Last year, my sixth graders used PowerPoint to create picture books with a mathematical theme. They shared their PP shows with younger grades and then we printed them out for both students to take home and to keep in our school library. We also published the books to our Weblog to share with family.
They did an amazing job!
| Mr. H’s Class | Mr. C’s Class | Mrs. R’s Class | Mr. M’s Class |
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This is a nice summary of how blogs can be integrated into the classroom:
In a broader and more educational system, blogs are about communicating. You observe your experience, reflect on it, and then write about it. Other people read your reflections, respond from their perspectives by commenting or writing their own blog article. You read their perspectives, often learn something through their eyes, and write some more.
— from Supportblogging
A good friend of mine, Paul O., from the National Writing Project has been thinking about the convergence of technology and writing for many years, in a variety of different perspectives — teacher,workshop developer, technology leader.
On his Weblog — called SchoolTube — Paul suggests that we try to find some new words to describe the emergence of technology in the classroom. He doesn’t mean dropping kids off in a computer lab and hoping for the best. What he means, and what I believe in, is the full integration of these new tools into the classroom for students to construct their meaning and understanding and critical thinking skills.
So Paul proposes using a new term to describe this shift: dComposition.
Here is his definition:
I’ve been trying to get a new term into the popular lexicon: dComposing. This in place of terms like digital literacy or media literacy. dComposing, as I see it, would incorporate the different forms that we now use to create compositions mediated by digital technology. I believe dComposing avoids the legacy definitions of digital literacy and media literacy, which have sometimes defined them narrowly. dComposing is not solely about the mechanics of the technology (digital literacy in its narrowly defined sense), nor solely about the understanding of the media through which it is emerging (media literacy in its narrowly defined sense), but rather focuses on the notion that writing and reading and how we create composition — literacy itself, in other words — is changing.
— from SchoolTube.
Peace,
Kevin
I’ve been checking out some of the strange and neat things you can do with Flickr lately, just to experiment. A good site for Flickr Toys is here, if you are interested. Much of it is free.
I used some band photos as my experiment. Here is a roadside advertisement for The Sofa Kings.
And here I added some captions to what John and Duke are really thinking.
Peace,
Kevin
A few months ago, I was helping some teachers at the Western Massachusetts Writing Project consider ways to use technology for classroom publications. We talked about Wikis, Weblogs and other possibilities, and I showed them how you could use Microsoft Word to create a Web document that could then be uploaded to a server.
My example was some poetry that I wrote and put together with a brief table of contents to show how hyperlinks could connect various pages together.
One of the poems in the e-Journal is called “Passion Release” and I wrote for a friend who played guitar in one of my bands but was asked to leave. Not for any personality reasons, but for difficulties with schedules and Life in general. It was a difficult decision for all of us because he is a wonderful person and a fantastic musician and I wrote this poem and sent it off to him.
Peace,
Kevin
One of the more exciting ventures that I oversaw last year as a leader with the Western Massachusetts Writing Project was a new partnership with our area’s largest newspaper, The Springfield Republican. Inspired by a similar effort at the Vermont Writing Project, the monthly publication seeks to highlight teachers in our WMWP network and the writing that is being done by their students. Among other things, this newspaper connection helps with continuity of the site by keeping our network connected. It also helps get the word out about the National Writing Project.
The basic format is:
- Short teacher introduction into the writing topic
- Samples of student writing
- Resources for other teachers
- Connections to our Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks
You can view PDF versions of some of the features at the newspaper’s online site.
This year, we have some topics in mind, including:
- Family Writing Nights
- Writing in the English Language Learners classroom
- Connecting Writing and Math
- Classroom Publications
Peace
Kevin
This is a new direction for me — creating podcasts that will center on some of my own music and compositions. I am experimenting with OurMedia as the site for hosting the audio files and I finally worked out most of the kinks of the system.
This first edition features the musical play The Note Who Got Lost in the Masterpiece production. The play was produced this summer by Multi-Arts of Amherst and the young performers did a magnificent job. (You can also read my reflection of the experience of watching my play on stage from an earlier post).
Listen to the Dogtrax Podcast: The Note Who Got Lost in the Masterpiece.
Thanks for listening.
Kevin
Last night, my wife and I went to see the band Los Lobos in concert at a small outdoor arena in our town of Northampton, Massachusetts. They were energetic, playful and brimming with great musical ideas.
What struck me is this — The opening band was The Mammals and they pulled up a few band members from another band called The Ducks on the stage to join them for a few songs (and playfully referred to themselves as The Platypus — get it? Duck-billed mammals?). Then, when Los Lobos hit the stage, they pulled up the violin player from The Mammals for the opening song. And this is common for many bands to do — grab an up and coming musician and give them the experience of a larger stage.
So, I was thinking, that as Susan B. and I work on our NWP Monograph Project about the site structure of the Western Massachusetts Writing Project, one theme that keeps coming up is how one program leader will ask someone new to partner with them on a project, and then pass the baton to the new person, who them repeats the process. Just like Los Lobos and The Mammals did on stage last night.
The power of that system is that it works like an expert-apprentice relationship and creates strong bonds for someone new to experiment in a safe environment. Kind of cool to think of WMWP along the same lines as Los Lobos.
Rock on!
Kevin
One of my own personal goals this year was to learn more about making documentary movies so that I could capture some of the work being done at the Western Massachusetts Writing Project, where I am the techology liaison for our network of teachers.
Here are two movie projects that I have been working on:
We are in the midst of making a DVD documentary of our 2006 Summer Institute and I have been sharing the work with our participants through a web-based site. The movie will center on our three main strands: teacher writing; inquiry research; and workshop presentations.
You can head to the Summer Institute movies here.
Meanwhile, I have also been working on a documentary for a Weblog project called Making Connections, which connects middle school students through technology. This project is funded through the NWP Technology Seed Grant Initiative.
Head to the Making Connections movie.
Peace
Kevin
There is a loud and concerned outcry of opposition from writers of educational/technology Weblogs these days over the initial passage of legislation known as DOPA (Deleting Online Predators Act) in the House. The bill is now being considered by the Senate. DOPA seems aimed directly at the worries over such sites as MySpace and the very real fact that some young people are misusing the technology and are being harmed by online predators. Unfortunately, the bill would force schools to block all commercial websites that have any interactive elements.
It seems to me, as it does to most of the voices out there, that the role of educators should be to teach our students about these sites and how to best use them, and to be critical of them, too. The volume of ads alone provide an opportunity to discuss what the owners of the sites are really trying to accomplish. To merely put up a wall is to ignore the fact that our students are probably still accessing these sites at home or at a friend’s home, and they need to learn how best to use Weblogs, Wikis and other sites for creative expression, and they need the skills to protect themselves against any dangers out there. The classroom is one of the best places to learn such skills. The home, of course, is the other place but how many parents are that savvy? (Of course, how many teachers are that savvy, too? It’s a legitimate question).
Teachers and others who believe in the opportunities of the Read/Write Web are being urged to contact their senators and legislators and urge rejection of DOPA. Here is part of one letter:
As the Web becomes more and more a part of the way that kids communicate and socialize, I would submit that we need to focus on educating them in the most effective and safe ways to use these technologies. Banning them is a reactionary response, not a reasoned one. And it is a response whose ultimate motives are spurious at best. Why not, instead, focus our discussions on how best to prepare the millions of new teachers who will be entering the classroom in the next five years to deal with these issues, or on reaching out to parents to make sure they are well versed in overseeing their children’s use of the Internet? — from http://dopa.pbwiki.com/
I just emailed a letter to both Senator John Kerry and Senator Ted Kennedy asking that they find a better solution to protecting our young people and you can do the same, if you would like.
Peace
Kevin
