The Centaur - How Collaborative Edtech Is Building A Brawny Hybrid Beast

Source: Smarter Than You Think

Gnawing at the edtech underbelly is the unshakable worry that today's digital stampede may not be helping the herd. It is unquestionable that apps and devices are changing education. But the question remains: Are they genuinely building better students, sharper thinkers, and smarter learners? Or is the edtech "revolution" an example of change-for-change's-sake, when newfangled glitz replaces traditional tools that worked just fine?

Clive Thompson makes the compelling case in his book, Smarter Thank You Think (Penguin Press, 2013), that technology is indeed transformational for the good of humankind. Thompson posits that the evolving hybrid of mind and machine is generating a new species. This potent beast is greater than the sum of its parts, strong and nimble in combining the best of the human brain and the efficiency of computational thinking. Thompson calls this new cognitive animal "the centaur."

Source: Padlet

The metaphor of the centaur is perhaps more approachable for classroom teachers than the tiered SAMR model or the complicated Periodic Table Of The Internet. The daily marriage of student ingenuity and digital possibility can spawn a creation that would have been impossible before the advent of 1:1 technology.

Source: Padlet

One of the clearest examples of higher-level, centaurian potential is Padlet. This Web 3.0 resource combines an interactive, collaborative doc with a customizable, embeddable canvas to offer students avenues for publishing and sharing that were unimaginable only a few years ago. Formerly known as Wallwisher, Padlet underwent a winning redesign to enhance its flexibility and usability.

Source: Padlet

Padlet allows learners anywhere to share ideas on a cooperative whiteboard. The design options offer a host of backgrounds and icons, and each url can be personalized to suit the class. Best of all, the "smart" space welcomes any web link and transforms it into a clickable image or video that can be accessed without ever leaving the Padlet world.

Source: Padlet

Padlet accepts all embed codes, so third-party media and flipped videos are easily extended to students. Furthermore, it permits learners to broadcast their projects, posted online for peers to appreciate and internalize.

Ultimately, Padlet is a daily tool. Kids can ask questions anonymously. They can post homework responses. They can share links to current events. They can document notes from the day's lecture. They can elevate their regular thought processes to a fusion of technology and partnership, in which the new mutant creature is more beneficial and compelling than the pre-digital brute.

For other resources, please see:

• Projects In Web 3.0: Privacy Is The New Predator
• Smore On Web 3.0 And Social Media

Digital Citizenship: Metadata Made Simple

Source: The Guardian

Talking to our learners about digital citizenship requires us continually to revise and update our messages. We tell our students constantly that we are not cops here at school to block their access online, but rather we are here to educate them about using it.

We want them to know just how easy it is to collect everything about them on the Web with very little effort. For most learners, the concept of metadata is abstract. They don’t realize that social networks, online shopping companies, websites, and countless other places are routinely collecting it.

Source: The Guardian

Recently, The Guardian published its video animation, The NSA and Surveillance Made Simple, to help explain how massive amounts of information are collected by tapping cable lines, sifting through databases, or obtaining data straight through company servers. It simplifies the world of metadata and reinforces our constant reminders to our students about privacy.


For many in their innocence, they would never think that spies were trolling Facebook and Gmail; however, we are all being watched online. Granted, what we try to educate our learners about regarding good digital citizenship is different than what the NSA gathers. Nonetheless, this simple animation makes it clear just how much metadata is collected on who you are, when you send, and what you say.

Source: The Guardian

This balance between privacy and security could also expand into lessons on civics and the rights of individuals. It opens up opportunities for debates and essay writing to answer a host of questions, including: Does the government have a right to collect information on its citizens, or other countries? How does this affect your behavior online? Does privacy have a future online at all?

Source: IMDb

Lastly, kids love pop culture. There are plenty of television shows that deal with gathering data. For example, could individuals such as the enigmatic billionaire in Person of Interest really recruit a former CIA operative to prevent violent crimes on his own? It’s a good question, and one that would surely spark a classroom conversation.

We’ve moved beyond what Connect Safely describes as Online Safety 2.0, or “stranger danger," to Online Safety 3.0 that is designed to empower and protect youth. In the fast-paced terrain of digital technologies, "stranger danger" is the least threatening when compared to privacy and security. In their world, Web 3.0 is no longer about pushing and sharing information; it’s live. 

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.

Avatar Resources

• Mess Dudes
• DoppelMe
• Reasonably Clever
• BuiLD YouR WiLD SeLF
• Bitstrips
• Dream Avatar
• Picasso Head
• Square Face Icon
• Voki
• Tellagami App 

Post your original avatars to this collaborative Padlet page to share your unique, protected identity with the group: padlet.com/wall/web30avatars

Created with Padlet

Digital Citizenship and Modern Internet Safety

• Online Safety 3.0: Empowering and Protecting Youth
• Digital Citizenship, the 'lived curriculum': Part 1
• Digital Citizenship, the 'lived curriculum': Part 2
• Using Avatars To Teach Digital Citizenship
• Planet Nutshell - Netsafe

Source: Common Sense Media

  Web 3.0

• Now's The Time for a Web 3.0 Right to Privacy
• How Web 3.0 Will Work

 

New Media Literacy

• Education and E-cology
• New Media Literacy in Education
• New Media Literacy

 

Creating Student Avatars - Balancing Project Design With "Safe For School"

Source: Dude Factory

As school projects migrate to laptops and tablets, student choice becomes a blessed corollary to any multimedia creation. Even the most scripted lesson, when executed via a web tool, can find a way to incorporate a small amount of customization. A lot of Internet resources feature dynamic themes or color choices that permit student individualization. At the very least, however, most blogs and social networks allow users to upload unique avatars to distinguish their profiles.

An avatar is a personalized online icon that represents a user's virtual self. Whether on open-ended web pages or straightforward Prezis, a signature avatar can give a child great pride in his or her masterpiece. There are a lot of quirky avatar generators available on the web. Many of them, though, require accounts. Even if free, these logins require email addresses and erect barriers to ease-of-use and effiency. Also, many of the cleverest avatar sites are not safe for school. For example, Dude Factory has great options, but it allows characters to hoist martinis.

The sites below are free, with neat and appropriate options in creating avatars. They also appeal to the wide range of tastes. By the way, we find it easiest to avoid the process of saving or downloading the finished products, and instead we use the screencap command to select a desired field.

Source: DoppelMe

DoppelMe

DoppelMe offers an impressive range of colors, with upbeat and kid-friendly characters. The accessories and backgrounds provide cute choices for boys and girls. Users can select among basic clothing and expressions right away, but they can gain access to more free items by signing in.

Source: Unique

Unique

The Unique interface presents a Japanese comic book,  anime-style gallery. The cartoon characters have appealingly mischievous grins. The smooth application also presents one of the easiest visual tools of all the avatar sites.

Source: Reasonably Clever

Reasonably Clever

For Lego figures, Reasonably Clever is a terrific option for young learners. The web page and graphic interaction are not nearly as crisp and modern as other sites, but the end products are still winsome for projects and class blogs.

Source: BuiLD
YouR WiLD SeLF

BuiLD YouR WiLD SeLF

Sponsored by the New York Zoos and Aquarium, BuiLD YouR WiLD SeLF combines essential avatar choices (eyes, clothing, etc.) with outlandish animal features to generate half-human, half-beast images. In an illustrative style, the drawings echo picture books in their artistry.

Source: Bitstrips

Bitstrips

Bitstrips focuses more on the nuances of the face than other avatars. The comics-friendly site uses cartoony animation to offer a host of choices in designing just the right length of hair and just the right creases on the forehead. The final product, therefore, can actually resemble the user, if desired.

Source: Dream Avatar

Dream Avatar

For slightly older students, Dream Avatar is surprisingly sophisticated in its spectrum of creative elements. The icons evoke images from manga, and the accessories allow for a fully realized backstory to each character. Some teachers may not want children selecting among the more teenage options, but the good thing about the site is that it can appeal to any age of techie (including adults).

For other avatar generators, check out Picasso Head for older students or Square Face Icon for younger students. In addition, this Copyright Friendly wiki lists 30 - 40 possible avatar choices.

The Design Of Project-Based Learning - Color Theory For Web 3.0

Source: Colourlov.in

One of the promising truths about project-based learning (PBL) is that it's coming whether schools like it or not. Even in an age of race-to-the-top testing, children are slowly but surely doing more and more work via technology.

Even as some instructors fall back on "project-oriented" learning, rather than true PBL, the gradual spread of tablets and BYOD tasks will invariably shift classroom education toward a more hands-on model. The hope, therefore, is that personalized iPads and home tech assignments will encourage creative interactions and self-directed investigations.


Color Theory Infographic from Sean Ferguson on Vimeo.

One of the most basic choices in producing a technology project is the selection of color. Students in their iMovies, Keynotes, and Tumblrs can now pick from a palate of pixelated paints. All too often they get over-excited and click on a madcap miasma of mismatched hues. Knowing a little bit about color theory can go a long way toward designing an appealing and effective project in the open-source web 3.0 world.

Source: Visual.ly

Many of the modern concepts around the use of color, particularly in technology or multimedia formats, spring not from classes in oil painting but from theories of branding. Crafting an alluring logo or a unique web banner both draw from evolving notions of Internet marketing. These graphic schemes can relate effectively back to the classroom, as students pair fonts and tints in their Prezis or as they select background themes for their project blogs.

The motion infographic above by Sean Ferguson gives a crisp and helpful primer in fundamental color theory. It lays out the guidelines of partnered tones, in addition to other considerations of visual design.

Source: Feel Guide

For other resources about color theory, we recommend:

• The Role Of Color In Marketing
• Color Science
• Psychology Of Color
• The Faber Birren Collection of Books on Color - Yale University Library

Choosing among styles of lettering, by the way, can often have the same positive impact on projects. Check out "A New Typography Of Language" for ideas on teaching students about fonts.

The State of Infographics in Education

The ubiquity of infographics in popular media has nearly reached a saturation point in terms of interest and novelty. Print and online outlets, such as GOOD, Visual.ly, Mashable, and The New York Times, have promulgated these graphics to readers eager for crisp designs and concise messaging. It is surprising, therefore, that infographics still remain scarce in K-12 classrooms. Education has yet to catch up to the public fascination with visual displays of information. Perhaps this is because infographics do not fit neatly into district-defined, test-focused curricula. Infographics by their nature are interdisciplinary, combining layers of text, statistics, and creativity.

Source: The Millions, and Alberto Antoniazzi

Students naturally find infographics engaging, because they:

• Portray ideas in colorful, pop art sensibilities
• Appeal to visual learning styles 
• Entertain the eye while encouraging decoding 

Teachers can find value in using infographics, because they:

• Contain data-rich concepts within single snapshots
• Promote the crucial skills of graphicacy 
• Advocate critical thinking and cross-curricular learning 

Source: MakeUseOf

Infographics reinforce pedagoptics, which is a method of teaching with optical tools. This type of visual pedagogy relies on edsign, the educational design of information. In other words, pedagoptics represents the cognitive meeting point between the mental skills of iconography and semiology. Pedagoptics applies ocular acuity and analytical skills to academic contexts.

These visual tools are now more important than ever. Steve Lohr, in the New York Times Sunday Review, recently claimed that the "Age of Big Data" will require more and more students skilled in information analysis. Tim Kastelle, of the Innovation Leadership Network, argues similarly that "There's No Such Thing As Information Overload." Instead, thinkers need to be able to find and filter facts in a detail-driven world.

Maybe that's why this write-up from FastCoDesign, one of our favorite sites, strikes such a chord in explaining "Why Infographic Thinking Is The Future, Not A Fad." In this clip, Francesco Franchi, the art director for IL-Intelligence In Lifestyle, gives insight on "Visual Storytelling and New Languages In Journalism." He says infographics offer a "narrative language," using "representation plus interpretation to develop an idea:"


Francesco Franchi: On Visual Storytelling and New Languages in Journalism from Gestalten on Vimeo.

In the online magazine The Millions, Reif Larson recently offered a thorough recap of the evolution of graphic thinking. His essay, “This Chart Is A Lonely Hunter: The Narrative Eros Of The Infographic,” presents an engaging summary of data displays and visual storytelling. Larson even points to a new popular reliance on pictures as the fuel of social media:

"We’ve given today’s visual storytellers considerable power: for better or worse, they are the new meaning-makers, the priests of shorthand synthesis. We’re dependent on these priests to scrutinize, bundle, and produce beautiful information for us so that we can have our little infogasm and then retweet the information to our friends."

Source: Infogr.am

There are numerous tools to aid these emboldened visual storytellers. Our "Resources" page has a list of chart- and graph-makers, as well as infographic generators. Two promising new sites include Infogr.am, for creating custom graphics, and Maps For That!, for browsing a gallery of mind-mapping diagrams.

Source: Maps for That!

Check out our page of "Infographics" to find images for all academic disciplines. Listed by subject, the infographics are effective for daily lessons or presentations. For further reading about visual thinking and data visualization, here are some high-quality, recent articles:

• "The Visual Thinking Revolution Is Here!," by Lisa Solomon
• "How to Think and Communicate Visually," by David Armano
• "From Data To Story: Dissecting A Well-Made Visualization," by Ross Perez
• "The Evolution of Infographics," by Izzy Woods