Mini-Me: Creating A Digital Presence Online

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Mini-Me: Creating A Digital Presence Online

View more presentations from Jan McGee.

View the Slideshare presentation above at least three times.  Go to each avatar tool and learn to create your avatar.  Create an evaluating system and evaluate each tool.  Rank your tools and post your top 10 avatar tools on your blog.

Challenge:  Learn how to create a Slideshare presentation and make one about creating avatars.  Post your Slideshare presentation to your blog.

01001 - Spanish Lesson: Basic Conversation (Part 1)

Use technology to learn a foreign language. Here is a series of free lessons to learn beginning Spanish that I found useful. Try out the first lesson and post to your blog: 1.) what did you learn about Spanish and 2.) what did you like or not like about the technology you used.

Challenge: Complete all the lessons in the series and post what you learned about Spanish after each lesson. When you complete the course explain why learning Spanish could be useful in the future. Share this website with your parents and ask them to try it. Summarize their evaluation of the website on your blog.

Tech_Knowledge_Staff_Development

Tech Toad Intro for Teachers

Analyze the video from several perspectives. First, listen to the video as though you were a teacher and post what the main message is for teachers. Next, listen to the video as a film maker, what worked well? What needs improvement? Post your analysis and suggestions to your blog. Third, show the video to your parents at least three times and ask them to take notes or write down questions. Try to answer any of their questions and post your questions and answers to your blog.

Challenge: Watch the video along with a teacher and ask them to take notes or write down questions. Try to answer any of their questions and post your questions and answers to your blog. Survey all your teachers and ask them to rank which tool (videogames, movies, or virtual worlds) would they like to try first, second, and third. Post your answers to your blog.

Adobe Museum of Digital Media

Take the tour of the museum and post your analysis of the architectural design of the museum. Experience the first exhibit in an all digital museum. Post what you liked and did not like about the digital museum and compare it to another museum you have visited in the real world.

Challenge: Create your own virtual tour of the museum and post the machinima to your blog. Share this site and your blog with a teacher you have not worked with yet and find out how he or she might use this website for a lesson in the future. Post the teacher's ideas to your blog.

Cell Phones As School Tools

WAIT DO NOT WATCH VIDEO YET

Compare the positives and negatives of using cell phones in school (before you watch the video) and post them to your blog. Watch the video and create a new comparison and post that one to your blog along with an analysis of your final thoughts about the use of cell phones at school.

Challenge: Find a teacher who is willing to turn this project into a class assignment. Have the students post their thoughts as comments to your blog. Don't forget to get the teacher's thoughts on the topic. Discuss as a class what the rules (and consequences of breaking the rules) of cell phone use at school should be and post the results to your blog.

Alec Loorz on CNN

Now that you have met Alec Loorz on his website, listen to his message on Youtube. Go to Al Gore's website and explore it. Analyze the data on the website, rent the movie An Inconvenient Truth, and analyze the data presented in the movie. Which data makes the most sense to you? Post your thoughts about global warming and the data to your blog.

Challenge: Choose a location that will soon be underwater, if we do not tackle fiercely the problem of global warming, and create a movie show all that could be lost if that location should indeed become submerged.

Blue Man Group video featured on "Earth To America!"

Watch the video several times and share it with five people, create a movie of their response to the video and ask them if they currently do anything to stop global warming.

Challenge: Research Global Warming and find specific things the average citizen can do now to help reduce their carbon footprint. Find out about a local Ventura student who took action. Go back to the five people you interview and show them the best three websites you found about taking action against global warming.

Try Out Blue Man Art

Explore the Create Art tab on the Blue Man Group website and create some art. Post three examples of your art on your blog.

Challenge: Ask five of your friends to use the Create Art tab on the Blue Man Group website and post the best of their work on your blog. If any of your friends have been to a Blue Man Group concert interview them and post their comments on your blog.

Blue Man Music

Click the link and watch the video a few times, each time looking at it from a different perspective; as a film maker, as an artist, as a musician, as a scientist. Analyze the video- what did you like and what did you not like. Go to the Blue Man Group website and explore. Rate the website (10 is Extremely Awesome) on your blog and explain your rating.

Challenge: Read about the Blue Man Group Instrument contest, create an instrument, and enter the contest (if you want to). Post a movie of you playing your instrument to your blog. Share the website, your instrument, and your movie with a teacher you have not worked with before and ask how he or she might use the Blue Man Group and their website for a lesson. Post the teacher's ideas to your blog.

2,000 Weightless Ping Pong Balls with Science Bob

Watch this video and several other videos on the scienceBob channel. Post to your blog your favorite science experiment video. Go to the scienceBob website and explore it. Rate his website on a scale of 1- 10 (10 being Extremely Awesome) and post your comments on your blog.

Challenge: With your teachers approval, try out three of the experiment ideas on the scienceBob website and pick your favorite. Create your own science video demonstrating how to do the experiment and post the video to your blog.

Cell Phone Interview

Check out the link above about cell phone interviews and do some research. Create a list of Top Ten Ideas to Improve Cell Phone Interviews and post it to your blog.

Challenge: Find an interesting scientist, medical person, or animal caretaker or trainer to interview by cell phone. Get approval from your teacher before you write your fifteen questions for the interview. Remember no 'yes or no' questions and follow the other tips you learned from your research. Create some kind of a movie, using suggestions from this techsoup article, that informs your audience about what you learned from the person you chose to interview.

Twitter for Teachers

video by learningblog

Watch the video several times. Post to your blog your opinion about the value of using Twitter in school. Describe a PLM and explain the value of it.

Challenge: Check out some of the resources for teachers about how they can use twitter in their classrooms. Find a teacher or staff member who uses twitter or would like to learn about how to use twitter for education. Create a twitter tutorial and post it to your blog.

Flat Classroom Project 2010 - 1

video by heyjudevideo

Listen to the video several times and take notes. Research the Flat Classroom Project on the web. Create a commercial about the Flat Classroom Project to convince your friends and teachers that it is a great project to join.

Challenge: Find a teacher who might be interested in participating in the Flat Classroom Project. Share your commercial and research about the Flat Classroom with that teacher. Check back with the teacher each week to share ideas about the Flat Classroom project and post new insights to your blog.

World of Warcraft in School: Student Perspectives

video by nerdscience

World Of Warcraft Teaches Leadership Skills

Watch the video. Read this website about WoW. Interview people who play World of Warcraft and ask them to tell you why then like to play the game and what makes it different from other videogames. Ask the students if they learn leadership skills as they quest and run dungeons.



Challenge: Create a machinima of people playing World of Warcraft that explains the basics or the game and post it to your website. Explain in your machinima whether you think WoW should or should not be used in school and explain why.

Quest Atlantis Immersive Learning Environment Expanding

video posted by luschoolofeducation

Watch the video. Start a VoiceThread about Quest Atlantis and get at least five people to respond to your VoiceThread.

Quest Atlantis Legend

video post by slyshadowsnacks

Watch the video. Compare this myth to two other myths and post your comparison to your blog.

Challenge: Find a teacher who might be interested in getting the training in order to participate in Quest Atlantis virtual world. Research the origins of the virtual world and be prepared to answer teacher questions. Check back with the teacher in a month to see if the teacher has any further questions about Quest Atlantis. Post several videos about Quest Atlantis to your blog.

Learning From Podcasts

Listen to five different podcasts from the NPR radio show called Fresh Air. Compare two of the interviews, how were they alike -how were they different. Explain which interview you liked best and why. Explain what you learned from the podcasts.

Challenge: Write an email to the Terri Gross the host of the program complementing her work on your favorite interview and requesting that she interview someone that interests you. Check the archive to make sure she has not already interview that person. Tell her a few things you would like to know about that person. Ask her to interview people about education, technology and broadband access in America. Use your cell phone or digital camera to send her pictures of our school and examples of how we use technology. Ask her for tips for starting program like Fresh Air at our school.

Cell Phone Apps for Students

Research the cell phone apps on the website above. Choose three apps to evaluate and post that evaluation to your blog.

Challenge: Find three teachers who would be willing to look at the apps for students and ask them to help you create a movie discussing how they might use cell phone apps in their lesson plans. Include ways that teachers could use a cell phone stop watch in their lessons. Post your movie to your blog.

mEducation Should Cell Phones Be Allowed In Schools for Educational Purposes?

Read this article carefully and take notes. Do more research on the web before you post your answer to the question about whether or not cell phones should be allowed in schools. When you are ready post your answer to your blog and support your response with valid reasons and examples.

Challenge: Create a movie of students explaining why or why not cell phones should be used in schools for educational purposes.

Hip Hop Heals at the Apollo

video by healthymagination

Watch the video. Evaluate how well they deliver their message about health. What worked well in the video and what could be improved. Post your analysis to your blog.

Challenge: Explore how cell phone apps like Morsel and other can be used to improve health. Create a commercial for the best health app you found.