The North Wind Blew South from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

What I love even more about this is the story of Keith and his new fame. He is creating new art in a way that hasn’t been done before and it is spreading to wide audiences around the world. This is a story of an amateur who has perfected his craft to become a professional who is being requested for art shows and exhibitions around the world.

I tweeted the link to Keith’s Vimeo Channel and soon my acquaintance, Neil, replied with links to two of his favorite tiltshift artists Olivo Barbieri and Toni Hafkenschied.  This inspired me to learn more.

Tiltshifting was new to me. I needed to learn more. I found info on composing tiltshifting on wikipedia and realized it needed special equipment or edditing software. Upon further searching I found tiltshift maker, a program that automatically tiltshifts pictures. Below is a slide show of some pictures from my European vacation this past summer that I experimented tiltshifting with.  Do you have a favorite?

I like this style because it adds a different perspective. I get the feeling that some of these images could be minature models or toys. As in life situations, value can be gained by looking at things in a different way.

Neil, tiltshifted some of his photo’s and commented that he wanted to try this project with his students. Without this web based program, timeshifting would be difficult for his students to do. Hopefully he and the class give it a shot.

September is a fantastic time of the year to try geocaching. The weather in Saskatchewan isn’t too hot or too cold. Autumn’s birth is on the horizon and by the third week we begin to see the leaves changing colour. The setting is almost perfect for an outdoor classroom.  Fortunately for me, I have been assigned to sub in grade 6/7 room for the last couple weeks. Prior to my arrival, the class had spent time refreshing their mapping skills and discussing location. Immediately, I saw this as excellent opportunity to experiment with GPS and geocaching to reinforce learning about direction, location and coordinates. Having never owned a Global Position System (GPS) unit, I had only a basic idea of how they worked but recognized the potential for learning.

Before we began to use the units outdoors, I knew we had to spend time discussing coordinates and distance until we all had a firm grasp on the concepts. Then we talked about how GPS units use 3 of 24 satellites circling the earth to triangulate our position and are then able to send exact coordinates of our location to the GPS unit.  To complete the overview we had a short study of the units interface. This helped to better understand the 5 different buttons, the 5 different screens and become aware of the vocabulary involved with marking or finding the coordinates of a location.

We used the GPS units in our outdoor classroom three times.

Our first outdoor experience took place on a Wednesday, in the school yard, where I had marked the coordinates of landmarks (soccer goalpost, the slide, a lightpole).  I gave the coordinates of the landmarks to the students, who in turn input the digits into the GPS units. The students were then asked to find which locations the coordinates were for. Each student found each of the locations, but mostly because they followed those walking in front of them.

Back in the classroom we debriefed. I fired up the projector and loaded Google Maps. On the satellite view of the maps we found Sunningdale School in Moose Jaw. I typed in the first coordinate for the goalpost and the students watch as the Google marker landed there.  I then asked “which direction the marker would go if the western coordinate was increased?” and “what if the Northern coordinate decreased?” and so on. We reinforced the concept of longitude and latitude.

The following Friday, we embarked on our second outdoor adventure.  Pairs of students were asked to mark 5 coordinates/landmarks for another pair. Once the locations were marked in the GPS unit, the students swapped units and went exploring to find the unknown destinations.  At this point I could hear students working together and making guesses as to which landmark the coordinates would take them to. They were all running, trying to find the best landmark and appeared extremely involved in the activity.

Upon returning to the classroom we discussed and watched a short introductory video on the growing outdoor sport of Geocaching.  We talked about guidelines and the ethics of the sport. About different types of caches and the types of “treasures” swapped when a cache is found. Then, to reinforce guidelines for geocaching, we recited the GeoCreed, (shared with me by another Grade 6 teacher in Victoria, BC, named Jan Smith).

On Monday morning one of the Gr.6 students appeared in the doorway before the bell. He told me of his Saturday adventure Geocaching.  He had signed up an account on geocaching.com, where he found numerous listings of geocaches. Each listing shows a map of the approximate area in which the cache is located and gives a hint as to the location.  Without a GPS unit, this student printed the map, hopped on his bike and went out geocaching. He came in early that Monday to explain how and where he found his first THREE geocaches. He went on to explain that after he found the caches, he logged back into geocaching.com and posted to the discussion board for each cache to show he had been there and note what he swapped. He was beaming with pride. The class was enthralled with this boy’s story and could not wait to find their own cache.

The next morning we set off to find the cache that I had hid the night before.  After hiding the cache in a park near the school, I hid 9 clues with coordinates for the next stops along the route.  The class worked together to find each of the clues in sequence and utilized their mapping skills to find the shortest route to the next destination.  The students learned that even though the GPS points the way to the coordinate’s location, sometimes houses would get in the way and they couldn’t go the way of the crow.  Upon finding each clue the students intensity grew, they reached a point where they knew the direction just from me reading the coordinates. By the last few clues they could have gone on without the device. They found the cache and thoroughly enjoyed the lollypops and pride that came with completing this challenging task.

There have been talks of continuing this outdoor pursuit in collaboration with a class from a nearby school if time allows.  We may plant a cache of items for them and email instructions for finding it. Then in turn they would take the container, swap items and plant the cache for us.  Following the activity, students from each class would correspond about their adventures to find the caches, explain to each other why they left and took the items they did. Ultimately, the students would benefit from interacting and building community with another group of students engaged in a fun learning experience.

Hopefully in the near the future we will see these tools integrated into courses as they are needed and not because mobile seems to be the latest & greatest trend or flashy gizmo. My feeling is that some students are already self equipped with devices that have the potential to expand upon their access to content and overall learning experience. It was evident that his area is ripe for experimentation and innovation, as we generated far more questions than answers. We are continually looking for models of success and ideas of sound pedagogical application, please share if you have any stories of mobile technologies and learning.

There is much more on this topic that I want to unpack and think about. As tools advance, barriers to efficient use of the tools will decrease and learners will continue to find ways to utilize the mini computers that we carry.

I have a related post on MP3 players from January that has more thoughts on possibilities for tools.

“12% of internet users say they have downloaded a podcast so they can listen to it or view it at a later time.” Pew Internet, 11/22/2

I have had this blog post on the back burner for little while. As a Digital Intern, I received funding from a Microsoft Partners in Learning (MPIL) Grant to purchase tools for my school. I chose MP3 Players to be part of the package. Today, I sat in on a meeting about potential classroom use of the tools. These two factors inspired this post.

Teacher’s automatically are intrigued by the idea of digitized assessment, voice recorders capture the blurbs of learning that students express in conversation. I used the recorder to record conversation during group work, reading, presenting & debating. As I walked the room I recorded student conversations, captured their responses to questions and made additional anecdotal comments. I briefly reviewed the material recorded and realized it would take a lot of time to listen to every minute again. The neat thing is that the recordings are digitized and stored as part of the students portfolio. The teachers at the school are excited about the potential of recording reading benchmarks for comparative data.

Rationale for using these tools; because our students do.

Ideas and models of classroom use of the Tool:

1. Listening to eBooks/podcasts

I have been in two conversations in the past two days in which someone has referred to a book they listened to. You need to search for free ebooks, but they are out there.

There are podcasts on many, many topics and new content added every second. Search iTunes or Juice to find podcasts that relate to the subject matter you are studying. iTunes U has a huge library of College podcasts. Educators may want to visit the Education Podcast Network to find podcasts from other educators and examples of podcasts organized by grade or subject. CBC is another favorite source for radio podcasts.

2. Take recording on the road, record learning and observations from fieldtrips. My good friend Paul had students interview one another while visiting the McKenzie Art Gallery. Listen to the podcasts at his classes blog. Again capturing the thoughts and ideas as they are expressed.

3. Create Radio Shows on a variety of topics

This could range from a strong 15 sec advertisement to a full out Sprankle Style Production. My fellow intern Joy, had her Gr 7 students create podcasts on music from different era’s. She called it “Music Through Time”. I worked with a group that studied music from the 70’s and created their version of what a radio show sounded like at that time. It should be noted that teachers need to allow time to work out the intangibles of larger projects.

4. Record the project instructions once in a while. Change up your presentation method. Record the instructions for your next assignment.

Possibilities are endless. Have students verbally record the process of a science experiment. Upload a daily language lesson. Drum with a professional. The teacher no longer has to be the only professional in the classroom.

Sharon Peters‘ grade 9 class completed a neat interview project (covering all levels of blooms taxonomy) as part of their response to a novel study on The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. Once scripted the students record their podcast and post to their class wiki. Sharon also pointed me pointed me to LEARN Quebec as a source for classroom ideas.

Damien Baxerica has had his high school students record dramatic readings of The Crucible. Students also learn from teaching peers with their Slidecast Presentations.

You will also find Brian Grenier’s Classroom Tech Podcasting Wiki to be a good resource for the podcasting teacher.

Here are some sites he shared. I will add links and descriptions later.

9:00 – Alec shows us some tools from a brainstorm list

• Chacha - Live online Search
  
• Skreemer - Music Search
• Google Sketchup -
• Remember the Milk – Remember tasks through online tasks. Idea to share assignments and reminders with students.
• Gmail accounts for students and teachers – Couros Blog – Watch the Jing Cast

• Dandelife – Lifecast – Student Biography Projects – Personal Time Lines
• Slideshare – share powerpoints – Add audio with slidecast
• Gliffy – Online Drawing Tools
• QiZiQ – Online study help. Created by 15 year old
• Dynamic Images
• FD’s Flickr Page – Motivational posters
• Let them sing it for you
• Edutopia. Great source of ideas for teachers.

9:45 – A short explanation of Creative Commons. Re-useable content, crediting

10:00 - Dean Shareski is getting us Geocaching. I have looked forward to this presentation for some time.

geocaching.com

Dean is going to share how geocaching is applicable in a variety of ways. Technology doesn’t have to be sedentary. Anecdotes of GPS in dogs, senile grandparents, agriculture (GPS in tractors), prior to 2000 the satellites were only used for military use.

video from howstuffworks.com

video Simpsons on Google Earth

video – geocaching on UNC-TV

What is GeoCaching. Hidden Caches like a treasure hunt. Multi-cache sites, Dozens of forms of geocaching. Scratching the surface of how we can use it in the classroom.

People are starting to use GPS for all sorts of businesses and hobbies.

How to: look up on web, get coordinates, find location with a GPS

10:20 Getting Ready to go outside. Passing out devices to go over interface. Looking at geocaching.com
viewing the online map, clues and cordinates. Finding the location on Google Earth. Read the logs of other people that went looking for the cache to make sure of existence of the cache.

Fun way for students to learn coordinates, longitude, latitude. Need to learn more about mapping marked points. I will need to spend some time geocaching and thinking about classroom implementation before I get students going.

More to come.  This is something I want to learn more about