Mind Maps on Web Evaluation

Create your own mind maps at MindMeister

What a busy week.  From website evaluation to creating mindmaps, Intro to Publications has been busy.

Initially, IRIS: (Information and Research Instruction Suite for two year colleges) provided the information that I used for my students to discuss website evaluation.  My students really enjoyed looking at fake websites and trying to identify if the sites were real or not.  We discussed that knowing whether or not the information was true is extremely important academically and professionally.

My favorite website to use for evaluation is GenPets. It is a great site that can be confusing if students don't look for the information that states the website it the product of an artist.

Our Web 2.0 tool this week is MindMeister.  For some people, creating concept maps is a helpful tool.  A lot of templates showed Mind Meister to be a great tool for organizing websites, projects, and to-do lists.  Unfortunately, I am not a fan of concept maps; I have never been able to really utilize them personally.  Hopefully, someone will find this tool useful for many other aspects.

Students are continuing to use Michael Clay Thompson's Magic Lens as a basic structure for grammar instruction.  I am wanting to develop a consistent level of knowledge among our freshmen so that English 9 will be less about catching-up and more about implementation.  Here's a snapshot of our student work.

I am optimistic that creating a baseline of information will benefit our students when discussing writing.

Additionally, this week we integrated the fabulous Digital Driver's License website.  I am using this as an extension tool for our digital literacy curriculum.  DDL is an interactive website that uses multimedia to discuss many digital citizenship topics, and I recommend it to anyone concerned about digital literacy.

DDL; Available DDL. 

Finally, I have decided to really incorporate more editing procedures with our blog writing.  Although many students have great ideas and want to discuss them, it is difficult for readers to understand with the errors that go unnoticed.

As a rule, students have to have a partner read their work and point out any inconsistencies.  Students then have to read their work out loud to themselves so that they can hear any problems before publishing.  I'm hoping this focus on revision will encourage students to read their work and think about what they write rather than considering the first draft a publishable version.

I also created three basic outlines to help students reorganize their blog posts this week.  Many had difficulties transitioning from a journal style to a more formal format.  

• Option #1
• Option #2
• Option #3

Beyond the academics, classes are going extremely well.  Students appear engaged and excited to learn new technology.  I only wish that my own college classes were as different.  

Animating Digital Citizenship

Currently, Intro to Publications has discussed a lot of new perspectives on what it means to be a good digital citizen.  Many students feel that a lot of the ideas we discussed are common sense.  Unfortunately, not a lot of people practice common sense.

We agreed that a good digital citizen:

1. Respects others' privacy online
2. Respects others' creative work by citing or asking permission 
3. Respects the diversity of others' online 
4. Is honest in his/her expression of identity
5. Acts in a safe and mature manner

7 Principals Online Learning. Available at: FlickrCC.  March 18, 2011.

Being a good digital citizen is just like being a good citizen in our communities.  We follow ethics in day-to-day physical interactions that should reflect in our digital relationships.  In order to show our beliefs in the defining characteristics of a digital citizen, we created music videos using Animoto.

Animoto is a free Web 2.0 resource that creates music videos using photos; either from the website or from outside sources.  This nifty tool is a great resource to creatively showcase concepts visually.  Students were required to create a video at least 1 minute long answering the question: What makes a good digital citizen? 

Here is my example I used to model for my students.

Knowing how to be safe and respectful online is an extremely important tool for students to use in all aspects of life.  The ethical rules for online interactions are the same when applied to face-to-face communication.  I am hopeful that these guidelines will permeate various aspects of students' lives.

Furthermore, students practiced at finding a current event that relates to technology.  There were many interesting posts this week; I definitely learned some new things.  As a good practitioner, I also posted a current event article as a model for my students.  I believe that models of good writing are important for our students.  Without good examples, how can anyone learn what to emulate?

I am encouraged by the writing skills I see every week from my students.  Although these students are freshmen, their writing has far exceeded many previous classes at this point in the school year.  I am jubilant at where I see these students' skills are heading.  It's going to be a good year.

Face Time Wars

Topic: Face Time use is being eased with Verizon Wireless plans while AT&T continues to force Wi-Fi only.

Virtual Phone. Available at FlickrCC. October 25, 2011.

Article Title: "Verizon will enable iPhone's FaceTime on all data plans, unlike AT&T"

Article Source: Ars Technica

Summary: Face Time has always been a major advantage of the iPhone for AT&T; unfortunately, Face Time is limited to a Wi-Fi access only. Until now. Verizon Wireless is allowing Face Time to use data plans without restriction; although, it will still use data from your plan once the iOS6 update is pushed out September 19.

Reaction: As an iPhone user, I really enjoy the bonus of using Face Time.  The only issue I've had with Face Time is the limitations.  My husband and I can't video chat when he's at work because he doesn't have Wi-Fi access.  Why would I have paid the extra money for that feature when it is unusable?  It is frustrating.  What is even worse is the issue with Verizon's forced shared data plans, but I won't go into that.

World Impact: Although the iPhone is Apple's baby, other companies who have been granted access to sell the technology are going to take as much advantage as possible of marketing in order to compete with Apple. Competition is good for these companies because consumers need to benefit from their specials. Internet and cell phone data isn't expensive to allow users access, yet companies are consistently monopolizing services and charging outrageous amounts.

Week of 9/7/12 Review

After our first attempt at posting Weekly Blog Reviews, I decided to help my students by giving some guiding questions.  Although some students are really good at intuitively organizing their writing, overall organization is a weakness.  So, I created this guide: 

Guiding Questions for your weekly blog:1: Define any new terms this week (does not include stems)2: What new web 2.0 tool(s) did you learn about this week? Describe and hyperlink or embed it.3: What are some positive & negative aspects of this new tool? Explain.4: What digital literacy component did you learn about this week? Explain it.5: How does this new information affect your personal/academic life and/or interactions online?6: Overall, how has your week been?7: Anything else you want to add.Min. 300 Words

 We also worked on learning how to correctly cite photos in a blog while using photos that are okay to reuse (as in not copyrighted).  I know that a lot of people cite photos differently; there really isn't only one way to do it.  So, I decided upon the most common way, and students added photos this week.  We follow these steps that I blogged about last April and found at eHowTech.

1 Write down a very brief description of the image. You don't have to go into detail. If the image is of a grandfather clock, the description "Grandfather clock" will suffice. 

2 Note the website address at which you found the image. For example, if you found the picture of a grandfather clock on example.com, the source URL would be something like http://example.com/grandfatherclock.jpg. 

3 Locate the date on the Web page from which you are sourcing the image. If you can't locate a date on the page, use the date you downloaded the image. 

4 Combine all of the above information into a caption and place it below the picture on your website. The caption should follow this format:
Image description, available at website URL, date.

Several of us decided that the URL is so long and chunky that we will accept linking the "Available here" section of the descriptor.  Others decided that they want to use goo.gl to shorten the URL.  Either way, I think will make this look neater when posted.

Additionally, e-mail etiquette was our focus for digital literacy.  It is surprising how many people don't realize that ALL CAPS MEANS YOU ARE SHOUTING.  I always hate getting those emails.  

Finally, in addition to grammar and stems (all taken from Michael Clay Thompson's Magic Lens and Word Within a Word), we worked on setting up Google Reader and how to effectively comment on a partner's blog.  I think the students are really enjoying being bloggers.  Real world writing is much more effective. 

RSS Icon. Available at: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3305/3223086466_07409c8084_m.jpg. January 24, 2009.

Commenting Steps 1-3

Step 1: Compliments

Always start your peer editing with compliments!

Tell the writer what he or she did well:

• I think you used a lot of good details, such as _______
• I liked when you used the word ______ because _______
• My favorite part was ________ because…
• This was really fun to read because…
• I liked the way you_________…

Step 2: Suggestions

Making suggestions means giving the author some specific ideas about how to make his or her writing better.

Remember – stay positive and be specific!

• Instead of, “It doesn’t make sense,” say, “If you add more details after this sentence, it will be more clear. For instance, _______.”
• Instead of, “Your word choice is boring,” say, “Instead of using the word good, maybe you can use the word exceptional.”

Here are some areas that you may want to make suggestions about:

• Word choice – Did the author choose interesting words?
• Using details – Descriptive language, well-chosen quotes
• Organization – Can you understand what the author is trying to say? Is it in the correct sequence?
• Sentences – Are the sentences too long or too short?
• Topic – Does the author stick to the topic or talk about other things that don’t really fit?

Step 3: Corrections

The third step in the peer editing process is making corrections.

Corrections means checking your peer’s paper for:

• Spelling mistakes
• Grammar mistakes
• Missing punctuation
• Incomplete or run-on sentences

Weekly Current Event Assignment

Current events assignment

It is very important for responsible citizens to be aware of what is going on around the globe.  Thus, you are required to do a weekly current events activity in this class.  This assignment will require you to read an article dedicated to technology and analyze it.  Additionally, you will peer edit your analysis each Thursday.  Your post (on your Schoology blog) must have the following criteria:

1. Topic: 1 pt.

• What is the topic of your article?

2. Article Title: 1 pt.

• What is the title of your article? Exact wording.

3. Article Source: 1 pt.

• Where did you get the article? Hyperlink it.

4. Summary: 2 pt.

• Briefly, and in your own words, summarize the content of the article.
• 3 sentence minimum

5. Reaction: 5 pt.

• Take a position on the issue in the article.
• How do you feel about this event?
• How does this event affect you?
• Five (5) sentence minimum.

6. World Impact: 6 pt.

• How does this event impact the world?
• Five (5) sentence minimum.

Your work must be in complete sentences and use excellent grammar.  Copy/pasting anything from the article without correct MLA citation is considered plagiarism and cheating.  This will result in a 0.  The weekly current events assignment will be a classwork grade.

This is an opinion piece.  You must make a commitment on the issue and use specific example to support your thoughts.  If you do not attach the original article, you will receive ½ credit.  This assignment is due every Thursday, without fail.