links for 2008-12-16

• LabPixies Moodget – Share Your Feelings
  Share your feelings with your friends using this simple and fun personal gadget. Create your own moodget and send it to your friends, or post it on your blog. When ever you feel like it, edit your moodget and your friends will be able to see your mood. The moodget can be installed on personal homepages, blogs or desktop sidebars.
  (tags: widgets social)
• 21st Century Literacy: Network Literacy
  # Basic Literacy
  # Visual/Media Literacy
  # Information LIteracy
  # Citizenship and Ethical Literacy
  # Network Literacy
  # Global Literacy
  (tags: literacy 21stcenturyskills)
• Scribblar – simple, effective, online collaboration
  # Real-time multi-user whiteboard
  # Image upload and sharing
  # Userlist and text chat
  # Live audio communications
  # No downloads, no user limits
  (tags: collaboration whiteboard chat)
• Snaplog β: Free and Simple Photo Blogging
  start uploading your photos immediately, grab the iPhone app, login or create a free account
  (tags: iPhone blogging photos)

Podcasting with 3rd Grade

Third Grade studied endangered and threatened animals of Florida in their science curriculum. TechConnect, together with the classroom teachers planned to take this unit to the 21st century and have students, not only research facts, but become experts in their assigned animals and make a difference by share their knowledge with others. They were to learn about their animal and then produce a podcast episode. These episodes will be available to listen to and download for their iPods.

What an incredible opportunity to not only learn about each animal, but also to work on:

• Research skills
• Sound editing software
• Speaking and communication skills
• Oral fluency
• Copyright issues
• Information literacy
• Storytelling skills

The project was divided into several different pieces.

1. Students were assigned one endangered or threatened animal from Florida and given research question.
   1. Describe your animal’s habitat (Where he lives? What he eats?)
   2. Why is your animal endangered or threatened?
2. Teachers previewed and selected a limited number of links that students were to get their information from. These links were posted to the teacher’s blog.
3. Draw their animal using a drawing program (KidPix)
4. Introduction and “play time” in Sound Editing program (Audacity)
5. Voice recording of facts. Editing, re-recording, paying attention to expression, articulation, captivation, persuasion
6. Inserting and editing music as background
7. Creating an “intro” and “outro” for the podcast as a group

Here is a screenshot of the sound editing software and the project of one of the students. They learned to record, pause, edit clips, move tracks, import audio files. They are getting really good at “reading” their own voices too.

Listen in to their class episodes on Endangered and Threatened Animals in the State of Florida/USA

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Five Tools to Communciate Around The World

National Geographic Society conducted a Geography Literacy Survey in 2006. This Geographic Literacy Study assessed the geographic knowledge of young American adults between the ages of 18-24.

I was pleased to see many questions asked that go hand in hand with the 21st century skills, all of us are working so hard in acknowledging, learning about, integrating, modeling and promoting among administrators, faculty, parents and students.

The study, conducted almost 3 years ago found out that young Americans

are unprepared for an increasingly global future. Far too many lack even the most basic skills for navigating the international economy or understanding the relationships among people and places that provide critical context for world events.

Geographic Literacy is seen as an essential tool for living and succeeding in an interconnected and global world. BUT…

Young Americans appear to stick close to home, reporting limited contact with other cultures outside the U.S.

• Three-quarters (74%) have traveled to another state in the past year, but seven in ten (70%) have not traveled abroad at all in the past three years.
• Six in ten (62%) cannot speak a second language fluently.
• Nine in ten (89%) do not correspond regularly with anyone outside the U.S.
• Only two in ten (22%) have a passport.

Having been a Foreign Language teacher, I was actually surprised to read that the percentage of people who answered that they could speak a second language fluently was so HIGH (38%). I wonder if it was not defined properly what language fluency was. Many times, Americans tell me that they speak a language fluently, when in fact they are capable of saying hello and goodbye, order food and talk about the weather.

I was thrilled that the question “Do you correspond regularly with anyone outside the U.S.?” was included. As a technology integrationist, I immediately thought of all the WONDERFUL tools that are available to allow us to “correspond” with people that live in different countries, hemispheres, cultures, and languages.

Quick twitter poll gave the following answers to “5 tools you use to communicate around the world”. Answers came from the USA, Korea, Mexico, and Japan.

:

I tweaked an image that I found on Stock.xchng that caught my attention and added the tools that were mentioned most. Feel free to use the image if you want to. I have uploaded the bigger resolution under Creative Commons to Flickr.