doing more with diigo

Diigo is a great way to keep track of all of your bookmarks in the cloud so that they can be readily pulled up on any device connected to the Internet. Yes, and...  there's a whole lot more that it can do.

Diigo works best when it's tools are integrated right in to your browser.  You can install the tools for any modern browser and enjoy the convenience of bookmarking, highlighting and annotating without interrupting your work flow.


Try this:

• Use the Highlight button to highlight text on a web page.  Your highlights stay and are visible to you when you come back to the page.
• Open a web page with an image and "right click" on that image...  you can save the image directly to you diigo account.
• Create a Smart Folder for a praticular tag.
• Join a Group and explore the sharing aspects of the group.  (UWC Teachers)

Using diigo with a class.

 You can create a group for your class(es).  Check with your Digital Literacy Coach to see if student accounts have already been made.  The best way to get them into your group is to choose option 3 - invite by email.
Establishing a Tag Dictionary for your group allows you to better organize your information and eliminate similar words that mean the same thing (i.e. Math, Maths, Mathematics).
You and your students can save things you bookmark to your group along with your annotations. As an added bonus, you can embed a widget that displays the group's links in your website, course page or blog.

What interesting uses of diigo will you try with your class?

Making Learning Visible - Mobile Video in PE

How do you know what you look like when performing a physical skill?

This is a question I ask myself again and again on the golf course when the round ends up going south.  Was it my elbow, my grip, am I shifting my feet, not keeping my head down?

For anybody who's watched an instructor demonstrate a skill I'm sure you know the feeling...  'Am I doing it correctly?'

Video on mobile devices has great potential to provide visual examples to learn from and feedback on performance.
We are fortunate to have a very progressive, committed team of Physical Education teachers who participated in an INSET day lead by the three digital literacy coaches. Here's what happened...

using mobile video to reinforce teaching
Here, we produced some short videos with teaching points included so that students could refer to the videos during the lesson on an iPod Touch when they may not have constant access to the teacher. These videos can be made quite quickly once you've got one set the way you like it, simply duplicate the project in iMovie and swap out the video segments and change the text.

using mobile video for peer feedback
A peer can be a really good coach when learning a new skill. The great thing about using peer feedback is that a lot of learning
can take place for the person giving the feedback as well, not just for the person performing. We talked a lot about being mindfully active and that's really what we're practicing here. Students shoot short segments of video (10 secs or less) on an iPod Touch, capturing only the action, and use it to help give feedback.
Having a video to "back-up" what you're trying to say can really help you make your point and we find that it also breaks down barriers that students may have. If they're shy, having the video immediately shifts the focus off of them and on to the person performing the skill.
A member of the PE department also brought up that video is great for capturing non-skill based
behaviors like cooperation, team-work, leadership, and focus.

using mobile video for self-analysis & goal setting
We shifted devices to the iPad 2 here so that teachers could get experience with shooting and doing simple edits using iMovie on one device on the spot.
The idea here is that students could have a peer record them performing a skill early on and then do a self-analysis by using the voice-over feature of iMovie. They can edit the clips, split the clips and even capture stills at particular points in the video simultaneously pressing the home
button & power button while the movie is
paused in full screen.

 using mobile video for assessing progress
Students can go further with the video they capture of their performances and take video at different intervals during a unit. These videos can be exported to their MacBooks to take full advantage of the editing tools available in iMovie for OSX. Using slow motion, reversing the video direction, and using picture-in-picture we can get a detailed view of different aspects of performing a skill.
The aim here is to show progress in specific aspects of a skill. The product is a video that can be a central part of a student portfolio for P.E. These portfolios can be shared with parents and could be used as assessment evidence. But mostly, it's really nice for students to be able to see how far they've come, especially if they feel like they're not being successful at all. The video can often reveal the progress they've made individually instead of what may be the tendency to compare yourself to the best person in the class. 

 

• Nuts & Bolts: using mobile video

Creating videos - Making a bank of teaching videos can be a collaborative effort and once they're done, you can reuse them again and again. Also, you may want to consider having students produce them (Digital Media Team or Techxperts possibly?). Once you've done one in iMovie it's a really simple work flow to just duplicate the project and then insert the new video clips and text.

Getting Video On - Uploading videos to your YouTube or Vimeo channel and then emailing the link to the device (MS/HS iPad iPod) is an easy solution but requires good access to wifi (which we found, could be a limitation in some teaching spaces). Alternately, you could ask the IT Dept. to upload a set of teaching videos to iTunes on the devices if you had enough lead time (1 week).

Shooting tips - Turn the device to landscape, keep it still by holding with two hands and bracing, think about the angle - side, back front...  what's best to see the action?, capture only the action - not before and after, shoot SHORT segments - less then 10 seconds is often sufficient for skills and several short segments are easier to deal with than one long continuous shot.

Getting Video Off - from the camera roll send email to individual email accounts if segments are short and there aren't too many.  Alternately, plug the device in to the laptop and import to iPhoto or iMovie. DO NOT upload to a personal Facebook or YouTube account as the account details you enter will stay on the device and the next person to use it will be able to also access your private accounts!

Deleting - Take time at the end of a lesson to make sure all media has been deleted from the camera roll.  Actually have the students show you the camera roll so you can verify that it's empty as you collect the devices back in.

Editing - Making a clip shorter can be done on the iPods, but that's about all you could comfortably do.  If you want to edit directly on the device, iMovie on the iPads is one option.  To do advanced edits (slow-mo, reverse, crop, p-in-p) you'll want to ramp up to iMovie on the MacBook.

Publishing - We have a college Vimeo account that could be used to publish exemplar videos as well as highlighting the best in the eDunia.  Individually, if students have their own personal YouTube or Vimeo accounts they can publish there or they can all use their college Picasa accounts.  Video loaded to these sites can be embeded in Mahara and become part of their ePortfolios.

Learning with Laptops and Lanschool

Laptops in the hands of our student present an enormous array of opportunities for learning. They also present several significant challenges that we must work to overcome, especially for those of us who are relatively new to a one-to-one learning environment. There are several things that a teacher can do to maximize the potential for learning and minimize the challenges.

Why?
Always begin with the why. Why are students going to be using technology in this lesson? What is the learning?

These questions are the critical first step in defining what you use and how you use it. As you plan your instruction, consider how you're using the technology.  The SAMR model by Dr. Puentedura can help elucidate the different ways we can use technology in learning.



Spacing and Timing
The deployment of technology in time and space in a lesson can eliminate a lot of distraction and maximize the learning.

Time the technology so that it doesn't "compete" with other activities. Maybe that means starting with large group discussion and then breaking out into small group work with the laptops. The leave the laptops in the bag until they actually need them.


It's also important consider the spatial arrangement of the room. When students are working in groups, do the all need to be on their laptops or can you do three or four students to one computer. As Sugata Mitra points out, it can be really effective way to learn with a group of people around asking questions and giving encouragement to the person driving the computer.

 

A great post was written by Bianca Hewes on Edmodo about matching the physical arrangement to the learning goal in both online and offline learning activities. She advocates for three spaces, though I think you could easily come up with more: The Campfire - a place to learn from experts or storytellers. A place for whole-group discussions, The Watering Hole - a space for small group discourse and collaboration, The Cave - a space for individual study, reflection, quiet reading and creative flow.

Take care to arrange the physical space in your room and choose the right online environments depending on the type of interaction you're looking for.

LanSchool

This is a tool that you can use to accomplish a variety of tools in your class.    

Including: 

Instant Polling

Testing
Share your screen
Share student screen
Blank screens
Control Web access
Control App access
Send/Receive files
Take over student computer

and more. 

There are great tutorials that show you all the features of LanSchool. 

A really important thing to keep in mind however is that there are significant issue with student privacy.  When they join your class, you potentially have access to their entire file structure and could take over control of their machine.  It pays to have a conversation with the students in advance of using LanSchool and to establish with them the "rules of engagement" for using this tool in the class.

How will you use LanSchool in your class?  How are you finding it? Please share by commenting on this post.

Mahara - Sharing a Journal

By default, any content students create in Mahara, including their journals, is private to them.  This is a feature built in to the platform that is actually reinforcing the desired model of having students make considered choices of what they publish and share.
The idea is that students select the artifacts that best represent their learning for a particular purpose, whether this is a class, activity, tutor group, or parent audience.

This video demonstrates how to simply share an entire Journal by creating and sharing a page in Mahara.

Teamwork makes blogging better.

Blogging is a great way to communicate about the learning going on in your classroom.  The challenge however for new bloggers to overcome is the idea of how this medium is different than the "way we've always done it."

One way that blogging is different than emailing or posting a newsletter is that these forms of communication are often more formal, formulaic, and one-way.  Blogging is a really versitile forum for sharing the learning in your class. You can easily incorporate images, movies, sound recordings, and a whole host of Web 2.0 applications that make every blog a unique reflection of the style of it's owner.

By their nature, blogs can foster great conversations and can be used to connect school-learning with learning at home.  For example, you could post an image of something captured with the digital microscope, ask a question, and watch the comments as students along with their parents continue the learning together.

This creative potential of blogs however can be daunting for first-time bloggers.  At the same time, there can be unease about shining light into what is often a very private space.

These uncertainties are magnified when an entire group of teachers starts blogging together.  We wonder how our blogs will measure up to the others on our team and in our school.

So here's a bit of advice... we are all different, have different teaching styles, and our blog should reflect that diversity.  Blogs should be real.  They should be personal.  They should not be standardized to the point where we all post the same things at the same time.  If you want to do that, send a collaborative newsletter.

But, if you want to reflect the rich diversity of experience and professional practice you bring to bear, then blogging is for you.  Here are some tips for getting started with your team.

1. Choose a common launch date.  By picking a launch date that's a reasonable date in the future, the team can all launch their blogs at the same time and we won't have some teachers feeling the pressure to post just because the others have already done so. 
2. Build up a bank of content before the launch. Blog posts can take on a variety of forms limited only by your imagination.  I found this great list of 64 different class blog posts (embeded below). Don't know where to start? Choose one of the prompts and have a go. By having a bank of draft posts, you can easily pull one in from the bank if you're having an especially busy week.
3. Blog for each other first. In order to meet #2, as a team, select a blogging prompt and by the next team meeting agree that everybody will come with a draft post that they'll show to the group.  This does three things, it will help build up your bank of content, everybody on the team will have a good idea of the "standard" of how others are posting, and it will allow peer coaching as members of the team introduce new formatting, features, and eventually Web 2.0 add-ons.
4. Communicate with the parents about the launch of your blog. Let them know why you're blogging, the kinds of things you plan to post and how you expect to use commenting. Promote the launch date and let them know that you'd appreciate them reading and sharing the blog with important people in their child's life (Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, etc.).
5. Debrief and adjust.  After the blogs launch, it's important for the team to get back together and talk about how it's going.  A good protocol could be to just spend time highlighting a post from each person on the team.  As new tools and techniques creep into the team's blogs, make sure they are highlighted and shared among the group so that you all skill-up together. 

List of 64 Ideas for Class Blogs via Free Technology For Teachers by Richard Byrne

Changing Your Password

Please see the screencast below to show how to change your password via the school website www.uwcsea.edu.sg

Students (and Teachers) make self-grading quizzes with Google Forms and Flubaroo

It's easy to use Google Forms to collect information for surveys and manage sign-ups, but you can also use them for assessments. Geography students are using the Flubaroo script installed in a Google Form to create ten question quizzes for each other.

We spent most of a double period creating the quizzes that they will share with everybody in the class.  The link to the quiz can be shared by email or posted to a class website or the quizzes themselves can be embeded on a page.  When students take the quiz, the script checks their answers against the key created by the author of the quiz and returns their results immediately via email.
The teacher of the class meanwhile decided to create a Google Form to collect peer feedback of newspaper articles that were written by students in the class.  He simply turned his paper-based question guide into a form.  This will allow him to gather all the responses in one spreadsheet so he can easily look them over.  

Taking attendance for a a class that's not on your timetable.

Occasionally, teachers will be asked to cover for colleagues who can't themselves be there. In these cases, you need to be able to mark attendance for a class that's not on your timetable.  Here's how (thanks to Hemantha Dissanayake for the screen shots).

How to take attandance for another teacher from United World College of SE Asia on Vimeo.

Linking to other sites from your Studywiz course page.

This tutorial shows you how you can use your Studywiz course page to link to other sites like a blog, or Google site.  The suggested process has you editing the course's Information page.  You can put different types of information here like a course overview simply by pasting from an existing document or writing with the editing tools.  Building a list of links to other relevant course sites just means typing their names, highlighting them, then using the "link" button on the editor to get a window where you enter your URL.

Untitled from United World College of SE Asia on Vimeo.