Use of asynchronous discussion

We used tappedin.org during Tom Reinartz's media literacy class (the course Rick usually teaches, but he was on sabbatical).

Things I liked:
An online place that kept track of files, the schedule, and allowed me to post assignments.
How most of the time, the chat function. (More on that later)
Constant, live tech-support

Things I didn't like:
The tiny fonts.
It's not very user friendly.

The big problem:
My asynchronous discussion group. I was randomly placed with 3 women, two of whom were tech savvy and one of whom was not. I have this tendency to lead, and this woman was angry at me for being a "young whipper snapper" and having opinions when I wasn't a "real" teacher yet.

So.

When we had our live chat or our asynchronous chat, she misconstrued my tone, and the tones of the other 2 women in our group. She was angry at us for not "waiting" until she had her turn to say what she needed to say. She felt like we jumped in too often and didn't give her space.

Finally, we all had a very easy breezy open discussion and solved our mounting miscommunication issues which had been escalated by the use of technology.

Therefore.

This is a skill that students need to practice. They need to find their voices and learn how to shape them in an increasingly technological world. They need to learn how to not piss people off. Plus all the other good things, like shy kids find they can say what they need to, and people stop and think more when they know other people will be able to see what their opinions are, and that they practice writing and critical thinking.

I teach Honors 11 next semester, and I can see using asynchronous discussions with that group of kids to great success. It's a lot of dense American literature and this might help them see deeper into the material than they would in a class discussion because they're "forced" to participate and listen to others' opinions.

Here's an experiment with Google Docs. It's like a wiki--several people can work here together.

Flickr

Is it really so much effort that we need to eliminate that extra "e" from the real word flicker? Do we really need to keep confusing our children about spelling? I embrace the curmudgeon in me. I do.

Here's the link to my Uptown Minneapolis slideshow. I chose Uptown because one of my creative writing classes last year picked Uptown as the location for their group story, but very few students had actually been there. (Even though it's only 20 minutes from Champlin). Finding money for a bus to go there was not an option (time, money, permission) so this would have been a good alternative. At least for them to get the feel of place. Since I used to live there, I was their main resource for place-related questions. The photos I chose are all places/events that resonate with me when I think of my old neighborhood.

This time around, my group has picked a common event to write about. We're still in the brainstorming process as to what that will be, but I'm excited--they're a bright group and I think we'll get some really interesting interactions. I've set up the wiki (see previous post) in a very bare bones way, and tomorrow (Monday) I'm going to show them how it works. Maybe over MEA they can have some homework involving posting info on the wiki.

But back to Flickr. I'm not sure if it's blocked in my district. I'll have to check that out. But using images from Flickr (if it isn't blocked) could be a great addition to the wiki for the creative writing project. I have found with this project that the more images we have in common, the richer the connections in the story.

Re: the reading for this week... I like Selfe's assignment about creating a visual argument. In 9th grade we have a weak non-fiction unit that needs some serious life blood pumped into it. There's so much potential for really important learning, but we're bogged down by the district curriculum. I'm about to have my 3rd swipe at this unit (twice last year b/c of block scheduling) and there has been NO TIME to give it CPR. The visual argument could be a great way to talk about emotional and logical appeals as well as advertising...

Wiki

http://champlincw.pbwiki.com/FrontPage

Okay. Here's the wiki for my Creative Writing class project that comes up in a couple weeks. In the past, I've had a hard time helping my students keep track of all the mutual information, but with a wiki, it'll be slick. I hope they think it's an awesome tool and want to add to it.

I'm a little concerned that the kids who have internet access will be more in the loop than the kids who don't. I can book some computer lab time, but it won't be totally ideal.

Ooh--you know, I've got links to their blogs for the actual story writing part, but maybe they can each have a page or something on the wiki...hmmm.....

My first Vlog

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.