My new MOOC and SCRATCH Intro Coming Soon...

First let me say,  I joined clmooc and I am very excited,Making Learning Connected, how much more can a 21st century educator or self appointed connectivist such as myself ask for.   I see some old faces and connections and many new ones to make, very exciting.

We have some great facilitators and I am really looking forward to it.  I love the concept of Make Cycles as each week/session is dedicated as such. I missed the first weeks session but that's OK, I watched it last night, posted here.

I love the idea of Find Fridays where we are challenged to go out and make connections via blogs, comments, google plus etc.  What a great way to help foster connectivity in a large MOOC.  So I hope to connect with some of you for joint projects soon!  This week I'm playing catch up and didn't want to do my introduction/make in my usual ways, for example, My animoto below, Go ahead watch it if you want.



I'm taking on what I thought we be a new but easy challenge, I have loved Scratch from MIT for years and have actively taught it for four years now.  Well, I havent been to the site or taught it in oh six, seven months and boy have there been some amazing changes.  Maybe they happened earlier and I never looked, I just taught and uploaded off of version 1.4.

To look at the new online interface and new features is awesome!  So While yes, I will be making a Scratch Introduction,  I will be taking the time to learn all the new online tools and am looking forward to the journey.  I'll post as soon as I'm done and let you know what I think.

I am looking forward to sharing and learning with my new clmooc community. As I finish this post I am already pondering this weeks questions.

• What does it mean to be a maker? Why make? Why now?
• What happens when makers converge around shared interests and purposes? What opportunities might we seize? What barriers do we face?
• How do we find and build  diverse and inspiring networks of people, resources, and places that support our making and learning?

Thank you clmooc, I am already reflecting and I love it. :)

Goodbye to Anonymous

Image from http://www.cpreview.org

In an attempt to be a more open contributor, I changed my settings in 2013 to allow for anonymous comments. My thoughts were that anyone should be able to contribute or share if they find value in what I write. I will tell you this was not without hesitation, I don’t think you should be anonymous in the 21st century. We are all about social media and many channels of communication and I believe each individual should represent themselves and get the credit they deserve besides self branding which is so important in this day and age.

Anonymous has always confused me. I am a part of great network of teachers, educators, media experts that I would continue to enjoy having contact with. Kind of hard to do if your anonymous.

Today, I have to say Good bye Anonymous, I will miss you. You have given me, 3 interesting reads and I wish I knew who you were. As for the rest, more than 20 comments from anonymous have invalid url’s or their website which is always in the comment is A search engine, an advertisement, a bunch of well, crap. There is no way I am going to allow myself or my readers to be subject to clicking on links that do not have anything to do with what I am discussing. These comments, I find have very litte merit and never really go into the topic I am discussing anyway.

In researching this thought futher, I found a great blog post today that is completely what I have been thinking lately. "Troll Reveal Thyself" by Farhard Manjo. If you are going to be online, anonymous no longer cuts it. If you look at youtube and other unmoderated sites you can see the bashing and the plain cruelness that anonymous posts allow.

I found this quote particularly relevant:

"Anonymity has long been hailed as one of the founding philosophies of the Internet, a critical bulwark protecting our privacy. But that view no longer holds. In all but the most extreme scenarios—everywhere outside of repressive governments—anonymity damages online communities. Letting people remain anonymous while engaging in fundamentally public behavior encourages them to behave badly. Indeed, we shouldn't stop at comments. Web sites should move toward requiring people to reveal their real names when engaging in all online behavior that's understood to be public—when you're posting a restaurant review or when you're voting up a story on Reddit, say. In almost all cases, the Web would be much better off if everyone told the world who they really are."

Do you moderate your comments?

(image from http://zonezeed.com) As my never ending endeavor to continue to be a contributor and producer in the #etmooc community and a better blogger in general, I am still spending time reviewing blogs and trying to leave thoughtful comments. I learn so much from watching comments and thread's take off that I love being able to get feed's and emails from blogs I have commented on previously.

I am noticing a new trend, I did not see a few years ago and I find it so odd as we are in the age of "digital identity" and citizenship.

Many people let my comments fly and do not moderate their comments. I have to admit I am usually quite shocked when this happens. So I have to ask. Why would you allow someone to comment to your blog or any "uploaded" work" without moderating their work first. The comment could be horrible, or in my case I get a lot of advertisements which I assume are spam and delete them immediately. I certainly do not allow a comment to hit the www were all can see, if I have no idea what it says or if it represents me and who I am trying to relate/connect with.

I used to have my middle school students read the following PDF. "This is Me". It really relates to how we are perceived on line. So for those of you who don't moderate or are not sure where the setting is, please give a shout. Don't let other's comment's help define who you are online.

Can You Lend me a Hand? New Course Ideas Needed

Ok, I just received a request for more courses falling under the "Computer Education or Integration" realm in a masters program. We already have Networked Learning which covers:

Blogs and comments

Animoto

Webinars

Podcasts

Diggo

Digital Citizenship

All in 12 weeks.

We also have a Multimedia course that covers some emerging technologies such as animoto, voicethread and wiki's. Can you suggest a topic that you are interested in or that we have covered in ETMOOC that you think would make for an awesome 12 week course?? I wanted to focus on facebook, twitter and blogging and digital identity and was thinking "Social Media and Responsiblity in Education". Feel free to look at the first few weeks at sherryhegstrom.wikispaces.com. I am currently being told it will overlap the Networked Learning course.

I personally do not think it does as I wanted to go over more such as microblogging, crowdsourcing, and a true focus on blogging and Digital identity as it pertains to education. I've also considered digital storytelling as I have so many tools now, Could you do Digital Storytelling for 12 weeks? Would you want too? Ok, I'm throwing it over the wall and beg for responses, If you could fill 12 weeks with 1 to 3 topics, what would you pick??

Image from lendahandnow.com.

Does Storyboarding Take Creativity Away?

As I pondered the new assignments from #etmooc on Digital Storytelling, I found myself reflecting on the many ways and forms I myself have learned and taught digital storytelling. From Scratch to Animoto, Voicethread, Photostory, GoAnimate and anything really within the web 2.0 realm. I started to ponder a question I would like to throw out to the many.

How important is storyboarding? While I teach Scratch from MIT, you work with character’s called sprites and bits of code that can change your background, move each character, add have them think or talk. This I know I need a storyboard for and have always loved watching students think they have it and start programming then back to rewrite, as they change their minds. Scratch story embedded here took a great deal of storyboarding but it was again, worth the effort and I am not sure with the complexity of the visual components they could have done it without good storyboarding:

I have also taught what I consider to be “collaborative stories” on wikis. In this process, each person, begins a story and then each student in a class from 11-20 middle school students are told to add 5 – 10 sentences to the story. Within a few days you can really see which stories are taking off. So soon we are usually down to 3 to 5 stories which get added to by all members of the same class. They write their comments and then we moved them around to create pages(the full story). Feel free to view my old wiki here, story Mars done by 6th graders. Now look at the history of Mars, it took group effort. I have also left their story Dewey the Alien and the history here, you can actually see how 15-18 different wiki threads turned into some cool stories.

The stories come out really cool or silly but if you think about it no one needed to sit down and think about how many characters, setting, backgrounds or conversations they were going to have. They wrote truly from their heads with no determined plan. Are these methods two different styles both with great results or is it the complexity of move advanced software that will be seen by the eye that lends for storyboarding?

I believe and I may be wrong, that we might be taking away creativity when we ask our students for thought out well planned storyboards before they begin, for some are we losing the creative component that is the strength of digital storytelling? Curious..

Animated Gif's are Fun!

Well, I guess I need to increase my twitter followers. In asking a question about animated gif maker’s, not much response, but no worries, I found myself on a great journey. Don’t get me wrong, I love gimp and photoshop but I knew some application must have already been created to help me with this goal. I have spent the past two days looking at possibilities for creating my own animated gifs, oh besides my day job.

1st find: http://makeagif.com/ Where I didn’t have to even loggin, put in four pictures and got the following: Pretty cool.. My animated rose.

make animated gifs like this at MakeAGif

2nd find: http://picasion.com/get-photo/, again, no login required but limits to three pictures. See my animated daughter here:
create an animated gif

Now I want you all to know, that this was not what I planned on blogging about today, but after spending an hour and ½ having fun with no learning curve, I had to share. Ah, if I really wanted to place blame, or more so THANKS to Aaron Muller’s post last night. Check out his animated gif here. Ok, next post Is planned in #etmooc, I have what I think is a great post on storyboarding vs collobartion coming soon.

Digital Storytelling Resources and Scratch Animation

I'm so excited about our new section in the MOOC I have been a part of, #etmooc. As an educator that has worked at the middle school level, undergraduate and graduate level, there a few things I have found to be more empowering and exciting than introducing digital storytelling to audiences that have not experienced the pleasure before.

What I truly love is the many web 2.0 an free online software applications that are now availabe online. Goanimate.com, Animoto.com, Voicethread.com, Prezi.com and so many much more (please note, each link is an example from myself or student work)

So I am going to start this new blog post by sharing what I have shared and taught so far. First, let me say, Storyboarding in creating a digital story is so important. This is where you should see yourself or students spending the bulk of their time. I do.. See various links I use with my students below:

Integrating Digital Storytellingby Mark Standley, yes it is from 2003, so wow, 10 years ago, they knew we had to give students a new voice, a better or cooler way of communicating.

Digital Storytelling 101 - By Discover Ed. Take a look around.

Digital Story Telling PDF Digital Storytelling in the Classroom, This has some great storyboards!

Education Resources for Digital Storytelling - This discusses some of the basic steps of digital storytelling from developing your story to brainstorying, storyboarding, drafting, revising, editing, timing, images and narration.

Storyboard That - This was a great find gosh back in 2008 by Free Technology for Teachers.

And I cannot forget my absolute favorite. Scratch Programming from MIT. See my example on cyberbullying here.

Learn more about this project

Scratch is a programming language that is free,fun to learn and affords for integration across all content areas. I have used Scratch Programming with middle school students and adults and the inspiration and reasoning skills that are built are truly 21st century skills and the best part is it really is a easy as buidling lego blocks and that's exactly what it looks like. I have so much more I'd love to say and teach you. Next blog post.... For now, I have left the links for the 21st century guide and 1 project done by one of my 7th grader's years ago and one by an student/middle school teacher and can add more. Enjoy.

Scratch Programming and 21st Century Learning.

Weather and the Atmosphere

Texting While Driving

Who Controls What You Learn and Rhizomatic Learning

Today, I sat down and tried to wrap my brain around Rhizomatic Learning w/ Dave Cormier which I watched last night in the etmooc archives. Ok, so let me get this straight.. "We, as in all of us, or those in a class or Mooc" decide what the learning goals are?? Or is it that we are just introduced to a concept and end up going where it takes us? I must admit, I did not join etmooc without two goals. 1. To me more connected with like minded people. 2. To get and share great ideas in emerging technology and digital identities" as it pertains to my own curriculum design pursuits. I teach/facilitate in Computer Technology and that is why I am connected. I don't think I would be a very valuable teacher in the 21st century if I did not keep up with technology, technology is connections, new applciations, freedom on knowledge, blogging for reflection...sharing with wiki's and learning how to do it correctly(at least that is what I see).

In a Rhizomatic learning environment, do you sign up for a course that states "you decide what you will learn"?? Wow, would'nt that be great! I love etmooc and I love online learning, blogging, wiki's, new apps to play with. So the sad news is while I do teach these courses, they still have very specific standards which I must state in my syllabus and my goals for the week/unit must be detailed in our online CMS. I am blessed as I get to make my own curriculum as it pertains to the standards but that was not the case when I was in public education.

So I am grateful but yet I am stuck. What could be and what is reality is so different. Those of us that share and connect learn so much more than those who follow the conventional models of being educated but they do not have a choice. How do we get that to change?? I love the concept, I love that it has a meaningful name but how do we help others see the light??

Visit Classroom 2.0
Today, I tool a small break and moved over to my classroom2.0 community. There I found the longest and most powerful blog/paper I had read in a long time. Carol Black will be speaking to the classroom 2.0 community on FutureofEducation.com February 5th. The topic is "Who is Educating us", Please read her blog post On Power, Knowledge, and the Re-Occupation of Common Sense. It was after I read this powerful change seen in communities that go from community education to "formal" education that I realized they were essentially being stripped of great lessons and being removed from their culture of learning. You see we need rhizomatic learning, in is in our nature as human beings yet we strip in away as soon as we empose "standards", or "goals as deemed by others". The most powerful thing I received from reading the whole blog was the following:

In “developed” societies, we are so accustomed to centralized control over learning that it has become functionally invisible to us, and most people accept it as natural, inevitable, and consistent with the principles of freedom and democracy. We assume that this central authority, because it is associated with something that seems like an unequivocal good – “education” – must itself be fundamentally good, a sort of benevolent dictatorship of the intellect. We allow remote “experts” to dictate what we must learn, when we must learn it, and how we must learn it. We grant them the right to test us, to measure the contents of our brains and the value of our skills, and then to brand us in childhood with a set of numeric rankings that have enormous power over our future opportunities to participate in the economic and political life of our society. We endorse strict legal codes which render this process compulsory, and in a truly Orwellian twist, many of us now view it as a fundamental human right to be legally compelled to learn what a higher authority tells us to learn.

You see in her blog and I quote: "One of the most profound changes that occurs when modern schooling is introduced into traditional societies around the world is a radical shift in the locus of power and control over learning from children, families, and communities to ever more centralized systems of authority. While all cultures are different, in many non-modernized societies children enjoy wide latitude to learn by free play, interaction with other children of multiple ages, immersion in nature, and direct participation in adult work and activities."

They had rhizomatic learning and it is now gone. They are forced into classrooms where the state/government decide what they must learn. If you have made it through reading the longest post I have writtent to date, I would love to hear what you think.. How do we move more towards a Rhizomatic learning model? Is it possible? Do you see why Carol Black and myself are so upset that natural learning has been replaced?? Your comments as always are appreciated. :)

The More you Share the More you Learn

(SharingisCaring.com)

I recently commented on a post by Jeannine St. Amand on Connected Learning and What we share in the world and I feel the need to post my reply here and expand:

We cannot just skim along, we need to go back, reread, check on comments. I am so glad that we have the ability to be emailed replies to blog comments, it really is great to see a post take off that you commented on, just showing how the blossom continues to grow.

Etmooc is a lot of information. I'm grateful to Alec, for his first etmooc session on diigo.com and scoop.it. I have put so much into my diigo in great list formats and the read for later section has become quite large but I get to 5 a day if I can, I have just come off of a commenting phase, no new blog posts, I have literally been commenting for 5 days now and I have learned so much. Tried many new tools and added to my knowledge two folds. Enjoy the ride for etmooc, just don't forget to look back!

As an educator, I have a passion for reflective learning and e-portfolio's and I thnk it is the reflection that I love. I can tell you I have raised letter grades due to reflections so looking back is a great thing. When you look back, you usually find out you learned more than you thought you did. This is not possible, if we don't take a conscious moment to re-read our posts, comments, work. Maybe we should teach blogging for life, as many do not look back and many do not learn, but more on that later...

If I have learned anything in the etmooc in the past weeks it's share away, your not stupid, you will be heard and your crazy if you think you can get it all in. Listen to sessions when you can, tweet, when you have something to say, learn when you have time to learn and share when you have time to share. Pay it forward (my commenting day's). I'll continue, but next I need to reflect on the last week in etmooc as a new post is brewing.

Talking about paying it forward in our world, I just read a great post by Jeff Utecht. He's sharing to the max. He's offered his services for what you can pay if you live in the same state. Personally, I think he is rich or crazy, but can you imagine being able to have the ability to share to that level. I am truly impressed.

Thanks to Comments, I Feel Connected-Best learning day ever!

Today, I opened my email account and yes there are comments to be moderated on my blog. I cannot begin to describe how excited I got! Still am! Wow, comments are a driving force and the pleasure you receive is odd to say the least. I think it goes with “I have been acknowledged”. I have hit a topic that others in the same predicament and the commenting was amazing as was the advise and knowledge shared with me.

Ok, so now to the next task, thanking everyone, replying and reading the wonderful links sent to me. I have received great advice and I have made new connections. I have learned and shared. Ah, the joy of the comment cannot go without heed any longer. This is awesome, I want to write great blog posts everyday now, join more mooc’s or communities where I can learn and share more more... I wonder if that is what makes “us” different, this intense need to share, to get suggestions, to learn an open online format. So you may wonder when I say “us” but that I mean those of us who joined a mooc, have a blog, like to wiki and most importantly love to find new software/applications to help us embrace our main love which is education.

I will be honest about one more feeling today, a little fear,. What if I do not have another good blog post? What if I am not an eloquent writer? What if my point doesn’t make sense? I know many of you must be feeling this way as I have for years (I just never admitted it). Are my thoughts and finds good enough for a good blog post? Should I write about…..?? Can I add more aspects of my personal life?? For the first time since I my blog started, I no longer am willing to let these insecurities hold me back. So for you beginners and those new to blogging or etmooc, congratulations and blog away. We all feel lost in blog land sometimes. …

So there it is, my best online learning day in a long time.

My question now is how do we turn it around and give it back? I want everyone willing to blog and share to have such a great day. Can we all resolve to comment on 2-3 blogs a day? Would you do this if it was asked of you as a condition to participating in this particular #etmooc?

And I need to pay it forward, look at this great post from a fellow etmoocr that I can Please take a moment to read …Lisa Sanderson’s blog at http://abbtechtuesday.edublogs.org, she has a great post on connected learning and crowdsourcing.

I Need Connected Learning- #ETMOOC

Ok, here it is a Sunday afternoon and as football looms on the TV, I have just spent 3+ hours looking over various #etmooc sessions run this week as well as looking over google plus for intro's and new posts to see what's going on and who likes what. It was not a wasted three hours but a valuable three hours and soon to be more. In the midst of another share on twitter and I start to to really put somethings together. I love learning this way. I always have.

Let me explain, I joined a MOOC an etmooc.org which is being run by Alec Couros (I pray I spelled that right) and many others. I'm so excited to work with Shareski this week. I have always enjoyed his blogs and posts and am sorry I didnt truly connect sooner. I am, I admit a lurker, I read, I implement, I "borrow" but I never really connected until now!

It reminded me of a post from Jeff Utecht; (then instructor, now friend). In a jist, he needs a network to learn, people to bounce ideas off of and learn from in order to enjoy learning. In order to enjoy learning, he needed to as I do, to feel connected. In re-reading this post, I realized this was my reality, this is why I haven't taken many PD opportunties offered or attended as many conferences. I don't like learning alone, it is so very true for many of us, and it is certainly true of me. I have needed this connection. I trive on a connectivist approach to learning and I embrace the new applications and tools that I am made aware of. I can truly say I need connected learning.

I love finding connections(people and groups) with such similar interests as myself that it is almost scary.

I have found some questions, how do I work on "connected learning"? Are there any articles I should read for etmooc for this week? Am I participating enough? Why doesn't my diigo look as cool as Alec's in the tutorial?? So so much, BUT, It's OK, This is what I love to do, love to tinker, to figure it out. I have found no links on what should or shouldnt be done for the topic of connected learning as outlined in the calendar for #etmooc, but that's cool, It took one day, a few thoughts and boom, I remembered a post from a dear friend and mentor Jeff Utecht, so to him I say thank you as I do to Alec, Shareski and all of those I have watched and learned from since "2009". I thank connected learning as I would not even know thier names. These connections are much more relevant to me as an educator in technology than some of my professors in the lecture halls back in the day....

#Etmooc - Learning More EveryDay

Today I came into the last 35 minutes of the #etmooc session. Wow, what amazing content. It certainly changed my thoughts on how much I thought I was connected. I'm really not. It seems that it is truly worth the effort of working with all of the new tools we have with web 2.0. Today my goal is to go over diigo.com and see how it connects to other facets that I already use such as delicious.com. With Alec and Michelle as the facilitators, I was really able to see how while each tool can be slightly time consuming, they are so user friendly and make for sharing in a much easier way. I was so surprised to see that he could share and hyperlink text that was highlighted, very cool. Thank you to #etmooc community. I'm learning alot and having a great deal of fun! My tool box has already expanded in the first week :)

The Growth of the Web

I recently read in a book that the country with the most internet users is China. Not surprised, I decided to read on, the article goes on to say that America is 2nd at 239,893,600. According to Internet World Stats, it states the following regarding to china: "For much of the population, living standards have improved dramatically and the room for personal choice has expanded, yet political controls remain tight. Many elements that today are of comun use in modern life including paper, gunpowder, fireworks, credit banking, paper money and pasta originated many years ago in China. China is the most populous country in the world and has one of the fastest growing economies in the world today." What does that mean to use as technology educators in the year 2012. Where do we focus and how do we all bring about the change needed to all of our students to be able to compete in an increasingly competetive global and asynchronous world?

A Must Have Poster about 21st Century Learning Skills

A Must Have Poster about 21st Century Learning Skills  what an amazing take on true emerging technology and 21st century learning.  A must have for any technology or media educator today.  Thank you to http://www.educatorstechnology.com for such great teaching tools.