Digital mapping

Holy cow. I forgot how much I like Inspiration. We learned to use it in the cohort, but my 35 kid classrooms and 32 computers in a computer lab conundrum has kept me from utilizing it. I've gotta figure that out. Here's mine:


My Inspiration mind map is all about how I can use digital tools to help kids in the writing process. Fleshing that out could be my final project.

The part I got most excited about is the Creative Writers. We do this "town project" (which I stole from Crosswinds and have adapted for h.s. writers) where the whole class picks a place for a group of people to live, then they create 20 characters who live there. In the past, students have chosen a boarding school, a village in Mexico, and an apartment building in Uptown Minneapolis. The stories have to fit together and can't contradict each other. Kids always really like this project, but it's really hard, too. It takes an abnormal amount of communication and coordination compared to the average high school class.

Enter: wikis. This would solve a lot of problems. I'm jazzed about using them to make this town project more efficient, and probably work on a deeper level.

As for my 9th graders, their level of thinking is using fast and surfacey. They are Get It Done people. But they love technology. I think using Inspiration to help them think about the 3 papers we have left this semester: compare/contrast, research, and persuasion, will really help them think more deeply and make better connections, especially my visual and kinesthetic learners.

I'm a little overwhelmed re: the other digital note-taking tools. What have people used that works? It's tough to get computer lab time in my school (although compared to other schools, it's not terrible--we only have a week at a time to sign up for, not the whole quarter or semester) so I've got to make that time count.

Dinkytown

So far my process researching Dinkytown was to check out what my classmates have posted on the wiki (I am a little late in the game on this I see) and to surf Youtube for some Dinkytown related videos. They're mostly recordings of people playing music at different venues. But I found a couple of local repair shops, and that is pretty unique to this area. Not too many places can keep a shoe repair shop or a guitar repair shop alive for so many years. Rock on, college town.

Data collecting

Well, back in the day, for my own personal research, I used the notecard method. I had a list of sources in my notebook, each had a number next to it, and as I found useful information, I'd write a category on the top of the notecard (if I was researching Shakespeare's life, for example, I might write "Family Life"), the notes in the body of the notecard along with the page number, and then write the number of the source on the back of the card. It worked like gang busters.

Quite frankly, I haven't had to do a lot of structured information collecting since I became more computer-savvy. However, in my school 9th and 11th graders do research papers, and I, coincidentally, teach 9th and 11th grade. So.

Our media specialist is a very active participant in our students' lives as researchers. She does a great presentation at the beginning of 9th grade talking about good research methods, data bases, etc. and in our 9th grade English non-fiction unit, we spend a great deal of time discussing what makes a good website, how to research, emotional appeals, types of persuasion, etc.

We teach our students to examine a website critically: who funds this website? who wrote it? what might they have to gain? how can I tell if this is trustworthy information? They get a great baseline knowledge of how to be a smart researcher.

Now, the part we haven't done so well is demonstrating smart organizational methods while researching. I'm just not as up on electronic ways to do this. If kids have their own computers, that's one thing, but most of our research takes place in the media center on school computers. If they are going to maintain online records of their good hits, I need to figure something else out.

As for RSS feeds, I'm still a little confused. Don't RSS feeds just work for blogs? If that's so, how does that help my kid who is researching thematic relationships between 2 short stories? Anyone can have a blog. It's harder to judge the validity of a blog author than, say, the New York Times staff. I'm not seeing a way to use RSS feeds to help them with research if this is so.

Google Reader. What is this again?

Overall, however, I am all about helping my students develop stronger researching skills. It's an easy sell--it really is a valuable life skill.

Jet Lag

http://mefeedia.com/entry/3487995/

So I'm greeted with this burly, hairy, fairly scary bear-like man holding a cellphone in front of his face, and oddly, am immediately charmed. I like this vlog because I like this guy. He's real. He's suffering from jet lag, which sucks. It especially sucks going from the east to the west, but he lives in London, and was in Canada, so it really shouldn't be so bad, but he isn't strong enough to stay up all day to sleep normally at night. And I like that. I guess I like the human frailty of it.

We're all supposed to be so strong, you know? Or at least maybe I feel I'm supposed to be so strong. Do what's right. Follow the rules. And this guy doesn't, even though he knows it's best. He hates the dark outside. He calls it, "post-apocalyptic." He's very dramatic, which I also like. I like people telling me what's going on in their heads and not making me guess. He's all out. And a little crazy. I like that, too. In fact, he's happier to be back online than he is to be home. Interesting the comfort online can bring. I felt that, too, when I came home from Europe. I was connected again. Thank god. Sigh.

Who is the audience for this vlog? Good question. His friends, other fellow jet-laggers (that's what caught my eye--I had some hard core jet lag coming back from Ireland this summer). Maybe night owls, insomniacs.

His techniques are very basic. He shoots himself in the mirror with his cellphone, then swivels around to just himself without the reflection. No editing, no fancy camera work. It's raw. Raw footage, raw emotion. Indecision. "Should I go for pizza? I can't go outside and face these people..." The filming techniques are an effective choice because they parallels his state of mind. Them: raw, basic, unadulterated. Him: raw, basic, very hairy.

I took a look at a number of blogs, but the personal interest ones attract me the most. I think the political ones can be important, and the whole citizen reporter thing is intriguing. But I'm a trained actor first, and I'm drawn to the study of humans and how they tick.