Three (3) Web 2.0 Social Studies Tools (5th-12th grade)

Behind the A.T.E. Ball

Before we get to today's post, I want to address the relevant issue of regular updates of classroom computers, and web browser plug ins. 

      Windows 8, 7, Vista and XP, or Apple OS X will upgrade automatically once you affirm consent by clicking "Ok". The problem in most schools is the teacher does not have the administrator's password to perform system updates or browser plug ins. If you do not have the administrator's password the update will not install, and an annoying reminder will persistently call your attention to the necessity to update. This is even more critical with security software.

      If this is your situation, I urge you to contact your on site or district IT personnel and arrange for regular OS, anti-virus, and browser plug in updates. 

Adobe Flash and Oracle's Java plug-ins are essential (along with iTunes and QuickTime) to your web browser's ability to stay current with evolving interactive content. Flash and Java need to be updated every 3 to 4 weeks. iTunes and QuickTime, about 6 to 8 weeks. Anti-virus updates vary, but on average are 3 to 5 weeks. Operating system updates for Windows generally occur every month or so. Apple OS updates happen less frequently.

     So, to ensure a seamless web experience, it is essential your computer and web browser and anti virus software are running the latest versions available.

Edu Glogster: Interactive Video Poster

http://edu.glogster.com is an interactive video blog that allows students and teachers to combine video, images, text, hyperlinks, PDFs, audio and voice into one integrated, interconnected poster for reports, presentations and group assignments. The site promotes media, text, original documents, and web links into a user defined template to construct an interactive poster for blended learning.

        This is a subscription based website; however, for an annual fee of only $25.00, one teacher can supervise 30 individual student projects, or any combination of groups containing 30 students This is a tremendous value that is worthy of your scrutiny. 

      After you register with a username, email and password you are assigned an unique account number that allows you to set up your glogster classroom roster. Each of your students can be arranged individually or in preassigned groups. Once they are logged on, you can track their projects from the Glogster dashboard on your computer. You can choose to assess the project as it develops or upon completion. You can also decide which projects meet your standards for publication either for in class review or embedded into the school website. Below is a sample Edu Glogster poster.

Sample Interactive Glogster Poster

.

Edu Glogster conforms to national technology standards so you can rest assured your students are working within approved learning guidelines. Access to the site requires a broadband connection through your local area network (wired), or a 35 Mbps to 50 Mbps (Megabit per second) WiFi connection for smooth video playback. 

Docs Teach

http://docsteach.org is a remarkably powerful interactive site specifically developed to promote inquiry based learning in history and social studies. The creators of the site have worked with the education division of the National Archives to develop a web site that actually promotes critical evaluation of sources, and other support materials to answer questions about historical events or figures.

Teachers use site suggested lesson outlines to promote classroom discussions. For example, the Korean War career of General Douglas McArthur. Was he a brilliant military strategist? Did he risk an intractable conflict by pursuing the Chinese Army into China? Was President Truman justified in firing him?

Students have an opportunity to examine historical documents from the National Archives, and a variety of supporting sources to weight the evidence via an interactive fulcrum (see image below). The site helps students think like historians by exposing them to grade appropriate critical analysis techniques like the preponderance of evidence, original sources and facts based conclusions. Your class will enjoy being "history detectives" with this robust, interactive site.

Docs Teach Welcome Screen

History Wired

http://www.historywired.si.edu

Finally, a few words about a site from the Smithsonian Institution that in my mind is a great adjunct to Docs Teach. History Wired presents a timeline from 1400 to 2000 that is further subdivided by tabs such as "Accomplishments", "Art", "Commerce", "Events" etc. (see sample below). The tabs open up to more details about artifacts contained in the Smithsonian collection.

History Wired Welcome Screen

Teachers can search for other related items in the collection to build a robust, historical artifact rich assignment. Combine History Wired hyperlinks with Docs Teach original documents into a Edu Glogster poster, and you will have an impressive project that demonstrates sophisticated use of the web to accomplish serious inquiries that go beyond Wikipedia, and unsubstantiated opinions.

     These three sites, working in tandem can present your students with invaluable resources (two thirds of which are free). Together or separately they provide an exciting, interactive learning experience that will make your students hungry for the opportunity to challenge and expand their investigative skills.

iPad Printing and Projecting in the New BYOD Classroom

 BEHIND THE A.T.E. BALL:

IPAD PRINTING AND PROJECTING IN THE NEW BYOD CLASSROOM

By David Valentine

The inclusion of employee supplied devices to the set of school supplied digital devices has been gaining momentum since at least 2006. Even earlier teachers brought their personal laptops, boom boxes, and home made overhead slides to the classroom. Now the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend is in full swing as another fact of life in the 21st century classroom. But the issue of device compatability continues to dog intrepid educators who ask,  "how do I get my iPad to print to the classroom printer? Which, by the way is at least 8 years old, and would not know a WiFi signal from a HiFi signal?" And while we’re at it, "How do I get my iPad to talk to my classroom projector or document reader?"

     The short answer is "Easy " (well, probably).  If your school iPads do not have access restrictions such as locked apps, and your district has set up a school wide, or district wide Apple account you are in luck. You will also need any WiFi enabled laptop (either yours or the school's) that is already configured to your a printer or schoolwide printer hub.

From your iPad you will need to go to the App Store and download the free "Printer Pro Lite" app from Readdle, Inc.

.From your print capable laptop navigate to http://reaaddle.com and download the Printer Pro utility for desktop and laptop computers (it doesn't matter if your device runs Windows, OS X or Androiid).

Once you've installed both apps start with the iPad, but make sure your laptop is powered up showing the desktop.

• ·Open the Printer Pro Lite app and choose a sample PDF or image file to print.

•  The Printer Pro Lite app will display the available printers you can print from.

• ·Choose the printer you prefer and touch "Print".

After a few seconds your file will emerge from the designated printer. Magic? Nah! The iPad uses your laptop's WiFi connection to piggyback its print job to the target printer. Pretty cute, huh? For a few dollars extra ($6.99) the full featured Printer Pro app will also print from Google Docs, Dropbox and any iWorks document. 

Monitors and Projectors Large and Small

      The iPad can easily connect to your LCD or DLP projector or to a separate stand alone SVGA monitor. All you need is The Dock Connector to VGA Monitor Projector Cable

The cable supports transmission of HD video to HD TV on iPad 2, 3 and 720p HD format video on iPad 1, iPhone 4s, and iPhone 4. The cost ranges from a little under $27.00 to 49.95 depending on the outlet. Apple sells it for $29.99.

In service to disclosure, the cable does not turn your monitor into a mirror of your iPad’s desktop. That is to say, you need to be in an app in order to see the app’s contents on the second screen. As an example, lets say you want to see a particular picture in your collection of images in the iPad’s Photos app. You will need to open the app and choose the picture before it appears on the second screen. So don’t freak out when you pull the cable out of its mailer to connect the iPad to your wide screen SVGA monitor or projector, and you don't see anything at first. That’s just the way the cookie crumbles, kids!

The Pocket Projector for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch

Another somewhat more exotic addition to the growing list of  iPad peripherals is the iPad Pocket Projector (left). It also works with iPhone 4s, 4, 3GS; and the third and fourth generation iPod Touch. This little DLP projector, 3" L x 2 3/4" W x 1" D produces 6" to 60" diagonal images from 8" to 78" distance. The brightness of the device is only 35 lumens, so it is not a substitute for a full size projector, but it works best in very dark environments or reflected against bright matte surfaces such as an ordinary flat white wall or (if you still have one) on an old pull down silver projector screen.

A surprising plus is you can mirror the display of you iOS device to navigate to files, You Tube videos, slide shows or use the regular camera on the iOS device like a document reader. Its 640x480 pixel resolution (4:3 aspect ratio) does not produce startlingly bright, color rich images; but it can be effective in more intimate situations where you don’t want to hassle with cables, AC outlets or bulky projectors. The iPad Pocket Projector plugs directly into the iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch's 30 pin connector. For presenters, social workers and paraprofessionals it can be a handy option to share information in parent/teacher conferences, IEPs and small grade level meetings.

            The iPad Pocket Projector has a manually operated focus wheel on the side of the case, and its LED is rated at 20,000 hours. It also functions as a backup battery for the iPhone. The price is $249.95 from Hammacher Schlemmer a purveyor of unique and one of a kind items. Go to http://hammacher.com to get more info or order the device.

Going Mobile with the Lexia Reading App for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch

Behind the A.T.E. Ball

by David A. Valentine
(previously posted on Digital Educator's Blog)

There are many schools who use Lexia Reading to improve their students English language vocabulary, grammar and comprehension scores, especially among ELD students. Normally, to get at the assessment data for each student you would use your laptop or desktop computer's network connection. At the Alexander Science Center School (Exposition Park, next to the California Science Center) in South Los Angeles, grades 1 thru 5 use the 35 desktop, Computer Lab to give an entire classroom equal time on Lexia. Ideally, this would be the perfect opportunity for teachers to review the performance goals of at risk students with lexiareading.com on their laptops. However, teachers are not always inclined to tote their bulky laptops to the lab.   
Enter, Lexia Reading's fabulous app for the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch to track individual students, individual classroom to grade level, or school to school reading achievements for teachers, paraprofessionals and reading intervention specialists who currently use the cloud based application.

Lexia Reading for the iPad

In the above illustration, with the app in Student mode, the class roster (left side column) appears as a vertical list. Touch a student's name (green highlight) and his/her multiple level statistics appear on the right side of the screen. The app tracks CVCC, CCVC and CVC information. It also takes pains to identify the words, vowels and consonants the student is struggling with and lists them.

In the second section on the right, under the heading Assessment the app shows the most recent Skills Levels, a Performance graph and a Usage graph. Below that, Usage breaks down to greater detail with the student's weekly average, total time on the app, and the last log in!

 At Alexander Science Center School reading intervention specialists and psychologists have occasionally provided copies of Lexia Reading to parents of at risk students on CD, so their children can work with the program at home. The iPhone/iPod Touch graphical displays of Lexia data can be an effective tool to keep parents informed of student assessment targets, vs the child's actual performance level anytime, anywhere, not just at Parent/Teacher or IEP conferences. 

A very useful real time data capture feature was recently added in the latest version of the app. Lexia Reading now makes it possible to track the progress of a student while she is actually working with the program. Doing this in real time can improve the student's percent chance of hitting grade level benchmarks.Teachers and reading intervention specialists can easily assess the amount of individual attention a student will need to achieve those goals as he is using the app!

The Lexia Reading app for iPad, IPhone and iPod Touch is a FREE download from Apple's App Store for current Lexia subscribers. If your school does not have a Lexia Reading subscription, and you'd like to learn more about their products, go to: http://lexialearning.com

Vuvox: Tell Stories With Video Murals

With the ascendancy of Common Core Standards as the new normal in classroom teaching requirements, many bloggers have written about integrating previously excluded visual arts disciplines like digital imaging, audio design and video editing into A thru G curricula. Concurrently, interest in Web 2.0 sites with built-in tool sets that work regardless of your operating system, or computing device are becoming mainstream in classrooms across the country. I would like to submit a free, multimedia, web-based, storytelling site into the mix called, VuVox.com.

Vuvox: The Video Mural Storytelling Tool
Vuvox allows you to create a video mural which is made up of still images, audio files, text, and custom hyperlinks to form a moving panorama of engaging, interactive narratives.You build your video mural by digitally stitching images togethe similar to creating a panorama from related image files. The hyperlink integration tool  connects selected images in your video mural to other websites, or original content (You Tube).  Let's take a brief look under the hood, and review the Vuvox tool set.

(Example 1)

Example 1 shows the Vuvox playback stage interface. I'm using Familiar Faces?, a demonstration piece I created from my original digital portraits archive. As you can see above the stage, Vuvox uses tabs to access tutorial and reference information. Below the stage are basic play-forward-rewind icons, a volume control, and a fullscreen display icon. Vuvox permits users to organize their finished works into custom content channels to which viewers can subscribe. The green edit button (on the bottom left) opens up the edit stage interface which we will explore next.

(Example 2)

The Edit Stage 
To begin drag and drop images into the stage. When you click on an image file, a green rectangle surrounds the selected image revealing a simple yet powerful set of editing tools. The scissors button allows you to cut away image sections with an adjustable Bezier tool (for drawing smooth curves) and automatically placing the remaining image on an invisible layer above the stage. This sets up the illusion of blending one image over or under the other. To the right of the highlight example are dimensional arrows to move the images forward and backward, from layer to the stage. Below the forward/backward icons is image resize. To the left of scissors is the hyperlink icon. When used in conjunction with the text button (see Example 4) you can create a text balloon that hovers over the image and links it to additional online content. When the viewer is finished with the link she can return to the Vuvox window and continue playing the mural. At the top of Example 2, are five buttons: Adjust settings, preview your work, save as, and exit editing mode; pretty self-explanatory.

(Example 3)

Built-in Customizable Image Storage Bins

Below the editing stage are a handy set of tabs for content storage. This is really cool!  Vuvox automatically creates tabbed storage bins for your images, including tabs that automatically open to popular online albums like Flickr, Picasa, or SmugMug, There is a convenient tab to hold your custom Bezier cut outs, and access to  Library, a ready-made collection of images from Vuvox with built-in transparencies so you can easily collage them into your project. Also, don't overlook Google Images as a content resource. It's searchable and it offers a great opportunity for teachers to model best practices by showing how to attribute source information.

Example 4

Example 4 continues the edit stage (cut off in Example 3) with controls for inserting color text and titles, and audio MP3 files from online or offline sources. The "?"  tab opens with suggestions for additional editing techniques.

Vuvox is a free web based app that only requires a valid email to open an account. Actually, you don't need an account to build a Vuvox video. However, you can't save your work without one. Paid accounts are available. See Vuvox.com for more information. I have found that the free version works well for most classroom purposes.  As with many other online creation sites you can choose whether your work is open to the public or restricted. It's a snap to create a link to your work for emails, or embed it in your webpage or blog. The simplicity of the Vuvox interface makes modeling its creation elements appropriate even for elementary grades.

Once you begin to play with it you'll quickly begin to envision group or individual projects with it. Vuvox is simply amazing!

Below is the complete Familiar Faces? demonstration video with music by  Zoot Sims and Stephan Grappelli.