Month: November 2010

Posting from Create-a-Graph to a Posterous Blog (and Blogger too)

Blogging, Maths, My classPublished onUpdated on2 Comments on Posting from Create-a-Graph to a Posterous Blog (and Blogger too)

One of the nice features of the Create-a-Graph site from the NCES is the ability to email the completed chart. In the past I have used this when working with Google Apps for Edu – the children handed their work in to me by sending it to my school email. We had my inbox open on the board so the children could see their submissions.

We have been using Posterous as our class blog platform since September. It is a fantastic site for school or class blogging due to it’s simplicity. I made the link with Create-a-Graph because Posterous is built around being able to email content to a specific address which will then post to the blog.

In a nutshell I have worked out a way for my children to post their charts and graphs from Create-a-Graph directly to the class blog.

Here is how to do it.

**Requirements – the following instructions are only for a Posterous blog, but the idea will work if you have a Blogger site. You can find the email you need in your Blogger “Settings” under “Email & Mobile”. If you have a post via email option for your blogging platform in theory this should also work**

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1. Send a graph from Create-a-Graph to your own email. Now locate the sender’s email address – it should be something like kidszone@ed.gov

2. By default a Posterous blog only allows agreed contributors to post – you need to make kidszone@ed.gov a contributor to your blog, basically saying content from that source is OK.

3. Go to the Settings of your Posterous account and click on Contributors, add a new contributor and paste the email address we have for Create-a-Graph: kidszone@ed.gov

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4. Now you are ready to post from Create-a-Graph (worth testing this before the kids get a go) – the email you need is the one for contributors as the additional email you have added is not recognised as the primary one for the site. The email address you will need will be at the bottom of the Contributors page (see screenshot above)

5. Add this email into the Create-a-Graph “email this graph” box (leave it as html) and hit send.

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6. Your graph should be posted – the nice thing about Posterous is that it will automatically resize the image to suit your blog, which saves a lot of fiddling around with multiple posts. Here is an example blog post we did this week from someone in my class, we were looking at the climate of Australia.

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That is pretty much the top and bottom of it – for Blogger just use your unique email address in step 5. Over the period of time we have done this I have a few tips to share:

  • Expect to have multiple posts, children click send numerous times as they are unsure it has been done – it takes a bit of tidying up. (I also take a few moments to add the children’s names as tags to the posts so that I am collating work on the class blog)
  • Ask the children to add their name to the Graph Title in Create-a-Graph – this is under Data. The graph title will appear as the blog post title and will now include the child’s name for you to see who owns it easily.

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  • If you display the blog refreshing on the board you can check work quickly and children can have the reassurance their work has been submitted.
  • Once submitted the children can still edit their graphs – if you see something you need them to change, delete the post and ask them to correct it and resend.

I hope you find that an interesting tip to perhaps try – good luck with it and let me know how you get on.

QR Codes Improve Web Access

My class, QRPublished on31 Comments on QR Codes Improve Web Access

In the last week I have finally had the opportunity to use Quick Response (QR) codes in my classroom. I have found them simple, straightforward and very effective in improving access to digital resources.

I have been thinking about ideas to use QR codes in the classroom for a long while and many colleagues have joined me in contributing to a shared “Interesting Ways” resource. It outlines many useful and innovative ways to utilise the QR codes in the classroom and around school.

I have noticed that some people consider them to be exclusive to mobile devices. (The printed code needs to be read by some software that then displays a link, information or similar.) It seems many people think that only mobile devices like the new iPod or smartphones could do it. However we have been using them with desktop software on our class netbooks and the in-built webcam.

Another assumption I have spotted is that we use QR codes that are displayed (static) and we take the device to the code. I have seen it in a different way, producing printed codes which the children use on their own netbook to access websites and other digital resources. Taking the code to the reader.

We use the desktop version of the QuickMark software that is a free dowload. The children load up the software, hold the printed code in front of the camera and away they go. The URL is displayed, a double-click and they are on the site.

Now I did a mini experiment and monitored how many children had trouble loading a website that I gave them as a shortened (bit.ly) url – so not even the full address. We had 4 pairs of children who needed help to enter the url correctly. Using QR codes I have had none.

I know that QR codes can be, have been and will be used for far more innovative and creative ideas – but I know that my class can all get to a website faster and with less intervention using the codes. That is technology increasing independence and solving a real classroom problem.

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I print lots of the same codes out and just let the children hold up a whole A4 sheet of them or little row of three of the same code backed onto card. The software reads a bigger area and it seems to increase the likelihood it reads the code – after all you don’t want to have to go and help them use the codes, that would defeat the purpose.

As an extension to a maths activity this week I had a website lined up for some children who had finished their planned activities. In the past I might have made a link on our blog or used Delicious, or perhaps displayed the address or had to show them myself. Instead I had a zip wallet of codes and the children just scanned them and they were away – in fact it seemed to me to not only improve access but speed it up. (Google Chrome helps too)

I am keen to talk to the early years staff to begin to integrate the codes into their environments, such as having a little roll-a-dex of QR codes for Nursery children to choose from – on the back of the codes perhaps a picture or symbol of the website they want to use. I know it would help them to independently choose and structure their own web use and ultimately rely less on staff intervention.

We must not forget about the most simple ways to use these incredible technical developments – put simply: using QR codes improves the ability of my class to quickly and independently access websites.

Online Drawing and Painting Tools

TechnologyPublished onUpdated on20 Comments on Online Drawing and Painting Tools

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After a few tweets, my network have shared with me some fantastic and unique online drawing and paint tools. I thought the list was worthy of sharing properly in a blog post. Here goes:

ABCya! Paint – simple and easy to save as an image file.

Poisson Rouge Colouring Bugs – lovely early years tool within the amazing Poisson Rouge world.

Odosketch – I like the tones to the colours in this tool.

Shidonni – bring your drawings to life

Sketchpad – more complex toolset on this one

Flockdraw – allows you to draw on the same canvas as others online – nice collaborative tool.

Crayola Digi-Color – smooth online drawing tool from the company that know how.

Kerpoof Studio – simple and effective little online tool, to use other brushes you need to buy them though. Easy to save etc.

Sumo Paint – this was certainly recommended the most by people today.

Imagination Cubed – one of the first collaborative whiteboard tools I came across, been around for years.

Bomomo – I love the free abstract creativity of this one.

Brushter – from the National Gallery of Art for Kids.

Graffiti Playdo – spray your work on a wall.

PsykoPaint – convert your photos into artwork.

and here is a nice collection of links for Drawing tools as well.

Not a bad list I am sure you would agree and all from recommendations from my Twitter network in the space of a few hours – so a BIG thankyou to all of you who shared your ideas, links and recommendations.

(You can see all of these links on my delicious page)

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Pic

Blondie by Rufus Gefangenen
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License

Violating a Creative Commons License

Interesting WaysPublished onUpdated on73 Comments on Violating a Creative Commons License

scaled.php?tn=0&server=593&filename=etkLast night I was told by Richard Lambert about an Australian company using our “Interesting Ways to use an iPad in the Classroom” resource as a handout at a sales event. You can see the image clearly showing how they have used it, breaking the terms of the CC license. The MD contacted me overnight after the deluge of comments via Twitter. This is my reply to Andrew Bennetto the Managing Director of edsoft Interactive.

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I am deeply disappointed about what I saw of the handout for your iPad Breakfast event. The presentation / resource “Interesting Ways to use an iPad in the Classroom” has been crafted by teachers all across the world willing to share their own ideas. That sense of openness and sharing is key to these resources – this ethos has been developed by myself and countless others, not just over a few months, but through years of encouragement and hard work.

Your company violated the terms of the license clearly stated on the title slide of the resource.

Just to be absolutely clear about how the licensing is unavoidable – when you open the document, via whichever link or method available, you see the title slide, which states:

“This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike 3.0 License.”

I do not think there is any excuse to say that you were unaware of the license.

The final slide of the presentation also clearly states my name, email address, Twitter name and blog address. It is abundantly clear that I am technically the owner of the document. Once again, no excuse to say you were “not aware of the source.”

From the photograph I have seen that the pages have been edited to remove the names of the teachers that have contributed the idea to make it anonymous. Your logo suggests in fact that you own the document. The teachers who have taken the time to add their ideas deserve the proper attribution and once again this violates the license.

You did not give proper attribution for the entire document – but you also removed the correct attribution for each individual idea.

In your email you apologise, I trust that if it is one of your employees who has created this document that you take appropriate steps to ensure that it never happens again. On behalf of all of the teachers involved with the “Interesting Ways” series it is only right that I staunchly defend and protect the ethical manner with which they have been constructed and should be used.

In your email you go on to ask for permission to use the resource. I am sure you will understand that my answer has to be “No”.

In schools across the world there are teachers trying to educate our children about the correct use of digital content on the web, copyright and honest attribution – you are setting an extremely poor example.

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If you share my thoughts on this then please, let’s hear them!