Science Lesson

The session I most appreciated at the recent Christa McCauliffe Technology conference was Welcome to Our 21st Century Science Classroom by Paul Facteau from Apple. It was a simulation of a well-run classroom mid-project on a river study. I was a student—I dissected an owl pellet; I tested water samples. I took photos (with the microscope); I generated graphs of my water data. I inserted these products into books and blogs. It was great to see how all the pieces can fit together. It wasn’t about the technology; it was about the learning.

9 of Me--Photoshop Elements

This lesson is for my 5th and 6th grade students at PRES who are in the middle of their first project with Photoshop Elements.

Data Visualization

As I was listening to the keynote address by David Warlick at the Christa McAuliffe Conference in December 2008, I jotted notes on my program. One was the phrase “data visualization is a medium”. That really fit with my current educational strivings. Perhaps because it brings two parts of my professional life together—my years in social research (creating, compiling and analyzing data) and my current work in education. As I strive to have students understand information, visualization can be key. And it can be key to having them get excited by and want more of this information.

Web 2.0 has enhanced data visualization (could I make a bigger understatement?) Examples abound that are beautiful, fascinating, and informative. More clever and useful creations appear daily. (For just a few examples, see Flowing Data .
In the midst of the excitement about Web 2.0 examples of data visualization (and let me be the first to admit that I am so excited about them that it is hard for me to type about them, when I could be busy viewing more of them), we must not loose touch with other ways to visualize data. Edward R. Tufte is passionate about data visualization of the paper variety. Those of us in educational settings have easy access to the physical beings to make data be performance art.

Next week I have invited the students from another elementary school to join those at my school so that we can visually represent the distribution of population and resources in the world. (This excellent lesson, Food for Thought, was developed by Population Reference Bureau. We will follow the performance by using three Web 2.0 tools: Stat Planet, Show World , and a Time Multimedia look at US population.

New Photo Timeline Needed

I posted my WCS fieldtrip timeline created earlier this week with circa Vie. I just read today that they are circa Vie down after January 15th. I have mixed emotions--dismay and relief. Now I'm really in the market for a replacement.

Guatemalan People

circaVie--WCS Fieldtrip Timeline

I used circaVie (times of your life) to make a photo Timeline of field trips by Warwick Community School students during this school year. I love the idea of putting multimedia in timelines. This product is in a beta version--I found enough quirks to make me frustrated. There are other products that do the same thing--any recommendations?

Wordle in the Classroom

Wordle is a web-based program allowing one to make word clouds easily and with and lots of opportunity to modify color, text, and design. See my post of November 28 for a sample. It's fun. Is it appropriate for my classrooms (elementary school)? Wordle doesn't think so, and neither do I. Here's what's posted on the Wordle site:

"Wordle, as it stands, is inappropriate for classroom use. This is because I do not censor the content that appears on Wordle (I couldn't possibly; there are thousands a week), and, therefore, it's possible to find images in the public gallery that are entirely unsuitable for younger users. I regret this, and hope to address it some day, but that's how it is for now"

The problem for my classroom is that one automatically views the latest Wordle creations by others. Not all those are appropriate for the classroom.

Unexpected Outside Time

The school fire alarm system malfunctioned this week. Students and staff had to stay outside in the chilly (40 degree air) until the fire department was sure that the scene was safe. Since it was right before the regular recess time, it was nice for the students to be able run and play, though they would have been more comfortable with coats. The last time I remember the school being unexpectedly emptied was in 2006 on a spring morning while a security issue was being investigated. We were lucky enough to have Kim Wallach, our music teacher lead an impromptu all-school sing. I took photos, and later put them together with a recording by Kim.

Show World--Distribution of Broadband Subscribers

I just had my first opportunity to use Show World. One begins with a map of the world, selects a variable, and watches the countries get resized depending on the world distribution of the variable. The map above shows countries resized according to number of Broadband subscribers. There are many options for variables. I'm happy to have another tool for the visual display of data. Comparing and contrasting what we know (that would be the United States for most of my students) with what we struggle to know is how we will come closer to understanding our world.

Whining in Wordle

Some tantalizing web applications just don't work very well at my home on the far side of the digital divide. (Hard to watch the movies I've posted in this blog, for example.) My graduate school classmates have had to endure me informing/complaining to each new instructor about the state of connectivity out in my neck of the woods. I've been thinking about it frequently as I try to complete the assignments for my current Web 2.0 class. I created a word cloud in honor of the situation (to see a larger version of the word cloud, go to:
http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/348966/Digital_Divide).

LIFE Digital Archive Photos

I was thrilled to read on Wednesday that Google will be posting a searchable archive of over 10 million images from the LIFE archive--both photographs and etchings dating back to the 1750s. What a great resource to help make the past visible for our students. About 20 percent of the collection is posted now. Take a peek: http://images.google.com/hosted/life.

Fall Fest--October 30--WCS

While the school's Fall Fest is in its third year, this is the first year I've been present to participate. I thoroughly enjoyed climbing Mt. Grace with students and getting to connect with small groups of them in different ways than when on our regular schedule. On the way up the mountain I learned from students about snowmobiles, and about practices around climbing the mountain. Some students have only climbed with the school, while others have climbed so often with their families that they know which trees have initials carved into the bark.

I had fun posing questions to students. Is it colder at the top or the bottom of the mountain? Which senses are you using to gather relevant information? One student told me that his sight informed him that there was snow only at the top of the mountain, and his skin sensed more cold there.The meaning of the sign that says ".25 Olsen Field" baffled the students who were with me. How great to test our classroom learning in "real" situations--and time for a review of decimals.

I hope you will enjoy this video of the hike with a recording created by our music teacher, Kim Wallach, with students from a school in Westmoreland, NH.

Class Assignment

With my graduate school class I will be sharing about some presentations from the K12 Online Conference. I'll mention: http://globallyconnectedproj.wikispaces.com/ about Globally Collaborative projects (a BIG interest of mine).

I'll also mention the presentation with simple tips http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=329 for making better classroom movies. The tips are cleverly displayed in a detective movie--the creativity hooked right away.

Send Beautiful Postcards

If you'd like to send someone a stunning online postcard, use the site by photographer, Jean-Claude Lejeune. I am going to try to remember to use these for parent volunteers or people I want to appreciate for doing something above and beyond.

Pumpkin Dance

My K class in Leyden was excited about the pumpkin movie they made in October. See what you think.

Malindi's Journey

Fellow Fulbrighter, Alicia Carroll and her associate, Lucy Montgomery, presented in China recently about the research for their book on the giraffe that was taken from the coast of Africa on Zheng He's ship to be a gift the Chinese emperor in 1414. The blog of their trip can be viewed at: http://www.malindibeijing.blogspot.com/. The site has information gleaned during their travels, and posts problems for elementary students to solve.

Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities

I just got a postcard from Mass Humanities asking if I'd like to keep receiving the print version of their newsletter. Visiting their website to respond was a treat. They do an excellent job of tackling multidisciplinary issues and are a model of technology integration. Take a look when you can spend some time--if you are a teacher there are many resources you may wish to use. "Mass Humanities supports programs that use history, literature,philosophy, and the other humanities disciplines to enhance and improve civic life throughout Massachusetts." Check it out:http://masshumanities.org/

The Pumpkin Man--October 30--WCS

A Warwick Halloween special event--the Pumpkin Man. What a wonderful student project it would be to research the development and history of this tradition. But would it be worth losing the mystery and magic? A conundrum!