Category Archives: 21st Century

Plastic 6: 3D Holograms

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The Atlanta Science Festival was a comprehensive arrangement of Science workshops, family activities as well as educator learning opportunities. Seeking professional development and living with a growth mindset sends us all over the country. Sometimes the opportunities are in your back door or neighboring state. Sometimes those opportunities are in the classroom next to you.  With a variety of sessions and events, we had to map out what would be best for STEAM learning and collaboration. After driving for half an hour and ending up in a warehouse district, I must say we were a little hesitant but then remembered some of our best learning has been when it was least expected. With only 5 cars in the parking lot and two hours ahead of us, we entered. At first glance it looked like we would know about most of the materials being shared but that is noreason no to seek intently. To listen. To Reflect.

A conversation about plastic #6 and how use plastic and heat to create art reminded us of a project our art teacher just completed as a part of her curriculum andSTEAM participation. Several times this week the term “oldie but goodie” has been used in a variety of conversations. In a session on PBL, oldie but goodie technology resources were revisited. We don’t always have to replace something that is working or that serves a purpose.

During this session on Makerspaces, The oldie but goodie motto was brought to life with the remembrance of “Shrinky Dinks”. Jewelry making, badges and ornaments were all innovative ways to use Plastic #6 using the same heating concept with plastic as used with “Shrinky Dinks”. Fabrication of jewelry provides making opportunities that are completely student driven by individual artistic imagination.

 

plastic 6 jewelry

A final use of plastic in making was the 3D hologram. The 3D hologram uses an iPhone or iPad to project the image onto a folded piece of plastic that simulates a hologram. This is not a “Shrinky Dink” activity but uses recycled plastic to (CD cases , old transparencies, and I am sure your imagination can think of others) create a hologram effect. In addition, we learned how to make the videos for use with the plastic hologram attachment. This is another opportunity for students to use individual creativity to publish a final piece and communicate understanding.

hologram4_3395957k

A great weekend of learning and bringing back. Thanks to all those that shared and learned with us.

Are You A Maker? MAKERology

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MAKER– a person that makes, hacks, produces, wood/metal work, creates something new.  Many times a maker includes a creator of new technologies: new devices, video games, electronics, robotics, and/or apps.  Makers are DIY people/persons.  They have a unique culture of thinking and mindset.  A Maker also includes a creative mind, innovated ideas, and the ability to make things come to life (Kickstarter).  Makers support open source hardware, they tinker, and see cardboard/recyclables as tools (Junk ReThunk).  The Maker Movement is fast moving and supports Constructivism/Social Constructivism learning.  What a great movement for purposeful play, discovery, and developmentally appropriate activities for our students.

OLOGY – a subject to study  or branch of knowledge

MAKEROLOGY (EDU Version) – The study of MAKING  (What is best for students?  Best Practices with Making, STEAM, and looking at your learning space with 21st – century eyes:  Does it work for what we know about learning today, or just for what we knew about learning in the past?  Do you have a space for making?  Making is not about the tools.  It is about creativity, opportunities, design, the environment, and time).

Maker Movement – If you create a system where initiative and creativity is valued and rewarded, then you’ll get change for the bottom up.

~Paul Pastorek

 

Workarounds for Clipping Web Pages into Evernote on iOS

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Apple’s Mobile Safari browser doesn’t current support extensions or add-ons, so there isn’t currently a native Evernote Web Clipper for this browser. There are, however, a couple of other ways to clip content into your Evernote account using your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. Note, though, that these are workarounds and are not officially supported.

Manually installing the bookmarklet Web Clipper is possible, but requires a few steps and isn’t terribly simple. That said, follow these steps to install the bookmarklet Web Clipper in Mobile Safari:

  • Create a new bookmark in Moble Safari by tapping the action button, then Add Bookmark.
  • Change the name of the bookmark to “Clip to Evernote”, then press Save.
  • Visit this page in Mobile Safari and copy all of the text.
  • Tap the Bookmarks icon in the lower toolbar in Mobile Safari. When the list of bookmarks appears, tap Edit, then tap Clip to Evernote. Paste the text copied in the previous step into the URL field (below the title). When finished, it should look something like this:
  • Tap Done and, from now on, you can tap the Clip to Evernote bookmark in Mobile Safari to clip the current web page. Note that you’ll still need to login with your Evernote account and the various fields and controls in the clipper aren’t optimized for a mobile browser screen.

Clipping using the Evernote app is another common workaround. Here’s how to do it.

  • Grab the URL of a web page from Mobile Safari (or anywhere, really) and copy it to the system clipboard:
  • Paste the URL you just copied into a new note in Evernote:
  • Save the note, then reopen it and tap on the link you just pasted, which will open the web page within Evernote. From there, tap the action button and selec t “Clip to Evernote” to clip the web page into your Evernote account:

https://support.evernote.com/link/portal/16051/16058/Article/2517/Workarounds-for-Clipping-Web-Pages-into-Evernote-on-iOS

Sweden…NO CLASSROOMS

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There’s a whole new classroom model and it’s a sight to behold. The newest school system in Sweden look more like the hallways of Google or Pixar and less like a brick-and-mortar school you’d typically see.

There are collaboration zones, houses-within-houses, and a slew of other features that are designed to foster “curiosity and creativity.”

The un-schoolness doesn’t stop with the furniture and layout though. The school has no letter grades, students learn in groups based on their level and not age.

Most of all, admission to the school is free as long as one of the child’s parents pays taxes in Sweden and the child has a ‘personal number’ which is like a social security number to our U.S. readers.

More on this can be found in the book INNOVATE.

PLN

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Personal learning networks are a great way for educators to get connected with learning opportunities, access professional development resources, and collaborate with other education professionals.

Tips & Ideas

Get started developing your social media PLN with these tips and ideas for great ways to make use of social tools.

Guides

Check out these guides to find out how other educators have used social media and other tools to grow their personal learning networks.

Tools & Resources

Want to really make the most of your PLN? Use these popular social media tools for learning to grow and take advantage of your network with the latest technology.

  • Classroom 2.0: In this networking group, you can get connected with other educators who are interested in Web 2.0, social media, and more in the classroom.
  • Ning: On Ning, you can create your own social website to bring your PLN together all in one place.
  • Diigo: Collect, highlight, remember, and share all of the great resources you find online with your PLN on Diigo, and annotation and online bookmarking tool.
  • Google Reader: With Google Reader or any other great RSS tool, you can subscribe to blogs and stay on top of it all.
  • Slideshare: On SlideShare, you can upload presentations to share with your personal learning network.
  • Twitter: Perfect for finding people to add to your PLN, participating in chats, and sharing what you’ve found, Twitter is one of your most powerful tools for growing and maintaining a personal network.
  • Facebook: Another powerhouse for PLNs, Facebook is a great place to connect, share, and grow your network.
  • Scribd: Read, publish, and share documents on Scribd with your PLN, whether you’re sharing classic novels or lectures you’ve delivered. Plus, you can find documents and get connected with their owners.
  • Yahoo! Answers: Find and share information, connect with others, and build upon your personal learning network on this popular answers site.
  • LinkedIn: The gold standard in professional networking, LinkedIn is a great place for education professionals to get connected.
  • Quora: Similar to Yahoo! Answers, Quora offers a professional place to share your knowledge and grow your network.
  • Google+: Often overlooked in favor of Facebook and Twitter, Google+ is a growing network that offers lots of great possibilities for developing PLNs.
  • Pinterest: Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ get a lot of love from personal learning networks, but Pinterest offers a great way to find other educators, and great resources.
  • Delicious: One of the most popular social bookmarking sites on the web, Delicious makes it easy to share what you’ve found and find new followers for your PLN.
  • Paper.li: Using Paper.li, you can curate and share your favorite PLN tweets on a daily basis.
  • Scoop.it: Like Paper.li, Scoop.it is a great tool for curating an engaging PLN magazine based on resources from your network.
  • AddThis: Become a sharing machine with the AddThis toolbar, a great way to immediately share web resources on the web’s most popular social media tools.

This is a cross-post from content partners at onlinecollege.org and TeachThought.  

Wallwisher

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Wallwisher is a free and user friendly online tool that allows users to create a digital wall of multimedia sticky notes. In addition to text, the notes can include images, links and videos. Create a wall, then invite others to add stickies.
In early June Wallwisher released a new and improved version of the tools, known as Wallwisher Senbazuru.   This version is quicker, slicker and now has full iPad support.
Ideas:
    1. Build a collaborative wall without logging in.
    2. Add images, video and links to the wall.
    3. Create one place for resources, available 24/7.
    4. Give students a voice and a place to express themselves using a variety of multimedia.
    5. Embed a WallWisher wall into a wiki, blog or website.
    6. Enjoy Wallwisher Yubi for the iPad.
    7. https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=df6bwk2v_498cdr4wxcz