As part of the final paper for this course, we have been given the challenge of summarizing our final paper. A very hard task! In looking at the tools we have utilized, I tried to think of a tool I could use that hasn’t been covered, but one I find very useful for staff at our school……Camtasia. A great screen capture tool. One of many out there. It is quite expensive, and there are some other options such as Jing and Screenflow, however Camtasia would have to be the best one I have used…or perhaps I am just used to it. We use this regularly to help staff learn new tools or understand a process. This one goes for 3 mins…….probably the maximum amount you would want to do, as they can be VERY dry. I try to be as fast as possible when showing staff things like……how to shrink an image, or convert a file etc……enjoy!
Just watched this slideshare by Mindy Zhang on Social Media in China. Some huge figures to digest here…..I enjoyed particularly the first half of this slideshare. One that surprised me was 95 million rural netizens! Living and working in Shanghai you can sometimes forget just how big the rest of China is, especially when you take out of the equation the big cities…..Got this from Thomas Crampton’s blog.
Please copy and paste to your blog the following scenarios. Under each scenario write your response to the questions….. Use the questions as a guide to write a response to this situation outlining what you would do if you were Jan and Marcos(don’t include the questions on your blog, use them as starting points) These activities were taken from the Cybersmart website
SCENARIO ONE
Jan, a fifth grader, likes to visit Web sites about her favorite actress.Her friend tells her about a site with fun photos of the actress making her latest film.After school, Jan types the Web address she thinks is correct.Instead of finding photos
of the star on a movie set, she finds pictures that upset her. Jan is embarrassed by the photos.She realizes she must have entered the wrong site address (or URL).She is afraid she will get in trouble with her parents.Scared, Jan stays away from cyberspace for a few days.
What words in this story tell that Jan feels uncomfortable?
What advice would you give Jan?
SCENARIO TWO
Marcos, likes going into cyberspace to talk to his school buddies.Lately, one of his buddies is using rude language in his messages.Marcos is uncomfortable with such language.He is afraid his parents will see the words on his computer screen and get angry.Then they might take away his messaging privileges. Marcos’ buddy doesn’t use these words in school or at the park.
Why do you think his buddy acts differently in cyberspace?
What do you think Marcos should do about the problem?
LET”S FLIP OUT TOGETHER!!!!
Using the flips in pairs explain about uncomfortable feelings and tell how they can take action when these feeling occur online.
In class I will show you how to upload your video to the portal and then embed on your blog……Let’s get started!!!!
One amazing thing about slideshare is the community that can develop. If we place our Keynotes on slideshare we are basically saying “please use” I have ideas that you might find interesting……….I know with my recent Keynote, I am hoping by placing it on slideshare that at least one idea or thought could be used by someone else……Now some would say, “but I made it….it’s mine! I’m not sharing”. In these times, it will only shrink you and your ideas/thinking. I know I am richer for visiting slideshare and viewing their top hits or recently uploaded. Have a search….you will be surprised as to what you find. Two that caught my eye that I found just fascinating and would love to have been at the presentation is Matias Klang’s on Human Rights and Technology This presentation caught my eye as living in China this topic comes up regularly….even at our school with the introduction of the 1:1 Laptop program, and use of tools such as Apple Remote Desktop; Policing and management is a hot topic (through my lens) and finding a balance that doesn’t infringe on Human Rights can be a slippery pole. Check it out…….
The second presentation that I would have enjoyed being at would be David Stutts, 10 Trends to watch in 2010. A fascinating read, especially his rationale on why these trends matter? As a teacher, keeping abreast of the times is hard…..Seeing that Marketers are also scrambling to keep up with change makes me optimistic as to what and how we are teaching our students to become adaptable and change direction in a heartbeat….if you think how new the apple App store is and how it has enhanced (changed?) my life……wow!…..Check it out……….
As promised, here is the presentation on Digital Literacy. Unfortunately Slideshare doesn’t embed the videos that accompanied my presentation. So you will also find the extended versions of the movies that were included in the presentation.
I must credit pmacoun and his excellent post on digital literacy. His graphic allowed me to gather all the necessary components of a decent Digital Literacy presentation.
Compiling this presentation has formalized for me the importance of being digitally literate and how Elementary students are so switched on already that with a little guidance we can channel this literacy to meet the educational (constraints?) needs, of the schooling environment. It has also given me countless ideas for lessons in upper Elementary. I remember in high school writing essay after essay and attaching to the front, a form with the Audience, Purpose etc of the writing piece….I also remember setting the same task for my 12th graders……it seemed so fake at times as there was no real audience…….boy how web2.0 has changed this!!!!
The most widely used websites, by me as a parent and educator would have to be Childnet, this site also has a section on Music which is interesting. Digizen, Connectsafely, Ceop, and my favourite, Commonsense. Common sense has a great section on advice for parents. In China with the plethora of DVD’s available and the covers not always matching the contents….I find this site great for advice on age appropriate DVD’s.
The first by Sir Ken Robinson….an inspiring thought provoking look at Education in the 21st Century saying Schools kill creativity. I would encourage anyone interested in Education to also visit his website.
Marc Prensky has 2 Articles that I have taken information from, the most famous being this one. His Digital Native and Digital Immigrant explains succinctly the technological change that has taken place.
The machine is using us……. I enjoy this in terms of its pacing. This is a great example of my mind as a Digital Immigrant keeping up with the bombardment of information. I think it would be interesting to view this through the eyes of a Digital Native……..
BBC’s Flying Penguins……
Sexual Exploitation- Bulletin board…….posting of photos.
Cyberbullying….texting, if you wouldn’t say it in person……..
I hope some of the above information/slides can be used by educators. I would also be interested in exploring this topic in lower elementary with fellow educators. It’s extremely difficult getting to all classes, and this social environment lends itself to upper elementary more. The teachers at Shanghai American School would have to be some of the most Digital Literate I have worked with and I would like to support lower elementary even more, by forging long, strong developmentally appropriate ties with other teachers and students.
I don’t know about you but I am so tired of switching on my laptop the proxy in firefox from Manual for work to “Auto-detect” at home…………Not any more!!!!! And I have no idea why I didn’t seek this baby (add-on) out earlier. I think I became stuck in my old ways but having been given a brand new Mac from the Powers that be, I needed to find a quick switch………..Quickproxy does just that.
It sits as an add-on down the bottom right of my firefox window. I love it….very fast….very cool. The “Green P” is when the proxy is turned on for work, and when I return home I click the “P” and it goes red. Once you have installed it you will have to go to settings and use the Automatic Configuration and pop the URL for your work in there…….if I work with you, come and I will put the URL in once you have installed Quickproxy if you don’t know it.
3.The Bookmarks Manager opens. Click Import and backup
4. Click Export HTML
5. Save the bookmark.html file wherever you wish.
Now you can use the file to import the bookmarks into another program.
Exporting your Favourites from Internet Explorer is much the same…
1. Click on File
2. Click Import and Export
3. Follow the Wizard through the steps……to save your favourites you will want to click the second one Export Favorites
Again, make sure you save it somewhere and with a name you will remember.
Good luck!
Now to import these onto your new computer is pretty much the same process just click Import…..but……..
As we are now all computer gurus…..now is the time to open an account with either Delicious or Diigo.
These 2 great sites allow you to store and share your bookmarks online, so you can access your bookmarks wherever you are in the world, not just on the one computer. We would be more than happy to help you set up an account if you don’t have one. You then could import all your bookmarks you saved earlier into your new account. The grade 5 team all know how to use diigo or delicious, so if you’re sitting next to one of them I am sure they can answer your questions!
As we only have 6 weeks left, let’s try and be ultra organized and have everything stored safely for the break. Over the coming weeks stay tuned for tips and tricks of how to back everything up and store it safely. I bought a 250GB external hard drive from best buy for 500RMB…..pretty good value I think.
This week let’s concentrate on looking after all your itunes music. Apple have two great pages with the whole process set out step by step, one for backing up to a hard drive and another for dvd’s/cd’s.
If you have less than 4GB of music maybe backing up to a DVD will be for you….I like to have everything in the one place so that’s why I am using an external hard drive.
Throughout this exceptional day, I didn’t really have time to review some of the great sites keynoters either mentioned or actually used as part of their presentation….check it out it was worth doing then reviewing…………..
Vivien Stewart presented a compelling view of education in The United States and the thinking that is required by all educational bodies as we find our world shrinking. Probably one of the most important details she emphasized is the need for our students to be global citizens. The need to be bilingual and engage in meaningful projects, connecting to people all over the world.
the questions as a guide to write a response to this situation outlining what you would do if you were Jan and Marcos(don’t include the questions on your blog, use them as starting points) These activities were taken from the Cybersmart website
Now to import these onto your new computer is pretty much the same process just click Import…..but……..
As we only have 6 weeks left, let’s try and be ultra organized and have everything stored safely for the break. Over the coming weeks stay tuned for tips and tricks of how to back everything up and store it safely. I bought a 250GB external hard drive from best buy for 500RMB…..pretty good value I think.
