Xtranormal

I’ve been checking out Xtranormal for a long time now and think it’s a great way to introduce scripting, digital storytelling and film making to students.

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As the website says, “if you can type, you can make movies…”

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By selecting a collection and then characters, begin typing and away you go. Being able to select camera angles is a bonus.

As the website says

Xtranormal.com is a web-site powered by Xtranormal’s text-to-movie™ platform—a web-based application used to create short 3D animated movies from simple text-based movie-scripts. The characters in the movie speak the dialogue in the script, and react to performance triggers—icons that are dropped directly into the script, just like smileys in IM/chat. Movies can be shared through e-mail, blogs and online video sharing and social networking sites such as YouTube™, MySpace™ and Facebook™.

Xtranormal has its own YouTube channel and you can get updates from their Twitter account. Xtranormal could be a terrific way for students to interpret historical events or to present an assignment.

I’m thinking of using it for library orientation and as a fun way to introduce professional learning to teachers.

My Place in History

Recently I was introduced to this new program for Australian Primary Schools.

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My Place in History, a new educational programme for Australian upper primary schools, is a web-based programme designed to teach students about the concepts of change and diversity – of backgrounds, in family structures, and the many economic, political and social circumstances in both our distant and more recent history that have contributed to who we are today and how we all came to be living in Australia.

Family history experts, Ancestry.com, created this resource to encourage understanding of family and social history from an early age by utilising the very latest in online technology and historical information. My Place in History has been designed for teachers by teachers and is tailored to each state’s individual curriculum.  A collection of specially designed online resources and activities have been developed to make learning about history and their family’s role within this both educational and engaging.

My Place in History

Students will explore their own personal family history, creating family trees online, whilst learning about the key drivers of change within society during the lives of their ancestors – wherever they came from – and how these changes impacted their own identity, as well as that of their family and society more generally.

Over the course of the programme students will look back over two generations of their own family and how society changed during the lives of their older family members and ancestors.

Unit 1: Change through History

Students will learn about significant changes that have occurred over time in transport, communication, manufacturing, housing, leisure, food, technology, purchasing, and medicine.

Unit 2: My Society through History

Students will develop an understanding of history as it applies to their community. The initial focus is on the school; the subsequent focus is on a section of a nearby community.

Unit 3: My Family History

Students will research and understand a minimum of two generations of their own family through the use of oral history and interactive resources.

The website also provides fun, educational games for students and an opportunity for teachers to privately upload and store their own digital resources free of charge.

My Place in History looks like a great resource for the ubiquitous family tree project.

Verona Gridley’s blog

Verona Gridley, classroom teacher at St Luke the Evangelist School has developed a very good blog for reflecting on her professional practice.

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Verona explains how she views her blog:

I am happy to share my blog. I am into my second term of blogging and can’t believe my learning curve. It has become an invaluable tool for collaboration and learning in a contemporary world. Blogs are purposeful and flexible and definitely deserve greater attention in the classroom.

On my journey through blogging both personally and with my class many benefits of have become apparent over time. There are growing connections with readers that show the great advantages of being part of a network and receiving feedback from contributors within a broader community.

It’s always informative to read about blogs used for different purposes and Verona’s blog is a terrific example of a learning and reflecting journal. We are all the richer for her sharing it with us. Thanks Verona and congratulations on your achievements with using blogging with your students.

Digital Dewey – Pam Niewman’s blog

Clairvaux Catholic Primary School teacher librarian Pam Niewman has developed a bright, attractive and useful blog, Digital Dewey.

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Pam explains a little about her blog.

I’m happy to say my quest to learn as much as I can about Web 2.0 has been ongoing. I think I am finally beginning to realise the benefit of networking and collaboration – it took a while. It’s quite funny that you get to know people by their avatar. I will keep looking for these avatars to appear online.

I have no doubt that I will continue to develop my Web 2.0 skills, but I’m also keen now to get others at school enthused and start the process with them. Of course I am already working with the children in this way.

There are challenges ahead – a new Library to be built and developing my role as teacher librarian to suitably meet the needs of children’s learning in the 21st century.

Pam blogs regularly and includes examples of how certain social media tools have been used for learning. She has made several clever ToonDoo cartoons, an animoto and more. If you are looking for tips about resources to use for learning and teaching, Pam’s blog is certainly one to subscribe to.

Google Sites

If you’d like to create your own website, Google Sites could be an option for you.

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Some of the features include:

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To make it easy, there are a number of templates to select from:

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This one minute video will help you understand exactly what can be achieved:

Google Sites seems like a quick and easy way to establish a web presence for a variety of needs.

International Children’s Digital Library

A library for the world’s children. Isn’t that a wonderful thing? The International Children’s Digital Library is just that.

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It’s Mission Statement reads:

The mission of the International Children’s Digital Library Foundation (ICDL Foundation) is to support the world’s children in becoming effective members of the global community – who exhibit tolerance and respect for diverse cultures, languages and ideas — by making the best in children’s literature available online free of charge. The Foundation pursues its vision by building a digital library of outstanding children’s books from around the world and supporting communities of children and adults in exploring and using this literature through innovative technology designed in close partnership with children for children.

The ICDL Foundation is a non-profit corporation.

Some of the resources on the site include:

  • Simple Search
    Search for books in a fun graphical environment using our most popular categories.
  • Books by Countries
    Search for books by continent by spinning an interactive globe.
  • Advanced Search
    Search for books using a compact, text-based interface with our full category hierarchy.
  • Keyword Search
    Search for books by title, author, or keyword, in dozens of languages.
  • Recently Added Books
    Read the books just added to the ICDL collection.
  • Award-Winning Books
    Access books that have won awards worldwide.
  • Using the Library
    Get ideas about how you can use the library – as a child, parent, teacher, librarian, or any other reader.
  • White Ravens List
    Explore the database of exceptional children’s books selected by language specialists at the International Youth Library.
  • Full Book List
    See all the books in the ICDL and sort by title, author, illustrator, language, and publication date.
  • Author & Illustrator List
    Access a complete list of the authors and illustrators whose books are included in the ICDL.
  • Featured Books
    Take a look at some of our readers’ favorite books.
  • Collections
    Browse the books in our special collections.
  • Exhibitions
    Browse exhibitions of books on a particular theme – activities included.

The site is obviously a work in progress and relies on donations to expand its offerings, however it is an intriguing and worthy project.

WatchKnow

WatchKnow is an organised collection of videos for children.

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As the site explains

Imagine hundreds of thousands of great short videos, and other media, explaining every topic taught to school kids. Imagine them rated and sorted into a giant Directory, making them simple to find. WatchKnow–as in, “You watch, you know”–is a non-profit online community devoted to this goal.

This video explains exactly how the site works. So if you are looking for videos to support learning and teaching, WatchKnow is certainly worth checking out. Thanks to @joycevalenza for the link.

Student blogging with Verona Gridley

Verona Gridley, classroom teacher at St Luke the Evangelist School has developed an excellent blog that acts as a resource for her students.

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Verona explains how she uses JuniorsJig with her students.

When our students reflect on what they have learnt in class, they are proficiently taking out some of their implicit understandings and clearly documenting it in the form of a blog. By both reading and commenting on others’ blogs, students start to learn from each other. A blog is a tool. It is a learning tool that can be tapped into by students, parents, and the global community.

Our Class Blog has enabled me to integrate all curriculum areas by promoting multiple literacies and skills. Through reflection on our discoveries and experiences we are able to share and deepen our understandings. It shows growth over time of our new learning, connecting with experts and finding out from broader sources.

There are growing connections with readers that show the great advantages of being part of a network and receiving feedback from contributors within a broader community. Our class has received feedback from all corners of the globe. When we received comments from beyond the school community a new digital dimension is opened. Overseas teachers, students and parents are taking the time to read our blog and leave meaningful and thoughtful comments.

Students are aware, that they are able to reach out beyond the schoolyard to share discoveries and experiences and in turn touch someone enough to leave a thought or offer a new perspective. Our young students can reach an authentic audience, that gives feedback and contributes new ideas and thus become part of a tangible global community.

I love the idea of students having a global and authentic audience and I believe that students take more care and effort with writing that will be read and commented on by a number of people. Congratulations Verona for providing this opportunity for your students as well as using your blog to communicate with parents and friends of the school.

Weekly links (weekly)

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Clairvaux Library wiki

Clairvaux Catholic Primary School teacher librarian Pam Niewman has shown what a fantastic educator she is by developing this brilliant wiki in a very short space of time.

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Pam explains

The wiki is the backbone of my teaching at the moment and it develops along with our needs. It’s very primary orientated and by no means complete  – it even gets some things deleted/changed at times. However, like a tap dripping slowly, Web 2.0 is filtering throughout our school . . .

We are still continuing small steps at a time.

The wiki is gradually becoming a very useful tool and something that the children are beginning to refer to and use on a regular basis. I often use it as a teaching tool in my lessons from Prep to Year 6. The children have a link to it on our MyClasses page and the staff have a link on their desktop.

The use of the wiki and various web 2.0 tools is beginning to filter throughout the school – in addition to work done in library classes, we’re up to about 90 children now who have engaged in some form of after hours activities as either creators or responders. I’ve had many emails – some requiring advice, some informing me of what they have done or sending me links, and some just communicating about things they are enjoying.

As more children are beginning to show an interest in displaying their work on the wiki I have decided to set up a Student Work page in addition to incorporating their work into other appropriate pages.

Recently some Book Week activities created some learning opportunities.

  • Children began emailing to be the first to answer a question a day about a shortlisted book. This question became hotly discussed as children tried to be the first online with the correct answer. (Side effect – Use of email improved particularly with younger children)
  • Wallwishers which I set up to discuss the Book Week theme and related activities created interest with the Seniors, who then began creating their own. These were posted on MyClasses and the wiki and the discussions began . . . and then more …and more . . .  They added videos and websites  (Side effect – online mentoring, classroom teachers added comments, good questions had to be developed)
  • Some children who saw my Book Week ToonDoo cartoon tried some out for themselves and emailed their link to me.
  • A few children found a link to Picasso Head on the wiki (via Schumann the Shoeman activities) and tried it out.
  • Book Trailers – Two Year 4 boys created a book trailer for visiting author Justin D’Ath. A number of children who saw this on the wiki now want to try creating their own.
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  • A year 4 girl wrote and published on the wiki an excellent biography of Justin D’Ath, based on a talk he gave to her class during Book Week.
  • Some children have begun adding book reviews.
  • During their Inquiry unit, two year 6 boys made a web page to make people aware of the plight of the children in the Pakistan floods. A link to this was put on the wiki.
  • As a spin off from these activities, I now have lots of evidence for assessment and report writing.

There is a growing awareness and some curiosity now amongst the staff about Web 2.0 and I have been asked to do some PD and share ideas with the staff next year. As well, I have the opportunity to further develop both my own and the children’s web 2.0 skills next year in my teaching. I think the wiki will develop according to the paths we take and the tools we explore.

My goals for next year are to continue learning about Web 2.0 so that I can provide opportunities to embed the use of appropriate Web 2.0 tools in the learning and teaching of students and staff in our school.

Pam points out that she is by no means an expert (I think she is) and that she is experimenting with the development and use of the wiki. I think she’s done a brilliant job and I am sure the wiki will continue to grow and evolve over time. Please take the opportunity to browse through Pam’s wiki. It is truly amazing what she has accomplished in a couple of terms.