On the Ed Tech Radar - A Collection of Digital Posters Platforms for Educators

I have been part of an exciting teacher training program in the state of Rio and this week I´m exploring with teachers the possibilities of Digital Posters in the classroom. I´ve created this Padlet with some digital posters platforms that let teachers and students create wonderful digital artifacts. I thought educators might profit from it:

To view this Wall in full http://padlet.com/wall/digitalposters

How do you envision using those posters in your classroom?

Images in the Classroom - Now and Then

I've always had this natural inclination to add images to whatever lesson I was teaching, and now even more so when I see the neuroscientific reason for doing it. James Zull, in his book "the Art of Changing the Brain", mentions that

"Our concrete experience contains much of the information we need for understanding, because it produces images for our brains to analyze, rearrange, manipulate, and turn into action. We have maps of our experience in our brains, and we can run through these maps like the frames of a moving picture."

He goes on to say that the images in our brains come from the experience itself and that's why

"teachers could make extensive use of images to help people learn. If we can convert an idea into an image, we should do so. And whenever possible, we should require our students to show us their images. It should go both ways"

Having the power of images in mind, our classroom should be visual-rich and empowering. It should help our learners enhance their language skills through their sensory brains. In this sense, today I just came across a Facebook post by Ben Goldstein where he mentioned a blog called Dear Photograph  in which the audience shares images of a past original setting and taking a photo holding a film photo of people in the same place.

http://dearphotograph.com/image/52871635425 

Now, imagine having the same kind of project with your group of students after they've explored some of the images in the Dear Photograph blog. You can ask them to talk to their parents and relatives, to find nice photos of places that they could go and take the same kind of picture, holding the film-developed photo. Plus, you can explore the use of the past in the images contrasted with the present. The teacher would have the perfect timing to talk about "USED TO", for example, and then use students' own images to explore language in a totally contextualized way.

Then, in the same Facebook thread, Paul Driver suggested the use of the Zefrank's blog project Young Me/Now Me for the same kind of activity in which students take their own photos, explore the blog's photos and use language to compare and talk about the differences between now and then.

http://www.zefrank.com/youngmenowme/permalink.html?469

Thanks to Ben Goldstein and Paul Driver in my FB network for the visual inspiration!

Twisting Homework Work - A tool, A thousand Ways to Engage students

She was meant to be a star. Her photos were all over, Vogue magazine, among all renowned international magazines you can think of. One day, though, ...

How about a bit of homework revolution for a change?

Add this sentence to the board, send the photo to your students and tell them to access http://photofunia.com, upload the photo you sent or students can upload their own to continue the story.

This idea can be used for storytelling, vocabulary practice or any grammar point reinforcement activity.

Students, then, share in class their stories and the photos they edited and added to the story.

I can bet here that you'll be surprised by students' creativity!

Other possibilities:
Every end of class, you add an edited photo of one of the students and they have to come up with a creative sentence about it as homework assignment.

email an edited photo to students with a reminder about the homework assignment they have. (the photo is, then, just a motivational sparkler for the assignment)

Ask students to choose three people in their family, edit the photos in photofunia and talk about family members in class.

Can you think of other classroom activities to use the editions in Photofunia?

Images in the Classroom Series - Emotions

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21204781@N07/2501994750/

My husband calls me a tourist or gadget girl. I always have a device which can help me capture the moment. First, because of my interest in photography, in getting that moment that in nanoseconds will be simply past. However, my most preement reason for being a gadget girl is that I am an educator. I always feel that I can explore the world with my students through the eyes of a lens. Those captured moments are an invaluable teaching tool. I go beyond, though. It is not only my photos, but all the photos I come across in Flickr Creative Commons. Flickr is just so powerful that words wouldn't be able to reach its strength for pedagogical purposes. Here's just one example of how it can be used by educators interested in developing students' critical thinking, critical literacies and so on.

Take for example this photo I came across in Alan Levine's slideshare presentation.

Looking Through The Lens (Northern Voice 2011)

View more presentations from Alan Levine

We could have a wonderful "Emotion" class just by exploring it.

Ideas? Many! Here are some:

• Start by asking your students to draw how they feel today. Or you can even ask them to fold the paper in four and give them specific times of the day (today at school, yesterday evening, today during lunch time, right now). They draw their four different moods in the paper and share them with friends giving reasons why they felt that way. You could ask them to find people who shared two similar kinds of moods during specific times of the day, or someone who had quite the opposite emotions. That should be fun!

• Write the word CRYING on the board. Why do people cry? Let the students speak out.
• If the teacher feels it won't hurt anybody's feelings or cause any embarassment to a student, ask the group when the last time they cried was and see if someone wants to share his story. This can be highly emotional, I know. But it can also build group trust, a sense of community. If you feel it is a too-touchy subject, change it for "the last time you had a really great, loud laugh"
• Show the photo to the group to explore the context:
  

  

  http://www.flickr.com/photos/21204781@N07/2501994750/

  
  
  
  - Why was this boy crying?
  - Who was holding him?
  - Where are they?
  - What time of the day was it?
  - How long do you think he kept crying? Why?
  - What would the person holding him do or say to make him smile again?
  - Do you remember a similar scene in your house?
• After the group discussion, you can ask students:
  - to write a text as if the boy was reporting what happened and why he was crying.
  - to write a text from the perspective of the person holding him and his feelings towards the boy crying
  - to build up a dialogue based on the scene
  - to include a third person in the room (students choose the person they would include and what this person would do to make the boy stop crying)
  - to make a drawing as if they were the boy at the exact moment he stopped crying

Any other ideas for this very emotional class?

Images4Education in Classroom2.0 Live

"

Images4Education and EVO-Special Guest: Carla Arena - via kwout

"

Yesterday I had the big pleasure to be with the girls, Peggy George, Lorna Constantini, Kim Caise and Steven Hargadon in a live session of Classroom2.0. A nice crowd probably hungry at lunch time wanted to know more about the Electronic Village Online and the session we moderated in Jan/Feb 2009, Images4Education. Incredibly exciting to see how more and more educators are understanding the power and need for sustainable professional development. Not one that starts and finishes, but an ongoing effort, non-linear with thrilling connective opportunities. Technology provides us with the power of linking to educators, ideas, cultures around the world with a search of international best practices for our classrooms. Tempting even for very busy educational professionals!

Note: I just learned about http://gl.am with the girls and loved it! It shares our links in a more visual way.

Classroom 2.0 LIVE Resources for June 13, 2009-Images4Education and EVO on gl·am - Link Group Service via kwout

I'd like to thank to all who could be there with us, asking and sharing. I always learn from that.

Cool Tool of the Week - A visual dictionary

Shahi - A visual dictionary | Blachan Lab
Originally uploaded by carlaarena

Shahi is a fantastic tool for educational use. Just type a word, you'll see Flickr photos related to it on the left, plus explanations with examples of how the word is used.

I can already picture many ways to use them with students. How about you? Any creative ideas?

Where I am From in Images4Education

family_oldphotos
Originally uploaded by carlaarena

I am from a Brazilian dream
thriving on the "Planalto Central"
in the middle of nowhere
Brasilia

I am from a Brazilian dream of
hard working souls who built in five bustling migrating years
on a plateau with twisted trees and low vegetation
Cerrado
Concrete, modernism

I am from a cultural mix of Brazilian North easterners
and Sicilians
running along the aisles of coffee plantations
eating polpette della nonna

I am from the sounds of my mom's sweet deep voice
following the tones of a guitar
The loud Italian table that seemed like a Sicilian battle

Loud laughs
Comforting laps
Integration and separation

I am from a dream of Carlo and Maria
the intensity of gestures
the Italian temper
the just
the sister connections never untied

I am who I am because of this dream.

______________________________________________________

We've finished Week 2 of our Images4Education session. It's ineffable. No words for the way the connections and tasks have evolved. As Cheryl Oakes says this session is a true example of open source learning in its best form.

Ning has proven to be a powerful connector, a distinct content starter, an incredible human network architect. The almost 400 participants are everywhere, and still you find them in the "aisles", actively engaged in a discussion, fomenting reflection, and adding value to their teaching practices through those connections.

I feel I'm part of something bigger, meaningful. I'm thankful to be working with a wonderful team and excited, generous educators from every corner of this vast world.

Learning has just started.

Ning - Appropriate for Educational Purposes?

As we get ready to kick off one of the 17 Electronic Village Online sessions, Images4Education, Seth Dickens, a friend, educator, teacher trainer, raised an important issue in the Webheads group. Is Ning appropriate in the educational context?

Seth ponders in his post:

Thanks heavens I haven’t started using Ning with my students yet. I probably won’t until there is better filtering of ad supported sites - this could risk me losing my job. It’s really inappropriate, wouldn’t you agree? To be fair to Ning, they do offer an ad free service for 13 - 18 year olds, but I personally feel that these ads would be just as offensive and inappropriate for adults too.

If Ning wishes to expand into school PLNs and social networks via free ad-based sites, that later become converted to paying sites, they really should do something about this. I have already complained to Google about this ad, but I also feel that Ning should be pro actively pushing them to filter content more stringently. Does Ning really want to financially benefit from this type of Ad? I hope not!

I think he has a point there, and I've written some time ago how grateful I was to have a platform in Ning for newcomers to share, communicate and collaborate. However, spaces with inappropriate ads can certainly be one of the alibis school administrators may use to block digital spheres with great collaborative potential. Again, Seth points out in the group to this:

I just think that with the struggles many of us have to get ICT further included in day-to-day teaching, providers like Ning (and bloomin Google) should have some way of filtering or blocking this kind of content from educational sites. Otherwise schools will just fall back on the sledgehammer to crack a nut response of a school firewall / filter, which will totally block the whole page form loading.

No. We don't want sledgehammers striking our educational, purposeful online projects. We need spaces with no distraction, with no other intent than sparking students' communicative abilities, inquiry-based learning.

Ning provides a great service, and we're glad to be connecting more than a hundred participants worldwide there. On Oct 31st, 2008, I requested the Ning Team to remove the ads of our Images4Education Ning, but they gave a negative answer saying:

Hi!

First, thank you for using Ning for your social network and for requesting our free trial offer to remove ads from student networks. We appreciate it. Our purpose in this program is to prevent children between the ages of 13 and 18 from being exposed to inappropriate content that infrequently but occasionally shows up in the Google AdSense ads that we use to support the service.

In checking out your social network on Ning, it looks as if it is designed for use by adults (18 years of age and older). Because your members are adults, unfortunately, this does not fit within the limits of this offer. However, if your network is going to be viewed by those under the age of 18, we'd be happy to remove the ads.

Our sincere apologies if this was unclear and we hope this won't prevent you from continuing to enjoy your social network on Ning.

Thanks!
The Ning Team

Well, for a group of adult educators, I don't think it's a huge problem, though I'd love to have an ad-free space. I guess this is the price of "free". However, I have to agree with Seth that for other educators willing to use Ning and not being able to pay for their $24.00 monthly ad-free space, Ning won't be of much help if teachers feel they might face problems with parents and school administration.

Bee Dieu, in the same Webhead discussion, wisely suggests

Either use them and create teachable digital literacy moments
http://freesouls.cc/essays/03-howard-rheingold-participative-pedagogy-for-a-literacy-of-literacies.html or if you believe you should shield your learners from the
inconveniences of modern life, abandon them.
Another option is to create and assemble your own platform on edublogs, drupal or wordpress... and find platform owners that dialogue and respect educators (wikieducator, wikispaces, voicethread, for instance).

Gavin Dudeney also points out that those ads could be part of these teachable moments in which we take the chance to work on media and digital literacies.

One can only really try the 'discussion' method, raise the issue, talk about it, discuss appropriate behavior in class, discuss the issue of e-safety.

There's no easy solution here, but like Seth, I'd love to see Ning going a step further in letting us, educators, use it ad-free for educational purposes in the way Wetpaint is doing, which was highlighted by Seth in his post.

_________________________________

Past Ning blog posts:

http://explorations.bloxi.jp/a/ning-where-collaboration-happens/
http://explorations.bloxi.jp/a/the-true-value-of-ning/

Flickr Educational Power

As a group of wonderful, inspired educators - Alice Barr, Ana Maria Menezes, Bob Sprankle, Cheryl Oakes, Daniela Munca, Jane Petring, João Alves, Mary Hillis, Nina Liyulkun, Ronaldo Júnior, and Susan Burg - get ready to co-moderate a free six-week online session, Images4Education, through the Electronic Village Online, I've been totally immersed in Flickrverse. My main focus has been the potential of Flickr in the Classroom.

It's been a journey of discoveries. True pearls. Starting with Mike Coghlan's tweet and enjoying his very straightforward wiki which he's been using to train educators.



I'm lucky to be in Twitter and connect so easily to others...

Back to Flickr, would you like to see even more? The wiki http://educationalsoftware.wikispaces.com/Flickr is a very comprehensive resource if you plan to work with Flickr4Education.

By the way, a Diigo group called Flickr in Education was also a place that I looked for good references. Though it is still a small library of bookmarks, it has provided me with great tools and blog posts. Our own Diigo space to share bookmarks during the Images4Education session is starting to take shape and soon will be a resources-rich hub for educators when the group starts to add their contribution.

Talking about Flickr posts that are worth exploring and considering in an educational setting, here are some true gems worth spending time with, even if they are not all directly connected to education, they can give you wonderful ideas:

My Own Interesting Snippets
Why Flickr and Alan Levine Rock
Telling Tales with Flickr
Classroom Uses of Flickr
The Davey's: Best of Flickr
Embed Flickr Notes in Other Websites
Motivating Language Learners with Flickr

These are just some of the finest pearls I've bumped into recently, or have bookmarked them some time ago.

By the way, an idea that comes to my mind. What if we all bookmarked in Diigo Flickr resources we found in cyberspace related to education, Flickr4Education? Not only that, what if we tagged Flickr4Education our Flickr photos that might be of interest to the educators community? What if we started the #flickr4education in Twitter? I'm sure Flickr would be even more powerful for our community with a collective action to bring together loose pearls out there in cyberworld into consistent tagging.

Let's start right now the flickr4education movement and show the educational power of Flickr.

Tag it: flickr4education