New Social Network for the K-5 Set
Zach Klein, the founder of Vimeo, has launched his newest venture DIY. Aimed at the elementary school set., DIY is a free online community for kids who are part of the “Maker movement.” It encourages youngsters to share pictures what they’ve made, earn “stickers” (or digital badges) for the work, while still giving parents a bit of oversight.It even has an app for mobile use!
Here’s the summary from the website: When you get your kid to join DIY early, you’re helping to recognize creativity as an essential part of every kid’s education, and possibly a requirement for their satisfaction as an adult. Sadly, most adults don’t believe they’re creative although we’re all capable of it at any age! We believe that to accept yourself as a creative adult you must start as a kid who is fearless of learning new skills and doing it yourself. Encouraging your kids to be inventive and self-reliant now will better prepare them to participate in a world that keeps changing.
I’m going to have my daughter give it a try and see how it works! Look for an update soon.
This summer some of fine Wildwood teachers will be updating our online literacy curriculum. I look forward to working with them on this worthy project. One resource I am sure they will find helpful is Common Sense Media’s Digital Passport. According to the site, “Digital Passport is fun and effective with web-based games and videos that engage 3rd – 5th graders in independent learning. These modules focus on critical skills related to digital safety, respect, and community. In fact, students earn badges toward a Digital Passport while teachers get robust reports to demonstrate student success. Moreover, Digital Passport is FREE to your school thanks to generous support from our sponsors.”
“Digital Passport provides the road map that kids will need to navigate today’s media landscape safely and responsibly. Educators can sign up now to explore the beta release of this new interactive learning platform and tell us what you think.”
Teaching Digital Citizenry
Yesterday Google in Education partnered with Common Sense Media for their second webinar in their Digital Citizenship series. This talk was called with Helping Kids Manage their Digital Footprints, and if you missed it you can still catch the webinar at this YouTube Video.
Here’s the synopsis: “Increasingly, kids are sharing information about themselves online, whether it’s uploading photos and videos, posting status updates, or telling their innermost secrets to a vast audience on YouTube. But what does this mean for their privacy and reputation, now and in the future? Join Common Sense Media, who will share resources from their Digital Literacy and Citizenship curriculum. The curriculum, which teaches kids to be safe and responsible online, is research-based, flexible, aligned with ELA Common Core standards.”
Free Online Courses from Stanford
Stanford University has been on the forefront of online technology courses called MOOCS (Massive Open Online Courses). First came Udacity. They offer the interesting courses identified to the left including Applied Cryptology!
The other platform is Coursera which announced some big news last week. In addition to Stanford, Coursera has announced they are partnering with Princeton & UPenn. And, more importantly (for me at least), Coursera includes humanities courses to its well-stocked computer science & engineering MOOC course offerings.
Here are some images and courses that you may find interesting A History of the World since 1300 (Princeton), Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World (Michigan), Greek and Roman Mythology (Penn), Listening to World Music (Penn), and Modern & Contemporary American Poetry (Penn).
APP of the Week: ABCya Products
This week I want to feature more than just an app, but a website that also supports mobile apps as well. ABCya.com is a big name in online kids games for elementary students to learn on the web.
According to their site, “All children’s educational computer activities were created or approved by certified school teachers. All educational games are free and are modeled from primary grade lessons and enhanced to provide an interactive way for children to learn. Grade level lessons incorporate areas such as math and language arts while introducing basic computer skills. Many of the kindergarten and first grade activities are equipped with sound to enhance understanding. Fun children’s Holiday activities are available in grade level sections!”
Check out ABCya’s new simple animation tool ANIMATESTAR, which makes educational games and apps for students in grades K-5. Students can make up to 40 separate drawings, each representing a single frame. Young animators have 33 colors and 6 pen tools, with the option to carry drawings over from frame to frame. Completed animations can be saved as a .gif file for sharing or embedding on blogs and websites.
Creating A Strong Password
Today I read a great post on FreeTech about creating a strong password. Also, check out this short video from Explania.) Considering I only use 1-2 passwords for anything, this is a great bit of information for me as well as for our students! H/T for Mr. Byrne for finding these valuable resources:
One of the best ways to protect your online identity is to create strong passwords containing unique characters. Sometimes it’s difficult to think of new strong passwords. When you’re having a mental block thinking up a new password try PassCreator. PassCreator is a free service that helps you create a strong password. To use PassCreator just select the attributes you want your password to have (number of characters, character type, etc.) then press “create.” If you don’t like the password created for you, just press “create” again to generate another password.
Password Bird is a simple website that asks you three questions then generates a password for you based on your responses. Every password it generated for me included numbers and letters. If you don’t like the password it generates for you, simply click the link for a new password.
If you’ve ever been in that place where you’re stuck trying to develop a password, PassPlex is for you. PassPlex is a simple tool for generating strong and unique passwords. To use PassPlex to create a password all you have to do is enter the number of characters you need and the level of complexity you desire for your password.
Citing the Wikipedia Site?
Is it okay to have students cite Wikipedia as a source? Check out this post from EduSurge and discuss!
Looks like Wikipedia is taking a page from the book of its august progenitor, Encyclopedia Brittanica, with the Wikipedia Education Program. Fast Company describes the initiative here as a way to “conquer academia.” It is being piloted in nine countries. Professors are getting invitations to contribute pieces and let their students fact-check, revise and cite them for credit. (Not to mention, this will also boost the amount of foreign-language content.) In March, Brittanica said it would quit printing books on paper; digital has been profitable since 2003. The killer fact: 85% of Brittanica’s revenue comes from selling learning and instructional materials, leaving the classic encyclopedia business to chip in the other 15%. Although a nonprofit, Wikipedia could use that kind of income stream. And perhaps professors won’t give you “the eye” when you cite Wiki sources for their papers.
Last night many of us had a great and rewarding time at the Empty Bowls celebration. After all, there were so many great curriculum projects from our talented colleagues and incredible students. I am sure many of you were impressed with the 9th grade “7 Billion” PSAs that Ginny & Margaret’s students did. (You can still see them in the Media Center as they are being looped on the television near the art gallery.)
I just wanted to highlight this project because it is a great example of our LREP’s goal of infusing 21st-century skills in our curriculum. As you will see when watching these PSAs, the students not only fully grasped the subject content, they applied it in a collaborative manner by creating an iMovie that is original and engaging. Kudos all around!
For those interested in doing similar projects, here is a good example of why these skills should be partnered with content knowledge (note, not replace content, but supplement content):
That video came from the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation who are usually known as those people who give out the annual “genius” fellowships. (I love that.) They have a neat MacFound YouTube Channel that demonstrates many of their great education projects. According to the site, “The MacArthur Foundation supports creative people and effective institutions committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. In addition to selecting the MacArthur Fellows, we work to defend human rights, advance global conservation and security, make cities better places, and understand how technology is affecting children and society.
Here is a shot of their YouTube playlist.
Go to their MacFound Learning site to learn how “digital media from cell phone and video games to Facebook and YouTube are changing the way young people play and socialize in the 21st century.”
Google just announced Education On Air, an education technology conference entirely online and completely free on May 2nd from 12 noon to 10pm Eastern.
Edutopia Parent & Educator Guides
Last week I highlighted the Edutopia A Parent’s Guide to 21st-Century Learning on the ML Curriculum blog. Now, I would like to also feature the entire 2012 collection of Free Classroom Guides and Educational Downloads. These easy-to-print guides include useful tips and online resources for students, teachers, parents, and school administrators.
So in addition to the 21st-century learning guide, one can access Six Tips for Brain-Based Learning, Top Ten Tips for Teaching with New Media, Summer Rejuvenation Guide, Top Ten Tips for Assessing Project-Based Learning, Home-to-School Resource Guide, and the Think Green Guide.
So, one of my favorites is the Top Ten Tips for Assessing Project-Based Learning. As you can see from the images below, these resources are replete with incredible resources. I hope you enjoy them!
