Skip to main content

Tag: web apps

Learning Defined

nancy

The prompt for  this week’s #YourEduStory post was particularly challenging for me. Suggested by Shawn White, it directs us to define learning in 100 words or less. Limiting myself to 100 words on any subject difficult, so I decided to go the image route using Tagul.com, one of my favorite word cloud generators. In an ideal world, the words would all be the same size. Still, in a way I like the messy, somewhat random nature of my word cloud. Perhaps it represents learning better that way.

Learning is…

Teach Image Citation with Padlet

nancy 2 Comments

Our students need to be able to find, use, and cite copyright-friendly images in their projects. You can use Padlet, a free, online bulletin board, to help them learn how to do this.

Depending on the age of the students, you can modify the requirements for citing the images you find. Ideally, you should include the following (or as many of them as you can find for your image):

  • Title of the image
  • Author
  • Source
  • License (Creative Commons type, note that the image is public domain, or a statement that the image is used with permission)
The example below was created by 3rd grade students. They were only instructed to include the photographer’s name below their own. Older students would of course be asked to include more complete information and follow a stricter format.

Lesson steps:

  1. Before the lesson, create a Padlet wall where the information will be posted.
  2. Discuss the importance of citing sources for anything students have not created themselves. Explain the citation format you want students to use.
  3. Instruct students to find an image by using search.creativecommons.org. This will ensure that any media they find should be licensed for reuse. The students doing the project above looked for landforms and the natural environment.
  4. Students copy the image url.
  5. On the Padlet wall, students double click to add a note. They paste in the url and add the citation information.

Although it seems fairly basic, this lesson packs in many skills.

  • Digital literacy and digital citizenship
    • How to find and cite images licensed for reuse and why it it important to cite your sources; while we didn’t do a full citation, we did lay the groundwork for future lessons
    • Identifying the author, title, and license information for an online image
    • Safeguarding personal privacy by only including their first name on the image
  • Technology skills
    • Copying and pasting (new to most of the 3rd graders)
    • Control+click to find the image url
    • Sharing work using an online tool like Padlet
  • Collaboration
    • Early finishers helped peers to find and post their images on the wall

The students participating in this lesson enjoyed it so much they asked if they could do it again next time they were in the lab. If their teacher agrees, I am up for it.

For more specific information about image citation, see this page on the Creative Commons wiki.

This post originally appeared in a shorter form on the LVUSD Forward Learning Resources blog.

Do You Tackk?

nancy 2 Comments

Recently, I discovered Tackk, a new way to post and share content online. It allows you to create an attractive one-page design that can incorporate content from over 250 online sources, including ThingLink (as in my example below), YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter, SlideShare, Google Maps, Prezi, and more. You do not need to create an account, but if you don’t, your Tackk will be deleted after a week.

(Scroll down to see the full Tackk.)

I have found Tackk to be very easy to use with many options to customize your work so you can get your Tackk to look just the way you want it. You can also turn the ability to comment on or off. One feature I especially like is that Tackk has partnered with 500px. If you need to add a photo to your Tackk, you can search 500px and the photo credit will be automatically added to your Tackk.

Applications for education: You could use Tackk to present content, give assignments (as in my example), but even better, you could have students create their own Tackks as evidence of learning. For example, students could each create ThingLink to examine various aspects of a problem and then combine them into one Tackk to provide an overview of the issue. You can create Tackkboards (collections of Tackks) for your students to post their content.

Tech Tuesday: VideoNotes

nancy

I have been using VideoNot.es, a web application that lets you watch YouTube videos and take notes side-by-side in a Google Doc. We all remember more of what we see, hear, and do than if we do any of those activities alone, so why not use VideoNot.es to have students interact with the material by watching the video and answering questions in a document as they go? Perhaps they still have questions after they have watched the video. They can share it with you so you know which concepts need to be addressed later. These are only two of the many possible applications of this tool.

Below is a video I made showing you how to use VideoNot.es. If you would like to try out the service for yourself, copy this url [http://youtu.be/8oC7kBDEGsQ], head over to VideoNot.es, and watch it there. (You will have to authorize the site to access your Google Drive before it will work.)

Happy note-taking!