ToonDoo Tutorial
I receive a lot of feedback on my article on comic strip creation, so I thought I would go the next step and provide a basic tutorial for creating cartoons. Please feel free to use, modify, edit, whatever. But, if you make a million dollars off of this, you owe me half 
.
If it is useful to you, please let me know. It’s always nice to know people appreciate the work.
Here is the ToonDoo Tutorial, titled: Getting Started with ToonDoo
ASCD Presentation Handout
The following link will give you access to the handout for our session “Written Conversations Develop Minds for the Future”. The hand it covers the ‘how to’ portion of our presentation.
Thank You, Facebook
This post is related to the presentation I will be giving at the ASCD Annual Conference in San Francisco. If you’d like to come out, it will be on Saturday March 26 at 5:15 pm in room 113.
By the seventeenth century, the printing press was common throughout Europe, and, “was the core technology that gave rise to the Age of Enlightenment” (Jeff Chase, 2001). Academics and experts alike could share their knowledge and understanding with millions of people.
Late in the nineteenth century, fountain pens were mass produced. Suddenly, everyone could begin writing with ease. But, the audience would be small, isolated to a small group of people at best.
By the late 1990′s, internet became relatively common. Select individuals, with the know how, could create a website within a few days, maybe weeks. But, at this time, most people with internet access were simply consuming the information.
But don’t let anyone tell you that the biggest difference between today and 25 years ago is that students can access and consume the information of the world. While this is partially true, I believe that the most important distinction is that todays student is creating the information. With social media, everyone can be, and is, an important author.
How important? Glad you asked! The picture below is one of thousands of images, blogs and tweets from protesters in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Average people, connected to the rest of the world through their cell phone cameras and blogs, have made waves by sharing information and rhetoric of the happenings in their countries. The revolution in Tunisia is largely credited to Tunisian use of social media such as blogging, Facebook and youtube to get their message out and gardner support of the world.
- Social media was used to gain the support of the world in Egypt and Tunisia
So the question isn’t ‘Should we be allowing our students to use social media?’ The question should be, “How do we get our students to use social media effectively, so they can be change agents too?”
How Social Media Can Develop 21st Century Skills
Saturday from 5:15 pm – 6:15 pm, Moscone Centre, Room 113
Bring Your Laptops!
In a few more than 24 hours, I will be presenting at the 2011 ASCD Annual Conference with my colleague, Susana Gerndt. The title of the session is “Written Conversations Develop Minds for the Future”, with reference to Howard Gardner‘s recent work. The session might have been called “How Social Media Can Develop 21st Century Skills”. The session description we submitted a year ago doesn’t do justice the importance of technology and social media in modern learning environments, but, the session will. Here is a taste of our introduction:
Looking specifically at the meaning of the word social and then the meaning of the word media allows us to come up with our own understanding of what social media is and can be in our classrooms. Social media can be cordial, gracious, informative, popular and neighborly. It is created by people for people. Individuals become active participants in a communal understanding that is not limited to their own thoughts, or the thoughts of a select few individual ‘experts’. Individuals are linked to the understandings of the world. Social media is therefore the information of the community. Would you rather leverage one person or dozens, hundreds, thousands, even millions of people? Social media engages students because it gives them a platform to leverage many individuals as opposed to just the teacher.
If all works out, we will run a backchannel using twitter hashtags #ascd11 and #1437 (session number). Tweets will be aggregated on todays meet, here: http://todaysmeet.com/1437. So, if you plan to come (and we hope you do), bring your mobile device!
Top Things To Look For In A Conference
As you have experienced yourself it always seems that when it gets busy, it gets really busy. January/February has been (and will be) incredibly busy for me. Part of what I’m doing has had me thinking about educational conferences, and what I like in a conference. Here is an incomplete list, feel free to help me finish it off in the comments thread.
- Expert Keynote Speakers – There should always be a speaker/series of speakers that are experts in their field and engaging speakers – this is a given.
- Choice – I like conferences that have multiple sessions at any given time with accurate descriptions so I can choose what works for me.
- Variety in Format – small group workshops with expert help, large group lectures where you sit and get, and everything in between.
- …
Collaboration On The Web – Quick Links
More notes will be up here on friday, but for now, here is easy access to the necessary links.
Presentation (Prezi) Here
- https://prezi.com/secure/5bd521c065b84d81a8195ced4b703c52782ac592/
- video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NugRZGDbPFU&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1
Participate On These Links
Online MindMapping
- http://www.mindmeister.com/78582444/when-and-why-do-our-students-need-to-collaborate
- http://www.mindmeister.com/
- http://www.mapul.com/
- http://www.creaza.com/
Virtual Stickies
- http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/2011jan27
- http://www.edistorm.com/
- http://www.linoit.com/
- http://www.listhings.com/
Virtual WhiteBoarding
- http://www.twiddla.com/477005
- http://www.creately.com/
- http://www.dablleboard.com/
- http://www.imaginationcubed.com/
Collaborative Documents:
Join an ASCD Group: Technology for Teaching and Learning
The ASCD is a top-notch educators organization that provides books, resources and various PD opportunities to teachers. The ASCD Annual Conference is an amazing experience and should be on a list for any educator to attend.
One are that the ASCD lacks in is support for technology in education. I hope to change this by forming an ASCD Professional Interest Community (PIC) titled: Technology for Teaching and Learning. Please join me in the formation of this ASCD community by signing up here! Both ASCD members and non members can join, the only requirement is that there are a minimum of 15 ASCD members.
Virtual Learning Coming … Now!
On January 5 2011, Microsoft brought virtual reality to the masses by announcing Avatar Kinect. Avatar Kinect will allow users to engage in virtual environments, through an avatar that will depict real facial expressions and movements. Users will be able to enter virtual environments as their avatar, and engage in conversations and various other activities – even learning activities. This could push virtual reality to the critical mass that would make virtual learning environments feasible for millions of people.
Avatar Kinect will be able to run on the over 50 million XBox 360′s that already sit in living rooms – and these numbers are growing fast. It is possible that the software will eventually become available to all Windows users which is about 1 billion people. In the not too distant future this may be a regular way you connect with your students and colleagues – at which point I can finally stop having to worry about aligning my interactive white board!
7 Reasons, 6 Tips and 3 Uses: Wikis In The Classroom
- Honor Each Student Using social media such as wikis helps you honor the ideas of each student. Engage your students and let them know that their ideas are valued – give them a platform to share their understandings, and they will.
- Make Understanding Transparent When using a wiki that is accessible with any web browser all students can access the knowledge of their classmates even if they are too shy to talk in class or those who miss a day or even weeks.
- Teach Your Students To Reference Ideas Wikis are a very easy way for students to begin referencing other work because they can easily put in links to other web based sources
- Learn Digital Citizenship Getting your students working on social media gives you an opportunity to teach digital citizen, and allow students to learn how to become effective ‘knowers’ in the 21st century
- Use Multimedia Students can add multimedia to their notes/work; links, video, pictures, interactive web applets, cartoons, etc.
- Engage Students similar to #1, but specifically focus on the fact that students will be doing work instead of teacher.
- Track Student Work Wikis are one of the few tools that allows you to see exactly which user has done what. Use the history function to track student work and edits to know who has been engaged.
- Set Clear Expectations√ The best way to deal with problem behavior is to avoid it with clear expectations. Talk to your students about being good citizens online, and have clear expectations. Students respond well to candid discussions on this topic.
- Provide Descriptive Feedback
Take a few minutes early in the use of wikis to show students the type of ‘posts’ that are productive and effective, and tell them why. Point out ‘posts’ that are less effective, and tell them why. - Structures Help! Using wikis will be very different, so think carefully about how you structure such a lesson in advance. Usually only one user can edit at once. I brought 25 people online to work on 13 wikis (representing 13 concepts). The first time I did this I made 13 bright yellow sheets of paper with the title of each wiki page on one yellow sheet. In pairs, users were told to only edit a wiki if they had the corresponding sheet. Every 5 minutes we switched sheets, until each group had the chance to add to each wiki/idea.
- Scaffold Skills If you want students to do research to find media or information, you need to show them how. You may also need to show them how to reference information, use a wiki, take turns, collaborate, share, respond to classmates, etc. If you don’t teach it, don’t expect them to know how!
- Provide Frameworks consider providing structures such as questions for them to answer (please don’t turn a wiki into a worksheet!), graphic organizers for sorting research findings, etc. – anything to help students organize their thoughts and get them started.
- Be Present The most important thing you can do for your students is be present while they are working. Circle around the classroom frequently, ask students to show you what they have so far. Question them, and have them question you. If you’re not a part of the learning process than why are you getting paid?
- As a KWL Chart (what I Know, what I Want to know, and what I Learned) The first time I used wikis in class, small groups shared a wiki throughout a two-week unit of study. I posted over-arching questions on the wiki, and the individuals in the group added and updated it. At the end they had a nice document with pictures, text, links, videos and interactive applets that helped them understand the content.
- As A Unit Review I’ve seen a few teachers using wikis at the end of a unit to put together interactive multi-media based notes and questions. In these cases the community knowledge had been less of a focus but the simplicity of a wiki expedited student work.
- As The Knowledge of the Classroom It is important to honor the ideas and understandings of every student in your classroom. By using wikis you can give each student an opportunity to share their understanding on a topic; a picture, graph, video, experience, applet or other website/resource that helps them represent their understanding. I seen a math teacher once have students use wikis to explain a data set – at the end there were various types of graphs, links images and explanations which became a valuable way for students to gain the perspective of their peers.
I hope I’ve given you some fresh ideas for using wikis in school. These ideas have developed out of work I have done with my district and with my colleague, Susana Gerndt. I would be interested in hearing your feedback in the comments below!
This post is the third in a series of posts I call “Reasons and Tips”
Things You Can Do Today To Enhance Student Learning
With all of the talk about education reform and standardized assessments I’m sure some teachers are feeling a bit overwhelmed or powerless. To re-empower teachers (including myself), I started a list of things that classroom teachers can easily start doing tomorrow in the classroom. I’m just starting the list, please help it grow by sharing your own ideas in the comments section.
- Get rid of rows of desks, get kids sitting in groups. Learning doesn’t happen in isolation.
- Have a class discussion. I don’t mean talk to your kids about something, I mean get all the students talking! (shameless self-plug, but it makes my point)
- Take a break from grades, and give students descriptive and useful feedback. Read more about this on Joe Bowers blog
- Engage students with Post-it notes - students can write comments and questions on them while reading/learning/listening and stick them in their books. Very simple, very effective.
- Let student questions drive the learning – a simple example of how this might look is given by John Scammel on his blog
- Student lead reviews – at the beginning of class, get students to review what they learned last class, and use this as the starting point for the new learning.
- If it’s in their textbook, don’t make them write it. I used to do this too; give notes that students don’t really need. If you really want them to have summary notes of the textbook, teach them to take their own – that is much more powerful learning. Read about the Cornell note taking system for an idea of what I mean.
This is by no means a comprehensive list, so I encourage you to share your ideas by commenting below. Good luck tomorrow
