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Edublogs webinar overviews – Pt 2 De Bono action shoes for 2E students, a Serendipity & shared tools

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Introduction

Apologies once again for the delay in posting and the need to do a three in one post. Too many things happening in life and work at the moment and I can’t keep up! The first of the two sessions in this post ws the second half of a FineFocus session on De Bono’s action shoes and 2E students by @jofrei. The second was a Serendipity session – I am particularly grateful that this was recorded as I was unable to attend so the overview is based on the recording. The third session was an “off-the-cuff” session where several of us shared a tool/application we have used with students – Voicethread (@poulingail), GIMP (@philhart), Linoit (@JoHart) and Voki (@jofrei).

De Bono action shoes for a 2E student on Gagne’s DMGT road – Part 2

This recorded session was the second part of the double FineFocus session presented by @jofrei – Jo Freitag, creator of Sprite’s Site and co-ordinator of the Gifted Resources website

Jo began with a brief recap of the first session:

  • Edward de Bono’s Six Action Shoes which are the follow up to the Six Thinking Hats;
  • Gagne’s Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent;
  • the Six Action Shoes in the context of the Feetspeak Quest Map;
  • a reminder of the six shoes and their relationship to the Gagne DMGT model.

The main focus of this session was a consideration of combinations and variations in the shoes. We had a great time exploring the possible combinations of two shoe types to produce modified action plans. Jo also shared some extra shoe types of her own that broaden the program possibilities including Sprite’s plaster cast that symbolises the support that may be available through eligibility for funding!

A great session from Jo as always!

Serendipity

A lively recorded session that I was sorry to miss! I am writing the overview from the recording and although I am delighted to be able to catch the recording and to do this, I feel that the overview lacks the depth that comes from being there. This Serendipity ranged across several topics – Contacts for ESL; Which is better f-2-f or online; and why are outdated skills still being taught. An eclectic blend of topics which seemed to work very well! The conversation jumped around between topics often linking them together through context for example using online for ESL. The only way to do this session justice is to catch the recording!

Show and Tell about tools used with students

The third recorded session in this overview was a FineFocus in which several of us present gave a short “Show and Tell” about a particular tool that we use with students. This session was inspired by Gail (@poulingail) who had (the previous week) volunteered to tell us about her use of Voicethread.

Gail showed us the Voicethread site giving us the link for signing up. She also shared her own page and in particular a thread from her Kindy students about a visit to a nearby vernal pool, fantastic to hear such young students articulating their ideas about the pool. Gail continued – telling us about how she is using Voicethread to collaborate with other classes. One point she made of which I was only vaguely aware before is that you can give your feedback using other media than just plain recording on the site. This may encourage me to try again! A great “share” by Gail – I certainly learned a huge amount!

Next up was Phil (@philhart) who told us about the GIMP – his favourite image editor. Free and with similar features to those of Photoshop. This is the one that Phil always recommends to students who want something a bit more sophisticated than Photofiltre. Phil takes panoramic images – many images that are then “stitched” together. These inevitably need a degree of editing and to illustrate the advantages of GIMP Phil showed us how he can quickly and easily remove image flaws. Again a fascinating share!

Then it was my turn! My chosen tool was Linoit which is similar to Wallwisher. I have used this intermittently with students since myslf contributing to a fabulous global one instigated by Michael Graffin (@mgraffin) for World Water Day in 2011. I have used Linoit for students to give feedback on classess and also for short pieces of writing – often using an image as stimulus. Next year I will be asking students to write Haiku in response to an image stimulus. I enjoyed sharing Linit.

To finish off Jo Freitag (@jofrei) related her experiences with Voki (a talking avatar) and teenage boys in her blogging project completed last year. She emphasised how much the students enjoyed making Vokis and slso made the point that they didn’t, as could easily be the case with this age group feel that making Vokis was “babyish”. A terrific “word picture” from Jo to end the session.

This session was fun – it is always so interesting when different people share tools as we all gain so many insights from one another.

Our Next Session

Our next Webinar is an Edublogs “Serendipity” session where we invite you to suggest your “hot” topics for discussion – we then select the topic by poll.  Join us on Thursday November 15th at 23:00 GMT/UTC the time for you will vary depending on your timezone (check yours here) Thursday afternoon/evening in the USA, late night Thursday in Europe, and Friday morning November 16th in Australia – in the usual Blackboard Collaborate virtual room.

Edublogs webinar overview – “Show & Tell”

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Introduction

This session was a little different –  discussion in a previous Serendipity session gave rise to the idea of taking a brief look at how individual teachers use a tech tool of their choice. Thus the “Show and Tell” session was born. We had three fantastic short presentations from Rodney (@techyturner), Tracey (@mmebrady) and Sandra giving us great insights into exciting ways to use technology with our students.

The Session

The session was recorded as usual – including some preliminary chat about the wildlife in our respective backyards. Please let me know if you access the recording.

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Rodney started proceedings by telling us about “clickers” and the many applications of these in his classroom. He explained that he is able to get instant feedback on student understanding and how much the students enjoy using the clickers. This prompted text chat discussion and questions about the range of activities that can incorporate clickers.

Tracy told us how she has used GoogleVoice in her classroom and has utilised the students’ own mobile devices – a great solution for someone who has little technology available in their classroom. Because Tracy teaches French the oral dimension is critical and Tracy has used GoogleVoice to enable her students to respond orally to questions posed by her Voki.

Sandra finished off the session by telling us about how she has used “Max’s Toolbox” with very young students. This is an interface that is used within an MSOffice environment and has icons and tools that are simple to use. Sandra showed us how Kindy students have created simple slides on themes relevant to them.

Conclusion

This session was excellent – it was a fantastic way to share teaching strategies and tools, without the pressure on one individual to fill a whole session. Three seemed to be just the right number of presenters and we had lots of discussion and questions around the topics. “Show & Tell” is definitely a theme to repeat!

Next Webinar

SerendipitybsmallOur next session is an Edublogs “Serendipity” session on Thursday June 23rd at 23:00 GMT/UTC (Afternoon/Evening USA) or Friday June 24th at 7am West Aus, mid morning Eastern States Aus depending on your timezone (check yours here) – in the usual Elluminate room. This is one of our fortnightly unconference sessions where we invite you to bring along your “hot topics” and “burning issues” for our poll on the topic of the day.

Edublogs Serendipity webinar overview – avatars and Vokis

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Preface

If you access the link to the recording it would be great if you would just leave a short comment on this post to let me know. I would really like to know if it is useful to people when I post the overviews & recording links

Introduction

In this recorded session the topic we chose by poll at the start – from suggestions by those participating – was avatars and Vokis.

The Session

Most of our discussion was around using Vokis. We all use standard avatars in a range of situations, but most of us were not so familiar with Vokis and their potential. Luckily we had some participants who had either experimented a little with them or who had used them with students. These people were a tremendous asset to the discussion, providing us with the link to the Voki site, great information about the practicality of making Vokis, and brilliant ideas for using them with students.

In this session we did something a bit different – we gave ourselves some homework! This was to make a Voki, post it and let other participants know where to find it. I’ve been lazy and posted mine in this overview as my image for the post. However to compensate for the laziness I did two Vokis!

Conclusion

This session was great fun apart from me talking too much! We had several participants without microphones so lots of the discussion was through text chat. When this happens I often talk too much as I have discovered that if silences are too long in Elluminate participants often assume their audio has failed. For me this was an extremely useful session that has finally pushed me into trying out a Voki. Something I have been intending to do for ages. I also now have a lot of ideas for using them with my students as a different kind of visual text in addition to ToonDoo which I already use.

Our Next Session

FineFocusSmallOur next Webinar is an Edublogs “Fine Focus” session.  This week’s session “Easy ‘tooning with ToonDoo” will be about one of my favourite “toys”. We will look at how to use ToonDoo (online cartoon making website) to make cartoons. And also at some ways that it can be used both for learning resources and to engage students in creating visual texts.  Join us on Thursday March 10th at 23:00 GMT/UTC (6pm USA EST, Midnight CET) or Friday March 11th at 7am West Aus, 10am NSW, depending on your timezone – in the usual Elluminate room

In the Future

If you are a regular visitor to our webinars you will know that we alternate “Fine Focus” sessions on specific topics with “Serendipity” the unconference sessions where we choose a topic by poll at the start of the session. Sometimes the very fact of being asked for “hot topics” or other ideas for discussion or learning tends to make our minds blank. This has prompted me to start a Serendipity Wallwisher for topic suggestions. Please visit the wall and add your ideas for Serendipity topics so that we have more choices to consider. Some of these ideas might also form the basis for future “Fine Focus” sessions.