71. Skype

This week I'm working on an online presentation with my colleague Michelle. Michelle lives in Malta, and our presentation is to be virtual. How cool is that! So this week my tool of choice for working with Michelle is Skype. Skype is VoIP, voice over internet protocol, which allows you to communicate laptop to laptop for "free", although free is an ambiguous term. Someone has to pay for the broadband connection, speed and data costs. The software is free
Skype allows us to text chat (IM), audio chat which we do a lot of, file share and video conference. It's the video conferencing that uses up the band width. I have used the audio function and had a conference call with up to 10 of my colleagues, but the dynamics of having that many people online together and keeping everyone online, some dropped off, was hard work, and not an easily repeated exercise.
With Skype of course you can ring from your laptop a landline for a very low cost, and from a laptop to a cell phone for a relatively low cost, relatively low being an ambiguous term too.
Michelle has an iPhone with Skype downloaded, so she connects from that form time to time. As a way of keeping in touch, working collaboratively Sykpe is my tool. In an educational setting I'm sure the usage would be much the same. Interviews, collaboration, communication file sharing, video conferencing to see the world through someone else's eyes. (I once skyped a friend to show them what the ice and snow looked like.)
Skype has a blog too which has some good ideas, uesful infroamtion on it, including a couple of movies, Skype in plain English!
I'm sure there are other VoIP's out there that you use and other ways you use this technology. Share them with me.

72 a KidPix

I've written about KidPix before from a learning point of view. This time KidPix deserves a mention from a creative point of view. I'm facilitating a combined presentation with my colleague in Malta. We have been looking at population statistics comparing Malta with NZ in graphical form. By taking the set of graphs obtained from Cenus papers we dropped the graphics into KidPix. Using the eydropper we were able to colour coordinate the bars, add text, remove text and generally "fix" the graphs so they looked similar and represented the data well in a comparative form, without altering the data. While this could be done in Photoshop, KidPix was quick, easy and in a small file size to send back and forth. For me KidPix has been around the block a couple of times, is an oldie and a goody and in this case was a low cost tool doing a high end job. MacKeiv have produced the new version of KidPIx, and although it doesn't have some of the older features, there are some powerful new ones. So KidPix gets the thumbs up from me again for its versility, and for allowing me to do a job outside the square.

73. QuickTime

Today I presented at a conference and QuickTime was one tool that I used quite frequently, and flexibly. I upgraded to the Pro version for about $50 Aus 6 years ago and haven't looked back. Most people have QuickTime player so you can view downloaded movies but Pro takes creativity to another level.
QuickTime Pro allowed us to edit, trim, record and share clips and stitch them together easily, still keeping everything in that movie format. We created some animations and played these back at a rate much faster than 1 second per frame that some applications only allow. In fact we were up to 24 frames per second.
Today we exported our creations into QuickTime format so that we could use them, and integrate them into other applications to expand the learning and incorporate other items in the processI loved the versatility.

74. Cell phones

lately I have had cause to use my phone to snap a pics of students in action and record their stories through the voice recorder. Instant data gathering of learning in action. Another day I was doing some long haul driving and planning. I used the voice recorder on my cell phone to record my reflections and ideas as I drove......From my phone I could send that data in various formats to any number of places.... email, internet, open source software and of course another cell phone. Mobile learning at it's best. Sometimes in the rush to do more and better we over look the simple but effective. My cell phone is a basic model, a small and unsophisticated piece of technology, but a very powerful piece of technology and a useful tool to support learning.

75. Screen captures

In my work I've been preparing some how to's for my teachers. I frequently use screen captures to catch that moment which helps scaffold the learning. Often learners like something visual as a means of confirmation, or as part of their processing.
On a PC you press the Print Screen key which sits beside F 12. This takes a whole screen capture,copies it onto your computer clip board. You then paste the capture into a word processing document, presentation document etc. By clicking on View and toolbars and picture tool bar, you need to select the tool that looks like a noughts and crosses tool. This is the cropping tool which you place on the handles on the side of the screen capture and drag in. In doing so you are cropping off the unwanted material from the capture.
On an Apple I use the keys Shift, Apple / Command and Number 4, held down simultaneously. The cursor becomes a hatch cross and allows you to drag over the parts of the screen you which to capture. As you let go of the cursor, the computer copies the capture to your desktop. Drag the capture, viewed as a picture, into your document and resize. On the Apple you can do a whole screen capture as opposed to a small capture by using the Shift, Apple / Command and Number 3 key simultaneously. However I find being selective with Number 4 refines exactly what it is that I wish to capture.
Enjoy.

76. Padlet / Wallwisher

When I first began this blog I wrote about Wallwisher. In the time since that post Wallwisher has re-branded itself as Padlet and added a few more features.

Padlet is a collaborative Web 2.0 tool that  allows an author to create a wall and the users to create sticky notes to add to the wall. The best feature of this is that  multiple computers can be logged onto the same wall, all collaborating together.

The new interface on the wall itself is a great new feature. Each person leaving a comment has a space to write their name, so no more untitled anonymous users. In the dialogue box the author of the comment can add a web cam photo, up loaded files or add a web link. This interface look impressive.

Most of these the othert changes are found on the Share/ Export tab on the side of the wall. Padlet have increased the options. The export options are really useful especially the spreadsheets of  responses on the wall.
Offering html code to embed in blogs and wikis, and the ready made QR code linking to the wall  are new.

77. A real old and well used tool!

Greg a principal colleague of mind shared this jpg with me. What can I say, other than, so true!
So on a more serious note, why have I included this tool? We talk about using ICT as a tool. The NZ Curriculum states e-learning should be used as a tool to supplement traditional teaching. Therefore sometimes the tool used will be a computer and sometimes the tool used will be a pencil. Enjoy.

78. Voice Thread

I've revisited Voice Thread again to trial this with a focus group of ESOL students. I'm involved in a project that is monitoring the growth of their thinking, questioning and language by using science as a vehicle. We've been doing a few science experiments and getting the chn to talk about what is happening and to ask questions, both in a written and oral form. A fortnight ago they embedded podcasts into their blog, which is no easy feat for younger children, although I have to say they coped really well. Voice thread gives us the option to include photos, titles and listen to the oral commentary, and was definitely much easier to use. To date this has been very successful.
One of the positives with Voice thread is that the student's families, and the students themselves can leave comments on the voice thread too. I'm hoping this aspect of voice thread may well strengthen those home / school partnerships.
Accounts. I had a basic account which only allows you to have 3 free voice threads, so I continually deleted previous threads. What message is that sending the students about valuing their work. I then went into the K-12 option and upgraded the account to an educator which allows me to have more that 3 threads.I'm sending much better signals to the students and valuing their work. :-)
Thanks here to my colleagues Allanah and Warren who tested the site and helped me out of a hole when I was trying to embed code.

You will see the same Voice thread on the side menu as in the previous post. In the side menu of a blog you are able to add html code as a gadget. I have changed the code, the html code in the Voice thread post on the side bar so that it sort of fits into the allowable space, which is why its smaller. However I haven't compromised the speech.



Voice thread offer 2 embedding options. One is the html code, the other is a link. To use the html code option you will probably have to switch tabs at the top of your post constructing window. Switch  from Compose to HTML. Your work will still be visible and editable if you switch back and forth. However you will notice tags  and source code. (geek speak for letters surrounded by < and > signs. This is the behind the scenes stuff you don't see in Compose. However knowing the code is there also allows you to manipulate it eg change the width and height of your voice thread by changing the numbers. object width="480" height="360".

The link points you away from your blog and off to Voice thread to listen and respond to the post. This link does have its limitations, as it takes your audience away from your blog/ post and puts them into the Voice thread site. A good advertising salesmanship technique. Your audience may or may not return to your blog/ post/ presentation/ wiki.

79. Animations in PowerPoint on a PC

This only works on a PC, even though both platforms run Powerpoint.
The secret of making animations is having lots of photos and having them run quite quickly eg 6 or 10 frames per second. NZ films/animations are shown at 24 frames per second, so I do appreciate 10 frames allows you to have a lot less photos.
Standard software on a PC only allows you to run your animation at a speed of 1 frame per second. However sometimes that's just fast enough and the students do get the animation effect.
Take stacks of photos and save to your normal place. Open up PowerPoint, go to Format and Slide layout and choose a blank layout.
Scroll down Insert, to Picture and then down to New Photo Album. Sometimes New Picture Album is hidden below the arrow, so keep scrolling down.Highlight your pictures, Ctrl A allows you to select them all. Insert your photos and click create.
Go to Slide show in the pull down menu, and scroll down to Slide transition. Click the tick off On mouse click. Click into Automatically after box and change time to 1 sec which is 00:01. Click Apply to all

Now play, Slideshow, view your slideshow and admire. The limitation is the 1 sec delay

80. Keepvid

Yesterday I was working with some teachers, talking about web tools and I showed them Tubesock and Vixy.
Tony then showed me Keepvid which allows you to download video from the web, places like Youtube and keep them as stand alone files. They download as mp4's and you can choose the quality, either high or low. So I downloaded Wikis in plain English. Doing so was easy as, 3 steps, and I was impressed with the speed and the quality. I chose high quality and yes the quality was pretty good.
The good thing about KeepVid... its free.
Thanks Tony, this is a great tool.

81. Tubesock

Tubesock is an interesting in that useful but not creative
Tubesock is available for both platforms at a cost of approx $10 US around $30 NZ. Tubesock allows you to download videos from sites like You Tube as an MP4 and keep them as a stand alone file on your computer. This is really useful in my job. I can show a video clip at any point in my presentation and I am not dependent on having good and reliable www access, so I'm self contained. Of course once I have the clip downloaded I'm not concerned about the links being deleting, shifted, lost or I forgot what they were called. As if I would do that!
Quick and easy to use. Copy the url of the clip, open and paste it into Tubesock window and the save in the appropriate place when downloaded. And it downloads about as quick as it tool me to write this.
Scroll to the bottom of the Tubsock site and have a play with the trial, to see how it works before investing your hard earned cash.

82. Library Thing

LibraryThing.com is a free online application that allows you to catalogue your books, list your current reading, search for books around the same theme, genre, topic, search for authors, titles, dust jackets etc and share your reading interests with others in the global community through social networking. You may enter 200 titles for free. There is a $10 US a year fee to add more than 200 titles, and a life membership of $25 US to add as many titles as you like. I have a free membership, but credit cards do work well here.

Library Thing operates like a conventional library and is networked to Amazon and world-wide libraries. This application becomes a book club and a search feature rolled in to one, through the social networking, RSS feature included.When you tag your books you also contribute to a cloud. From the cloud I enjoy looking at the keywords others have used, and their thinking around the themes they have taken from the book.
Library Thing allows you to have multiple users, in the same account concurrently. This is a really useful attribute allowing you to have a group / class contributing at the same time.
So how have I used LibraryThing in my professional life.

Establishing a class reading list.
Books around an Inquiry learning topic
Class read texts / shared stories
New books added to your school library. (You can change the number of texts shown on a blog wiki etc on the left hand side under Blog widgets.
A recommended reading list for children and teachers.
Books of same genre.
Reviews
Literature circles, eg Dan Browne,
• reviews of his books
• writing styles
• genres
• themes
• malapropisms

Across school/ syndicate/ cluster collaboration
Buddy classes
And there is a widget available that updates onto your blog or wiki. I add it onto the right hand side navigation bar where you can springboard to LibraryThing. Happy reading.

83 Comic Life and literacy links

The lovely people at Plasq.com have now made this application cross platform. Comic Life is one of my favourites for it's durability and it's flexibility to support learning, especially literacy. I have worked with reluctant writers who were only too keen to create cartoon captions. (The wee sweethearts told me that wasn't really writing.) It takes quite a lot of thinking to construct a caption that is going to convey your meaning in less than about 10 words with out loosing the key information or message. Using language, symbols and text, with photos and the drawings support your caption and help tell the story. Personally, I believe one of the biggest advantages in using Comic Life is that students have to reprocess information in order to change it from a text platform to a visual platform. This requires considerable thought and also removes the ‘cut and paste’ option especially form the www for presenting work. Obviously, for visual learners, graphical representations of the work may be more effective method of learning than using straight text. I mentioned Comic life was flexible. You don't have to use photos, students can use their drawings, as shown by the bears. Completed comics can be inserted into other programme, inserted into movies, blogs wikis etc or just run as a stand alone web page or QuickTime. How's that for flexibility!

Maths

How to - instructions

Goal setting

Science

learning a language

letter sound recognition

Add Digital story telling

IPC Adventurers and explorers

I wrote way back then about the flexibility of Comic Life. Last week I had a WOW moment when a colleague shared with me some new learning.
Rather than using a template for Comiclife, stay with the blank page. Pull over a series of photos and arrange them like a montage. Use angles, over lapping etc. Save this as an image (jpg) onto your desk top. However this does make a huge file. Compress compress compress. Now upload the image to become your screen saver. Really powerful and so so much easier than using Photoshop. Now the implications for learning.......I've used images like this in Photoshop to represent a word, eg compassion, making those links and connections in literacy.
In the meantime I'm sharing my son's recent graduation as the montage.

84. Condensing url strings with Tinyurl.com

This one is a wee gem,  it is free, no downloads required, no log in / registration required and a real example of how open source software works. Gilby Productions have developed Tinyurl and put it out there for anyone and everyone free of charge. Tinyurl turns long strings of code into small urls that don’t break and never expire

Have you ever received or sent a url, a web site address that was so long it got broken as it goes onto the next line and then frustratingly doesn't work. Eg

http://www.thelearningfederation.edu.au/for_teachers/catalogues/catalogues.html

 

 

How does it work?

Open up the site http://tinyurl.com/

This box appears.

You take your long string of url paste it into the Tiny url box and hey presto it returns a much reduced string that you can then send to your friends, avoiding the chance of breaking the string.
Easy as!

 

 

 

 

And it gets better.........Gilby Productions offers an iconic link that you can drag to your Links toolbar, so a long url can be captured and shortened at the click of a button. How easy is that?

See the  Make toolbar button on the left hand side navigation bar of the Tiny URL home page

85. PhotoPeach

I have written about PhotoStory 3 for PC No.95 as a very easy and effective way for students to tell their stories with digital still images. PhotoPeach is probably easier, as it involves 4 steps to make a slideshow with digital images and text captions. PhotoPeach is a social software, open source application held out in the ether. However the coding can be used to embed the created slideshows in wikis, blogs and web pages. I particulary like PhotoPeach because of its ease of use and it epitimises all those values that sit alomg side the curriculum especially in the vision and effective e-learning pedagogy. The students can share their learning with their global community, and we as teachers can use ICT to supplement traditional teaching. PhotoPaech takes the images contrusts the slideshow and the author is required to order the pictures and write captions. the technology is the tools supporting the students learning.How easy is that?
the downside..... you do have to add the music track and it plays and plays and plays. Turn your sound off!
Sharing a good book on PhotoPeach