Digging WeVideo

Me to one of my advisees. "Are you digging your classes?"
Advisee- "Pardon?" (He's very polite.)
Me, thinking he didn't hear me, "Are you digging your classes?"
Advisee- "What do you mean by digging?"

A sobering moment for this 50 year old.

I want to post about WeVideo. It's the alternative to iMovie and I'm finding it a very robust tool. My license is given to me by my workplace but it's a very reasonable $5 to get a license. I'd even suggest that it compares (somewhat) favorably to Final Cut Pro, which is a much more expensive tool.

WeVideo's timeline feature allows for fairly sophisticated effects and in the right hands, someone could make a very polished video. WeVideo's simpler storyboard mode is quite akin to the iMovie app on iPad and couldn't be easier to use.

WeVideo comes with its own library of how to videos and supplies a detailed booklet. I link to both on my website. 

If you're looking for good, easy to use video creation tool, take a look at WeVideo.

Pecha Kucha II

I had my second annual Pecha Kucha evening for my International Relations course. The kids were just terrific. I really, really, really like this presentation method. It keeps presenters on point. Pecha Kucha purists insist that each slide only contain an image. I am not quite a purist. A good quote or infographic or chart that helps with the narrative is fine with me.

Here's a post I wrote last year when I tried it for the first time. In it I wrote,

"Looking for reasons to do a PK? Here are a few:1) Students play expert.2) Students present to an authentic audience.3) Students have to think about using tech to support their words.4) Students have to speak in public5) A PK session creates a community of learning."

After doing these a second time, the beliefs are reaffirmed and strengthened. 

Here's one of my favorites presentations from the evening and the project it supported. They are followed by the program for the evening.  (Thanks to Mingtu for allowing me to share hr work.)

Cure or Harm

A story told with Adobe Spark

Pedagogy

A Great Obstacle to Good Education

Hat tip to Kyle Beatty who shared this awesome pessimists podcast site with me. A couple of months ago, I ranted on technology bashing. He shared the site. It features technologies that are now mundane, established or commonplace that were once scandalous and or controversial. In reading through the site today, I came across a link to a letter sent by Thomas Jefferson in 1818 in which he writes about the scourge of the novel. Does it remind you of anything?

A great obstacle to good education is the inordinate passion prevalent for novels, and the time lost in that reading which should be instructively employed. when this poison infects the mind, it destroys it’s tone, and revolts it against wholsome reading. reason and fact, plain and unadorned, are rejected. nothing can engage attention unless dressed in all the figments of fancy; and nothing so bedecked comes amiss. the result is a bloated imagination, sickly judgment, and disgust towards all the real businesses of life. Thomas Jefferson to Nathaniel Burwell, 14 March 1818

Look, I'll readily admit that we have some serious thinking to do about the ways we use technology. But take a look at this picture. Remind you of anything? 

                                                                                         vs. 

New Year's Resolutions

Resolutions
I always make 'em and rarely keep 'em. I suspect it's the "all or nothing" nature of resolutions that causes me to fail. I swear I'm giving up Diet Coke this year. It can't be good for me, right?  If this year goes anything like last year, I will avoid it for a while. And then I'll break down and have some. Subsequently, out of disappointment I'll throw in the towel and give up and go back to 3 cans a day.

The other reason we (okay, I) fail to keep resolutions is the "forever" nature of them. A year is so daunting. A day at a time is the best approach. Anyone can do anything for just one day.  Let's live in the moment people!

So here are my goals for 2019 to do a day at a time.
As a teacher, a day at a time I will make sure to build relationships with my students.
A day at a time I will be sure to post assignments and be clear with expectations.
A day at a time I will think about new ways to make history and international relations interesting subjects for my students
A day at a time I will work to give my students more agency - through giving them choices- and avoid one size fits all teaching.
A day at a time I will work to support teachers in technology.

What are your "a day at a times"?

PS, a day at time I will not eat the free donuts in the office.

Google Slides Rock- More Hipster Google Ideas

Matt Miller from Ditch that Textbook has many terrific Google Slides templates that he offers for free. Not to be outdone, Ryan O'Donnell is ridiculously creative with Google Slides. I love how both of these fellas take a slidedeck tool and make it so much more.

Speaking of Google Slides, I'm psyched about two relatively new features. I dig the new closed caption feature. Using this and Loom or Screencastify let's me record the captions for later viewers. It also will really help the hearing impaired and ESL students as well.

Teaching with StoryMap

Last year I blogged about Knightlab's impressive storytelling tools. Several of these tools are used by commercial media outlets, but I was excited by their potential use in the classroom.

I recently gave an assignment about the Silk Road to my 9th grade world history students to tie our study of Ancient China and Ancient India together. Inspired by this resource by the Field Museum, I had my students assume the persona of a real or fictional character from the heyday of the Silk Road and then write a diary- based on research- that incorporated facts about the Silk Road while also telling a good story.

Here's one fine example by a student of mine. She was quite proud of it and she should be. We spent some time talking about how to make the story itself interesting. I think she pulled it off. StoryMap truly was the perfect tool for the assignment. Years ago, when I taught Art Spiegelman's Maus, I had the students trace Vladek's travels across Poland before and during the Holocaust. Again, StoryMap would have been perfect for such an assignment.