Social Networking for Lesson Planning

Ever since the first week of our “Internet Tools For Teaching” class, I have found the topics and assignments to be quite timely with my teaching.  This was exactly the case for this week.  The current lesson we are on in my senior-level Film Production Class is to create a “Foodie Video.”  The driving question of the lesson is: “How Can A Series of Tight/Close Shots Be Put Together To Tell A Story?”  The final project is for each student production team to film and edit the process of making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Using “The Pancake” video as a model (http://youtu.be/HsFzpKUXcOs), teams had to follow specific shooting guidelines during the production process, while incorporating their own creative bent at the same time.   Part of the official assignment is below:

Production Team Challenge #1

“Create A Foodie Video”

Whoever thought making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich could make for an Oscar award-winning performance?  Using “The Pancake” video as a model, you and your production team will film the steps to make a sandwich, starting with gathering the ingredients to plating the final masterpiece.  To successfully accomplish this task, you must adhere to the following criteria:

1. Teams will work collaboratively, with all members participating in the production
2. Only the ingredients provided to you can be used*
3. No less than 30 different shots/angles shall be taken
4. FINAL shots selected will be approximately 3-4 seconds each**
5. No faces may be shown – hands are ok
6. Product labels cannot be shown in their entirety
7. Final (edited) videos will run approximately 2 minutes
8. Audio will be worked on in post-production

Teams will work through the pre-production & production process together – from deciding the actual steps to be filmed to determining camera angles to who will be operating the camera and making the sandwich, 20% of the final grade will be based on successful collaboration.  Spend time talking through the process BEFORE the cameras start to roll; a well-planned production ensures a quality film.

As the teams were editing this week (this was now the third week of production), I wanted them to be able to examine the model video one more time and reflect on what they might add or change before they finalized their own films.  This was not a step I had planned on in my original lesson.  However, by doing this, I felt it would help to add to the realism of their film if they could again reference a professional.  I thought a collaborative way to accomplish this might be through an online class discussion.  While I have seen this kind of interaction happen through Moodle and our school’s portal environment (and, of course, my Wilkes’ classes, too), I wanted to be able to develop a group using a web tool.  One of our technology teachers recommended Google Groups, and though he had not established one himself, he heard that it was a pretty straightforward program.  I did find it to be relatively easy to develop, though we are still working through the kinks in class.  Click here to access the group.  There are still a number of students that need to participate, they are just still waiting for my invite to go through before they can sign in (some invites went smoothly, others seem to be lost).  One interesting note: before I gave my students the group address, I put it through goo.gl to make it easier for them to find. (got to love learning about new web 2.0 tools!)

Social Immersion Challenge

I found it ironic that one of this week’s assignments could be to try a 365-day photo challenge.  I first read about these over the December break and decided that as an amateur photographer, I was going to attempt one myself.  The goal for me was to capture a highlight of my day so that I could see first hand all that was good in my life.  My intentions lasted about four days; not that I do not have all sorts of positives going for me but I started to miss days because I was either busy, or just plain forgot.  Of course, once I skipped a day, I felt I completely invalidated the project.  To take a picture and backdate it seemed liked cheating to me. 

When I read about this assignment, I was excited to think that since I had to do it, I would.  However, it was only Day 3 and already I was struggling.  The first day was to decide on a site to use (I chose 356Project), then figure out how to link it to my blog, and finally, using the theme of last week’s projects to use cell phones only, how to get what I captured on my phone to upload properly.  Each step had its own set backs, and though ultimately I figured it all out, it still took a fair amount of time, which reminded me why I don’t always follow through with exploring a web tool I had been curious about: unless I needed it immediately, it could wait until I had “free time.”   Days two and three put me at school until late (meetings & parent teacher conferences), and I found myself struggling to take a photo and then make sure it loaded properly to 365Project – I found out that pictures might be sent to the site (for the most part), but you have to log back in to accept them into your project.  Eventually I got the hang of the entire process, and found that I became more disciplined as the week went on.

To save my sanity, I decided my subjects would be my dogs as opposed to trying to come up with some extraordinary topic and then worrying that my pictures weren’t actually capturing what I was trying for.  If I were to take on a true 365-day challenge, I would select a deeper topic, one that I could develop more as the days went on.  Overall, I think this type of project is a great idea, and I would like to use this at the start of my classes with my freshman and senior media students, so that they can document their most important semesters in their high school career.

Social Immersion Challenge ~ 365 Project

Social Immersion Challenge by Kelli Cauffman · 365 Project

Becoming An Educator Video Project

I was very apprehensive when I first saw this assignment.  I love to put together videos, but a few years back I traded in my iPhone for an Android cell phone, and ever since have not been able to find a decent video editor to work with their operating system.  A search online recently confirmed my fears.  I did notice that the Samsung Note (my newest phone) supposedly had a great editor built in, but again upon research, realized that the AT&T version did not support the program.  I began playing with various Android & online editor apps including Video Toolbox, VideoZone, Animoto and VidTrim.  I realized I was spending far more time finding the right tool for the project versus perfecting the content of my video.  This, in turn, reminded me that as revolutionary as technology is, at times it can be quite a hinderance.  When it came to recording audio, there were far more programs to choose from, each one having it's own unique benefits.  I ended up using SmartVoice to record my narration, which integrated very nicely with my Note.

Mobiles In The Classroom Interview

Kim Davis is a Technology Integration Specialist with the Harford Public Schools, as well as a certified Media Specialist.  I thought it would be interesting to go to someone who is in the business of integrating technology into classrooms.  And, since I am in the same district, I thought I might also be able to learn more about my own rights and responsibilities as an educator in Hartford. 

The first important piece that I learned (or, should say was confirmed) was the fact that my district does not have a policy regarding mobile devices in the classroom.  Coincidentally, teachers were just recently invited to attend a meeting this coming week that will attempt to create such a policy.  In my school, our policy is no cell phones in school, but we do not address other mobile devices. This year especially, we have had an influx of ipods, ipads and other tablets, including e-readers, and we can’t rightfully make the students put them away since we haven’t documented they do so.  We can ask, but a parent can call to complain, in which case right now we have to let the students use their devices, as long as they are not cell phones.

Kim has used cell phones in staff meetings to elicit feedback through mobile surveys.  One program she uses is “Wallwisher,” a web-based bulletin board.  I was a participant in one such meeting and thought it was a very productive, informative process until one teacher posted a, “Has anyone found a set of keys?” message.  We got a chuckle out of this, and it helped her to recover the lost object, but I could quickly see how the activity might go awry with students.  The next day, another teacher and I asked our Digital History students to take out their phones (they just about squealed in delight!) so that they could participate in a live history survey, like we had done in the staff meeting.  Students were to text message their answers to the account we had set up, which would in turn show up on the SmartBoard at the front of the room.  The activity started out great, with many thoughtful responses showing up.  However, it wasn’t long before off-task, even inappropriate comments appeared.  And since hardly any student uses his or her name as their identity, it was difficult to track who was saying what.   We ultimately had to shut the lesson down and instead talked about proper communication in a professional environment.

As far as other mobiles are concerned, Kim primarily uses iPads in classrooms with both students and teachers.  I asked her how the whole process works:

“Teachers must notify me in advance when they need the class set of iPads. Usually, there is a week limit on this but the teacher may keep the cart longer if no one else has scheduled it. I check the cart out to the teacher but for classroom management, I have created an iPad sign out sheet so that I know which student had access to the iPad in case I happen to notice something ‘suspicious’ with the devices. I have set up restrictions on the iPad that will not allow students to delete an app. If a teacher would like to upload an app onto the iPads, he or she should suggest what they need and why it is relevant to what they are learning in class.”

Imagining the potential for problems with an entire class using mobiles at one time, I asked her to explain the challenges she has faced:

“Overall, there haven't been any challenges on my part in regards to software updating or managing the iPad cart. I have gone into classrooms where students are using the iPads. I have noticed that some kids are off task, playing a game or checking email but the teacher is sitting in front of the room, not checking on student progress (which is a no-no) so I suppose I would take advantage of the situation if I was the student as well.”

I asked her what she has learned through the process, and she said that being prepared is the main key for success:

“It is important to make sure you have the accessories needed for the iPad to make certain actions easier. For example, if you want to showcase a student’s work on the projector, make sure you have an iPad VGA adapter. Or if you want to import a picture from your SD Memory card to put into your iPad presentation, you need to make sure you have that certain adapter. So planning is key when using the iPads, or any mobiles.”

To help with the preparation, Kim has developed a series of questions that a teacher must think about before using mobile devices in their classrooms: 

1. What are they needed for?

2. What apps should students be using?

3. How long will they be used? 20 mins/whole class period/days/week?

4. What is the end product?

5. How will students be sharing the information…presentation, email, etc?

6. What responsible student will help manage the cart and/or devices?

With all the uncertainty surrounding mobiles in the classroom, I found it refreshing to hear someone who is entrenched in the process throughout the entire school day to be so positive and excited to incorporate technology.  I believe her enthusiasm should be an inspiration to other teachers who are on the fence about the whole mobile device craze.

Cell Phones in the Classroom

I am a gadget guru.  I love everything electronic, and after selecting the perfect digital camera, I get most excited to find the latest, greatest cell phone.   I believe cell phones have an enormous propensity to innovate lives.  From the obvious making an emergency call when away from home, to finding directions when you are lost, capturing breaking news action, translating a foreign word and recording your daily caloric intake, there is no end to how cell phones can make life easier.  I also believe that this same technology can make a huge impact in the classroom.   However, as much of a cheerleader as I am for cell phones in education, I do agree with several of the concerns shared by other educators, particularly those cited on helium.com.

The biggest problem many feel come with allowing cell phones in the classroom is the distraction that they pose.  To an extent, I concur with this statement.  Whenever students are caught with cell phones in our school, 85% of the time they are either checking their Facebook or Twitter account, or texting a friend.  We hear this from teachers time and again.  They were in the middle of a lesson and posed a question to the class when one or two students were so totaly engrossed in looking at their phones that they were completely disengaged from the topic at hand.  They weren’t taking notes or looking up a word the teacher used, they were in another place entirely.   For this reason, I disagree with Jennifer Koishal when she stated on Helium.com that cell phones were only considered distractions “by the lecturing teachers or more appropriately, were more of ‘annoyance’ for the teachers” versus the phones really being a true hindrance.   Sometimes students completely misuse their phones is class.  What would be the purpose of playing Fun Run during an algebra lesson?

For the most part, though, I agree with the “yes” side of the debate.  There are so many possibilities for their use.  Just last week I tweeted to my Film students that the first to tweet back tomorrow’s Driving Question would get their first pick of ingredients for the upcoming project.  This created a great buzz amongst the students, and based on their responses, it was obvious they got the point of the lesson.  As for the Helium survey, it was interesting to note that many of the “no’s” were from Elementary school teachers.  Their arguments did make a lot of sense, particularly for that age group.  My favorite comment was from one educator who said that students are still learning to write correctly, therefore how will the texting language help them at this point in their progress? 

At the other end of the spectrum, the YouTube video, “The Epic School Project” was very pro cell phones in the classroom, though the students they were referencing were college-aged.   The video stated that “students are in charge of their own learning,” and they will have to figure out how to take advantage (and not be distracted) by the tool.  Again, these are older, even adult students.  I think in high school, students need to be educated on the correct use of cell phones in the classroom; we can’t just assume they know the proper etiquette.  As many of the top educators claimed in the “Impact of Mobile Devices on K12 Education,” whether we see the value or not of cell phones in the classroom, these tools are here to stay and we would be wise to proactively write them into the curriculum.

Discovering Something New

Before I settled into one website to find some useful apps, I visited each of the three suggested sites for this week’s assignment. Reflecting on the lessons we learned last week about evaluating websites for potential use, I immediately was drawn to edutecher for its teacher-y look and feel. I loved its simplicity and how it made me feel like I was ready to learn a new lesson. But, wanting to be open-minded, I moved on to go2web20. Despite its utilitarian feel, I quickly lost my preference for edutecher, and couldn’t wait to peruse through the long list of topics to find new apps. However, I still had one more site to visit before I chose. The final stop, schrockguide, did not visually grab my attention at first. It had a “someone’s blog” feel to it vs. the look of a useful resource site. Despite this, I did find myself getting off track reading some of the posts regarding iPads in the Classroom and Chromebook articles.

But, back to the original assignment: I selected go2web20 to research three new apps. Going back to the topic list, I selected “music” and then a music-creation tool, “ujam.” I teach a Sound Production class, and I am always looking for an online music production tool for my students to work on at home. Ujam claimed to be a cloud-based site that allows its users to record their vocals or instruments and turn them into full-fledged songs. I was most interested in whether or not the site included prerecorded loops for the students that neither sang nor played. The first step was to sign up – which you could do through your FaceBook or Google account. Since I have the latter, registration was a snap! The next step was to either sing or play into the onboard mic. What? I was not ready for that. I was hoping to get into the program to explore before I actually created something. But, there was no way past the microphone that I could find so, I sank down low in my chair, hid behind the monitor and…sang “Happy Birthday” to ujam (I was so mortified I would be caught that I could think of no other name!) Once I was finished, it gave me the option of using my voice recording or turning it into an instrument. There was no way I wanted to hear my singing played back at me, so I opted for “instrument” and the program took my voice and turned it into a grand piano version of the song. The “notes” were placed on a scale, and you could quickly tell where I was out of tune. However, you could drag the notes up or down to change their pitch, and ujam let me know if the note was a “good” fit, “best” fit or “rarely used.” After moving things around a bit, I ended up with a pretty accurate sounding “Happy Birthday to You.” From hear, I could change the main instrument, add drums, chords and other background sounds. I was very impressed and with both its ease of use, as well as its advanced functions, and I could imagine using this for either my Sound students, or as a narration recording tool for digital stories in my History class. When I was finished with my “creation,” I had the option to share it through a multitude of social networking sites or download it as an mp3. This feature really is useful and makes the program a must-have for anyone who needs to record audio. As a final note, I immediately deleted my project, as I did not want it to fall into the wrong hands! (students often have to use my computer to present to the class)

The second app I explored was “animoto.” This program allows users to create multimedia slideshows, or what I liken to the ultimate e-cards. I signed up through my personal email, and was immediately taken to sample videos. I was worried at first because every sample I chose had a $ option, but I quickly realized you can use any of their templates for free, for a maximum of a 30 second show. This they call their “lite” version; the Plus version costs $5/month or $30 year and gets you unlimited, full-length videos. The Pro version is $249 a year and is geared more towards businesses looking to sell products. One reason I chose this site was because I was looking ahead to next week’s assignment of creating a cell phone video and I am in need of a good editor. Animoto is available on both GooglePlay and iTunes, so if I liked it, I could use it on my phone. There is a short video that does a good job of teaching you how to use the app, but it is a pretty simple interface to learn on your own. I chose a template, uploaded photo and video clips (or tried to), selected a song from their extensive library (you can also upload your own music) and added some text. The videos took awhile to upload, (in fact, I kept getting an error message and finally just canceled them), but the pictures went up pretty quickly. Overall, I was happy with the final movie, though any in-depth edits are saved for paid subscribers. From here, I could share my project through email, FaceBook or even upload to YouTube. I see many uses for this in a classroom, however, the 30 second limit really limits how extensively you can use it with your students. Perhaps a .30 PSA or book character introduction? I might actually opt for the Plus version, though I don’t see it as a solution for next week’s editing.


Or click here if the video does not show.
Make a video of your own at Animoto.

The final app I explored was “smores.” This site lets you create multimedia fliers online. These fliers can be sent to your email list, posted on your FaceBook account, added to Pinterest, or shared via a number of social networking sites. The app was rather easy to use, though it did have some bugs here and there. One example of an issue I had was after I typed in the main title, the program wouldn’t let me go anywhere, as if it was stuck in the title-editing mode. I will email this problem to the developer. When I went to the next area to edit, I made all of my changes, saved, previewed, and noticed my new edits were not there. I had to go in once again and add them, and the changes were there in the second preview. I can see students getting impatient with the process. What is good, however, is the ability to add photos, videos, an agenda, a hyperlink and comments. I forgot to mention that you sign up for smores either through a FaceBook Account or your email. I signed up using my school email, which I quickly realized that all three sites I registered for here were done through three different means. Did I not just learn anything through the information overload discussion? Smores is good for the obvious: creating online fliers for an event. But students can create invitations for historical events, announcements for green initiatives or a promotional release for a book they have recently read.
My SMORES Flier

Filling Up My Toolbox

This week’s assignment has so far proven useful in helping grow my technology bag-of-tricks.  I especially liked creating a QR code!  This is something I have been meaning to check out for some time and now that I have, I see all kinds of possibilities for its use.  My classroom is primarily decorated in movie posters because I teach mostly digital video and media-type classes.  Using Delivr.com, I established an account and created a code for a specific poster in my room, “Hollywood Land.”  When students scan the code, they are taken to the yahoo website about the movie, including synopsis, actor bios and box office stats.  I originally wanted to link to the imdb site for the movie, but the webpage kept coming up with an error code.  I can now create a code for other movies, specific directors and musical artists (I have albums hanging on the walls, as well).  I actually want to code everything now!  At home, I am imagining coding the corners of my dogs photographs, where visitors who scan them will be taken to YouTube videos of their antics.

The URL shortening helpers were not quite as exciting, though I can imagine their use if done properly.  I started with tinyurl.com and tried to shorten my Wilkes class blog address, http://mrscauffsclasses.blogspot.com.  When I had the website come up with a shortened name for me, it produced http://tinyurl.com/ah58gtm.  Keeping in mind that this should be something easy enough to give a friend over the phone, I thought maybe I could try coming up with my own, which would have been CauffsClasses.  But when I plugged this in, I saw the tinyurl.com would still have to precede my idea.  This meant that the original address of 36 keystrokes was only narrowed down to 32.  Thinking maybe I was doing something wrong, I next tried using goo.gl to shorten my address.  The address I got back was definitely shorter, but not one that would stay immediately with me: http://goo.gl/t5pJv.  Being new to URL shortening, perhaps this is the way the whole process works.  I will be curious to read my classmates’ posts to see what kind of luck they had.  (Interesting footnote: the tinyurl link works when you select it from this post, whereas the goo.gl link works, but says my blog is blocked through the school’s filtering system.)  Once I figure out how to correctly use shorteners (or perhaps I already have), I could use them to make my Flickr and PhotoBucket accounts more easily accessible to my relatives.

The bookmarklets were also hit or miss for me.  I was new to Quietube which, like its description, was a very plain, basic and unimposing-looking website.  Right on the top of its page was a shortcut to add the site to your browser bar.  This was the same for Keepit.  However, when I tried to grab them both and add them to my bar, I got a “won’t run JavaScript error.”  I think this may be because of our computers at school and their lack of Java updates, as well as the filtering of YouTube.  Pinterest did not have a special shortcut that I could see, but when I grabbed its logo, it immediately asked me how I would like to save the site, let me customized what I called it and then snapped it to the browser bar.  I will try the first two at home to see if I get better results.  If I do, all three of these sites will be welcome additions for both my schoolwork, as well as personal endeavors.  I especially think the Keepit site will help me greatly by being able to download “how to” videos onto my iPad, so that I can view them when I am not near a wireless connection.

Digging Deeper Into The Mainstays

One of the reasons I was most looking forward to this class was to actually take the time to explore some of the wonderful Web 2.0 tools that are available to educators.  Sure, I have briefly experienced various tech resources, but it was never to the extent that I would have liked.  However, with a grade now assigned to my evaluation, I knew for certain I would finally delve wholeheartedly into my exploration.

This was exactly the case with Twitter.  I signed up for an account about two years ago when our school’s student affairs coach and our principal had a contest to see who could get more followers.  But, except for following media organizations and a few celebrities, I never tweeted to an audience or really paid much attention to the whole twitter craze.  This past school year, however, we noticed a rise in students and parents who have Twitter accounts, and I often thought how nice it would be if I could just tweet a reminder about an upcoming event or test.  Enter this assignment.  I started by visiting a number of websites that featured ways to integrate Twitter into the classroom.  Two sites in particular that were most helpful included: www.teachhub.com and www.teachthought.com.  They both listed simple ways to harness the power of this social network into your lessons.  Yes, test reminders were suggested, but they also demonstrated how you could give a whole test through Twitter.  Other uses included: scavenger hunts, school trip tracking, parent updates, teaching bite-sized info and even creating stories amongst all your followers.  Yesterday, an outside organization came in to talk to my students about an upcoming video festival, and they said they use twitter to add bonus time and points to those students who participate if they tweet pictures during their productions.

I was sold!  I am proud to report that today I established an account for my Film Students and sent my first tweet.  The kids showed me how to use the different functions, and I now have twelve followers.  Stay tuned for more on my Twitter experience.  If you’d like to follow our class, check us out @PathwaysFilm.

The second site of interest to me was Prezi.  This year was the first time I had even heard the term.  One of our administrators started to use it during our staff meetings and at the time I likened it to a really glorified PowerPoint.  After researching more about it, I realized I was wrong – mostly.  During the interview in my last post, David Volpe, a special education teacher with the West Hartford Schools, told me that he uses Prezi in class, but for the most part will adapt other presentations rather than create one from scratch.  After exploring the site for myself, as well as downloading the Prezi app, I see exactly what he means.  In fact, in several of the reports I read regarding Prezi, it was stated that adaptation vs. creation is the ideal way to go, especially if you are pressed for time.  If you want to try your hand at creating one, however, sites like “read-write-think” offer tutorials to get started.  At “tech-teach-kz.wikispaces,” you could find a helpful, “cheat sheet for dummies” (a link I have since bookmarked).  I also found an interesting online presentation from Seattle Pacific University describing the differences between Prezi and PowerPoint (PP).  According to one slide, Prezi is web-based, PP is computer-based. A Prezi is created in a non-linear manner, whereas PP is linear in nature.  The first doesn’t translate well into audience notes, while the latter is great for making hand-outs for your guests.  The presentation also included the different Prezi “accounts” you could sign up for, and it’s interesting to note that there is a free “Edu Enjoy” vs. public login, which gives you more storage space, privacy and offline access.  I have to admit, I played around with the iPad app for a while, but didn’t come away with a full-fledged presentation.  I may use the advice found in a later Unit of this class that suggests we let students take ownership of learning new Web 2.0 tools and then they can show me how to create one!

According to mashable.com, “Pinterest is a social bookmarking site where users collect and share their favorite events, interests and hobbies.”  I did not realize how fast this resource was growing; in fact it falls just shy of subscribers behind FaceBook and Twitter.  One of my colleagues had told me about Pinterest a while back, and showed me how she finds great recipes and how-to’s every day.  I thought it looked useful, but never gave it another look -- until this assignment, that is.  I figured I had better start with how Pinterest can help in the classroom before I got lost in finding how it could improve my personal life.  In my research, I found that the most useful resource to learn more about Pinterest was exploring its own site.  You can search as specific a topic as you want, and it will give you all kinds of great information.  I typed in “ideas for a high school classroom” and got in return: quotes, lesson plans, ways to organize your room, dates in history and a myriad of other tips I could immediately incorporate.  And, I will, but…it’s been a long week and I think I’d like to search and pin “great chocolate cookie recipes” as my orientation onto Pinterest.