by creating digital collages. The great thing about digital is that it is so easy to change if things just don't quite look right or make sense. No messy glue to deal with. Play with colors and shape. Decide what text is important enough to make it to the front page. Decide how you are going to connect the readers to other important information that doesn't make the first page. Determine paths that make sense. Check to see if your colors attract or detract the reader from the important content. I hope that you will explore this tool share this tool with your students.

My mind swims with ideas about how this rich media can lead to deeper thinking, problem solving, making connections and collaborating with others.

Photo: http://davegoblog.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/lilymouse.jpg