Creating Stories in a Comics Format

~ joanvinallcox ~ 2 Comments

I’ve been playing with a new web application called Comiqs and I can see it being used for school assignments or for brief, visual manuals. Here are a couple of examples I whipped up in 20 to 30 minutes each, which is slow, because I was learning to use the application at the same time;->

First, my response to another snowy day, made using photos from my Flickr account, which I directly linked to from within Comiqs:

  • Here’s what the first page looks like –

ComiqsWinter

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I can picture teachers using Comiqs to create attractive instructions, and I can picture students using Comiqs to create assignments requiring images and text.

I can see similar uses for small business tasks.

Can use imagine other possible uses?

It’s easy to use and fun to play with; give it a try!

Educating for the 21st Century

~ joanvinallcox ~ 1 Comment

Because I am part of the very active edublogger community, I sometimes have a false sense of security about what is happening in education. Every so often, though, I talk to a teacher, or even, as I did this morning, a tech professional, and am startled at the gaps in knowledge about our new communication technology. Web 2.0, or its new name, “social media” is both useful and easy, but many people don’t know the possibilities it offers for family, non-profit organizations, education, and business, – although some business are beginning to see how valuable it is.

While on Twitter, I clicked on a link and found myself reading a Time/CNN article called How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century. I see it as essential reading for all teachers and educators and all parents of school-age children. Claudia Wallis and Sonja Steptoe, the authors, speak out about what is needed for our kids and our continent to succeed, and why change is so necessary. Then they describe some innovative programs in 21st Century-oriented schools.

What our Students Need for the 21st Century

  • “Knowing more about the world. Kids are global citizens now”
  • “Thinking outside the box. Jobs in the new economy–the ones that won’t get outsourced or automated–‘put an enormous premium on creative and innovative skills, seeing patterns where other people see only chaos,'”
  • “Becoming smarter about new sources of information. In an age of overflowing information and proliferating media, kids need to rapidly process what’s coming at them and distinguish between what’s reliable and what isn’t.”
  • “Developing good people skills. EQ, or emotional intelligence, is as important as IQ for success in today’s workplace.”

Here’s what schooling could look like –

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1568480-5,00.html

How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century – TIME via kwout

I was lucky enough to be forced into the 21st Century communications technology. At one point in my career, in the previous century ;-> I was told to teach the basics of using a word-processor and how to set up a filing system on a computer, as part of a Communications course I was assigned. I panicked, but I was also resourceful. I went to some friends who knew computers and asked for help, and I bought books that looked like ones I could learn from. (Usually the “Dummies” variety ;->) I also joined a committee where we planned and did P.D. for other non-computer teachers who were trying to learn how to use computers for teaching and learning. (I figured they must know lots about edutech, and I could learn from them!) In other words, I created a learning community for myself. I both learned and had fun.

I mention this because it’s much easier to find a learning community now with all the social media aimed at teachers. I set up this blog to be part of teachers’ learning communities, and I bring what I’ve learned about the social media here to share. One final connection from this article, which I hope you’ll read in full, a site set up to make life easier for teachers and parents –

http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1568480-6,00.html

How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century – TIME via kwout

Learning More About Virtual Worlds

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I have not personally travelled in the Second Life virtual world, or, (I confess) any virtual world. But I am beginning my approach by creeping up on it through following people who spend a lot of time there. So I follow Alja Sulcic aka iAlja on Twitter Facebook and her blog – http://ialja.blogspot.com/ It is clear from these that she is a real Second Life citizen, and an educator.

If you, like me, are watching the Second Life phenom, you can get a quick overview from iAlja’s slideshow, below.

The Infinite Web

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I love the web, and all its communication possibilities. I believe the web is an constantly expanding platform that anyone (with access to an online computer) can work and play on. I title my blog WebTools For Learners because I believe the constant change on the web literally forces users to be learners, always finding new possibilities and variations. There’s text, hyperlinks, and aesthetically presented text. There are images, and web-based editing and sharing of images. There’s audio, and web-based creating, editing, and sharing of audio. There’s video, and webcams, and other infinite possibilities. That’s what I write about here – the infinite web!

But … even full time, I can’t keep up. Even those technically-expert people whom I watch on Twitter and on their blogs, can’t keep up. I was delighted and relieved to read someone (I think through Stephen Downes‘s OLDaily) who reported that he no longer worried about keeping up; he saw the web not as a reservoir, but as a river he could dip into and find what he needed when he needed it. (If anyone knows who used this metaphor, I’d appreciate knowing so I could credit him.)

I’ve been aware for a long time that I couldn’t learn EVERYTHING about the web, and even that it just wasn’t my lack. What I need, what we all need, is the skill to find what we need when we need it. Simple survival.

So that’s what I write about here, stuff that I need or think I might need, which is stuff (web applications and their uses) that you might need, too, and want to learn about.

When I first named my original blog, WebToolsForLearners, I was aiming to help educators find and experiment with various computer and web communication possibilities – as part of their teaching responsibilities. But I wanted to be more open than just writing for teachers. I have learned a lot from my students, especially about using the computer and the web. I wanted to write for anyone who was interested in this utterly new, amazing communication platform, the most significant communication development since the invention of the printing press, IMHO. So I used the generic term, “Learners” rather than the more limited possible title “WebToolsForTeachers”.

I’ve kept the title, with a couple of spaces added, for my new web space here – WebTools For Learners although my web address is different – https://joanvinallcox.wordpress.com I am grateful to have had a blog at Blogger.com, and especially grateful that I could move my past postings here to my new space. The web has many flexibilities, and that ability to transfer is very handy. You may be wondering why I bothered to move, and my reasons are straightforward, and a result of my ongoing learning on and from the web.

  1. Bloggers I respect, especially edubloggers, keep writing on, and about, WordPress blogs. They often had more technical understanding than me, so I paid respectful attention to what they said and did.
  2. I learned enough on Blogger to understand that I had enough web application knowhow to be able to work with WordPress.
  3. On its homepage, WordPress uses the words, “aesthetics”, “usability” and “free”. What’s not to like?
http://wordpress.org/

WordPress › Blog Tool and Weblog Platform via kwout

For those thinking about starting their own blog, there’s lots to learn. And we can celebrate the fact that there are lots of ways to learn using the web. Start with Blogger if you want one of the easiest platforms to learn on. But if you want a more sophisticated and beautiful platform, consider WordPress, now or later. Or, when you’re ready to establish a blog in the future, dip into the river then, and find out what people are recommending that sounds like it would suit you.

Web 2.0 and Responsible Educators

~ joanvinallcox ~ 2 Comments

If you read this blog regularly, you will know that I believe setting up your computer as your own PLE (Personal Learning Environment) or as some call it, your PLWE (Personal Learning and Working Environment) is a basic step in being efficient on the web. When I have research time, and sometimes just because I feel like it, I go to the web to learn more and to keep up with what is available and useful for me and for other educators. I see this as basic life and professional research, and something all educational professionals should be concerned about, both for themselves and for their students.

Bloglines
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Although I’ve been using my RSS reader Bloglines as the source for my “harvesting” for my ongoing learning, recently I find I’ve been neglecting it somewhat because I go to it after I collect professionally and personally relevant URLs from those I follow on Twitter.

Twitter
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An aside, I’m proud of the background I uploaded, a photo I took, then manipulated in Photoshop. I plan to continue being seasonal in my background.
The people I follow on Twitter:

TwitterFollowing
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As you can see, I like having visuals along with my text;->

A couple of days ago, I found some interesting-looking material that I didn’t have time to read. I added them to my del.icio.us account and tagged them, but knew they could easily disappear into that great reservoir of learning possibilities. So I tried out something I’d read about on Twitter – Instapaper, which allows me to save articles and blog posts to be read later. I have put its link on my personal Bookmarks toolbar, and I save things there, and maybe ;-> read them later. (There are so many choices, so much available!)

Instapaper
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This description of my PLE and my web reading/researching process is a lead-up to, and I hope, a demonstration of, what the two articles I eventually read, and am blogging about, said.
First, from JISC – http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2008/01/googlegen.aspx –

New report reveals the information needs of the researchers and learners of the future

A new report, commissioned by JISC and the British Library, counters the common assumption that the ‘Google Generation’ – young people born or brought up in the Internet age – is the most adept at using the web. The report by the CIBER research team at University College London claims that, although young people demonstrate an ease and familiarity with computers, they rely on the most basic search tools and do not possess the critical and analytical skills to asses the information that they find on the web.

and

The findings also send a stark message to government – that young people are dangerously lacking information skills. Well-funded information literacy programmes are needed, it continues, if the UK is to remain as a leading knowledge economy with a strongly-skilled next generation of researchers.

This research supports what I have seen in Canadian classrooms, and leads directly to my next quote from David Parry’s Science Progress blog post about the use of Wikipedia in academia – http://www.scienceprogress.org/2008/02/wikipedia-and-the-new-curriculum/ I was particularly struck by the following:

It is irresponsible for educational institutions not to teach new knowledge technologies such as Wikipedia. I should probably admit upfront that I am not a scientist by training; my scholarship grows out of literary studies and a concern for how literacy changes in the age of the digital. Wikipedia, or more generally the networked archival structure it represents, alters the way in which we create, share, and record knowledge, and thus has rather significant effects on how we approach education across all disciplines, and specifically in technology and science. Students and teachers alike must understand how systems of knowledge creation and archivization are changing. Encyclopedias are no longer static collections of facts and figures; they are living entities, and the new software changes the rules of expertise.

and

When I hear debates about the digital divide, access is often the largest issue, as if merely having access to computers solves the problem. “Bring computers into the schools and fund technology” are the regular solutions. However, the technology here is merely secondary: what is more important is teaching people how this technology changes the social sphere so that students too can be empowered to engage the polis rather than being passive users of Word Processing programs. Knowledge of how to indent paragraphs on a computer or make bullet points for a Power Point presentation is meaningless without the more important literacy of how to use these new media collaboratively to create a different kind of knowledge. Literacy in modern society means not only being able to read a variety of informational formats; it means being able to participate in their creation, with Wikipedia serving as the marquee example.

I suggest that you read the whole post, especially if you think you disagree.

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Book-Reading Online

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I have put a book up online, where it can be read easily and comfortably, even aesthetically. Let me introduce how and why.

My high school typing class was pre-electric typewriter, and what I learned was that I was lousy at typing and I hated it. The first time I saw a student who was a struggling writer learn how to use the Bank Street Writer, an early word processor, I knew writing with a computer, where I could correct without re-copying, was for me.

http://www.gapingvoid.com/olivettimp1grey-03221.jpg

olivettimp1grey-03221.jpg (JPEG Image, 500×433 pixels) via kwout

I was introduced to dos, and I hated it! Even when I copied out step-by-step instructions, I still frequently had to ask for help. Mild dyslexia might have been part of this, and only a very strong pull to write kept me going back to this early computer system.

When the college where I worked introduced Windows, I was delighted to discover the GUI – that is, the Graphical User Interface! (Imitating the visual and user-friendly Mac)

http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taouu/html/ch02s08.html

GUIs in the era of commodity hardware via kwout

As a writer and a writing & communications teacher, I began to see what a profound communications tool this was. Mentored by two women who were computer experts, I began to play. I created a website using Netscape Navigator’s Composer (I love WYSIWYG) and managed to learn about computer and web use for communicating without ever learning anything but a few dribbles of HTML code.

If you are wondering what this had to do with reading books online, be patient, just a little more introduction;->

I had come to believe that we, my generation, were living through the most profound change in communications (and therefore of human culture) since the printing press. I returned to school determined to write a thesis both about and demonstrating the learning required for, and the impact of, the personal computer and the web. I was lucky enough to have Dr Patrick Diamond supervise me as I wrote an autoethnographic arts-based narrative inquiry, probably the only way I could actually demonstrate the possibilities of word-processing and the web. I would have made my thesis multimedia, if I’d had the skills required at that era (2004). I was happy to settle for using a variety of fonts and layouts, each conveying a different “voice” (inspired by authors such as Stephen King in Misery) and lots of screenshots.

I sent my thesis out to some academic publishers, who rejected it. I knew that the extensive use of different fonts and coloured screenshots would make it very expensive, and that in itself, made it unlikely to be published. After a couple of years, I investigated what it would cost to publish through lulu; too much.

A few days ago, someone on Twitter, (sorry I forget who) referred to issuu. I looked at it. I was struck by four things:

  1. It kept the appearance of my pages intact;
  2. It suggested the aesthetic experience of reading with a beautiful page-turning animation;
  3. It accepted even very large pdf files; and
  4. It was free.

I uploaded my thesis and embedded it in the previous post in this blog. I had some struggles with the size of text and moving through it, but it was beautiful. I mentioned my blog post in Twitter and Ignatia responded, and expanded in her blog – http://ignatiawebs.blogspot.com/2008/02/document-sharing-software.html – and I discovered Scribd . (Thanks Ignatia.)

I liked four things about Scribd :

  1. It kept the appearance of my pages intact;
  2. It was easy to move through the text;
  3. It accepted even very large pdf files; and
  4. It was free.

So my thesis is up on both issuu and scribd.

I’d love to hear what you think of both issuu and scribd, and maybe even of my thesis;->

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Losing My Web Home

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Gratitude and acknowledging what I have been given are important values for me, and, while I appreciate the space I have here on Blogger, my first web community, my first web home, was Elgg/EduSpaces. On my most recent birthday, I wrote about it, and the community I am/was part of there:

http://eduspaces.net/vinall/weblog/skip=10

Joan Vinall-Cox :: Blog via kwout

A year earlier, I had described why I liked Elgg/EduSpaces so much, and quoted some student comments about it.

http://eduspaces.net/vinall/weblog/145563.html

Joan Vinall-Cox :: Blog :: An Encomium for Elgg via kwout

Now the EduSpaces community is being migrated to another home, and I am grateful that Elgg’s creators have set up that solution, but I can’t help feeling that something important is being lost, so I am grieving.

Change happens; I know that. And some of my EduSpaces Friends show up on Twitter, and I will find their blogs so I can continue to follow them through RSS, but my first web home, where I learned so much about web possibilities, will be dismantled at the end of this month.

I’ve already have a number of web spots outside of my elgg/EduSpaces nest, for example this blog, but I will miss the nurturing I experienced in my first web community, and I thank Dave, Ben and Misja for what they have given me, my Friends, and my fellows.

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