Monday, December 15, 2008

Easy Live Streaming from your phone

A friend introduced me to QIK. It is an easy way to share live streaming with anyone anywhere. I was able to share my son's symphony concert with my family who couldn't make it just by turning on my phone and starting QIK. The live broadcast was available online and participants could participate in chat while watching. It also records it for future viewing. You can download and embed recorded videos as well. This is a great service. Remember that anyone can stream so you should not really let students head to the main site because you never know what will be live at the time. However, you have your own site that carries your streams so you could direct link to your own QIK site. See example below.


Monday, October 20, 2008

Connecting with Friends and learning new things

Because of the vast array of technology tools out there, we were able to easily connect my daughter's 1st grade class in Alabama with a 1st grade class in Canada! Ms. Cassidy's class in Canada had a Yack Pack on their site which we used to call in and see if they were available. They were, and 5 minutes later we were Skyping and learning about each other. We visited the students' blogs and learned about Pictaps where you can create drawings that will dance. We are studying the human body so it will be fun to try drawing our self portraits and watching them move. Thanks to our friends in Canada for teaching us lots of new things. My daughter made her first Pictap below. You will soon be able to see the Corgill kids' Pictaps and new blogs since we have been inspired by our Canadian friends.

Monday, June 09, 2008

Fun Web 2.0 Tools in Elementary

There are so many wonderful teachers out there incorporating web 2.0 tools in the classroom to engage students. I have just been looking at Kathy Cassidy's page. She has a Ustream live broadcast of butterflies emerging, a Yackpack where you can connect with her class, and great 1st grader blogs. I learned how to animate a tomato from a student named Brendan. You can see the results below. Visit Kathy's page and learn!


gif animation

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Live Streaming of Butterflies emerging

Broadcast powered by Ustream.TV

Interesting Thoughts from Steve Hargadon

The Proactive Learner

Saturday, June 07, 2008

Message from the Students

Sunday, March 30, 2008

In Plain English

Someone asked me about Twitter but I can't explain it as well as the folks at Common Craft.
http://www.commoncraft.com/show The Common Craft Show is a series of short explanatory videos. Check the out the video on Google Docs, too. They really do make it easy to understand. So here is the Twitter explanation courtesy of Common Craft:

AHA Film Festival-Bringing it all together

I am attending the 5th Annual AHA Film Festival in Effingham, IL. If you want to see real world application of learning across the curriculum, you need to see this! Read about it here:
http://www.effinghamdailynews.com/local/local_story_060124856.html
I like this quote from the article: “We have guests coming in from all over the country. The film festival is usually sold out. By the end, we have people calling up and saying, ‘You gotta get me a ticket!’” he said. “It’s wonderful that the communities support us and fill up a theater to watch kids’ homework, basically.
Joe Fatheree and co-teacher Craig Lindvahl have prepared these students well. Students also realize that they have a role to play in making this world a better place. Tonight we gathered a local youth center with students from high schools across the nation to discuss the United Nation's 8 millennium goals. These students are talking about how they can use their talents to make a difference.

Media literacy, authentic assessment, service learning---all right here, right now. I hope districts across the country will follow this successful model of making it real and making it count for our students and teachers. I am looking forward tomorrow to a film training workshop taught by the high school students. Then, it will be time to enjoy the festival. Joe Fatheree also has other projects. You can read about his No Barriers project here: http://www.nobarriersproject.com/ We can make a difference and it can start with one person and an idea!

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Video Editing Online-Contest

ITVS has just released a new program that will allow you to edit video via the Internet. You need no additional tools. The people at ITVS are sponsoring a contest for students around the country to help children think about what they eat and what they are made of. The ITVS film, King Corn, is showing in select theaters around the country. Footage from that film and Getty images is available online at the ITVS website for the students to edit. They can also upload footage of their own. The process is very simple and challenges students to use higher order thinking skills for advanced problem solving. Their website can be accessed by going to the following url: http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/filmocracy/ The project can be integrated into almost every grade and subject level.

If you are what you eat, what are you made of?

PBS’s Independent Lens invites you to make a statement about the politics of food. Enter to win the Filmocracy mashup contest. It’s easy!

Make a short film using KING CORN clips and footage from Getty Images. You can even upload your own clips and mix it all up with the Eyespot online editing tool. When you're done, check out everyone else's videos and rate your favorites.

The grand prizewinner gets $1,000 and a chance to be screened throughout the country, plus a KING CORN DVD, soundtrack and other fabulous corn-free prizes! The most popular and highest rated videos get cool prizes too.

Want to make the best film you can? Learn how with tips from the pros! Be a corn connoisseur, visit the KING CORN website and get acres of information about the crop.

Mix it up and make your statement about food. Have fun and good luck!


Contest dates: March 7 - May 30, 2008
Find out more at:
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/filmocracy/


KING CORN, a documentary about two friends, one acre of corn and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation, premieres on Independent Lens on PBS, April 15 (check broadcast listings.) KING CORN, by Aaron Woolf, Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney, is a co-production of Mosaic Films Incorporated and the Independent Television Service (ITVS) with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).

Friday, February 29, 2008

pdtogo.com : Professional Development For Busy Educators : lessons, files, podcasts

Found this site today. Enjoy learning on the go! The title says it all. It had a great lesson on notetaking and the Smartboard. I'm sure you will find more. Put them on your ipod and be professionally developed anywhere!
pdtogo.com : Professional Development For Busy Educators : lessons, files, podcasts

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

50 Ways to Tell a digital story

The excellent Discovery Education Network virtual conference I attended Saturday gave me some great ideas. One was this site that shows 50 ways to tell a digital story. I've used a few of the ways with some classes and we have had lots of fun. I will have class samples soon. You can see all of the 50 ideas here:http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools

Some of my favorites are Toon Doo, Voice Thread and Blabberize! :) I can't wait to try more. My 5th graders loved Blabberize and they will soon help our 1st graders make the animal pictures tell all kinds of interesting facts they have learned while researching. 4th graders are storytelling by creating cartoons and I can't wait to use Voicethread for sharing with our younger students. I hope you have as much fun as we have with these cool web 2.0 collaborating tools!

Learn about Voicethread here:


Here is a voicethread I created to try out the video doodling and stop motion video. Cool!


See a sample Toon Doo where you can bring in your own photos. How about creating a book simliar to Knufflebunny with real pictures and cartoons mixed?



And of course, a talking amphibian. Our 5th graders loved making covered wagons and gold talk as they explained what happened during the westward movement. They also made cells talk.


Just remember that anyone can post a blabber so there might be inappropriate creations along with the innocent posts. I had the students use a unique tag so that we could find our blabbers easily.


Saturday, February 02, 2008

Blabberize!

I attended a virtual conference today sponsored by Discovery Education. It was so nice to attend such a worthwhile event without even leaving my house! I found so many new ways to use Web 2.0 tools to engage students and allow meaningful collaboration. If you have used Discovery Education and its many resources, you should give it a try! One of the tools shown today was Blabberize. I can't wait to have my students create all kinds of talking pictures to teach others many new concepts. We tested the site and quickly created a talking dog. However, with more time my 5 year old (the voice) will be able to make the dog tell you all kinds of things about dogs! Enjoy! http://www.blabberize.com/ My 7 year old created the talking hurricane. It would be great for a weather unit. We will add more facts later! See below.

By the way, you can find recorded versions of the Discovery Education seminars at: http://www.discoveryeducation.com/
Go to community and find the archived webinars. You need to be a DEN member I think to see them.



Talking Hurricane:



Thursday, January 10, 2008

Creativity In Education

You might have seen this already but it is worth seeing again.

The video is posted here: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/66
Let's make sure we are not killing creativity, but nurturing it!