--Review of an ISTE presentation by Antha Holt - Tech Coordinator, McCleary School District
http://garageband4everyone.wikispaces.com/

At the 2012 ISTE Conference I attended a session about using GarageBand to create cross-curricular projects. Antha Holt provided with a lot of resources to help us create digital stories, music, and much more.

Using GarageBand in the Classroom
In our session we started with a reminder about The Fun Theory. Basically, the Fun Theory is: Keep learning fun, and students will want to learn more! GarageBand is a great tool for keeping learning fun while still keeping it challenging and relevant. Following are some examples of learning projects students could create with GarageBand:

• Cross-curricular projects
• Tie a science, math, or social studies topic into language arts by writing a script to record in GarageBand
• Tie a project into music by composing a score to go with it
• Tie a project into art by finding just the right images to go along with the topic you are presenting
• Collaborate with other communities to have jam sessions and learn more about them in the process
• Create how-to videos or slide shows about skills and processes being learned in class
• Create and print books to donate to other communities or countries and record audio books to go with them.
• Compose music to go along with any presentation
• Research the culture of a country, state, or anything you are reporting on and compose music that matches
• Teach math
• Talk about beats, measures, patterns, fractions, etc.
• Teach music theory
• Teach rests by looking at the audio recordings -- Where the rests are you don't see the sound waves
• Record reading to track and improve fluency
• Create music that expresses a work of art, color, or shapes
• Compose movie soundtracks

GarageBand for iOS
In our ISTE session, we practiced creating projects using both Mac OS and iOS.  Many Mac users have gotten used to settings and tools in GarageBand for Mac OS, but haven't used the GarageBand app for iOS as much, so I decided to share a few of the tips we learned specifically for iOS.

Using GarageBand on the iPad is a little different than on the computer. There are some options for creating music that are really great that aren't even offered on Mac OS. Following are some notes about how to create amazing iOS GarageBand projects:

The settings in GarageBand for iOS are also a little different. Tapping the ? button will show you what all of the buttons do. For example, if you click the Solo button you will only hear that track. You can also control track volume, track pan, echo, and reverb. The wrench button is what allows you to adjust the metronome, add a count-in (always 4 beats), adjust the sound of the count-in, and change the tempo, key, time signature, and fade out. You can also find airplay, help options here.

When working on projects, you can view your project by instrument or by tracks. You can view track controls by sliding your finger to the right over the track. GarageBand on the iPad defaults to 8 measure loops. Simply click on the + sign to change the length of the loop.

When recording vocals on the iPad, you can record with sound effects, like on Mac iOS. You can also switch sound effects part way through a recording. You can even create your own sound effects using the Sampler that can then play on the keyboard.

Smart Instruments - Smart instruments make it easy to create background music with instruments like drums, strings, keyboard, bass, and guitar.

• Smart Drums - Build your own drum beat by dragging in the desired instrument icons. You can even roll the dice to move your instruments around the grid auto-creating random beats. You can change the drum kit to change the sound of your beats.
• Smart Strings - Pre-created and customizable string tracks are available that already fit into the key you have selected for your project.

Jam Sessions - GarageBand on iOS has the capability to create live jam sessions where others can join in and jam with you online.

Attaching a Camera Connection Kit to your iPad allows you to connect SD cards and USB devices. This is a great way to connect a USB headset or other microphone for recording on your iPad. You could also connect a midi USB keyboard.

You cannot pull photos or movies into GarageBand on the iPad. The only way to create multimedia projects with the music you create in GarageBand for iOS is to export the music you create, then pull it into iMovie.



Written by Katie Blunt

My teammate Camille and I were recently invited to present to a group of American History teachers in the Alpine School District. We were asked to share with them ways in which social media can enhance their history curriculum. We were excited for the opportunity to share some social media tools with them, and I am excited to now be able to share our ideas with you!
Social media includes web- and mobile-based technologies to support interactive dialogue and communication between organizations, communities, and individuals. (Wikipedia) The ways in which students communicate and learn are changing because of social media tools. The classroom is no longer limited by four walls. Social media expands possibilities for teaching and learning.

What is social media?
This movie by Common Craft gives a great analogy that explains social media and its benefits:

• Social Media in Plain English by Common Craft

Following are some ideas for using social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, Weebly, and Blogs to bring your Social Studies classroom to life!

Poll Everywhere
Poll everywhere is a website that allows teachers to create instant polls that their students may respond to via text or via the web. This is a great way for teachers to check for understanding. Polls on Poll Everywhere also make great exit tickets. My favorite part of the site is that the results are shown in a live feed that you can display for your class to see.

• Poll Everywhere - Social Media Poll
  

Facebook
What is Facebook? Watch the follow Common Craft videos to find out:

• Social Networking (Facebook) by Common Craft on YouTube
  
• Social Networking (Facebook) by Common Craft on commoncraft.com

There are many ways to use Facebook or other sites like it to communicate with and engage students.

• Facebook - Facebook can be used to communicate with students and parents about what is happening in your class. Homework assignments, discussion questions, and upcoming events are easily posted, and students can easily respond. The main benefit of using Facebook, in my opinion, is that most students are already using this social network. This means they do not have to create another account, and they are more likely to see your posts. Be cautious, however. "Friending" students is usually not a good idea. Try creating a class fan page instead so that students and parents can follow your page posts without you having to "friend" them or allow them to access your personal information.
  
• For more information about using Facebook in the classroom, check out this article from The Innovative Educator: 8 Real Ways Facebook Enriched Ms. Schoening's First Grade Class -- The Innovative Edcuator
• Edmodo - This is an education-friendly, Facebook-like option for managing your class on a social network site. The benefit of using Edmodo is that you have a Facebook-looking interface, but with much more teacher control over content and posts. The drawback is that students typically do not already use Edmodo, making it one more account and one more network they have to access.
  
• Fakebook - Fakebook is not a complete social network, like Facebook. Instead, it is an site where students can create fake profiles for historical figures in a Facebook-like interface that they are familiar with. Watch the video on the Fakebook webpage to see how it works!

Twitter
What is Twitter? Watch the following Common Craft movie to find out:

• Twitter in Plain English by Common Craft

There are a lot of ways Twitter can be used in the Classroom:

• Visible Tweets - Create a Twitter hashtag for your class, and have students post questions, thoughts, comments, and feedback using the hashtag. Enter the hashtag into Visible Tweets, and project the feed to create your own classroom backchannel.
  
• Twijector - Use this just like you would Visible Tweets, except get a more artistic display of the feed.
  
• For more ideas for using Twitter in the classroom, check out this article: 50 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom.
  

Twhistory
Twhistory is a site that helps teachers create a Twitter feed recreation of an historical event. Students can research events using primary sources, then Tweet about the event as if they were a person experiencing the event first-hand. Click on the links below for more information and to see examples of Twhistory recreations:

• Retweeting History Brings Those Stories to Life

• Tweeting from the Titanic: All Hands on Deck
• The Titanic
• Titanic Questions
• The Bombing of Pearl Harbor
  • Students worked in groups of 2-3
  • Each group was assigned a Pearl Harbor character
  • Each group:
    • read the eyewitness account of their assigned character
    • composed tweets as if they were that person experiencing the bombing of Pearl Harbor
    • recorded their tweets on the google spreadsheet
    • recorded the date, time, and the tweet with the hashtag #csdendorse
• Tweets were scheduled using SocialOomph

Blogs
What are blogs? Watch the following Common Craft movie to find out:

• Blogs in Plain English by Common Craft

Using blogs in the classroom can engage students in writing, analysis, and discussion in any subject area. Some blogging sites teachers can use with their students include:

• Blogger - Google's blog site - Students must be 13 or older to have their own account.
  
• KidBlogs - Teachers manage student accounts and have admin rights to all student-created blogs.
  
• Edublogs
• Edublogs Curriculum Corner is a great place to find blogs other teachers and students are creating in specific content areas. - History and Social Studies
• Edublogs Directory is a great place to find blogs other teachers and students are creating. - History and Social Studies

Weebly
What is Weebly? Weebly is an online WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) website creation site. Visit the following links to learn more:

• Weebly for Education Demo
  
• education.weebly.com
  

Weebly is a great way for teachers and students to build educational websites.

• Student Website Portfolios - Students can create their own website to house all of the great school work they do over the years. So often students lose track of projects, essays, and technology creations. Weebly is a great way to organize them into online portfolios to show colleges, employers, family, and friends.
• Click the following links to view examples of student sites:

           Weebly Websites Created by Students Grades 6-8 and 9-12
           Revolutionizing Industry: Henry Ford's Moving Assembly Line
           Marching for Civil Rights
           Weebly Country Reports - Spain

• Professional Development - Our very own Education Technology Department uses Weebly to create this site as a place to gather professional learning materials and resources:
  Prolearning.canyonsdistrict.org

YouTube
What is YouTube? "YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, share, and view videos." (Wikipedia)
YouTube is another great classroom resource. Teachers can find video clips that fit their curriculum on YouTube or any number of other video-sharing sites, like YouTube for Schools or Teacher Tube.
Some school districts block YouTube, making it difficult for teachers to share content they find. Dowload Helper is a Firefox browser add-on that can help teachers download copies of movies at home to later be played in class. Be careful to follow all copyright laws when using Download Helper.
Many YouTube channels have been created specifically for use in the Social Studies classroom. Some of my favorites are re-mixed music videos in which popular songs have been spoofed to include history-themed lyrics. For example:

• The History Teachers
  
• Renaissance 
  
• Bad Romance: Women’s Suffrage
• The Ad Council - PSAs

Students can also use YouTube to share movies they create themselves. For example:

• Falcon Facts on YouTube or Falcon Facts on iTunesU

Film creation is a great way to help students master planning, writing, and revision skills as well as content in any subject area. Film-creation is even more authentic when students can share their work with a real audience. YouTube allows them to do just that. For example:

• Ancient Civilizations

There are countless social media tools available to help students create their own music videos, movies, and presentations. For example:

• Blabberize
• Voki
  
• Vocaroo
  
• Storybird
  
• Comic Creator
  
• Animoto

I have listed just a handful of social media tools that can be used in the Social Studies classroom. For an even larger list of online tools and articles about using social media in the classroom, visit our "Bringing Social Studies to Life with Social Media" website.
I would love to hear ways you are using social media in your classroom, so be sure to comment on this post and share the great things you are doing!

Posted by Katie Blunt

ISTE2012 -- The Student Film Festival - A Life-Changing Experience -- Scott Smith - Visalia, CA
http://www.vusd.org/webpages/ssmith/index.cfm?subpage=27094
http://slickrockfestival.org/

In June I was able to attend the ISTE2012 conference in San Diego, CA. One of the sessions I was excited to attend was about building a quality student film festival. Canyons School District has produced a student film festival each year since the birth of the District. In 2012 we were ready to raise the bar and increase the level of involvement, calibre of entries, and magnitude of the festival. We had great success and were inspired to do even more to build our festival in 2013. This ISTE session, "The Student Film Festival - A Life-Chainging Experience," gave me a lot of great ideas for expanding and improving the Annual Canyons District Film Festival to even greater heights. Following are notes and ideas I picked up from this ISTE session that might help you with your film festival efforts as well:

Why a student film festival?

• Core academics are strengthened
• Writing
• Research
• Cross-Curriculuar Connection- students write scripts in their ELA class, research issues in their social studies class, and tap the acting and musical talent of students in their schools
• Generative Skills are developed
• Executive Skills
• deliberation, team organization, deadlines, scheduling, managing disappointment
• Communication Skills
• know the audience, emotional impact, body language
• Work Ethic
• "good enough" is defined by the audience, lives change when students see hard work rewarded
• Vision Beyond the Ego
• connection to a local issue, local person, local problem; lives change when students add value to the world
• Resiliency & Self-Reliance
• 21st Century Skills are acquired
• Critical Thinking
• Creativity
• Communication
• Collaboration
• Dropout Rate Drops
• Fun is Back

"In the age of high-stakes testing, the curriculum has narrowed. Compliance now characterizes student learning more often than engagement. Inviting students to be creative and innovative is too rare. Teaching that promotes critical thinking, problem solving and decision making has all but vanished in schools. Juxtapose this culture to the high-energy, creative act of student filmmaking. Fueled by YouTube and inexpensive video equipment, students now have access to a medium that was unreachable prior to NCLB. When students make films, deep thinking takes place. Attention to detail goes way up and new learning sticks. Central to this type of learning is an authentic audience … and that’s where the student film festival comes in." --Scott Smith

Invite students to find something they love.
When a student film festival is produced, the following things happen:

• Standards become clear
• Clarify the standard, rubric, detailed criteria, quality defined
• Students realize quality when they see top films from top filmmakers
• Product is guaranteed
• A festival means a deadline, the Festival becomes a powerful "nagging" teacher tool
• Students learn the sometimes hard lesson of deadlines
• There are closets filled with half-written novels... Films get completed!
  
• Student work is validated and celebrated
• Student achievement increases
• School culture improves
• The upside of school is amplified
• Something good comes from this school
• The school shakes hands with the community instead of extending the hand for donations
• Students are engaged in the community and giving to the community, not just asking for support and money
• School multimedia programs expand
• From club, to class, to program, to pathway
• As popularity increases, demand increases

"Digital filmmaking allows students to share their voice. Too often this voice is limited to the popular student or gifted or advantaged student. The student film festival experience has taught me that students with challenging backgrounds have a rich voice. Working with high-poverty, high-risk students helped me appreciated the level playing field that technology lays. Students of all stripes can make films. Students of all stripes WANT to make films. The student film festival not only affords them the opportunity to make films but it motivates them to make films." --Scott Smith

Building a Student Film Festival

• Start with a mission
• How close to the industry to you want to take the kids?
• Do you want to focus on an event or issue in the community?
• What are your production, copyright, and release expectations?
• Identify existing resources
• Find the county film commissioner 
• Contact the county human health services department because they have a lot of money to support the education of health issues in the area. If you can connect your festival to those issues, they can financially back you.
• Local junior colleges and/or universities - work with their film departments
• Define the scope of your Festival
• What grade levels?
• What's the standard?
• Market, open up social media channels
• Establish a brand
• What is a name that will get people interested/intrigued?
• Is there a name you can use besides the district film festival?
• Make a budget
• Communicate your content expectations
• Check out the criteria examples used for the SlickRock festival
• Secure judges - Do you narrow down the entries first? - Each judge is only asked to judge 3 or 4 categories - 4 or 5 judges per category - View the entries before they are sent on to the judges to filter - Phanfare can be used for the judges to view so only the judges know where to go to find the films - Judges' scores narrow down to the top 3 nominees, then hold a dinner to debate who the final winner will be
• Find local industry people
• Local film critics
• TV, news, movies, commercials
• Online judging
• Make a to do list and delegate
• Produce the event and recruit an historian to document it.
• Post-market to build next year's festival (Strike while the iron is hot.)

What is the role of the teacher?
"The teacher’s role in this context is meant to clarify the learning target for the student, to offer frequent descriptive feedback, to expect excellence, and to open 'broadcast channels' so the student’s work is appreciated by a wide audience...
Digital filmmaking advances academic achievement. In the new Common Core, students are asked to write more toward authentic topics, to persuade, to narrate. Films require a well-written script that defines the characters, the conflict, and the resolution. Films can be narrative stories, persuasive essays, situation analysis, or dramatic/comedic representations. Filmmaking is likely to open cross curricular doors. An issue may be researched in a social studies class, the script written in the ELA class, and acting and music talent is tapped from the arts department. The teacher’s role to frame clear learning targets for each film assignment and offer regular descriptive feedback is vital. But the Festival motivates the task and caps the experience." --Scott Smith

Examples of Festivals

• International - ISMF
• California State - CSMF
• Regional - SRFF
• County
• District
• School

FAQ

• How do you handle submissions with adult themes?
• Only the adviser can submit a film to the festival for a student.
• The principal has to sign off on the submission.
• You can censor and deny films for too much violence or mature themes.
• Teach the students that they can leave some things to the imagination.
• What about films that seem to have too much adult help?
• Have the students sign on their form that it is a student-created film.
• It still might happen.

•  Copyright issues?
• Release forms required for all information, media, and people in the films.
• Teach the students about copyright.

• What about the large numbers of entries?
• Limit the number that can be submitted per school.
• Play all the entries all day starting at 9am in the large theater.
• Then have a cycle of limos to bring the kids from a couple blocks away and a red carpet for the awards ceremony.
• Hire the junior high band to play at the red carpet.
• The others are there to take photos and greet all the kids coming out of the limos, news crews are interviewing, and younger kids are asking for their autographs as they go in for the awards held in the big movie theater.
• Get 3 or 4 girls to wear their prom dresses again a second time to hand out the envelopes and awards.
• Show clips of the nominees and show the complete winner.
• Pick a time that fits your district's social calendar.

Ideas for Improving Your Festival:

• Make commercials for local companies.
• Music videos - music has to be composed and recorded by the kids
• PSA - about local issues
• Foreign Film category - films created by foreign language classes
• Find the county film commissioner
• Issues can be a category with specific requirements rather than a theme for the whole festival. ie. The Suicide Prevention category
• Poster contest for the next year's festival during the current festival - announce the winner of the contest at the current year's festival
• Hold the festival at an actual theater - try to remove your festival from the school feeling so that it feels like industry

My teammate Camille Cole and I have presented several times about the benefits of podcasting in schools. The benefits of podcasting parallel the benefits of producing a film festival. If you would like to view the presentation  we created about our podcasting projects, click here. We have also developed an outline of topics that teachers may want to teach their students as they prepare them to create festival entries. You can look over these topics and film examples here.

The Canyons School District Ed Tech team has already begun preparations for our 2013 film festival. I am excited about the great ideas I picked up from Scott Smith at ISTE and how they will help us improve our festival even more. Check out our website to keep tabs on our film festival and to get information about submitting films! http://prolearning.canyonsdistrict.org/annual-canyons-district-film-festival.html

ISTE 2012
--Annette Lamb, alamb@eduscapes.com
Workshop Resources: http://eduscapes.com/sessions/emergency

This summer at the ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) conference, I attended a three-hour workshop focused on activating students of the "high-tech/couch potato generation." I think a lot of parents and teachers worry about our tech-savvy students doing nothing but sitting and staring at their computers or other electronic devices all day rather than getting up, getting active, and getting involved. This workshop proved to me that using technology does not mean merely sitting. Teachers can and should plan technology-enhanced lessons that get students more active, more involved, more excited about learning, and more in touch with the world.

VARK (Visual, Auditory, Reading Kinesthetic) and Video - Mix Modalities
Active Senses + Content with Context + Relevant Technology
In any technology-enhanced lesson, teachers can give their students a variety of learning experiences, including kinesthetic experiences. The combination of visual, auditory, reading, and kinesthetic learning experiences increases the number of exposures students have to content and allows them to process and repeat it in a variety of ways. For example, when choosing to show a video to introduce new content, a teacher can do more than just have students watch the video. Students can view the video, then re-view the video with specific questions or ideas to focus on, then get up and try what was taught or demonstrated in the video. Try having students use video along with manipulatives and off-computer activities that allow them to demonstrate their understanding. Have students participate in active thinking assignments before, during, and after viewing a video clip to make what they are learning from the clip more relevant, and more clear.

There are a many great websites that provide free online videos that are perfect for instructing and activating students. Here are a few you might like to check out:

• Teacher's Domain - lesson plans and ideas to go along with video clips
• Activity TV
• BBC Learning
• WatchKnowLearn
• More ideas at Annette Lamb's page about VARK & Video

Physical & Virtual Experiences
"Computers are no long just screens and keyboards." Computers are interactive devices now, and they can be used to access information in a variety of ways that activate students. Following are some examples of ways your students can use technology to learn and activate their senses:

• Auditory: In the Google Chrome browser, students can use the microphone available on google.com to conduct searches by speaking their search term instead of typing it.
• Activity Idea - Assign each student to research something specific about an animal (what it eats, its habitat, etc.) by speaking their search into the google microphone, then have them verbally share what they have learned with a small group.
• Visual: In the Google Chrome browser, students can click and drag a photo into the search box on images.google.com.
• Activity Idea - Give each student an item (ie. money from another country) and have them find out what it is or gather information about it. This would be a great attention-getter that would give students background information before reading a novel, conducting and experiment, or learning about a historical event.
• Verbal: The Rubber Duck Decoding Theory - Why do we always get better ideas when we're in the shower or the bath or driving in the car? Sometimes we need to get out of the same old scenario where we sit at the computer and stare at the screen while we try to think. Instead of staring at the screen, when students have a problem to solve or thinking that needs to happen, have them talk to a rubber duck. Have them tell the duck the problem or get up and walk around and talk to the duck about possible solutions. Getting out of that same old staring at the screen scenario can help students think more clearly. Verbally explaining the problem and possible solutions or sharing knowledge already gained can help new ideas flow. 
• Activity Idea - Have students create a video or picture explanation using a rubber duck as the teacher. Have them record themselves using the duck to explain or themselves teaching the duck.
• More ideas at Annette Lamb's Physical & Virtual Experiences page

Physical & Virtual Connections
Another way to connect students' technology use to active engagement is to help them make connections between the virtual world and the real world. One way to help them make these connections is by using creative work examples found online and created by others for inspiration, then having students create their own product. Following are some ideas of how online examples can be used as inspiration for student creations:

• Place: Learn about a place you have only seen in a movie by researching it on the web.
• Place: Introduce students to online maps like Google street view, Google map-making, and Google trail views. Talk about how the maps were made and how they are useful. Then, have students make their own!
• Story: Use the Rory's Story Cubes app to generate ideas for a story.
• Story: Create a storyboard on Storybird, Comic Creator, or other sites.
• Exhibit: Build a physical exhibit (wax museum, diorama, display board) with a recorded narration to go with it. Use sites like Voki, Vocaroo, or Blabberize to create the narration. Link the recorded narration using a QR code that can be displayed next to the physical exhibit.
• Exhibit: Use QR code to take a physical exhibit beyond the physical display. Have students create a list of questions to include with their display. Have them create a website that houses the answers to the questions. Generate a QR code to display next to the questions that directs peers to the weblink where they can find the information they need to answer the questions.
• Video: Have students view online videos, music videos, instructional videos, etc, then have them create their own video projects.
• Word Clouds: Have students view murals, timelines, infographics, word clouds, and word shapes online, like the Lincoln Douglas Debates, Student Bullying, and The Presidential Timeline. Then have students create their own using sites like Wordle, Tiki-Toki, and Image Chef's Word Mosaic.
• Data Collection: Have students conduct their own data collection or use existing data sources (Gallup, FedStats) and use online tools (Create A Graph, ChartGo) to organize the results.
• Interactives: Have students make computer interactives come alive with connected, off-computer activities. Combine hands-on activities with data collection tools. For ideas, check out Thinkfinity activities, Illuminations activities, and Science NetLinks activities.
• More ideas at Annette Lamb's page about Physical and Virtual Connections

How can these types of activities really benefit students and increase learning? Technology-enhanced, multimedia learning projects that connect the physical and virtual worlds can provide opportunities for students to entertain, emote, inform, instruct, challenge, engage, provoke, and persuade. Following is a list of each of these skills, ideas for teaching these skills, and learning goals achieved when students practice these skills:

• Entertain - visual storytelling, language development, creative writing, diary, re-enactment, speculative project, experiences
• GOAL: Convey a story, imagine a world, illustrate an idea
• Emote - show not tell, share insights, connect to emotions, activate a poem, demonstrate traits, convey concepts
• GOAL: Express a feeling, illustrate an abstraction, move an audience
• Inform - documentaries, histories, databases, photo essays, represent ideas, categorize, show patterns, share results
• GOAL: Analyze information, explain causality, visualize ideas
• Instruct - tutorials, directions, demonstrations, presentations, experiments, procedures
• GOAL: show strategies, explain concepts, teach others
• Challenge - present issue, challenge thinking, visual story starters, introduce problems, inspirational examples, extend a story
• GOAL: create dilemmas, envision problems, kickstart projects
• Engage - news programs, visual journal, travel logs, yearbooks, highlight programs, create welcomes, showcase work
• GOAL: announce events, document experiences, reflect on lessons
• Provoke - PSA (Public Service Announcement), stir interest, influence thinking, impact behavior
• GOAL: arouse emotions, heighten awareness, change attitudes
• (PSA examples on The Ad Counsel channel on YouTube)
• Persuade - illuminated term papers, advertisements, book/movie trailers, apply advertising techniques, promote action
• GOAL: support arguments, show perspectives, convince others

Technology & Tactile Learning
"Our young people risk losing an essential connection with physical reality." - Thomas Elpel
Teachers can help stop students' disconnect with physical reality by providing a balance between hands-on, tactile experiences and technology-enhanced experiences. Practical, tactile experiences are important for learning and life. Technology can aid teachers and students in the creation of practical, tactile experiences and help make these experiences more rich. For example:

• Paper-based activities: Students get so used to technology that sometimes doing a paper-based creative project is novel and exciting to them.
• Activity Idea - Go to Dear Photo.com and check out their project. Have your students generate their own Dear Photo project and write a description of their work.
• Use technology to create a physical product: Use the two worlds together. Technology can enhance our activities as we add the tactile back into what we do.
• Activity Idea - Create a "Fortune Teller" or a Cube as a review for a unit. Use a template on the computer to create the fortune teller, or assign students to figure out how to format it in a blank document themselves.
• Dynamic Paper: Use technology to create graph paper, number lines, tessellations, spinners, and other paper-based activities.
• Activity Idea - Use the Dynamic Paper online app from Illuminations.

Generate, Motivate, Innovate, Activate
Generate - When students use technology to "create a tactile story," it can help them explore stories, relationships, and patterns. Following are some resources that can help students generate more tangible experiences and products using virtual tools:

• Redkid
• Build A House
• My Fake Wall
• Fakebook (create a character or historical figure's Facebook Page)
• Fake Receipt Generator

Motivate - Getting students' attention and helping them see relevance in learning experiences can motivate them to learn more. Technology tools can help increase curiosity in students and add stimulation and variety to their learning through the use of humor, novelty, and a "sense of the unexpected." They can also help students find their niche (explore their own personal interests), see value in their work, and make connections to the real world. Following are some ideas for motivating students by creating novelty in the classroom and by connecting the virtual world with the real world:

• Novelty: Create a special day, and use these special days/events to create technology projects that tie into the required curriculum and the real world. (Constitution Day, Pi Day, Ones Upon a Day)
• Relevance: Join an online collaborative project where students can contribute to real data collection or become citizen scientists. (Lost Ladybug Project, Wildlife Sightings, Global Schoolhouse Registry, CIESE Projects)

Innovate -"The key to student engagement is involving students in transforming information into something new..." Teachers can use technology to help students think in new and different ways. Students need to be moved beyond copy and paste to create their own innovative projects and problem solutions. Teachers can help students become more comfortable moving "between on-computer and off-computer activities to help students with transformation."

• Lego is a great example of using technology to create inventive on- and off-computer projects. Check out their site for activities, ideas, and information about Lego Digital Designer and Lego competitions.

Activate - Games, online and off, are a great way to help students learn. In order to be effective educational tools, games should include four elements. When you create a game, and any lesson, be sure to GRAF it.

1. Goal. You need a way to win or achieve the goal.
   As educators we need to match goals with purposes and reasons for learning.
2. Rules. You need to know what you may and may not do.
   As educators, we need to provide guidelines for learning.
3. Action and Attitude. You must do something along the way. Make it fun and interesting.
   As educators we need to make leanring meaningful and challenging.
4. Feedback. You need to know how you are doing.
   As educators, we need to provide ongoing opportunities to self, peer, and teacher assessment.

• Go to the Google Game: Creatures wikispace to try a Google Game.
• Use a search engine to sort the real Dr. Seuss quotes from the fakes.
• Find out about the Google April Fools Day jokes that have been done.

Thanks to Annette Lamb for her great ideas and for reinforcing for me that technology tools are all about activation and creation. For more ideas, check out Annette's Engagement Emergencies Website! http://eduscapes.com/sessions/emergency/index.htm

--Katie Blunt

EduBloggerCon - Networking/Web 3.0

What is digital citizenship?
I have noticed a shift from simply teaching online safety to teaching digital citizenship. What is the difference? I think digital citizenship is more all-encompassing. It includes online safety (what I think of as the "stranger danger" aspect of digital citizenship), but is a more well-rounded and complete view of what it means to "be online". It addresses safe searching, filters, security, and protecting personal information as well as appropriate content, cyber-bullying, copyright, ethics, social skills, collaboration, affiliation, authorship, and accountability. It is not just acceptable use, but responsible use. Yes, parents and educators need to keep children safe on the Internet, but we need to teach them etiquette and behavior expectations as well, just like we do in the "real world". The virtual world should not be that different from the real world. It's the same people conducting the same business and social interactions, just in a new way.

What is Web 3.0?
At the Networking/Web3.0 session I attended at EduBloggerCon in June 2011, we discussed the idea of "Web 3.0". This discussion focused on the following progression: from The World Wide Web, to Web 2.0, and on to Web 3.0. The World Wide Web was an amazing connection of hypertext and linked documents. Web 2.0 shifted to being of the people, by the people -- interactive and open-source. Web 3.0 has shifted to more than just talk -- we share information and help each other manage and find meaning in the information that is out there.

What does Web 3.0 mean for students, parents, and educators?
Parents and educators have a responsibility to help students understand that there are real people with real feelings behind all the tweets, posts, and avatars.  Every person is a citizen online, just like in the real world. We are all expected to follow rules, laws, and appropriate social behavior in life, so we must do the same online.

What does this mean for school work?
On school networks, no person should ever be anonymous. We should be asking our students to put their name on everything. Being anonymous is like wearing a mask. People behave differently. They feel that because nobody knows who they are, they can do things they would never do normally. They disconnect from their actions and therefore take no responsibility for them. Students should be taught to be responsible for everything they put out there -- every post, tweet, and comment they make. Teaching them to put their name on their work encourages them to take ownership and responsibility for it.

In addition, keeping things anonymous does not allow authorship. It does not allow students to take credit for the great work they are doing. Instead of encouraging anonymity, we should encourage authorship by finding people to comment and share with our students so they can experience the benefits of taking ownership of their work. How? We can use hashtags like #comments4kids on Twitter to get other educators to comment on student blog posts. We can let students know who has viewed their blogs. We can try to get student work published outside of the school -- linked to a local paper or on a public site. (For example, talk to an historian and create a site for the local museum, newspaper, historical society, or library.) We can get outside businesses and associations interested in what our students are doing. (This is mutually beneficial. The students gain an understanding of their potential influence, and businesses gain interest from the "under-30 crowd".) We should be helping students see how far-reaching their online influence can be.

The Eisenhower school safety project expands on this concept. Check out their blog titled "Generation YES Blog -- Thoughts About Empowering Students with Technology".

How should educators handle social network sites like Facebook? I think that although we do need to be responsible online citizens, we do not want to create fear of social networking and sharing online. We want students to be able to reap the benefits of world wide access to incredible educational resources and social networks. Facebook is the "pizza parlor" or "shopping mall" of today, as the video below says. That means Facebook is also a great way to get announcements, news, educational content, and information out to students and the community. How? Teachers can create Facebook groups or fanpages for their classes instead of friending students. While we do need to be wise and thoughtful about the use of and access to social networks, we should not completely shy away from using them as resources.

How do we bring the family along for the learning? Parents need to be involved in the online lives of their children. They need to help their children learn appropriate online behavior, just as they help them learn appropriate real-world behavior. We as educators can help parents. How? We can start by helping them become educated about digital citizenship. We can help parents understand the Acceptable Use Policy and Information Release Forms they are asked to sign. We can make them aware of available digital citizenship and network literacy resources. For example, UEN has created NetSafeUtah - a collection of movies about Internet safety and citizenship. I watched one NetSafe movie recently that focuses on parent involvement in the online activity of their children:

Educators should help parents understand what schools are doing with technology, particularly with Internet resources, so they can support our efforts. How? Schools can hold parent openhouse nights to encourage family involvement. They can hold family tech nights at the start of each school year and then again throughout the year on specific technology tools and topics. They can hold classes at various times and in various places for short periods of time to make it easier for busy parents to attend. Some schools even allow parents who do not have computers or Internet at home to have some access to computers and Internet at the school.

Educators can hold classes for parents where they actually participate in the same types of assignments, projects, and experiences that their children are participating in so they understand what is happening and what the value is. Experiencing what their kids experience can also help parents understand how to help their children with technology issues that arise at home (ie. what to do when you have trouble uploading a file). Have parents comment on each other's posts and projects so they can understand how it feels to interact and receive that kind of feedback. Try sharing class blogs from previous years so parents to see examples of what blogs are for and what can be accomplished with them.

What about kids who do not have access to technology at home?
Many educators are finding that it is difficult to press forward with technology use in education when so many of our students do not have the same technology tools and resources at home that they have at school. In public education we cannot require students to use tools unless we provide them. Even if districts can purchase equipment for students, it doesn't help much if they don't have Internet access at home. Here are some ideas our EduBloggerCon discussion group brainstormed to help families access technology and Internet resources at home:

• Set up a rent-to-own program through the district, just like many districts have set up for purchasing band instruments.
• Use the free/reduced lunch format to achieve one-to-one access.
• Buy technology instead of textbooks.
• Purchase mobile devices that do not require a home Internet provider.

What are we afraid of?
There are a lot of questions to be answered and ideas to ponder when it comes to managing and using technology in education, particularly Internet resources. There are many things we need to be wise and thoughtful about. But, it is clear to me that we cannot be afraid of the opportunities presented by the digital world. We should be excited about them! We should be providing our students the training and access they need to succeed and make a difference as digital citizens. The world of technology is their world. We are tasked with the responsibility to prepare them for it. I think I'm about the break into song... "I believe the children are our future. Teach them well, and let them lead the way..." You said it, Whitney.

--Katie Blunt

Many teachers have found that they need to print a final report card for students who have moved out of their class. The trouble is that once a student has moved, they are removed from Skyward gradebook. Do not fear! Your student data is still there! You simply need to tell Skyward to access their data. Here is a movie explaining how:

--Katie Blunt