The Brainwaves Video Anthology

Check out the Brainwaves You Tube Video Anthology by Bob Greenberg.  It's loaded with short videos that feature leaders in global education.

Here's one with Sir Ken Robinson where he talks about his new book, Revolutionizing Education from the Ground Up.

Here are a few of many others I've either watched or look forward to viewing soon!

Alan November on Who Owns the Learning? Preparing Students for Success

Linda Darling-Hammond on The Flat World and Education

Carol Dweck on Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Larrry Ferlazzo on Helping Students Motivate Themselves

Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano on Globally Connected Learning

Yong Zhao on World Class Learners

Subscribe to The Brainwaves Video Anthology to stay notified of the latest uploads.  Happy viewing!

National Film Board of Canada Interactives

Looking for a relaxing way to kick back for a few hours?  Get lost in the National Film Board of Canada's Interactive site!

My exploration has just began.  Bla Bla by Vincent Morisset simply puts a smile on my face. The key to the interactivity is uninhibited clicking and sound on.  Flub and Utter by Scott Nihil and Sabrina Saccoccio caught the attention of the linguist in me.  It took me back to my first linguistic course and the study of Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll, which Nihil references.  My favorite may be Flawed by Andrea Dorfman, but it's too early to know for sure.  I'm still exploring.

It turns out this is an ongoing area of interest that I keep stumbling upon.  Here's a related post about one of the earliest 360 interactive documentaries, Out My Window.  Also check out the NFB's films! The Girl Who Hated Books is a good place to get started for elementary teachers.  Quallunaat! Why White People Are Funny reminds me of Narmica and a good lesson I need to reinvent.

Thanks to the fabulous learners in my Ed Tech class this term, and specifically Brian Levine for sharing the National Film Board of Canada's Interactive site.

Happy interactive exploring!

Why Does Sugata Mitra Anger So Many Educators?

This Ed Tech Talk entitled, Why Does Sugata Mitra Anger So Many Educators, is interesting!  I think you will find it interesting.  If you aren't familiar with the work of Sugata Mitra, view some of his TED Talks here.

Participants in the Ed Tech Talk include Dave Cormier, Jeff Lebow, Jennifer Madrell, Graham Stanley, John Schinker.  They discuss Sugata Mitra's concept of Self-Organized Learning Environment (SOLE), but conversation goes beyond Mitra's views.  Their discussion leaves room for reflection for the future of education in K-12 and higher ed.  Dave Cormier wrote two related posts The Rise of SOLEs (Part 1): The Decline of the Webquest and The Rise of the SOLES (Part 2): At the Heart of a SOLE.  These put some of their conversation into context.

What are some of your take-aways?  What points do you agree and disagree with? Watch it and share your thoughts here or in person with another educator.

A Pep Talk from Kid President

A favorite needs watched more than once.  It also needs shared. Watch Kid President from Soul Cake to brighten your day.  Then share, go and "create something that will make the world awesome!"

The Teachers Should See This: Super Bowl Predictions

Watch the video below initiated and created by my young guest blogger.  It's a fun example of creativity and pop culture outside the classroom with tablets and apps such as iMovie.

Personally, I base my favorite team and predictions entirely upon color schemes.  It's a close call this year!

There must be math applications for predictions and probability for creative math teachers out there a bit deeper than our "scientific" predictions.  Share if you have any. :-)

Happy commercial watching!

Student Voice with Tablets vs. Pens?

So many discussions about technology in education begin with a conversation about either the woes of how technology is driving the curriculum or of some fear it will replace the teacher. 

Tech is another tool.  I hold nothing in my hand.  Now I pick up a pen.  What can I do now that I hold a pen that I couldn’t before I had the pen in my hand?  What a powerful tool the pen is!  How it has shaped our world.

Will the pen do all the work for me?  Does the pen have the words and ability to make them jump on the paper?  Silly.  Yet we often start discussions of today’s technology this way.  To use the tablet or not?  What if we had just let the pen sit there and never explored it’s potential in education?  What if we only gave wealthy students access to the pen? Etc.

Three weeks this summer, I worked in a summer camp for high school migrant youth.  Some of them had held an iPad before and knew more about its uses than me.  For others, this was their first time.  Within a few hours with minimal guidance of a college staff leader, they shared their voices.  They created about themselves on topics of relevance to them.  Check out their videos here!

I sense this is only the beginning.  With many of these emerging technologies, it’s like picking up the pen for the first time and realizing, “This has potential in my hands—wait, it has more potential in my students’ hands!”  We’re wrapping our heads around this.  Play, create, share, and reflect.  Think in terms of collaboration, communication, creativity, critical thinking, and culture.  The framework of my tech course is becoming more important to me as I think about the emerging technologies.

Stay tuned for an upcoming post about some of the how-tos and my instructional tech take-aways of this summer migrant leadership camp experience.

Bullying, Self Image, and Crap in the Classroom: Part 2 Bullying

Bullying and Pork Chops.  This is a continuation of a series of discussions ignited in one of my pre-service teacher courses.  We have some extremely capable young educators ready to step up to the plate and tackle some large issues!  Bullying is one of these issues. (See part 1: Crap for another issue.)

Shane Koyczan is simply amazing. Be aware.  He will shape the way you think!  Bullies called him Pork Chop.Shane Koyczan: To This Day

http://youtu.be/ltun92DfnPY

Search Common Sense Media for other resources on bullying: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/

Crap, Bullying and Self Image.  How are they related?  How can we approach these topics in ways that will instigate positive change?

Happy thinking!

Crap, Bullying, and Self Image in the Classroom: Part 1 Crap

What do crap, bullying, and self-image have to do with each other?  Probably a lot more than this post will explore!  As one of my pre-service teacher courses began to explore topics of social justice and ways of integrating them into their K-12 curriculum, three major themes emerged: crap, bullying, and self image.  This is part 1 of this series.

I admittedly brought the topic of crap into the mix as an example.  When I travel to some of my favorite places in the world, I get particularly frustrated with inequities in access to something as seemingly simple as a toilet and clean water.  (Yes, I am sure I could do a blog on this topic alone. You have been forewarned if you get me started.)   

Let’s Talk Crap by Rose George

http://www.ted.com/talks/rose_george_let_s_talk_crap_seriously.html

This funny short You Tube video fit too perfectly into the toilet theme and my love of technology to pass up.

http://youtu.be/UR4mlLiyjYo

If  you have any great lessons geared toward sanitation and access to clean water, pass them forward.  This is an important topic that is all too often flushed down the toilet so to speak.

One Day on Earth 12-12-12

Last year on 11-11-11, my kiddo and I participated in the One Day on Earth 11-11-11 project by shooting and uploading this very short video clip as we walked through our local forested area.  See the 11-11-11 video trailer below.  What will you be doing on 12-12-12?  Consider participating.  The One Day on Earth site explains, "Together, we are showcasing the amazing diversity, conflict, tragedy, and triumph that occurs in one day."

Not sure what to submit? Get inspired here.  I particularly liked the Educational and People and Culture sections. The Educational Toolkit has some ideas for educators.

I should be in a pretty interesting place somewhere in the world on 12-12-12.  This time I'll be sure to record at least a minute to gain access to the final online copy of the film.

My One Day on Earth 11-11-11 post.

Happy filming!

Popcorn Maker

This TED Talk with Ryan Merkley called, Online Video--Annotated, Remixed, and Popped,  caught my attention. And I'm glad it did!  Watch the short five minute talk to see why. Ryan describes Mozilla's Popcorn Maker.

Watch Popcorn Maker in action as it pulls in information from across the web and augments to another TED Talk that brought a smile to my face today-- Science Is For Everyone with Beau Lotto and Amy O'Toole.

Give Mozilla Popcorn Maker a try.   It's in beta, but looking promising and pretty simple to use.  In a few minutes I pulled in a You Tube video I created and augmented to it with a map, link and annotations.

Met Ed:  The potential applications for tools like this are numerous in education.  What can be done by the average bear like myself leaves me amazed.  Just think what the students can do given some guidance and purpose.

Change Begins with Questions and Discussions, Doesn't It?

Why are kids in school? How do kids learn? Why do kids learn?  What model(s) of education best fit the needs of our children?  Where is the future of education headed?  These are some of the questions that this stop-motion, claymation video called Technology and Education addresses.  It brings in ideas from Sir Ken Robinson and others.  

This video resonated with me due to discussions I watched unfold in my online course this past week.  This term, my class is composed of a great mix of preservice and practicing teachers ranging from those doing student teaching to those who have been in the field for many years.  I only bring this in because it is exciting to see this range of experience asking the same questions and supporting each other in their quest to make personal meaning. One of the topics of the week is what it means to be a “principled teacher” (Freeman and Freeman, 2011).  Part of the discussion took an interesting turn and surrounded the topic of teacher autonomy.  How much power does the teacher have in the class? How can we support and empower each other?  Where does the teacher fit into the mix of answering the questions posed in the video?  (Note another correlation of the week: scaffolding in lieu of direct instruction in this post ;-)

I really love my job thanks to the discussions of my students!

For the Love of a Book

Warning.  Once you start reading, you may not be able to stop thinking.  TheFantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is an extraordinary video that I will revisit many, many times.   Like a favorite tattered book, I can see gaining something new from it each time one watches it.  My kiddo and I have watched it several times, pausing and making connections each time we see it.  I can’t wait to connect it to one of my classes!

Can you spot some of my favorites in the video?  My further investigations have turned many of my long held opinions into mush!  The many and varied points of view I have encountered do not confuse, but enrich.  I laugh.  I cry.  I seldom understand things but…  I go round and round the mulberry bush.  Why does the weasel go “pop”?  Does it matter?  If life is enjoyed, does it have to make sense?

And what a gorgeous baby grand piano.  I’m fairly certain it is the same one my grandma plays in her living room!  My grandparents are after all two of the people who encouraged my love for books and writing and embracing the unknowns in life.  If you don’t know what I’m rambling about, begin by watching this video.  And then for the love of a book, pick one up and experience it!  Digital ones do count ;- )  Here’s a link to the app.

How does TheFantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore touch you? Those of us who love literature, writing, flying words that buzz in silence, just can’t stop.  Watch The Joy of Books and then read, share, and read!

This relates to my past post What’s a Book?  Is This a Book? I’m fairly certain it will relate to a future one.

Happy reading and writing!  (Happy birthday Grandpa!)

The Teachers Should See This: Coke and Mentos

I am ten years old and a guest blogger here.  I often find interesting sites and sometimes want to share them.  I will occasionally post things I think teachers should see.  Here's my Coke and Mentos post! 

Do you know what happens when you put Coke and Mentos together?  Watch this EepyBird.com production to see what happens.

Next, if your students liked the first video, here is a second one that has a domino effect. To show your students why it happens, show this MythBusters video. To wrap up your lesson, demonstrate video one or two for your students. Remind them not to try this at home.

See, Feel, Hear, Touch, and Capture Vocabulary

Like so many of you, I’m always on the look-out for interesting ways of teaching vocabulary.  From math, to science, to English, etc.—each content area has vocabulary words that we introduce.    In the ESOL/Bilingual Ed courses I teach, we look at ways of integrating both the everyday language, which helps give our students a voice, as well as the academic language embedded in meaningful contexts that they need in academia.  How can we help our students see, hear, feel, touch, and maybe even smell or taste new words?  How can they record and share their learning?

Check out Shelly Terrell’s slide share.

Visualizing Vocabulary with Your Students

Shelly’s slide share is packed full of ideas, so I’m using it as a springboard for this post. 

• Some of these are tried and true no tech suggestions with examples like word walls (slide 7), which can also be done with online stickies like Linoit, Primary Wall, etc. 
• I’m off to look at the voicethread (slide 10) because I have used voicethread with vocabulary and beyond with success in the classroom and am really excited about the new voicethread app.
• Several of her suggestions such the word cloud Tagul (slide 12), Word Stash (slide 19-20), and Wordia (slides 21-24), I have blogged about and/or are found on our student’s tab.  There are also a lot of additional vocabulary games and sites on our student’s tab to explore. 
• Triptico (slide26) is a new one that I recently downloaded and am in the process of experimenting with.   It contains several useful tools like word magnets, what’s the question, and more assessable via your desktop.  It’s a fun way to involve the whole class in learning vocabulary.  Parts of it remind me of Classtools.net which I also use for vocabulary plus.
• Type in a sentence or story, and Flickr Poet  (slide 27)  produces it in picture form.

Scroll down through some related posts, videos, and examples I have made on vocabulary.  They include developing vocabulary with word clouds, online dictionaries and my vocabulary class Glogster.  In passing, I will mention that it amazes me how the sites I use continue to improve and many new vocabulary related sites continue to pop up.  For example, shortly after posting about Lexipedia, I discovered Visuwords.  Personally, I find all these sites worth exploring because they can be used for various purposes or with different age groups. 

Met Ed (Applications):  The sites within this post can be used alone within a lesson. They often work well with class discussion.  Many of them can also be used independently by students or as resources.  In addition, they can be used as a springboard for creating your own versions with the technology available to you or sometimes even with no tech.  For example, I love the videos on Wordia, but not all of the words my students need to search are found there.  I’d love to have my students take words from a unit of study and create their own picture gallery, videos or other type of media that we can then share with upcoming classes. 

Share your ideas (low tech or high tech), favorite sites, and experiences of teaching vocabulary either by commenting or emailing us.   How do you make vocabulary come alive?

*A thanks to Shelly Terrell for her slideshare and many amazing things she shares.  More to come in a future post about the many contributions Shelly makes to ed tech and my personal learning.

What is Standard English and Related Questions for Teachers

What is Standard English?  What are the various perspectives of it? How can it act as a gatekeeper?  Do our views of it shape how we approach language learning, teaching, and assessing?  How do these types of discussions fit into critical pedagogy?  These are the types of questions my College of Ed course have discussed. Watch the following engaging short videos and read the article about Linda Christensen  to continue reflection on these and related questions.

Punctuation Saves Lives

Language (See my previous post about Stephen Frye’s video here.)

Stephen Fry Kinetic Typography - Language from Matthew Rogers on Vimeo.

Discussion: How do the views voiced by Linda Christensen in this article on the National Writing Project site tie into the discussion? How can bringing in the everyday language in ways such as this site called Pop Lit  relate to teaching academic language and content?  Continue the discussion by sharing your thoughts or related links.

Quick Byte: Life In A Day

 Life In A Day is the result of uploaded videos shot on July 24th, 2011 contributed from people around the world. It was produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Kevin Macdonald.  Watch it for free below.

This seems like an appropriate post to follow my One Day On Earth 11-11-11 post which we had fun shooting footage for.

Happy viewing!

Quick Byte: One Day on Earth 11-11-11

Participate in this global collaboration by uploading a short video clip on 11-11-11, or just enjoy the One Day on Earth project 11-11-11.  Watch this video trailer to learn more.

Don't miss the 10-10-10 Geo Map!  Click on a country of your choice and zoom in to watch a video or two.  I viewed a few from some places I have traveled, and a flood of memories reminded me of the injustices of the world juxtaposed against indescribable beauty.

Keep your eyes on this site.  I will share it with my Exploring the World class!  It promises to encourage open dialogue on topics of social justice.  How can you use it in your classroom?

Quick Byte: World Peace Game

Mother's Day this year was a pleasant day when I unwrapped and played with a sparkling new, huggable iPad.  It was a delightful experience that lasted about an hour before my daughter claimed it as her own.  I may be exaggerating a bit because I do get my time on my baby.  Amongst many things, I enjoy finding online apps and games for my kid and students.  One of my previous posts, New Twists on Oldies: Oregon Trail, Number Munchers, and Lemonade Stand, spurred conversation about gaming in education.   The result of these conversations will be highlighted in a series of upcoming posts.

This post kickstarts this series.  Out of all of the gaming in education videos I have watched recently, this following one is my personal favorite.  The irony is that there is little to no technology involved in this game.  Watch 4th grade teacher John Hunter as he discusses his World Peace Game in a 2011 TED Talk.  What do you think?

 

Here’s John’s site with a trailer for his film.   Would you call this low-tech educational gaming?  Can these same principles that are working in the World Peace Game for John, be applied to educational gaming on computers and mobile devices? What makes a game successful in education?   When,  how, and why should games be included in education? What games do you use successfully in the classroom?  These are the types of questions I hope to continue to explore.  Explore with me!

Happy viewing!

Quick Byte: Language and Listening TED Talks

While gearing up to teaching an ESOL Presentation class and a Foundations to Second Language Acquisition class, my attention gravitated to the following TED Talks.

Watch Mark Pagal’s talk entitled, How Languages Transformed Humanity. (See below) I’m not endorsing his beliefs, but he has some interesting concepts to ponder about how languages evolved, language as a “social technology” in the context of cooperation, and the notion of a one world language.   Some of these concepts relate to discussions in my courses, so I am eager to hear how my students process a talk such as this.  As always, the conversation in the comments section embedded below the video of the talk are intriguing. 

Since the beginning of my career, I have taught adult ESOL programs that offer courses in listening and speaking.  Julian Treasure’s talk entitled, 5 Ways to Listen Better caught my attention.  I liked his acronym RASA: Receive, Appreciate, Summarize, and Ask.

This talk called Different Ways of Knowing by Daniel Tammet is a must see for anyone interested in perceiving language in unique ways that could influence teaching language, thinking outside the box, or learning more about how one high functioning autistic savant syndrome sees the world—amazing!

Here are some related former posts on TED Talks and RSA language videos:  Three Videos Prove Language is Fascinating and Language.  Check them out too.  Happy viewing!

Khan Academy Conversation

The Khan Academy is a site that we have been following with interest for some time.  This link gives a good overview of it, what it offers, and how teachers, parents, and students could use it.  Its library of videos covers k-12 math, science and some humanities.  Browse their free educational videos here.

Here’s a snapshot conversation of some of our thinking and questioning about Khan Academy.

Cheridy:  Hey Kacey, have you heard of The Khan Academy?

Kacey: Yeah, the tech guys from TWIT have talked about it.  I checked it out when it first came out but just took another look.  Thanks for reminding me about it! WOW! It sure has expanded since the last time I browsed his lessons.

Cheridy:  Will you use it in your class?

Kacey: Absolutely! I love how students will be able to access it anytime and anywhere.  The lessons are short but include multiple strategies.  I think I'll incorporate this lesson  into our new unit on division! Students and parents can then access the videos from home.  Did you see the practice section?  You can log in and see your proficiency on a math concept.  I love that students can work at their own pace,  track their progress, and receive “awards.”  It looks like Khan Academy received a Google Grant in September 2010.  They used the money to hire a team to build out the structure of the site.  You can watch the CNN video.  They will be translating the content into different languages and expanding the content into other areas of study.  Also, I liked the video where Salman Khan talks at the MIT Club of Northern California . He talked about starting the site as well as research they did with students in a summer program.  He also gave this TED Talk.

Cheridy:   I also noticed that the teachers or parents can track the students’ progress if they login as a coach and have students add them as a coach.  It appears they can get class reports as well.  The way that the statistics for each student are shown reminds me of the Seedlings podcast I listened to on The Horizon Project that mentions how technology will make data like this more manageable and meaningful, allowing teachers to potentially individualize instruction more.

Kacey:  There are some positives to this site and concept.  On the other hand, I have a few questions like how will I be able to keep students from "getting help" from parents or peers on the actual practice test, so I can see it is their work?  There still needs to be a second assessment that I'm in charge of.  Slip-age between the cracks can still happen.   Also, you need to have a gmail account to document your progress.  Some kids have it and some don't.  However, even if they are looking at the videos it could still be helpful.

Do you see any drawbacks?

Cheridy:   I’m not a math or science teacher, so I don’t feel comfortable talking about the quality of the videos.  From a language perspective I liked how in the few videos I reviewed some of the math vocabulary was written down.  (It would be good to see even more of this.) This can be very useful for ELLs.  He also drew pictures, which can be useful, and related it to real life examples. 

Kacey:  I LOVE the idea of kids working at their own pace.

Cheridy:  I agree with you on individualizing instruction.  I also teach online courses and create my own videos in my content area for my classes.  This can be a ton of work, but I get just enough positive feedback from my students to continue my endeavors.  It seems to me that the demand for quality, short 5-15 minute videos in all academic disciplines for educational purposes is there.  I can see using them in a variety of ways, both inside and outside the class.   It is interesting to think how this type of product and instruction could influence education. 

Kacey:  This also makes me think about the book Disrupting Class that we talked about last summer.  Did you know there was a new edition?  I haven’t read it yet but heard Michael Horn interviewed on The Future of Education by Steve Hargadon.

Cheridy:  The whole concept reminds me of Flipped Instruction Model  that I will highlight in our April Links of the Month post. 

Conversation Wrap Up:  It’s evident our conversations never have a tidy wrap up.  We continue to explore our findings and views on this type of video integration and how it fits into the larger picture of tech and ed.  And as a final thought…  There’s an app for that.

Happy learning!