Using Google Earth

I love to travel.  I enjoy the experience of being in a new place. It opens my eyes to understandings I would never be able to get closer to home.  Unfortunately for many of my students, travel opportunities for them are very limited. Fortunately, using Google Earth in the classroom can give my urban learners glimpses of faraway places.

My sixth-graders recently used Google Earth to learn about a country of their choice.  They explored the country using the navigation controls.  My job was to model the use of the application, such as adding/labeling placemarks and organizing their places into a folder.

The project gave me opportunities to introduce concepts such as urban/rural, landmarks and various landforms.  Students enjoyed finding sites worth showing to their audience: Big Ben, a Moroccan tannery and fabulous beaches.  They learned how to use various layers (such as 3D buildings), street view and embedded photographs to give their peers an understanding of the landscape of the country.

Their project culminated in a tour, which they shared with their peers during class and their parents at conferences.  Next year I plan to revise this project to include the recorded tour feature so that students can narrate their tours, giving them practice in presenting.

Create with Kerpoof!

Kerpoof is a free Web 2.0 application created by Disney.  It allows users to create accounts in which they can make drawings, pictures, cards, storybooks and movies.  Teachers can create accounts for classes of students, who can then share their creations with each other, work on projects together, chat and send messages.

I introduced Kerpoof with a day to explore the easier features: drawings, pictures and cards.  My third grade students were very enthusiastic.  They enjoyed creating and sharing.  The chat and message features were very popular and afforded some great lessons in using good online etiquette.  There were times when I disabled these features as students were in the process of creating a required storybook or movie.  Teachers can view all posts and remove them.  Many of my students continue to use their accounts outside of school and continue to create and share.

Most of my third graders were able to successfully tell a story through a storybook or movie.  Each feature affords a variety of settings, characters and props.  Students can narrate in text boxes and create dialogue in speech and thought bubbles.  I found that the collections of settings and characters helped to jumpstart children's abilities to form a storyline.

The features in "Make A Movie" are sophisticated, yet accessible.  A tutorial guides users though the process of selecting characters whose images can be manipulated.  Characters have moves, emoticons and actions associated with them.  Actions, text in speech bubbles, music and special effects are directed through dragging and dropping onto synchronous timelines.

My students were very engaged by the Kerpoof activities.  They enjoyed being creators who could revise their own avatars, earn "Koins" to purchase additional tools from the store and interact with online peers.

Spring Break...time for blog posts!

It's hard to believe that Spring Break is here!  I only have 12 weeks left of my first year as a technology specialist.  I have been so busy creating units and teaching, that I have neglected this blog.  Time to play catch up!

A Promethean interactive whiteboard was installed in my lab in October and I have definitely become dependent on it.  I use it for modeling in my mini-lessons, for which my students sit in rows on the floor at the beginning of class.  Using the board is a great way to show my students how to navigate Google Earth, manipulate an image in Comic Life or Glogster, or use the formatting toolbar in Word.

With my Kindergarten though second-graders, we use the Promethean board to do activities together.  We play educational games on websites such as PBS Kids, TVO Kids and Starfall.  I also create activities on flipcharts.  We sort concepts, create timelines and label objects in photographs of scenes from around the world.  During these sessions, my students have the pen 90% of the time.  I use my class lists to determine whose turn it is, having students "pass the pen" to their classmates.  This ensures equal access to all.

I appreciate the ability to explore technology as a group using the Promethean board in contrast to having students work independently at their computers.  I believe it helps in building community and allows us to learn more from each other.