Thing 6: Curation Tools

Prior to this activity I'd already become familiar with Flipbooks and Pinterest. I wanted to use this opportunity to challenge myself to explore curation tools that I hadn't heard of and as usual my curiosity got me clicking away and one link led to another and I became immersed in reading about everything from Twitter to educational iPad apps to great Math Resources and on and on. I have to say that this didn't happen when I clicked on LessonPaths and BlendSpace; neither of these tools held my attention or presented a format that made me want to investigate further. Where I got lost in exploration and reading was when I clicked on Learnist. Let's just say that I want to get my post done so I can get back to wandering through all that Learnist has to offer. The category tabs you see at the top when Learnist opens drew me right in and got me using the site. I also liked the format used once you select a category. The layout is very simple and clean; the content is organized into rows of 4 visuals across that include a brief description. You get a quick snapshot and can decide if you want to click on it or continue scrolling through. I didn't count, but there were rows upon rows of options to explore. The presentation keeps you from feeling overwhelmed, but it's clear that there is a breadth and depth to what you can find so deciding how much you want to tackle in one sitting is the challenge. I'm excited about Learnist because from the little I've seen already I can tell that I am about to connect with resources and information that will help me better support the teachers in my buildings. Right now I'm not at all sure how or if I'd use Learnist with students, but I'll be thinking about that as I explore it more. It's more obvious to me right now how I would use Flipbooks and Pinterest, but even those would need to be with older students [5th/6th grade and above]. This particular activity really has me thinking about how much more we need to do to connect teachers with their building librarians! We really need teachers to view the school librarian as an invaluable resource in their quest to integrate technology and online resources into their classroom activities.

Thing 5: Digital Storytelling & Presentation Tools

I checked out a bunch of digital storytelling & presentation tools and clicked on many, many examples.

VoiceThread
The digital library on VoiceThread's site was filled with examples of how it could be used in a K-12 environment and got my wheels whirring. It wasn't immediately obvious that you could have a free account. I like that it gives you a chance to try it out, but a school license is costly and I'm not sure many teachers would be willing to pay $79/year for access to this resource.

Animoto
I see the appeal; kids would love being able to mix visuals with music. Maybe it's my age, but I found the music in both examples I watched -- Polar Bears and Celebrating Dr. Seuss -- to be very distracting and overpowering. I had to really concentrate to attend to the visuals and the messages that accompanied the slides. If I used this tool I would want to spend some time teaching students the importance of selecting music that enhances what they are trying to communicate. I'd want to construct some examples that would help them understand that the choice of music is key; if it overpowers the visuals and written comments then it hasn't served its intended purpose.

Storybird
I'd never heard of this tool so I clicked on the link and was immediately drawn in by the graphics. I can't draw and my experience is that many students feel the same way. I found myself clicking on an image and wanting to write. This could be so wonderful for kids that feel stymied by having to draw. It was so easy to navigate that I just had to see the process and I imagine many kids would feel the same way; they wouldn't be able to resist the urge to write. You can check out my experiment by clicking here -- An Early Valentine. I could definitely see myself sharing the Tips link: Using StoryBird in the Classroom with a teacher that might be interested in exploring digital storytelling with his or her class.

Little Bird Tales
Maybe it was the examples, but I felt uninspired. If you haven't tried anything else it's certainly a starting point, but I've used the iPad app Book Creator

so I was and wondering why I would use Little Bird Tales when I could use Book Creator just as easily and, in my opinion, end up with a better final product.

I spent so much time on the digital storytelling tools and examples I'd run short on time for investigating all the links under Tools, tips and Resources. I did click on one -- Digital Storytelling and Stories with the iPad -- and found it to be so good that I'd want to go back to it before starting a project with a class. It was full of links for sites, apps and rubric ideas that I'd want to be certain to check out and possibly incorporate.

Thing 3: Photo Sharing, Editing and Fun

I have found this Cool Tools assignment frustrating. I clicked on the Photopin link and followed the directions for searching for a photo, but when I went to download the image everything I searched for came up as a Shutterbox image and I needed to pay for it. I tried signing up for a "free" Shutterbox account but that did nothing to improve my outcomes.

 

Fortunately our school district uses Creative Commons so I can say that I've had the experience of helping students search for images using that resource. Google Images is consistently the option that produces images well matched to search term they entered and the widest selection of images to choose from.

Thing 4: RSS, Personal Home Pages and Feed Readers

I didn't mention this in my last blog, but I want to say that I really appreciate the links to simple videos from CommonCraft. I've found each one has made the topic at hand accessible and I find myself immediately looking for the CommonCraft video and clicking on the link.

I've seen the RSS icon and known that it was something I should know about, but the Cool Tools project is why I've gone from huh??? to OHHHHH awesome! It feels like a V8 moment; hopefully some of you remember the 1980s 'I could have had a V8' commercials. Now I'm kicking myself that I didn't investigate RSS sooner.

I set up a Netvibes page and made it my browser's home page so I get in the habit of using it. I started this yesterday and at first I didn't find Netvibes very user friendly. I decided that it might be that my brain was on information overload and I put my computer aside and came back to it today. Thankfully my opinion has changed today as I take baby steps to tweak my dashboard so that it includes what I want to follow. I started by deleting the preloaded topics; for now I've left Netvibes Blog. New to my Dashboard are the RSS feeds for the Cool Tools blog and Learn Egg. Looking through Netvibes "Essentials" helped me choose to add Twitter and Blog Search. I gave Blog Search a spin by trying 'k-2 iPads' and liked what it pulled up.

I can tell already that I'm going to like the ability to gather everything in one place, but I'm going to have to be very strategic in what I read because just the list of tweets alone is crazy. I quickly decided that I needed to learn the settings feature for Twitter and marked everything from yesterday as read and adjusted my settings so that only items marked as not read show. I can see myself as needing to develop more survival strategies so that I don't feel swallowed up by the new world of learning and sharing possibilities I've opened up for myself.

Thing 2: Online Communities & Personal Learning Networks

I'm finding this is definitely a use it or lose it thing ... blogging I mean. I'm behind in my Cool Tools work and hoping to use the February break to catch up and now I'm feeling creaky and awkward trying to remember how to post to my blog. Argh! I love how my brain is being stretched and yet I hate how dumb and slow I feel.

So I took the leap and created a Twitter account [@AudreySeybold] today! What moved me to action was the first three sentences in the Edudemic piece 10 Simple Ways to Build Your Personal Learning Network ...

"Getting online is easy. Finding a few resources is relatively easy. Finding useful (and real) people who can truly benefit your learning is quite difficult."

I think my hesitation about joining Twitter or any other social network is the feeling of one more thing to keep up with and that I already have days when I feel like I am running as fast as I can to keep up with technology and not managing to hold my own. I think what finally made me take the leap is that I like to learn new things and the only way to do that is to continually stretch and go outside your comfort zone.

I discovered some folks I want to follow through #edtech and #ipaded. I've spent hours wandering through the posts of tons of folks and realize that this could get to be very addicting. I'm going to need to set some time limits and for now I'm reading and not participating so I need to set that as my next goal; I don't just want to lurk in the background, I want to take the scary next step of participating.

Thing 1: Blogging

This year I am an instructional technology resource teacher supporting K-8 colleagues in the Rochester City School District. I've gotten this assignment because I like using technology and I see how it can be a powerful tool for teachers to get students engaged in learning. The thing I most like about teaching is that there is always something new to learn. The name of this program -- Cool Tools for School -- immediately piqued my curiosity. I'm always looking for ways to get my students excited about learning so my first impulse was sign me up; I want to know about this! A glance at the topics confirmed that I'd be learning about subjects I needed to understand in my new position. For example, I knew nothing about starting a blog before this assignment and now I have one started!

iPads in K-2

Are you a K-2 teacher using iPads on your classroom? What apps do you have access to for your students? Have you found any particular apps to be better than others in terms of meeting student needs in an engaging way and being easy for students to use independently?