Screenshot of TED Slide by Raghava KK

This is a short TED talk by Raghava KK, the illustrator of the iPad book POP-IT – Raghava KK Inc. This video is not a commercial about the artist’s iPad book though, but shares a message about the importance of raising our children with PERSPECTIVE.

In his book, children can shake the iPad to change the configuration of a family (gay parents, lesbian parents of heterosexual parents). Raghava KK’s vision is to create books that teach history differently. He wants to create books that talk about historic events, such as Indian Independence. You read the book about the Indian perspective, shake the iPad and you will get Pakistan’s perspective, shake it again and get the British’ perspective.

I love the concept… my wheels are turning how to transfer that to the classroom with students… I know teachers are using multiple perspective storytelling in the Language Arts classroom, such as having students retell a fairy tale from the perspective of the villain (wolf, witch, etc) instead of the hero or Edgar Allan Poe’s Tell-Tale Heart podcast to teach author’s point of view.

How can we transfer this to social studies, science and other subject areas?

Although I am not officially participating in Melanie Holtsman’s Blogging Challenge, I liked the title of this post. My friend Chrissy Hellyer’s response on her TeachingSagittarian Blog convinced me to write one of the same title and create a list of “My Life As a Reader”. I really enjoyed compiling the following list (in random, not chronological order). I think it was a wonderful reflective exercise about how important reading has/is to me in my life.

As I was compiling this list, I asked my mother in Argentina to also share with me her life as a reader, as I wanted to look at similarities and differences…maybe due to the generation gap…or maybe because I love collaboration…or global connections (I am in the US, my mother is in Argentina)…or because I am so proud of my mom that she is maneuvering her way online and has figured out how to share a document with me on Google Docs… or because we live in a time where  it is simply possible…

1. The first book, “Mein Esel Benjamin”,  I remember was a book about a little girl in Spain finding a donkey and becoming best friends with it.
   
2. My favorite author as a child was Enid Blyton (Chrissy: You and I would have talked for hours about her books via Skype between Germany and New Zealand…if Skype would have been around back then
3. I owned all the Famous Five, Mallory Towers and the Twins of St. Claire (“Fuenf Freunde”, “Dolly” and “Hanni und Nanni” as they were called in German).
4. I was thrilled, when on a layover at the London airport, I found a bookstore. I bought the English version of Enid Blyton books (not available in the US) for my daughters.
5. I spent every last “Deutsche Mark” of my allowance buying books.
6. I remember hanging out for hours at the one wall book display at a local department store in Heidelberg browsing the books. The concept of coffee shops, armchairs and comfortable seating in books stores did not exist yet.
7. My favorite genre is Historical Fiction.
8. I read fluently in German, Spanish and English.
9. I could read and understand what the story is about in French, Italian and Portuguese.
10. I am not a “library” kind of person. I like to own my books to re-read them.
11. I jumped on board with e-readers as soon as the Kindle came out.
12. I LOVE reading on my iPad.
13. I dragged my book collection from Europe to South America and then to North America with me.
14. When I travel home, my suitcases fill up with books until I reach the airline weight limit.
15. One of the last memories I have with my father is going to the bookstore “Hugendubel” in Frankfurt, Germany to browse for books.
16. I read “Outlander” by Diana Gabaldon during the pregnancy of my third child.
17. The first Barnes and Noble bookstore I ever went into was in Rockford, Illinois.
18. I used to read at least 10 (picture) books a day to my children when they were little.
19. My children always (mostly) received books as presents from me on their birthday.
20. Going to Barnes & Noble was a favorite outing for me with my three little girls.
21. I don’t like reading “bad” translations of books.
22. I prefer reading a book in the original language the author wrote it in.
23. “Jauche und Levkojen” is the book that makes me feel close to and reminds me of my grandmother and her life in East Prussia.
24. I am usually disappointed when watching a movie after I read the book.
25. I was reading “Harry Potter” as I was flying back from my father’s funeral.
26. I maintain a “Books I Read Around the World” Google Map to keep track of the book’s location/setting.
27. I created and maintained a book recommendation site for German speaking parents who raised their children abroad: Sprachhexen (German word for Langwitches)
28. I imported and sold German books in the US via the Sprachhexen site and Ebay.
29. I used to at least spend 1 1/2 hours EVERY night reading (30 minutes) to each one of my daughters.
30. I tried to read as much as possible German books to them.
31. I frequently write about book related issues on my blog.
32. I am experimenting with different “note taking”/ visualization techniques when reading a book.
33. I am reflecting on the process of buying, storing and reading books nowadays.
34. I enjoy being able to “carry” around all my e-books in one place.
35. I LOVE my book shelf from Ikea.
36. I do most of my reading online and in digital form.
37. I do like the smell and feel of a book in my hands, but I KNOW that I will get over it as I am enjoying the advantages of e-books.
38. I love to read in bed.
39. I started reading online in 1991. It was a Mommy-to-be support group on the Prodigy Bulletin Board group of “Babies to be born in January 1992.
40. I started reading blogs in 2005.
41. I started reading Twitter in 2007.
42. My first “Geek” book was “The FrontPage Bible”.
43. “The Diary of Anne Frank” was the book that inspired me, like so many other girls, to start writing a journal at age 11. I also give her credit to prepare me for becoming a blogger decades later.
44. I keep an inventory of the books that I read, have read (since 2008) and plan on reading on Shelfari.
45. I only read a manual as a last resort.
46. I can read (not great) old German type.
47. I was able to read and understand Spanish long before I stared speaking it.
48. The first book I read in Spanish was “El pajaro canta hasta morir” (Thornbirds) by Colleen McCullough. The next one was “En el nombre de la Rosa” (In the Name of the Rose) by Umberto Eco
49. I remember that we read, in my last English course in HighSchool, “The Cather in the Rye” by J.D.Salinger. I learned the English word “phony” with this book.
50. The one and only book I ever read in French was called “La Maison des Hirondelle”.
51. I don’t like to read subtitles in movies.
52. One of my favorite books I read as a teenager was “The Source” (Die Quelle) by James Michener.
53. A book that went down in family history for my daughters was “Once upon a Potty”.
54. I loved reading “Bibi Blocksberg” books to my girls.
55. The only comic books I have enjoyed reading were/are “Asterix & Obelix”.
56. As teenagers, I used to read two magazines “Bravo” and “Maedchen” until I moved to Argentina.
57. I have over 500 RSS feed subscriptions in my Reader.
58. I collect travel guide books of the places I have been to and would like to travel to.
59. I have read books to my little niece (who lives in Brazil) via Skype.
60. My favorite authors in the Spanish language are: Mario Benedetti, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Isabel Allende.
61. Some of my favorite author in the English language are: Noah Gordan and Ursula Hegi.
62. I took many Hispanic literature classes for my undergraduate degree and LOVED reading authors of different Latin American countries and periods in history.

Here are my mother’s notes to “Her Life As a Reader”

Her notes are written in German (my translation follows in parenthesis).

1. Als kleines Kind in Ostpreussen kann ich mich kaum an Buecher erinnern,  die mir vorgelesen wurden.  Vielleicht nur an Geschichten, die mir erzaehlt wurden und Maerchen, wie die der Gebrueder Grimm und Hans Christian Andersen. ( I can barely remember any books that were read to me as a young child in East Prussia. There were only stories told to me, fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson.)
2. Nach dem Krieg und nach der Flucht gab es kaum mehr Buecher.   Als ich anfing zu lesen (in der Volksschule) fielen nur alte abgegriffene Buecher von Freunden und Bekannten in meine Haende,  da erinnere ich mich, dass ich immer wieder “Die Deutschen Heldensagen” gelesen habe.   Es gab lange keine Buecher zu kaufen und man hatte auch dafuer kein Geld. In dieser Zeit fiel dann auch der Klassiker  “Heidi” von Johanna Spyri. ( After our flight, after the war, there were not many books around. When I started reading in Elementary School, I only got my hands on old used books from friends. I remember now that I started reading “German Heroic Sagas”. For a long time we could not buy any books, nor did we have the money. During that time I ended up with the classicer “Heidi” by JOhanna Spyri in my hands.)
3. Dann kam die Epoche der Karl-May-Buecher.   Ich glaube, die habe ich zusammen mit meinem Bruder Norbert fast alle gelesen.   Sie haben mir das vermittelt,  was ich mir immer wuenschte,  Reisen und Abenteuer zu erleben. ( Then came the period of reading the books by Karly May. I believe that together with my brother Norbert, we read all of them. They gave me what I always dreamed of, traveling and adventures).
4. In dieser Zeit kamen wohl auch die ersten “Heftchen” heraus:  Kurzgeschichten,  Mickey Mouse von Walt Disney.  Die waren billig und schnell gelesen. (In the same time, the first magazines came out. Short stories, Micky Mouse from Walt Disney. They were cheap and a fast read.)
5. Waerend meiner Schulzeit (Gymnasium)  habe ich mich auf die Schulbuecher konzentriert (ganz besonders Geschichte).   Geographie war auch mein Lieblingsfach und ich habe viele Reiseberichte gelesen,  eines davon war von Sven Hedin, dem Schwedischen Entdecker.  In der Schule habe ich dann auch mit den Klassikern: Goethe, Schiller, Lessing etc. Bekanntschaft gemacht (nicht mit besonderem Interesse in der damaligen Zeit).  Wir mussten immer Gedichte auswendig lernen! (I concentrated on textbooks during my High School years (especially History)/ Geography was also one of my favorite subjects and I read a lot of travelogues. One of them being from Sven Hedi, a Swedish explorer. In schools I read most of the classics: Goethe, Schiller, Lessing, etc., with little interest at that time. We always had to read and learn poems!)
   
6. Mein erstes Buch,  dass mir meine Freundin Karin Eckstein zu meinem 18. Geburtstag geschenkt hat,  hiess:   “Ein Baum waechst in Brooklyn”. (My first book, that my friend Karin Eckstein gave to me on my 18th birthday, was ” A Tree grows in Brooklyn”.)
   
7. Dann haben wir Teenager auch die neuesten “Liebesromane” (Schundliteratur, wie die Erwachsenen es nannten) ausgetauscht.  Ich erinnere mich nicht an einen einzigen Titel! (As Teenagers we exchanged the newest “Love Novels”(Trashy literature, as the adults called them). I can’t remember one title.)
   
8. Waehrend meiner Zeit in England (1959/1960) habe ich kein deutsches Buch gelesen.  Mein erstes Buch in englischer Sprache war: ” Pride and Prejudice “. (During my time in England (1959/1960), I did not read one book in German. My first book in the English language was “Pride and Prejudice”.)
   
9. Weitere deutsche Buecher:  Romane von Johannes Mario Simmel.  Waren die Bestseller in den 70er Jahren.  “Hurra, wir leben noch”  war wohl das Bekannteste. (More German books: Novels by Johnannes Mario Simmel were the bestsellers of the 70s. “Hurrah, we are still alive” is one of the more famous ones.)
10. Romane von Hans Habe:  “Off Limits” und “Wie einst David”  sind zwei, an die ich mich erinnern kann. Diese Romane hatten alle mit der Nachkriegszeit zu tun, die ich ja indirekt auch miterlebt habe. (Two novels, I can still remember by Hans Habe are “Off Limits” and “As once David”. All of these books had to do with the post war times, which I indirectly lived through as well.)
11. Dann kamen historische Rome hinzu, die mit der Vertreibung und Erinnerungen an die verlorengegangene Heimat zu tun hatten:  ” Die Muecke im Bernstein”  und “Jauche und Levkojen” (Then came the historic novels that had to do with the banishment and memories of a lost homeland: “The Mosquito in Amber” and “Jauch and Levkojen”.)
12. Dann gab es eine Zeit, in der ich nur “Krimis” gelesen habe.   Es waren so viele, dass ich auch da mich nicht an die Titel erinnere. (Then there was the time when I only read thrillers. There were so many, that I don’t recall one title.)
13. Die Zeit in der meine beiden Kinder klein waren,  habe ich nicht allzuviele Buecher gelesen.   Es waren wohl nur Informationsbuecher ueber Schwangerschaft/Baby und moderner Erziehung.
    (I did not read many books during the time when both my children were little. There were mostly informational books about pregnancy, babies and modern child rearing.)
14. Nach der Uebersiedlung in meine neue Heimat (Argentinien) haben mich alle meine deutschen Buecher begleitet.   Sie standen in all unseren Wohnungen und Haeusern auf Regalen fuer alle zur Verfuegung.
    (All my German books accompanied me after I moved to my new country (Argentina). They were available in all of our apartments and houses on shelves, available for everyone.)
15. Jetzt gesellten sich natuerlich auch die spanischen Buecher dazu.   Es dauerte eine ganze Weile, ehe ich sie verstehen und lesen konnte.
    (Then books in Spanish were added. It took a while until I could understand and read them.)
16. Das Buch von Garcia Marquez: “Hundert Jahre Einsamkeit”   habe ich in einer Nacht/und dem darauffolgenden Tag verschlungen.
    (I read the book”One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez” in one night and the following day.)
17. Ich muss gestehen,  dass ich mich (heute bin ich 70 Jahre) nicht mehr an alle gelesenen Buecher erinnere.   Wenn ich sie sehe, oder ihren Titel hoere,  dann faellt es mir wieder sofort ein.   War es ein fuer mich ein spannendes und interessantes Buch,  erinnere ich mich auch an die Handlung.   War es dies nicht, ist mein Gedaechtnis blank!
    (I have to admit that today (at 70 years old), I can’t remember all of the books that I read. I remember only when I see or hear of a title. If it was an enthralling and interesting book, I can also remember the plot. My memory is blank if it was not. )
18. Es kommt auch sehr selten vor, dass ich ein Buch 2 oder 3 mal lese.   Dies passiert nur,  wenn ich das gleiche Buch in einer anderen Sprache lesen moechte.
    (I seldom read a book two or three times. It only happens if I want to read the same book but in a different language.)
19. Bei jedem Besuch bei meiner Tochter Silvia in USA stoebere ich mit viel Lust und Interesse in ihrer Bibliotek, um  ihre “Lieblinge” zu lesen.   Ich erinnere mich an die Zeit, in der ich alle Baende von Diana Gabeldon verschlungen habe.  Da sie auch in USA immer Zugang hatte, deutsche Buecher zu bestellen,  haben wir uns beide richtig satt gelesen.
    (I poke with much interest around the library of my daughter Silvia when I visit her in the USA. I remember the time when we devoured the books in the Diana Gabaldon series.)
20. Das Schoenste ist, abend vor dem Schlafen im Bett ein gutes Buch in der Hand zu haben. Auch heute ist es noch eine liebe Angewohnheit vor dem Schlafen zu lesen und ich tue es jeden Abend.
    (The best thing is to hold a good book in your hand before going to bed at night. I have the same custom still today.)
21. Waehrend des Tages,  lese und informiere ich mich mit meinem Laptop, den ich seit 3 Jahren besitze.   Es ist fazinierend, mich in meinen drei Sprachen zu orientieren,  wie ich es gerade brauche.
    (During the day, I read and inform myself on my laptop that I have owned for the past three years. It is fascinating for me to orientate myself in three langauges, depending on my needs.)
22. Trotzdem gehe ich jeden Samstag zum Zeitungstand, um mir mein “Argentinisches Tageblatt” zu besorgen.
    (I nevertheless walk every Saturday to a newspaper stand to buy the “Argentinean Newspaper” in the German language.)

• In Touch: Using videoconferencing to connect your class to the world
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  Check out the innovative project Michael Kaechele did with his 7th grade students using Skype: http://langwitches.org/blog/2010/02/12/becoming-the-experts/
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• Point Counter Point: How to Use (and Avoid Misusing) PowerPoint – The Learning Network Blog – NYTimes.com
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• Field Research Around the Globe – Scientist at Work Blog – NYTimes.com
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Science and history fairs have been held across the United States (and maybe other countries?) for years. Having grown up in Germany and Argentina, the first time I encountered these events was with my oldest daughter at her elementary school in the 1990s.  According to Wikipedia, Science fairs have been held across the USA since the 1920s.

The school I work for alternates every year between a Science Fair and a Jewish History Fair exhibition. Students are to research and create a project for the respective subjects. This year the school prepared for the Jewish History Fair.

The sixth graders wanted to explore the theme “Jewish Communities Around the World. After watching Alan November’s video clip, I wrote about my idea of Information Literacy…Authentic Conversation..Globalize Curriculum…. The idea was born to allow students to “get personal” with and connected to their research, to compliment traditional research media, such as  books and the Internet, with 21st century communication tools, such as skype, twitter, facebook, and texting.

Through personal real life connections, my PLN on Twitter and this blog, I was able to get in contact with volunteers representing every continent. They volunteered to be interviewed by our sixth graders about growing up or living in their country of residence as a Jew. Our students wanted to research similarities and differences of being Jewish around the World.

Coordinating Interviews and Media used

I would like to express a special Thank You to Daniel Needlestone (London, England), one of the first people to respond via Twitter and in return use his network to connect me with more volunteers!

Skyping with Daniel Needlestone from London, England

Daniel blogged about our interview from his perspective in this post: Mentoring, Online Lessons, Virutal Tours and Computing-All in a Days Work.

No sooner had the online lesson finished when I got a skype call from Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano also known as @langwitches . Her 6th grade class interviewed me as part of their project on Jewish communities around the world. I’ve tried to help set them up with different friends of mine on different countries. Apparently Silvia has managed to cover every continent even Antartica! The girl who interviewed me asked great questions and I really enjoyed our 10 minute chat and meeting some of Silvia’s students. I’m very jealous of their project and look forward to seeing the results!

Although we intended to use as many different media as possible for the interviews, reality worked out a little different. Timing issues, as are very common in a tightly packed school day, played a major role. A face to face interview, as well as one of the Skype calls were turned into e-mail interviews in the end due to scheduling issues. Our texting with one of the contacts, who actually was stationed in the Antarctica at the time, had weather problems and no satellite connection available.

In the end we used the following media to conduct research and interviews:

We would like to express gratitude to all of our interviewees whether via e-mail, skype, telephone, face to face or Twitter. Your time and effort was very appreciated:

• Daniel Needlestone (England)
• David Truss (China)
• Mark Lazar (Israel)
• M. Finkel (Russia)
• Ariellah Rosenberg (South Africa)
• Kabren Levinson (USA)
• Ralph Glasgal (Previously stationed in the Antarctica)
• Andrea Uzan (Denmark)
• Gary Sakol (Scotland)
• David Cohen (Australia)
• Elizabeth Davis (USA)
• Noemi & Marvin Szoychen (Mexico & Venezuela)
• Steve Katz (Costa Rica)
• Elena Herz (Argentina)

Students were very excited for the planned interviews. First, we “distributed” the countries among the students. They each received a short bio from the participants and then gathered background research and to generate questions. I sent the questions off to the interviewees who were participating via e-mail and scheduled the skype & twitter conferences with the others. Once the time zone issues were resolved and the day and time was set, students who were not directly interviewing in front of the webcam were taking on the job of note taker or photographer of the sessions.

Taking Notes

Documenting

Costa Rica

USA

South Africa

Canada

Australia

Talking about being Jewish in the Antarctica

Although maybe a bit shy at first, students quickly became more relaxed at interviewing via Skype. All of the students had their questions typed up ahead of time. Their personalities started to shine through though as some added more in depth or follow up questions depending on what turn the conversation took.

David Truss from China

Ariellah Rosenberg from South Africa

One of our participants, Gary Sakol  (originally from Scotland), agreed to conduct the interview via Twitter. We agreed on a Hashtag (#JHFI) and on a day and time to meet on twitter. It was the first time for all the students to see twitter live in action.

Twitter Interview with David Sakol (Scotland)

Screenshot of DVD with Skype Interviews

When we were doing our research, we learned the following things that Jews have in common on every continent.

Jews seem to all celebrate Jewish Holidays similar

Most Jewish boys and girls celebrate Bar & Bat Mitzvah by leading services and having some kind of party

Many Jews attend services

There are different degrees of observance

They have rarely experienced direct anti-semitism

They all take pride in being Jewish

Many have gone to Israel or al least feel connected to it

Most don’t wear kipot in their daily lives

All eat some types of traditional food

They take part in the daily life traditions of their chosen country of residence and usually don’t feel like ‘outsiders”.

This type of learning required many more skills than just the use of technology…

we collaborated in our overall planning

created questions, took notes from oral interviews

asked in oral or written form

good initial and follow up questions, which required us to “think on our feet”

shared orally and in writing what we learned from each interview

synthesized, organized and compiled all our final impressions in writing

We also did some “book research” to locate data, flags, and histories for our countries

The final display of the collaborative 6th grade research project was a combination of a typed up country reports, a three dimensional map with flags of locations of interviewees, a DVD running on television of the recorded interviews on Skype and a display of photographs that students took during the the interviews.

Exhibition Display

Map Display

Flags displaying location and media used for connection

Interviewee locations

We heard rave reviews from parents and community about the project who visited the Jewish History Fair. The project is an example how to extend learning by using technology tools to reach further and dig deeper with resources. I believe we attained our goal to

allow our students to “get personal” with and connected to their research, to compliment traditional research media, such as  books and the Internet, with 21st century communication tools, such as skype, twitter, facebook, and texting.

Not only did students write their traditional reports, but they practiced 21st century skills of:

• creating (a map)
• collaborating (with their peers to create a snapshot of Jewish communities around the world)
• connecting (with 15 Jews around the world)
• communicating (via different media)

In addition to basic literacy of reading and writing, students were exploring and exposed to

• information literacy
• media literacy
• global & intercultural literacy
• networking literacy

Just a few days ago, Andrea Hernandez (edtechworkshop) and I had a  conversation about our Personal Learning Network.

A “working definition” by David Warlick says that a Personal or Professional Learning Network:

involves an individual’s topic oriented goal, a set of practices or techniques aimed at attracting or organizing a variety of relevant content sources, selected for their value, to help the owner accomplish a professional goal or personal interest.

As I am working on various projects at school (A Worldwide Audience for Six Year Olds? and Jewish History Fair), where the presence of my PLN played a mayor role, I can’t help but wonder, if using and “showing off” these connections to students and other teachers, does not shed a “false” light on “reality”.

In order to disseminate student work, like

• the 1st grade podcast or
• the 8th grade Current Events Google Map

and get them an audience for

• global awareness
• increased motivation
• and the value a network can have as a source of information & resources

you have to have an active PLN to work for and with you.

As Steve Dembo (Teach42) points out in one of his recent posts If you tweet, will anybody hear?

In the effort of attempting to demonstrate how wonderful, simple, powerful and dynamic it is, we make it seem much more effortless than it really is.
[...]
the fact that it takes TIME and EFFORT to gain a few hundred followers. And without having a critical mass of people to message out to, your odds of getting a response from a general tweet are VERY small.

Steve is absolutely right. It takes time and effort to blog, tweet, share and disseminate. Are we making newbies or others who we want to introduce to the value of a PLN look through rose colored glasses?

Seeing the World through Rose Colored Glasses

Some of us are expanding and growing our PLN through blogging, twittering, skyping and speaking at local, state, national and international conferences. In consequence, we are able to create projects, collaborate with global participants solicited through PLN contacts and disseminate results to get feedback through our globally read blogs. I would not be able to do a lot of these above mentioned projects, at least not to the same extend nor with such a far reaching response/audience), without the always willing participant of my PLN.

Will Richardson even compares creating, maintaining, growing and working with and through Personal Learning Networks to a literacy.

… the literacy becomes how do you build these [Personal Learning] Networks?  How do you flourish within these networks? How do you find trusted sources within that context?

[...]

You have to be able to engage in those conversations. You have to be able to find those other people who are producing content or who are engaging in their own kind of conversations that you are interested in.

It takes time… it takes dedication to build a network… it takes perseverance to not give up when no one responds to your  first (second or third) shoutout.

Building and Maintaining a Personal Learning Network

The conversation, Andrea and I had started, about PLNs took a turn by asking, if we could expect every educator to dedicate that time and effort into building  AND maintaining such a PLN?

Is it realistic to expect every teacher to create, be part of AND nourish a PLN? A network that consists of contacts that would allow them to expose their students and their work to a global audience, experts and collaborators? A network that models for students the possibilities of connected and collaborative learning?

I wonder if every school should have a a position that is dedicated to search for, find, grow, nurture and provide a far reaching network of contacts to bridge that gap? The person in that position would be connecting teachers,   scout curriculum related projects from around the world to get involved in, find communication and collaboration partners  and put them in contact with their colleagues and students.

A Learning Network- A Give and Take

That person would be responsible for creating a SLN (School Learning Network). I don’t mean a Learning Network among people who work at the same school. I am thinking of someone in charge of nourishing a Learning Network  for all classes, teachers and students at a school, with their interests in mind.

Such a person could be in charge of sharing resources, growing potential collaboration partners, being available to help others via video conferencing, survey participation or collaborative assessment and in return be able to solicit expert advice, receive authentic feedback and harvest resources to distribute among colleagues and students.

A Learning Network is built on a give and take. You get out of it what you put in. What if that becomes the responsibility of one person or a small group of people at one school in order to benefit the learning experience of everyone?

Note: There is an email link embedded within this post, please visit this post to email it. Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

In this video presented by Mobile Learning Institute:

Alan November tours his hometown of Marblehead, MA and comments on the historical global vision of his community. Alan challenges us to think about the emerging role of “student as contributor” and to globalize our curriculum by linking students with authentic audiences from around the world. (For more, read Alan’s article, Students as Contributors: The Digital Learning Farm. http://novemberlearning.com/resources/archive-of-articles/digital-learning-farm/.)

Find more videos like this on NL Connect

This description caught my attention and I started playing the 13 minute video clip. The following thoughts from November resonated with me deeply as I watched and listened:

…[We need to ] convince schools, that we have to globalize the curriculum. We ought to have authentic conversation across the curriculum with people around the world over the Internet. Sadly, most schools use the Internet only to get information. People learn by having conversations and testing each other and trying to figure this out together. We are social beings. Engage kids socially across the web….

Authentic conversation with people from around the world… That is what I keep in my mind as the following project is evolving as a collaboration between myself, sixth grade students, their Social Studies  and Hebrew teachers.

Students are participating in a Jewish History Fair. Their topic is “Jewish Communities Around the World.

In the old days...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24707395@N02/ / CC BY 2.0

In the old days… students would have been given a specific topic, sent home, to the computer lab or the library to “look up” information. They would then have to write a report, print out images, glue them on a backboard and “present” that to parents and visitors at the History Fair.

In the 21st Century...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/superkimbo/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

In the 21st century, we need to be looking for and addressing something more…

Information Literacy:

• Online sites and books are still valid information sources, but are they enough to engage students and give them “authentic” sources?
• Being able to get, evaluate and work with information from a variety of sources, such as books, almanacs, blogs, wikis, video, audio, interviews, etc.

Networking Literacy:

• Learn about accessing a network of people who can contribute information from their own experiences, on location and customized (personalized) to our own criteria, not the one a publisher or author chose?

Communication skills:

• being able to interview through a variety of media and communication methods and be familiar with their distinct etiquette.
  • face to face
  • e-mail
  • twitter
  • facebook
  • video conferencing (Skype)
  • texting
  • telephone
• being able to present the information obtained through a variety a media (video, images, audio)

The topic is “Jewish Communities Around the World”… what better way to allow authentic research to take place than go directly to those communities around the world…this is when it comes in handy to have a network of willing and able people literally AROUND THE WORLD! I was off to send a twitter alert to my PLN.

Cry for Help to my PLN

I received instantly responses. We will have Jews born or currently residing in different countries/continents being interviewed by our students. At this point we have Jews from 12 countries and seven continents who have agreed to be interviewed (Canada, USA, Costa Rica, Mexico, Argentina, Denmark, England, Scotland, South Africa, Israel, China, Australia) plus two people stationed (currently or in the past) in the Antarctica.

Here is the initial e-mail, describing the project, sent out to these contacts:

The 6th graders at the Martin J Gottlieb Day School in Jacksonville, Florida/USA are starting to research for a Jewish History Fair. They will be looking at different Jewish communities around the world.
Students will research with books and via the internet to develop questions that they want to ask Jews who are living on different countries and continents. We want them to interview with /through different media. Some interviews will be face to face here in town, but we would also like to give them the opportunity to conduct interviews via skype, email and twitter in order to strengthen information and media literacy.
One of our main objectives is for students to see commonalities among different communities.

Would you be interested in participating and willing to be interviewed? We would send questions ahead of time, if the interview is conducted via Skype or twitter? This won’t happen until close to the beginning of December.
Please get in contact with me, so I can answer any questions that you might have.

Thank you so much in advance!

After I received confirmation of their willingness to participate as an interviewee, they were then asked to send us a short biography:

We are continuing to work and prepare with our students for the Jewish History Fair: Jewish Communities Around the World. Thank you for agreeing to participate as an Interviewee.
As students are formulating interview questions, they would benefit from having a short biography from you, describing your background and involvement as a Jew in the country you were born in or are currently residing.
The bio only has to be a few short sentence to give our students just a little background.

Our projected time line to work with the students is as follows:

1. Introduction to project
2. Introduction to different media, students will be interviewing. Talk about required etiquette of different media…differences…similarities…
3. Student introduced to biographies of interviewees
4. Assign Students an interviewee/country/continent
5. Students will research background information that will help them form an notion of the community interviewee has grown up/is residing
6. Students will develop questions for the interviewees that will be send ahead of time
7. Setting up up date and medium of interview to be conducted
8. Students will interview
9. Students will connect the information gathered to create their own understanding of Jewish communities, especially commonalities, around the world.
10. Students decide in what shape and form their will demonstrate what they learned.
11. Students will produce final product to be displayed with globe and History Fair.

I am getting very excited to observe students and their research outcome as the actual interviews are being conducted. I wonder what media students will prefer and get the most out of? I wonder if certain student personalities/learning styles will naturally gravitate towards one or another media?

• Create a font from your own handwriting – fontcapture.com
  (tags: fonts typography generator)
• Fair Use: Remix Culture, Mashups, and Copyright | Teaching Copyright
  # Definitions of Copyright: What Do They Know?
  # A Brief History of Copyright and Innovation
  # Fair Use: Remix Culture, Mashups, and Copyright
  # Peer-to-Peer File Sharing
  # Fair Use: You Be The Judge
  (tags: copyright fairuse creativecommons information_literacy)
• Paul Robeson Library:: Video on Plagiarism
  (tags: information_literacy research copyright plagiarism video)
• Nota : Casual Collaboration
  Mash your ideas and media together with friends in a dynamic whiteboard wiki. Using photos, videos, and other web content you can instantly create brainstorms, presentations, scrapbooks, and enjoy an interactive chat with more than 50 friends.
  (tags: collaboration tools presentation photos wikis)
• Why do Teachers Love SMART Boards? by jhollis
  Help administrator's understand why SmartBoards are so valuable in the classroom
  (tags: smartboard)
• Don’t Drink and Drive Ads Collection
  (tags: PSA)
• visual-lit
  'Activities' – icebreakers, hooks, and lessons using visual literacy
  'What is Visual Literacy?' – looks at the various definitions and the components of visual literacy
  'Why Visual Literacy?' – information about the importance of including visual literacy in the curriculum
  'Whose Is It?' – deals with the issues of copyright and fair use for educators. You will find articles, links, etc.
  'Where Is It?' – lists of links to image banks, along with citation requirements
  'More Info' – provides links to associations, organizations, articles, and books on visual literacy
  'Toolbox' – Web 2.0 applications to use alter, present, and share image
  (tags: visual_literacy literacy wiki)

Here is a growing list of interesting sites to explore for elementary school students. Please add any favorites of yours in the comment section.

Elementary Learning Sites

• Learning your Alphabet
  Help a monkey shake coconuts out of the tree
• Count Us in Games
  Games designed to help children understand basic number concepts
• Between the Lions
  Get Wild about Reading
• English & Math & Science
  from BBC
• Early Reading Skills
  Educational Games
• Spelling City
  Enter your own spelling words, then select: Test me, Teach me or Play a Game
• Reading Website for emerging Readers
• 50 One Stop Online Learning Activities by Scholastic
• Sight Words with Samson
  Kindergarten & 1st Grade
• ABCya
  Activities include earn the alphabet , uppercase to lowercase letter matching, categorizing, mouse manipulation, drawing, addition, subtraction, counting money, keyboarding practice, identifying computer parts, and much more! Customized for different grade levels
• WordGirl
  What is your favorite Word? PowerWords ,and Dunk Huggy are just a few games you can play on this site
• Academic Skill Builder
  Play online games, while practicing multiplication, division, addition, words, vowels, etc.
• 4Kids.org
  Coconut Vowels, Demolition Division, Word Frog, Word Invasion, Alien Addition, Word Viper, Meteor Multiplication, Minus Mission, Word wizard, State Finder, Coloring Book, Musical Instruments, Beekeeper Game
• Spin and Spell
  Practice your spelling skills. Similar to Wheel of Fortune
• Word Central Play games from Merriam-Webster- Robo-Bee, BIGbot, Jumble Kids
• Puzzle Blocks
  Puzzle play and problem solving. Playing with games and puzzles helps hone our ability to recognize and understand categories, patterns, and associations. Being able to recognize patterns and find new ones helps us bring together what we know to find a single solution to a problem.
• World Play
• Word World
  by PBS
• TVOKids
  Art & Music Games, Adventures and Sports, Puzzle and Words, Math and Science Games
• Sesame Street Games
  An amazing amount of games from the beloved Sesame Street. Learn about Rhymes, Sorting, Letters, Numbers, Shapes, Math and much more…

Simulation

• Create a City
• Virtual Knee Surgery
• The Amazing Adventure of the Food Detective
• PanWapa World

Creativity- Drawing

• Create Sand Art
• Pointillism Practice Page
• Matisse for Kids
• Keith Haring Coloring Book
• Create an imaginary jungle scene
• Online Coloring
  Choose from a wide variety of coloring pages. Ex. Aesop Fables, Fairy Tales, Greek Mythology, Animals, etc.
• Bomomo
  Like abstract art? A different kind of painting tool. Try it out.
• National Gallery of Art
  Interactive Art that you can make online
• Kerpoof.com
  Make a picture, story or movie
• We are Multicolored
  Design and create your own flag. Learn about the symbols and significance of world flags. Remember not to give out your full name when you publish your flag. Use your online identity, avatar’s name or first name only.
• PaperCritters
  Create digital Paper Toys
• GirlSense
  Social Network Site. You will need to sign up for this site. Ask your parents for permission first!
  Games, Fashion Design Studio, Create your own Boutique.
• Cloud Dreamer
  Use your powers of make-believe to conjure up a cloud of your own design.
• ArtPad
• Shidonni
  Draw your own critters, then animate them and create a virtual world for them

Digital Storytelling

• Microsoft Photostory
• Windows Moviemaker (comes pre-installed on your Windows machine)
• Create your Own Wildlife Movie
  from National Geographic
• Myths and Legends
  Create your own myth or legend. Record even your own voice
• Junior Net
  Make your own movie

Programming

• Scratch
  Scratch is a new programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art — and share your creations on the web. Scratch is designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills. As they create Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also gaining a deeper understanding of the process of design

Typing Programs

• Tux Typing 2 (free to download)
• BBC Practice Typing
• http://sense-lang.org/typing/
• Fun School Super Speller Play a game and improve your typing speed
• Krazy Keyboarding for Kids
• Stack Cups
• Key Seeker Keyboarding for Kindergarteners
• Super Hyper Spider Typer Hungry lizards with words on their backs are after Berry the hairy spider!

Games

• MyDinos
  Go Questing, play games, make buddies
• Elephant Odyssey
  On a journey through time, you’ll learn the ways of the mammoths and their modern day descendants, the elephants. Go back 200,000 years and test your skills.
• Drawminos
  Design your own Domino game. Position each domino piece or ball perfectly
• Fantastic Contraptions
  A fun Online Physics Puzzle Game
• Zoopz
  Games that make you think
• Cubescape
  Stack some cubes
• LineRider
  Learn about cause and effect
• Connect All Four
  Game of Strategy
• I do Dog Tricks
  Type in a command and watch the dog do tricks
• FancyPants
  Practice your hand-eye coordination. The pants may not look like much to you, but to a stick figure, they’re stylin’ threads! Jump on spiders and find your way to the next level!
• Animal Planet Games
  have fun playing animal games
• Lego.com Games
  Indiana Jones Adventure, Deep Jungle, Speed Session. Cryst Alien Conflict, Castle Battle, Lego City
• Fun School
  Pre-School through 6th grade Activities and Games
• Crickweb
  Series of fun games
• Blobs
  Fun game that makes you think!
• CBeebies
  Fun and Games from BBC: Rhyme Maker, Character Maker, Sharing Stories, Make your own picture stories, Talking stories and more
• Prongo Games
  Lots of different games for ages 3-12

Social Studies

• History Games for Kids
• OLogy
  American Museum of Natural History: Archeology, Einstein, Biodiversity, Astronomy, Earth & Genetics

Geography

• Need a map? Use the Map Machine from National Geographic
• USA Map Tetris
  Test your knowledge about the States in the USA
• GeoSpy Game
  National Geographic: Identify continents, countries, states and provinces
• GeoNet Game
  Test our knowledge about the USA or the world
• Do you know all your States in the USA?
  Are you smarter than a Third Grader?
• GeoGames
  Build Planet Earth, Cities and Countries
• USA- States and Capitals
  Check how many states and their capitals you know
• Where on the map is?
  Flash Games to locate states and countries- Europe, Middle East, South America, Central America, Africa, Canada, Australia, Find the Difference
• Map your World
  Very cool site. Find out how maps became flat. Can you find countries when the map is “upside down”?

Research & Reference

• Encyclopedia Britannica
  We will be giving you a username and password for this site, so you can access all the information at home.
• Math Dictionary for Kids
  Great visual dictionary for mathematical terms.
• Sensible Units
  Convert measurements into real objects
• Copyright Issues
  Get some answers to your Copyright questions

Science

• Earth & Sky for Kids
  Science News and Podcasts for kids.
• Solar System Jigsaw Puzzle
• Pest World for Kids
  Come explore the world of pests. Then you can use your knowledge to outwit the pests in your world.
  Remember, that you DO NOT give out your name or e-mail address, unless you are WITH your parent.
• The Science Museum
  Building Bonanza, Energy Flows, ID-fit, and more…
• EekoWorld by PBS Kids
  Learn about the Environment, Air & Water, Garbage & Recycling, Games, etc.
• Tinker Ball
  Build a track for our ball by tinkering with everyday objects.
  Exploratory play is about asking questions: “What happens when I do this?” “What if I did it this way?” Experimenting with materials and pushing their limits encourages us to consider a wide range of possibilities when problem-solving. Playing around with objects and ideas helps us see that there may be more than one solution.

Generators

• Make fun and customized pictures
• Create your own M&M character
• Transform yourself into a Dark Ages History character
• Text to Speech Generators
  • Ottogram- Dress up an Otter and have him say something
  • Design your own Pirate and have him say something
• Create your own comic strip with
  • Captain Underpants
    
  • Tell-a-Story-Builder
  • My Comic Strip

This post title is “Teaching Information/Research Skills in Elementary School”, but this post is as much for adults and older students.

Many adults are overwhelmed with the quantity and new kind of media that is available and accessible through technology. Older students in High School and College might not feel overwhelmed, but have never been taught how to navigate, evaluate, save and retrieve the information that they are seeking.

How and what kind of information skills do we need to start teaching in elementary school, that will grow and expand with our students as their grow older?

What do teachers need to know in order to introduce and guide their students in a

• critical
• efficient
• effectively
• safe
• ethical

way as they navigating through the sea of information available?

We need to help students develop these kind of information skills:

• locating information
• evaluating information
• learning from information
• using (remix) information

I have written a few blog posts in the past months trying to wrap my own understanding what and how we can teach information/reserach skills starting in elementary school.

• Research Skills in Elementary School
• Web Searching Strategies for Elementary School Students
• How to Do Research? Kentucky Virtual Library Presents

I ran across what looks like an amazing resource to include in lessons.

All About Explorers

All About Explorers was developed by a group of teachers as a means of teaching students about the Internet. Although the Internet can be a tremendous resource for gathering information about a topic, we found that students often did not have the skills to discern useful information from worthless data.

So we set out to develop a series of lessons for elementary age students in which we would demonstrate that just because it is out there for the searching does not mean it is worthwhile.

The idea of creating a website and sprinkling in false information to make a point about

• not everything you find online is true
• you are responsible to verify with other sources the information you find
• use common sense when you find information that sounds “too good/ too outrageous/ too odd to be true”

is well thought through.

Because we wanted to make a point about finding useless information even in a site which looked at first to be fairly well put together, all of the Explorer biographies here are fictional. While many of the facts are true or based on truth, many inaccuracies, lies, and even downright absurdity are mixed in indiscriminately.

All About Explorers | Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about every explorer who ever lived…and more! via kwout

Students are invited to join in on Explorer Treasure Hunts, that point them to the site’s information page for each explorer (sprinkled with false facts) and one other link (with correct facts..well as correct as historical “facts” can be). Students then are asked to answer questions and fill them in direclty on the website. The submit button prints the page out with the answers.

There is also an extensive list of downloadable lessons and worksheets the teachers have used in their classroom in conjunction with this information skills lesson.

• Lesson 1: Just Because It’s Out There Doesn’t Mean It’s Good
  Students go on an Internet treasure hunt to find information about a famous world explorer. They compare information from two different sites to come to a conclusion about whether they can trust all Internet sources.
• Lesson 2: So How Do You Find the Good Stuff?
  Students are taught about the difference between publishing a book and posting a web site, emphasizing the selectivity of the publishing process. The “1 – 2 – 3″ approach to researching on the Internet is introduced. Students then get a chance to try out the first two steps.
• Lesson 3: Google, What?
  In this lesson, search engines are introduced in more detail. Emphasis is placed on the fact that these are collections rather than selections and that there are no humans involved in the collection process. Students explore some search engines to see the differences in results.
• Lesson 4: Where Exactly Am I, Anyway?
  Students learn about how to decode a URL and that it is the address for locating a web page. They also learn how to begin evaluating a site based on the top level domain (e.g. .com, .org, or .edu), as well as a few other tricks for determining the quality of the site.
• Lesson 5: How Could They Be So Wrong?
  Students research the correct facts and draft an email to the AllAboutExplorers site webmaster to fix the mistakes they discovered in Lesson 1.
• Explorer WebQuest
  Students will apply what they’ve learned about Internet research to a real world project.

Not only have the webmaster’s made available all the lesson plans, but they have also created a WebQuest for your students to complete. The student’s introduction is as follows:

Every year in our country, we celebrate many holidays. Several of those are in honor of famous and important people from our history, like Martin Luther King, George Washington, and Christopher Columbus. In this WebQuest you are going to find out more about an explorer your team chooses and about how and why we use holidays to honor them.

Who was this explorer? What is important to remember about him or her? How can you use a holiday celebration to tell his or her story well and communicate the important aspects of his or her life and accomplishments to the public?

Gerald Aungst, one of the webmasters of the site, was gracious enough to answer a few of my questions from his experience in developing and using  the site.

What grade levels are the lesson plans intended for?

The lessons are specifically targeted for our original audience of fourth and fifth grade students, but they could certainly be adapted down to second or third grade, and I have heard of middle school and high school teachers using the site as well.

What were some of the reactions when students found out that the information they found was wrong? Did some students not figure it out?

Reactions tend to vary. Some students start noticing “weird” things in the biographies, such as references to cell phones, and it dawns on them that there might be something odd going on. Other students plow ahead, copying information happily from the site. We always have a couple of groups that figure it out quickly and a couple that never figure it out until we point it out. It is particularly effective when we teach these in our own schools, because we can truthfully say, “What would you say if we told you all of this was made up, and we wrote it ourselves?”

Do you feel that some students were (even more) confused about what were the true facts?

I haven’t had that experience, though I suppose it is definitely something you want to be cautious of, and it is the reason we explicitly teach students how information gets into books and onto Internet web sites. And even in the publishing world, with multiple layers of fact-checking, often errors make it into the final product. How much more, then, do we need to be cautious of the instant-publishing online world? After teaching these lessons, I insist that students find at least two sources, including at least one print source, to verify every fact they find.

What tips would you give someone who wants to use the lesson plans? What are some things to look out for?Highlights? Pitfalls?

I would strongly recommend using the full series of lessons and doing the follow up activities. While some of these can work well in isolation, it is the sequence that builds the understanding. Users also need to be aware that in some cases the content in the lessons is fairly specific to our own situation, particularly with reference to the subscription databases that are available to us. It is important that teachers using these lessons review them carefully and adapt the details to match what is available in your district.

I would also caution teachers to consider these principles themselves when doing any research of their own on the Internet. I have actually witnessed teachers who were present during our lessons with their classes and participated in the activities with us go later to search for something online and accept what they read at face value without checking the source or verifying the facts later. It’s important that we model these things for our students on a daily basis–show them that you apply the same principles to your own work as you expect them to do in theirs.

How could a teacher or media specialist customize your idea of creating a source of “false” information to another subject (not explorers) they are researching?

I have actually gotten requests along those lines to add more information on other topics and in other languages. While I haven’t had the time or energy to even consider pursuing such a project, with new Web 2.0 tools like wikis, a teacher could create a page of “false” information about a topic they are going to teach and have their students compare with a reliable Internet source.

What do you think of the idea to have students involved in such a project not only in uncovering “false” facts but actually correcting them online?

This is the entire purpose behind activity #5 in our lessons, “How Could The Be So Wrong?” I think it is crucial for students to learn that they not only have the obligation to think critically about what they read on the Internet, they have the power to do something about it. When they write to the webmaster in that final lesson, I read and respond to every comment. Now, granted, I’m not about to “correct” the errors that are on the actual pages–that would defeat the purpose of the site–but I do encourage the students to continue to pursue accuracy in their own research.

I believe it would be a very powerful experience for students of any age to follow up this unit with a visit to Wikipedia where you can have them search for–and correct–errors about a topic you may be studying in class. While it’s hard to predict when they might find such errors, and you certainly need to be cautious about what topics you explore in this way, it’s a perfect example of how the users of the Internet need to take responsibility for using it wisely and contribute to it effectively.

The more I “explore” the All About Explorers website, the more I am impressed with a well thought through concept.

• As a webmaster, I can appreciate all the time and effort in designing, linking and updating the pages. The pages look well designed and “official” (not a home-made look). This supports the effort of separating the notion that content accuracy is coupled with professional looking packaging.
• As a technology integrationist, I appreciate the fact that students are being guided and taught at school in using the internet to research curriculum related units instead of just being told “Google it” as a homework assignment. Technology is not the “enemy” that we need to protect our students from.  We need to teach/use technology as a tool COMBINED with the necessary skills to allow our students to use these tools in a  critical, efficient, effective, safe and ethical way.
• As an educational media specialist, I am thrilled to see students being introduced to research skills that go beyond the book checked out in the library. Information found online or in any electronic form should NOT be discarded, prohibited, seen as less valuable or automatically inaccurate per se, but as an integral part of the research process.
• As an elementary school teacher, I am thankful for age appropriate content and links, that allow my students to learn skills that are absolutely necessary for their future in the information age.

Watch this interesting video about The 21st Cenury Librarian from the New York Times that also mentions All About Explorers.

Storytelling used to be the only way to pass one generation’s knowledge on to the next one. Oral transmitted legends, fairy- and folk tales for example allowed elders to explain and help understand the world around them to their descendants. When books were scarce or did not exist and few knew how to read them, oral stories made a connection. Understanding is directly related to being able to connect new material, facts, ideas, and concepts to previously learned knowledge.

I remember sitting in my uncle and aunt’s apartment when I was little and looking at photo albums of their travels around the world. They would move on from merely traveling to living in Singapore, China and Hong Kong, always making photo albums that contained stories of their “foreign” lives.

Thanks to a company named Google , we no longer are confined to a photo album, a world map with push pins or a heavy family atlas to connect stories and images from around the world. Thanks to Web 2.0 tools, we can mash-up media, such as photos, videos, audio, and links that take us to explore further to TELL a story in more detail and with more connections to the world around us than ever before. We can invite others to collaborate in telling a story that has many perspectives, memories, or meanings.

How can you or your students write a story with a map?

1. Create a Scavenger Hunt around the World
2. Use an image of a place anywhere on Earth or your own backyard as a story starter
3. Map the settings of a book you are reading
4. Write a collective "Where have you been this summer" as a class
5. Follow a biography of an important character in history and events that influenced or were influenced by him
6. Tell the story of learning (and where) that took place in your classroom in a  school year

Create a google account and log into GoogleMaps.com .

Start you own map:

Give it a title

Move around the map, zoom in and zoom out, view it from a Map, Satellite or Terrain view.

Start adding Placemarks by clicking on the icon and dragging it onto the map.

You can choose different kinds of icons and colors

Enter a title for your Placemark and a description. Make sure that you are in "Rich Text " editing mode to format your text or create links within the the text You can add a picture by inserting the web address of the image

In order to create a link to the map on a website or blog clik on "Link to this page"

Copy (CTRL+C) and paste (CTRL+V) the link or the code. If you want to customize the width and height of you map, click on the "Customize and preview embedded code".

Choose a predetermined size (Small, Medium or Large) or enter your own dimensions in Pixels for you map.

You can add a line or draw a shape to the map. Your embedded map will automatically update with the newly added information.

You can always change the order of your Placemarks AFTER you added them, by simply dragging and dropping it into the correct order. This will be especially useful when you export your placemarks into Google Earth to create a FlightRoute

To export to Google Earth click on "View in Google Earth" and then save the .kml file to your computer or link to it from a website or blog. Double click on the file and Google Earth will automatically launch with your placemarks.

A great web 2.0 addition is the option to invite collaborators to your map. An entire class can add their individual point of view to a story.

Check out what these sites that use with maps to tell a story:

• Google LitTrips
  This site is an experiment in teaching great literature in a very different way. Using Google Earth, students discover where in the world the greatest road trip stories of all time took place …
  
• Find a Story-Map a Story- Tell a Story
  There is an interesting relationship between place, story and community. As we revisit these places in our memory, we realize how stories naturally attached themselves to places from our past and how they shape us in the present.