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.