Digital Citizenship in Schools

This video chat room will be available to students scheduled for participation times on the calendar. Any students not on the schedule are welcome to join and observe.

For best results:

* Use headphones to avoid echo.
* Make sure you have the latest version of Flash Player.
* Close out Skype or any other program that may be using your webcam.
* Use a wired connection if possible.

Monday 18 April 2011

Google Tools for teachers - in the cloud!

Google for Teachers

Friday 15 April 2011

Another presentation on Digital Citizenship

Understanding Digital Citizenship - Middle Years Conference

View more presentations from Alec Couros

Some humour along the way...

Please, remember to work hard on both the content AND presentation of your power-point. If your presentation looks dull, unimaginative, old-fashioned to me, then it would definitely look the same to your staff if you were presenting it at your school. The best talk in the world cannot recover the situation.

Powerpoint or other screen based tools for sharing information should help:

Visualize ideas
Create key points
Impress
Act as a prompt

A presentation needs to engage the audience visually and support the content of your talk - not distract from it.

Here's some humour to keep you going..

Here's some key things to consider to polish your presentations, once you have crafted that actual content of your talk.

Remember:

Create the content - your story!
Map out the visual presentation to support your story
Create the presentation
Refine and rehearse
Present

Please note the Slideshare does not import animations, swinging objects or whatever. It does let you import the separate builds of a slide if you wish - but please not for this exercise. The focus here is on the talk and in learning how to create visuals to match.

Enjoy!

Death by PowerPoint

View more presentations from www.kapterev.com

Tuesday 12 April 2011

Greasemonkey for Flickr - for the adventurous

I promised a while back that I would share some more interesting ways to manage your image work online. Tips and tricks abound, but this one from Alan Levine is the niftiest around, so I've decided to share it first.

cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo shared by Sebastián-Dario

So what am I talking about? Well of course, as you prepare your presentation (or indeed work on other image-related tasks in your professional work) one of the things you are doing is noting where the image comes from and providing a hyperlinked attribution. If, like me, you are backed into a corner for time, then you will most certainly end up at Flickr. (Even if not in a rush I still prefer to use FlickrCC, and think laterally in my search terms! I also love the new things it throws up for me.)

There are a few reasons for this:
1. You can store your own images at Flickr and build your own collections
2. You can 'favourite' other peoples images (something I regularly do as I collect images for my various bits of work)
3. Now you can also install a nice GreaseMonkey script to make the image attribute even easier.

Here's what it's about - read on, only if you are keen for an adventure!

Alan Levine has written a Flickr Attribution Helper – a browser script that embeds easy to copy attribution text to creative commons licensed flickr images. Greasemonkey is an add-on for Firefox browser. Once Greasemonkey is installed, you have the ability to add all sorts of magical things to the functionality of your browser.

To be honest, the only one I have ever added is Alan's Flickr Attribtion Helper - but its insanely useful! See the image above - that red tee-shirt and the attribution were simply copied from the HTML box and pasted here in the blog! Done in one go!

Stephen Ridgeway, from New South Wales Australia, created a video that explains how to use the Flickr CC Attribution helper (thank goodness - a blog post by itself would never do it!). Download and install the Flickr Attribution helper (after you have installed Greasmonkey). Then watch the magic happen every time you go to a Flickr image!

Teachers creating content online - handbook

Open publication - Free publishing - More training

Tuesday 29 March 2011

Presentation tactics!

Now that we have been talking about the shape of your Project, it's time to consider a few presentation tactics. I know a few have asked about images and the like, so I've promised a bit of a run-down for those who need a helping hand.

Here we go!

The Problem with Powerpoint

Our understanding of how to promote thinking, engage audiences, and use powerpoint as a visual communication medium has matured. So also has our understanding of how we can teach kids to engage with knowledge, and provide a visual synthesis of their ‘take on a topic’ via a powerpoint and an actual talk about a topic, rather than read of a topic! has ‘come of age’.

The presentation Dodging Bullets in Presentations explains the design and function developments beautifully. This Assessment task is an opportunity for you to apply that reasoning and perhaps also to the next ‘powerpoint project’ that you give your students. Your students just may be a little surprised at how much work and how much understanding is required to produce an assessment without all those bullet points. Their supporting ‘talk’ just may need them to know and understand their topic for their talk – especially if no notes are allowed i.e. you ask them to talk as if they 'know' the topic, rather than reading from a script!

Dodging Bullets in Presentations

View more presentations from Fortify Services

Google Images or Bust!

Of course, the next big challenge is what images to use and where to find them!

I’m constantly amazed at the lack of direction provided to students about the use, value, purpose and function images into their work – including the notion of authentic creativity (i.e. ripping off other people’s work and presenting it as your own is not mashup – its trampling on someone’s work).
Well I won’t preach – no point. I see teachers constantly falling for presentation as if it somehow has translated into quality higher order thinking in the heads of students. Doing a google search for images, and dropping it into a powerpoint, and essay, an animoto, a machinima or anything, without some purpose behind it all teaches very little…AND it doesn’t even address visual literacy or creativity either.

So think Digital Citizenship, and then you have a different perspective on finding and using images.

There are places to find images.....
and just for that purpose I keep a link on my blog as up-to-date as I can with places to
Find Free Images Online.

No excuses! Please remember - any images that you use in our presentation must be attributed appropriately.

Is there a place for using Google Images? Yes - but I would recommend that you make it a 'cognitive' exercise along these lines:

If you want to know if a person is a man or a woman and the name doesn’t help, do a search for the name.
If you don’t know the meaning of a word, the pictures may help you.
Find what’s interesting about a site, by looking at the pictures included. For example: wired.com.
Type the name of a painter and turn your search into a randomized art class!
Discuss how images have been used in sites for key historical characters, and the message that they portray. e.g. try ‘Hitler’
Have some ‘keyword’ fun with Google Image Labeler. See how you go in two minutes, and what keywords you come up with to name your image!
Play with Montage-a-Google and focus on visual literacy!

Truth is nothing will stop teachers and students using Google Image Search. It’s easy.It’s here to stay.

Comes back to pedagogy and Digital Citizenship doesn’t it!

Do you want pretty pictures? or do you want to help teach kids creativity, discernment, visual literacy and ethics around the creative arts

In my next post I will share a little about Slideshare, images, and a clever Greasemonkey script for the adventurous ones!

Image: Back to the Future; Flickr 'n 3D

Monday 21 March 2011

Sneaking up on Assessment One

Now that you are working busily on preparing your ideas for Assessment 1 (with Assessment 2 tucked at the back of your mind) I just wanted to share a recent read with you. A catchy title makes it a great addition to your advocacy material at school

Not Your Grandmother's Library!. (2011). Learning & Leading with Technology, 38(6), 16-19. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Download from the CSU database with this link.

As you have moved from the breadth of the web, to Topic 2 which begins to focus more on curriculum and the global context for learning, be prepared to 'graze' over the big picture, and let it inform your developing thoughts in relation to digital citizenship in your school. It will help you 'position' your proposal for your first Assessment.

As you work through your policy issues at the macro level, consider carefully how the same issues can (and do) apply in your own organisation. Too often management of information and resources within schools can lead to compartmentalization. This is where you, as a person involved with digital citizenship, can begin to draw together strands of interaction within a school, placing all information literacy activities (whether digital or not) firmly into the realm of ethical, collaborative, information practices, which can then contribute to digital citizenship knowledge and understanding.

What am I talking about? Perhaps you've guessed.

If not, let me share a little of my own experiences with you - to show you how to empower your own navigation of the digitally-enhanced information activities.

If you have been over to my blog you will have seen the reference to LiveBinders. This tool is a great way of putting together an information repository as part of a learning program for teachers or students. The topic of 'information search' is diagonally related to digital citizenship - in as much as knowing how to find and use information, and share it is important for critical reflection and learning.

Here's the link to Knowledge 2.0.

I would also like to share another information tool that is critical to my navigation and preparation of information - across all the platforms and mobile devices that I use. Teaching students how to use these tools is also part of their 'digital citizen' journey. Unless we empower our students with information strategies, we are missing a key part of the cycle that represents learning as a digital citizen.

Look at this vaguely strange marketing video about Evernote - nevertheless, one of my most incredibly useful tools - then check out what Buffy Hamilton is doing with Evernote with students in her library.

The Verdict is IN: Students love Evernote. http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/the-verdict-is-in-media-21-students-love-evernote/

Students give Evernote and Diigo the Thumbs UP! http://theunquietlibrary.wordpress.com/2010/08/06/students-give-evernote-and-diigo-the-thumbs-up/

There are many different tools you can use online to promote good critical learning experiences, through which you embed the key elements of digital citizenship. It's not just about talking to students about 'how to use Facebook properly'. It's about providing quality options for learning that incorporate information fluency and transliteracy approaches in all that you do with technology.

I'm looking forward to seeing your Assessment One proposals!

Image: One is the loneliest number

Raising Digital Kids

Monday 7 March 2011

Week 2 - Digital Citizenship

Here's some information that will help you get further underway in ETL523:

1. Find your study schedule in the Resources of ETL523. Keep an eye on this schedule, so that you are prepared to submit your topic proposal for Assignment 1.

2. You do NOT need to keep a blog of your own, and we are NOT using the blog tool within Interact. I am sorry to have confused you with turning on the blog tool - but as I am new to Interact, I was 'sort of' experimenting, hoping that the Blog tool would have more features. All you need to do is read the Digital Blog when I post an announcement.

3. You do NEED to keep and eye on the Digital Blog - as that is where I am adding additional information, along with videos. Podcasts would have been easier for me, but I think that combining specific information with the videos will provide you all with a better record. It will allow you to better undertake your study program when it suits you best.

4. If you have a blog and would like to have it hyperlinked in this blog, on a separate page, so we can all find it easily, please email me. I'd be really pleased to do this, as I think we can support ourselves in this learning venture in so many different ways - blogging is just one of them!

4. Learning in a Changing World Series books from ALIA/ASLA are available from ACER.

5. Brooks-Young, S. (2010). Teaching with tools kids really use: Learning with web and mobile technologies. Thousand Oaks, California:Corwin. This book has some great questions in each chapter. The author highlights the importance of 21st century skills: The content knowledge and applied skills that today's students need to master to thrive in a continually evolving workplace and society. Yes, digital citizenship fits right in!

6. Video in our Diigo account, that was shared with us by Mike Riddle, in the Digital Citizenship Facebook Group. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8YFAeCi8IA

This was quite exciting really - it shows us 'connectedness' in action, and makes the point that knowing what is happening is not just about waiting for someone to tell us or teach us - it's also about being connected and filtering and bringing the information towards us. By becoming adept online users, we can become adept teachers to model online behaviours to our students. Information curation is a knowledge skill, just as digital identity is a personal/privacy skill. We need many combined skills to be effective users of web and mobile technologies.

What shall we aim for next?

Remember, I'm keen for you to read, explore, and experience some of the links and resources that are available in your Topic 1 Module.

Use your Topic 1 Module to begin discussing what you discover, what you query, and what puzzles you by getting into the Forum Topic 1 which has been added to the left hand menu bar on Interact.

Dig into Diigo and see what else takes your interest. You will begin to choose to follow up those links that directly link to your areas of interest OR to your specific proposal for Assignment 1.

If you see me online, feel free to have a chat! But please be aware that if I am online when you are, I may actually already be in another chat, with another group. I won't be intentionally ignoring you :-).

CHAT WITH ME - I will be available on Wednesday 9th at 8:30 Sydney time, for anyone who would like to drop in for a group chat.

The key points from the video below have been included in this post.

Image: Question Mark

Friday 4 March 2011

Introduction to Diigo

Here's an compilation of information that might help you if you are in the process of discovering and using Diigo for yourself and with your students.

I am using Diigo in ETL523 to share (curate) links that are of interest in relation to the various topics we cover in this course. Keeping up-to-date in relation to Digital Citizenship is a key skill for teachers and teacher librarians, particularly in light of the constant change that is taking place either in the services (such as Facebook) or in school, state or national policies that impact on online environments.

Diigo is a social bookmarking service - a way to collect weblinks and 'tag' them with words to help organise your information finds! You can learn more about 'tagging' and the ideas behind social bookmarking at ED-Online (I made this for library workshop a couple of years ago).

Blog link: Tagging and Bookmarking

What is Diigo?

So what has Diigo got to offer us in schools?

First up - we can get a Diigo Educator account. These are special premium accounts provided specifically to K-12 & higher-ed educators. Once your Diigo Educator application is approved, your account will be upgraded to have these additional features:

* You can create student accounts for an entire class with just a few clicks (and student email addresses are optional for account creation)
* Students of the same class are automatically set up as a Diigo group so they can start using all the benefits that a Diigo group provides, such as group bookmarks and annotations, and group forums.
* Privacy settings of student accounts are pre-set so that only teachers and classmates can communicate with them.
* Ads presented to student account users are limited to education-related sponsors.

Diigo tutorial

View more webinars from Matt Henchen

I recommend reading the following posts that explain how you can use Diigo with students. Working with students in this way showing students how to manage their information, how to collaborate, and how to share information seeking. This is all part of the journey to being savvy web users and good digital citizens.

Using Diigo in Middle School

Diigo Groups for Student Collaboration

Thursday 3 March 2011

Welcome from Judy

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Beginning together

As an educator AND learner, I believe that what we can learn together far more effectively than by learning alone. This course is about that kind of learning - like the collaborative world of our students!

So let me start as I mean to continue. Some of you will have seen my effort to get something interactive into our core course platform. Interact delivers the official core course content that that has been approved for ETL523. But it's just the beginning - the springboard from which to jump into your own learning, and from which you will be inspired not only to develop your own knowledge and interactions about digital citizenship, but will also ensure that the quality of your assessment tasks best reflect what you are discovering and teasing out for yourself and for your school.

So you'll understand why I am having a conversation with myself - I have copied and pasted below what I said in the more static blog interface found in Interact. I'm moving it here, so that you have a full record in one place of the conversations and information that I will share with you during the course - and which I hope you will use to have lively discussions in the Forums, and online.

This blog interface will allow me to add whatever we need in terms of ideas, input, support, etc to 'add value' to the core course in our Modules. As a blog, you can subscribe to it in your RSS reader too (if you are familiar with RSS). But, it's easy to locate in Interact, and embeds right into Interact as well, so if you forget the link - it's there for you!

In addition, it shows our most recent Digital Citizenship in Schools Diigo Group links, in case something catches your interest.

It also shows you the Digital Citizenship Page in Facebook - which is of value to those of you who have a Facebook account.

ORIGINAL MESSAGE BELOW

Hi everyone,

As you know, I am new at CSU, so along with our learning together, I am also experimenting with various tools in Interact to see what we might to to enhance our learning experience together.

So you'll also know, if you've followed my profile information, I'm a blogger and feel like a global citizen most of the time. In fact, I feel that I need to be able to 'communicate' with you as easily as I do on my blog at http://heyjude.wordpress.com/ - but of course, I don't want to have our conversations there - not really!

I was reading a post, and watching some videos in that post - which I then added to the Diigo group for you. I had an idea - lets see if I can pull the Diigo feed into our Interact online learning space as well. OK - that worked - you can see that I have added Digital Diigo to our navigation bar. It only links to a text version - but the benefit is that if any of us adds a comment to a link we add to Diigo, it actually shows quite clearly. OR - it's easy to use the visual link to jump to our own group.

I HOPE you all contribute something to the group :-) It's a new one, and a worthwhile addition to the curated collections on Diigo - you will be the innovators and friends of that group almost from Day 1. (Early next week, I will add some instructions to help for those who want a hand).

I'm in experimental mode this week (I'm new too), so if you have some feedback, I'd love to hear about it. Here is an interesting video about digital learning - short but useful for highlighting change in learning.

If you are ready to to think more broadly about the way the new culture of learning is evolving then the New Culture of Learning book is one to add to your reading list.

More soon -

Cheers, Judy