More MOOCs

With the workload of finishing off the last school year, and preparing for a new baby, there hasn't been much time for blogging, so a quick update...

Over the 'summer' break, I have been exploring numerous MOOCs on a range of topics from Irish history to the fundamentals of teaching. September sees me enrolled on several courses with varying levels of engagement but two I intend to complete fully are Learning to Teach Online from the University of New South Wales and Modern & Contemporary American Poetry (or ModPo for short) by Al Filreis from Pennsylvania University.

Learning to Teach Online has been an interesting in terms of confirming much of my own theory around online or blended learning, and the reflections involved in this course have made me consider alignment of curriculum, assessment and methodology in a very structured (and useful) way. Should it run again, I would thoroughly recommend it for anyone seeking to embark on - or improve the efficacy of - online learning, whether for part or all of a course.

Having a stronger academic background in language than literature, I am always keen to 'up' my knowledge and skills around the latter, so the course on American poetry has been most enlightening. So far, we have focused on Dickinson and Whitman. Dickinson manages to create such densely-packed lines, often musing on the nature of poetry itself and the insights gained so far have been beneficial in informing me of various perspectives on a writer with many possible interpretations.

The Whitman materials await my attention so, as the baby naps, that's where I'm heading now. See you there perhaps!

Panoramas & Imagination

Since attending a Creativity workshop with Tim Rylands at ASB Unplugged 2012, I've been interested in using panoramas to inspire stepping outside of the classroom - at least in a a virtual sense.

The first of a few resources to help with this is Autostitch, the gallery of which is here. With Autostitch you simply input the pictures you've taken and it automatically detects the overlaps and stitches them together in one seamless panorama, which can be navigated with your mouse or keyboard to turn up to 360 degrees. Unfortunately, the demo software is only available for Windows at the moment, but you can still make use of those in the gallery.

CleVR also offers a free service for stitching pictures. The great thing about this site is that you can embed the results into websites, blogs and wikis when you're done. Again, no specialist equipment - other than a digital camera - is needed and the results can be impressive. What's more you can "add interactive hotspots to your panoramas. These let viewers click areas in the panorama for more information. They can display notes, photos or video. They can also be used to link panoramas together into a full virtual tour."

Airpano offers 3D panoramas to move around and explore. I would have embedded one but as soon as I tried, the audio played automatically. Check them one for yourself here.

Photosynth is yet another online platform for creating static and interactive panoramas that can be shared a number of ways including by embedding. There is a comprehensive public gallery available if you don't have the time or means to make your own.

Integration:

• There's no substitute for the real thing, but if you can't take your class to a place of interest let it come to you via an interactive panorama; projected or displayed onto a whiteboard with the lights dimmed, learners can be transported to another place entirely - let their imaginations soar
• As a prompt for creative writing, use one of the high res panoramas to zoom in on a smaller object of interest in the background; as you pan out ask learners to note the detail that is added before looking left, right, up and down to complete the picture and the subsequent writing
• Learners can create their own panoramas to accompany projects on places or topics; add audio and text to create interactive webpages to engage audiences on almost any subject
• If you're a bit of a techie - immerse learners in a fantasy world of their own creation; use the background panoramas for green-screen shooting

Terragen

I decided to go ahead and publish this post so you could explore the resource yourself, but once I've had a bit more of a play with the software, I'll update it with more details and ideas. In the meantime, feel free to add your own via the Comments section below of course.

This is hardly a click-and-go type resource but because of its potential, I just have to share it with you. Tim Rylands presented this at the ASB Unplugged conference in Mumbai last week and it was simply mind-blowing. The free software can be downloaded from here and the rest is up to your imagination and creativity as you create your own landscapes on a planet of your choice. While it might be time-consuming, just think of the possibilities!

I can hardly begin to list all the uses Terragen could have for extended project work or PBL, but here's a few to kick things off. In my ideal world, I'd use it for a long-term cross-curricular project with various groups coming back to the created world through the year for various learning activities. Anyway, individual subject teachers could create a world and then fill it with anything relevant. For example:

• Historians could produce areas which are portals to the past and use the backdrops as green screens for recording events
• Geography - countless ways to interact with landforms and other geographical features before exploring the impact that the peoples you decide to populate the planet with; combine with Google Sketchup for even more
• Art - use your eyes and imagination!
• English / Language Arts - lots of opportunities for descriptive and narrative writing; if non-fiction's your goal, is there anything in the world that couldn't be linked to an entire planet?

Visuwords, Lexipedia & Wordnik: Dictionary Alternatives

Visuwords has been around for a while and I used to use it extensively so I was very happy to be reminded of its existence at the ASB Unplugged conference last week. With all the benefits of a dictionary and thesaurus rolled into one, Visuwords will appeal to those who prefer to see connections as a concrete pattern. Try it out - there's no sign up so it takes less then 10 seconds to see what it can do. Click here.

Lexipedia offers another word-defining visual of a similar nature. The benefit of this one is you can choose the word class by ticking various options such as synonym, noun, adverb etc. And the greatest is bonus for MFL - you can search for words in not only English, but also Spanish, German, French, Dutch and Italian. Click here.

Should you be looking for something a little different, Wordnik might be of more interest to you. Entering a word into this search engine will offer a variety of different definitions from different sources and alongside these appear many examples of the word in use - very handy for those who get the meaning but not grammatical usage. Add in the usual synonyms, antonyms and even a 'reverse dictionary' which shows you definitions containing your search term, and you're almost there...but not quite. On top of all this, you can hear pronunciations from at least 2 dictionaries as well as find out your word's Scrabble score - now that's comprehensive! Click here.

TodaysMeet Backchannel

Sometimes it does take a bit of time for things to filter through, no matter how many times I read them on the numerous blogs I subscribe to. Backchanneling tools definitely come under this category. If it's news to you here's an overview from TodaysMeet:

What finally convinced me to sit up and take notice of this resource was witnessing its use in an inspiring lesson where learners were watching a film and using TodaysMeet to express their thoughts and ask and respond to queries. The teacher was following the stream and was able to feed in comments to alert them to important upcoming sections that they should pay particular attention to or things to listen/watch out for. 

TodaysMeet was the tool of choice, and although there are alternatives (for example Twitter or Google Moderator could be used in a similar way) it's the very simple, no-signup, streamlined interface that lends its appeal. Furthermore, transcripts of the backchannel can be saved as a pdf for future reference. 

Each new topic is assigned a unique url and the backchannel remains open for up to a year.

Jellycam Stop-Motion Maker

Jellycam is a simple program that allows you to make stop-motion animations quickly and easily. The creator says it is a work in progress so there are no fancy effects or anything available yet, but it seems these are in the pipeline. Have a look at the video below which gives a quick intro to the program.

Integration:

• Another tool that can be used for digital storytelling, whether related to literature, history, social studies or any other subject
• Learners and teachers can use this type of media to explain abstract concepts which are more easily understood with objects, pictures, etc rather than just text
• Lots of examples from a (paid) software producer here to inspire your learners in getting started

You might also be interested in SAMAnimation (free version) or Scratch for creating interactive animations. 

Explania

Explania is exactly what the logo claims - a collection of animated explanations on a range of topics. The videos can be viewed without registration and embedded by anyone on any site. Have a look at the example below and if you like what you see, browse the site for more useful media for teaching Sport, Ecology, Health, Economics (Money) or ICT (Technology).

Integration:

• Use the videos to liven up delivery of content
• Learners could watch different videos in groups and then peer teach to change the interaction away from being teacher-focused
• Use the animations as models for learners to create their own for future/younger year groups
• Embed the videos on your shared online learning platform for revision purposes