Collaborative Writing with Dead Authors

(Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo for this one)
I know this may be little more practical than the “cool” factor but this is .. pretty cool. Google has released an automated version of its Google Documents that allows you to collaborate with dead writers. As a story unfolds, you’ll see Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Emily Dickinson and William Shakespeare and a few others pop into your writing, adding a phrase or word here and there, and maybe even an entire sentence. They might even remove some of your words and do a bit of editing. I found it interesting, if not a bit unnerving at times, to try to keep up with them (such as “they” are) and end up with something a bit coherent. (And I have no idea how the site actually works.)

If you want to see my document on Google, check out this link:

Read Writing with the Ghost Writers

But I also grabbed a screen capture as Google “previewed” my (our) story.

 

Give it a whirl and see what you can create as you write with The Masters.

Peace (in the ghostly collaboration),
Kevin

 

Student Work: Air Pollution Essay and Slideshow

(This is the another student sample of an essay project that ended our school year. Students wrote a persuasive essay on a science-based topic and then created a multimedia companion piece to along with the writing.– Kevin)


And her slideshow:

Peace (in the sharing),
Kevin

Sharing Student Work: Vegetarianism Essay and Remix Video

(This is another student sample of an essay project that ended our school year. Students wrote a persuasive essay on a science-based topic and then created a multimedia companion piece to along with the writing. In this case, this student really wanted to write and explore the idea of being a vegetarian, so I let her go with that choice.– Kevin)

For her media project, she wanted to learn how to use iMovie to remix some of her own work — a video game that she created and a Google Search Story, and then mash it together with some elements of her essay. I got her started and she did the rest for this youtube media project.

Peace (in the sharing),
Kevin

Book Review: The Mongoliad (book one)

I have to admit: I wasn’t sure if seven writers writing one adventure novel would hold together strong enough to keep me interesting. But The Mongoliad, which was apparently originally conceived as a collaborative serial novel for e-readers and such, clearly came under the eye of an editor of some merit. The book mostly stands up to the talents of the seven writers (including one of my favorites, Neal Stephenson, which shows you the power of a name —  I would have probably just passed this one by without Stephenson’s involvement).

I have the paper-bound version of the book (which is the first in a series) because I was completely unaware of the online/app development of the story itself as an experiment with writing novel. After I was done reading the book, I was touring through the website home of the novel, and I came to realize just how vast the media elements were for the story as it unfolded — with videos, and maps, and chapters, and more. (Of course, you need to pay for premium service to gain access to all of the good stuff. And it costs a pretty penny.)

The story itself is about the reign of the Mongols over parts of Europe following the death of Ghengis Khan in the 1200s, and how various orders of the Christian brotherhoods came together to defend Christianity from the invasion. These brotherhoods were small groups of knights, and a plot is hatched to cut the head off the snake, so to speak. There are a few story lines underway in this first book, but I thought the character development was pretty well done. There’s more to the knights than just fighting (although these guys clearly love the intricacies of the fighting sequences), and some of the major characters are just outside the periphery of action, so we get a bird’s eye view of the story, too.

I’ll be keeping an eye out for the second installment of the book. Maybe I should do that online, though, and experience the book as an app.

Peace (in the book),
Kevin

 

 

 

Sharing Student Work: Discarded Electronics Essay and Video Game

(This is another student sample of an essay project that ended our school year. Students wrote a persuasive essay on a science-based topic and then created a multimedia companion piece to along with the writing.– Kevin)

And his video game called Recycling:

Peace (in the sharing),
Kevin

Book Review: The One and Only Ivan

I’ve learned something important over the past few months: always trust my friends with The Nerdy Book Club. I read so many tweets about The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate that I finally decided, I gotta get that book. And I did. And it is wonderful. Told in the voice of Ivan, a silverback gorilla who lives in an animal exhibit in a strip mall, the novel deftly brings us into the mind of an intelligent creature seeking do the right thing for a young elephant, Ruby, who arrives in captivity, too. Ivan has made a promise, and he intends to keep it. I won’t give the story away, except to say that the writing here will touch your spirit and the story will remind you of the importance of family, in whatever shape it comes.

The afterward is also interesting, as Applegate notes that her book was inspired by a true story of a captive gorilla in a mall “zoo” operation, but as she wrote, the story became something more. The One and Only Ivan is a keeper, and Ivan’s voice will linger with you for days, as it has done with me.

Peace (out of captivity),
Kevin

 

Sharing Student Work: Pollution Essay with Video Game

(This is the first student sample of an essay project that ended our school year. Students wrote a persuasive essay on a science-based topic and then created a multimedia companion piece to along with the writing.– Kevin)


And his video game component: Learning about Pollution

Peace (in the sharing),
Kevin

Static Interference: a poem about writing interruptus

(I wrote this for Teachers Write, a virtual summer writing camp for teachers run by the author Kate Messner. I’ll write more about the program in the coming days.)

Static Interference

the story’s started …
the plot’s been launched …
the character set in motion
but somehow, in all of this commotion of daily living,
I have left him there, all alone with his narrative,
while I was off doing these other things.

I wonder what he does when I am not around,
and what he thinks about — this character I created —
and whether some wrinkle in my planning goes awry
every time I turn my back on him
to live life outside of the story for a little bit …

He doesn’t have that option –
trapped inside the words that I created from an idea not yet fully formed
and what I don’t want is for my story to become a jail cell –
I want my words to become the key
that breaks him out of all that static interference of uncertainty…

So, forgive me, my friend,
for leaving you there so long without a word to keep you company.
You were never really far from my thoughts.
No, you’ve been here,
sitting on the edge of my ear all week,
whispering secret plans that no one else can hear,
colluding together on the next chapter of story.

– listen to the podcast version of the poem: http://cinch.fm/dogtrax/poetry-podcasts/504174

Peace (in the poem),
Kevin

Video Games: Friend or Foe

My friend, George Mayo, does amazing video work with his students. This spring, he asked if some of his students could interview me and one of my own students for a piece they were doing around video games and education. So, we hooked up on Skype one day, and his reporters chatted us up about our own video game project. The other week, they finally published the piece, and it is pretty neat (although Skype delayed our voices.) Check it out (and check out the other great videos that George’s kids did, too, at their Watch Out! site).

Video Games: Friends or Enemies from mrmayo on Vimeo.

Our work around video games can be viewed at our site: Gaming4School.
 
Peace (in the movie),
Kevin