Thinking Through Instagrok for Classroom Research

I’ve written before about using Instagrok with my students as a way to hone and focus their research skills. I recently write a piece for Instagrok folks to share with teachers, to share a bit of how I have approached using their site. I also included a few ThingLink images as a way to document what Instagrok is and I will be sharing these resources out with some teachers I am working with through some consulting work with the Western Massachusetts Writing Project.

This one

and this one

and here is the link to the whole piece I wrote.

Peace (in the grokking),
Kevin
PS — as a note of disclosure, in return for writing the piece, Instagrok provided me with code for some teacher accounts, which I will be giving out to the teachers I am working with.

App Review: 123D Creature

Screen Shot 2013-05-10 at 8.47.46 PM

I am pretty sure I found this app from Richard Byrne. I realize that many of the cool apps that I try out on the iPad often come suggested from Richard (Thanks, man!). Along with his amazing Free Tech for Teachers blog site, Richard also runs the periodic app review at his iPad Apps for School site. Both are worth following.

Anyway, this app — 123D Creatures — is a nifty three-dimensional creation tool that allows you to design and “cook” creatures, and it’s free. What I liked about it is the simplicity of instructions (the app walks you through the entire process) and the range of ways you can invent something new, something crazy, something interesting. You are in charge of body shape, texture, colors and even poses as you go through the process. The “cooking” part if when you are done, and the app renders your creature as an image that you can then export. (It occurred to me, too, that if you used the new ThingLink app with this image, you could perhaps create an interesting “story” or “informational text” layered on top of it. That’s for another day, perhaps.)

Here’s what I created one afternoon:
3d Creature
Cute, eh?

The process reminded me a lot of our claymation work — in which kids are using their hands and minds to create something out of a giant blob of nothing. Here, with the 123D Creature app, that nothing is virtual, and yet, you could easily make connections to the way engineers design things using CAD (computer aided design) software programs. A lot of the same steps that would go into an engineer design also goes into creating a creature here.

Peace (in the mold),
Kevin

PS — I see in the reviews of the app that some folks had trouble with the rendering. I did not. But it’s good to read reviews just to get a sense of potential troubles.

 

What’s Your Summer Reading Pile Look Like?

Summer Reading Stack

(My short list of books)

It’s not too late, but it will soon be, to send a photo of your “to be read” photo of the books you hope to read this summer. The Nerdy Book Club – one of the best clubs on the face of the planet — is pulling together a visual project of photos of books on people’s “to read” list. The deadline is tonight (June 1), so get cracking!

More information is at the Nerdy Book Club site. (You read? You’re a member.)

Peace (in the books),

Kevin

Letting the Poem Go: A Collaborative Writing Experiment with Teach the Web

poem playback
Writers often hoard ideas, right? We huddle with our screens, our pens, our ink and paper, and use our mind as a net to gather ideas and make sense of them. I do that. But I am also intrigued by the collaborative nature of online spaces and how we might open up our own ideas to others and let our stories and poems go, and see where they end up.

This week, I used a tip from the Teach the Web MOOC to use Edit Pad, and I started a poem, which I then tossed into the world with an invitation for others to add, remix, delete, and do what they would with my words. You never know who might be up for such a challenge, but luckily for me, I had Ian, Chad, Hayfa and Laura willing to jump into the mix.

collab poem

And wow …. it was pretty cool. Not only did they add words, they added a music soundtrack, a background image, different kinds of fonts … as well as their own lines of poetry. You might think it would be cool to watch that collaborative process unfold, right? Well, with Edit Pad, you can. This open source html editor/notebook comes with a “time slider” so that you can watch the document grow from start to finish. I found it mesmerizing, particularly as my words truly did become fence posts for the others to build around.

Or maybe we need another analogy. Maybe my words were stars, and Chad, Ian, Hayfa and Laura built a galaxy around me. I like that much better.

See the final poem

View the edit mode of the poem (go ahead — add some more)

Thank you to Laura and Chad and Hayfa and Ian for being writers with me.

Peace (in the poem),
Kevin

 

How to Use Memory Objects for Digital Stories

Yesterday, a visitor asked a bit about how I teach the Memory Objects/Narrative Writing/Digital Story assignment, and I am happy to walk through what we do.

First, this writing is part of our unit around paragraph structure and paragraph writing. The emphasis for this particularly piece of writing is “narrative” and telling a story. I begin by reading the picture book Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox as a way to talk about memories. This delightful picture book tells the story of a young boy who helps his elderly friend recover her memories through a series of gifts. It’s a perfect segue into our discussions around not just memories, but the artifacts and objects that we collect to remind us of events and people and experiences.

Second, they begin their writing. Since this is a lesson around paragraph structure, we emphasize through graphic organizers some of the main ideas, and how to develop the body. This paragraph later becomes the script for their digital stories. I share my own examples with them, and show them a few digital stories from prior years. For some, the hardest part is figuring out what to write about. So, I give them a few days to mull it over.

Third, we jump into iMovie. Since most have not used iMovie before, I give a tutorial and then they had a  good part of two days to play around with the program in ways not related to the digital story. I showed them how to add titles, use transitions, embed music, drag in photos, etc. This is not wasted time. This play time gives them a chance to explore, try out techniques, fail and try again, and more. I have found they need a good grasp on the possibilities before the real project begins.

Finally, they either bring in their objects or they bring in f lash drive with images of the objects. If they have brought them in, they use PhotoBooth to take photographs (hint: use the “reverse image” feature if the object has writing, since PhotoBooth takes mirror shots). What is nice is that iMovie integrates PhotoBooth and other applications seamlessly into the program. We talk about using Garageband to create a soundtrack and Free Play Music as a source for music (which leads to a longer discussion about “mood and tone” of music working in conjunction with the mood and tone of the writing.)

When they are done, they have the option to upload to our class YouTube site, or just export to the desktop.

The whole project takes about a week (of about 30 minutes a day), although I continue to have some stragglers. That’s always the case.

This is one of the projects that I do not grade. Surprisingly, of my 80 students, only two have asked me that question (will this be graded?). Instead, I see this as a way to value writing, introduce a useful bit of technology, and offer up an authentic publishing venue for them to tell a story. The level of engagement is very high across the board. It reminds me that if the activity is enriching as an experience, the need to grade every little thing seems a little less important. At least, it does for this particular kind of writing/technology adventure.

I hope that helps you think about how to bring digital storytelling into your classroom.

Peace (in the sharing of memories),
Kevin

 

Memory Objects, Narrative Writing and Digital Stories

My sixth graders are knee-deep in iMovie this week, as they use a piece of narrative paragraph writing as a script for a digital story. Their assignment is to find a tangible physical object that sparks strong memories for them, and then write about the object and the memories. Then, we move over into iMovie to create a digital story about the narrative memory. For most students, this is their first experience with iMovie (but not with digital storytelling, as we worked with Photostory 3 earlier this year on the PC).

I scheduled in a few “play days” last week, to give them time to explore such things as titles, transitions, adding music, and more. This week, they are getting to work. There are a lot of things that I like about this Memory Object Digital Story Project, including the tapping into memories, the use of an object to represent an abstract idea, technology for a meaningful purpose, a short doable project (stories are about a minute long), and engagement with media in a variety of ways (some are moving into Garageband to create their own music soundtracks).

Here is one of the first digital stories to get done this week. It’s a great showcase piece, as she crafts a gem of a digital story.

And, here is the piece that I had done to show them what a Memory Object story looks like, and also, to share with them a piece of my own childhood. They really loved it, and got a kick out of seeing the “younger me” in some of the photos.

Peace (in the memories),
Kevin

 

Making a Comic for Making Learning Connected MOOC

Here’s another teaser to get you interested in the upcoming Making Learning Connected MOOC program that we are launching in a few weeks:

You can also access the comic here.
Or check it out here:
Making Learning Connected Comic Teaser
(Personally, I like the flash comic version the best.)
And here is the site where you can sign up to get more information about the Making Learning Connected project this summer: http://blog.nwp.org/clmooc/
Peace (in the MOOC),
Kevin