Quick Byte: Google Science Fair 2012 and TEDx Women Winners from 2011

Encourage students to enter Google’s Science Fair.  It’s the world’s largest global online science fair in its second year.  It’s open for kids ages 13-18. The submission deadline is April 1, 2012.  They are accepting submissions in 13 different languages.  Click here to read details.  Here’s Google’s official blog post about the fair.  There are some nice prizes including a scientific trip to the Galapagos Islands with National Geographic Explorer.  Last year, Google received some criticism from The New York Times implying that it was a marketing scheme.  Here’s an interesting article from MindShift addressing the topic.

My interest in the fair was initially sparked when earlier in the week I watched TEDx Women with last year’s young women winners Shree Bose, Naomi Shah and Lauren Hodge.  “You go girls!” was the first thought that came to mind as I watched the excitement in these young ladies’ voices as they presented their scientific findings.  So, if you don’t advocate for the Google Science Fair, at least pass on some enthusiasm for science and the belief that young people can achieve amazing things by showing these role models in the below TED Talks video.

A Web of Reflections and App Picks

In reflecting upon this past year, we went be back to last year’s end of year reflection post.  We still find all of the tools discussed in that post useful—from email to smartphones.  We challenged ourselves to explore a few new avenues of tech.  Here are some of the results that seem to be a related web of events.       

                                       

Continued blogging in class:  We both blogged with our classes to various degrees this year.  We worked together during the summer when we blogged with 180 high school students.  The benefits of blogging are numerous!

Presentations:  Blogging and exploring tech on this site also led to co-presenting.  You can view our Keeping Writing Alive with Web 2.0 Tools  EERC presentation and our Blogs as a Springboard presentation.   Cheridy also guest posted and explored Jing on the Teacher Challenge blog.

Twitter:  Last year’s end of the year reflection post inspired us to give Twitter a whirl. We both see its advantages as one form of a PLN.   Here are a few links to get you started if you are new to Twitter.  Cybrary Man has a wealth of resources.  The Langwitches Blog has a nice Guide to Twitter in the K-8 Classroom.   This is a list of some popular educational hashtags by November Learning.  Just following these will give you a taste of Twitter.

Google +:  Seeing the potential in Twitter encouraged us try Google +.  We are both still in the process of contemplating its uses in education.  We are accessible on Twitter and Google + via the links on the right of this blog.

iPad/tablets:   We mentioned the iPad in our post last year as being new to us.  It has so much potential that it still feels new.   It’s possible to do all of the above on it.  Numerous apps and more choices in tablets are making these mobile devices a more viable option in education.  Cheridy’s kiddo has taken over hers, so she finds herself using it to find educational apps for her kid.  There are quality apps for everything from art to writing.  Kacey uses the iPad for consuming information. There are some amazing aggregators that are wonderful on the iPad. She calls the iPad her “toaster” as it is always right there and easy to use.

Apps we frequently use:  While we are on the topic of apps, here are a few more we like. 

Cheridy’s picks:  ReadIt Later is useful for quickly marking sites and reading them later either on a computer or mobile device.  Evernote  and Dropbox are convenient organizational apps that sync to your computer.   Voicethread, Animoto, and ShowMe Interactive Whiteboard each have a lot of potential for students to display creativity as they synthesize and create. 

Kacey’s picks: Flipboard is a “personalized magazine” available for free on iPad and iPhone that allows you to add self selected content from different sources. You can add social media (Facebook and Twitter), magazines like Fast Company, aggregators such as Fancy, or RSS feeds via your Google Reader account. (If you still have not used an RSS reader, check out The Complete Educators’ Guide to Using Google Reader from The Edublogger). Flipboard makes everything look like a beautiful magazine. If you want to read a longer article, send it to Instapaper. This app is great for reading offline content. If you purchase the iOS version, you will have seamless updates to all your gadgets. Scrabble has an app that lets you play “online.” (Imagine if we had this app for our interactive white boards!) And you can’t pass 2011 without checking out Spotify for all your music needs. 

App Slappy and iPad Today are two podcasts full of good app suggestions.  Appy Hours 4 U with Lisa Johnson & Yolanda Barker is a good resource for finding apps and descriptions of ways to use them in education.   (These are just a few of our favs, so we forsee an upcoming post on this topic :-)

Topics we plan on keeping our eyes on this year:  Ways to apply technology meaningfully will continue to be a focus.  Cheridy attended a conference this year on immersive education and would like to explore it more.  She would also like to continue to learn about online instruction and instructional design.  Kacey continues to seek websites and apps that go beyond “flashcard” learning. Additionally, now that VoiceThread is available for the iPad she wants to capture student learning there. You can check out Bob Sprankle’s BLC 2010 VoiceThread for Beginners presentation slides and his blog post What’s Your Favorite Transformative Tool of 2011? where he posted BookCasts that he created with 3^rd and 4^th grade students. 

Future of Tech for Two Teachers Exploring:  We will continue to explore and make fits with technology that are useful to our given teaching situations.  We return to last year’s conclusion.  It really is about technology as a tool.  Sometimes the best tool is high tech, while other times it is no tech and good old fashioned sitting in a circle discussion.  Having the knowledge of the tools available to us and the ability to bridge the gap and put them to use in meaningful ways is important, so we will keep exploring.  We welcome you to continue the journey with us!

11 From 11: Learning By Blogging

11 from 11 was inspired by @yearinthelife Adam Simpson  to revisit some favorite posts from 2011.  My “twist” on the challenge is to write about the 11 posts I learned the most from writing.  Here it goes…

• Mexico EFL Teachers Rock: This post represents an exciting global collaborative learning experience.
• Linguistics related posts: What is Standard English and Related Questions for Teachers I'll let go of mechanics in this paragraph  Gotta love the Stephen Frye video and the questions in this post.  Three Videos Prove Linguistics is Fascinating is a related favorite.  The Deb Roy TED Talk is a must watch! 
• My Tech and Ed Play With 2.0 Tools: Part 2 Jing  and Part 1 Online Timelines.  I’ve used these tools in the classroom, but creating posts about them pushes me to a deeper level.  I’m a big screencasting fan!    
• Posts created with the collaboration of my students: I appreciated the willingness of my College of Ed. students to share their ideas in Prezi, Online Comic Strips, and Fakebook Integrated in SLA Assignment.  It was a learning experience trying out the sites myself, creating the assignment, and then pulling the post together.  My ESOL students also did a great job of contributing to the following posts: Online Dictionaries and Vocabulary Games Part 2: Lexipedia, Lingro, Shahi, Wordia and Vocabulary Class Takes to 21^st Century Learning Tools. 
• Bringing Writing Alive With Web 2.0 Tools:  It was a lot of fun presenting with Kacey.  We collaborated on the Prezi and presentation via Skype. 
• Gaming Series Part I and Part 2: I learned a ton on this topic.  It was a topic that I hadn’t thought a great deal about, and these posts pushed me to research gaming in education and form some opinions. 
• Worth A Wow: Inanimate Alice: This post spurred my interest in transmedia storytelling.  It also offered fun material for my kiddo and me to explore together. 
• Try Blogging with 180 High School Students! It Works:  Try doing this and not learning—impossible! :-) 
• Illuminated Text and Kinetic Typography Bring Reading Alive: Admittedly, I’d never heard of the terms in the text until I wrote the post. 
• Word Clouds: Taxedo, Wordle, Tagul, and Wordlings:  I was hooked after the first time I tried word clouds.  My students continue to show me new and interesting ways they can be used. 
• What’s a Book? Is This a Book?: These questions still resonate with me, particularly in regard to discussion around digital textbooks.

This was my first full year of blogging for professional purposes.  It’s a unique, challenging, and fun type of writing.  I’ve learned and continue to learn about formatting, audience, social networking, etc. as a result of blogging.  Thanks for joining the journey!

Listening and Watching: The Future of Media

Computer History Museum

Ever since I stumbled on Faith Popcorn's book, The Popcorn Report, I realized I enjoy watching trends. I’ve read her other books and check in on her company, BrainReserve. (Be sure to check out trends for 2011, especially This Holiday Season Watch Your Digital Diet for current trend information.) I am looking forward to her forthcoming book, The ARK: The Ten Commandments of the New Marketing and Popcornography, a Futurist's View, Backward and Forward.

After my husband and I visited the Computer History Museum this past summer, I’ve been thinking about how fast media content delivery is changing.  Having listened to podcasts for years, I’ve seen improvements in the ease of getting audio content onto portable devices. However, it still seems cumbersome and time consuming to download content into iTunes and then sync it to an iPod or MP3 player.  The good news is now you can listen right on your computer. I’ve convinced a few friends and colleagues to give the experience a try. When I first started listening to MP3s on my old iRiver, I always wished I could sync content directly to my car. Hey look… the new 2012 Fords include your own Wifi hot spot. We are getting closer!

I have to admit that instead of syncing my iPhone to my computer to load content through iTunes, I’ve been using an app called InstaCast to automatically stream content. It works effortlessly and I can opt to download too. If I’m listening to a program, it even remembers where I stopped. It is possible to stream through iTunes as well, but it does not remember my place.

Small Internet broadcasting networks are beginning to take hold. Individuals are starting their own networks without the help of traditional media. Check out Leo Laport’s TWIT Network, Dan Benjamin’s 5By5, and Revision3 to name a few. I thought it interesting that Revision 3 posted an article about audience viewing habits, trends, and predictions: IPTV Research for 2011.

Content…content everywhere! The following are some of my recommended picks for listening:  Leo Laport and Tom Merrit on Triangulation interviewed Daniel Kottke who is known for being one of the earliest employees of Apple. Daniel Kottke added an interesting point of view while I was listening to Steve Job’s biography. The interview with Gordon Bell, engineer and Microsoft researcher, is also worth a listen. Interestingly, he was instrumental in starting the Computer History Museum. 

Apple I signed by Steve Wozniak

David Sparks and Katie Floyd, hosts of  Mac Power Users, have recently joined the 5by5 Network founded in 2009 by Dan Benjamin. Mac Power Users is a show for all you Mac geeks as it gets pretty techy. I enjoyed their interview with Michael Lopp, author of Rands in Repose, where they discuss the Apple technology he uses for his day job as well as his writing strategies.

In addition, Martha Stewart talks tech and was interviewed at Google by Marissa Mayer. (Did you notice Marissa is speaking January 12^th at the Computer History Museum? KQED Radio will stream it on February 23^rd, at 8:00pm PST). Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia is now publishing magazines for the iPad, and the content available online is amazing. See her pictures from the interview here.

Happy trend watching and listening in 2012!

Mexico EFL Teachers Rock

In November, I had the opportunity and honor to participate in the Binational Migrant Education Initiative (BMEI) for the second time.  I have so many wonderful things to say about the experience that this post only begins to describe the positives of the trip.  Hands down, the top benefit of the experience was learning from a dedicated group of educators in Mexico.

Here’s the low down of the who, what, when and where of the portion I participated in.  I went to Tulancingo, Hidalgo Mexico for one week where I provided professional development in SLA theories and strategies for 20 primary and middle school English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers.  We had beneficial conversations regarding migrant students who travel between the US and Mexico.  In addition, we explored many cross-cultural issues.   Without a doubt, I learned as much if not more from the teachers I worked with.  They graciously allowed me to observe their classrooms where I witnessed their creativity and devotion.  A personal highlight for me was going to a rural school where students learn Spanish, their indigenous language, and English.  Beyond the classroom experience, they were also hospitable and treated us to visits to local sites, amazing food (one can’t get enough pozole), and good company.

This Animoto shows some of my experience.  (It was created on the 30 second free account, so it only gives a taste of Animoto.)  Check out the Animoto for educator’s account.

I was also fortunate to travel to Guadalajara and visit Intel as part of this trip.  It just so happened that the world’s second largest international book fair was in progress.  In my book, there aren’t many better ways to spend an evening than perusing good old fashioned books at a book fair.

I went to Cuernavaca, Mexico the first time I participated in the BMEI.   Both experiences were enjoyable and memorable, yet different.   I highly recommend the program!

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.

Fun with Typografit, Flickr Poet, Vizlingo, and More for Jan 31st EFL/ESL/ELL Blog Carnival

This is my “fun” contribution to the Jan. 31st EFL/ESL/ELL Blog Carnival hosted by David Deubelbeiss at EFL Classroom 2.0.  In deciding what to contribute, I came to the realization that so much is fun to me, particularly when it includes technology that spurs critical thinking and discussions that my students connect with.   Have fun with a few of the sites and ideas I enjoy, and consider taking my “challenge” at the end!

A.      9 Simple free web 2.0 sites

TYPOGRAFIT and STORIES IN FLIGHT: FLICKR POET

When Tech:  Type text into Typografit or Stories in Flight: Flickr Poet and create something like the image above.  It's fun!  Give Typografit a whirl here and Flickr Poet a try here. Create a word picture and share it.  

Met Ed:  In ESOL or language, students can type in sentences in Typografit and then discuss punctuation and spelling. One of my classes typed in short paragraphs that used our vocabulary.  They then discussed the pictures and how closely they reflected their writing.  Sometimes the pictures were quite different than they expected, and this led to some interesting discussion.

Flickr Poet suggests typing in poems or music to visualize them. I couldn’t resist and typed in a poem from one of my favorite poets, Since Feeling Is First by E.E. Cummings. I then captured it using Jing; it’s viewable here.

Wouldn’t it be fun to have students write poems, use Flickr Poet, and then use a screencast such as Jing to record music that captured the spirit of their poems or their voices reading their creations? Of course, they could just simply read or discuss the results if a low tech route is preferable.  Any of these are bound to be fun and lead to language acquisition. How can Typografit or Flickr Poet be used in your class?

VIZLINGO

When Tech:  Type text into Vizlingo and create something like the video I made below.  You have some choices of videos to include in your final product.  You can even upload your own videos.  Create and share a video here. It’s almost too much fun!

Met Ed:  This can help students visualize vocabulary as well.  It can lead to some interesting discussions about idioms and multiple meanings of words.  Here’s a great post by Nik Peachy that explains it.  Don’t miss Nik’s suggested activities for using it. How can Vizlingo be used in your class?

*A word of caution is that not all the pictures generated on these sites may be appropriate for younger learners.

See more suggested sites on a recent post called, Six Fun Educational Sites.  It highlights Wonderopolis, Shel Silverstein, One World, Many Stories, Geo Greetings, Draw a Stickman, and Balloons of Bhutan.  Explore more fun educational sites on our Ed Sites page.

B.       A few past fun posts that I have done with students’ help.  The potential of fun is unlimited when tech and creativity are at play and the products are shared. 

• Who thinks SLA theories are fun?  I know I do and didn’t think they could get much more interesting until teachers in my College of Ed course helped me create this post using fakebook, Prezi ,and online comic strips.
• How can vocabulary class be spiced up?  My adult ESOL class showed me when they pulled together a Glogster mashup highlighted in this post. 
• Again, although browsing dictionaries is a delight, my adult ESOL students show in their reviews in this post how online dictionaries can make one fall in love with words and definitions in a new manner.

A thank you to David Deubelbeiss at EFL Classroom 2.0 for hosting this carnival.  I highly recommend checking out his site and its many resources!   Oh, and writing this post was a blast!  

Challenge for both of us:  Either A: Use one of the sites in this post and blog about it.  Or  B.  Use one of these sites for educational purposes, drop me a link to one of your creations, and I will compile them together some fun way that I share on this blog.

Happy creating!

Six Fun Educational Sites: Wonderopolis to Balloons of Bhutan

If you want to integrate technology in a fun, low stress way, here are a few of our “recent” finds we suggest exploring.   They fit into a variety of content areas and age groups.

• Wonderopolis Have you ever wondered any of the following questions:  Do sea cows moo?  Does every state have a national park?  If you or your students have such questions, look no further than Wonderopolis for answers, discussion and springboards for investigation.

• Shel Silverstein has long been one of my favorite authors.  This is a find that could be shared with multiple age groups.  In my experience if presented in the right context, even adult ELLs appreciate his poetry and books.  Watch as Shel Silverstein reads the Giving Tree in this animation.  Go to the Shel Silverstein website for more resources and online activities.

• One World Many Stories Use this site in geography, social studies or language arts. Google Lit Trips, which I blogged about here, is included on this site. Students may also share their own Google Earth stories on the site.

• Geo Greeting  Use this as an introduction to geography or to discuss architecture.  With some creativity, it could be used in ESOL/bilingual classes at the sentence level.  Check out the one I made for you. Make your own for free in a matter of seconds.

• Draw A Stickman  Use this with beginning ELLs.  It could be an entry to storytelling and a way to work with vocabulary.  Try it on an ipad. It’s fun.

• Balloons of Bhutan This is a “happy” project.  It could lead to interesting discussion on the topic of happiness, success, etc.  Perhaps some math could be included in the statistics section.  It would be fun to do a spin-off of this project small scale with a class.  The Happiness Project would be an excellent follow up activity.

Explore more educational sites we suggest.   Do you have any success stories using any of these in your teaching?  

Happy exploring!

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?

Robot Heart Stories and Other Global Collaborative Projects

Over the past few weeks, I have browsed global collaborative projects out of curiosity.  What ways can classrooms use technology to gain a wider global perspective, to share, to connect, to learn together?  How are these types of programs shaping education? Are there ways of allowing kids and adults who speak different languages to work together?  If there are, are they only for the privileged?  How will these types of programs shape the way those who participate in them view the world and its possibilities?

With these questions and ideas in mind, I stumbled upon a project called Robot Heart Stories.  It is an experiential learning program and is an example of how transmedia storytelling is connecting geographically separated and linguistically different classes in education.  Watch this video clip. 

Robot Heart Stories from WorkBook Project on Vimeo.

Read the Robot stories here.  View the robot’s journal here from Montreal to LA.  Wow, even a quick scan of these materials showcases collaborative, creative learning across the content areas in French and English!

How interesting!  I’m not sure what this means, but I think it indicates the times are a changing. <3

Here are some links to other collaborative projects on our Ed Sites tab.

• Digiteen and Digiparent 
• ePals Global Community 
• Flat Classroom Projects 
• iearn 
• Kidlink  
• Skype in the Classroom  
• Youth Voices
• The Happiness Project

Happy global collaboration!