When Students Make Search Stories

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The other day, I wrote about the Google Search Story Creator, which is a pretty nifty digital story generator that creates short videos based on queries that you put into Google (and, the site is yet another reason for us to use Google, meaning more eyeballs on their advertisements).

Yesterday, as we wound down the week (and a day after an exhausting Quidditch Tournament — my class did not win, but they came together nicely as a team), I decided to use class time for catch-up and play. My students are finishing an essay project and those that were done, I brought to the Google Search Story site.

First, though, we talked about how you might use it to tell a story and not just plug in random search terms. I told them to invent a character who is behind a computer. What is going on? What does the viewer need to know, and just as important, what does the viewer need to figure out on their own?

And I put this up on our whiteboard:

  • You have only seven lines of search, so narrow your focus;
  • Develop your search story around one theme/one idea;
  • Don’t just create a story of random search entries — really try to tell a story — make the reader/viewer figure out the story (think of it like a puzzle that the reader/viewer has put together)
  • Match the music with the story — sad music should not go with a happy story.

I then created a class YouTube account for those stories that seemed to show good thoughtfulness, and we have been sharing the more than 20 video stories over at our classroom blog site. The use of a YouTube playlist has been most helpful because you can embed the whole playlist. (What you see above here is a modified playlist with the one story that I did as a sample — An Apple for the Teacher — and then a handful of student stories. I personally like the iPod story. She “got it” when it came to using the site, I think.)

Peace (in the story),
Kevin

Ning Things: when free is not always free

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As a technology explorer (I have a badge! naw), I run a few Ning social netw0rk sites. I have a few within the National Writing Project, I have a few within the Western Massachusetts Writing Project, and one for the techies at my school. I’ve liked Ning networks because they are easy to set up and are pretty simple for even beginners to wrap their head around (although the difference between a blog post and a forum post can be tricky).  Like many, I got my Ning start over at Classroom 2.0 and used it as a model for my own Ning sites.

And I have liked that Ning networks are free. But of course, they are not free and never have been. Ning has always run advertising on the free sites. Now, I never see the ads because I use an ad-blocker. For a few of the Ning sites I manage, we have paid to remove advertising for periods of time because of worries about ads. (I remember reading an article about how we should all remove our ad-blocking programs so that companies like Ning can make their money. But I can’t make that shift, even though I realize I want it both ways — a service that I value that someone else pays for.)

Yesterday, I caught a press release from Ning that says they are about to move towards the removal of all free sites in its network and push folks to either upgrade to a premium version or tell them to move their virtual homes elsewhere. This comes because the Ning company is losing money. Lots of money. It is laying off staff. And it is a company after all.

Here are  a few items of interest:

So, what does this mean for folks like me? Not sure yet. One of the complaints within the NWP Tech Liaison community about the Ning sites is that there is no easy way to migrate your data away from Ning and into another platform. For example, if I am tired of Edublogs, I can migrate my blog somewhere else. It’s a few steps and I get a file of my data. I find a new host and upload my data and keep going (with some tweaks, of course). There is no system in place in a Ning (yet?) to do that, other than copying and pasting things, and can you imagine the hassle of that?

So, I’ll be waiting to hear what kind of premium options they are talking about. We do fund a few sites without advertising, so maybe those ones will make the cut. But I don’t see the value of upgrading for a site that only has a handful of people. (The cost to remove ads is $25 a month).

Peace (in the network),
Kevin

The NWP Search Story Playlist

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I’ve been experimenting with the new Google Search Story creator and wanted to see how I could collaborate with folks in my network of National Writing Project folks.
So, I put out a call and got some pretty neat stories. I do notice that people struggle with the “telling a story” as opposed to connected links around a topic. In my view, it has more power when the viewer (reader) is trying to determine the mind of the person (character) doing the search queries. It reminds me a story I once wrote that only used personal checks (it was inspired by a published story that did something similar). The storytelling was more about what you leave out than what you put in. This search story idea is similar — how can you leave enough gaps in the narrative for the viewer to figure out what is going on?

Anyway, I tried to find ways to share out the stories that my NWP friends and I were creating, and Matt Needleman suggested a YouTube playlist, which made sense (no video editing on my part) and I realized that you can embed the entire playlist in a blog post, which is pretty neat.

The playlist is here, if you need a direct link: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=258FBB29A1930AEB or watch the embedded videos down below.

What’s your story?

Peace (in the search),
Kevin

Collaborative Drawing in Google Docs

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You may be aware that Google rolled out a revamped version of its Google Docs system this week. I haven’t had time to explore all of it, but I was interested in the launch of a drawing option that would allow you to collaborate with others. So, I set up a simple picture, published it to the world and asked folks in various networks to try it out. At one time, I noticed there were about 30 people with access to the file. Not everyone added to the drawing, but it was pretty interesting.

I could see some possibilities in the classroom around shared drawing, or maybe a shared art project with someone else in the world. The tools in the drawing program are pretty limited but I think kids could still be very creative.

Peace (with the pen),
Kevin

PS — Here is the video announcing the revampled Google Docs.

Ice Ice Baby: Quidditch is Coming

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Tomorrow, we hold our annual Quidditch Tournament at our school, where the four sixth grade classes face off throughout the entire day (yep, all day) in a series of Quidditch matches. The kids are excited and trying to keep them focused on the classroom … a bit difficult. My team is Dry Ice and they picked their theme song to be “Ice Ice Baby,” which I realized yesterday as I was downloading it is now 20 years old. I find it funny they chose that song, which is played as they run into the gym before screaming crowds of other students and family members.

We’ve been working on art and writing around Quidditch for the past two weeks – using expository writing to explain a play on the field or descriptive writing to describe the craziness of the day of Quidditch; making t-shirts and posters for the wall; and more.

I don’t know if we will win the Quidditch Cup this year, but I do know that my class has really come together in the last few weeks in ways that they had not come together earlier in the year. That makes me a happy teacher/coach.

Peace (with the snitch),
Kevin

PS — here is how we play the game:

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Writing (digital) Poems with Bud

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I continue to enjoy the poetry adventures over at Bud the Teacher’s blog. Bud posts a picture, a few words and opens up his space for poems. I get up, wondering what I might write about today. I’ve been using Vocaroo to record as podcasts, and Bill has followed my lead. The other day, Kelly responded to a poem of mine with a poem of hers, and then I responded — a poetic conversation of sorts.
This morning, he posted an interesting picture and suggested a mixing up, which made me think of a remix of some sort, which led to wonder about elements within the photo.

So, I fashioned a short digital poem about listening to someone practicing music and wanting to join in. I made it in a few minutes with Photostory3.

Come write with us at Bud’s place. There a seat at the table for you.

Peace (in the poetry),
Kevin

Writing about Glogster

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An article that I wrote about using Glogster and other online postering projects (Digital posters: Composing with an Online Canvas) was published yesterday at the Learnnc website (and also, at its companion site, Instructify). I tried to show the possibilities and also, the rationale for using an online postering site.

I hope folks find it useful.

The Glog above is part of an environmental unit that we did around the reading of the novel, Flush by Carl Hiassan.

Peace (on the posters),
Kevin

Get the Poetry Flowing

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I  saw this note in a Twitter feed and decided to check it out. It’s an app for iPhone or iTouch or iPad(?) called Poem Flow, and it is a pretty cool system of presenting famous poems in a flowing, visual way. The basic app is free and comes with about a dozen poems, and then they charge you for extra downloads.

But here is the beauty: if you are an educator, you get the download upgrade FOR FREE. It’s definitely worth checking it out. I had nice time reading/watching some poems last night. And I noticed that on the form that teachers have to take to get the free code, there is a question of whether you might be interested in learning more about an upcoming application that allows you to create your own poetry flows. Heck yes!

You can find Poem Flow at the Apple App Store.

Peace (in the flow),
Kevin

Writing Graphic Novels: Podcast with Barbara Slate

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I recently had the opportunity to interview author Barbara Slate, who has written and illustrated many comics and graphic novels and just put out a fantastic new book for teaching graphic novels from the view of writing them. The book is called, appropriately enough, You Can Do a Graphic Novel. I did a review of the book over at The Graphic Classroom but I wanted to follow up with an interview (plus, I wanted to see if I could record an interview on Skype — some mixed results but mostly, it is fine).
The interview is in two sections.
In the first, Barbara talks about how she got into comics, some gender elements of the business, why she wrote her recent book and other interesting tidbits. In the second part, I asked her specifically about how to help teachers who want to bring graphic novels into the classroom as a writing activity, but don’t quite know how to begin.

Peace (in the learning),
Kevin

Making fun to make a Point

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Ha
Check out this video satire of the budget cuts (thanks, Elyse). “That’s why so many of us end up in prison,” one girl says sadly to her friend, as Megan Fox tries to figure out where the teacher has gone (laid off) and why the room is packed with kids. While the video is about California’s budget woes, adjust the lens a bit for any of our states.

Peace (in the dark humor),
Kevin