ain't what it used to be

During my teaching years, my principal consistently directed me to not ‘re-invent the wheel’ with my instruction.  This meant that she encouraged me to find resources online that would suite my instructional needs.  This seems like good advice…if there were instructional materials readily available online that matched my teaching philosophy, content needs, and context.  Occasionally, after lengthy online searches, I would be able to find materials that were suitable, but more often than not, I found little to nothing online that helped me.  This process was…frustrating.  Eventually I realized that it was usually easier and more efficient to develop my own materials.

In fact, I found the design and development portion of my job to be very gratifying.  I ended up with something tangible…a product that my students would use and learn from.  Additionally, I did want to re-invent the wheel!  Or at least improve it’s design, because many of the materials that existed online re-enforced traditional pedagogies in which students were spoonfed knowledge that they would eventually be asked to regurgitate…not my style.

Now, as an instructional designer for Project Engage (an introduction to computer science course), I once again have to make choices about what to design and develop independently and what to find online and re-purpose.  For the first unit/problem of the course, I wanted students to participate in digital forensics, which would require a complete narrative occurring in authentic online spaces that students could investigage independently.  This did not exist already online…I would have to create it myself.

I’m very happy to say that the result is ‘Conspiracy Theory – a Classic Whodunit for the Digital Age.’  I hope that this mystery will engage students in their first problem of the course and help them begin to think about computing in new ways.  So, without further ado, I challenge you to solve the mystery yourself!  I also hope that this might be of use to other teachers, so feel free to forward the link to whomever you think might want to use it in their classroom.

Conspiracy Theory

Introduction:

• Leandro’s online identity has been stolen and used to cyberbully Chris.  As a result, Leandro has been expelled from school.  As Leandro’s friend, you must help convince the principal that Leandro is innocent.”

Digital evidence:

• Explore the website below, which includes multiple different digital resources that mimic digital tools that we all use on a regular basis.  Remember, this is a complete narrative/mystery.  There are more clues than I can count, and it’s your job to exonerate Leandro and prove whodunit.  Can you solve the Conspiracy Theory?

These videos can be found in the computer science course (Project Engage) that I’m developing with Brad, Calvin, and George…

Ask yourself, “What is a computer?”  Think about how you would describe it to a young child.  Then, watch:

Next, think about how social media has changed your life.  It has.  Period.  Even if you don’t participate in it, the world does, and you’re a part of that.  Watch:

Don’t be afraid by that story though.  Technology can be a wonderful thing!  Think about how you’ve used your cell phone today, and watch:

Technology affects us, globally.  You’re ready for some hardcore stuff now (totally safe, don’t worry):

Hope you enjoyed these choice selections…and thought…just a wee bit, perhaps.

For the first time in my PhD program, some of my textbooks  are available in e-versions.   This is somewhat shocking, considering that I’m in the ‘Instructional Technology’ field, so if any education field would have made the transition by now, you’d think it be us.  But I digress…

I’m glad to have my textbooks on my trusty iPad2, but I’m frustrated.  Allow me to explain (in a little detail – there is a shorter summary below these 6 notes):

1. I use a high powered annotation software called iAnnotate for reading and annotating research articles (.pdf) files, and it works fantastic.  iAnnotate provides me all the tools (and more) that I would have access to if I were taking notes by hand, and it does so in a somewhat user-friendly environment.  I could go on and on about the other features (e.g. summaries of my notations, etc.), but you can read about those on their website.
2. iAnnotate does not support ePub or Kindle’s AZW file formats.  I’ve contacted them about this, because I’d really like to continue to use it as my professional e-reader.
3. The Amazon Kindle app has putrid annotation tools.  They are pretty much useless, because their interface is built more for reading (consuming) than for interacting with the texts.
4. Being the computer savvy fellow I am, I decide that I will remove the DRM restrictions from the Kindle book files, and convert them to ePub and PDF formats.
5. After quite some time researching on the interwebs how to accomplish this, I’ve downloaded the necessary freeware and successfully removed the DRM restrictions from the Kindle files, and successfully converted them into the ePub format.  However, although the ePub format is wonderful, because it adjusts to screen size, font size, image size, etc., there are no useful annotation softwares for interacting with them (at least that I’m aware of).  Kindle, Stanza, iBooks…they all are basically useless for academic/professional consumption/interaction with the reading material.
6. So, I try to convert the ePub files into PDF files, so that I can annotate with iAnnotate…except converting from ePub -> PDF is futile.  The pages don’t fill up (despite numerous setting changes and attempts), there are too many blank pages, the images don’t transfer in full size, and overall, it’s an even worse reading experience than before.

If any of that made sense to you, fantastic.  But I’ll still summarize:

• e-Books currently don’t have a e-reader software that is qualified for easy, thorough, in-text annotations.
• Converting ePub and AZM files to PDF files does not seem like a viable solution.

Enter Apple’s new iBooks Textbooks and iBooks Author…

Upon first glance, it seems that Apple has taken a step forward, especially in regards to costs, multimedia, interface, and yes…interacting with texts via annotations (and making those annotations useful).  I intend to download and experiment with these new textbooks, as well as use the iBooks Author to create new content for courses that I teach.  I hope that the file format, which isn’t exactly ePub, plays well with PCs, Macs, netbooks, etc., and is not limited to the iPad…

iBooks Textbooks…gotta admit: I’m intrigued.

*Note: This post is featured in Danny Nicholson’s blog carnival, which can be found on his Whiteboard Blog: Supporting Technology in the Classroom: http://www.whiteboardblog.co.uk/2012/01/the-ed-tech-blog-carnival-2012/

If you know me, you probably know that I am a big believer in tablet computing for education, and for the foreseeable future, I will spend a great deal of my time learning about how these iPads affect teaching and learning.

Personally, I love my iPad 2. It’s been a fantastic tool for me. I purchased it last year, during SXSW, so that I would have a few months to learn how to use it at the end of the school year, and be perfectly prepared to use it full bore come Fall…and that’s what I did. For the first time in my life, I had no binder this past semester. Zero. I had a folder, but generally didn’t use it. My iPad was all I took to school, and it was all I needed to thrive (sometimes). I used it for a wide variety of purposes that I’ll perhaps describe another time, but that’s not what this post is about.  This post is about facilitating multimedia creativity.

During a break from academic writing two nights ago, I was inspired. I was inspired to create…art. Only, I don’t draw or paint anymore. I used to be decent at drawing, but if there was ever any talent, it’s long gone by now. BUT, I can design a thing or two from time to time. Hell…over the last five years of my life as a teacher I learned that I could make anything just using Microsoft Word. Ha! Yeah…sometimes I can be naive. Last night though, when inspiration called, I reached for my iPad.

The University of Texas football team is playing the U.C. Berkeley football team on December 28, 2011, in the Holiday Bowl. This is a special event for my family, because I am now a proud Longhorn…hook ‘em…but my brother and father are Cal alumni. The Russells are torn. Clearly, the Longhorns will win, but I wanted to express this in ways more powerful than words. So, I took out my iPad and made this poster:

Yup.  Never would have done that on my computer, but designing it on my iPad was intuitive, easy, and dare I say…fun.  Last night, during another break, I made a comic about the steps it took to make the poster.  What better way to show just how easy it is to tell a story with multimedia on the iPad than by creating a multimedia narrative?  The story goes like this: (click images if you want them even larger)

Today, I’m a guest speaker in a reading methodology course, where I’ll be discussing digital/new media literacies with preservice teachers.  In place of a traditional lecture, throughout the lesson we will watch and analyze three separate video clips, discussing the themes we observe.  Each clip is short, and is pertinent to the activity or discussion directly following it.

First, because the undergrad teachers will be using a classroom set of iPads during class, we will start with iPads and literacy via “Baby Works iPad Perfectly“.

Next, the class will examine and discuss the clip “Above and Beyond” as they prepare to complete their online reading and collaborative knowledge building for the day (the topic is ’21st century skills’).

Third, we will bring digital literacies to high school and higher ed as we examine “the Networked Student“.

Lastly, students will analyze how their own new media literacy practices and create a “Khan Academy” style video that analyzes some of the websites they visited during their reading activity.  They will upload their videos to the same account, and watch what each other have produced.Here is my example, as I quickly analyze Pritchard’s use of his iPad.

Overall, I hope this will quickly (in 80 min. or so): 1) expose these preservice teachers to a variety of factors related to new media literacies; 2) allow them to have meaningful discussions about the topic; and 3) provide them opportunities to demonstrate their understanding authentically.

This is my first time teaching undergrad preservice teachers, so fingers crossed that everything goes well!

*Here is a slightly more detailed lesson plan, if you’re interested: New Media Literacy – Lesson Plan

A main component of problem-based-learning (PBL) is…the problem.  A good designer/teacher chooses a problem that is authentic and relevant to the content.  Well…here’s the problem: sometimes content doesn’t scream out to you, “Hey buddy, choose this problem.  It’ll be perfect.”  My task is to brainstorm problems for these computer science topics:

• computers in society/global impact
• representation/digitization
• computers
• programming w/Scratch (and Alice?)
• networks
• big data
• security & privacy
• AI

so, I think I’m committed to this website, blog, concept, etc., but we’ll see

remember, Greg…perpetual beta…