Pok’ewhat?!?

Guest Post by Rhonda Wise - My name is Rhonda Wise and I am currently working as a Seasonal Interpretive Park Ranger at Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park in Johnson City, TX. As an Interpretive Ranger, my job is not only to educate but to connect our visitors, on a personal level, to the cultural and natural resources associated to the Johnson Presidency. The National Park Service is embarking on its second century of service. I want to make sure that I am prepared to represent the agency while adapting to meet the needs of our future visitors in a way that is relevant to them.

Pok'ewhat?!? Social media is swamped with the reports and posts, both good and bad, about the new Pok’emon Go mobile app and game. The mobile app takes gamers to historical sites and markers in a quest to ‘catch’ the Pok’emon creatures. The National Park Service is embracing it, with our current director producing a video welcoming Trainers, as the gamers are called, to the parks. With his endorsement, I added his video to our facebook page and welcomed trainers to Lyndon B. Johnson National Historic Park (but inside I am cringing).

Is this how we get millennials into and experiencing the parks? I read an article today that made a statement that took my attention. ”Pok’emon Go managed to accomplish something that museums, historic sites and others have struggled with for years: Getting a generation of nerds into the world to discover it, and its stories, anew.”

The positive... Pok'mon Go Live article

And the negative... Holocaust Museum

I will be anxiously watching as this plays out. Will we find new connections with this Pok’emon generation or will parks be a nondescript backdrop for the game? Is this or can this be used as a digital educational tool? Thoughts?

My screenshot taken yesterday between the LBJ Boyhood Home and the visitor center. It's everywhere!

(Stay tuned. Rhonda is working on a project for the Educational Technology course I teach. I'll post when it's complete and direct traffic to more of her engaging posts like this.)

Exploring Web Literacy with Thinglink

Guest post by S. Horton, a K-12 educator in my Winter 2015 Ed Tech class.

Web literacy is important for students to learn, regardless of their age.  Alan November's website has a ton of resources on web literacy.

When tackling this topic in the classroom, my students were falling asleep at the thought of reading another article. They demanded pop, fun, interaction, and creativity. I needed a way to get the information across while engaging them.  What  was I to do? Create it!  My students and I created this user friendly, super fun Thinglink using a joined effort of Easel.ly and Thinglink.  It's interactive. Click on the icons and explore!

How to use the Thinglink 
The tags have the answers to 13 questions on web literacy.  Some of the tags have follow-up activities that the students perform while reading the Thinglink creation. They click on an interactive link and then interact. Thus, the once bored students are no longer bored, but happily participating in web literacy skill improvement.

How I created the Thinglink
First, in Easel.ly, an infographics site, I made the base picture. Then, using the snipping tool on the computer, to take a "picture" of the Easel.ly poster, I saved it as a jpeg file.

Next, I uploaded the picture into Thinglink, a great site for creating interactive images. Then, I used the information on the November's learning website to create tags on the poster.

You too can bring topics such as web literacy alive.  Give it a try! Check out related posts Exploring Social Justice with Thinglink and Ways to Use Thinglink in Education.

A thank you to S. Horton and her students!

The Up-Goer Five in Education

Guest Blog Post:

Hello all! I am a Biology teacher currently masquerading as an English teacher in South Korea. Since I don’t have much in the way of experience teaching English—much less English as a Foreign Language (EFL)—I am taking some online courses to improve my teaching skills.

When Tech: I discovered The Up-Goer Five on Nik’s LearningTechnology Blog.

Users are challenged to explain a complex idea using only the ten hundred most used English words. The program identifies any words that you use which are not simple enough.

Here's an example.  Can you guess where it is?  " I live in a big place with one people group that is not my own. The big place I live in is broken in two parts because the two parts were fighting. I live in the lower part. People here are nice. "

Met Ed: TheUp-Goer Five could be used either to help English Language Learners (ELLs) explain an idea using words that they are familiar with or with non-ELL students to show how difficult it is to express complex ideas when you don't have the proper words. Sites such as these can expose educators to new ideas and give them tools to implement the use of these ideas.

Go ahead and try it! Leave your definition in the comments so mine won’t be lonely.