Final Project Idea (a rough sketch)

For my final project I am envisioning stories. Stories written by, illustrated by, and told by students. The process by which students will create and present their stories to a wider audience is where the tech piece comes in. I see a lot of possibilities with having kids create stories using the Common Craft style. I've asked my 5th graders if they would be interested in creating stories using this method and they all shouted "¡Sí!". That was encouraging.

I found an educator out of Hong Kong who is creating Common Craft style videos in the classroom with her students. Donna Ellery who teaches at Discovery College in Hong Kong. Here is an example of one of her students who created a Common Craft video on "How to Make a Microphone".

After reading over the Utech tips for creating these videos in the classroom, I'm a bit intimidated to say the least. The method that Donna and her students used to create these videos was using iMovie for post production/editing and then importing the videos into Garage Band in order to do add the audio track (the kids used microphones they created in science class to do this which REALLY sounds intimidating). I know I've been taking this course for almost a year now, but the truth is I'm still not all that tech savvy. I've only used iMovie once and I've never used Garage Band. And that's just the technology piece, I still need to consider how the project will be organized, time lines, grading, etc. I have a lot to think about. The project seems gigantic and complicated and may give me a tech headache... but what I'm most grateful for is that I have the opportunity to work with students who are excited to create and tell stories in new and interesting ways. This may be challenging and my learning curve may be the size of Everest, but I expect it will be a fun, interesting, and learning centered journey getting to the final product.

To be continued.... stay tuned!

Technology: Solution or Problem?

UGH! I've been annoyed with technology lately. I know it motivates and engages students. I know that it can literally open up the world and brings it to their fingertips. I know that using technology in the classroom gives students skills that they need for the digital world. I know that students ask me on a weekly basis, "Can we use the computer?". They love it, they crave it, they would probably marry it.

So why am I so frustrated? Last week, I planned lessons that incorporated technology and the technology failed to work properly.... again. When I only see kids every other day for 45 minutes and we spend 10 minutes trying to figure out technology, I see it as wasted time. I have an amazing tool that can help student learning if it works properly, but 7 times out of 10 it doesn't. The website I'm referring to is Lingt Language. It was created by an MIT student who was studying Mandarin and wanted a better way to learn. It's an amazing tool when it works. Teachers can tailor make activities that have students reading, writing, listening, and speaking on the computer. Here is an example of one activity that I created.

The problem is that the listening portion and the voice recording portion works sporadically. You can't always hear the questions being asked and the students aren't always able to record their voices and play it back so they can hear their own language learning. Students are still able to read and write, but the strength in this website is in the ability to listen to speech and use oral language to express oneself. I really want to use this technology and the students want to use it too, but when technology fails to work so much of the time, I begin to lose faith in the power of technology.

There is one simple solution. Turn off the computer and talk face to face. Remember that? The way we all learned to speak language is still the best (and most reliable) way. ¡Vamos a hablar!

What Kind of Learner are You?

We all have a mix a learning styles and so do our students. Below is my learner profile. I like to hear and see while I'm learning.

Click here for a glimpse at your own learner profile.

2010 through the eyes of Google

I definitely googled, "Thailand Political Crisis" a time or two.

World Wide Language

I'm not sure how I missed this story last May, but it was the end of another school year and my head was likely in the thick fog of report cards and summer planning. The language teacher in me was warmed to discover that the first non-latin domain name was finally launched six months ago. It's about time. Latin based languages only represent a small population of the world. This means that only a small percentage of people in the world can access the internet in a meaningful way. I read an article on Mashable and learned that 42% of all internet users are from Asia. In the last 10 years Arabic online has increased over 2500%. Language is an incredible tool for communication that allows us to exchange information, thoughts, and ideas with others. Non-Latin language speakers have the same inclination to engage in this exchange. Now, they have equal access to the internet. This is truly monumental.

It will be interesting to see how the internet changes as it begins to reflect the diversity of people, cultures, and languages in our world. It's true that the advent of the web has made our world smaller and more connected, but it wasn't until 6 months ago that it became truly international.

Clicker Training

When I first got my dog, Lucy, she was naughty. She would bark incessantly every time I left her side, when left alone in the house she would chew and destroy everything in sight; the couch, area rugs, shoes, pillows, blankets, even the potted plants were in danger of her wrath. Her worst habit of all was jumping on people that we would pass during trail runs. She was happy to see people and eagerly wanted to greet them, but she definitely lacked social grace. People really don't like muddy paw prints on their Nike shirts. So, I realized it was time to take action. I bought a clicker. Positive reinforcement training with a clicker was a godsend. Eventually, Lucy learned to be a good dog. No more jumping, minimal chewing, and no barking when I left her side. I can say now that she is almost a perfect dog.... she is still obsessed with chasing cats (I don't think anything can cure the lure of the feline).

So, why am I thinking about my dog and clickers? I read an article about clickers in the NY Times today. But the dogs being 'trained', weren't dogs.. they were students. And I guess they weren't really being trained (although that is one way to look at it). They were being engaged. Recently, university professors at Harvard and Northwestern, among others, are using "clickers" or wireless devices. Students use the devices to check into class, answer multiple quiz questions, and indicate if they are confused without raising their hands. The biggest benefit that professors are seeing with these new devices is that they are increasing student attention. Students aren't able to doze off, text friends, space out, and daydream during a lecture because they are using these devices to 'engage' in the content. As I was reading this article, I started thinking about my own class. When I use hand held white boards with students, it increases their attention because they know that they will write something and hold it up for me to see. They are more engaged with the hand held white board than if they didn't have it. And I'm pretty sure they would be even more engaged if those white boards were digital. Our world and the people in it are becoming increasingly more and more digital and, thus, more digitally engaged. It only makes sense that our classrooms reflect our world. I like the idea of these devices and I wish that I had had access to this technology while I was in college. The article stated that some students resent the big brother potential of the clicker. I can see that point of view. But, I think the potential benefits outweigh the negatives. If the clicker is increasing student involvement and thinking, what more could a teacher or student ask for? Okay.. okay... a liver treat would be a great addition.

Now, if Lucy just had opposable thumbs, she could get a university degree.

Changing Education Paradigms

I really like this video from Sir Ken Robinson. I first heard Sir Ken Robinson when I saw his TED talk called Do Schools Kill Creativity?. This video is 11 minutes long and worth it to watch. His themes resonate with me and many others. I can see how modern education has boxed students into "academic" or "non academic" and how this limits human potential and creativity. He makes the point that our current system came of age during the age of industrialism and serves the interests of industrialism. His point is that education is modeled in the image of industrialism (schools are run on bells, subjects are separate, facilities are separate, kids are separated by age groups) and the production line mentality of education which includes more and more standardized testing is what is killing divergent thinking (the ability to see lots of possible answers or ways to interpret a question). Of 1500 kindergartners tested for divergent thinking the percentage of them who were scored at genius level were 98%. These same kindergartners were re-tested 5 years later and scored 50%. Are our educational institutions killing divergent thinking which is a vital part of creativity? As a teacher in the 21st century, how can I create a classroom that fosters and encourages divergent thinking? How can I foster my own divergent thinking and become a better model for my students?

Here are some ideas on how we can do this (I'm practicing my divergent thinking right now!)

• engage in new activities regularly
• if something seems difficult, it's probably worth doing
• do it and learn new ways of solving problems
• free write in a journal daily
• look at an object and think of as many different uses for it as possible
• participate in improvisational skits/drama
• play word association games
• write choose your own adventure stories (I used to love those books!)
• describe how ideas look, taste, feel, sound, and smell
• solving riddles, puzzles, and brain teasers
• brainstorm, brainstorm, brainstorm!

Nursery Rhymes for 21st Century Digital Kids

Reflections on COETAIL Course 3

Course 3 resonated with me because it confirmed all of my beliefs about the power visuals have of extending and deepening learning in the classroom. I found course 3 to be the most useful to me in terms of applying what I have learned here in COETAIL in my classroom with my students. It was valuable to have time to explore ways of presenting information visually during class and then actually creating presentations that I can use with students. I also appreciated learning about the Flip Cam and what we can do with the software from Mark. Even though I've always known that the flip cams were available for us to use, it wasn't until I actually had time to play around with them during class that I understood how easy it would be to integrate them into class activities and projects. Having time to tinker with technology helped me to get my creative juices flowing and my lightbulb of ideas to shine.

One of the results of this course is that I find myself not only thinking of ways I can make language learning more visual, but which visuals will have the deepest and most long lasting impact on student learning. It's also helped me to have conversations with my students about why and how images help them in their own learning and how they can use this awareness to use visual depictions to communicate effectively to an audience. For example, one of my students who was writing a story about a maid who was trying to figure out who ate all of the pizza in the kitchen drew this:

We later discussed how this picture would help the audience understand the story. What if it were a different picture, perhaps just a picture of a pizza box or just the maid? The main point that the maid was trying to figure out the mystery of who actually ate the pizza could have been lost. But, because she drew the maid scratching her head with a perplexed expression and an empty pizza box the reader has a better idea of what the message is communicating even without the use of language to reinforce it. In the future I'll continue to have conversations with students about how they can effectively use images to convey meaning. Fortunately, this course has given me a better sense of what visual literacy is and how to start talking about visual literacy with kids.

I was happy that digital storytelling was one of the focal points of this course. I am very interested in incorporating digital storytelling into my classroom on a more regular basis. This course gave me the opportunity to reflect more about how to use images effectively to tell a story. My final project is centered around digital storytelling and specifically encourages students to use images to help "tell" their story and make it appealing to a wider audience.

I'll post student examples of digital stories soon!

My Students are FLIPPING Out!

I am in love with the flip cam! I think the thing I like the best about using the Flip cameras in class is that they are so simple to use and the software to create magic movies is equally as simple. I spent no more than one minute explaining to students how the camera operated and I don't even think they needed it! They picked up on how to use them right away! Students created short videos narrating their stories in Spanish last week. Having the flip cams in class added a new level of fun and excitement to story retelling. It was easy to use, fun, and it got kids speaking in Spanish! ¡¡Me encanta la Flip!!

I Dig Digital Storytelling!

Saturday's class was fantastic because I got to do something I love best, create stories! I am really excited by the use of storytelling in world languages and I discovered a really great tool to create stories digitally for my Spanish class. Prezi is not only fun, but a really powerful tool for creating stories with zooming images and text. I can't wait for kids to try it out. In the past, we have always used Notebook and Voicethread to create stories since they are simple and inserting images is easy. I will still use both of those tools. Voicethread is so valuable to world language learners since it has the ability to record oral language. But, I'm now really excited by the possibilities of using Prezi with kids to write and tell stories in new and creative ways.

I created this presentation that I will use for my 3rd grade Spanish class (another reason I loved Saturday's class is that I got a lesson done!)

Mini-Cuento on Prezi

The process of creating this story was both exciting and frustrating. It was exciting because it's been awhile since I've seen technology that is so flexible and creative. It was frustrating because It took me awhile to get the hang of how to edit and add pictures and manipulate the "zebra" wheel. It was almost like learning a new sport and my fingers had to develop muscle memory to be able to control the zoom feature, etc. It helped sitting next to Laura who had just learned about Prezi at a conference in Shanghai. She was able to answer most of the questions that I had.

One of my goals as a teacher this year is to use storytelling to provide comprehensible input for my kids so this COETAIL class was really helpful to me. It allowed me the opportunity to not only learn about new ways of tellling stories, but to actually implement what I learned.

iMovie by Trial and Error

In August, I created a video for Back to School Night to highlight for parents the TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling) method that I use in my Spanish classes. It was my first time using iMovie and I have to admit, I clumsily made my way through the process. Nevertheless, it was fun playing around with it and in the end I was just happy that I produced something. However, I know that the presentation I created with iMovie could have been much better in a couple of ways. Here is the video that I created:



The transitions and the subtitles were the most difficult part of creating the movie.

If I had to change one thing it would definitely be to improve upon the subtitles. I had a difficult time timing the subtitles to each slide and as a result, some of the subtitles lingered too long or didn't coincide with the image on the screen. I also found it challenging to enlarge the subtitles. Some are very large and others are small (the more words per slide, the smaller the subtitle). Some of the subtitles were too small for the audience to read. The subtitles are a very important part of effectively communicating the message considering most of our parents do not speak Spanish. I feel that the power of the presentation was lost due to the lack of readability.

Since the video is a series of clips from our class, I would have liked for the transitions to be smoother and less choppy and abrupt. I think a good use of transitions would have made the video easier and more enjoyable to watch.

I'd like to keep playing around with iMovie. Maybe the second go around won't be as difficult. I'd also like to have kids start creating their own movies. It would be great to use Flip video. I appreciated the simplicity of FlipCam's software after the complexity of iMovie. Although after playing around with the Flip software, I learned that subtitles cannot be inserted into movies which is a bit limiting for language learners. Still, I think I'll give it a go and have kids grab a flip and start filming. It's a great way to get kids to use the target language and have fun with their classmates. And who knows, maybe they will teach me a few things and help me improve my video presentation for next year's Back to School Night!

The Power of Image

If you are a non Spanish speaker does this mean anything to you?

LA ESCALERA

You may have noticed that the word starts with "La" and is feminine, that the first letter is "e" and the last letter is an "a". But does it mean anything to you? Most likely it doesn't and most likely you've already forgotten it.

Now if I add a picture to this word:

LA ESCALERA

Voilá. Instant. "La Escalera" means staircase. It is through the power of the image that the word becomes real. Now that you see the image of someone climbing a staircase, maybe this will allow you to see the word "scale" in the middle of the word and help you to remember that you "scale" a "staircase".

Using images and pictures with kids has always been an integral part of providing comprehensible language input in order to facilitate language acquisition.

As a world language teacher, I know that a picture really is worth a thousand words. The bridge that connects words to meaning is constructed with images.

Using images to teach new words is valuable, but using images just to teach a list of vocabulary words is limiting. The power of using images in the classroom comes from their potential to spark great conversations. Pictures give kids something to talk about.

Take this image:

I plan to use this image in class to have multiple conversations. As a warm up, I can put this image on the smart board and ask surface level questions such as "what colors do you see?" "How many monsters are there?" I can also engage kids in deeper level questions such as, "How does the blue monster make you feel?" or "What would you look like if you were a monster?". All of these questions fulfill the same goal, to get kids speaking to me and to each other in Spanish. Without the image, the conversation seems contrived, it lacks an anchor. Kids learn best when they are having fun and let's face it, monsters are fun.

I Got my Eyes on You.

In our first COETAIL class for course 3 we began exploring web design and reading web pages.

Last year was the first year that we maintained a classroom blog. We used Wordpress for our classroom blog, which initially I thought was complicated and difficult to use and later realized that I just needed time to get used to it. I wanted our classroom blog to be a showcase of student work as well as an information site for parents and students. My aim was to make it easy to navigate and highly visual so that students and parents would come back often and not only read about but SEE all of the language learning that kids are engaged in.

After our first class for course 3, I began asking myself, "is the visual layout of my blog affecting this aim?" Is there a better way to structure and format our blog? What is memorable about our classroom blog? After watching the eye tracking video from a google study in which participant's eye movements were tracked to uncover what part of the webpage readers are looking at and consequently "thinking" about, I started thinking about how this eye tracking test would look on our Spanish classroom blog. And more specifically, what are people's eyes focusing in on and REMEMBERING.

So after a quick google search, I found a website called Clue which enables you to get a quick glimpse of what people remember about your website. I tried it with our classroom blog and sent it out to a few people. These were the results.

It's interesting to see which words and images have the most impact on people's memories. "Kids" and "Education" being in the top 3 were refreshing to see. However "Spanish" was only sited once which surprised me (and concerned me a bit since it's the main focus of the class!) Now, I find myself asking questions like "should I change the position, color, or the font of the word "Spanish" so that it draws people in?" It would be interesting to make some changes to the format (color, style, arrangement, background, font, etc) and then send out the test again to see if the results are different. If anything, this quick test helped me to think about visual content and what makes a lasting imprint on readers, important things to consider as I continue to think about and pay attention to visual literacy.

We all have (Cyber) Feelings...

Last week in class, Akiko mentioned a website called Formspring. Formspring is a forum that enables people to ask questions and answer questions anonymously. She mentioned that it has been used in a negative way by some to ask really embarrassing and inappropriate questions. So I decided to investigate. I haven't worked up the courage to try chat roulette yet, and after hearing Jeff's story in class last week, I don't think I ever will. But, I decided to check out Formspring to see what this website was all about. The first name I typed in was "Kelly" not for any particular reason other than I was wearing a kelly green shirt at the time. This is what came up:

Innocent enough. Cats or Dogs? Good question, one that surely we all have an opinion on (Dogs rule!). The questions that followed were all interesting (and appropriate) as well. What do you like to do on the weekend? What's your favorite color? Apparently, with Formspring you can choose which questions you would like to answer and it's not public until you answer it, so Kelly has chosen to answer the questions we see on her page. I wonder how many inappropriate questions she received and did not choose to answer? I wonder that because as I searched other people's questions and answers, it immediately became clear to me what Akiko meant when she said that she couldn't say aloud the things she had read on Formspring. I can't repeat or write them aloud either. Many of the profile pictures where I saw these disturbing Q & A's taking place were head shots of teenagers. I am an adult in my 30's (granted I may be a bit on the naive side) but I was horrified at the things I read. I couldn't believe people would ask these things or even think about these things! Even the milder exchanges showed that this forum has the potential to start gossip, hurt feelings, and reveal way too much information.

Here are a few that I saw:

If you could date any girl at our school who would it be?

Why did you break up with....?

What do you think of the math teacher?

Are you a virgin?

After leaving Formspring, I felt a little queasy and disappointed with our world. Why would people choose to spend their time this way? Then I read an article about Alexis Pilkington a high school athlete from Long Island who committed suicide. She was the target of cyberbullying and although her parents don't believe that's what ultimately caused her to take her own life, I'm sure being a victim of cyberbullying didn't do anything to deter her or ease the depression she clearly was suffering from. The sickest part of all is that friends made tribute pages to honor Alexis on both Facebook and Formspring. Both of these pages were then subsequently flooded with negative and lewd comments about Alex. A disgusting example of the dark side of social networking sites like Facebook and Formspring.

Cyberbullying is the most public and humiliating form of bullying, but on the other hand, it may be the most unnoticed by the adults in these kid's lives. I am willing to bet that most of the parents at our school have no idea what Formspring is, let alone if their kids are using it and how they are using it. If the kids who are using this forum are using it to ask and answer positive and uplifting questions in public, who knows what kind of questions they are being exposed to, filtering, and choosing not to answer in private? Parents and teachers need to be informed about the existence of these sites and they have to then have conversations with kids about them and the way that they are being used. These conversations are even more important with a student population which is wired in and using social networking on a daily (sometimes hourly) basis.

Aha!

This is why Jeff is so happy all the time!!

Need a Job? Google it.

I saw this story on the Laughing Squid website. Another example of creativity + the power of the internet.



I wonder if I should experiment with an ad under Gael Garcia Bernal's name....



Googling yourself is a lot of fun. Dating me is fun, too.

The Scattering Seeds of Social Networking

A diaspora (in Greek, διασπορά – "a scattering [of seeds]") is any movement of a population sharing common national and/or ethnic identity. While refugees may or may not ultimately settle in a new geographic location, the term diaspora refers to a permanently displaced and relocated collective.



The fact that after entering the three words "how to quit" in google search one sees "Facebook" in the number #4 position (right in between smoking and your job) gives a clear indication that there is a large majority of people ready to break up with their favorite social networking site. The recent privacy changes are at the heart of the confusion, panic, and possible exodus of thousands of users. I am one of those users. I am weary of my privacy being compromised and feel overwhelmed with trying to keep up with how to keep my profile private. Businessinsider.com recently showed users how to put a privacy lockdown on a facebook profile. Check this out:

If you look in the right hand corner of this picture you will notice "1/33". Yep, that's right... if you follow the directions on all 33 slides you too can have a Facebook profile with 'privacy lockdown'. I have to admit, I enjoy spending time on Facebook, but I enjoy spending time connecting with friends, not my profile settings. Although, I don't feel comfortable, I will stay with Facebook for now (I'm starting to sound like a woman in an abusive relationship) I clearly will go through all 33 slides and update my settings, because the connection to my family and friends is far more important to me than leaving Facebook (I'm staying with him for the kids!). However, if another platform were to come along that didn't require me to give up my data rights and privacy (R-E-S-P-E-C-T find out what it means to me!) I would jump on board.

Wait.. I think I may have just found my Prince Charming who will save me from the clutches of my controlling relationship with Facebook!! Four Prince Charmings to be exact. Four totally socially awkward and geeky Prince Charmings.

Meet lya, Dan, Max, and Raphael:


There are high hopes that these guys (kids) are going to reinvent social networking. There project is Diaspora. Diaspora is a social networking site that is attempting to decentralize networks and give users control of their data by letting users set up their own personal encrypted server. With $120,000 raised in just a couple of weeks on Kickstarter to support this project I would say there is definitely a demand for such a networking site. This is Diaspora's 100 word manifesto (I love it!):

“We believe that privacy and connectedness do not have to be mutually exclusive. With Diaspora, we are reclaiming our data, securing our social connections, and making it easy to share on your own terms. We think we can replace today’s centralized social web with a more secure and convenient decentralized network. Diaspora will be easy to use, and it will be centered on you instead of a faceless hub.”

I think Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg is in trouble if he doesn't change his possessive ways. People want control. People want privacy rights. People want to feel respected. People want to trust those that they reveal their personal information to. Facebook is losing on all accounts. Let the Diaspora begin...

Chief Seattle : Take only memories, leave nothing but footprints.

The words of Chief Seattle have always inspired me. I share his passion for protecting the environment and the beauty of our natural world for future generations. But, when I look at the above quote I can't help but wonder if this still applies to our world today. In the digital world, leaving nothing but footprints could and does have adverse impacts on our planet and posterity.

In the report put out by Greenpeace Make IT Green: Cloud Computing and it's Contribution to Climate Change I learned that the advent of cloud computing is not the panacea that many think it is if one takes into consideration the impact that cloud computing has on increased CO2 levels. While the cloud grows, so does the demand for electricity to power the data centres. In Oregon, Facebook announced in January plans for a data centre in Prineville, a timber community in Central Oregon. The criticism from Greenpeace is that Facebook's data centre is using electricity from Pacificorp, which primarily gets it's power from coal rather than renewable sources. When I lived in Oregon I was in the Pacificorp territory and signed up for their 'Blue Sky' option which costs more but uses renewable energy sources such as wind power. Facebook has yet to sign up for the Blue Sky option and has made the statement that the energy saved from putting the data centre in a cold climate outweighs the source of the power. Reading through this report it became clear to me that although there are clear benefits to business and individuals in regard to efficiency and ease in internet services offered by 'the cloud', there are still many challenges faced by the IT industry. Will huge companies like google, yahoo, and facebook have a brown cloud that puts the already fragile environment in more danger or will choose to respond and act responsibly and ethically by moving towards a more sustainable green cloud? The decisions that these mega companies will make will have far reaching implications for future generations. How will the IT industry take steps to make sure that they take only memories and DON'T leave dirty footprints?

Interestingly, there is a protest group that is calling for facebook to use 100% renewable energy in data centres. Ironically, this is the group:

Don't Put your Foot in your Mouth

We all know the feeling of putting our foot in our mouth. This is what makes us human. Another wonderful trait of being human is that we forget things. This trait really compliments the 'foot in the mouth' trait because it means that not every stupid thing we say will be remembered... Alright, I guess this is where I should talk about one of the most important characteristics of a computer. Computers are not human. For better or worse, they have a memory like a steel trap. A relationship between humans (with a knack for gnawing on feet) and a computer (who can remember everything from the exact size to the bunions on said foot) has the potential to be a recipe for disaster. So it seems the digital world needs to be handled with care. Us bumbling humans need to be aware of how we are representing ourselves to the world (wide web) because the world will not soon forget.

As I write this, I just received a post on my Facebook wall from friend back home. It said, "Melissa, this is without doubt the hottest video ever! :P :P :P" followed by a video of a woman clearly not dressed in her Sunday church clothes. When I clicked on the video, it took me to another page that wanted access to my FB friends. I quickly got out of this page before I sent this link to all of my friends. My friend clearly hit the wrong button and in turn forwarded this message and video on to others. The point is, what would I think of him based on that wall post and video if I didn't know him? What if I was an employer looking at him as a potential candidate? I'm sure my first impression wouldn't be that he is an amazing dad, a giving community member, and volunteers his time to kids with special needs (all of which is true). This is why being aware that we have a digital footprint and checking our footprint is important if we want to protect our online identity and make it a true representation of who we are.

Is the footprint one leaves behind going to have negative or positive consequences in the future? First impressions used to be more tactile, involving senses... smell, touch, sight, hearing. The possibility that a first impression is more of a research project, digging up information on someone using a simple google search is an increasing reality in our world. How will others view you? What values does your virtual representation imbue?

I believe as soon as kids start using computers (producing, contributing content online) we need to be responsible to teach them about this. There are a lot of ways you can start conversations about this with kids. I like this idea from Kidsmart for having beginning conversations. It's simply an outline of a foot and kids write down or draw pictures to represent all of the websites they have visited in the last 24 hours. They also write down any content that they added to the internet such as photos, blog posts, etc. This is a good way to introduce the concept for young kids. I think we need to have continuing conversations with kids about this for each stage of their digital lives, from emailing to blog posting to using FB and other social networking sites. It's a part of their world and knowing how to use it responsibly to ensure that they are represented for the people they are and the values that they hold are essential.

Course Review: Cheesy

My motivation for taking this course is tactile. I spent many hours in grad school theorizing and discussing issues in education with an abstract and pensive approach. I didn't take this course to postulate and speculate on the pros and cons of using technology in the classroom, I took this course to become literate (as the course title suggests) in an increasingly digital world. I know I want to use technology in my class, I know that technology has the power to increase student engagement. I know that if student engagement is enhanced that learning is a likely result. I know that as a teacher I want that result.

So the question is, has this course increased my information and technology literacy and by extension student engagement and learning? I'll use my favorite subject to help answer this question- that subject of course is food. When I came to ISB, my technology skills were at about the goat cheese stage (aged for less than 3 weeks...I could email and surf the web). Before taking this course I was at about the swiss cheese stage (aged for 6-14 months... I knew how to use a smartboard, voicethread, notebook. Six months at ISB produces a pretty tasty swiss). After course 1 of COETAIL I'm happy to say that I'm entering the stage of a parmigiano reggiano (aged up to 7 years... I can use an RSS reader, I can embed links and video in my blog posts, and I can use use search syntax to find resources) I'm probably on year 1 of the aging process as I write this. At this rate, with 4 more classes left, I should age another 5 years by next spring when we finish the certificate.

I wanted practical skills from this course. You can't get more practical than cheese. I look forward to maturing, technologically speaking, into a very 'sharp', saavy, and literate 21st century teacher.

iPad vs. Kindle

Stephen Colbert gave the iPad some airtime on the Grammies in January. In an interview afterwards he said the iPad was "awesome". Now he has an one on his show. He pointed out that the iPad made the cover of Newsweek and that kindle was on the back page of Newsweek. He then mocked the kindle by saying "oh, look the screen has both black AND grey". He gave viewers a demonstration of the capabilities and features of the iPad. The most useful of which is making salsa. My kindle can't do that.

E (español) books...

Last week during independent reading, I watched a group of students fight over one specific book. The book that has inspired so much attention (and tugging) is "Quién Salta". It's a prized possession in our classroom library. I'm not sure I entirely understand the appeal of this book, but students love it. And they all want to read it...all at the same time. As I watched students vying for this book, I thought about how my life as a teacher would be easier if each student had their own copy of each book in our library. The great part of the school I teach at is that I could probably order a copy for each student. But, then, there is always the inevitable question of space. Teaching grades K-5 and providing a library of interesting books for each grade level has it's own challenges, then add the question of space in there and things get sticky. Where do all of these books go? The courtyard? Seriously. There is not enough room to house them all in my classroom. The solution is simple. E-books. The benefits are clear. Each student carries around an entire library in one convenient little pocket sized "book". According to the Horizon Report, the length of time it could take to adopt and implement e-books into the classroom is two to three years. Hmmm.... I'm ready for them now. Please?! And so is little Johnny who hasn't had the honor of reading "Quién Salta".

Until our e-books arrive, I'll teach my students to play "piedra, papel, tijeras (rock, paper, scissors)" with their classmates to decide who gets the best book.

Students Teaching Students

I'm thinking about projects. Our reading this week, Strategies for Discovery has me thinking about important features of good projects. Among some of the features:

Reach beyond school to involve others

Structured so that students learn with and from each other

Get at 21st-century skills and literacies,including communication, project management, and technology use.

Have students learn by doing


I would like to do a project with our Epals in Spain. My 5th grade classes exchanged eletters to students from a school in Zaragoza, Spain and have exchanged some videos. (here's my favorite)

I'd like to take this connection with our amigos in Spain further. My fifth graders will be starting a unit on balance and motion soon and one idea that occurred to me is to have students make their own instructional videos about how to balance different objects and explain to the students in Spain (in Spanish of course) how they to do it (using counterweights, etc). It would be interesting to have the class in Spain then respond with their own videos, following our instructions to see if they could balance the same objects. Students teaching students.

Skype Skype Hooray!

This is the blog I've been reading lately Langwitches
This blog was started by a 21st century learning specialist and an inspiring educator, Silvia Tolisano. One of the reasons I like this blog so much is that it promotes students learning from each other, globally. Silvia began her teaching career as a Spanish teacher and offers many fantastic ideas about integrating technology in the world language classroom. Silvia is no longer teaching Spanish in the elementary classroom, but in one of her posts from Nov 2008, she discussed what technologies she would use if she were in the classroom today. She touches on each of the 21st century skills: communicate, collaborate, connect, create. Silvia addresses each of these skills with a variety of technologies. Skype is the reoccurring thread. She mentions it's use in three of the four 21st century skills.

Silvia's hype for skype resonates with me. I am relatively new to Skype (and totally in love!). Since using it, I have seen what an amazing tool it can be. In October, I did my first ever (and maybe only?) skype birthday party. I skyped into my sister's house in Bend, Oregon and showed a group of 7 year old girls how to 'wai', say 'sawadee ka', and what the inside of a dragon fruit looked like. I couldn't believe how engaged and excited the girls were. It was at that moment, that I realized the amazing potential of skype. It really brought two distant worlds together for the first time, something that would have been unimaginable just years ago.

So my big question at this point is, how do I use skype in my classroom given constraints such as time zones? (most Spanish speaking countries are on the other side of the world and asleep when we are learning at ISB) AND...maybe someone knows the answer to this (Jeff?) How do I use skype at ISB? (it only seems to work from housing). I would love to talk to teachers here who have used it successfully to learn more.

Qué Quiero Aprender...

What is it that I want to learn from this course?

In 2002, I started my teaching career as a high school Spanish teacher in Redmond, Oregon. Redmond is a small farming town in the high desert of Central Oregon. It's located in the shadows of the beautiful snow capped volcanoes of the high cascades, in the middle of a seemingly endless expanse of wilderness. In other words, Redmond is remote. One of the reasons that I became a world language teacher is that I truly believe that knowing and experiencing other cultures is the path to creating a more peaceful, accepting, and caring world. So how did students in remote Redmond, Oregon in 2002 experience and know other cultures? Books, posters, songs, and videos, mostly. In other words, they had a glimpse, a peek- certainly not an authentic experience.

Fast forward to 2010... the evolution of technology in the past 8 years and the implications that this has for teachers and students of world languages is profound to say the least. At the heart of learning a language is communicating and connecting. Fortunately, technology now allows us to communicate globally and make connections to places and people all over the globe, even to remote Redmond, Oregon. Students today have the fortune of communicating and connecting via skype, voicethread, facebook, twitter, and youtube. These are technologies that didn't exist when I began teaching. As a language teacher I am thrilled that these tools exist to make language learning as authentic as possible. As a teacher who didn't grow up in the digital age, I know I need help navigating these technologies and how to use and implement them with my students. So as I think about the question, 'what do I want to learn from this course?' I immediately gravitate to this thought, I want to empower myself with the tools to create connection and communication for my students. I want them to experience and interact in the classroom, not only through books, posters, songs, and videos, but through authentic interaction with real students who live the language and culture. I want to use the power of technology to transport students from Bangkok to Barcelona.