Blogging Breeds Web Developing Skills

As my students are using classblogmeister (created by David Warlick), I am noticing an additional side benefit. No... this has nothing to do with a digital voice that transcends the classroom. No, it is not technology as a positive force of communication. This is something new and unexpected. My students are becoming web developers! While they might not be creating html and server side scripts, they are learning about how to change the look of text on the web and the purposes of doing so.


It all started earlier this year, when one of my students started playing with the "graphical style" text editor that David rolled out this year. Instead of simple text input for their entries, students are greeted with a familiar MS Word-ish interface with font faces, styles, weight, sizes, alignments etc. I remember seeing the first student use a different color. It became the talk of the class. Soon thereafter texts became larger, smaller and brighter and duller. Smileys invaded blogs, but it was used in the interest of personalization. I told my kids that as long as it was 'readable', meaning bright yellow was out, I was okay with it.


About a month ago, a girl in my class changed the text face color, but this time it was in a specific way and for a specific reason. She made the text white. Why, you might ask? She did this because white text with a white background means invisible text. She left a note to the reader to "Scroll over with your cursor slowely to see the hidden message below." Genius!


Soon, news of this new feature spread. Who's side would I be on the French and Indian War? Scroll over to see! Matching text color to background color! I do the same thing in hiding things on my SMARTboard, but here 9 and 10 year olds are doing the same with excitement! Is this cool or what? Yes, it is! It sure is!


And then? One of my kids the other day, in a blog letter to King George, wrote the following:





By putting something as simple as a "strikethrough", one of my students was able to voice his opinion on King George without even writing it! I was very excited to see this kind of thinking. It wouldn't be possible without technology. I often hear that 'words on a screen' lack emotion without the physical traits of the speaker's voice and actions (emoticons aside), so is this a good way to overcome this alleged shortcoming?
What's next??? I don't know! ;-)

What's the Story With Daniel Pink?

Last year we were asked to read "A Whole New Mind" by Daniel Pink. I am always skeptical when reading the latest educational theories and research, but this one looked promising. To be honest, I was barely able to put it down and I read it, or rather digested it, in only a few short readings. Wow! It surely touched a nerve with me. In my previous life in the business world, I felt much like a hamster on a wheel. Sure I was "moving" but was I making progress? I was a marketing analyst, a technical support specialist and a database administrator. My last effort to remain in the corporate world was my position as a web developments specialist and team manager. I was able to work on projects and infuse a certain amount of creativity within the guidelines and constraints of brand identity and corporate direction.
When I finally decided to take the leap of faith into the world of education, I was immediately greeted by a world that not only allows independent creation and direction, but it fosters it. When I read Pink's book I did immediately think of my own personal voyage into creating my own classroom and myself as an educator.

One of the six essential senses that Pink speaks about is "Story". Story refers to the art of narrating information. Instead of merely retelling facts in a mindless list, using them in a story offers a much greater impact. He speaks of how commercial advertising has embraced this as a strategy for selling products to consumers. Technology is a natural for this sense, as it offers students a means of telling a story to get facts or information across to their audience. Since their audience can be the entire world for the sake of argument, the tools need to be powerful and outreaching, but given the user they cannot be overwhelming, cumbersome or overcomplicated.

Digital storytelling, blogs, and video logs are just a few of the tools that are at our fingertips. Twenty or even ten years ago, to make a movie and make it available to the whole world took a great deal of technical knowledge, high level hardware and a network of people "in the business". Of course, let's not forget the bank account that usually accompanies those with the last names of Spielberg, Lucas, Tarantino and the like.

This evening, I decided to revisit Daniel Pink's own site (http://www.danpink.com/), and I found a most interesting video. It was created by Tomas Nilson, and he used infographics to tell the story of Little Red Riding Hood. It is so dry and riddled with facts. It lacks story, but it does paint a very interesting picture of how important story can be. Imagine how difficult it would be to understand what was happening if you didn't already know the story. It is quite entertaining though.

Is that not a huge example of the importance of story? As an educator, I strive to use story to create meaning in my classroom. In addition to simply reading about events in history, we sometimes act them out. We view movies based on history with characters that tell the story. We create silly stories to help students to memorize concepts in math. Of course, literature allows us to use story all of the time.

On the other hand, students can be creators themselves and use stories to demonstrate competency. On my most recent social networking history site, my students are creating blog entries as if they were that historical person using information gathered from research and their own creativity. They are writing autobiographies from the first person point of view. Instead of regurgitating facts and dates, they create meaning and connect themselves to the lives and experiences of that person.

What a journey this has all been, but that's a whole other story...

When Social Networking Becomes Social Studies...

In a moment of pure insanity, I decided to tackle a new project with my students this year. I found in "Instructor" magazine the idea of starting a social network for students using people that would be studied in history. How cool would it be to have Thomas Jefferson "befriend" John Hancock, post pictures of himself and some biographical info, just like Myspace and Facebook? So, with the idea, some motivation and a whole lot of optimism, I decided to embark on "MyHistorySpace".

My class studies the Golden Age of Exploration and the people that saught fame and fortune to find the new world. People like Christopher Columbus, Ponce DeLeon, and Ferdinand Magellan might have a lot to say if given the opportunity to be part of a social network.

My library media specialist provided the students with a myriad of web sites that they could start out with. We spoke about the suffixes at the end of web sites and what they mean (.com, .net, .gov, .edu, etc.). We spoke about how those suffixes have an impact on whether or not you should 'trust' the information that you find. It went very well, and we knew that we were ready to move on.

I started with our class wiki. It became a data warehouse or a knowledge base of sorts. Using questions that asked for various biographical information, students scoured the web. They saved images that they found on a network drive. Things were moving along, but what next?

I had played with animated avatars at www.gizmoz.com before. They were quick and relatively easy... so I had my kids write "status quote" type sentences with authentic information about their explorer. They then animated a head shot picture and recorded their voices saying their quote. Of course, I had them speak (or attempt to speak) in the accent of the country that the explorer was born in.

After searching and researching, I decided to use a ning. That's where we are now. Today I formally introduced "Social Networking", the Ning and how to use it. Today, they embedded their avatars, uploaded profile pictures (of their explorer, not themselves), and they have started to write their blog entries. This class is amazing. They take it and run, and their 'tech-savviness' is wonderful. They have managed to become bloggers, wiki collaborators, multimedia producers, social networker and digital researchers. I am so proud of them! Pity the school year is coming to a close very soon.

Is this the end of the traditional biography report? I doubt it, but perhaps it is "natural progression." I'll let you know how the rest of the project goes! Feel free to check us out at http://myhistoryspace.ning.com