Just to piggy-back my last post regarding Google Sites, you can use your classroom website to host your student video products. For school systems like ours, we are not allow to publish student work to YouTube. We can, however, upload our student videos to Google Drive.
From Google Sites, we can pull from the videos we store in our Google Drive and host them on the classroom website for others to view.
Keep in mind: our school building Principals have to approve any publishing of video or digital content online to the public for student safety. Let your Principal know about your interests.
Here are some of great collections of small, bite-sized video tutorials on making the most of Google Apps - like Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Forms, etc. These collections of video are set in a YouTube Playlist for easy watching. These videos should be very helpful for you, especially if you are still learning the basics.
Simply click on the Playlist drop down menu in each Playlist collections below and select videos from the list.
Google Documents Playlist
Google Drive Playlist
Google Calendar Playlist
Gmail Playlist
To see more playlists regarding Google Apps please visit +Sam RosenfeldYouTube channel. Thanks to Sam for the work in putting this together.
I featured +Edutopia in a tweet on Twitter today. In turn they messaged me back thanking me for the mention and introduced another video of theirs from their Big Thinkers collection on their video blog. This one features James Paul Gee and he talks about how people learn from online gaming and how there is more at stake than just the game.
We quickly discredit gaming as a waste of time and a distraction, however once you involve interested participants, learning is explosive; and there is more going on than mere drivel. Learning is no longer a one-layer or linear method, but becomes massively multi-layered.
I know this goes against what we are used to and how we have been taught our classrooms should run. This goes against a lot of what we are required by State and Administration to complete on our curriculum checklists and it almost throws classical classroom structure out the window. But (you were expecting this), there is some definite food for thought here that can still be incrementally introduced into our classroom curriculum.
I have embedded this when it was live. I am not sure if this will remain once the event is finished.
However, Patrick Larkin, Principal for Berlington High School, New Jersey, is one of the main speakers. He is well known for implementing a 1to1 iPad initiative in his High School (The Journal).
This is a great demonstration and explanation of Technology Integration created by Edutopia (great Education resource). And as scary as it may appear to some, Tech Integration is NOT just within the four walls of our school buildings; or districts. Successful people know how to and are comfortable with collaborating nationally and globally.
Common Craft just released another one of their very familiar video tutorials. This one demonstrates how to evaluate websites for accurate information and reliable sources. Often students who do research online face the dilema of having to sort through the buzz of information online and can get disillusioned at what is good information and what is simply...crap.
This simple, easy-to-understand video demonstrates how to recognize sites that contain reliable and accurate information and sources in the eyes of an editor.
This would be great to show your students just before you start your research paper or project.
All of our Teacher and Student MLTI laptops have the full Encyclopedia Britannica available for us at any time. What a great resource for research and information! Students can gather information instantly from a source that we all know and trust.
MLTI's MLTI Minute has a couple of video tutorials on using this application. You can find this application on you laptop by going to the Applications folder or type a search in your spotlight.
The first video will give you a general overview of the application with some of the things you can do with it. The second video explains how you/your students can add notes to the application.
I recently had a faculty member ask me to refresh their memory on how to filter email, so they could automatically get rid of the junk mail they were receiving in their FirstClass Inbox. Well, there is a fairly simple way to do this. However, not only can you get rid of junk mail, but you can sort important messages into specific folders for better email management.
This walk-through explains:
If you have any more questions about Mail Rules or FirstClass in general, please do not hesitate to contact me.
I love Goole Earth. I think it is an amazing application for the Science, Social Studies, History, Math, English, Art, etc classrooms. If you have any questions or are interested in using Google Earth, please contact me.
An oldie, but a goodie. From PBS's documentary Digital Media - New Learner of The 21st Centuryback in 2011, Dr. John Seely Brown talks about what drives people to WANT to learn. Some great thoughts and concepts on creativity, learning and driven passion. I love his studies. Oddly enough, as I was writing this post, Edutopia had just uploaded this video on their YouTube channel today.
"...tinkering brings thought and action together in some very powerful, magical ways"
Twitter has just released (January 24, 2013) a new app that is perfect for sharing on such "to the point" social networks like Twitter. It's called Vine.
If you are familiar with the format of tweets and how Twitter works, you know that it is short, sweet and to the point. Twitter allows you to easily scan through a lot of information, quickly find what you need and get the content. It is no different with their new app, Vine, as an addition.
Vine allows you to create 6 sec video recordings and share them on Twitter or Facebook. 6 seconds certainly does not sound like a lot of meaningful time; then again, neither did 160 characters. It is amazing how creative you can get when you are limited within certain parameters.
Basically, this is how it works: The app records when you touch the screen, so you can start and stop as often as needed (view demo below); showing only what you want; recording multiple locations and multiple time-frames.
The thing that makes this an exciting new media concept is that for schools that utilize social networking in their classrooms, like Twitter, can now improve that dialog. Teachers can post small snippets of video demonstrating math concepts, displaying examples of work, or a simple video message to their class. What a great way for a Flipped Classroom. Students could, in turn, share their work and offer suggestions through small video.
Check out Vine's blog for the latest updates and to see some samples of what they do.
I put together a quick vid on what it looks like while in the Twitter feed:
For those who are new to the iPad scene, Apple will update the operating systems (OS) of their iOS products (iPhone, iPad, iPod) from time to time to either fix some bugs or offer some new helpful features. Currently the latest OS update is iOS 6.1.
If you are not familiar with how to update your iPad, Apple explains this process. This article explains how you can update your device either wirelessly (for iOS 5 or later), or updating through iTunes. Be sure to review the tips at the end. This current update (from 6.0 to 6.1) took about 5min, however if you have not updated your iPad in a while, it may take up to 10 to 30min. So, as suggested, make sure your device is plugged in to a power source, so the battery does not run out during the upgrade.
Perhaps I have featured this YouTube channel before, but I'll do it again. Vsauce is a great video blog of "Myth Buster" style documentaries or explanations of Science, Math and a lot of other odd things that we have have questions about. These small videos are a great addition to some of your lessons or just share as a fun tidbit to generate some intrigue and curiosity. Here is a sample - Why Do We Have Two Nostrils?
I found an old bookmark in my Evernote notebooks that started a huge rabbit trail today and I found myself in Google Earth and searching for content associated with the Auschwitz Consentration Camp. Well, save the search. Google Earth has a great display of Auschwitz in 3-D as current today; showing 3-D buildings. Below is a quick video of my exploration of Google Earth's Auschwitz.
This feature is already on Google Earth. Search for Oswiecim, Poland and follow the train tracks. Or, better yet, here is a .kml file that will take you right there (simply download and open the file).
This just one example of thousands of great features that Google Earth offers.
Gooru is an OER (Open Educational Resource) online beta service that is worth trying out. As mentioned in the title of this post, Gooru is a search engine. What separates this from other search engines, like Google or Bing, is that it sources several resources (websites, slideshows, video, online textbooks, files, etc.) curated by educators and community experts, "guaranteeing you’ll find high-quality materials every time." Here explains more on how Gooru searches.
Teachers can create their own account, or simply start right in with their easy-to-use menu categorized by content areas - Science, Social Sciences and Math. Even students can jump right in and start learning. If an account is made, you will have options for collecting your customized materials and upload your own material and files to be added.
The cool thing about the video options (especially when customizing your own video finds) is that Gooru will allow you to select the specific timeframe within the video for viewers to watch. This is great when you don't want your audience to have to watch an entire clip in order to get the parts you want them to view. You could potentially prepare a collection of multimedia in your Gooru account and play segments of an entire video starting and stopping to review other content that you collected in a nice streamlined flow.
Once your multimedia resource collection is ready for viewing and learning, email your students the specific web link given for your collection.
Along with their collections and resources, Gooru offers quizes.
Here is a great little video explaining how Gooru works.
This is a great feature for our 1to1 students. Students can not only build their vocabulary, but enrich their writing with this resource. Each 1to1 Macbook laptop has an onboard extensive Dictionary and Thesaurus that anyone can access with a click.
