One of the things I like about using Instagrok with my students on our research project is that I can “look over their shoulder” at the kinds of searches they are doing and websites they have visited, as well as the amount of time they are spending (including out of school). This screenshot is pretty typical of the research that my students are up to. Neat, eh?
Peace (in the research),
Kevin
For a year or so, I have had friends in the National Writing Project run Hackathons or Hackjams, using various tools to show how hacking skills are another form of literacy, and how those skills are becoming ever more important to young people in a digital world because it provides them with agency via remixing and a lens to critique online sources.
One of those tools is the Hackasaurus Xray Goggles, a handy bookmarklet from Mozilla that lets you change the text and design of a website. I finally got around to checking it out, and boy, it is pretty fun to use.
Check out what I did to my own blog site here — compare it to the real thing:
I wonder how this might be used for the political season? And it does bring up questions of ownership, right? Who owns a webspace and what does it mean when you hack it? I see that Mozilla is working to create an unique URL for sites that get hacked via Goggles. (Right now, you can only save the HTML code of the hack). Interesting …
Peace (in the hack),
Kevin
I’ve been asked to give a 50 minute literacy-based workshop to my upper elementary colleagues today (sort of a last minute request) and since my professional goal this year is to really dive into developing research skills with my sixth graders, I am going to share out some strategies for using technology to help students conduct research. As luck would have it, this week, I got a book that I had ordered about research and am already loving it, sharing it and will be using part of it today.
The book is by Christopher Lehman and is called Energize Research Reading and Writing. (Lehman is a colleague of Lucy Calkins and collaborated with her on the Pathways to the Common Core book that I have also shared.) This book outlines the rationale behind the push for more research-based reading and writing in the new standards, but also offers up a lot of practical advice. I will do a more formal review when I dive deeper into Lehman’s book.
Here is my agenda for the session today. Understand that while this handout succinctly focuses in on tools and standards, our discussions and activities are all framed around student research and writing. Our state standards call for research in the earlier grades, ramping up over time until sixth grade (which I teach) when suddenly the research component expands greatly. I’ve been revamping my curriculum to shift basic research skills early in the year so that my students have some knowledge about search queries, citation of sources, and more.
Research and Writing and the Web
Peace (in the search),
Kevin
I found myself lost in this Web History timeline, which is put together smartly and which brings you right into the history of the Internet and the Web. There are many links you can follow, but what becomes clear is how recent the history of the web and hyperlinks and hypertext really is. It’s another reminder that we are living “in the moment” and yet, we still are trying to make sense of it all.
And can I just say that I found it incredibly fascinating to think that the first point plotted on the line is a short story (by Borges) called The Garden of Forking Paths, which prefigured hypertext choices of the reader and provided a conceptual framework later on for the integration of hyperlinks to connect information (or stories) together. I don’t know the story, but I am going to try to find it and read it.
Check out what Wikipedia has to say about the story:
“Beyond its façade as a spy narrative, “The Garden of Forking Paths” has similarities to today’s digital media and hypertext projects. Borges conceives of “a labyrinth that folds back upon itself in infinite regression”, asking the reader to “become aware of all the possible choices we might make.”[4] The elaborate hypertext is much like the book which Borges suggests to be the labyrinth, (“Every one imagined two works; to no one did it occur that the book and the maze were one and the same thing…the confusion of the novel suggested to me that it was the maze”[1]) in a sense of how the site offers different approaches to how you may interpret the information provided, yet you’re not trapped in the dilemma of choosing one and eliminating others; you may choose to unfold all possibilities. You “create, in this way, diverse futures, diverse times which themselves also proliferate and fork” (Wardrip-Fruin, 33). Although the story appeared before the advent of modern computers, Borges seems to have invented the hypertext narrative structure. Wardrip-Fruin and Montfort write: “Our use of computers is … based on the visions of those who like Borges—pronouncing [The Garden of Forking Paths] from the growing dark of his blindness—saw those courses that future artists, scientists and hackers might take.”[1]”
– from Wikipedia
Peace (along the line),
Kevin
PS — Reading the timeline inspired me to begin writing a new webcomic, called Walking the Web, about two kids who go back in time to see the development of the World Wide Web. It’s sort of like Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure but the boys meet up with folks like Steve Jobs, and Tim Berners-Lee, Steve Case, and others. I’ll start sharing that comic tomorrow.
Check out the video above, which is an advertisement for a new Google App (on Android) called Field Trip, which pings you with information about places and things, and history, as you walk around with your phone or device. It’s like the next version of the MP3 Museum Tours, but outside, in the big world. (Add in something like Siri and you’d have a chatty companion talking as you walked, I suppose)
It’s intriguing on one level. You can get deep knowledge about various buildings and locations that might have some significance you never knew. It’s also a bit worrisome from a privacy level (you’re being tracked!) and on an advertising level (buy our stuff!), and you can see how this kind of app might be integrated into the Google Glasses idea (wearable computers for the eyes).
You have to wonder, though, about the possibilities for education. Could we get our students to eventually move towards constructing tours of their own communities, based not on businesses selling stuff but on historical records?
We’ll see ..
Peace (in the walk),
Kevin
I’ve been doing some thinking work around a keynote address coming up around digital literacies with the Western Massachusetts Writing Project. I made this video as a sort of teaser, trying to lay out some ideas and flesh out some direction for what I want to speak about — which is how the digital literacies of kids can be connected to the literacies we value in school but we need some bridges between reading/writing in school and reading/writing in their lives.
Peace (in the prez),
Kevin
In summer, I shared out the Scoop.it that I have been curating around articles and resources related to writing with technology. There’s still a ton of great resources there for folks wondering about how digital tools and media might impact the way our students are writing. Check it out:
Peace (in the share),
Kevin
If you are a regular reader of my blog, you probably think: Man, everything in technology works for that dude. It’s all so seamless.
Trust me, it doesn’t. Often — more often than I write about — things fall apart and my head starts to hurt.
Yesterday, our first day of school, I had this vision of bringing my homeroom class of sixth graders into our webcomic site to create avatars and begin an introductory comic. It’s a great opening activity on many levels because it opens up conversations on many fronts: how you represent yourself, how an avatar can be used, what a webcomic is, and how we will be using technology through the year.
What I didn’t count on was that an upgrade to the comic site over the summer requires the most recent version of Flash, and only about half of our laptops were ready with the new flash player. (And I had not double checked the working of the comic site — an oversight I quickly regretted). It was scramble time, as I quickly tried to come up with workaround plans.
First, we tried to download the flash player update, but they were all in student accounts which doesn’t allow users to download and install software.
Second, I had them shift over from Firefox to Google Chrome. Some computers still do not have Chrome. And, for whatever reason, some of them refuse to download Chrome.
Third, I had them share computers, as I worked to log in as an administrator and fix things as best as I could. But that meant a lot of waiting time for some kids, and about half the class never even got to really start the activity during the 45 minutes period.
Meanwhile, in the background of the laptops’ operating system, the downloading of updates from a variety of programs that had been waiting all summer long to begin now started to run, causing a wireless logjam and freezing up some computers.
Sigh.
The good news was that while some of my new students were frustrated (no doubt, thinking: is this how the year is going go?), most adapted nicely to the situation, helping each other out. And this morning, when I checked the comic site, it seemed like all but four of my students have finished their avatars on the site. A handful must have gone on last night and worked at it at home.
The reality is that we have old laptops (I realized that the cart of PCs in my room were bought when my current class was in preschool) that require a lot of updating and vigilance on my part, and while I am grateful that we do have technology, I know it doesn’t always work the way I want it to work. And when I am delivering professional development with a technology component, I remember days like yesterday — days when it would have been easy to throw my hands up and say “enough already.”
But I kept at it, and I keep at it, because I do believe in technology and media as important elements of the literary lives of my students. And while it may not be prominent in the Common Core or other curriculum documents, the ability to persevere and create workarounds when something goes awry are important skills. Too bad they often come with headaches, too.
Peace (along the wires),
Kevin
I’ve shared this “social media counter” by Gary Hayes before, but it caught my eye again this morning, and it’s difficult not to look at the numbers rolling by and think: wow. (If you are curious about the data, check out Gary Hayes’ post, in which he explains his sources.) There is also an iPad version (99cents)
Notice how there are four main buttons: Social, Mobile, Games and Heritage. And you can change the time sequence, too. I just find this fascinating.
Peace (in the media use),
Kevin
Like many, I have been watching the Mars Curiosity with … curiosity. But along with the idea of a rover moving (slowly) around Mars, I’ve been fascinated by the ways that NASA and its supporters are leveraging Twitter, Youtube and other new media/technology elements to add a little pizzazz to its mission. And adding some very important fun, too. In the past few weeks, both Newsweek and Time magazines and a host of online sites have been featuring the ways that the rover is getting its news out. I just saw an interchange between Brittney Spears and the Rover via Twitter in one of the magazines. Odd? Yes. Interesting? You bet.
Check out:
The embedded video above is another example (although not created by NASA, it is a catchy example of celebrating science for the younger generation listening to LMFAO). Given the reduced funds for NASA space exploration and fears that science research is taking a back seat to other priorities, this push to make science relevant and fun with parody and pop culture is important.
I know, for me, this mix of official and parody has made me pay attention. And I suspect maybe my students, too?
Peace (in exploration of new media),
Kevin
PS – Thanks to Maria for a few additions to the twitter list.
