This is Part VII in the series “Stepping it Up: Learning About Blogs FOR your Students”

• Part I: Reading
• Part II A: Writing
• Part II B: Student Writing
• Part III: Commenting
• Part IV: Connecting
• Part V: Reciprocating
• Part VI: Consistency

Reading, responding, assessing and monitoring our students’ progress on their blog requires pedagogical commitment. It is a commitment to student learning and quality work, not a commitment to using a specific technology platform.

My guiding questions for QUALITY blogging are:

• How do teachers recognize different levels of quality?
• How can assessment for student blogging look like?

The blogging rubric, developed by Kim Cofino, mentioned in Part IIB-Student Writing becomes an invaluable tool to recognize quality, assess your students and plan to support each one at their own level. I have tweaked the original rubric somewhat. Another rubric I consulted and remixed from was University of Wisconsin, as well as Steve Peha’s list of six traits of quality writing from Teaching That Makes Sense. Here is the  link to Kim’s original rubric, so you can make edits to fit your own needs.

Part of blogging is commenting, which deserves its own rubric to address individual components that contribute to the overall quality of a comment.

Andrew Churches divides his Commenting Rubric (pdf) into two parts:

• Construction – this is how the comments is constructed, its flow, logic and language
• Understanding/Evaluations – this is a progression from simple to complex commenting; from simple statements to reflection and critique

See a commenting rubric below that you can use to help you recognize and support quality commenting. The rubric is based on Andrew Churches Bloom’ Taxonomy Commenting Rubric (pdf) from above as well as  Kim Cofino’s rubric and University of Wisconsin’s Blogging Rubric

Take a look at the two videos below, produced by two third grade classes. Mrs. Rogo’s 3d grade class from Florida and Mrs. Yollis’ class from California discussed and shared their ideas and thoughts about quality commenting.

Quality Commenting poster created for 3rd grade

It is hard to teach/coach students in quality blogging, if the teacher does not know what quality in blogging looks like.  As mentioned in Part I- of this series, blogging is about writing, but it starts with reading. Reading other blogs (many different ones) gives us an opportunity to see, become aware, evaluate and recognize all different levels of quality in blogs. Reading other blogs and comments helps us sharpen our own skills.

Andrew Chuches uses Bloom’s Taxonomy very successfully to assess the quality of student blogs. I especially liked his Blog Journalling Rubric (pdf)  where he adds fantastic examples, demonstrating different levels of quality.

I believe that seeing and learning to recognize quality samples of student work in various areas of the rubrics (writing, voice, presentation, citation, community, commenting) is beneficial to educators, new to blogging with their students.

Let’s take a look at several examples that demonstrate different levels of quality blogging.

In the example below, you will see 4th grade students consistently (and almost exclusively) use the words “fun”, “exciting” and “amazing” as they are commenting on a blogs post that documented an author’s visit via Skype into the classroom. Some comments are incomplete, leaving the reader hanging and wondering. Students needed to elaborate further in their comments to show understanding as well as connections.

Click for a larger image

After giving students feedback on their first comments, they went back to re-submit their comments. Take a look and compare these two before-and-after examples.

Click on the image to see a larger version.

Here are a few more comments left by teachers, pre-service teachers  and other adults. These comments are well intended. They surely were left to make conversation, let the blog author know that their posts are being read, acknowledged and appreciated. How would they hold up against the commenting rubric?

• Do these comments contribute to the topic of the original blog post (Even without having seen the original blog post…) ?
• Is there evidence of understanding of topic of original blog post?
• Are links to relevant resources added?
• Is there a meaningful addition (information, point of view)?
• Is an idea or point of view well stated?
• Is there solid evidence of content knowledge or thinking present?

What about these comments below? Where would they fall in your opinion?

Linda Yollis, winner of the 2011 Edublog Awards in the categories of Best Classroom Blog & Most Influential Blog Post left the following comment on Langwitches:

Silvia, you’ve hit the nail on the head…quality reciprocation is the key to building an audience! All the blogging relationships I’ve built with teachers, classrooms, and students have come from reciprocal commenting.

Teachers often ask me how I have connected with so many classes around the world. The answer is through consistent quality commenting. When I started, I would visit lots of blogs and leave comments. I’d try to make a connection or add relevant information to a post, and I’d always end with a question. My hope was to engage the class in a conversation. If I would get a reply from the teacher/class, I would go back. If I got no response, I’d move on to other blogs and keep trying.

Many teachers/classes not only responded in their comment section, but they would visit my class blog and connect. A comment that shows you’ve read the post and are interested in what’s happening in the classroom is much more valuable than “Our class loves your blog, please visit ours!” Of course, composing thoughtful comments takes time, but the payoff is tremendous!

One of the first teachers I connected with was Kathleen Morris (@kathleen_morris). Through reciprocal quality commenting, we’ve built a relationship that spans four classes. Students regularly comment to each other, and two families from Kathleen’s Australian class visited our class when they vacationed in Los Angeles!

I teach third grade and when my students earn their own blogs, they are excited to get that first red ClustrMap dot and a comment or two. I teach dedicated lessons about how to comment
using our class blog, so by the time students have their own blogs, they have a good understanding of composing a quality comment.

Before too long, I will hear a student complain, “No one is commenting on my blog.” My response to them is, “Hmm…well…whose blog have you been commenting on? Where did you leave your last comment?” They look a little sheepish as the light bulb goes on. In life, you have to give to get. If you want people visiting and connecting with you, you have to get out there and model what you want!

Focusing on a few blogs is a good idea. It can be overwhelming to try and keep up with too many classes. Deputy Mitchell’s (@DeputyMitchell) Quadblogging idea is a great place to begin. http://quadblogging.net/

There are so many wonderful global projects springing up. It’s tempting to join too many. I have found that if I over-schedule my class, we are not able to participate fully and that doesn’t help anyone. Budgeting your time and choosing projects that fit your schedule makes blogging and global projects more meaningful and enjoyable.

Finally, I love your idea about mentoring student bloggers. Edublog’s Student Blogging Challenge is a wonderful place to volunteer your time. Following the Twitter hashtag #comments4kids is another way to support students.

As you can see, I am passionate about educational blogging! I thank you, Silvia, for guiding and encouraging teachers to blog. It’s the best project I’ve seen in my twenty-five years in the classroom!

Please don’t just notice the length of the comment compared to the others, but take a look at writing, voice, content and presentation. Ask yourself, if:

• this comment contributed further information on the blog’s topic (The role of reciprocation in blogging)?
• the comment’s author added further resources?
• the content was organized and easy to follow?
• the author’s voice came through?

We need to be reading AND consciously reflecting on the quality of a blog post or comment to become good at recognizing and guiding our students to quality work in blogging.

Below you will find samples of blog posts. While keeping the blogging rubric in mind, how would you evaluate them? Where does the blog author need to improve?

Spelling, grammar and punctuation would be something to work on for this student (proof reading and editing). The visual formatting of the body of text could also use improvement. I am not sure if the link included in the post was supposed to cite the author’s source of information or be the image credit. Once I followed the link, I discovered that the site (and therefore I have to assume the image as well)  is under copyright. Simply adding the link to the site where the image was found is not enough.

I liked the inviting title to the blog post. It made me curious to continue reading. The post author starts out describing a personal experience. I am left with wishing for more information. A link to Wikipedia, for example, explaining the condition, would have been inviting to learn more. A visual in the public domain (free to use), grabbed from Wikipedia would have also been a nice addition. I am left with many questions for this blog author. His writing left me unsatisfied. I don’t feel that he told a “whole” story.

The blog post above is from my favorite fourth grade blogger Miriam. She was a finalist in this year’s Edublog Awards. What I love about her writing, is that I can HEAR her voice so clearly (although I have never met her personally). In the above post, she takes her readers along a car ride as she observes the autumn trees changing colors. She takes images of the trees she sees and inserts them into her blog post in order support her writing. The post is not only a narrative, but Miriam weaves information into the post as well. Miriam closes her blog post with question directed at the reader, inviting them to continue a conversation or information exchange.

Take a look at the Edublog Awards nominees as well as the Student Blogging Challenge. There are literally hundreds of links to student and classroom blogs. With the blogging and commenting rubric in hand, evaluate a few (or many) of them:

• what do you like?
• what components do you consider “QUALITY”
• what could be improved?
• how would you coach that student?
• how would you transfer the learning opportunity to your own classroom?

Once you have unofficially “audited” several classroom and student blogs, it will give you a better idea and more confidence in recognizing and gauging quality in your own students’ blogging.

Please share:

• your own auditing methods and successes for quality blogging with students
• an audit of a student blog post you conducted (this could be a great next blog post to tackle!)

I was thrilled last school year when our First Graders created their own Read Along Audiobook for the iPad. My regret was that while it was created TO BE READ on the iPad, it was not CREATED on the iPad. I used a wordprocessor, then converted it with an online converter to then be able to import the ePub file to my iPad. Not a “fluent” solution.

A few days ago, I ran across Dan Amos on Twitter,  announcing his soon to be released app called Book Creator  (Released on September 15, 2011). When I contacted him to find out the possible educational uses of the app, he was so kind to extend a promo code for me to give a test run.

The app is super intuitive! I was working on a book for my 7 year old niece (who lives in Brazil) in no time. It took me about 30 minutes to put together a book for her, publish in iBooks and email the ePub file to my brother…to open it up on his iPad…. for my niece to read it.

The book cover and project file  in the Book Creator app (image above)

The book ready to be read on the iBooks shelf. (image above)

The interface is uncluttered and simple. The most important buttons in the upper right toolbar are for  images, text, formatting and exporting.

I easily imported images, that were in my iPad Photo Album. Images that were not originally on the device, were saved quickly from Facebook, a website or an email attachment.

The text was a snap to insert and to format. My niece has taught herself how to read in Spanish (her parents speak Spanish to her), while the official language at her school is Portuguese. She is also starting to learn German. The color coded boxes contain the text in Spanish and German for her.

I used Wikipedia to save the images of the map and flag into my photo album. I received rave reviews from my niece about the book. She absolutely loved it. We are currently writing a book together about her newest favorite music group :ABBA

This week another opportunity presented itself to test and use the app with students at school. Our school is hosting two children from Germany this school year. The sister is in first grade, the brother in 2nd grade. Both arrived a few weeks ago, without being able to speak one word of English. Their teachers, classmates, as well the rest of the school is quite curious and very eager to communicate with them.

The two siblings, six and seven years old, had never seen or touched an iPad before. They were immediately interested and eager to create a book. They came up with the title “Our School in Florida”. We talked about what kind of images they wanted in their book, then walked around to shoot them with the iPad. I showed them how to tap the image icon to insert their images onto a page and then resize them.

They dictated, in German, their comments for each image to me. I added a second textbox with the English translation for them.

Once completed, the book was sent to iBooks, ready to be synced with our classroom set of iPads and for the rest of their teachers and classmates to read. Both children were very excited and proud of their work. I was also able to see how many words in English they had already learned as they were describing the images to me and “helped” with the translation.

Book Creator  is an app that “finally” allows to anyone to create a book by staying completely within the iPad environment. It is an app that takes the concept of transformative teaching and learning to heart. I can envision many more uses for teachers and students.

• Students creating their own textbooks, collaborating as each student contributes a chapter/topic/theme. The iBook shelf hosts and organized the library of all self-created books.
• Students publish an essay or poetry anthology of their work.
• The Official Scribe could pull information together from curriculum reviewer and researcher  (from the roles outlined by the Digital Learning Farm) at the end of a chapter or unit to create an iBook and share with the rest of the class.
• Older students can create books with topics of interest for the younger students.
• Connect with the Art teacher to have students create the accompanying illustrations for any book (First graders are going to be creating a book about the life cycle of the butterfly. They will illustrate the illustration during Art)

Features I would like to see the app develop:

• Allowing copy/paste feature for text
• Other language support (When I showed the app to our Hebrew teachers, they were excited and immediately wanted to know if the Hebrew alphabet was supported, including the right to left writing)
• Ability to record audio into the book (Dan Amos already let me know that this feature is in the works for the next upgrade)
• Ability to record or embed video into the book.
• Collaboration possible between several (classroom set) of iPads. Ability to export and then insert pages created on another iPad, so students can create their own chapters or part of a larger book.
• Ability to export book to an online space to then get an embed code, so book can be embedded on a classroom blog. Parents who do not have an eBook reader are able to view the book as well. Similar to Mixbook.

The app gets two thumbs up from me. I also placed Book Creator  on the highest level of my iPad’s Bloom’s Taxonomy. It opens up the possibility of amplifying writing, reading and sharing and “leaving a legacy” wth meaningful work. The app is a great example of increased fluency on the iPad.

I already have talked with several teachers on different grade levels to collaborate in getting the iPads with the app in students’ hands and see what they will create.  Stay tuned…

Take a look at the video from the developer to learn more about its features.

The more we podcast and have our students create video clips or other digital storytelling projects, the more we need to teach storyboarding as part of the process. Being able to pre-visualize how your story will unfold is becoming a vital skill to have for storytellers.

Storyboards are defined as:

Graphic organizers such as a series of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence, including website interactivity.

In the book by Roger Essley “Visual Tools for Differentiating Reading & Writing Instruction: Strategies to Help Students Make Abstract Ideas Concrete and Accessible”, he says

Storyboarding, or picture writing, is the origin of all written languages, used by ancient cultures before text evolved and as a natural bridge to text. The Chinese language was built using pictographs. Egyptians used storyboards, or hieroglyphics, first etched in stone and later written on papyrus, to organize a complex society and to rule the ancient world.

Pre-Writing is defined as

Pre-writing is the first stage of the writing process, typically followed by drafting, revision, editing and publishing. Elements of prewriting may include planning, research, outlining, diagramming, storyboarding or clustering.

I have experimented with several storyboarding tools, from the paper and pencil method to iPad apps. Students and I are both finding the creation of the storyboard extremely helpful as we are collaborating on creating podcasts and movies.

I created a Word Doc, that is easily edited with the title of the storytelling project and printed out to be distributed to students. (Download the Word Doc Template)

Storyboarding Template Created in Word

We have also asked students to directly use their writing journals to storyboard their ideas for a script. Students use their storyboard to write their script in sequence and to supervise and help as we edit the movie together.

Individual Storyboarding in Journal

Storyboarding in Journal

One of my favorite places to create a storyboard together with the students in on the SmartBoard. We use the Notebook software to draw the different scenes that will need to be filmed and which actors will be participating in each scene.

Collaborative Storyboarding on SmartBoard

The following storyboard  was also created with the SmartBoard Notebook. This time we used screenshots to illustrate the images we were imagining for the green screen background replacement.

Collaborative Storyboarding with Screenshots

We printed the storyboard out for all students to have and to use as they were going to write their parts of the script. It helped them understand their individual role in the collaborative whole of the story. Once we finished recording the script (which often happened to be film completely out of sequence) , I made it a point to involve students in the editing process.

As the storyboard area of iMovie was displayed on the projector, students were using their paper storyboard printout to help me drag and drop individual video clips in the correct order , add sounds,  transitions and text. The storyboard made it possible to pull all the individually written scripts and out-of-order filmed video clips into a coherent sequence.

I am just starting to experiment with storyboard apps on my iPad. I am sure similar apps exist for the Android market or other tablet computers.

Storyboards Premium allows you to create a background scene, insert actors and text.

StoryPages HD allows you to draw your own board and add text in a different pane. You can move different pages in order on the page grid and email the final board as a pdf file.

How about inviting the Art teacher at your school to teach a lesson on storyboarding techniques to your students?

For more examples of storyboarding, take a look at the following article and posts:

• R.Alfonso’s blog EETT & Making Movies
• What Are Storyboards?
  Storyboarding, or picture writing, is the origin of all written languages. Storyboards are widely used because we know pictures combined with text offer a rich synthesis of information that can entertain and inform. The pictures in picture writing can be simple cartoons, photographs, or sophisticated technical diagrams. This technique can be an invaluable tool when differentiating reading and writing instruction….
• Differentiated Instruction: Developing a Storyboarding Classroom
  Tips on how to use visual tools, such as storyboarding, to differentiate instruction in a reading program….

I have been enthralled watching the following TED Talk (Ideas worth Spreading)

How to Listen to Global Voices by Ethan Zuckerman:

Sure, the web connects the globe, but most of us end up hearing mainly from people just like ourselves. Blogger and technologist Ethan Zuckerman wants to help share the stories of the whole wide world. He talks about clever strategies to open up your Twitter world and read the news in languages you don’t even know.

Take 20 minutes to listen to the following TED (Ideas Worth Spreading) video. Ethan Zuckerman is making a great point of the urgency to widen the orbit of information, communication and global world we are perceiving to be part of.

In an attempt to listen more closely, summarize and share the main points I took away from the talk, I am blogging, linking to examples and sharing my notes below (Am thinking that would be a great activity for students to do with any educational video. Am thinking summarizing skills, Information literacy, hyperlinked writing, media literacy…just thinking out loud

Quotes that immediately caught my attention:

“What happens on a Social Network is that you interact with the people you have chosen to interact with”

“We end up in filter bubbles…where we see the people we know and people who are similar to people we already know. We tend to not see that wider picture.”

Zuckerman makes the point that it is relatively easy to purchase bottled water from Fiji, but it is surprisingly hard to see a Fijian featured film, listen to Fijian music or to find news reports about what is going on politically in the country.

“We tend to look at the infrastructure of globalization, the framework that makes it possible to live in this connected world.”

Zuckerman compares the two images below and makes the point that in the first image, a seemingly connected flat world is portrayed. It is very easy for us to hop on a plane and fly to any place in the world.

Connecting flight

A different reality emerges, when you look at the image below that shows hoe the global plane flights move. The world suddenly doesn’t seem to be close to being flat. There are almost no connections between South America and Africa. The majority of plane connections are within the United States.

“There are parts of the world that are very well connected. There is a giant pathway in the sky between London and New York … and parts of the Earth that are systematically cut off.”

Flight Routes

Zuckerman is interested in and asks the following question:

The world is getting more global and connected, more problems are global in scale, the economics are global in scale, but the media is less global by the day.

Percentage of Interntional News in US Media

The following image demonstrates the distorted view of the world we get from being “manipulated” by the choices of news coverage.

Cartogram:Distorted view of the world based on what American television newscasts looked at for a month.

Zuckerman points out that:

“The world on American news is basically reduced to the giant bloated US”

He then concludes that “new media” is not helping us that much either. The shows the example of geo-coded articles in Wikipedia. Turns out that there is a heavy bias towards North American and Western Europe authored articles.

When you look at the top media consumption in different countries you also find out that 90+ percent will come from a domestic news site.

Ethan Zuckerman then proclaims that

“We live in a state of imaginary cosmopolitanism. We look at the Internet, we think we are getting this wide view of the globe [...] but this a problem, because we live in a world with global problems that require global conversations to get to global solutions.

When it comes to finding information on the Internet most people seem to search with Search Engines or are relying on their Social Network to funnel information to them. The problem with this method, according to Zuckerman, is that you end up with the”knowledge of the flock” and it is hard to get other knowledge from other flocks from parts of the world where people have discussions as well.

In order to do make connections with other “flocks’, Zuckerman says that you need a guide. People who are planted firmly with both feet in two different flocks and can mediate, translate

He gives the example of Amira Al Hussani , the Middle Eastern editor for Global Voices. Her job is to figure out what would interest her readers about the Middle East. She is trying to get the reader

“out of their normal orbit and trying to get your attention about a story of someone [...] basically she is a D.J. She is a skilled human curator…

People have to choose to follow and read others, like Amira, who will widen their orbit (I really like that term and the visual it produces).

Another example Ethan shares is of Erik Hershman, the white African. Ethan considers Erik a “bridge figure” with feet in two or more cultures who is able to find a way to “communicate a story from one world to the other, both of which he has deep connections to”. Ethan is convinced that:

these Bridge Fgures are the future of how we try to make the world wider for using the web

From the Bridge Figures, Zuckerman moves on to Xenosphiles, which is defined by the FreeDictionary as:

A person attracted to that which is foreign, especially to foreign peoples, manners, or cultures.

Ethan gives the example of Dhani, a football player and his  (off season) TV show “Dhani tackles the Globe“.

Ethan Zuckerman closes his (amazing!!) TED talk with the Challenge

Make a personal decision that you want a wider world.

We have to figure out a way to rewire the systems that we have.

We have to fix our media, Internet, education, immigration policy.

We need to look at ways of creating serendipity of making translation persuasive.

We need to embrace and celebrate Bridge Figures and cultivate Xenophiles

Ethan Zuckerman's Challenge

What are YOU doing to make YOUR orbit of global communication wider?

I am seeing more and more “InfoGraphics” springing up everywhere. They are catching my visual eye immediately.

As a native German speaker, I love compound words and it comes naturally to me to want to take them apart in order to create meaning of the word: “Info” and “Graphic”- Information that is written or drawn…

A quick search for the the definition of “InfoGraphic” reveals on Wikipedia:

Information graphics or infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge

In PC Magazine it reads:

An umbrella term for illustrations and charts that instruct people, which otherwise would be difficult or impossible with only text. Infographics are used worldwide in every discipline from road maps and street signs to the many technical drawings.

On Dave Gray’s Blog Communication Nation, he explains:

WHAT IS AN INFOGRAPHIC?

1. It’s a visual explanation that helps you more easily understand, find or do something.
2. It’s visual, and when necessary, integrates words and pictures in a fluid, dynamic way.
3. It stands alone and is completely self-explanatory.
4. It reveals information that was formerly hidden or submerged.
5. It makes possible faster, more consistent understanding.
6. It’s universally understandable.

What I am reading out of these definitions are the following words: Information, Knowledge, Visualization, and Communication! Those words are some of the puzzle pieces to 21st Century Skills and Literacies.

Immediately I am wondering:

• How can I create my own infographic?
• How can I use this to teach students?
• How can I teach students to make their OWN infographics?
• How can I use infographics in Professional Development?

I found the following infographic explaining the steps in creating an infographic. What seems to be important to remember is:

The Challenge with creating an infographic is not the Graphic Design, it’s getting the data to the point where it’s streamlined enough to see the visual metaphor.

Speaking about metaphors and visualization takes me back to Daniel Pink’s book “A whole New Mind”. I wrote about Pink’s quote MQ (Metaphor Quotient) is as important as the IQ a while back. Infographics might fit the bill when it comes to incorporating many of the qualities of teaching and learning in our time and age.

What do you think? Have you incorporated infographics in your lessons? Have you created your own infographics for your students or asked them to create their own?

I am off to think about creating my first infographic. Stay tuned for what I will come up with.

Mindflash Blog

Here are a few examples of infographics that caught my eye:

• Facebook: Facts You Probably Didn’t Know
• College degrees- earning power
• Evolution of the Book
• 50 Great examples of infographics
• Infographics Showcase

Interested in creating your own infographic? Here are a few links to help you along:

• Wild Apricot Blog : Make Your Own Infographic
• Designing “The World of Programming” Tutorial

Using visuals to create and support stories is a skill we should encourage and nurture in our students . It should be obvious by now that I consider storytelling an integral part of a teacher’s toolbox. You can read about the Need for Storytelling and Why Storytelling Can/Should Be Anywhere/Everywhere and will understand why storytelling can fulfill many roles in the learning process.

Storytelling:

• helps us pass on knowledge
• connects the overwhelming flow of information,  so our brains can digest and remember it better
• uses a format that students of today are familiar and comfortable with

Now add visuals to the mix…

According to Wikipedia, Visual literacy is

the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image. Visual literacy is based on the idea that pictures can be “read” and that meaning can be communicated through a process of reading.

It is hard sometimes to make/find images available to your students (especially for the younger ones) that they can use in their digital storytelling projects or for creative writing. I am always hesitant to let them loose on Google or Flickr to find their own images, because of copyright issues, but also inappropriate content.

I wanted to share a Flickr set of the Travel Bear from Argentina, China, Egypt, Costa Rica, Peru and Italy. There are all in one place and licensed under Creative Commons to share and use with your students.

In the past, students have made up stories with images from the bear for younger students by using PhotoStory

Students could choose different images from the set to create whole new stories made up by them. Sixth graders created short movies for their first grade buddies.
Andrea Hernandez from edtechworkshop encouraged her first graders to choose an image from the Travel Bear’s Italy Blog, download the image into Pixie (or you could use KidPix or TuxPaint ) and the six year olds wrote a postcard style letter to Jose, the bear.

Here is a slideshow of images available from the travel bear around the world. I would love to hear what kind of creative writing projects you have come up with by encouraging your students to use creative commons images from the web? Please share…

As I was writing my last blog post about “The Need for Storytelling Skills“, the connection to the problem of Information Overload surfaced.

Wikipedia attributed the term “Information Overload” to Alvin Toffler:

which refers to an excess amount of information being provided, making processing and absorbing tasks very difficult for the individual because sometimes we cannot see the validity behind the information

I remember…in the beginning… of the Internet and World Wide Web.

As a freelance “private computer tutor”,  I used to go to people’s houses and helped them set up their first family PC, introduced them to Word Processing, set up Quicken for their personal finances  and helped them select from the first “edutainment” programs for their children .

Many of my clients, friends and neighbors used AOL as their ISP (Internet Service Provider). What  frustrated me though was how AOL’s shell (browser) was perceived as “THE Internet” by many of them. AOL’s News, Games, Bulletin Board, Lifestyle, Homework Help, etc. sections was where many families were going to search, read and browse the Internet.

Image by verbeeldingskr8

It bothered me, because I felt that the open stream and choices of information that was available from the web, was being filtered, edited and condensed to fit AOL’s choices. What would be placed on the main site, which links would be included, etc. was not under my control. When I mentioned this concern to people, many responded that that was the way they liked it. They did not know where to find the information online and appreciated AOL’s service to make it more manageable for them. They already felt “Information Overload” back in 1995.

I do know, that I don’t want anyone to make decisions for me WHAT kind of information I should or should not be seeing. I want that to be my choice.  Since I have the choice to be able to get most information free and at lightning speed, I also have the “Qual der Wahl“, the “Agony of  Choice”, when it comes to:

• Where do I get information?
• When do I just skim over information and when do I need to be more thorough when looking at sources?
• What kind of media do I need to include to get a more well rounded pool of information?
• When do I have enough information and when do I stop looking for more information?
• Which sources do I trust for information?
• How do I evaluate sources of  and information in itself?
• How do I deal with the knowledge, that I will never ever be able to look at ALL the information out there? And be ok with that…

Chris Pirillo mentions  his solution to Information Overload at 7:25 min:

That is the future, that is the solution for me. Information overload… turning to my friends. YOU are my solution and I am very grateful that Internet exists to help me get to information. I am grateful that you exist to help me make sense of that information as it relates to me.

[...]

I have so many people that I love following that I can’t take it all in. So I rely on you to tell me what is good.

Wes Fryer , Moving at the Speed of Creativity, wrote an interesting post recently: “How are you dealing with TMI (Too Much Information) ?”

Google Reader, Diigo/Delicious, my blog and Twitter account are my best friends when it comes to filtering, accessing, sharing and collaborating with digital information today– but I’m the first to admit things ARE overwhelming and it’s easy to get overwhelmed in the sea of information.

He seems to be in agreement with Chris Pirillo that the human factor that connects us through tools to the information is what helps us deal with information overload.

While searching for information to write this post about “Information Overload” , I asked my Twitter Network, searched other blogs on Google Blog Search and my Google Reader. I looked through presentations at SlideShare, video clips on YouTube and images on Flickr.

Too much “stuff is coming up”. I could go on and on looking for more information. I am wondering:

• What backs up my train of thought?
• What brings in new perspectives?
• How does it connect to my blog post?
• Does the connection make sense?
• Is it relevant?

Image by Will Lion

Information overload is a fact of life today.

Are you looking to machines and program tools to help you, find,  filter and organize all of it or are you relying more and more on humans to help you cope with all the information that is spraying like water out of a fire hydrant?

How do you deal with it? What tools do you use to minimize it? What about the human factor? What are your thoughts?

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During my first year of teaching, I also assembled a teaching portfolio of my work. I wanted evidence of my work in planning, in the classroom, at professional development opportunities as well as projects I created and participated in. I wanted to grow my portfolio as my teaching experience grew. I used a binder and added pictures of my classroom, bulletin boards, students involved in activities. I added assignments, projects, lessons and unit plans I had developed. That binder gave be something tangible to hold and show off.

A definition of a teaching dossier (portfolio) from Wikipedia reads:

is a collection of a faculty’s qualifications documenting their teaching effectiveness for tenure positions and promotions.

The Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching Effectiveness states:

The teaching portfolio is both a process and a product. It is at once the receptacle for evidence of achievement in teaching and the means for teachers to discern ways to achieve more.

What is a Teaching Portfolio?

In short, creating a portfolio involves reflection, collection, selection, and connection.

As teachers plan to assemble their portfolio, they become reflective as they decide what should be include or not.

• What items, artifacts and descriptions give evidence of them as an effective teacher?
• What will highlight their strengths, goals and achievements as an educator?
• How are their lesson plans and student work samples related to their teaching and learning philosophy?
• How and what kind of documents, photos, descriptions, and describe you best as an educator in your field of expertise?
• What areas of the portfolio are lacking or are missing?
• On what kind of teaching practices do they need to work on?

Once you have decided to create a digital portfolio or convert your hard copy portfolio to a digital one, you should start the process of  finding out:

1. How do you best archive/save your work electronically?
2. What tool/program/platform can I use to create a digital portfolio?
3. What sections should your digital professional teaching portfolio include?

How do you best archive/save your work electronically?

The best way to get started is to beginning saving evidence of your teaching and learning in digital form (text, image, audio, video). Hard copy items, such as papers or printed images will have to be scanned to convert them to a digital format.

• Create a folder on your hard drive and save files that you might use for your portfolio there.

You can also start uploading files to web based sites, that let you save, organize, tag, and later easily search and embed these files

• Digital images and video clips (up to 90 seconds)- Ex. Flickr
• Video clips- Ex. YouTube
• Slideshows (PowerPoint presentations & Documents)-Ex.  Slideshare

What tool/program/platform can I use to create a digital portfolio?

• Collect electronic files under a folder on your hard drive, then burn to a CD
• Blog platform
• Wiki platform
• Static Web Site
• PowerPoint presentation
• Word Document
• VoiceThread
• MovieMaker (PC) or iMovie (mac)

What sections should your digital professional teaching portfolio include?

• About You
• Teaching & Work Experience
• Resume
  • Documentation
  • Teaching Certification
  • University Transcripts
  • References
  • Evaluations
• Teaching & Learning Philosophy (Guide to Developing a Teaching Philosophy)
• Blog
• Projects (that support your knowledge, skills and experience)
• Lesson Plans & Units (that support your knowledge, skills and experience)
• Technology Integration
• Professional Development
• Accomplishments & Recognition
• Photos Gallery
• Video Gallery

Here is my digital Teaching & Learning Portfolio on Langwitches. Some areas are not yet completed… it will always be a work in progress.

Here are a few samples of other digital professional teacher portfolios

• Alex Guenther & Kim Cofino
• Jim Groom

Other resources to help you create a teaching portfolio:

• CIDR Teaching Portfolio Resources
• Teaching Portfolio (.pdf) from University of Massachusetts
• What are e-portfolios? from Penn State

Please add a link to your digital teaching portfolio in the comment section as examples for other educators.

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I have created several charts for my students with the table feature of SmartBoard Notebook. Although working with tables is not very intuitive, nor can they be as easily manipulated as in MS Office products, they have produced nice results with students. Students took ownership in their own learning and were actively involved in creating data in the following two examples.

Pssst SmartTech: Please make table manipulation easier in your next update!

To create the charts:

• I inserted a table by making sure I had one more row than students and as many columns as I needed for the number of skills I wanted to address in the chart (Adding an additional column AFTER the initial creation of table proved to be a big headache!)
• Use the text tool to insert each student’s name into first column.
• Find a images in the gallery or take a screenshot (with camera tool) from the web that represented the skill you want .
• Clone that image and drag and drop it into every cell under one column. The image will adjust its size automatically to fit the cell.
• To add cell shades to each column, simple right click each cell and choose “add cell shade”.
• As student master certain skill which is represented by the clipart, they come up to the SmartBoard and find the appropriate row (with their name) and column (with the skill they mastered or demonstrated) and click on the cell shade to remove it and reveal the appropriate clipart underneath.

Students LOVED to come up to the chart, AFTER they had demonstrated a skill in a completed project, I had made as the pre-requisite for “checking” a cell off. It seemed to help them stay on track, they knew what projects/skills they were working on and demonstrated a certain level of satisfaction as they were able to complete the chart in their assigned row.

Another chart I created was for first graders before Groundhog Day. Each student was able to enter their prediction whether the groundhog would see his shadow or not. As the story goes (Wikipedia):

Groundhog Day is an annual holiday celebrated on February 2 in the United States and Canada. According to folklore, if a groundhog emerging from its burrow on this day fails to see its shadow, it will leave the burrow, signifying that winter will soon end. If on the other hand, the groundhog sees its shadow, the groundhog will supposedly retreat into its burrow, and winter will continue for six more weeks.

The procedure of creating the chart, is the same as in example above. Except with two possible predictions (Sunny -will see his shadow or Cloudy- will not see his shadow) are represented by a sun or cloud clipart. Student come to the board to click on the cell in their row to reveal their prediction. After every students has made their prediction, the teacher could talk about how many students chose one option over the other, count each option, which one is more/less, etc. Teacher takes a screenshot of completed chart and goes over their predictions AFTER students watched the  YouTube clip of the actual event.

Other possible clipart (to be found in Gallery) to use in charts could be smilie/frown faces for yes/no or check marks or star stickers.

After the success of Skyping in Author and illustrator Mike Artell (from Louisiana) into our sixth grade classes this past February, the fifth grade classes had the opportunity to visit with Jan and Phil Huling (from New Jersey).

The Hulings are the author and illustrator of “Puss in Cowboy Boots”, a remake of the traditional fairy tale story of “Puss in Boots” with a setting in Texas/USA. While the Hulings visit schools to talk to students regularly, it was their first time to visit via Skype.

Just like Mike Artell, they are exploring the opportunities and possibilities a virtual visit can bring to students around the world, who otherwise would never have the opportunity for these experiences. Thank you to all authors, illustrators, artists who are pioneering and paving the way for more opportunities like these. Pssst, if you an author, illustrator or want to share your passion for your work with students virtually, please contact me to arrange for a Skype visit).

Students had read the Huling’s book previously in class and had created their own fairy tale story from traditional ones, yet retold from a different character’s perspective. Students asked the Hulings many questions, such as how long did it take to write the story or illustrate the book? When did they know that they wanted to be a writer or an artist?

I was very proud of one student’s question, when she asked if Jan Huling was afraid of infringing on someone’s copyright when she used the “Puss in Boots” as the storyline of her own book. It was the same groups of 5th graders, who a few weeks earlier were taught  About Using Images off Wikipedia, while creating a photostory as a book report of a bibliography.

It seemed that that student had made a CONNECTION to what we had discussed before. While she might not understand  all of the copyright laws (who does?), she seemed to have UNDERSTANDING and AWARENESS of the issue.

Here are 90 seconds (time limit imposed by Flickr) of the Skype conference with Jan & Phil Huling, including the copyright question and Jan’s answer. The recording was done using a Flip Camera and it was edited in iMovie09.