Student digital products often contain some form of image. Many teachers are still using the, "If it is on Google Images, you can use it" method of providing images. This would be a great time for teaching good digital citizenship!
There are many places you can find free and legal images from the public domain. With barely any extra effort, students can use these resources to find high quality photography and make the strong effort to follow the rules about using found images online. Public domain photos can be found in a number of places, but I saw this video today that shared a few great ones as well as how to use them.
Give this a good look and share with your teachers who are doing digital products!
Video: Richard Byrne - School Library Journal
What photo sources have you used in class? Are there tips you would share with a new teacher about how you managed that part of your lesson; free classroom-ID'ed accounts, teacher-collected photo banks, citing the photos used?
While QR codes are still enjoying popularity in discussion groups, the use of the codes hasn't continued growing as well. This blog-update is serving to share a few more QR resources that may prove helpful in the classroom.
Still my favorite QR generator, delivr.com does a very nice job of not only making the code, but assisting in modifying the size for larger format printing and use outside a computer monitor.
After generating the code, look for the download link for the 'eps' file type. The eps file is a vector-imaged file which can be enlarged digitally without loosing resolution. Print a large page or T-shirt QR? The eps files will usually work really well.
In my previous post, I used software called by Quickmark. They have software for Windows, Mac, and mobile devices. The desktop software will not only create QR code, but can use the webcam to read or use a software reader to read codes on the computer screen. The software is not free, but it is very useful.
Sites like delivr.com, goo.gl, and kaywa.com also provide the valuable service of keeping a history of the codes you have made and tracking them. You can often see how many times someone has clicked through your QR code or when the last time someone used it was.
Taking QR codes the next step can involve making them more artistic or visually meaningful. QR readers only read a certain percentage of the pattern in the code. You can creatively remove squares and place your own artwork inside the code and still be able to use it with a reader. Be careful not to remove too much of the code. For some great ideas, check out beautifulqrcodes.com and customqrcodes.com . I made a very quick example of this during a Discovery Educator Network Summer Institute and it shows how I edited a QR code.
Teacher circles have started sharing the question, "Aye, it's the end of the year. What creative thing can we be do'in?" Forgive the accent, but I just spent 15 minutes listening to Scottish Free Independent Radio on Spreaker.com. It was a wee bit entertaining, without the haggis.
Radio Shows are great tools for student publications because you don't have a video track that necessitates a great deal of protection from the teacher. Student voices can be anonymous sources and allow for much more flexibility in publishing original student work.
Spreaker DJis a FREE app that helps you create a radio show. The app is very simple to understand and, with the free account, very easy to publish to the internets. You have access to audio from your iTunes, two soundtracks with a fader for them, sound effects, and a few nice technical tools for those that want them. When you start the recording, there is no pausing, so it's a one-take recording with no editing available.
Think of it this way, students must write, revise, and rehearse their show before taking a turn at publishing. They will have a lot of fun with the creation of the show. The content could be the class' online Dailey Agenda or topic review. What a great way to finish out the year by encouraging student publication of their thoughts and ideas learned in class!
Publishing the show can either be done as a live broadcast or recorded on the iPad and quickly published up to your Spreaker website. Parents can be given the show's website address and keep up with the classroom events via the internet.
I took 10 minutes to learn the app and make a recording. Here is my first effort, as an example.
Well, it's come down to this last afternoon. To refocus on the goal, we are already adept at differentiating our instructional time with our students' various learning levels, but in these last weeks we have been focusing on how technology can aid us in differentiating our instruction with the GT population. Sure, we can use these same tools in other areas of our classroom, but we started by looking at why and what we differentiate.
Why do we differentiate? We discussed many weeks ago that we work to provide for various levels of readiness, interest, and learning styles.
What do we differentiate? We can provide different content, processes, and product opportunities for the students.
We have looked at using a variety of technology, specifically netbooks, digital cameras, and document cameras. We looked at webquests and research tools, online tools like Prezi and Wordle for presenting student products, the ability to leverage social sites like Edmodo in the classroom and more.
This last part delves into one of a student's favorite school memories: the class field trip. It's much more than watching a video or list of bookmarks. The Virtual Learning Environment is a rich opportunity to use technology with our students in a mostly self-directed space. There are a good number of these experiences already online, mostly for older students, leaving teachers time to practice using it before assigning to students.
Peruse these resources and find at least one field trip that you could use with your students. Make a plan for: What materials you would need to accomplish this? What kind of timing you will need? What should the student produce by the end?
*AISD provided a link to Christopher F. Mulrine's article, "Creating a Virtual Learning Environment for Gifted and Talented Learners". http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/EJ756553.pdf
