Growing and Connecting via a Global Project ....
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| Winning LOGO Design |
I attended several teched conferences, workshops, and webinars right before school started this year. They inspired me to create a global project. I am really big into scrapbooking and thought how cool it would be to have a living digital scrapbook that students could use to share their stories.
I decided to use
Edmodo as my platform to connect, collaborate, and to share my dream for my global project.
The Global Digital Scrapbook Project for 2013-14 was then born. I created my goals and posted the outcome I wished to achieve with this project. I needed a sign-up form for those who decided to join me on this journey so I created a simple Google Form that I shared with anyone and everyone who would listen to me. By the end of October I had 75 schools from around the world that joined me in this amazing journey.
Within our
Edmodo Group I created several small groups for students to use to post, collaborate, share, and connect with the other students that were participating in the project. The students can post into groups such as art, economics, culture, school life, and etc.... My favorite group is the Spanish-English group where students can share and learn either in Spanish or English. I did create yet another Google Form for students to fill out and and request to join the small groups.
This project has been a huge learning experience. When I started the project I had to be the trainer to the teachers that joined in. Most of them didn't really know how to use Edmodo or had never used it before. I created little video clips to help those that needed it among answer tons of emails and messages. I would like to think it has been a success since it is now February and the communication within the small groups seem to be running smoothly.
Some of the ways I've used
Edmodo beyond just communicating with the thousand plus students and teachers was holding a LOGO submission for our project. Students submitted their LOGO designs and then I created a Quiz so that kids could vote on their favorite design. I used the Quiz feature because I could add an image to each choice. I also post the "Page or School of the Week" and I am able to see how many times that link has been clicked on. This helps to know if the participates are looking at what I post. Teachers in the project also post polling questions and discussion questions within the small groups. Students then receive either a grade for journaling or participating. We are trying to teach the students not to type in Text talk, write in complete and proper sentences, and digital citizenship all at the same time.
Now the goal is to get all of the schools to add something to the Global Digital Scrapbook. Again most of the teachers have not used the website creator I am using to host our scrapbook so I have to put on my trainer hat again. The goal is to have a completed Global Digital Scrapbook by May. I have faith that this will too happen. It takes time to get a thousand plus people all on the same page and understanding what is needed so keep an eye on the project as it grows daily.
Tools Used for the Project:
Do you want to bring the world to your students? Engage them beyond a worksheet or a textbook. Using augmented triggers allows you to do just that. I don't know about you but I would love to explore the solar system not just read about it. Why not hold the world in your hands and spin it around, look at it from all sides. A 2 dimensional image just doesn't give you all of the aspects like a interactive 3 dimensional object.
My middle school students love Minecraft and loved the idea of having a Minecraft party. With permission we turned James's project into a fundraiser for the computer lab. My students paid an entry fee to play 4 hours of Minecraft. They were able to play together all on the same world. On the day of the Minecraft party James and his crew ran into tech issues, my classroom computers were giving them errors. From a teacher point a view it was great watching them troubleshoot the issues and come up with a solution. Lucky for them I had assess to some laptops which seemed to work better on the network they created. My desktop computers were having issues with an out dated graphics card. Which I can see since they are at least 6 years old. 
I enjoyed hearing the sounds of chatter coming from my classroom. I do believe my students loved being able to play with each other on the same Minecraft world. I had 19 middle school students that attended the Minecraft party and 4 high school students that ran the the Minecraft world. If one of my students had an issue with their computer or game I just loved telling them to see the big boys. Seeing the bonds that were being created on a Saturday between middle school students and high school students was priceless.
While the kids were busy coloring I went around with Google Glass and let the little guys try them out. We did learn that one size does not fit all when it comes to Google Glass. The pre-schoolers little heads were too small to keep the Glass active. It didn't matter though, the kids enjoyed posing for a picture modeling the cool glasses. I did use Glass to capture some images and video clips. My students tried to also capture video clips using Glass. We are still learning how to operate them so some of the video clips and pictures didn't turn out like we thought they should.
It was requested that we shortened the URL and with some global collaboration the new URL for our Global Digital Scrapbook Project for 2013-14 is now http://gdsp2013.weebly.com.
I have been asked several times why do I use Twitter, what purpose does it have. The answer for me is simple. Twitter allows me to connect with others who have the same passion as I do for technology and education. With out a missing of a beat the next question normally follows. Who do you follow or connect with? Twitter has opened a door and sometimes it could be a little door with a trickle or a huge gate that just floods you with way too much information so you have to pick and choose. I tend to follow and interact with people that have the same interest as me. I am very much interested in Flipped Instruction so I follow people that are currently applying the Flipped Classroom model in their instruction. My passion lately has been AR (augmented reality) so I have been also following people that are experiencing and using AR. Depending on your interest and passion you should pick people that spark ideas for you or motivate you in some way.
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My daughter gets to be a helper in school in which she will be helping to introduce the letter "O". Me being the Techie Teacher thought how cool would it be if the two of us wrote and illustrated a book for her class. Using the Digital Storytelling web tool Little Bird Tales we created the story "Oliver Dreams Big". I wanted Oliver to be orange octopus and she wanted him to be an octagon. Together with collaboration we created Oliver the Orange Octagon Octopus who lives in a big blue ocean. We used Google Draw to create our under water world that Oliver lives in. 
My goal was to showcase the work my students worked on throughout the semester and then share it with the high school staff. I kept telling my students that this is their portfolio and they can organize it any way they would like since it belongs to them. I of course had an example for them to look at and some guidelines for them to follow.
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