Flipagram: Tell your digital story in seconds!

Playful discovery:
"Mom, look at the Flipagram Shauna made for me!"  My 12 year old pressed play and shoved her phone in my face.  Picture after picture gave me a glimpse into their "girls day out" at Ala Moana shopping center accompanied by a popular song of summer.  The wheels in my brain started turning.  How cool is this?  Pictures and music compiled in mere minutes?

Why Flipagram is perfect for schools:

1.  Accessible:  
Flipagram is available for free on both Apple and Android mobile devices. 

2.  Easy to use:  
No log in or accounts required!  Grant Flipagram access to your camera roll & start creating!*

3.  Makes learning visible:  
Students can capture field trips, gather data, chronicle how to demonstrations step-by-step and more.   Flipagram will capture the attention of busy parents and give them a glimpse into 'what their child learned today.'

4.  Quick and Easy:  
Learning moments become digital stories in minutes.  Students select photos, add captions, choose music and save.  Flipagrams save to the app's library and can be shared digitally (see below).  As a librarian, I'm thinking of oodles of possible uses--new books, students caught reading, creating with our 3D printer, the research process.....

5.  Aligns to standards:  
Students learn to select, edit, manipulate, and organize visual media purposefully and creatively.  Selecting the 'right' pictures and music encourages the students to consider audience and purpose.  Depending on the question/purpose, a Flipagram could address all of ISTE's NETS for Students and many Common Core standards.

6.  Allows Digital Sharing:  Flipagrams can be shared via YouTube, social media (if accounts are established), email, text message or a link enabling students to communicate their learning.  When I opened the link on my computer browser, I could copy the embed code.

7.  Collaborative:  A Flipagram posted on a students' website or blog could even invite global feedback from virtual peers.  A link to a shared Google Doc might invite peers to post how to tweak a scribble bot or tinker with a simple machine they're building for the Cardboard Challenge.

8.  Kid Friendly:  My 10 year old created this Flipagram about her "AWESOME" summer in about 10 minutes.  Most importantly, she did it by herself with very few prompts from mom. Students can choose which pictures and music are meaningful to them, so Flipagrams by different students could tell the story in very different ways. 

So, think about replacing that essay "What I did this summer" with a multimedia digital story!  

 *I haven't tried Flipagram with students in a school setting.  When I do, it will be after parents have granted permission for their children to create and share their learning digitally; lessons on digital citizenship; under adult supervision. 

Is that me?

I stumbled upon something today that made me stop & do a double take. I did a quick Google Image search for Voicethread. As I scrolled through the results, I spied my Twitter avatar. Wait! What is my avatar doing in that image? October 12, 2011, Voicethread announced their Mobile Apps
Voicethread used recent tweets as testimonials to encourage others to download their app.  


Why did this surprise me?
We think of the internet as being HUGE. We feel inundated by information. And while many educators have strong Professional Learning Communities on Twitter, Google +, edmodo, I follow many, but I tweet sporadically and have rarely had the pleasure of being retweeted. I never thought about my little tweets being captured by a third party. (Duh, marketing.)  


Why does this matter? 
I recently attended Special Agent Arnold Laanui's session "Digital Tattoos: Ethical Behavior in a Virtual World." I nodded in agreement when he said, "Students post images and create pages in the privacy of their own room, never thinking they are really doing so in a public, permanent arena." He emphasized the need for educators and parents to teach children how to create digital tattoos in a safe, responsible manner. "Students should be creating digital portfolios" Laanui said. A good digital portfolio might mean getting into a college or being hired for a job.


What our students are doing...
At Hale Kula Elementary School, we have adopted a Acceptable Use Policy that acknowledges students will be creating, communicating and collaborating online. As the Library Media Specialist, I work closely with the Technology Integration Specialist and classroom teachers to integrate technology in teaching and learning. We monitor our students closely and teach them how to create a digital footprint that represents them, and our school, appropriately. 5th graders created +Weebly websites to capture their research and projects. Students across grade levels collaborate on +Voicethread, compose stories in @Storybird, discuss in @edmodo and synthesize learning in @Glogster. Students in our Blended Learning Classes use Google Apps for Education to record data, collaborate on presentations, edit documents, share files and have easy access to other learning tools like +EasyBib. So I should not have been surprised to discover myself virtually, and yet I was. This is a simple reminder that our online behavior does not go unnoticed. What we might post quickly on a Saturday morning, in the privacy of our own home, might be discovered months, years, later. Rethinking my recent pins.... =)

Tizmos Home - SEE and Access your Favorite Websites in One Place

Tizmos Home - SEE and Access your Favorite Websites in One Place

Children's Literature Hawaii Conference

Mark your calendars: June 18 & 19, 2010 is the Children's Literature Hawaii Conference. In addition to featured Newbery authors Linda Sue Park and Brian Selznick, there will be many breakout sessions for K-12 teachers, parents and even students.

The conference is free!

Take a peek at this video clip in which Brian Selznick describes his Newbery winner (and Nene Hopeful), The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

Welcome to Hale Kula!

You must be on information overload!

Instead of just giving you information, I want to collect some information from you.

Please click on this link and take the survey. It is anonymous, but it will help me as I plan my library instruction and it will take you less than 30 seconds!

Click Here to take survey

Newspapers + Math lessons + Online Collaboration

Three great resources for you to use in your classroom:

Read.Write.Think
If you haven't added an RSS feed from Read.Write.Think to your Google Reader, now is the time to do it. Sponsored by The National Council of Teachers of English and The International Reading Association, this site is an online cornucopia of K-12 lessons. Each lesson connects to National standards, includes pdf links to the necessary handouts and tools and provides engaging strategies to hook the students.

Copy and past the url for this lesson "Authentic Writing Experiences and Math Problem-Solving Using Shopping Lists", into your browser: http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=298


Teaching preK-8
This site also offers oodles of standards based, relevant & rigorous lessons. Check out these ideas for using the newspaper in your classroom.
http://www.teachingk-8.com/archives/todays_classroom_activities/the_daily_news.html


Teachers Connecting
We are using technology more and more in our classrooms, but we need to be sure we aren't the only ones using it--we need to provide opportunities for students to use technology to find, create, and share ideas. This is a brand new site that invites teachers to connect with other teachers--around the world--and offers students this opportunity--to learn alongside and to share ideas with students electronically.

You can begin by searching the site for projects that other teachers are currently doing. If you find one that connects to your interests/classroom learning, you can contact that teacher, introduce the lessons/activities to your students and begin participating in the activity.

You might also post a project for others to join! Grade 4 teachers, imagine our students sharing their research on the plants and animals of Hawaii with students in Australia.

Take a peek: http://www.teachersconnecting.com/

Asking questions

Rarely do we have time to gather together, ask questions and explore answers. Thank you for sharing your ideas and questions today. Thank you for your awesome spider poems!

Today, we covered much information, but two questions linger--

1. Where does Trophies fit in? Does your grade level teach the information texts from Trophies? If not, will you adjust the curriculum to include them? How will you incorporate information texts?


2. How do we utilize information texts and still provide consistency, manageable logistics, for our tutors? (Could tutors be trained in strategies to teach reading via information texts?)


3. What other questions does your grade level have?

Let's keep the discussion going!