Currently, I am moderating a free online course, Digital Storytelling for Young Learners, with a dream team of moderators who are phenomenal at working with young learners, Esra Girgin, Barbara Sakamoto, Özge Karaoglu, Jennifer Verschoor, David Dodgson, and Michelle Worgan. Over 250 participants have joined and have shared incredibly imaginative stories in our online class portfolio. One of the most surprising discoveries, though, was that 62% of the teachers who took our survey said they had never had their learners create digital stories. Our language learners have powerful stories to share and often share personal stories in blogs, Facebook, Youtube, or Twitter. Through digital storytelling we motivate our learners to apply, contextualize, visualize, and personalize the language they learn. There are 100s of free digital tools and websites to inspire your learners to create extremely imaginative stories and share them with a global audience. I hope the following tips and resources will help you along your journey towards integrating digital storytelling into your curriculum.

Tips

• Ease your students into sharing information about themselves by doing a fun icebreaker activity such as Show and Tell with a Cell! Simply have your students take out their cellphones, share one of their favorite pictures and tell the story behind the picture. If they can’t use their cellphones then have them come into class with a picture.
• Teach your students about creative commons. Below I share some of my favorite websites.
• For collaborative projects and more detailed stories, have students plot ideas in a storyboard. Kevin Hodgson has some fantastic storyboarding worksheets here!
• I like to break my students into small groups of 4 and while they are creating their characters and drawing the scenes I elicit vocabulary from them. For example, I will ask questions such as, “Is this a boy or a girl?” “Is it hot or cold?” “Does she have blond or brown hair?”

Recommended Webtools

Literally, 100s of webtools and apps have been shared, but I would like to share with you the ones I believe are the easiest to use. We are listing these in a livebinder, which is being constantly updated.

Creaza- One of my favorite sites where you can create comics, make movies, edit audio, and more! Embed in a blog or wiki.
GoAnimate- Choose from various characters, type in the dialogue, choose your background scene, and create a free fun movie.
DVolver- Choose from various characters, type in the dialogue, choose your background scene, and create a free fun movie.
ZimmerTwins- Choose from various characters, type in the dialogue, choose your background scene, and create a free fun movie.
PicLits- Drag and drop words unto a beautiful image.
Bubblr- create your comic strip with Flickr pictures and add bubbles to tell your story!
Comicmaster – Cool graphic novel creator.
Stripgenerator – You don’t have to register in order to create a comic.
Make Beliefs Comix – Two, three and four panel comics that you can create in multiple languages.
Comic Strip Generator – You can upload photos or use web images in addition to their library of ready-to-use images
ToonDoo – the site allows students to share their comics, comment on other comics, and even save and edit a copy of a comic
Kerpoof – Create videos or an animated picture.
Googlesearch – Use Google searches to tell your story.
OneTrueMedia – Mix your photos and pictures with text and animations.
Blabberize – Make your pictures talk
Smilebox – Create videos from your pictures and videos adding design and music. You download this software to your computer.
Glogster – Create and online poster with your videos.
VoiceThread for Educators-Interactive way to present stories and have parents and other students comment on the stories. Several options. Embed in a blog or wiki.
Storybird-Students create beautiful stories by choosing beautiful art and adding the words. Embed in a blog or wiki.
Voxopop – Construct audio stories.
5cardflicker – Tell your stories through flicker photos.
Zooburst – 3D pop up story creator.
Scholastic story starter – Start your story randomly.
Thestorystarter – Start your story randomly.
LittleBirdTales – Upload your picture, record your voice to tell your stories.
Animoto- Upload up images, choose a soundtrack from the library (many nice holiday tunes to choose from, and click a button to make a free short video online and on your mobile device.

Creative Commons Music and Images

Musicshake – Create copyright free music for your video.
Compfight – Search Flickr photos for your videos.
MorgueFile – Find free pictures for your videos.
Free Music Archive, and Jamendo, and Royalty Free Music are all great places for free creative commons music!
SoundBible - FreeSound – Free sound effects.

Digital Storytelling Apps

Posterous- With this app, learners can include a mix of text, photos, audio, and videos as well as tags and location information in a blog post. Share immediately on Facebook and Twitter! Even allow others to add to your posts (set this up through the web app vs. the mobile app). Free version available online as well as various mobile devices including the iPhone, iPod, Android, and Blackberry.
Flixlab- Like Animoto. Free app to create incredible slideshows on the iPhone, iPod, iPad. Soon available on the Android. No website editing like Animoto but longer videos when using the app. CC library of music, themes, fonts, and more.
StoryRobe- It’s incredibly easy for children and adults to create audio/visual stories on the iPhone and iPod Touch using this app. Use the built in microphone, or any 3rd party microphone to create audio recordings with photos and videos. You have the option to upload to Youtube or send it through e-mail. If it’s in their e-mail, then the parents can easily e-mail their child’s production to their friends! You don’t need an Internet connection to create the stories, but you do to send them! Available on the iPad and iPod.
Splice- Best video editing app for the iPhone, iPod, and iPad that is free. Add audio, transitions, images, and more.
Fotobabble- It’s incredibly easy for children and adults to create audio/visual stories on the iPhone and iPod Touch using this app. Use the built in microphone, or any 3rd party microphone to create audio recordings with photos.
Sock Puppets- If you enjoy playing with sock puppets, you’ll love this app that allows students to create a sock puppet show. Choose the sock puppet characters, personalize the characters by adding your voice, select the scene and props, and record a video. Send this by email or upload to Youtube. Watch this great example. Available on the iPad and iPod.
Puppet Pals- IChoose the western characters, personalize the characters by adding your voice, select the scene and props, and record a video. Send this by email or upload to Youtube. Available on the iPad and iPod.
StoryKit- Create an electronic storybook by drawing on the screen, uploading images, recording sound effects and voice, laying out the elements of the story (text boxes, images, paint, and sound clips) freely by dragging them or pinching to resize, reordering pages, and uploading to the StoryKit web server. Email a link to the story. The application includes four public domain children’s books to rewrite and rearrange into a new story. Available on the iPad and iPod.
Animoto- Upload up to 10 images, choose a soundtrack from the library (many nice holiday tunes to choose from, and click a button to make a 30-second video. Sync your videos with your Animoto.com account, download videos for offline viewing, and make longer ones with an All-Access Pass. Available on the iPad and iPod.
Videolicious- video creation in 3 easy steps
Create A Comic App- free comic creation app for Android and i-devices.

Free ebooks

Digital Storytelling Tools by Silvia Tolisano
Effective Mobile Learning: 50+ Tips & Resources by Shelly Terrell
Digital Storytelling in the Classroom by MicroSoft

Check out my Pinterests with these bookmarks and more!

Challenge:

Try a digital storytelling project with your students this year.

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On Wednesday, September 14th, 2011, join me for a free webinar: How to Effectively Manage Online Educational Projects! Thanks to SimpleK12, I will be offering this webinar as a part of a series.

Time: 1hr; 12:30pm Los Angeles, 2:30pm Houston, 3:30pm NYC, 8:30pm London, 9:30pm Paris, 10:30pm Istanbul/Athens

Register here to join & for more time zones, https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/982569042

Description

Educators on social networks are beginning to see the impact of collaboration on projects. When we collaborate successfully and emulate effective teamwork, we accomplish and often surpass our goals. However, global collaboration has its hiccups, such as dealing with various time zones, decision-making, problem solving, and intercultural communication. How do we avoid making mistakes and learn to work together to build a vision? In this presentation, we will cover various free web platforms that support effective collaboration and team work on online projects. We will also discover tips for effective collaboration.

You will walk away from this webinar with:

• An understanding of the impact of successful global collaboration and teamwork.
• An insight into some of the hiccups inherent in global collaboration and ways to avoid them.
• Suggestions for free web platforms that support effective collaboration.
• Tips for effective collaboration.

Challenge:

Invite a friend or a few friends, after all this is a free event!

If you enjoyed this post, you may want to subscribe for FREE to receive regular updates!

Many of us will face many new learners in the next few days. Many have already met the individuals we will be making an impact on this year. Starting the school year has always felt like Christmas Eve to me. When I was a kid I could not sleep because I was excited about the day ahead, yet nervous. I think educators should be nervous and excited because we have the mission of guiding the learning journeys of many. Educators will make an impression on their learners; whether, this is a positive or negative impression is up to us. I like to start on a positive note and ensure I choose to walk in my class everyday and positively impact my students. Perhaps, you feel the same but need some inspiration or guidance. I hope the following tips and resources will help you along your journey! Bon Voyage!

My Survival Tips

1. Walk in motivated!- you will have the rest of the year to get bogged down, stressed, and in the dumps. What’s wrong with walking in believing you can really make a difference to your learners? I say start optimistically because it is often more difficult to pick yourself up.
2. Engage parents!- Let’s start  with a positive message about each student instead of a negative message. I like to write emails and send one to each parent with a nice personal note about the student. I also incude information about the school supplies, technology we will use, and more. I also invite them to a parent workshop with food to encourage them to attend. At this workshop we discuss the technology that will be used in the classroom and I ask parents to share ideas to improve the learning environment.
• Tips for Engaging Parents this School Year.
• Larry Ferlazzo also has great tips for engaging parents!
3. Set-up your classroom to support the various learning styles!
• Shoeless Classroom
• Be Very Afraid- Kids designing their own learning environments
• Physical Places
• Heller Up Skole
• Learning Places and Spaces
4. Encourage learners to take part in creating their own learning environments!
• Have them graffiti on butcher paper on the wall
• Have them post their inspirational quotes on the wall
• Have them create bulletin boards
5. Be preventative and proactive when it comes to managing your classroom!- Doing this will ensure you have less behavioral problems.
• Why He Threw the Chair at Me
6. Unbind yourself from course books!- You know what your students need to learn so feel free to pick and choose what will work in the book and try having students be the main content creators of materials.
7. Try a flexible curriculum!- Don’t be glued to your curriculum. Instead, invite parents and students to make decisions about the curriculum. Once students are involved in their learning, they take ownership of their learning.
8. Reassess assessment!- How will you grade your students? Try a different approach!
9. Get to Know Your Students!- All your students should start with a clean slate. No matter what their past has been, you could be the first individual who has reached out to them. Our toughest students misbehave for a reason and usually are facing something horrific in their lives. Let’s care for them and let them start with a fresh record in our classroom.
• Love Them Before You Know Them by Greta Sandler
10. Integrate technology effectively!- Pedagogy first then technology. When we use technology it should:
•  support students ownership of learning
• allow students to be content creators
• engage and motivate students to be continuous learners
• support effective communication, especially with peers worldwide
11. Have fun!- When you enjoy your job your kids have fun learning!
• Fun Theory Video

Presentation video:

These tips are from a recent presentation I did for American TESOL. Please feel free to watch the Youtube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9s5JZD2i7k&feature=player_embedded

More Resources

These are more resources to help you:

• Survival Tips for the First Week of School 
• The 30 Goals Challenge for Educators- Free ebook and goals to inspire you throughout the teaching year!
• Goal-Setting with English Language Learners
• LiveBinder of Resources
• Great list of resources for New Teachers by Shamblesguru
• What you wish you knew before you became a teacher (Slideshare presentation)
• Top 12 New School Year Resolutions for Teachers
• Tips for Beginning the School Year Right
• Survival Tips for Teaching Kids English
• EFL Teacher’s Kit for Surviving Kids- In this post, I explore more tips for working with young learners.
• What Works: Cooperation vs. Competition- In this post, I explore how cooperative learning improved the culture and behavior of my young learners.
• Parent Release Form for Publishing Student Work Online
• Parent Release Form for Publishing Student Work Online PDF
• A Post About FirstsFirst impressions and first activities on the first day of the semester by Cecilia Lemos
• Dear Me (On the Eve of My First Year Teaching) by Matthew Ray
• First Days by Pamela Moran
• Dear Teacher Who is Afraid by JessieVaz12
• First Day of A New School Year by Sylvia Ellison
• Need Energy by Eva Buyuksimkesyan
• Getting to Know Each Other: Strategies and Activities for Beginning a New School Year
• Back to School and Ready to Go by Angela Maiers
• The Start of a New Year by Vicky Davis, The Cool Cat Teacher
• First Day of School: Anastasis Academy by Kelly Tenkely

Challenge:

Try any of these resources or tips with your learners.

If you enjoyed this post, you may want to subscribe for FREE to receive regular updates!

What are your tips for surviving the first day, weeks, and/ or month of school?

by Guest Author, Joel Josephson

Why Not Use Social Networks?

Educators that are not using Facebook often use the arguments that they are concerned for their:

1. Privacy
2. Time

Although there are other arguments used I will try to answer these two in this article.

Privacy

At the root of Social networks is the personalisation of your online character through your contributions to the networks. This can be restricted to your professional character but your personal character, your private life, can be kept separately off the network.

I would strongly recommend using your real identity on the networks. To gain the maximum benefit professionally other users need to see who and what you do, and evaluate you as a worthy, professional friend. They need to see the synergies with their own professional area. It must be remembered that these are personal networks, and limiting your exposure as a business or institution limits the personalisation of your involvement.

On Facebook I place all my contacts in to Friend lists, (I have about 30 now). These can be broadly categorized by:

• Professional
• Family & Friends
• Social Game players (I own up, I play games, although this, of course is about my research in to the use of games in education … cough cough)

Using the ‘Custom’ privacy settings Facebook allows me to select which list of friends I permit to view all the various areas of information about me, including posting to my wall. So Family see/do everything. Some Professional, for example, do not see photos of my children. Game players see nothing at all.

It does take some effort to set up the groups and privacy settings but once they are done, you don’t have to think about it again. When you ‘Add a new friend’ you just assign the person to one of your lists. As an additional measure I do look at the privacy settings periodically to see if Facebook have changed anything.

Time

Social networking has saved me years of work. I will repeat that: Social networking has saved me years of work

What I gain in information and understanding, arguments and knowledge have infinitely expanded on core areas of my professional life and led me to new ideas, better, smarter ways of doing things and a group of people that I can always turn to for answers.

The web tools that I have been led to by my network have infinitely raised the quality and effectiveness of my work and the information flow takes me in directions and synergies that could only be achieved through weeks of effort.

So are SNs time consuming or wasteful? Everything can be diverting, TV, newspapers, radio, books it is all better then sitting working (sometimes).

We bring discipline to our work, or we would not be were we are, and we bring the same discipline to our use of Social Networks. We control the time we spend on them by evaluating the importance of the information or network and its value to our work. We know when we are wasting time and when we are being productive and it is exactly the same when using a social network.

Of course, when you first create a public profile on Facebook all the friends and acquaintances that you have made over the years will come knocking on the door, wanting to ‘Friend’ you. I have found that after a very short while and you have caught up, this reduces to the very occasional trickle. You can also control the flow using the privacy controls described above.

Summary:

In my opinion, the advantages of being ‘personally’ involved far outweigh any negatives. There is nothing to fear on a privacy level or time. So take the plunge, the water is warm, mainly clean and you get to swim with some of the most interesting and uplifting professionals on the planet.

Of course the aPLaNet EuropeAN project, Aplanet-project.eu, and aPLaNet Ning community, Aplanet-project.eu, will be providing answers and practical help on how to build your own personal network for your professional development. If you are an experienced user of the networks and have your own PLN then we also invite you to become an aPLaNet mentor (join the Ning).

————————————————————-
Joel Josephson is the initiator/partner in 17 innovative European language projects. Joel is well known for his exciting and effective approaches to motivate language learners. Joel runs the EU_Educators Facebook group, that is sharing EU projects globally. He also founded the Kindersite Project early learning website, one of the first effective sites for schools. Formerly involved in high tech at the start of the Internet, he had 2 successful start-ups and consulted to technology companies. He has brought his understanding of technology into education by initiating many interesting projects with innovative uses of ICT. His Twitter handle is @acerview54.

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What are your favorite ways to learn online? Did I miss any other great professional development opportunities?

Part 1 of the Education Transformation Through Collaborative Voices series

In a recent #Edchat discussion I reflected, “There are more educators than politicians involved in education, yet politicians make the majority of education policy decisions. How do we change this dynamic?” One of the drawbacks of undergoing training as an educator is that we rarely get training in the art of spreading messages. We don’t learn how to connect with an audience, how to make our presentations/workshops memorable, or how to get a message to be viral through various media outlets. Fortunately, I started off in the business field. I went to a magnet school for 4 years that focused on business and weekly I gave presentations to persuade top business leaders to fund our school. I was a part of Toastmasters, marketing clubs/classes, and competed regularly in speech competitions. By the time I had entered college, I had already given presentations to an audience of over 500. In college I graduated with a minor in Communication and spent years studying communication theory and public speaking.

Why Educators Could Do With Some Marketing Training

This training has helped me immensely as an educator who cares about transformation, because the reality is that the media and politicians have a firm grounding in this type of training, therefore, know how to persuade their audiences into their beliefs. They may only be a few compared to educators but clearly this training and their connections provide them with the ability to be heard by audiences worldwide and implement various education policies. They spread their messages about what education reform should be, which include “firing teachers and focusing on standardized tests.” Examples of these messages include the recent Waiting for Superman documentary watched by millions, Michelle Rhee making the cover of Time, and Oprah’s various shows with John Legend and others voicing their opinions about education reform.

The Damage

Educators have seen how these policies harm children and the learning process. The typical child worldwide attends school 180 to 200 days a year. The typical child sits in a desk at least 4 hours a day and is drilled with information as the teacher lectures. Rarely do our children get to move, play, explore their interests, experiment with knowledge, or communicate what they have learned. Drilling, worksheets, and sitting in desks being silent does not motivate children to become lifelong learners. Instead, it kills their creativity and curiosity. Without a voice to question and figure out the meaning of what they have learned, students begin to lose the ability to problem solve and critical think effectively.

So How Do We Begin to Spread Our Message of Education Transformation?

As an educator who cares about transformation I believe we need to collect our voices worldwide and collaborate to impact education policy worldwide. We can do this through social media. With Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter alone we have the ability to spread a message to millions and impact an audience of millions worldwide. We have the ability to impact our world in a positive manner. In a series of posts, we will explore various ways to spread a message through various social networks in order to transform current education systems. I describe this in my Keynote that I gave for the Plymouth E-Learning Conference in April.

5 Tips to Keep in Mind When Crafting Your Message

Although we will explore how to craft our messages in the various social media outlets, there are some tips to keep in mind for spreading any type of message. These include:

• Remember your audience- We have a tough audience, because parents, students, community leaders, administrators, and other educational stakeholders have experience in the education system. They have formed opinions based on them getting through the traditional style of education and believe often if they did it then our students should be able. Even if they should, why educate this way? When we craft our messages we have to step into their shoes, figure out the arguments and preconceived notions we have to combat.
• Appeal to the senses- We live in a multimedia world. Our presentations should be visually appealing, drive to the point versus being littered with words, and include effects that reinforce the media. The Shift Happens videos have 20 million views and have had an impact worldwide. You will notice they are professionally done with great music, visuals, and effects.
• Share stories- Stories and examples of what you do in your class and how students respond are powerful. Often seeing students excited about learning changes many minds.
• Craft your message according to the medium- Remember that each social media forum has its own language. The way we impact an audience on Facebook is different than the way we send that message on Twitter. On Twitter we have hashtags but this won’t appeal to many Facebook users who do not use Twitter. Knowing the language of the medium helps us understand the best way to craft our messages. This is why I take time to lurk and observe the way people communicate on the medium.
• Convey Your Passion- The most important tip to remember is to believe in your message and inspire others with your passion. I have seen presenters speak without any of the 4 above but had so much passion their audience was held captive. Passion impacts and transforms opinions. If you lose your passion then move onto the message you are passionate about.

I believe that when enough of the educators in social networks gather and begin to spread their messages of what education transformation looks like to the rest of the world, we will begin to see the transformation take place. We will drown out the voices of the politicians, celebrities, and media who think firing teachers and focusing on standardized tests is education reform.

What tips do you have? What do you believe education transformation should look like? How will you spread that message?

More Resources

• Two: The Power of Educators on Social Networks
• Education Transformation Through Collaborative Videos
• The Idea Virus by Seth Godin- Get your free pdf copy and see the slideshow. Seth Godin is a must read if you want to be a viral educator.
• Blog4Reform Project- Join educators and others in spreading the word of education transformation!
• Blog 4 Real Education Reform – The Sequel
• Wallwisher of Education Reform Posts initiated by Tom Whitby

Interview 16 of Education Voices

This week I had time to catch up with Johnny Kissko (@JohnnyEducation) on Skype. Johnny is a math teacher in Lubbock who is passionate about the potential of various technologies integrated effectively into the curriculum. What do we mean by effectively? In his interview, you will discover that he envisions and develops online communities where technology specialists, students, and educators can collaborate. He has developed the K12 Mobile Learning website. However, in this interview we talk about his most recent community, KinectEducation, that gathers developers, students, and teachers to collaborate on integrating the Kinect software into the curriculum. Kinect allows the user to use gestures to control any PC. The MAC software is also available but still developing. This means that students would be able to move while they learn. In most schools, students sit in uncomfortable desks for hours which is not healthy. Therefore, I was super excited to be able to discuss the possibilities of gesture-based learning and game-based learning with Johnny!

Bio

Johnny Kissko is currently a secondary math educator; his background and experience within the IT sector has afforded him the ability to assist school districts, individuals and education-affiliated companies effectively integrate technology into K12 curricula.  He was recently selected as 1 of 76 Apple Distinguished Educators and is Google Apps for Education Individually Qualified.  In addition to KinectEDucation, Johnny also owns and maintains K12 Mobile Learning, a website devoted to providing mobile learning tools and resources for education stakeholders.

His primary objective with KinectEDucation is to engage and develop learners with free access to Kinect applications along with a community of like-minded educators, developers, and students.  Find Johnny on Twitter, @johnnyeducation.

Stay up-to-date on Kinect in education by registering and becoming active in the KinectEDucation community.  Additionally, you can follow the Twitter hashtags #glearning and #kinectedu for instant access to discussion related to gesture-based learning in education.

Previous Interviews

Check out the previous interviews Twittering for Education- Jo and Phil Hart, Twittering for Education- Eric and Melissa Sheninger, Twittering for Education- Will and Elle Deyamport, Connected Principals- George Couros, 1:1 Programs- Rich Kiker, Mobile Learning with Kids- Scott Newcomb, Effective Leadership: Interview with Patrick Larkin, Using Skype for ELT Lessons: Interview with Marisa Pavan, Teachers as Leaders and Continuous Learners: Interview with Dr. Doug Green, Blogging with Students: Interview with Greta Sandler, What Does the Innovative School Look Like? Interview with Dr. Tom King, How Do We Animate Lessons? Interview with Ken Wilson, Building the Twitter Academy: Interview with Kelly Tenkely, Leading by Example and Teacher Evaluations: Interview with Akevy Greenblatt, and A Student’s Voice about Technology and Learning: Interview with Shantanu Bala.

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What do you believe is the ideal education students should be receiving?

Thanks to Evridiki Dakos for the picture

This year I am touring various continents and countries with the message why we need mobile learning devices in schools. Funding isn’t the issue. Governments worldwide choose to invest in technologies in schools. They have done this for decades even equipping schools with the chalkboard and slates at one period. Unfortunately, the technologies they invest in mostly promote the traditional model of learning with the teacher at the head of the class sharing knowledge with students. The most recent technology that once again seems to support this traditional style of education have been IWBs. Currently, you can visit schools in the UK, US, China, the UAE, and other countries where the government has funded IWBs in the classroom.

What else will you see?

Many unplugged IWBs that never get used or those that are used only to promote more teacher talk time as the teacher stands in the front and shares information with students who are silent and sit in desks. My argument is that if governments are going to invest funds in technology then they should invest in mobile learning devices instead and equipped schools with smart phones, iPods, iPads, and so forth. What ignited this post is a conversation I had with the incredible e-learning specialist, Steve Wheeler (@timbuckteeth) over my tweet, “Personally, I feel $$ better spent on mobile devices in classrooms vs IWBs.” Thanks Steve for forcing me to flesh my thoughts out.

Why Mobile Learning in Schools?

In Steve Wheeler’s post, Rock and a Hard Place, he also discusses the issue of funding mobile learning devices in schools and brings up a valid point that if teachers were better trained and had the time they could utilize an IWB to provide more authentic learning. He also encouraged me to share my tweeted thoughts in a blog post.

Here are the main reasons why I support mobile learning in schools. You will notice you can’t make these arguments about IWBs and other technologies:

Less training involved

The majority of the populations worldwide have experience using mobile devices. Educators, students, parents, and other stakeholders carry mobile phones in their pockets. Most use them daily. Many are familiar with their basic features and more. Several know how to take pictures, videos, send text messages, access the Internet, and post online. In many developing countries, mobile devices are the way they access the Internet. With such experience, less training is involved by everyone. The leap isn’t that huge. We also already know problems associated with integrating these devices. This is the reason many schools ban them. If we know so much about them, then why not think of solutions and lift bans? Why not invest in technology that requires less training.

Let me tell you a secret, the majority of governments won’t pay for professional development when investing in technologies for schools. This has been the case for years. I’m not saying they shouldn’t but if this is the situation we work with then why wouldn’t we choose a technology to integrate that takes less of a leap. I don’t imagine that mobile devices wouldn’t be used like IWBs.

Have more features that promote autonomy

I would argue that there would be less traditional teaching supported as well. Mobile devices are in the hands of the learner and teachers are forced to relinquish control to the learners. Learners know how to use them better than teachers and I bet a majority of teachers would be willing for their students to teach them how to use the mobile device. Something powerful happens when a technology is placed in the hands of learners. Mobile devices support this type of autonomy while IWBs and other technologies are too huge and stationary to do this. Many mobile devices are also equipped with cameras, video cameras, audio recorders, and even advanced apps. Basic cellphones come with various communication tools including the ability to take pictures and send text messages. These various communication tools promote autonomy as learners are able to collect visual, audio, text, and video records of their surroundings and environment. We can’t argue this about other technologies, especially IWBs.

One of the cheapest technologies to invest in

I have used my iPhone to support learning with my 4 to 80 year-old students in Germany. I was teaching English to various age groups and was fortunate my institute didn’t ban cellphones. I am not provided funding, though, for technology. Instead, I usually supply the technology. For this reason, I began using cellphones for learning.

How do we begin?

Have an edtech workshop for parents and demonstrate what technologies you will use and ask them for their support. I provide snacks they wouldn’t usually get in Germany like my 7 layer dip as an incentive to show up. Then, ask parents if they would be willing to allow their children to bring in their mobile devices for a show and tell day. Basically, the child would show what their cellphone can do. This allows teachers to see what technology is available to nearly every learner in their classes and for parents to feel more comfortable with the students using the devices for learning. In many cases, I have found parents are comforted by their students using the cellphone for learning because a majority of the parents I deal with feel that cellphones damage their children’s intelligence. They let their children have them, though, because cellphones are considered staples in the majority of societies worldwide. I discovered this when working with refugees in Athens. All but one in the class had a cellphone.

When you host your first successful show and tell day of cellphones, how much did this room full of technology cost your school?

It cost nothing!

You can’t say that about the majority of technology that exists today. If this is the case, then why are we still fighting cellphone bans?

They promote health and learning

Children worldwide attend schools 180 to 200 days a year. They spend 6 to 8 hours a day in schools where they are forced to sit in uncomfortable desks for long stretches of time, carry huge backpacks, and stay silent. Sounds like torture to me! With mobile devices students are encouraged to move around. They can go outside, move around the classroom, use them in class field trips, use them in their homes, and even get to use them on their travels home. I believe if schools equipped with mobile devices or even allowed educators to use them for learning then we would see more movement in the classroom. This is the nature of the technology. IWBs and other technologies are still stationary and need other software and training to promote movement. Moreover, children can carry their textbooks, homework, and so forth all in their mobile devices. This eliminates the carrying of heavy books. Did I mention this is more environmentally friendly as well. I know we are a long way from this becoming the norm but if we begin investing in mobile device filled classrooms now this is the potential to be the norm. No matter how much we invest in other technologies this does not have the same potential.

Promote the notion learning takes place everywhere

In schools, students collect evidence and research. They brainstorm and search. These are daily requirements. With mobile devices, students are able to collect this evidence through interaction with their environments. On the way home they can interview friends with the audio features, take pictures of their environment, type notes, or create videos. They can search online and save these searches with free apps like Evernote. They can brainstorm with free mindmapping apps. They can even record their thoughts audibly. The students choose which tool to learn with and what in their surroundings becomes part of their research. The students make the choices and interact with their environment. What better way to demonstrate hands-on that learning actually does take place everywhere?

These are my arguments and if you check out my presentation at ISTE, Sharing Stories: Motivating Young Learners through Mobile Digital Storytelling, we can have a conversation about the possibilities. I have so much more to say on the subject.

Concluding Thoughts and Questions

My intention is not to argue mobile devices versus IWBs. My intention is to get those in charge of funding technology in schools to see the possibilities of equipping our schools with mobile devices and get educators, parents, administrators, businesses, and students to support these measures. At the very least, get schools to lift bans on the use of mobile devices. Mobile learning has the potential to be a real game changer in education.

Here are my questions to you if you care to share in the comments section:

• So why won’t bans on mobile devices at schools be lifted?
• Why won’t governments invest in mobile devices in classrooms?
• What is the best mobile device for schools? Well, that’s still up to you to decide.

Resources

• Video Recording of my Mobile Learning Webinar: What You Can Learn with a Cellphone

• Wiki of Mobile Learning Resources
• Teacher Reboot Camp: Mobile Learning Resources
• Mobile Learning Lesson Plans

Challenge:

Leave a comment about the questions I proposed. Let’s discuss ways schools can begin lifting bans on mobile devices.

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Yesterday, I aged another year! Yes, it was my birthday and what made it really special was my personal learning network (PLN)!

Some people may think that choosing to spend time online for a birthday is insane, weird, antisocial, or geeky. They rather disconnect and that’s okay because every person should be allowed to spend a birthday the way they wish. For me, I have enjoyed exploring the ways to celebrate digitally. I moved to Germany 4 years ago and during that time I have been away from family and friends. However, digital technology continues to amaze me in the way it affords me to spend time developing close friendships and relationships and keep in contact with my friends and students across the globe.

Second Life

This is my second year spending my birthday with my online community. Last year I had a great celebration with close friends on Second Life, all who I met face to face later in the year at conferences. We went to a poetry reading that day, exchanged virtual gifts, danced, and enjoyed a Pearl Jam live concert on Second Life. In the past year, I attend edone of their weddings in Istanbul, met another’s newborn baby at a conference in the UK, and spent the summer in Greece with another one. The first time I met each of them face to face felt like I knew them for years because we had spent time together chatting and getting to know about each other.

Ways to Celebrate Digitally

Through technology we can show are appreciation in so many ways. We can send e-cards, share videos, exchange photos, leave a message on social networks, and so much more. This year my PLN created a birthday Wallwisher for me which was incredible. With Wallwisher, friends can leave a 160 character message accompanied by a video, image, or audio. Thanks to everyone who left a birthday message on the Wallwisher, Facebook, or Twitter!

Special thanks to Greta’s (@gret) wonderful 5th graders from Argentina who left me the video message below.

More Ideas

• Try sending a flash card through Care 2 Cards and support a cause at the same time! This is a free service!
• Send them a thank you video!
• Manipulate images so that you create a magazine, newspaper, or other image for them!
• Create a comic for them with many of the ones listed in David Kapular’s blog.
• Send them an Animoto music and image video! Thanks to Lisa Dabbs who sent me one of these!
• Create a talking photo with Blabblerize!
• Create a slideshow with music, pictures, audio, and more! Larry Ferlazzo has a great list of these on his blog.
• Send them a birthday audio message with an image through Fotobabble! Thanks to Ana Maria Menezes for this birthday Fotobabble!
• Send them their own Twitter Parade!
• Throw a party for them on Second Life!
• Dedicate a song to them on Twitter or Facebook through Blip FM or on many online radio stations!
• Make them a birthday Wordle or use another word cloud tool! Thanks to Marisa Constantinides who made me a very cool one that was in the shape of my profile!
• Find another very creative way to show your appreciation or celebrate with your friends digitally!

Challenge:

Celebrate with someone digitally using one of these tools!

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What has been your most special digital celebration or gift?

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Part of the Cool Sites series

Collaboration is the real step to education transformation. When we gather to produce, our ideas, talents, and skills embody our final outcome. Each person who participates has the ability to add full attention to the designated task versus one person spread thin over several tasks. Collaboration is also important for students who will have to work with others in some capacity to be able to problem solve or brainstorm.

Why Teaching Online Collaboration is Important

While completing my Masters online, I discovered that many people lacked collaboration skills. I observed 20+ global teams in which members fought or offended each other by their lack of communication and team building skills. These skills include having the ability to compromise, lead, meet deadlines, deal with disagreement, and communicate in an effective manner. When we collaborate online many forget that online communication is very different than person to person communication. Sometimes an online message can be misread or come across quite differently than the message we originally tried to communicate.

Why is Online Collaboration Different than Face to Face Collaboration?

Online collaboration is very different than in person collaboration mainly because we don’t have nonverbal cues to support our messages. Many researchers believe that nonverbal communication is as high as 60% to 93% of all communication. This means that a majority of our online messages could be misinterpreted, yet many of us do not communicate with this in mind. When we accidentally offend others we shut down the lines of communication, which jeopardizes the final outcome or our efforts. In our digital world, online collaboration will become increasingly important, yet schools rarely teach students to collaborate online. We can change that by ensuring our students participate in at least one online collaborative project this year. I would love to see the day when schools teach all learners to collaborate effectively with their peers worldwide. We would be able to solve issues like the environment, the economy, and possibly prevent wars. Wow! That’s pretty powerful potential!

Top Collaboration Sites

These are my favorites free tools to get your students and you collaborating! Included is a brief description and helpful links to facilitate using these tools more effectively.

• Wiggio- Developed by college students this free site has everything from meeting planning, your own whiteboard, updates, group mailing, a calendar, video conferencing room, group text messages, and much more! I love this website. Read more about it in the ILearnTechnology blog.
• Enter the Group- create project pages and online classrooms for free. Includes features like to-do lists, tasks widget, chat, message boards, group email, file sharing, an online calendar, checklists, blogs, polls, and more!
• Juntos- communicate in real time through audio, video, and chat. Supports a multivideo chat and scheduling option.
• iBrainstorm App for iPad and iPhone- Allows up to 4 to collaborate on a brainstorming diagram or group thinking process that can be emailed. Has drawing and writing tools.
• Scribblar-Real-time multi-user whiteboard, image upload/ download, text chat with userlist, live audio
• Google Tools for Educators- One of my favorite ways to collaborate! Collaborate in real time to create slideshows, drawings, documents, and more that are on the web and can easily be embedded and organized in folders.
  • Google Tools Tutorials by Free Tech 4 Teachers
• Zoho- Collaborate on PowerPoint presentations, spreadsheets, word documents, and more. Similar to Google Apps, but shows a condensed view of all recent project activity and includes group chat rooms, forums, wikis, and a tabbed interface.
• CrocDocs- Collaboratively highlight and comment on PDFs, Word documents, images, and more!
• Prezi-the alternative to PowerPoint. Create non-linear presentations with images, text, video, and cool transitions. Now with the ability for students to collaborate on one Prezi together in real-time.
  • Prezi as a Presentation Tool wiki- Lists several tips, resources, and examples. You will also find useful information in integrating Twitter and other tools with Prezi.
  • Prezi templates
  • Work together in real time with Prezi Meeting post with great ideas!

Collaborative Document & Whiteboard Tools

• Twiddla- real time collaboration on documents, websites, and images. Includes writing and drawing tools and audio to talk in real time. No registration needed.
• Skrbl- Multi user whiteboard that can be embedded. Sketch, text, share files, upload pictures all in one common shared space. No registration required.
• Groupboard- Free online whiteboard and chat that can be easily embedded into your website. Also is an iPhone, iPad and Android app.
• Titan Pad- real time collaboration on document that assigns everyone their own color. Includes formatting options like MS Word. No registration needed.
• Meeting Words- nearly the exact same service as Titan Pad.
• Type With Me- Like Titan pad with the ability to save as a PDF, website, bookmark, pdf, and more.
• Writeboard- real time collaboration on document that tracks changes from each person, no registration needed.

Online Sticky Boards

Most of these services allow you more options if you sign-up for free. You can also make your walls of post-its private in all these services.

• Wallwisher- Put messages up to 160 characters on an online board. Looks like post-its but these can include videos, links, images, and audio. This online board is embeddable which is its best feature. Additionally, you can choose from a variety of backgrounds and pictures from Wallwisher’s library! You don’t have to be registered to post. I love Wallwisher and am registered since I have around 30 walls. The problem is that this service is unreliable and often down so here are other options below.
• Pindax- Post text, images, and files, also the ability to embed and search your posts! Not as nice looking as Wallwisher but a good alternative.
• Linoit- Include links, images, video, and audio as well as change the size and color of your fonts. Has various background options and other attractive options. It’s embeddable as well.
• Stixy- Add tasks, appointments, files, photos, notes, and bookmarks to boards. More options than Wallwisher but doesn’t have an embedding option.
• Listhings- It’s a corkboard template, but has the ability to change the color of notes and create several note pages! I haven’t found the embed option. Read more about Listhings here.
• Spaaze- Described as a virtual corkboard, add images, video, and more. No embedding option but does allow you to search content.
• EditStorm- Brainstorming board that allows collaborators to post ideas on different colored notes. Has an idea bot idea bots that look up related concepts, synonyms and even words that rhyme with any term that has been used. You can also poll ideas but you can’t add video, audio, or images. Some html is supported. There’s also templates to choose from and an iPad/iPhone app. Not embeddable.

More Resources

• Cybrary Man’s Collaboration Page- Many, many resources
• Best Online Tools For Real-Time Collaboration by Larry Ferlazzo- Many, many more tools with great descriptions

Challenge:

Use one of these tools to get your students collaborating online this year!

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What collaboration tools do you love?

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Professional development is important for educators. I love the sharing spirit of our Passionate/ Personal Learning Network (PLN) who continuously provides free presentations and resources online through webinars, blogs, wikis, and podcasts. The fantastic part is that many of these resources are free and can be enjoyed by educators worldwide in the comfort of their home, while at school, or while traveling on the subway on the way to work.

Thanks to the American TESOL Institute, I will be conducting 6 free 30 minute online workshops on the Adobe Connect platform every Friday at 4pm EST (New York Time), 9pm London Time, 8pm GMT:

• Digital Storytelling with Young Learners, Oct. 22nd
  • Here are the digital storytelling wiki resources that accompany this presentation!
• Mobile Motivation: Getting Your Students to Learn English Using their Smart Phones, Oct. 29th
  • Check out this post, Mobile Motivation: 17 Digital Storytelling and Literacy Apps and Resources for Kids
  • Check out this post, Texting and Teachers Experimenting with Technology
• Using Wikis to Integrate Effective Online Tasks for Learners, Nov. 5th
  • Here are the wiki resources that accompany this presentation!
• Cooperative Learning to Motivate & Effectively Manage Young Learners, Nov. 12th
  • Check out this post, Cooperative Learning vs. Competition
• Enriching the Young Learner Classroom with Drama Tasks, Nov. 17th
• Using Graphic Organizers to Enrich Discussion, Nov. 26th

Check your time zone here! This is the Adobe Room to join at 4pm EST  http://americantesol.adobeconnect.com/terrell/. I will be updating this page with the wiki and blog resources I prepare for each presentation so bookmark and visit this website every Saturday for the latest updates.

Challenge

Attend one of the free workshops or use one of the resources shared in the wiki or in the blog posts!

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