Linking together Technology. One Piece at a Time.

Final Collaboration Project Reflection

Karie Dovell — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 12:20:33 +0000

This semester I had the opportunity to work with Keith Silverside and his grade 1 class from Moose Jaw. Our first interaction was through Skype. Here we got to know more about one another through the questions asked.

Keith Silverside’s Grade 1 class

Check out Keith’s class blog.

Keith sent me 3 projects he was working on at the time.
1. I’m e-pals with a grade 3 class in Lumsden and we are thinking of story writing and sharing our stories with each other somehow.
2. Another idea involves a project called Tomatosphere (www.tomatosphere.org) where we have received tomato seeds from the Canadian Space Agency that have been at the international space station. We are to germinate the seeds to see if there has been any ill effect from being exposed to a “space” atmosphere.
3. I am also e-pals with a grade 1 classroom in Belgrade, Serbia (teacher is Marianna Whaley). So far we have just exchanged some questions to respond to. Have any ideas on how to respond? I have included our questions as an attachment.I do have a Flip digital video camera.

I put on my thinking cap and came up with the idea to create a Wiki that would present different ways to tell stories. The title of my new wiki is called Sharing Stories Around The World This Wiki not only provides an example of a story using a specific tool, but you will also find a link to the basic set-up and how-to’s. My goal at the end of the day was for Keith to succeed with his classes story sharing. This goal had also helped push me to learn how to: Podcast, use Windows Movie Maker and use Animoto. Through this collaboration process I benefited too. I found new tools and learned how to use them for my personal and classroom application too. Thank you Darin, Andea, and Keith for sharing stories and/or tutorials for my Wiki.

Here are a couple different ways to share stories. Check out my wiki to see them all.

The Kissing Hand By Audry Penn (Click on this link to hear the podcast)

In the future I intend to keep adding to this wiki– sharing stories around the world. I am looking forward to trying some of the comic storytelling sites I have saved in my Diigo.

I enjoyed working with Keith. We interacted a lot through e-mail contributing our learning, struggles, epiphanies and even some goofy photos.

As the semester comes to an end I am looking forward to finishing up my reading on all the blog posts and the final project postings.

If you are reading this that also means that I have finished my last assignment for this semester concluding my educational experience in the Elementary program here at the University of Regina– other than one final left next week. Congrats to any of you who are completing your degree this spring and good luck to the rest of you who will be resuming in the fall! All the best!!

President’s Medal Update

Karie Dovell — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 21:29:39 +0000

I posted a previous blog about the day I received a letter qualifying to apply for the President’s Medal. This Medal is awarded to one individual at the University of Regina, who has completed their degree with a minimum academic standing of 80 and demonstrated committment and leadership abilities throughout the duration. I began reflecting on the last 5 years at the University and prepared my material for the application a little bit everyday. I thank all of you who helped with my preparation, took the time to write me my reference letters, gave me valuable words of wisdom, or encouraged me with tips to set aside some time everyday to write down information to help save the workload. You have all helped me successfully complete the requirements needed within a busy time at the University– including being a mom, working, going to classes, and preparing for future career opportunities. It is an honour to qualify for such a prestigious award while being a mom with very active children. With that said I realized that we should be proud of our goals that we have accomplished in our lives. Thank-you everyone!!

Good luck to all the other participants that qualified! Chantelle I am also curious to whether you decided to send in your material for the application? You will have to update us too.

Taking a moment

Karie Dovell — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 05:38:34 +0000

This photo was taken by my daughter while on a ski trip. I was laying back relaxing in the snow at the top of the ski hill and this is a kodak moment she captured. I really love the red in the photo.

RSS Feeds in Netvibes

Karie Dovell — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 02:36:35 +0000

I am happy to report that RSS feeds of the ECOMP 455 blogs ended up working great in my netvibes account. I was able to organize the blog RSS feeds into my Netvibes Digital Dashboard. I can click on the preferred module to view the blog I would like to read. You also have access to view news feeds in each blog module created.

NetVibes vs. Google reader

NetVibes allows you to view as many news feeds as you wish and will always show the news feeds whether you viewed them or not. I also have less issues trying to access the blog in terms of speed within NetVibes.

Google Reader notifies you in your account when you have a new blog post to read. This is a nice tool to have to keep you updated on new blog posts.

I have also created my first screencast. I appologize for the sound quality. I seem to be having a few issues with my microphone. The screencast shows you how to successfully post an RSS feed for blogs into your NetVibes.

Click this link to see my first screencast I created
Netvibes RSS Feeds

Interview with a Learner- Brian Crosby

Karie Dovell — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 20:16:35 +0000

I chose to do my interview with Brian Crosby. Brian is an elementary teacher who has been in this profession for 27 years now. He teaches grades 4, 5 and 6 in Sparks, Nevada, and has infused technology into teaching since the 1980’s. Check out Brian’s valuable insights on his blog. You can also check out his class blog. Brian encourages his students to write strong interesting blogs and hands out blog posts of the week award for inspiration. Here is an example of one students post on The Legend of Nessie. His students blog, Skype, make Wiki pages, produce digital videos, podcasts and vidcasts. Brian is also the author of Video conferencing, web 2.0 apps help distance learners feel included and co-author of Making across the country feel like across the classroom (Using google Docs in your classroom).

Brian displays an incredible amount of passion towards his teaching career. After viewing his wikis, blogs, awards, etc you see how important his students are to him. He seems like a caring teacher whose students are at his best interest. In this picture below is a blog post Don’t Laugh at Me posted in the Ed Community Apple site. This video was created by Brian and his class using the song Don’t Make Me Laugh with their own pictures and videos. This video received the 2003 Apple iLife Award. Excellent video created!

The interview ended up being through e-mail. We could not seem to find a time when Skype could fit into both of our schedules at the same time. I think that the experience would have been enriching but the answers that are written up by Brian are very helpful.

Question 1: I see that you use twitter. Time is a virtue in the lives of a parent, teacher, etc. I have a hard time utilizing twitter into my schedule. Why do you use twitter and how has it helped you collaborate to be a better educator? Do you have any tips for me to easily fit twitter into my daily routine?

Twitter: Twitter has to be experienced to be understood. Once you meet a “critical mass” of followers and people you follow (not sure what that number is … maybe about 100 of each?) it starts to pay off big. It is absolutely one of the most important parts of my own Professional Learning Network / Professional Development learning and making contact pieces. I hardly left any Tweets today but I checked in for a minute or so several times today and knew generally what was going on with my contacts world-wide. If I have a question about just about anything from a tech question to something about teaching, pedagogy, where to find out something, and so on, I usually find out very quickly to quickly from people that I have learned to trust. I set up Skype calls, blogging experiences for my students and on and on through Twitter. BUT, what makes it even more powerful is my blog, my class blog, Skype, Wiki pages and so on because I meet more contacts that way and they all leverage each other.

TIPS?: Every chance you have to get on Twitter make a comment of some kind … even just the weather or something that went well or wrong or whatever … especially anything that has an education bent to it … comment back to someone you are following about something they’ve said … and then do so anytime you have 1 minute to an hour. Also go to Dean Shareski’s or my Twitter pages for a start, and note who we follow and converse with and follow them … some of them will follow you back. Follow people you know … again anytime you have a few minutes follow 1 person more even. You will build up to that critical mass I mentioned before.

Question 2: Do you have contacts that you have never met personally from around the world that embed into your classroom learning? If so how have these experiences enhanced student learning in your classroom?

Tons! More of those than ones I’ve met. Example: I work a lot with a teacher in Long Island, New York that I actually met through Twitter AND our class blogs. She liked the kinds of comments my students left on her students blogs and so had them start commenting on my students’ blogs and then we noted we were both on Twitter and kept up with what each others’ students were doing. We ended up using Twitter, Skype. Email, Wiki’s and Text to design and then work together on several award winning projects before we ever met at the awards ceremony when our classes won awards for their work. We are now under contract writing a book about blogging (we are using Google Docs to write the book).

I have done several projects with a teacher in New Zealand that I have still never met in person after 3 years. There are hundreds of teachers I have worked with (some in Saskatchewan, one in Ontario right now that my class is doing a blogging project with that I have never met). We blog and Skype and wiki with students in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, China, Thailand, Argentina and more.

Question 3: I have a passion for discovering new tools, websites, etc. available for us in cyberspace to use at home or in my future classroom. What are some of your favourite tools that you find valuable in your classroom to connect with your students or others around the world?

Skype, Wiki’s Blogs, Flickr, Podcasting, Video, – here is a link to our class wiki page – note at the bottom a link to many of our projects:

http://crosbyclass.wikispaces.com/

Also my blog has numerous posts about projects my class has taken on:

http://learningismessy.com/blog/

Probably our best known project is a video my last class of 4th graders made. It has been downloaded over 500,000 times … about 5 minutes long:

http://www.arisleyschool.org/Inclusion.mov

Question 4: What is one example of a time when you used technology to enhance learning which was successful? not successful?

I would refer back to our class wiki page for examples of successful projects.

Not successful: We’ve worked on several projects over the years that we didn’t get done as far as a finished product – 2 years ago we put in quite a bit of time on a video about blogging in the classroom. We never got it done … had problems with an old laptop that after one group edited video on it, would not let us get the video back off … some sound issues, and more. Just ran out of school year. But the students wrote scripts for it, designed scenes, discussed and argued about the best way to do certain parts … so it was not wasted time … but just last week one of the students that worked on that project (now a 7th grader) reminded me about it and wishes we had gotten it done.

I am truly inspired by Brian’s knowledge and accomplishments. I see my self connecting with many people around the world just like him. I think it will come a lot more naturally when I have my own classroom. I will be able to create and share so much with my community of learners and thus share with others around cyberspace. I am now going to take Brian’s advice and start following more people on twitter and build up my critical mass. I have a-ways-to-go yet but anything is possible I will try to get on twitter once or twice a day even if it is for 1 minute and share a little educational input or reply on a tweet. I wrote about the weather this morning

A warm thank-you goes out to Brian and all his helpful tips, links, and valuable information shared. Here are some of the awards he has been recognized for over the years.

The 2008 SIGTel Online Learning Award
Apple iLife Award, 2003, Video: Don’t Laugh At Me
Lumiere Film Festival Winner 2003, 2004
Reno Film Festival Winner 2003
WCTA Distinguished Teacher
Washoe County School District Science Cadre

Contact info: learningismessy@gmail.com
Skype: learningismessy
Twitter: bcrosby

NetVibes Take > 4

Karie Dovell — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 05:24:23 +0000

Well after a few more weeks of tinkering around in NetVibes I have become a strong advocate for the website. It has many great options to help keep all your websites, links, and bookmarking organized. NetVibes is a digital dashboard that can be easily accessed anywhere. If you are away from home you never have to worry about remembering those URL’s, podcasts, or names of the tools that you love to use. All of this can be saved into NetVibes to be accessed anywhere at anytime.. as long as the internet is working

Here are a few more topics that I addressed.

I changed my theme
Here is what the old theme looked like

Here is what my new theme looks like

You need to go into the settings found on the top right corner in NetVibes to change the theme. You can change the theme in the gallery. You can also customize the theme you choose or there is a new feature to create your own theme. I have not tried out this tool yet. I chose mine from the gallery and never customized the colors any further either.

I updated my profile and added a profile picture

I added in some of my favourites into a NetVibe tab or Diigo

I have a lot of favourites saved onto my computer toolbar. I have taken many of them off and saved them as a tab in my NetVibes or into my Diigo account according to lists or groups I have created. Diigo is a great social bookmarking site to save a lot of these websites I have been accumulating over the years. Whenever I open up my NetVibes account I can go directly to my diigo to search for a website I am looking for at any computer anywhere, not just at home.
You can see all of the tabs that I have saved on my dashboard. Right now since reading through articles or what is happening in the news is not higher up the the hierarchy right now, the majority of my time is spent visiting my homepage, blogs, wikis, youtube, and diigo. When more time is available for me I will be interested in listening more to the CBC Sparks or reading articles, that are of interest to me, more often.
I love the to-do list modules. I can keep track of the upcoming school work for the week or for a couple weeks in advance to help stay organized and on task. When school is feeling very overwhelming, I write up the most important assignments and focus on them one at a time.

I made my page public (I changed the name from Shiels3k to Ms. Shiels Digital Dashboard)

I have a private page– Karie’s Digital Dashboard
I have a public page– Ms. Shiels Digital Dashboard
Under my Ms. Shiels Digital Dashboard you can add friends to share your dashboard with.

When I made my page public I took the initiative this afternoon to invite all my peers from ECOMP 455 and see how sharing my dashboard works. I hope to branch out this digital dashboard further in the future in hopes to share my profile and interests with others. I also hope that I can promote NetVibes to friends who will sign up and I will have others to follow too.

Take a NetVibe Tour
If you are interested and you would like more information check out the Netvibe Tour site

After I complete my online teaching of NetVibes, I will include the powerpoint presentation and a recording of my teaching to share with you. If you are interested in reading the first three blogs that I created about NetVibes click on the NetVibes category on the left of my blog or click on the links below.

Blog 1

Blog 2

Blog 3

You will have also noticed that I learned how to take screenshots. I will try to post a blog really soon explaining two different ways you can take screenshots.

The Canadian National Anthem Dispute

Karie Dovell — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 22:53:39 +0000

We, Chelsea Hamilton, Amy McDonald, and Karie Shiels are preparing for our moral education presentation and we chose the recent disputed topic regarding the lyrics of the Canadian National Athem.

The questioning of these lyrics arose shortly after the closing ceremonies of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Harper suggested that changing the lyric “In all thy son’s command” would achieve the appearance of heightened gender equality. For this topic we are asking you the public your opinion regarding this issue/dispute.

Here are a few questions we developed to help get you thinking
1. Did you give any second thought to the lyrics?
2. Are there other lyrics within the Anthem you think would be necessary to change if the goal is to heighten equality?
3. If you are woman, did these lyrics offend you before this debate arose?
4. Is this false dichotomy? At what point does this become too much or blown out of proportion?

Windows Movie Maker

Karie Dovell — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 05:47:05 +0000

Here is a video that my youngest daughter created using the Windows Movie Maker program tonight. I am amazed how our children can create these without any help!

Reflective Blogging

Karie Dovell — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:05:39 +0000

When it comes to technical or social blogging I find no problems finding topics to post about. Blogging about the tools I am trying out, the step-by-step instructions about how to use the tools, the relationships I have made worldwide, or the blogs and wikis that I have created or partake in is so simple for me. This type of blogging comes naturally to me and I seem to have no barriers when doing it. I love the social interaction I have kept with my internship class through our blogging. Some days I feel like I have never left their classroom. I do need to find a balance because I am definitely getting addicted to it! I am posting on my family blog, internship blog, this ECOMP blog, commenting on peers blogs and sharing in my new Wiki I created. It seems to be taking over my running on the treadmill and being outside!

Reflective blogging on the otherhand does not come so naturally. I am a reflective person. I reflected everyday in the classroom during my intership. I am a strong believer that reflective practice is important in the teaching career. If I never reflect I would never know what worked and what didn’t work to guide me for the next time! I teach a “learning for all” model. There are some teaching styles, models, or practices that I strongly disagree with but for the most part I use a little of everything and I may use more or less depending on what my classroom requires. What do you call this type of reflective practice? Why can I not feel strongly about a topic? Everyday I feel strongly about a different teaching method depending on the context? (Is there a term for this?) I am always focusing on ways to teach and use what works but cannot find that interest to get into it more deeply. I love inquiry-based learning in the classroom but I also use the direct approach. The same goes for technology. It is important to find the time to incoporate computers into the classroom but that should not be the focus every class. Is there a list of the debates others are having on the web so that I can get involved? How do I get interested in reading all these articles that are out there? I am struggling with this. Any words of wisdom? What are you talking about?

Sharing Stories Around The World

Karie Dovell — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:07:49 +0000

For my collaboration project I was racking my brain over the last little while trying to think of different ways we can share stories on cyberspace. I came up with:
–Photostory
Thanks Andrea for your examples http://aarngrimson.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/the-very-cranky-bear/
–Windows Movie Maker
–Podcasting
–Animoto
–Voicethreads
–Yodio
–50 ways to tell a story
Let me know if you have a story to share using one of the 50 ways to tell a story. I would like to provide as many examples as I can to share with Keith, providing him with some ideas to use for his first topic:
I’m e-pals with a grade 3 class in Lumsden and we are thinking of story writing and sharing our stories with each other somehow.

If you have any other ideas please share them with me, we can put them on the wiki I started
http://sharingstoriesaroundtheworld.wikispaces.com/

Here is the my first story I shared using the Windows Movie Maker program. I may use screenshots or try out screencasting for step-to-step instructions on how to use each of the tools too.