Tags and Social Bookmarking

The cloud (on-line workspaces/storage) is amazing.  It used to be if you wanted to keep something, you put it in a file that had one title/heading and you needed to remember where you put it.  If it was something you had more than one use for you may have made a copy and put it in another file somewhere else.  This was true of paper copies in metal filing cabinets and word processing documents.
Online you save stuff using TAGS.  You can give one thing as many different tags as you want so that you can find it again.  So, for example if I found an article on Gladiators that I used for Adventures in World History and I might want to use it for the Ancient Civ course, I can tag it with CHM4E, CHW3M, gladiators, history.  I could later search for it using any one of those tags.
So, “where would one use these tags?” you ask.  Social bookmarking is one place.
Social bookmarking is pretty incredible whether you use it for social/sharing purposes or not.  I’ll start with not, because I think that’s the way most in our department would use it.  
If you are working on your computer at home and you see a website you like, you can bookmark it in Internet Explorer (or Firefox, or Chrome, or Safari...) so you can get back to it later.  But it is only available on that computer, unless you also email it to yourself so you can bookmark it at school (on your network login), but it is still only available in those two places, and only if you are signed in at school.  It is also only part of a long list (that you may have started organizing into folders if you are really on top of things).
If you use a social bookmarking tool (diigo, delicious, google) you have access to your bookmarks on any computer that is connected to the internet.  And rather than one long list to scroll through, you can sort through your bookmarks by using the tags you create.  I have found this quite useful.  It is a great way to save things for later as well.  The tag concept is key here - you should be consistent with the tags you use and think about how you will want to search for the website/article/blog next time.  (Example; I am trying to change my tags ipad, iPad, iPads to something consistent now and it is a little bit of a pain.)

How to use this in class:
Because these are social bookmarking tools, you can share your bookmarks with whomever you want.  
My delicious account is:  http://www.delicious.com/LisaUnger711/ You can go here and see what I’ve saved and what tags I’ve used.  You can click on the links and use my bookmarks if they are of use to you.  You could set up an account and share your link with your class, telling them which tags are of most use to them.  You can also make somethings in your list private so they won’t be shared with whomever has the link.  Example: I have the maplewood site saved for myself, but I don’t think you see that if you go in.  You can also use delicious (or diigo) as a search engine.  Type in a tag, see what others have saved using that tag.  It also gives you the popularity of that site/article - how many others have tagged it.
My diigo account is:   http://www.diigo.com/user/lunger711  It works much the same way but is a little more sophisticated.  You can create groups in diigo and other people with a diigo account can add to a group page.  So you could create a CGW4U group and have students with a diigo account also add useful websites or articles to the group (class) page.

Evernote

There was a request that I write about Evernote.  For those of you that don't know, Evernote is a cross platform app/program/website that allows you to save anything (all types of files, websites, images) in one place so you can access them anywhere - there are smart phone apps as well as a website.  You can organize your stuff by folders and tags so you can find what you want again.

I've been trying to write about it for a while, but haven't figured out what to say.  I use it, but not to its full potential, so I've been having trouble figuring out what to say.  Then I ran across this blog that does a MUCH better job than I could, so here's the link:  evernote for education blog

If you would like me to add the evernote app to the iPads so you can encourage students to use it, just let me know.

There are a couple other non-iPad things I'd like to share.  If there is something iPad related apps that you'd like me write about just let me know.  Otherwise, the next topic will be social bookmarking. (Coming soon!)

off topic - creative commons

I want to take a break from the iPad discussion this post to explain about Creative Commons and copyright licensing. (please don’t roll your eyes)  I also haven’t played with Popplet in a collaborative way yet and want to try that before I post about it.

Did you know that anything you create has an automatic copyright attached to it?  I didn’t.  That if anyone wants to use something you’ve made they need your expressed permission to do so?  That if you want to use something someone else has created you are supposed to ask their permission?

There is an easy way around this (legal too! - not just ignoring it).  You can use creative commons licensing.  Notice anything new on my page?  I have creative commons licensed it!  Yeah me!  It was easy and fast - took me less than 3 minutes to do and that included finding the website.  (http://creativecommons.org/)  So now, if you want to use my writing for something else you may, as long as you give me credit, aren’t making money from it and also license your work in the same way I licensed mine.  These are choices I made - if you want to license something you can make different choices.

This video does a much better job explaining it than I can.  Watch it.

I believe it is our responsibility as educators to both model this and encourage (make it necessary?) for our students to respect copyright and only use images that are not-copyright protected.  This is good digital citizenship.  This can be done by searching in the creative commons itself, or using the advanced search in google images to select re-usable images.  Most images in flickr and like depositories are CC licensed.

The hardest part for me has been remembering that I want to do this (and I think it’s important), and being willing to be flexible about the image I get - it may not be exactly what I want, but can I find a different way of expressing my point?  At the very least I have been trying to be more diligent when it comes to citing my sources for images I use that aren’t labelled for reuse (art images).

As a positive heads up - the Canadian copyright laws are changing. See this article. This should make it easier (more legal) to use things for educational purposes.  The laws haven’t been changed since 1997 - which is a very long time in the digital age.

Is this on your radar?  Do you think about the intellectual rights of your work?  Of a colleagues work?  Of a stranger’s work?  Do you expect your students to cite images in posters/powerpoints/prezis?  Do you cite them?

Honest thoughts?

Accessories

We have purchased a couple of accessories for the iPads that go with the past couple of blogs.  We now have a mic that will plug into the iPads.  Although the iPads have a built in mic, the hand-held mic is supposed to cut out some of the background noise.  If you are trying ShowMe or Voice Thread in your classes you may want to borrow the mic as well.

We have also purchased 3 camera connection kits.  There are 2 connectors in each box, so we have enough for all 6 of the original iPads.  One connector is for the USB cord from the camera to the iPad, the other connector is for the SD card.  If you are having students take pictures with the department cameras, you can put the images onto the iPads using one of the connectors.

Once the images are on the iPad, they automatically go to the Photos app.  Images there can be shared via twitter, email, iMessage (although we are currently trying to avoid use of this), and copied.  Any of the apps that allow you to post a picture, also automatically access your photos on the iPad.  For example, if you choose add an image in ShowMe, voice thread, or Evernote it will take you to the photos saved on the iPad.

There is another iPad brainstorming/concept mapping app that I’m playing with called Popplet.    It allows pictures which Idea Sketch doesn’t, and it is collaborative (more than one person can work on it at the same time on different devices) which is also nice.  More on this next week.

Voice Thread

Voice Thread is a web based program that you can run on any computer through your browser (ie: Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox), but there is also now an app.  According to the Voice Thread website: “VoiceThread … allows you to place collections of media like images, videos, documents, and presentations at the center of an asynchronous conversation. A VoiceThread allows people to have conversations and to make comments using any mix of text, a microphone, a web cam, a telephone, or uploaded audio file.”  Does that sound like a lot of mumbo-jumbo?  Sorry.  Maybe I could show you one easier than I can describe it...  Here’s my first try:

http://voicethread.com/?#u2210871.b2483951.i13152664

I created the above voice thread using my pictures of concentration camps, then asked 2 students in my Aventures in World History class to comment on a few of the images.  They came up with the idea of making it “like a radio show” - their words, not mine.  It wasn’t my intention to have them do it that way, but they were excited about it and were willing to spend more time with it than they have wanted to spend on any one thing all semester.

You can see that there are various options for posting comments - text, audio record, webcam record.  Just like the Show Me app, you can write on the images as well.  If you use video in your voice thread (instead of a still image or text), people commenting on the video can pause it to comment, or to draw on the still image to point something out.  Very cool.

Here is a voice thread example of video commenting use a road runner cartoon:  http://voicethread.com/?#q+voice+thread.b21651.i122786

So, what could you do with this in class?  These are just brainstormed ideas.  
1) You could post a power point and talk about the slides on voice thread if you were going to be away from class for a day.  You could pose critical thinking questions that students would respond to through Voice Thread.  I believe there is a way to fairly easily convert ppt to voice thread (at least the images), then you just add your audio/comments for each slide.
2) You could post a series of images and ask students to respond to the images.  How does each image relate to the course/unit big idea for the course?  What does the image demonstrate about the big idea?
3) You could have students submit images or quotations that they’ve found that best represent a given topic/idea.  Post those in the voice thread and require students to respond to each others’ ideas.
4) You could put debate topics or arguments on slides and have student argue each side through the voice thread.

You can choose to moderate the comments that people put on the Voice Thread if you are concerned about student putting appropriate things up.

 
Here are the draw backs I’ve seen so far.  You have to create an account. When you create a free account, it is just good for you.  Then, to comment, all your students need to create a free account as well.  Not the end of the world, but I would prefer not to ask all my students to have to create accounts for things.  You can create an educator’s account that gives you 50 student accounts attached to your account, but you have to pay for it.  I’m not into that.  (May be able to create a department one, and pay for it with the p-card?) It is possible with your 50 student accounts to use them with more than 50 students if you create, then assign generic ids to students.

Image & Voice Recordings

This post is inspired in part by another blog I read this week by Sam Gliksman.  You can read it here.  It discusses three different apps that allow students to add a voice over to a picture, as well as draw over top of the image to help explain it.  I can see a ton of uses for this, but haven’t yet used any of them in class yet.  (In fact, as I write this, these apps are only on my iPad, and not on the department ones yet at all.)

Here’s my first attempt at ShowMe:  http://www.showme.com/sh/?i=99016

Ela and I did one based on her favourite science song (she wouldn’t sing it for you though):
http://www.showme.com/sh/?i=99272   

As you can see, you can both upload your own photos, or draw right in the program (or draw the picture in another program, like DoodleBuddy and import it).  Gilksman also suggests ScreenChomp, but we couldn’t get it to work as easily as ShowMe.  In ScreenChomp the  picture part was easy, and it looked like the recording worked, but when we went back to it, there was no audio.

I think students could use ShowMe to record their understanding of the carbon system that has become the touchstone example in CGC1D.  They could be used in CHC2D/P to analyze a propaganda poster, or battlefield map.  In the greenhouse courses, students could demonstrate their understanding of various cycles or soil types.  This is an excellent way of getting students to demonstrate their understanding of something in a way other than through writing.  

I was planning on discussing Voice Thread, but I haven’t had a chance to play with it on the iPad yet.  Voice Thread is different than ScreenChomp or ShowMe in a few ways.  The first is that you can make more like a slide show, with a variety of images or video that the speaker can comment on.  The second major difference is that other people can also comment on the images, and comments can be recorded orally, through typed text, or video comment.  In this way it is a little more like a conversation.  Voice Thread is also a web based program so you can work on it on the iPads, or computers. More hopefully on this next week...

I’ve asked for a mic, which should cut down on background noise and make it easier to record at school.  There is a built in microphone in the iPads if you want to try it before the mic comes.

I will try to spend some time with Voice Thread this week and write about it next.

Can you see uses for ShowMe in your classes?  How quickly do I need to add this app?  How would you use t?

Mindmapping on the iPad

Idea sketch



This is a mindmapping tool.  Student can create mindmaps to demonstrate understanding of a big idea, or relationship between concepts taught in class.  You could have them use a mind map to organize their research, or review for a test/summative assignment.  I’m sure I don’t have to go into all the ways mindmaps can be used.

Here is a mindmap I made at (copied from) Garfield Gini-Newman’s PD session Nov 2 at Monora Park.

I am still playing with this tool, and there is a mistake in the hierarchy (the way I drew the lines), but you get the idea.  You can also display the image as text - see below (in this layout, you can better see where I made the mistake drawing lines):


You could have students share their mindmaps using the document camera the department has.  I also have a toggle to hook the iPads up to the data projector if you would like to play with that.  The app also allows the user to email either the mind map or the text version, but as we have not set the iPads up with individual email addresses, I’m uncertain as to how that would work.  Students may know how themselves - it may be possible for students to set up their own email address in iPad settings, email the file, then make sure they log out.  We need to be careful, we don’t want students having access to each others’ email accounts.  There is also an option to share via facebook (I haven’t tried this).

Granted, this is an example of using the iPads to do something that can be done with paper and pens - in this case it is more about the gadget (contrary to my first blog about best uses for technology in the classroom).  I think though that the possibility of easily switching from mindmap to list view is not something that can be as easily achieved with paper/pens.

There are other mindmapping apps that are available as well.  If you’ve used or seen others that you think might be better, let me know.  I’ve also used popplet, which is nice because there is an online version that you can also use with an account, but I think it limits how many you can do with the free account on the iPad.  Popplet’s other advantage is it is more collaborative.  You can share popplets with others and everyone can edit it (I think).  The other one I’ve heard of is sling note, but I haven’t used it at all.

Your thoughts? Would you use iPads for a mind mapping activity? Have you?