Thing 10: Google+

Congratulations on making it to the penultimate "Thing!"

Google+ is a social network and integrated platform for creating and sharing online content.  You can post links, pictures, video and comments, join and create communities, and create circles based on interest. You can also participate in "Hangouts", which are multi-person video chats that even have the ability to be recorded and streamed to YouTube (call Hangouts 'On Air'). All ISM faculty and staff with official email accounts automatically have a Google+ account.

Here is a screencast I made about Google+ BASICS (I'm a relative newbie myself):

Ideas for using G+ in education:

1. Create a G+ community for your department, grade level, office, admin team, etc.
1. Share links, pictures, video
2. Discuss upcoming units, meetings, events
3. Remote meetings via Hangouts
2. Create a G+ community for your students (High School only)
1. Post homework
2. Host experts via Hangouts
3. Extend class discussions beyond the school day
4. Create a community for students taking the same class with different teachers/blocks
3. Create a G+ community for your club, teams or activities (High School only)
1. Post pictures and video
2. Make announcements, schedule changes, etc.
3. Discuss upcoming events, meets, etc.
4. Create a G+ community for your ES/MS/HS division
1. Share links, pictures, video
2. Conduct online PD via Hangouts
3. Discuss upcoming events
4. Book discussions

I found several great articles about using Google+ in education, but you've got to join our Level Up! With 11 Things on a Jeepney Google+ community in order to see them!: https://plus.google.com/u/1/communities/114630739101712447504

TO COMPLETE THING 10:

• Enable your Google+ account if you haven't already done so
• Join the Level Up! With 11 Things on a Jeepney Google+ community
• Read the articles about Google+ in education (I posted them in the Jeepney G+ community)
• Make at least ONE post to the Jeepney G+ community
• Make some circles and add people to them
• In your "Thing 10: Google+" post, reflect on your experience. Have you already been using G+? If so, do you use it? If this is your first experience with it, what do you think? Can you see using it with colleagues? With students (HS)?  *The HS is going to make a big push in SY '14-'15 towards using G+ with students!

Thing 9: Twitter

Welcome to Thing 9!

I debated about whether or not to include Twitter among the "Things" in the program. I believe so strongly in Twitter's professional educational value, however, that I feel like I would be remiss not to include it! If you are skeptical, all I ask is that you set aside those feelings, and approach Twitter with an open mind. You may not be convinced by the end of this "Thing", but hopefully you'll have learned a little bit more about this tool that is considered by many educators (myself included) to be one of the most powerful and effective professional development and networking tools out there.  After all, according to the recent article "Educators Dominate the Twitter Sphere", over 4 million tweets related to education are posted every day!

First, a cool video from an Illinois school district which encourages Twitter use among its teachers:

Next, I created a series of four "All About Twitter" videos that will provide more detailed information about how Twitter works.

Video 1: "Intro to Twitter"



Video 2: "Anatomy of a Tweet"



Video 3: "Hashtags"



Video 4: "Managing Twitter With Apps"

Finally, a few more articles about Twitter and education:

• "The Twitteraholic's Ultimate Guide to Tweets, Hashtags and All Things Twitter"
• "Twitter EDU"
• "10 Ways Twitter Makes Me a Better Educator"
• "What Should a Networked Educational Leader Tweet About?" (good advice for all educators!)
• "How to Decode a Tweet"
• "Is It Sharing or Bragging? Educators Struggle With the Topic of Humility"
• "Twitter for Technophobes"
• "Twitter Resources, Apps and Tools" on Pinterest
• "Twitter for Educators" on Pinterest

TO COMPLETE THING 9:

• If you are new to Twitter, watch the videos posted above. If you already use Twitter, watch at least the first TWO videos ("Twitter in D123" and "Intro to Twitter")
• Browse the articles posted above. The first four are especially helpful.
• If you are new to Twitter, sign up for a free account. (***You can sign up for Twitter even if you do not want to tweet. You can make your account completely anonymous if you prefer by choosing a name and "handle" that do not use your real name. Having an account will allow you to explore hashtags, find other users, and see how people are using Twitter professionally.)
• Set up and personalize your profile. Include a picture and short statement about yourself. (***Recommended, but not required.)
• Follow at least 10 people. (@aliciaduell, @ISManilaHS, @LearningES, @LearningCoISM are a few suggestions!) Here are some more ideas: http://www.teachthought.com/social-media/10-educators-on-twitter-you-should-follow/,   http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/top-15-educators-on-twitter.shtml (***Recommended, but not required.)
• Explore some hashtags. See the "Hashtag" video above! http://www.teachthought.com/twitter-hashtags-for-teacher/,   http://www.cybraryman.com/edhashtags.html
• Try tweeting, re-tweeting, favoriting, labeling a tweet with a hashtag, mentioning someone in a tweet, etc. (***Recommended, but not required.)
• Optional: Create a TweetDeck or HootSuite account.
• In your "Thing 9: Twitter" blog post, reflect on your experience with Twitter. If you have a Twitter account that you wish to share, include your Twitter "handle" in your post. What are your thoughts about using Twitter professionally? Did you use it prior to the program? Did you try out TweetDeck or HootSuite? Do you think you'll continue to use Twitter professionally? 

Thing 8: Digital Storytelling

Welcome to Thing 8!

One of technology's greatest benefits is the way it opens up the range of assessment and assignment options. If you've ever wanted students to tell a story, explain a concept, persuade an audience, etc. but craved an alternate to an essay/PowerPoint/poster, then digital storytelling is here to save the day!

According to digital storytelling guru Alan Levin, digital storytelling "is a multi-segment narrative that uses more than one type of media (images + text, audio + images, etc) that are assembled on the web, and can be presented on the web or embedded into other web sites."

Here is my first attempt at a digital story. I loved it, and feel like the possibilities of digital storytelling are endless!


Song Credit: "Connected", Luke Dick
Flickr CC-licensed Photo Credits:
https://flic.kr/p/2bux9E
https://flic.kr/p/5Zs2FS
https://flic.kr/p/aFy1dF
https://flic.kr/p/aiDHHS 
https://flic.kr/p/dH159r
https://flic.kr/p/2uKyU

Wendy D. also created some great examples of digital storytelling, which she has posted on her blog. She made one for class (the story of Macbeth as original rap!) and one that is more personal. Both have great potential to be used with students as well!

Another great place to see some powerful digital stories is at StoryCenter.org. Many of these are very moving stories of place, family, and identity.

One of the best resources for digital storytelling examples and ideas is from the DS106 massive open online course (MOOC). The course originally started as a traditional university course-- Digital Storytelling 106, but then the instructor wondered what it would be like to put the entire thing online, allowing anyone, anywhere, to participate. For free!

The DS106 site also has an extensive assignment bank, in which I found the idea for the Acrostic Photo digital story that I posted above.
There were so many great ideas, and I chose a bunch that I thought were really cool:
http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/seven-deadly-sins-barbie-style/
http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/acrostic-pictures/
http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/replay-value/
http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/love-in-three-frames/
http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/picturing-prufrock/
http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/movie-scenes-that-changed-our-lives/
http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/video-essay/
http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/text-diagram-into-a-movie/
http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/sports-team-pump-up-video/
http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/a-day-in-your-life-make-it-constanza-decent/
http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/30-second-documentary/
http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/backyard-photo-safari/
http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/adventure-in-a-day/

Another fantastic resource for digital storytelling is Alan Levine's 50+ Web Ways to Tell a Story.
He breaks the process of creating a digital story into 3 components:
Story Ideas
Story Media
Story Tools
Finally, Levine created 50 different digital versions of the same story about his dog Dominoe

Once you have collected your media (if you use someone else's pictures/video, make sure to use copyright-friendly material-- Create Commons Image Search is a good source).

If you use video clips, YouTube has a great video editor which will allow you to attach videos to one another, make enhancements, add music, etc. https://www.youtube.com/editor

TO COMPLETE THING 8:

• View some examples of digital storytelling. StoryCenter.org and the DS106 Assignment Bank have lot of examples (StoryCenter.org's are particularly moving and powerful).
• Create a digital story. Your story should use at least 2 types of media (eg. images, video, text, audio, etc.) Use one of the assignment suggestions above, explore the D106 Assignment Bank, look through Alan Levine's Story Ideas, or come up with your own "assignment." 
• Embed your digital story into your Thing 8 blog post.
• In your "Thing 8: Digital Storytelling" post, reflect on your experience. Did you enjoy the process? What, if anything, did you find challenging? How could you use this in your professional work and/or personal life?

Thing 7: Infographics

Welcome to Thing 7! 

You've probably seen a lot of really cool infographics being shared on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere on the web. According to InfographicsFactory.com, Information graphics or infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge created with the intention of presenting complex information quickly and clearly. You may have seen infographics explaining everything from what your preferred coffee says about your personality to what happens to plastics in the ocean to how much data is being posted online everyday. 
This was my first experience creating an infographic, so I evaluated several different infographics generators and decided to go with infogr.am, although worthy contenders included Visual.ly and Piktochart. I chose infogr.am because the free version includes the ability to add pictures, video, and many different types of charts.

Here is my first effort, using the following website as my info source: http://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/50695-100-days-since-yolanda-numbers

Typhoon haiyan | Create Infographics

Infographics seem to have so much potential for educators, who need to present information in a variety of ways to a variety of audiences. They also have so much potential for students, who need to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways. I mean, really, does the world need another PowerPoint?!

Here is a tutorial I created:

Here are some other resources to get you going:

• 10 Steps to Designing an Amazing Infographic
• Daily Infographic
• How to Choose the Best Chart for Your Data (Lifehacker)
• "Cool Infographics Gallery" on Pinterest

TO COMPLETE THING 7:

• Sign up for an account with infogr.am (feel free to try one of the other infographics programs if you'd prefer, but do try one that you have NOT used before).
• Create an infographic about anything. Your infographic should have at least 3 different components (eg. graph, chart, video, image, number, facts + figures).
• Embed your infographic into your Thing 7 blog post.
• In your "Thing 7: Infographics" blog post, reflect on your experience. How did you find the experience of creating an infographic? How could you use this with students (either to explain something to them or to have them create an infographic to demonstrate their learning)? Do you think you will create more infographics in the future?

Thing 6: Organizing and Saving Content Online

Now that you're on Thing 6, you've made it past the halfway point in the program!

Evernote

One of the biggest challenges posed by shifting more and more of our daily lives into online spaces is organizing and saving it all. My #1 most-used online web tool is Evernote. Evernote acts as a heavy-duty online organizational systems of notebooks, notes, and tags. Anything you find on the web is able to be saved as an Evernote note, and can be filed into any of your Evernote notebooks. Each note can also have multiple "tags", or labels, allowing you to search for individual notes by tags. You can also create new notes, which are useful for making "to-do" lists, taking notes, creating meeting agendas, etc. Evernote is available as an iPhone/iPad/Android app, on the web, and as a desktop software application, allowing you to access any of your notes no matter where you are in the world. Evernote has a Chrome App as well as a Chrome Extension. The extension sits up in your browser-- you simply click on the little elephant icon whenever you want to save something on the web to your Evernote. Finally, you can even share your notebooks with other people, making it a social tool as well as a tool for personal productivity.

Here is an Evernote overview screencast I created to give you a look into my Evernote universe:

Pocket

Another, simpler tool for organizing content on the web is Pocket. Pocket is a way to easily save websites, images and video to your online account for reading and viewing at your convenience. How many times have you thought, "I'll come back and look at that video/picture/article later", only to have it disappear into the ether? Pocket is best for saving web content that you don't necessarily want to keep forever, but that you want to look at at a later date. I use Evernote for content I want to save long-term, and Pocket for content I just want to look at again. Pocket is also available as an iPhone/iPad/Android app as well as on the web, and has a Chrome App and Chrome Extension, making saving and accessing your content easy.

Here is a good Pocket tutorial and overview I found online:

To Complete Thing 6:

• Create an Evernote account.
• Set up some notebooks and start adding notes (websites, new notes, pictures, etc.) with tags.
• Optional (especially if you've been using Evernote for a while): try sharing Notebooks and Notes.
• Create a Pocket account.
• Add some content (websites, images, video, etc.) with tags.
• In your "Thing 6: Organizing and Saving Content Online" post, reflect on your experiences with Evernote and Pocket. What did you think of these tools Would you use one, both, or neither? Have you used them before? How do you normally organize and save online content?
  
  ***If you have used either/both of these tools before, you could instead make a screencast tutorial teaching others how to use them. You could then embed this into your Thing 6 blog post. We can add this to our tech integration websites for others to use!

Thing 5: Screencasting

Welcome to Thing 5!

Screencasting is one of my favorite types of web tools because it can be used in so many ways: creating tutorial videos, digital storytelling, flipped classroom lectures, etc. Many types of screencasting tools exist, some paid and some free, but the one I've used the most is Screencast-o-Matic (the "Chrome Apps & Extensions" screencast embedded in the "Thing 2" post was made using Screencast-o-Matic). The free version of this tool allows you to record screencasts up to 15 minutes, which you can then upload to YouTube and/or save to your computer as a digital .mp4 file. The free version even allows you to film yourself via webcam as you narrate your screencast, an option that really brings Screencast-o-Matic into the realm of being a truly versatile tool. The paid version includes enhanced features such as editing tools, screenshots, webcam-only screencasts, and more, but I have been more than satisfied with the free version.

Here's a screencast I made to demonstrate the webcam narration:



There is an option to click "Start Recording" directly from Screecast-o-Matic's website. I had a problem with this, however, due to not having the correct Java plug-in, so instead I just downloaded the app directly from the website:

If you download the app and are on the Mac side of your computer, to access the app you will just open your Apps folder. If you are on the Windows side of your computer, you open it from "Programs." If you need help, just let me (or a tech integrator) know!

Here is an online tutorial that covers all aspects of getting started with, recording, and publishing Screencast-o-Matic videos: http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/omatic/index.html

To complete Thing 5:

• Create an account at Screencast-o-Matic
• Create a screencast about anything. Try using the webcam-inside-the-screencast feature.
• Upload your screencast to YouTube (it will prompt you to enter your YouTube username, which is just your school email) and/or save it to your computer. You can change the YouTube settings to "Private" if you prefer, or just keep it "Public."
• Add your screencast to your "Thing 5: Screencasting" post (a YouTube video is the easiest way to do this), and reflect on your experience. Did you find Screencast-o-Matic easy to use? Would you rather have more features, or is the free version enough? Do you think you'll use this in your professional work?

Thing 4: Online Quizzing & Student Response Systems

Welcome to Thing 4!

One of the best ways to integrate technology into your work with students is to leverage their mobile technology. You may have seen student response system clickers (they're like little remote controls that a school has to purchase), or maybe you've seen online quizzing demonstrated at a conference, etc. Tools like these allow you to instantly gather feedback for formative assessment, opinion polling, classroom competitions, review sessions, and more. In Thing 4, we will be exploring two of the best free online examples: Socrative (we will be looking at the new 'beta' version of Socrative) and Kahoot!.

Socrative

Socrative has been around for a while and is a favorite tool for many teachers. It is straightforward, simple to use, and does not require students to have their own accounts. Students navigate to a URL (beta.socrative.com), enter their teacher's "room number", and are immediately ready to take the quiz using the web browser of their personal mobile device (iPad, smartphone, laptop, etc.). Results are immediate and are displayed on the teacher's screen. Quiz types include Single Answer (multiple choice, T/F, short answer) or Quiz-Based (self-paced or teacher-paced quizzes, exit tickets, and space race group game). You can even download responses for later review!

Here is a great tutorial video:



Also, for all you pinners out there I found an entire Socrative Media Pinterest board with all sorts of additional Socrative tutorials and resources!

Kahoot!

Like Socrative, Kahoot! is a tool to administer real-time quizzes, surveys, and to start discussions. Its interface is bit more game-like than Socrative's, and you can share "Kahoot!s" you've created with other people, but otherwise it is fairly similar.








Here is a quick tutorial to get you started:

TO COMPLETE THING 4:

• Sign up for a teacher account at Socrative. ***Note: this link (beta.socrative.com) is to the "beta" (new) version of Socrative, so if you have people take your quiz, make sure they use this beta link (instead of just going to socrative.com)
• Do a test run, as recommended by Socrative when you first sign up. You will need 2 devices (eg. computer + laptop, laptop + iPad, etc.)-- one of which will be the "teacher device" and one will be the "student device." Alternatively, grab a friend and have them be your "student", using their own device. You could also use 2 different browsers on the same computer (eg. Chrome & Firefox) Practice using different types of questions (multiple choice, T/F, short answer), creating quizzes, and having your "student" complete exit tickets.
• Optional: try using Socrative with students. Maybe with a whole class, or even just with a few students who can help you test it out.
  -------------------------------------------
• Sign up for an account at Kahoot!.
• Play the Kahoot! quiz I created: http://goo.gl/JwFamx
• 1. When you first go to my Kahoot quiz, you have to sign in with your account. 
  2. Then click "Start Now". It should then give you a PIN number. 
  3. Open a separate tab and go to "kahoot.it". Type in the PIN and a nickname for yourself, then click "Join Game"
  4. Go back to the first tab and click "Start Now" (you should see your nickname). You will see the question and 4 color-coded multiple choice answers.
  5. Go to the second tab and click on the color of your choice to answer each question.
• Respond to this Kahoot! discussion: http://goo.gl/1DcJUw
• Take this Kahoot! survey: http://goo.gl/M0cDsX
• Create a quiz, discussion or survey (or all 3) and paste the link into your blog post.
• Optional: try using Kahoot! with students. Maybe with a whole class, or even just with a few students who can help you test it out.
• In your "Thing 4: Online Quizzing & Student Response Systems" post, reflect on your experiences with Socrative and Kahoot! Which did you prefer? If you tried them with students, describe your experiences. Will you use one or both of these tools in the future?
• Comment on 2 other participants' posts (any post is fine). Choose participants on whose blogs you have not yet commented.