NYSCATE 2014 - Simple Ways To Publish In A Paperless Environment

Source: ASIDE, 2014

The increasing use of technology to deliver information means the traditional bulletin board is going the way of the newspaper. While teachers still display student work in traditional venues, they can also seek alternate, virtual opportunities to share projects with peers and parents. Publishing student work motivates them to see, share, and engage in the collective consumption of ideas. Simple, free digital tools make it easier than ever to display content online. Collaborative whiteboards, digital fliers, and virtual pinboards can exhibit student creations with creative design.

Source: ASIDE, 2014

Embedding content in a paperless environment promotes active and continuous discussions about accountability and digital citizenship. Our students are growing up in a world that is always-engaged, always-on, and always-connected. We need to foster dynamic learning networks that take advantage of these tools to help them navigate, curate, and publish their work.

Source: ASIDE, 2014

The increasing move toward 1:1 and BYOD programs has also pushed the speed and availability of information to mobile environments. It is important to employ app smashing and other interactive ways to engage with student work that builds on the collective feedback of teacher to student, student to student, and student to teacher.

Free publishing platforms:

• Twitter
• Kidblog
• Tumblr
• Wordpress
• Wikispaces

Source: ASIDE, 2014

 

Free publishing tools:

 

Adobe Voice

For examples of student creations in Adobe Voice for different grade levels, click here and here.

Kidblog

Source: ASIDE, 2014

 

 

To create a free teacher class in Kidblog, click here. 
 

Padlet

Created with Padlet

For examples of student publishing via Padlet, check out this, this, this, and this.

Smore

For examples of student publishing via Smore, check out this and this.

Source: ASIDE, 2014

For further reading and resources, we recommend:

• D-LIT: Transliteracy And Web 3.0
• Digital Humanities - Writing Analytically Across Disciplines

Education And E-cology

As we embark on another year as educators, we have a lot to think about with regard to designing new tasks made possibly by technology. We’ve heard and read countless times about how we are educating kids for jobs we don’t know will exist, resulting from technological advances happening at lightening speed, to the point where it seems overwhelming to keep up. And it is not likely to abate any time soon. We are no longer in a world that is changing a certain amount every year. The luxury of a slow, linear, arithmetic approach is gone. Instead, our learners are operating in a world that is changing exponentially.

We recently came across the motion graphic "Trillions," produced by Maya Design for the book Trillions: Thriving In the Emerging Information Ecology by Peter Lucas, Joe Ballay, and Mickey McManus. The video gives an overview of how we arrived where we are in computing today using a time line based on seconds. The authors make the point that designing for trillions is a huge challenge, bigger than any we have ever faced.


Trillions from MAYAnMAYA on Vimeo.


It was the line in the video that “computing is an ecology” and that it is all around us – “not information in the computers, but people in the information” – that made us think: What do we mean by ecology? The standard definition for the word didn’t seem to help, and we wanted a way for our students to get a better grasp of how ecology relates to computing.

This is how we came up with the term e-cology and the subsequent definition: the branch of sociology that deals with the transmission, creation, and design of digital content and its interrelationship with society and the environment.

If we want our learners to have a stake in the developing digital world, we need to consider how we educate them in this new e-cology. We rapidly see the changing face of jobs now, let alone 12 years from now when out current kindergarten students will graduate from high school. New positions for social media, digital asset management, and data visualization are just a few of the employment opportunities that were in their infancy just five years ago.

 

Startups are also on the rise in many fields, including education. We see the extent of new types of opportunities for educators, and we don’t just mean companies trying to market material for the Common Core. The challenges do seem enormous for our students, but the risk of not facing the need for changing education in our schools is far greater. We need a paradigm shift in curricula now to accommodate the changing e-cology or we will fall further behind as a society of innovators.

The Internet, Advertising, And Transliteracy

Source: Epipheo

The organic way information is set in motion on the Internet is changing advertising into a dynamic, shared experience. With images at its core, the designing of information specifically for the web is altering how we think and how we respond to that experience. Digital advertising can reach large audiences, and it is perhaps the fastest growing sector to master the art of transliteracy.

Digital messaging pushes us to think differently when we come into contact with it, because the technology has the ability to manipulate the media across platforms, on devices, and by people. It’s also far more interactive. Participants can also quickly share what they unearth with others, and we don’t just mean one-to-one. We can reach hundreds, if not thousands, with one tweet, Facebook like, Linkedin group, or blog post.

The motion graphic from Epipheo called “How the Internet Is Changing Advertising” is a good resource to help learners understand the impact of marketing information on the web and its effect on an audience.


It is self-promoting to be sure, but the message is clear. The value of the image in communication and design is a game-changer for advertisers. Motion graphics, video, and interactive infographics are made specifically for the web. These eye-catching and engaging deliveries to endorse or advance an idea or product are one of the fastest ways to push out a message. Their proliferation on the Internet is pervasive, and advertisers depend on their discovery.

The hope is that our discovery of them gets shared with our followers, friends, and connections. As a result, the encounter takes on a familiarity and a likelihood that others will share that experience even further. Essentially, our connections ultimately broaden an advertiser’s reach. This is why continuing to reinforce the skills of media literacy is so vital to our learners.

The seamless shift of information, the slickness in its design, and the appeal to the viewer’s sensibilities as something familiar make it difficult for learners to separate fact from fiction. Media messages on the web, just like any other, are designed to attract and promote. Our kids need to know this, and we need to continually reinforce it.

Ironically, this post about this short motion graphic from Epipheo will be shared with our readers and followers. It will no doubt promote its message about having an epiphany that will lead to other epiphanies as its closing message purports. We like the message about have an illuminating discovery to think differently about things. In doing so, be media savvy. Check the source, look to see if it’s an advertisement, and don’t be fooled by the creativity. We’ve moved from being passive viewers of information to wanting to communicate what we encounter with others. That’s okay; just take a minute to evaluate it.

D-LIT: Transliteracy And Web 3.0

In order for students to be competitive in today's world, schools need to look beyond their common cores to pinpoint emerging skills. It is important to recognize the need to educate students beyond the written text using multiple literacies that often put the teacher at a disadvantage in terms of skill. According to Wikipedia, the ability to move fluidly across a range of platforms, tools, and media to read, write, and interact is transliteracy.

Digital technologies have changed literacy as we know it, and design will change the way it is received. As teachers, we cannot avoid the change taking place much faster outside of our classrooms. Kids know what is available to them, and we should embrace our students' ability to do more. Transliteracy is inextricably linked to Web 3.0. While definitions for Web 3.0 vary, the Web is changing. Web 3.0 is often referred to as the semantic web, with personalization, intelligent searches, and a seamless diffusion across devices to deliver information.

Transliteracy is multidimensional and creates a level of communication that transcends the status quo. We have long advocated for teaching students to think like a designer to transform the way they learn. While expanding the curriculum can sometimes lead to bells and whistles taking over scholarship, it is important to place emphasis on content first, and savor the pretty for second.

For today's learners, understanding transliteracy is essential. It is about integrating the design of information using a variety of technologies for the best possible result to convey meaning. It is the process of taking an idea and adding layers of information to take it to its final stage well beyond the traditional approach. Transliteracy will become the underpinning of good educational design, because it is driven by the ability to read, write, and interact to communicate ideas to a variety of audiences.

Now more than ever, there is a need to categorize and reshape information in innovative ways. Transliteracy is just that. The onslaught of stimuli resulting from digital technologies in different formats, on platforms, and through social media almost demands a multisensory approach. It is a world of 3D and 4G information. The non-static nature of learning on a variety of devices allows for this.

From an educational standpoint, this means that learning to design information in different ways is necessary. Transliteracy changes the process of how we see, and it conveys facets of meaning for a digital age. It uses D-LIT, design, literacies, information, and technology, in a multifaceted way to build content. The better trained our students are in understanding what it means to be transliterate, the more they will be ready for Web 3.0.

For more information, please check out the following:

• Transliteracy, see Buffy Hamilton's posts on this topic
• Web 3.0, see Web 3.0 Concepts Explained in Plain English (presentations) from Digital Inspiration

Teaching With Technology - NYSAIS 2012

We just attended the 2012 NYSAIS Teaching With Technology Conference in New York. The New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS) holds this event annually to promote the practices of teachers using technology in their classrooms. This year, over 300 dedicated educators were in attendance, and many gave up time during their vacations to do so. The workshops assembled for the day provided a wealth of ideas to empower our students with engaging ways to learn using technology. It comes as no surprise that many of us wish we had another day to learn even more.

Source: Staples

Workshops on iPads in the classroom were particularly useful, since schools have, or are looking to set up, 1:1 programs. It was good to hear from others about planning such a program and about some of the problems they incurred with the deployment that in hindsight could have been avoided. Other workshops we found particularly valuable focused on shifting the classroom to the cloud, the impact of video streaming on learning, and a host of web 2.0 applications.

Source: ASIDE Student Infographics

Special thanks to the collegial crowd who attended our session on Designing Information: Infographics as Literacy. The thoughtful exchange of ideas and questions made for an enriching discussion. The infographic examples used in the presentation, as well as hundreds more, are available on this blog. We’ve arranged them by subject for easy accessibility, and our resources page contains the many available links for creating original graphics with students. All skill tips and curriculum tools are posted as well.

A special thanks to everyone on the NYSAIS TWT Committee for making this a great conference. If you were not able to attend, check out the Twitter hashtag #twt2012 to find out more.