Text Innovations

This is about a text innovation around the wonderful story 'click, clack, moo: cows that type' by Doreen Cronin with pictures by Betsy Lewin (2002), Simon and Schuster UK Ltd, London

The text innovation is first intended to be used initially while reading for the students to predict what the cows and then hens will withhold from the farmer after he refuses their requests, having post it notes over the 'letters' that the cows have typed in the book.

The last 4 slides follow the same format but asking the students about animals that are not in the book ... sheep and goats. This would allow a discussion about how farms work, that the farmer needs to look after their animals in order for them to produce well on the farm. I deliberately didn't choose meat producing aspects of farms, maybe partly out my own discomfit around this, but also as the discussion in the book is between the animals and the farmer and, though this may be taking the anthropomorphism too far ... I don't think anything much would reconcile an animal to be killed in it's prime for food.

Some 'model' Class blogs

This is just a selection ... from around the world ... because I guess for me that's part of why you want the class to blog .... to make all sorts of connections

Kindergarten - 2KM &2KJ
A blog shared between 2 kingergarten classes in Victoria. I liked;

• the variety of images in the current post (photos of kids listening to a story, some of their toys 'reading' the same story, a google map etc.),
• it's list of connections to other class blogs to promote lots of interrelationships and sharing,
• the questions at the end of the post to stimulate comments (the effectiveness of this can be seen in the number of comments that answer the questions)
• regular updates on a variety of topics

3rd Grade - Krs Kistler and the 49ers (Texas)

• I loved their blogging 'flashlight' game relating to stories ... 6 word stories (visit the blog to read Ernest Hemingway's story ...).
• Also has a variety of topics for their class posts that invite comments and interaction with other classes and fairly regular posts.
• They use plugins and photos and lots of links (to technical tools, other blogs etc.)

3rd Grade - Mrs Yollis' class (California)

• Some videos of a variety of maths problems .. including solving some that other bloggers had sent them.
• Photos of events and photo links to other blogs or sites
• Lots of evidence of using other new media - talking about skypes to New York (with maps)

Copyright and the internet

According to the Australian Copyright council  (where the information below came from);
a) Copying material from the internet for students is generally OK as long as it really is for 'research' for study and your use is 'fair', however you have to aknowledge your source of information.
b) 'fair' use incorporates ideas like not interfering with the item's market, while research seems to be in order to find information for assignments or projects.
c) Using music in videos that classess (uni or school) make does not seem to be included under the current Australian copyright provisions as music can't be downloaded, though it can be saved for analysis in an educational setting. I found it hard to be entirely clear on this point though, as I couldn't find this specific usage described.

'New Media' in class - other people's great ideas

Aschool from Sydney's southwest makes blogging a significant part of every day encompassing multiple subject areas. Some of the ones I especially enjoyed (described in an article by their teacher) were;

* Uploading a video of a performance of Macbeth - and having a discussion about it with a 'partner' school in Scotland.
* Engaging boys in literacy - having a blog dedicated to football and having boys update ladders, answer questions etc. on Australina, English and European footy results
* Science - posting photos and results of a science experiment, which then lead to needing to do more research and clarify their descriptions in order to answer questions from classes in different parts of the world
* Making reviewing thier class blog a part of each days' usual business - to review comments, plan what to do next etc.

Pericles, K. (2008). Happily blogging @ Belmore South. SCAN, 27(2), 4-6 http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/schoollibraries/

Todd Wright's class in Nevada, USA sounds even more digitally focussed and all kids have laptops. The article focussed on literacy, though this is just part of what they use laptops for, and activities include;
* vocabulary - students use an online thesaurus (or maybe dictionary) to confirm meaning and then text editor to write a sentence using the new word and then search the internet for a picture that illustrates their sentence.
* pair sharing - (I didn't quite get how this happens but like the effiency of allocating ahead of time rather than in lesson time) kids are pre-allocated 'buddies' to pair share with for activities, who they will IM rather than speak with.
* when doing independent work in literacy lessons (eg. while a smaller group is reading with the teacher), kids access graded worksheets or activities linked through class website (and hence easy to find) or updates or comments on online book reviews by other kids reading the same book in class.

The authors make the point that technology is a given in these children's lives and the biggest difference in his class was the quality of engagement of students.

Barone, D., & Wright, T. E. (2008). Literacy instruction with digital and media technologies. The Reading Teacher, 62(4), 292-302

Tree Octopus - 98% student validity!

I found this video fascinating ... especially that 49 out of 50 students found the tree octupus site to be a relaible source for a project on endangered animals. One student when shown a picture of a sasquach trying to eat the octupus found this evidence that sasquach existed rather than cast doubts on the site! Kids and teachers need education in new literacies. I certainly have been advised to rely on .edu or .org before now and one expert commented ... these too can be bought and this doesn't infer 'truth'. Working out something is an ad rather than an article on the front page of an online version of a prestigious newspaper is tricky for kids.  Listen to the video and you'll want more time and effort being spent on giving kids quality educations in new literacies too!

New literacies

Michele Knobel and Colin Lankshear define new literacies as literacies made up of two new kinds of 'stuff' being 'technical suff' and 'ethos stuff'', where the technical stuff is digitality and involves digital electronic equipment like a computer ... so you can use technical tools like photoshopping etc. combined with text or remixed clips or whatever to send to a pserson group or the whole world in next to no time. The 'ethos stuff' is more of a mindset, which says the world has been changed by the world being joined to cyberspace that has to be accounted for along with the physical world. This new cyber mindset, for Knobel and Lankshear inform new literacies.
Knobel,M. and Lankshear,C. (2006), Discussing new literacies, Language Atrs, Sep, 84/1

webtools4u2use

A site referred to from Jon Callow's article is by Baumbach, D. & Lee, J. (2008) WebTools4U2Use, Wikispaceshttp://webtools4u2use.wikispaces.com/

The site is pretty much what the title says ... it's not being tricky at all. There are subjects like 'Audio and podcasting' or 'presentation skills' and when you follow that link it has videos on what it is and how to do it and also some links to 'test drive' examples ... so you can see the results of someone who has had more practice at it than me (for example). I feel inspired to get on a try these tools (or look for some new tips). I liked the concept and design and it worked!