Innovation Design In Education

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Thursday, February 13, 2014

Smore On Web 3.0 And Social Media

Source: ASIDE 2014 - Smore

Snowed in today, and the pummeling of the entire east coast with snow, ice, and freezing rain seems unending this winter. NYSAIS cancelled the 2014 Teaching With Technology Conference in New York City at Lycée Francais. Our presentation for the conference was to be on Web 3.0 and Social Media.

Source: Smore

We had looked forward to going and had decided to opt for a different mode of delivering the content using Smore. This has to be one of our new favorites for designing information.

Smore lets you build flyers that are beautiful and simple to create. It features limited options for design to make it easy to produce an attractive publication. As for reaching others, its built-in attributes for sharing through social media could not be easier. So, here is the one we created today for the conference, to share with our participants and readers.

For other posts on Web 3.0, please see:

For other posts on using social media, please see:

Saturday, December 7, 2013

A Student's Voice For Change

As educators of middle school students, we continue to be inspired by their passion to have a voice in making a difference. This week one of our sixth-grade students did just that. Jack was touched by the motion graphic Sold and the video Youth For Human Rights – No Slavery that he watched on the class blog. He went home and on his own made a Tellagami to help raise awareness about modern slavery and the plight of children. We are pleased to present it here.

Our interdisciplinary unit on immigration just finished. It recounted the full story of immigrants who came to this country, including those who came by choice and others who came by chains. It just so happened to coincide with the United Nations International Day To Abolish Slavery on December 2.

Like so many, our students had no idea of the extent of modern day human trafficking. As a result of the exposure to this issue, many of our kids want to take this on as a mission to help. Learning about this problem transformed their thinking and their drive to do something about it. We could not ask for more as educators.

For more resources on modern slavery, click here.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Projects In Web 3.0: Privacy Is The New Predator

Source: ASIDE Square Face Icon

Student digital privacy is a critical currency, to be safeguarded by schools and pillaged by predators. Interactive, social Web 3.0 resources demand proactive ways to access tech tools and still preserve learners’ anonymity.

In the changing edtech landscape, student safety is taking on new dimensions and new gravity. When every online resource now is interactive and linked to social media, Web 3.0 often requires clever ways to give students access to the learning tools they need and still preserve their innocence.

What is facehawk? (overview) from Rajeev Basu on Vimeo.

Most projects and social networks encourage users to upload a personal ID or photograph. Student safety, however, is paramount to shelter identities. Clever and quirky avatars, therefore, can help students distinguish their profiles and still remain incognito. An avatar is a customized online icon that represents a user's virtual self. A signature avatar can give a child great pride in his or her masterpiece. Among the many cartoony or creative avatar generators available on the web, many require accounts or email addresses or are not safe for school.

To take advantage of all that the Web affords, workarounds can be used to protect privacy but still allow for a personalized identity. A few ways to do this include generating avatars, setting-up username conventions, creating email shortcuts, and screencapping of content.