A Lesson in Murmuration

We live in a world where any extraordinary event captured on video must be viewed with mind of a skeptic. This once-in-a-lifetime video, I choose to watch with my heart.

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

The creative collaboration of the starlings is awe inspiring. On top of that, the willingness of the videographers Liberty Smith and Sophie Windsor Clive to release the video with Creative Commons license; and the open sharing of the original music by Emmett Glynn and Band, make my sharing soul smile.

Flocking behaviour has evolved in fish and birds to a level we as human beings can only hope to emulate. Still, I can't help but wonder what might be possible if teachers and students could mimic the murmuration of starlings. This video provides a powerful metaphor for how willing collaboration, distributed leadership, and shared responsibility can bring our classrooms to life.

Taking Risks in Media Creation

When I first began teaching in the late 1980's, I used to use video production as a tool to engage the creative minds of my students. At the time, the equipment was bulky, expensive, and difficult to access. Today in contrast, far more powerful tools for media creation and editing are available in the homes and on the desktops of our students.

This brief podcast introduces a film production project that will put 'at risk' students into the roles of writer; director; properties manager; video-editor; producer; actor...



Do you know of an 'expert' in the field of professional media who can help us out by acting as a mentor and live 'Skype-in' guest?

Photo Credit: pt

Google Wave on the Back-of-a-Napkin

The real challenge of today's World Wide Web, is to condense any idea into a nugget that can be digested by a diverse audience, in very short order. Rather than calling for a 5000 word essay as an explanation, the attention span of today's networked audience demands that that even the most complex idea be distilled into a back-of-the-napkin presentation.

Now that Google Wave is in limited release, this 2 minute explanation is rising the charts as the most efficient way to explain what may soon become E-mail 2.0.



Whether or not Google Wave changes the way we collaborate online, this presentation by Epipheo Studios, serves to remind teachers and students that there is a real art to explaining concepts for today's attention deficit world.

Social Media Revolution

The Social Media Revolution is bigger than most realize. Sources for the statistics in this presentation can be found on the Socialnomics - Social Media Blog. Unfortunately, this message will be missed by those not already in this space...

Top Ten Benefits of Handhelds in the Classroom

One-to-One computing is already here, it's just that we can't experience it on a large scale, until we accept the validity of cell phone technology in the classroom. Here are just a few examples of the potential of this micro-computer technology, should we allow students to bring wifi enabled mobile communicators to school:


1] Photography: Students will leverage cell phone cameras to document science experiments; to create photo essays; to archive learning experiences...

2] Cloud Apps: Wifi enabled cell phones will provide access to instant news; collaborative wikis; and a wide variety of other web-based documents. What's more, access to documents will allow both reading & writing.

3] Synchronous Audio: Whether linking with classmates; or connecting with relevant real world experts, the potential for free communication via Skype and other wifi services will further erode classroom walls.

4] File-sharing: Savvy teachers will engage personal computers as Bluetooth servers to automate the delivery of text, audio, and mixed media content to student hand-helds. For examples of the potential for this technology, visit Jarrod Robinson's blog.

5] Geotagging: As global positioning technology (GPS), becomes common on mobile phones, it will be used to post text, audio and photo content with automatic tags to geographic locations. Partnered with Quick Response codes (QR tags) the resulting cloud content can be drawn to hand-helds through the snapping of photos.

6] Podcasting: Recent studies are demonstrating the value of recordings to student learners who are growing up in a world of random access. With the potential for retrieving content produced by both students and teachers, the use of portable audio as a universal design for learning, is long overdue.

7] Streaming: Besides allowing handhelds to view streaming content, apps on the iPhone and other modern mobile phones, now allow live audio and video broadcasting. Classroom channels will soon share learning with parents and other interested community members.

8] Tweet-notes: Two-way Twitter feeds now available via mobile clients, can connect students to students; classrooms to classrooms; teachers to teachers. Realizing that text message conversations provide opportunities to save, share and search ideas, we may soon be using Twitter Search as often as we use Google.

9] Learning Through Gaming: Video game producers have been slow to meet educational needs with their hand-held devices, but Flash-based learning activities are becoming ubiquitous on the wider web. As mobile browsers evolve to represent this content, every classroom will have open access to engaging learning apps.

10] The World at Hand: The day's global news; electronic libraries; and user-generated content will be available to each student. With the sum of all human knowledge in the palm of the hand, educators will be forced to address issues of validity and bias, and will have to re-think how students can demonstrate their learning. I for one, await the advent of the open phone test!


What other educational changes can we expect, once we welcome mobile phones in the regular classroom?


Photo Credit: Jason Jerde

A Few Good Wikis

Major Mark Rea at the United States Military Academy at West Point is making use of video technology and Wetpaint Wikis to engage cadets in their learning about Military Movement. Today at noon, I had a brief conversation with Mark about how he's leveraging these technologies to teach aspiring military leaders.



Mark Rea’s Wetpaint Wikis
Military Movement/Gymnastics
Mark's Podcast Archive
Army Unit Fitness
Ultimate Frisbee
Faculty Development

Creative Commons Chaos

In an attempt to bring some order to the chaos of Creative Commons licensing, I've created a list of resources that educators might share with students as a starting point for all manner of creative projects. To explain a bit about each resource, I've appended a 3 word summary to each CC tools/resource.

If these don't suit your purposes, check out the ever-expanding CC Content Directories.



Audio
ccMixter: sample-remix-create
CC Mixter Dig Tool: simple-search-sample
Free Music Archive: free-music-radio
Free Sound Project: FX-variety-sounds
Sound Bible: licensed-sounds-FX
opsound: music-soundtracks-voice
Sound Transit: samples-environment-sounds
BeatPick: listen-think-create
Free Loops: loops-loops-loops
SoundClick: music-downloads-community
Jamendo: music-artists-sharing
Owlmm: music-search-simplified
Magnatune: listen-download-license
FreePlayMusic: free-music-library
Audacity Tutorials: teach-audacity-podcasting
Sutros: musicians-share-music
The 61: independent-music-democracy

Photos & Images
Wylio: photo-attribution-embed
Flickr: choice-photographers-community
Compfight: search-Flickr-safe
Vezzle: free-stock-search
FlickrStorm: search-Flickr-licenses
Behold: search-Flickr-safe-history
Simple CC Flickr Search: search-Flickr-safe-attribution
Idée Lab: Multicolor: search-Flickr-colours
Image Codr: attribute-cc-images
Cool Image Bank: share-collection-images
EveryStockPhoto: global-stock-photography
More CopyFriendly Media: copyleft-media-education
Sprixi: embed-attribution-automatically

Movies
Big Buck Bunny: animation-remix-share
Elephants Dream: animation-creative-shareable
Nasty Old People: film-torrent-donation
Star Wreck: movie-clips-original
Insecurity: film-online-download
Prelinger Archives: public domain-remix-archive
RIP: remix-manifesto-movie
Khan Academy: lessons-blackboard-teacher


Text
Free Culture: Lawrence Lessig-copyright-creativity
O'Reilly Open Books: choice-book-publishing
Bound by the Law: copyright-comic-remix
Tree of Life Web Project: contribute-wiki-life
Little Brother Cory Doctorow-share-remix
Abracadabra!: book-Beatles-Revolver
Samandal Comics Magazine: comic-magazine-creative
21st Century Technology Tools: Liz Davis-tutorials-ICT
55 Ways to Have Fun with Google: Philippe Lenssen-Google-ideas
Open Thinking Wiki: Alec Couros-wiki-ICT
MIT OpenCouseware: courses-lessons-multimedia

License Your Creative Content
Internet Archive: archive-public domain-media
Blip.tv: simple-video-upload
Slideshare.net: slideshow-CC-downloads


Plenty more CC licensed content is available from the Creative Commons Content Directories. What other Creative Commons resources do you recommend?

CC logo: Drew Baldwin

Billion Channel Universe

On Saturday evening, my brother Todd happened by with his Qik equipped iPhone. Although the technology is not yet ready for release to the iTunes App Store, it is easy to see how this technology will be another educational 'game-changer'.

Think about the magnitude of this change:

"Anyone with a mobile device, will soon be able to broadcast live to the web from wherever they are! And anyone with a web-enabled device will be able to watch the feed from wherever they are!"

- provide live updates from a field trip
- simulcast from a concert
- report from a sporting event
- provide updates from the site of a news event
- share traffic and weather updates from anywhere

So as Todd and I chatted about the need for education; industry; and John Q. Public to become aware of such technologies, we couldn't help but use the tool to share our discussion... broadcast live (and recorded) from my dining room table, in Komoka, Ontario.

Attend Lectures at Home: Apply Skills in Class

Teachers are joining students in learning and applying new skills at Woodland Park High School in Colorado Springs. Sharing their experiences in educational vodcasting makes for a good back-to-school news story, but more than that, the approach of Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams might lead teachers to think about why they teach the way they do, and to re-assess the value of in-class lectures.



Whether or not students would see the viewing of lectures as 'work' there are a number of reasons that I love this strategy:

Kids demonstrate their knowledge and understanding during class;

Students can be observed applying appropriate strategies/skills;

Teachers have time to coach all learners;

Students have ready access to the teacher support when 'working';

This strategy allows time for oral exams; consultation; performance assessment;

Collaborative projects can more readily be undertaken with the time available;

Teachers get to meet regularly with learners and to act as mentors and co-learners;

Lessons can be reviewed as necessary by students;

Great lectures can be saved, recalled, re-used...


What am I missing?

Uncommonly Creative Craftsmanship

Educators can learn a lot from the messages crafted by Lee and Sachi Lefever at Common Craft. This team is very effective at explaining the hows and whys of evolving web technologies, through the manipulation of simple hand-drawn paper cutouts, choreographed to a 'plain English' voiceover. The power of the explanations, lies in the fact that the hosts use common real world situations in order to make the tools relevant for the audience.

Here is an explanation I've been waiting for: Podcasting in Plain English:



I'd love to see similar videos produced specifically for teacher and student audiences, and I think this chore is best left to the learners themselves. While most would be prone to mimicking the Common Craft technique, I'd recommend that students develop and implement their own styles using live action, animation, or photography. Tune in to 'Learning in Virtual Worlds, 'today's Teacher 2.0 podcast for ideas about how to engage students in this type of work.

If you'd like to see more Common Craft explanations in Plain English, or if you or your students would like to contribute your own explanations, take time to visit the Web 2.0 Wiki-Dictionary.

Google Docs, Great for Surveys!

Have you seen how simple it is to use Google to create an online survey?

Google Documents, the free online document creator has been available for a few years, and though still in 'beta', now boasts documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Even so, new treats continue to be added...

Whether or not you have a Gmail account, you may be very interested in this video tutorial that demonstrates how to harness the new survey tool to gather data that will automatically populate a Google spreadsheet.



If you're new to Google Documents, you'll appreciate the explanation below, courtesy of the folks at CommonCraft:

A Rival to iTunes?!

Adobe has just launched its new Media Player and it looks like quite an impressive Air application. This is a self-contained application that allows you to subscribe to a wide variety of media feeds, and no doubt will be a key RSS delivery mechanism for many content producers.

Finally, we may have an HD alternative to low resolution Google Video and YouTube. Will it soon rival iTunes in popularity? If you have Adobe Air pre-installed, the ease of download/installation indicates that Adobe is off to a running start!

I'm thinking it might be worth a teacher's time to set up a site for hosting media content that could be subscribed through this media player. Whether posting professional development content, self-produced teacher media, or exemplars of student work, this medium could take electronic portfolios to a whole new level. Then again, how long might it take for schools to make available applications for publishing or subscribing to media content?

The screencast below is a real-time, first visit installation that was almost too easy!

Teaching with Video

I'm still learning new tricks... I think that that's what I've been loving most about sharing ideas online. I'm being exposed to new tools, and I'm finding ways to leverage them for learning, both for myself and for a steadily growing audience.

Today I began using a few tools that may be new to you. First I created my first first ever video podcast using ScreenFlow. The show appears below, and is a tutorial on how I use Garageband to record my audio podcast: Teacher 2.0.



The interface for ScreenFlow is even simpler than iMovie which I've used for many years, so even though the tutorial appears to have benefitted from complex video-editing, it took me only about 70 minutes to create this piece.

Once complete, I uploaded the movie (.mov) to Blip.tv, and the free online service converted the file to Flash format, and added it to my 'channel'. Thanks to the RSS feed built into blip.tv, I was able to launch a new video podcast on iTunes.

I'm not sure how much time I'll have to create in this format, but now that everything is in place, I have a home and some familiarity with a new production tool that just might motivate me to create the odd video tutorial. For now, I'll continue with the more predictable workflow, as in today's 'March Madness" podcast.

Smart Mobs and a More Cooperative Future

Thanks to Robin Good's nudge, I've taken some time to explore Howard Rheingold's inquiry about cooperation. Understanding that the most effective evolving web 2.0 tools relies on cooperative participation, "A New Story About the Way Humans Get Things Done" has many ramifications for education.

I agree with Howard Rheingold's contention that the dynamics of social/collective action can be multiplied by the use of communications technologies... like cell phones. His 2002 book: Smart Mobs, set the stage for the recently released TED Talk he gave three years ago. It's 18 minutes of information that is of great importance to those actively creating the future of education.



In a more complete screencast, Howard uses images and voice to teach about cooperative strategies. If you have the time, see how the work of "smart mobs" are creating the potential for a more collaborative and less competitive future. The Cooperation Commons seeks to model this work in sharing research and resources on this topic. Key quote: "The most important new technologies will not be hardware or software, but social practices."

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