Category: digitalstorytelling
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Rediscovering 10 Year Old Deleted Podcast Files
Have you ever discovered an old shoebox of family photos? That experience can feel like striking gold, from the perspective of preserving precious family memories. This was my experience tonight, discovering that many (maybe all) of my iPhone audio recordings from 10+ years ago on the (now defunct / offline) website cinch.fm were backed up…
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Amazing #STEM Animated Visual Notes by Dominic Walliman
I agree and resonate with many of the things Jaron Lanier shares in the Netflix documentary, “The Social Dilemma,” but I disagree with his advice on YouTube’s “recommended videos.” Jaron advises we should never click on “recommended videos” on YouTube, since that furthers the dystopian economic model of “surveillance capitalism” upon which many of Silicon…
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Designing And Narrating a Dream House Tour in Spanish
This semester, for a variety of reasons, I’m having the opportunity to teach two classes of introductory 5th grade Spanish in addition to our 5th and 6th grade Media Literacy classes. 5th graders at our school take a semester of Spanish and a semester of French, and based on those experiences decide which language to…
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The Social Dilemma Documentary and YOUR Social Media Privacy Settings
If you have not yet watched the new Netflix documentary, “The Social Dilemma,” stop reading this post now and immediately go watch it. Or at least commit to watching it as soon as you have a spare 94 minutes. There’s a good reason it’s poised to be the first documentary to ever be the “#1…
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YouTube Tips and Tricks (September 2020)
A group of teachers interested in Google Educator Certification has started meeting periodically at our school in “Genius Bar Sessions” to dive into different Google products which we use as teachers. This week’s session (yesterday) focused on YouTube. The recorded lesson portion of our meeting is available as a 45 minute video on (where else?!)…
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Reflections on AI, China-U.S. Relations, Education & Innovation
The rapid improvement of artificial intelligence (AI) / machine learning algorithms and systems is one of the most important technological trends to study, discuss, and understand today in 2020. In addition to the adult Sunday School class I’m teaching this year, which is using a book on artificial intelligence as a guiding text (“2084: Artificial…
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Better Remote Learning: Focus on TIME boundaries, Expectations, and Simple Procedures
One of the most straightforward ways we can improve learning experiences for our students and ourselves as teachers this next year (2020-21) is to focus more on TIME. This is true whether we are in “remote learning mode,” face-to-face teaching mode, or some hybrid blend. “Time” (CC BY 2.0) by John-Morgan How much time do you expect students…
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Learn From Mike Wesch How to Create Better Videos for Students
The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed school leaders, teachers, students and parents in the United States to respond in different ways to “shelter in place / shelter at home” mandates. It has pushed many K-12 teachers into the role of “emergency remote learning” instructors, even if the courses they teach were never intended to be “online”…
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Recent Virtual Workshops by Wes (March – April 2020)
The move to “remote learning” at our school in late-March 2020 has corresponded with an uptick in the number of online workshops and webinars I’ve offered for teachers, mainly for faculty at our school as part of my “day job,” but also a few evening and weekend virtual presentations. All of the workshops I’ve led…
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The Orbital Perspective: Inspired by Chris Hadfield, Ed Robertson, the Wexford Gleeks and Rod Murray
Thanks to a recommendation from my Canadian friend and fellow educator Rod Murray (@mrmuzzdog), this morning I started my day with an inspiring, co-created song by Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield), Ed Robertson (@edrobertson,) and the Wexford Gleeks (@wpa_to) recorded together when Commander Hadfield was orbiting our planet as an astronaut aboard the International Space Station in…