A Great "Mashup:" Mapping Literary Journeys

Jerome Burg wants his students to "chew on" the really, really important ideas of a novels. Take, for instance, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck--which he says, "may have a lot more relevance than any of us should feel comfortable with."

By using Google Earth, he and an associate (Matthew Hart) at Granada High School have actually plotted out three-dimension versions of the journeys made in The Grapes of Wrath, Candide, Macbeth, The Aeneid, and others novels on the site GoogleLit Trips. Jerome says the idea to do this "exploded" in his mind, and he feels these Google Maps projects can draw the students into really studying literature in a way that the authors would have wanted. For example, in The Grapes of Wrath, you can see the flatness of the land, watch a video of a dust storm, see photos or art of the time period, and read chapter notes and questions from the teacher.

In addition to the Google Earth file that has been created for each book, there are short podcasts and screen shots for each one that give a brief description of what you will find when you open it in Google Earth. And talk about being "Web 2.0"--Jerome invites both teachers and students to see the site as a place to contribute "Lit Trip" mashups of their own.

Listen as Jerome describes this Google Certified Teachers project in an Infinite Thinking Machine "Take 5" recording: http://www.edtechlive.com/audio/JeromeBurg.mp3.

Choose Your Own Resolution

Choose Your Own Resolution

I can only speak for myself, but I believe in self-improvement. If my husband read that statement, he would probably remark that I’ve been watching too many TiVoed episodes of Oprah. However, I have observed that while some people are born brilliant and gifted educators, most teachers, myself included, have to really work at reaching our personal and professional best. I think we all owe it to ourselves and to our students to continually seek out new and better ways of educating.

So…it’s that time of year, and even if you don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions, how about pledging to kick things up a bit in your classroom at least? Here are my suggestions!

1) Provide a window into your classroom.

Parents want to know about their child’s experiences at school, not to necessarily harangue teachers, but to simply learn more about their children. You can do busy parents a huge favor by providing a few glimpses. Some ideas are:

• Take lots of pictures of your students engaged in class work and of their actual work. If you use a regular camera, have your photos put on a disk when you get the filmed developed.
• Compose a newsletter for parents and send it out via email. Trick this out a bit by sending it out via Google Groups or…
• Jot down a few notes about classroom activities and add a few pictures in a blog or a wiki.
• Schedule volunteer activities for parents using Google Calendar.
• Get fancy and make a brief video about classroom happenings just like Bre Pettis did in Room 132.

2) Organize your digital closets.

Just like you probably already organize your paper based resources and other materials, take some time on a regular basis to organize whatever you store on your computer. One of my colleagues borrows from the business world and uses a popular management system created by David Allen called Getting Things Done.

My own suggestions are:

• Make folders on your computer for handouts, forms, and correspondence. Consider creating a folder for each student for storing examples of work and photos taken in class. Take a few moments each week to sort digitized items into these folders.
• Start thinking about the end of the school year. If you get organized now, you can easily burn a CD of your students’ work in June for an end of the year surprise.
• Also, consider making a yearbook for your class. There are many services that do this now for a fee. A few services to checkout are Snapfish, Blurb, and Shutterfly. I like Apple’s service that works with iPhoto; two years ago I created a softcover photo booklet for my daughter’s kindergarten class at a reasonable cost.
• Start tagging files. This will make searching for documents and pictures much easier. I know teachers who name files with students’ initials, so that they can easily find documents when searching their computers. Also, Mac users can select a file and then go to the File menu to select Get Information. Under the Spotlight Comments field, you can label that file with keywords. Using Spotlight, the OS X search tool, you can pull up anything that is tagged with a keyword later on.
• Backup all of your files. Do this now without delay. I paid the price this year and lost many photos when my hard drive crashed unexpectedly. Documents and other items that don’t require a lot of space are stored on my .Mac account and in my file server account at school. I also have a huge new external hard drive for storing my photos and video. Call me paranoid, but my original DV tapes and back up CDs of photos are stored in a fireproof safe as well.

3) Go global and take your students along for the ride.

• Start exploring Google Earth.
• Join the Google Earth Community.
• Take your class on a virtual field trip at Tramline Virtual Field Trips.
• Join a collaborative project at Global SchoolNet Foundation or at iEARN. Check out this list from Eduscapes.
• Go on a tour yourself. See Mike Searson’s iStory tour blog for inspiration.
• Apply for an Earthwatch Fellowship or a Fulbright Teacher Exchange.

4) Find some online neighbors. Join a community.

Busy teachers can find support and fellowship online. Here are a few starting points:

• Education World’s Message Board Center
• Golden Apple Foundation’s Teacher Excellence Network
• Support Blogging wiki
• Tapped In

5) Subscribe to free professional development.

Here are a few of my favorite sources for finding listservs, web sites, and podcasts for improving professional practices:

• H-EDTECH Discussion Network – an educational technology listserv
• ISED-L – a listserv for private school educators, but may be of interest to public school educators as well
• Edutopia – Their site and blog are fabulous, and make sure to sign up for their free magazine.
• Free educational podcasts in the iTunes Store
• If you are really feeling adventurous, learn more about RSS feeds by browsing Will Richardson’s RSS: A Quick Start Guide for Educators.

6) Acknowledge another educator.

Share your story about a teacher (or learning experience) that made a difference in your life. Take a moment to reflect on your own experiences through this project I recently started using Google Earth.

As always, I am interested in YOUR thoughts and suggestions. Please take a moment to leave a comment! And I almost forgot... here's my resolution. Thanks to Charlene Chausis for referring me to this fun resource!

Photo Credit: Sally Mahoney Click here to see the photo in Flickr.

Best of 2006: Resources for Teachers

For the past few years, I have been publishing a weekly list of links for educators and this fall, I began using Google Groups to manage this listserv. Because I spend a fair amount of time each week perusing various web sites and resources for teachers, I thought I'd share a few of my favorites this week. There's quite a variety here!

1) U.S Geological Survey

This site contains a mindboggling amount of scientific data and there's a section especially geared towards educators. My favorite part contains RSS feeds and downloadable Google Earth files of recent earthquake activity around the globe.

2) Room 132 Video Blog

Last school year, Room 132 teacher Bre Pettis made some pretty amusing and informative videos on events in his classroom. Bre has moved on to bigger things now, educating adults at Make magazine. These videos convey a sense of fun and enthusiasm for learning and help me remember why I am teacher.

3) 100,000 Wikis in the Classroom

My favorite word as a teacher is FREE, and Wikispaces is generously donating 100,000 free wikis to educators. I plunged into the world of wikis this year with a sixth grade collaborative computer science research project, and I was pleased as punch with the results. I'm excited to learn more about wikis through other ITM bloggers and from Adam Frey of Wikispaces, who will be presenting at the Illinois Technology Conference for Educators in March. I serve on the conference committee for this annual event, and Adam has offered to create a wiki for the conference!

4) Google For Educators: Global Warming Student Speakout

Google For Educator's inaugural project (co-sponsored by Global SchoolNet) was another hit with my students. They mastered spreadsheets, both in Excel and in Google Spreadsheets and Docs, found relevant videos on Google Video, worked collaboratively in teams, and learned a bit about global warming in the process. I'm looking forward to other projects that Google may cook up for us in the future!

5) Apple Learning Interchange 2006 - Rethink. Global Awareness.

I've been fortunate to be a part of the Apple Distinguished Educator program for the past year or so, and my participation in this education community has changed my professional life in so many ways. Many ADEs, along with representatives from EF Educational Tours, traveled last summer to Berlin and Prague to create a global awareness curriculum. My view of the world has broadened and deepened because of this project, and I now understand how vital it is for teachers to bring the world to their students via technology, if not through actual experience.

The resulting project is housed in the Apple Learning Interchange which was redesigned in the past year. Now, any teacher can upload lessons and digital objects to share, rate and comment on projects of others, and subscribe to RSS feeds showing new additions to the collections. Additionally, any media in the ALI can be downloaded to your iTunes library.

Please feel free to point out any favorite web sites or projects of your own choosing by posting information in the comments section of this post. Stay tuned for my next ITM entry in which I suggest some ed tech resolutions for 2007!

I should add that I took the above picture in Berlin at an exhibition of Buddy Bears. Visit this web site to learn more about this international project. In July, 2006, the bears were on display in Bebelplatz, a square near Humboldt University.

ITM 1: Calling Planet Earth

Thanks for watching the premiere episode of the ITM! We know it was a long episode, but we just had so much to say. We promise to make them shorter in the future, and we hope to vary the topics more too. Please be patient as we figure out how to get the most from this great medium. And feel free to send us your ideas and comments!

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Show Notes:

Textmapping is a graphic organizer technique that can be used to teach reading comprehension and writing skills, study skills, and course content. The Textmapping website has great examples, lesson plans, and email discussion groups.

The Inertia video was created by Erica Eng when she was a Senior at Skyline High School in Oakland, CA. More examples of student produced media can be found at Listen Up!

Hart Island is just outside New York City, NY. You can get historical information here and look at the detailed satellite images here.

The new Google Educators website has lots of resources to help K-12 educators get the most from Google's FREE tools.

Hall Davidson runs the CA Student Multimedia Festival, and he works for the Discovery Educator Network. He is a board member of Computer Using Educators, and he is a popular speaker at education conferences. He visited Franklin Elementary School in Hollywood, CA for his "field trip."

Google Earth is free to download and use.

The Jane Goodall Institute is a global nonprofit that empowers people to make a difference for all living things. Jane Goodall has dedicated most of her life to the study and preservation of chimpanzees in Tanzania. The virtual tour of her work can be downloaded here for use in Google Earth.

Learn more about the educational uses of Google Earth at the Juicy Geography website.

A "mashup" is when you combine two or more technologies or media products together to create something even better. Learn more about mashups on Wikipedia or see some great mashups that use Google maps at Google Maps Mania.

You can find, download, and share "placemarks" for Google Earth at the Google Earth Community

Get the World War II "Places, Battles, and Special Ops" placemark to use in Google Earth.

Check out Wikipedia's full entries for World War II.

Thanks to the students from Mr. Hernandez' class at Price Elementary School in Anaheim, CA, for their great introduction to the Infinite Thinking Machine!y