Me + Tech = Social Worker 2.0!

I'm proud of me!  I've had a busy few months immersing myself in technology that could possibly benefit my students.  Although I didn't instantly fall in love 💓 with every new tech tool I explored, I did find a few things that seem very valuable to me now.  I also had the chance to learn about the tech my colleagues may be using, so now I feel I better understand the lingo and no longer feel like a tech foreigner trying to decipher a mysterious language!  I no longer have mild palpitations as a result of being baffled when I overhear other teachers having conversations involving 'SeeSaw,' 'creating a QR code,' or 'coding for STEM.' 😄

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I have experienced some changes that I did not expect.  It's still amazing to me that I check Twitter every day.  I've only Tweeted from time to time, but I have gotten a lot out of reading my Twitter feed because I have been able to follow a great selection of professional resources that provide me with helpful ideas and/or inspirational thoughts to keep me positive.  This experience with Twitter also came with a greater lesson for me.  I had totally judged Twitter before even trying it, and I am a little embarrassed to admit that I was prejudiced against it.  In the future, I will try to suspend my judgements until I have the opportunity to try a new technology.

I found an online technology resource that fills a need I've had for years!  Thinglink has become a tool that I really like because I can finally make a library of emotion pictures that has built-in cues which highlight the specific parts of the person's expression that contribute to the emotion.  This is a teaching tool I've tried to make with other resources and failed.  Thinglink not only accomplishes my goal, it is so easy to use that I can get a lot of benefit after spending only a little time with the tool.  So cool!

I would not even begin to call myself a tech expert, but I do feel good about pushing myself outside of my comfort zone.  I often tell students that is how we grow.  Now I'm talking the talk, and walking the walk too.

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Although I feel slightly more caught-up with tech than I did before, I don't feel like this process is over.  I have to keep pushing myself to stay abreast of the newest tech because my students will always be interested in the new stuff.  I may be somewhat current today, but things keep evolving and I don't want to fall too far behind again!

I used to be a great school social worker, and I only used a little tech like an occasional YouTube video or a MindYeti exercise.  Now I have incorporated more tech into my social work practice, and I have become Social Worker 2.0!  Still a great social worker, now updated for the current needs of students and using tools that make my life easier and that are easy for kids to relate to 😄

Tell Me What You Want, What You Really Really Want...

Wow!  I just looked through Project Tomorrow's Speak Up website, and it has a bunch of interesting information about technology in education today.  Their information comes from students, parents, and educators.

The infographic that particularly caught my attention was this one:
What do parents really think about digital learning? Parents of school-aged children Speak Up about technology use

One thing that really caught my eye was the top concern reported by parents regarding tech use. They are VERY concerned that tech use varies from teacher to teacher!  I share this concern, but I see no great way of addressing it.  On one hand, I want all students to have equal access to tech in their educational experiences, so they have the opportunity to explore that avenue of learning and find out if it fits their individual learning needs.  On the other hand, I want all teachers to have autonomy in their classrooms, so they can pick and choose the tech with which they are most comfortable and in which they find the most value.  It seems to me that forcing teachers to use tech would create "equal" access on the surface of the situation, but that some teachers would be uncomfortable and would therefore have difficulty providing the same kind of instruction as a teacher who is extremely comfortable with that kind of tech.

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Would you prefer this teacher...                                                 ... or this teacher?


I was also surprised to learn that 55% of parents would prefer their child's teacher and school to communicate with them via text message!  Sure, I know that text messages are easy to use.  But I have a problem with sending text messages to parents because it would mean using my personal cell phone.  I don't want parents to have my personal cell phone number.  Maybe that's old-fashioned, but I don't like the idea of my work following me anywhere into my personal life at any time.  I believe it is very important for educators to have some boundaries between personal/professional, and giving personal contact information blurs that line too much for me!

Overall, I think that educational technology research is interesting and overwhelming.  It's interesting to me because it helps me understand the ever-evolving role of technology in education.  It's overwhelming to me because it covers so many topics, comes from so many different sources, and changes so rapidly!  I will definitely say that it was good for me to review some of the educational tech research out there... it has provided me with additional motivation to remain current with technology so I can provide students with relevant and helpful resources.

Because the classrooms of today and tomorrow look more like this...

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 and less like this...

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... I've got to keep up with the research and keep up with the times!

Please, Teach Kids Media Literacy Skills!

It is rather shocking how much media our kids are immersed in these days.  It is very possible that the media has a greater influence on some kids than their own parents do.  With the prevalence of media steadily increasing, it is increasingly important for kids to learn how to think critically about the media they are exposed to and to develop media literacy skills that help them keep things in perspective.

When taking a look at media literacy earlier this week, it was shocking how similar the themes were to a high school class I took decades ago on Values in the Media!  The strategies used by big advertising agencies to manipulate our emotions and opinions have remained very consistent, although the methods of implementing those strategies may have technologically evolved.

For example, a current ad campaign associates a sexy picture of Sheryl Crow with milk although the rock star really doesn't have anything to do with the product.  Likewise, I vividly remember this example from my high school teacher:

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While my high school class got me thinking critically about every image I saw on TV commercials or in print (newspapers/magazines), today's kids need to think critically about messages they are receiving from those sources plus many more.  It's not just advertising that tries to influence us.  Kids are receiving messages from music, video games, social media, movies, and the list goes on...

It's important to make kids aware of the many kinds of media that affect their lives, give the kids tools for choosing which media to consume, help them to think critically about the messages they receive, and develop a way to evaluate the information.

One great example was just produced recently.  I really like this video of Harry Caray calling the Cubs' World Series, I do.  BUT, check out the poster behind the guy's head at 1:06.  It's not a coincidence that the message "Cub Fan, Bud Man" is embedded in this very positively emotional video!  And I'm guessing that Bud planted a few other subliminal gems in the video that I haven't caught yet.  Budweiser didn't just make this video to make Cubs fans happy, they made it to sell more beer!

See YouTube Video

Some Pictures LITERALLY Speak 1000 Words...

In my quest to learn more Web 2.0 tools, I recently checked out talking images.  The tool I chose was Blabberize.  This tool allows you to upload any image you want and make it appear to speak.

I started by searching Creative Commons for an image to use.  This was a good way for me to find something generic to animate.  In the future, I would probably use photos of students whose parents have given photo permission to the school.  I think it would be a lot of fun to let my students animate themselves some day!

Once you have a photo or drawing you wish to animate, it is easy to upload the image to the Blabberize website.  You are given an opportunity to crop the uploaded image if you choose, and then the website walks you step-by-step through the animation process.  It's really user-friendly.

First you get to choose the location and shape of the "mouth" that will eventually be animated on the photo.  Actually, it does not have to be a mouth.  I saw one example that animated Garfield's belly and recorded a hungry rumbling sound!

Next you are given a choice of ways to include sound.  I found it easiest just to record from the microphone on my computer.  You can record as many takes as you need to get it the way you want it.  Then you can preview and save your creation.  Once your creation is saved, you're given a URL you can share and an embed code you can use to put your creation on your website.

For some reason, I can embed my creation on my Weebly website, but I can't get it to show up on my blog because of some kind of fight between HTTP and HTTPS that I don't understand.  If you'd like to see my example, please click on this link:  http://blabberize.com/view/id/1500811

My talking eagle was just a bit of fun that allowed me to try out the tool.  In the future, I think I would have my students take pictures of themselves and use Blabberize to animate themselves sharing a lesson or strategy they have learned during their social work time.

Think you Should Thinglink?

Oh, cool!  I've found a tech tool that I think will really work for my social work students!

I recently had a parent ask me if there is something like a dictionary of facial expressions that could be used to teach how to interpret people's emotions.  The only resources I could recall did not have the level of detail I wanted.  Sure, there are picture books that label drawings or photos of people looking sad, glad, or mad... but no resource I know answers the question, "WHAT makes this face sad but that face mad?"

I want something that can show students a variety of facial expressions while at the same time highlighting the details about each expression that make it unique.  Enter my new favorite Web 2.0 tool: Thinglink.  This tool is online, free, and easy to use!

First, I wanted to collect some facial expressions.  Thank you, Creative Commons.  I did a quick search for 'angry face' and found a great photograph of an expressive child.  When I uploaded the photo to Thinglink, it took no more than one minute to turn the photo into a teaching tool for my students.

Anywhere you click on the image, you will place a 'tag.'  There are many kinds of tags available, but I only needed the text tag for my purposes.  I tagged each of the parts of the angry face that I wanted students to notice, and I labeled the characteristic that helps us identify the feeling that person may be having.



Now, I can have a student look at the face and use the computer's mouse to see what each tag tells us about that face.  Thinglink provides the ability to create a profile for each student.  Even if the student does not have their own email address, Thinglink will provide an email address for use with the program... they've thought of everything!

I'm excited to pilot this with a few students to see if it is worth developing a catalogue of labeled faces.  It even looks like it would be easy to share the resources I develop with parents who would like to practice with their students at home.  So cool.  Thank you Thinglink.

Infograph-this!

I have always found infographics to be attention-grabbing.  I enjoy seeing them in magazines, and I believe I actually remember the information better than if I had read it in a paragraph.  I thought I would enjoy making my own infographics, so I tried out Piktochart.

Piktochart has some nice templates available for free.  If you like one of the existing templates, it is not too difficult to customize it for your own needs.  There is a user-friendly toolbar on the side offering a good array of icons, pictures, and drawing options to allow for creativity.  There is also a very easy graph creation feature that allows you to enter raw data and present it in several visually-appealing ways.

Here is my first Piktochart:

The drawback with Piktochart is the limited number of free templates.  There are only 10 free infographic templates available, and you would have to pay for a subscription to access the other hundreds.  Since I believe that tools used for education should be free, I will not be "leveling up" to access the remaining options.  With only 10 template options available to me, this resource may quickly lose its novelty, but it might be worth giving my students the option to try it once or twice as a fun way of sharing some information with their peers.

If a Picture is Worth 1000 Words . . .

I have a LOT of photos.  Even before smartphones, I would carry my digital camera around in my purse every day and take pictures of everything I do.  I don't have the best memory, so it is really helpful for me to have photo reminders of special moments that I don't want to lose.  Now that my phone has a built-in camera and a huge amount of memory, my picture taking obsession has grown exponentially, and my life has plenty of documentation.

The problem with such a large number of photos is that they are difficult to organize.  This is where the idea of a digital story really appeals to me.  I can take collections of pictures and make them into a sweet video with a bit of narration to help give context and tie them all together.

When I sat down to attempt my first digital story, I thought I was ahead of the game.  I had used GarageBand numerous times in the past to make digital storybooks for my students.  My new computer does not feature GarageBand, but it offers iMovie instead.  I assumed that my skills would transfer easily from one to the next.  Wrong!

GarageBand

iMovie

VS.

GarageBand and iMovie are incredibly similar... but there are subtle differences throughout the creation process that drove me mad!  I almost wish the programs were completely different, so I would have had the mindset of learning something new.  Instead, I kept trying things that I thought should work based on my experience, and I was repeatedly frustrated when my first and second attempts failed.

Eventually, I think I got the hang of iMovie.  Overall, I had a good time making my first personal digital story.  When I shared it with my friends, I got a very positive response.  I definitely think it is something I will do when I have time available to organize and present more of my photos.



As far as making digital stories for school, I can envision plenty of social work applications.  The only question is if the project would be worth the amount of time it takes to produce one.  I think the students would be incredibly excited and proud to create their own digital stories, but I worry that my limited time with each individual would then be focused too much on tech skills and not enough on social interaction.  Perhaps I will pilot the idea with my older students first and see if they are able to manage the tech aspect adequately...  If we develop any student digital stories, I'll be back to post about those for sure!