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.

Connected? Pairing Two TED Talks

As I prep for a class, I am leaving open a choose your own topic of interest week based on ed tech.  This made me think about what topic I would choose if I were given this assignment.  Online gaming, the future of books, online and hybrid courses, social media: there are many topics I love.  I’ve enjoyed following Jane McGonigal’s work on gaming in education (See my past posts as I explored this topic last summer.), and Sherry Turkle’s TED Talk is one of my favorites.  So, in challenging myself to begin my own assignment, I would choose to pair these two talks and explore common and conflicting concepts.

Watch both of these talks and form your own conclusions.  Some interesting lesson plan or discussion, yes discussion, is waiting to be developed by pairing these two talks together.  Hmmm... a Vialogue  or TED Ed would be a fun way to have conversations develop here.

Jane McGonigal: The Game that Can Give You Ten Extra Years of Life

Sherry Turkle: Connected, but Alone?

I’ve gotta go.  I’m off to play a game of Words with Friends with my kiddo and grandpa.

Happy conversing!

TED Ed Initial Lauch

It's no secret that I'm a big TED Talks fan, so today's part 1 launch of TED Ed's You Tube Channel put a smile on my face.  Chris Anderson gives the background Behind Today's TED Ed Launch. Chris explains that the "prime goal... is short lessons that spark curiosity. That deliver memorable 'aha' moments. That make learning thrilling."  Sounds good to me!  Watch the introduction video below.

The Playing With Language short featured playlist caught my attention.  Questions No One (Yet) Knows the Answer To already sparked my curiosity.  Chris's own video is the intro to the series that could promote discussion and be a spin-off to classroom discussion.  You can watch it below.  Also, check out all of the other featured playlists, which include Awesome Nature, How Things Work, and Inventions that Shaped History.  I know I will.

TED Ed is inviting teachers to share lessons and contribute.  It is inviting animators to contribute too. Stay tuned for the launching of part 2 next month which promises to "open up a new section of ted.com devoted to TED-Ed and offer some powerful new tools to teachers." Sounds interesting.

Happy exploring or maybe even contributing!  Feel free to explore my related past TED Talks posts here.

Teaching With TED Talks

I love using TED Talks as springboards into discussions or projects with my adult English language learners.  Some of my personal favorites are ones that have visuals, art, or music.  Besides being intrinsically engaging, they make differentiating easier due to the universality of the topics. 

This Ted Talks, Stories Cut from Paper by Betrice Coron, could be fun to use in class.  Watch it, read suggestions for using it, and explore some related Ted Talks links.

TED Talks lend themselves to dogme language teaching opportunities and authentic uses of language.  Another way I might use this in an adult ESOL classroom would go something like this:

1. Watch the video together with subtitles on.  (Possibly have a list of vocabulary pre-selected that teacher pronounces before watching and class discusses what they already know about the words.)
2. Divide the class into small groups or partners and have them separately interpret an assigned section of the video.  There could be some guidelines outlined in a checklist such as: teach us new vocabulary from your section or related to your section, interpret the art in your section, relate the art to something else you have seen, read, or experienced, etc.
3. Small groups present, teach their sections, and facilitate discussion.  Discussion could be extended in writing on a class blog.
4. Watch the complete talk together again as a class.
5. Extended learning with an activity that promotes students telling their own stories in creative ways. (See Rives Tells a Story of Emoticons.) Again, I would use guidelines in a rubric or checklist and have this part of a project.  It could be possible to incorporate all modes of language—reading, writing, listening, and speaking in the process.

Below are some of my other favorite TED Talks on the arts (often integrated with science) that lend themselves to dogme language teaching or projects that allow students to bring in their voice, experiences, and make connections.   Many of them are challenging for intermediate to advanced ELLs, but in my experience if scaffolded, some interesting sometimes unexpected conversation arises.  Others lend themselves perfectly to discussion based upon the visuals or music alone.

• Augmented Reality, Techno Magic Marco Tempest July 2011 (5:45 min)
  
• Art Made of Storms Nathalie Miebach July 2011 (4: 19 min.) 
• How I Became 100 Artists Shea Hembrey  March 2011 (16:48 min.) 
• A Virtual Choir 2000 Voices Strong Eric Whitacre April 2011 (14:35 min.) 
• Ze Frank’s Web Playroom  Oct. 2010 (18 min) 
• Rives Tells a Story of Emoticons Oct 2008 (3:15 min)

Don't miss Huff Post the Best of TED 2011 countdown.  Feel free to explore my past posts on TED Talks.  What are some of your favorite TED Talks for classroom use?  What are some ways you use them in the class?

Quick Byte: Multiple Perspectives

Does the world sometimes look a little flat or one dimensional?  Does one perspective get boring or just not seem to capture the complexity or full picture of life or history?  Do you ever want to have a say in the ending of a story?  Do you think creativity and multiple perspectives relate?  If you answered yes to any of these questions, you will want to watch Raghava KK: Shake Up Your Story TED Talk. (It's under 5 min. and may result in a new app on your iPad.)  It also has some clear implications for education.

This talk relates to the first TED Talk I ever watched that hooked me, The Danger of a Single Story with Chimamanda Adichie. It really draws out an idea that I advocate for in my teacher prep classes-- including multiple perspectives in our teaching.  We should be doing this in all the content areas: language arts, math, science, social studies, etc.  What ways could you bring in a variety of perspectives into your classes?

In addition, this talk points in the direction of the future that is within grasp with transmedia storytelling and augmented reality as seen in my Worth a Wow: Inanimate Alice and What's a Book? Is This a Book? posts. 

If you liked Raghava KK's TED Talk highlighted above, watch his earlier talk entitled Five Lives of an Artist.  It's good stuff.

Happy viewing!

Links of the Summer

Summer passed us by in a wink of the eye.  We stayed busy traveling and exploring.  This post reflects some of our learning and finds.  They are on the topics of Triangulation with Leo Lapport, TED Talks on the topic of language, brain-based learning, transmedia storytelling, and Google Sketchup.  Enjoy!    

NETCAST and TED TALKS PICKS

 Kacey’s picks—Triangulation: Leo Lapport has moved the TWIT.tv company to the new studio where they are netcasting even more content. (I had the opportunity to visit the studio with my husband this summer.  Stay tuned for a post about our visit.)   Recently, I’ve been listening to Triangulation where Leo and Tom Merrit “talk to the smartest people in the world about the most important topics in technology.”  It is part of the TWiT Netcast Network and streamed live every Wednesday at 7:00 PM Eastern/4:00 PM Pacific at http://live.twit.tv.  Triangulation – David Allen Getting Things Done was my most recent listen.

Cheridy’s picks-- More Amazing TED Talks:  TED Talks continue to keep me coming back for more.   Although I’ve enjoyed a wide array of TED topics, I’ll point to the language focused ones I blogged about this summer.  See my low tech intro to my upcoming series from the eyes of a newbie about gaming in education.  It highlights John Hunter’s World Peace Game. Watch and read about some excellent language and listening TED Talks here.  Check out related past posts.  Also, be sure to look at this 2011 TEDxRedmond link.  The talks organized and delivered by kids took place on Sept. 10^th.  They are truly inspirational to watch! 

Karenne Sylvester has an excellent post called 10 English Speaking Activities Using Ted.com.  My experiences using these fall right in line with her philosophy that these really work as a springboard for discussion and use of all the modes of language. As a wrap-up, keep your eyes open for an upcoming post about Raghava KK’s latest talk.

 

LINK PICKS

Kacey’s picks-- Brain-Based Learning: Recently, I came across  Steve Reifman’s blog . He has been an elementary classroom teacher for 17 years, author, and interested in brain-based learning.  I’m looking forward to further reading and exploring his books and blog! Another teacher blogger I’ve been reading who is interested in brain-based learning and technology is Diane McKinney .

Cheridy’s picks—Transmedia Storytelling and Google Sketchup:   Unexpectedly this summer, I stumbled upon what have become new areas of interest for me in ed tech: transmedia storytelling and gaming.  See my post on Inanimate Alice and ponder the exciting potential in ed. 

 I’m also throwing in a link to Google Sketchup which my kid played with this summer for hours.  One of my College of Ed. students used it in excellent lesson plan for ESOL students in math.  

How could you use any of our links in your class or personal learning?  Happy  exploring!

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!

Quick Byte: Seedlings Wraps Up Another Great Season

Awww....summer is upon us and it is time to relax and catch up. We each just finished listening to Seedlings @Bit By Bit podcast  “Wrap-Up” Show for the Season 3!  We loved hearing that Bob is having lunch and learning with his kids. You can read the Let’s Have Lunch! post here.  He also posted a helpful TED outline complete with links and summaries.

One of the underlying themes that stood out in this podcast is empowering students.  It ties back to our TEDx Redmond talks post.  This all relates to social justice, students taking learning into their own hands, and students doing amazing things with topics of relevance to them like bullying, etc.  It's powerful stuff!

Another concept that caught our attention is how quickly learning can spread when the right apps/tools are placed in the hands of students!  Hmmm... it sounds simple.  Could it be possible that we've got it turned around in part?  We're trying to educate the teachers how to use the tools, but they don't spread them at the same rapid rate and in the same way the students do.  We shouldn't stop educating ourselves as teachers, but there seems to be something to empowering our students to discover the apps/tools in ways that are relevant to their lives and learning.  We've seen evidence of this in our own students and teaching.

Quick Byte

As always, these are just a few of the interesting take-aways we gleaned from the podcast.  Seedlings, thanks for sharing, and congratulations on three seasons!

*This is one Quick Byte briefly highlighting podcasts, sites, etc. of interest.  More are on the way.

Co-post KK and CA

What's A Book? Is This A Book?

I was excited when I found this TED Talk (see below) where software developer Mike Matas demos Al Gore’s book “Our Choice”. This is the first full-length interactive book for the iPad.   It made me recall numerous discussions Kacey and I have had about the need for publishers to catch up with technology integration in education.  I've taught online classes for the last few years and have felt this need for awhile.  In addition, listening to podcasts such as Seedlings and reading articles in ISTE have opened my eyes to the future possibilities of augmented reality.  So when I saw this TED Talk, I was excited but not too surprised.

What follows next is how this video clip played out in my ESOL class.  (It reflects the dogme 2.0 teaching in collaboration with critical pedagogy that I've been exploring.)  In the larger scope of a unit, I showed it to one of my classes comprising of adult students from around the world.  It sparked an interesting discussion about how technology and learning environments are changing.  As a natural part of this discussion as I was writing new vocabulary words from the TED Talk video on the board, one student asked, "Is that book available to purchase now?"  A second later, another student held up her smart phone and exclaimed, "Yup... It's here on iTunes available for $4.99.  I looked it up while we were watching the TED Talk."

A third student jumped out of his seat and asked for permission to pull up a related video clip for us to discuss.  Within seconds, we viewed this two minute clip. (See below.) It was followed by a related discussion about how books were once viewed as new technology, and I recorded more new vocabulary words from the discussion on the board.

We rounded out the discussion with a review of the new vocabulary words and a short discussion relating back to our previous day's lesson on how online dictionaries and games are shaping our learning.  In addition, students made connections to an earlier discussion about the disparity of technology in the hands of children from different socioeconomic backgrounds.  They then related the video back to a previous lesson in the term on second language acquisition.  With promises from them to continue to think about ways that technology helps them and limits their language learning and promises from me to listen to them-- really try to listen, we concluded class.

What do you see happening with technology and literacy?  Where does all of this fit into the classroom?  What’s a book?  It’s A Book.

“We live in an exciting time of human history and tech integration,” she said as she tucked away a hard covered book and an e-book reader in a bag for a weekend camping trip.  “I’m turning off all electronics with the exception of the books.  Don’t try reaching me!” 

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!

Three Videos Prove Linguistics is Fascinating

In preparation for teaching a Foundations of Second Language Acquisition class to pre-service and practicing teachers, I watched numerous videos related to first and second language acquisition. Really, it’s more fun than the academic sounding vocabulary in the proceeding sentence makes it sound. Here are a few that show how exciting the field can be, make me think, and I hope encourage my students to make connections to our course readings and beyond!

The Birth of a Word by Deb Roy may very well be my new favorite TED Talks. You can read more about Deb Roy here.

Patricia Kuhl gives a TED Talk entitled The Linguistic Genius of Babies. She describes some interesting findings about language acquisition. The video can be accessed here, and you can read more about Patricia Kuhl and her work.

In addition to TED Talks, RSA animate continues to captivate me. Here’s an RSA animate with Steven Pinker entitled Language as a Window into Human Nature.

As a challenge to my College of Education students, I want to ask in the wider picture, how does what Pinker says relate to what and how we teach language? How does it relate to other things we have read or discussed this term?

If you were interested in these videos, you may also be interested in past posts made about TED Talks and RSA Animate. Happy viewing!

TEDx Redmond: It Doesn't Get Much Better!

Last week, my TCE classes explored the importance of setting high expectations for our students. This is also a topic Kacey and I have discussed as well. Do we give students enough responsibility and trust? Do we give them the necessary tools and empower them to take learning in their own hands? Do we allow them to have a voice? What would happen if we did more of these things? Perhaps TEDx Redmond offers us a glimpse of the possibilities.

Watch some of the excellent TEDx Redmond video clips of children and young adults talking with passion. Bob Sprankle has made them easily accessible on his blog Bit by Bit.

Watch this video of Perry Chen entitled For the Love of Movies! It will be obvious why I chose to highlight it.



I also recommend Cayle Diefenbach's talk Preserving Heritage.




TEDx Redmond was initiated by Adora Svitak. You can listen to her interview podcast on Seedlings show 94. Check out the line-up of TEDxRedmond speakers.

Happy viewing!

Ted Talks: Worth the Time

TED Talks are amazing!  Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) has talks, TEDx conferences, communities, and much more.  I find myself visiting the site at least weekly and have a RSS feed set up on my itunes.

Here are some of my favorites.  (I may not endorse all of the ideas presented, but will step out and say they promote thinking.)

• In What Adults Can Learn from Kids, "Child prodigy Adora Svitak says the world needs "childish" thinking: bold ideas, wild creativity and especially optimism. Kids' big dreams deserve high expectations, she says, starting with grownups' willingness to learn from children as much as to teach."
•  The Danger of a Single Story discusses how "our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding."

Here's Jeff Utecht's talk on Community Trumps Content.

Here are some recent TED talks I've enjoyed.

• Sugata Mitra: The Child-Driven Education   

• Steven Johnson: Where Good Ideas Come From 
• Matt Ridley: When Ideas Have Sex 
• Ethan Zuckerman: Listening to Global Voices 

Happy viewing!