Today's (January 13, 2011) early #Lrnchat session was loosely oriented around learning technology standards. As happens during #Lrnchat sessions on Twitter, moderators post questions for participants to discuss in 140 characters or less. One of today's questions asked participants to...

Over the past few decades, research has shown that emotions have an effect on many of the processes involved in learning. It’s safe to say that emotions are an influence on perception, attention, motivation, and the encoding and retrieval of information. What follows is a synopsis of some of the many ways emotions affect these various processes. You may want to read Emotions and Learning: Part I of this series first. But it’s not a requirement and you won’t get tested. Perception There is little doubt that emotions color perception. They influence and bias the way we see the world. Not surprisingly, research shows that people who are in a positive emotional state will be open to a learning experience, make more positive judgments and give more favorable feedback than someone in a negative state. The challenge for designers is to create learning experiences that are sufficiently meaningful and engaging that they elicit positive reactions from learners. In terms of attitudinal training and soft skills, it’s important to know that a person with an emotional bias may be unwilling to accept facts that cause unpleasant feelings or to believe facts that cause positive feelings, even when there is clear evidence to the contrary. Motivation Emotions are at least partly responsible for our motivation to pursue goal-directed behaviors and activities. They serve to energize people, providing intensity and direction. For example, motivation increases when a goal is neither too difficult nor too easy to succeed. A moderate challenge is optimally motivating. Also, studies show that a person’s affect influences the cognitive processes associated with motivation. For example, people who feel positive emotions, such as fulfillment and satisfaction, are willing to exert more mental effort to a task than those experiencing negative emotions. In addition, emotion often underlies curiosity and creativity, all of which can be motivational factors in the learning process. Attention Through attention, we select the object of our concentration and focus on it, ignoring the noise in the environment. Research indicates that attention and motivation are highly correlated. People tend to pay attention to those things with a higher motivational significance. Paying attention to a task implies the person expects to find or is currently finding an intrinsic or extrinsic reward. During a learning experience, participants continually appraise the experience. This may elicit an emotional response that affects the learning process. For example, a learner who is bored might experience dissatisfaction and irritation, which can interfere with paying attention. A positive reaction to the experience should help the learner sustain attention. Memory Many studies show that positive emotions can facilitate the processes of working memory as well as help long-term memory and retrieval. When emotions are central to a learning experience, they can enhance a person’s ability to remember the experience. For example, when a group collaborates and successfully solves a difficult challenge, the achievement and social nature of the experience can arouse positive emotions. The emotions enhance the encoding process and make the learning experience meaningful and memorable. When powerful visuals or emotional scenarios are part of a learning experience, these can also enhance memory. The explicit conscious memory of an emotional situation will be more powerful than a non-emotional situation. Emotional Distractions What’s the down side of appealing to emotions during learning? Emotions can be disruptive when they are irrelevant or unrelated to learning. Irrelevant emotions seem to use up a person’s capacity to attend to a task and to remember it. Although the dominant belief is that positive emotions facilitate the learning process, be aware that they can both enhance and detract from learning. We designers have a two-pronged challenge: to design for the emotions using instructionally appropriate and meaningful strategies and to create positive experiences that enhance learning. The final article in this series will present practical ways to design for the emotions. Check back soon or sign up for updates through the form at the top. Have you had success with emotional design? Share your stories. Related Articles: Emotions And Learning: Part I 10 Ways To Design For Emotion (Part III) Share this article with a friend! Use the tools below. Post from: The eLearning CoachEmotions and Learning: Part II Tweet This! Share this on Facebook Share this on Linkedin Buzz up! Share this on del.icio.us Stumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUpon

Click on the graphic to read more about this fascinating technology phenomenon. Find more education infographics on e-Learning Infographics

This post is part of my continuing series of weekly lesson summaries. My goal is to give parents & caregivers in our school community the resources needed to extend student learning at home, and to share my professional practice with teacher colleagues around the world in the interest of improving my craft. Synopsis: this was by far the  most powerful (and FUN!) week yet in my new classroom. We had four - count ‘em - FOUR - classes (Kindergarten, Grades 2-3-4) do the What is Engineering? Tower Power lesson that first graders did last week. I learned something from each and every class. It’s not that the material is so ground-breaking (it’s not, it’s actually very simple) … this week’s lessons rocked because the kids were in control of the learning like never before. First grade had fun, too, with a Halloween safety activity using one of our all-time favorite resources, Kerpoof. Week ending 10/26/12 First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: First Grade has actually gotten more exposure to STEM material, more than any other grade level, which was partly by design (but not entirely.) This week I wanted to make sure the kids got some quality time on the Chromebooks so I told them we were asked to create Halloween Safety posters using Kerpoof. It’s a wonderful, free website with incredible power and capability - but most important - a beautifully simple user interface (UI) that makes the site a joy to use. It’s absolutely one of our all-time favorites for use in the lab. Students had to choose an appropriately themed background then add text (a safety tip and their name) and graphics to complete the finished poster. They needed to change fonts, colors, text size as well as place, size and in some cases rotate images into position. It’s harder than it sounds (to do correctly) but I am pleased to say everyone did a fantastic job and had a ton of fun in the process. To make things easier for students, I prepared small pieces of paper with suggested safety tips and "Happy Halloween" spelled out. Some students used them, but not all. They made a big difference for those who needed the help. When students finished, we saved the projects for later printing on the color printer in Computer Lab #1. We are still working on printing capability for my new space. What I observed / inferred / connected: Fine motor skills are solid at this age and the kids easily found their way around the site to add what they needed to complete their projects. The conversations we had at the start of the lessons were priceless, we brainstormed different safety tips in ways that only a room full of first graders could. What students can do at home: Have your student visit Kerpoof and click the yellow square to "Make a picture." Then, get out of the way and watch them create. For fun, ask your child about the "Spaghetti Head Baby" in Kerpoof. They will most likely start laughing uncontrollably and try to find it in Kerpoof to show you. [slickr-flickr type="slideshow" tag="LWIL1026" id="29304822@N00" flickr_link="on" link="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kjarrett/sets/72157631648412574/with/8126400230/" attribution="What is Engineering? Tower Power Project"]Kindergarten, Second, Third and Fourth Grade What we learned / did / explored together: What is Engineering? Tower Power is one of the "prep" lessons at the beginning of every Engineering is Elementary unit. First graders did it last week and that writeup was pretty complete, so instead of rehashing it, I’ll highlight some of the more powerful things that happened in class this past week. (Remember, 60% of my students haven’t had this lesson yet!) I wanted to do this lesson for the rest of my classes because it is an important introduction to the Engineering Design Process which is central to the STEM work we will be incorporating into my curriculum this year. The regular classroom teachers were essential during this lesson because they helped group students into five teams. So far, the process has worked extremely well, with personalities balancing out nicely and only a few problems requiring coaching / adult intervention. Most importantly, every team was successful. Each and every one. What I observed / inferred / connected: My new favorite classroom sound, second only to laughter, is CHEERING. I absolutely, positively love the sound of the class cheering for a team when "Crabby McCrabbypants" was placed on each structure. It was … pure magic! Going into the project, I was most concerned with Kindergarten students’ ability to work collaboratively. This lesson would be ideal with partners; four on a team is a lot for this age, especially when there are strong personalities in the mix. To my surprise, and perhaps because of my insistence at the start of the lesson (and modeling) that they listen to each other, Kindergarten had no more issues than any other grade level. Go figure! A second grade team has the current record, a 26″ tower. One of my third grade students, when asked "what could have been better" during the debrief, replied that the reason her team didn’t make much progress as the others was because there was a lot of arguing. I went out of my way to acknowledge her honesty and brainstorm ways to reduce conflict. Fourth grade students were, as expected, the most animated and came up with the most elaborate designs. One group added "a zip line ending up in a pool" to their tower. Many added similar non-height-related "features" that really expressed their creativity. This was essential because it gave everyone the chance to contribute to the design. One of my fourth grade students, who is easily distracted and frequently off-task, saw me at the end of class to ask, "Can we do Engineering again next week in computer lab?" What students can do at home: Build a card tower! Find a small stuffed animal that can serve as the "subject" to test the design. It should be sufficiently light as to not instantly crush your student’s creation. Use thick index cards (5×7 work even better than 3×5). Just limit your student to a fixed amount (plus a small section of tape.)  

It’s quite clear from research on the effects of emotion and learning, that an emotional connection can be generated through instructional strategies and creative treatments. These have the potential to facilitate learning and performance. This is the third article in the series on emotions and learning. If you’d like some background on this topic, read Emotions And Learning: Part I and Part II. Now let’s jump into some practical approaches to designing for the emotions. Please add your suggestions for emotional design in the Comments section below. 1. Acknowledge emotions This most straightforward and direct approach is underutilized in online learning. The idea is simple: to speak to the emotions, speak to the emotions. Acknowledge how learners might feel about the subject matter or the learning experience itself. Try framing the purpose of a course in emotional terms. This might mean telling the audience how a program will help them become more effective, more competent, or enable them to help others. You might ask learners to think about how a scenario made them feel, or how a character might have felt. Allow learners to respond to questions about emotions in an end-of-course survey. The bottom line is this: adult learners have a wide range of life experiences, much of which is associated with emotions. They bring this emotional dimension to the learning environment so it deserves acknowledgment. 2. Respect the audience People appreciate being valued and respected. This is one way to generate positive emotions during a learning event. How can we do this when all we have is electrons? Avoid a tone of condescension or superiority in scripts and in live webinars. Ensure feedback provides solid information and is phrased in an encouraging way. And make sure the instructional level is appropriate for the audience. If the content is too basic for an experienced audience, it implies we don’t care about their time. If it’s too challenging, it implies we don’t know them well enough. 3. Design for social interaction Humans evolved to read signals from each other, often through emotional channels. Using collaborative tools and social media can help learners build relationships, cooperate on tasks, and provide support and feedback to each other. If you design for social interaction, consider providing guidelines to make the experience more meaningful. For example, if group members are reviewing each others work, encourage them to offer detailed  explanations rather than superficial comments like, "Nice work." See 10 Social Media Tools for Learning and Social Media and Learning for more on the social approach to learning. 4. Use principles of aesthetic design The visual design of an online learning environment can impact the learner’s emotional response to it. You  can leverage the human capacity for aesthetic appreciation by ensuring your courses are well-designed. In one study that examined emotions and multimedia learning, the authors concluded, "There is significant effect of emotions on … [the participants'] transfer test, mental effort investment, as well as level of satisfaction. It also indicates that positive emotions can be generated by the instructional design that may be able to affect learners’ experience and performance. The study implies that positive emotions should be considered as important factors in instructional design."  — Eunjoon Um et. al. Even if you are not the graphic designer, you can provide ideas and feedback on the layout, colors and type for a look and feel that will induce positive emotions. 5. Make it easy to use Don’t let the technology or user interface get in the way of learning. The tools of learning should be as transparent as possible to the whole experience. When technology is easy to use, it can have a positive impact on the learner’s affect. Research shows that people notice the dynamics of their own mental processing and are sensitive to the resulting feelings of ease or difficulty in usability. Some things you can do are: avoid slow downloads, write clear user interface instructions, let learners know what to do on every screen and adhere to common user interface conventions, when possible. Most users have a mental model of how an online program should work and may get frustrated if your course breaks the mold. If you’re interested in user interface design, see User Interface Design For Learning and Writing Microcopy. 6. Generate emotion through surprise You can evoke emotional responses by adding unexpected elements to your courses. When things move along at a steady pace, brain activation also remains steady; but when a surprising event occurs, the brain registers a jump in activity. What about letting learners fail at their first try in solving a problem, if it can be framed as a learning experience? For some, the frustration of moderate failure can increase motivation for success. What if an action resulted in an unexpected consequence? Why not avoid the linear mindset and allow exploration and discovery? You can provide humor in an unexpected moment or add an unusual twist to generic scenarios. When a learner encodes and stores information, an emotional reaction can serve as a mental index for locating the stored memory and corresponding information at a later date. 7. Immerse the learner in 3-D challenges For an all-encompassing emotional experience, consider designing a learning event in an immersive 3-D environment.  The realism and authenticity of games, virtual events and problem-solving challenges in an exploratory learning environment may simulate emotions one would experience in the non-virtual world. In addition, the ability to role-play and problem-solve through avatars is the ideal environment for emotional arousal while learning. For more on this topic, see Your Brain On 3D Learning. 8. Tell stories Humans seem to be hard-wired for telling and listening to stories. They’re an age-old device for transferring knowledge and sharing information and values. Stories have a way of touching the emotions, because people perceive their own and others’ lives in a narrative form. The narrative device is effective in case studies, interviews, simulations and role-playing scenarios. Stories make content more memorable because their authenticity adds detail and emotion to content. 9. Use emotionally charged visuals Both pleasant and disturbing pictures elicit a physical response in the body and speak directly to emotional centers in the brain compared to neutral pictures. Images of facial expressions and dramatic gestures are known to arouse emotional reactions and have similar interpretations across many cultures. When instructionally appropriate, emotional pictures are an effective way to pique curiosity, gain attention and engage the audience because they evoke emotion. Does this photo on the left evoke an emotional response in you? 10. Evoke Memories In the book, Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things, Donald Norman points out that people build attachments to objects that have a significant meaning. This is typically because the object is associated with emotional memories. You can allude to significant personal memories of your audience through common significant objects or by using analogies and metaphor in an effort to help learners connect with the content.Memories from childhood, times of fear or frustration, family celebrations and romantic love are all possible avenues for reaching out. The take away point is that it’s important for us to remember that learners have a rich emotional history and they’re not simply containers for depositing information. Your comments, additions and feelings are welcome. Use the comment form below. Related Articles: Emotions And Learning: Part I Emotions And Learning Part II Relevant Research: Aesthetics and Human-Computer Interaction (Research by Noam Tractinsky) Um, Eunjoon et. al., The Effect of Positive Emotions on Multimedia Learning If it’s easy to read, it’s easy to do, pretty, good, and true Post from: The eLearning Coach10 Ways To Design For Emotions (Part III) Tweet This! Share this on Facebook Share this on Linkedin Buzz up! Share this on del.icio.us Stumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUpon

Happy New Year! So, Winter Break is over.  I literally did not leave my house unless forced or the sun was shining. (15 days, with 5 days of sunshine, need … Continue reading →

This post is part of my continuing series of weekly lesson summaries. My goal is to give parents & caregivers in our school community the resources needed to extend student learning at home, and to share my professional practice with teacher colleagues around the world in the interest of improving my craft. Synopsis: This week’s activities in Computer Lab were the best blend so far this year of my old "computer lab" lessons and my new "STEM" emphasis content. Kindergarten students were introduced to a great, free, online art program that has many capabilities and can be used on any computer; Second, Third and Fourth graders followed up last week’s engineering design process lesson with a second engineering challenge involving ten 1″ strips of paper and a 500-sheet ream of paper; First graders had a blast exploring leaf samples using our trusty QX5 microscopes and five Dell D600 laptops I literally saved from the scrap heap over the summer, precisely for this purpose. Please also note: due to our days lost to Hurricane Sandy, our upcoming in-service on Election Day, the approaching Thanksgiving holiday, and a few other scheduling technicalities too obtuse to explain, my current "Day" rotation for lessons in Computer Lab is, in technical terms, all out of whack. As a result, I will be skipping an update in a week or so to get things back on track. Thanks for understanding! Week ending 11/02/12 .Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: We warmed up with the ABCYa Shape Construction game and the ABCYa Uppercase/Lowercase Matching activity. Both were instant favorites. Bookmark these at home! We introduced the concept of digital artwork by having a conversation about the advantages & disadvantages of drawing with paper and crayons/pencils/whatever vs. using a computer. As always, the interaction in this part of the class was inspiring. It is always fun to engage a Kindergartener in a conversation. They say (sometimes with a little difficulty) exactly what’s on their minds. Returning to the cubes in front of the SMART Board, we moved on to an introduction to the free and fabulous ABCYa PaintGo! program, which is for now my go-to choice for art digital projects in K-4. The program is simple to use, relatively powerful, supports exporting to .JPG and printing. It’s Flash based so it works great on our Chromebooks. There are some limitations but it’s easily the best program of its kind I’ve found (other than Sumo Paint, which is better suited for grades 3-4 because of the complexity of its user interface). We explored the various components and capabilities (toolbars, color palette, stickers & coloring pages, multi-level Undo (a LIFESAVER), and the kids knew what to do. They were charged with creating digital artwork and incorporating their name (using the text tool or any other means, as Matthew demonstrates above.) Projects were then saved to .JPG format for later printing. What I observed / inferred / connected: It is great to see that so many of the activities I introduce in the lab are already being used in the classroom. Kids instantly know what to do, and, I and the classroom teacher can work individually with those who need extra help. It also makes the beginning of my lessons more effective since I rely on kids to ‘teach’ others using the SMART Board, and the more hands we have in the air when something needs to be done, the better! Since a good portion of our lower elementary technology curriculum is art-based (it gives students the ability to express themselves and respond creatively to prompts), it’s critical that we have a reliable, robust, FREE art program. ABCYa PaintGo! is that program. These painting programs are excellent measures of fine motor and mouse skill and I continue to be impressed by the progress kids are making. Most have mastered the mouse, which, considering a large number of these students come from homes with tablets are prevalent, means a lot. What students can do at home: The ABCYa Shape Construction game and the ABCYa Uppercase/Lowercase Matching activity, as well as ABCYa PaintGo!, can be found on our Kindergarten Symbaloo page. Students should feel free to explore any and all of these activities when the mood strikes! xx Leaf Science from Mr. Jarrett First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: I have been doing this lesson, or a version of it, for as long as we have had the fabulous QX5 computer microscopes (donated by our amazing PTO) so many years ago. It’s a perfect lesson for this time of year. I always change/update something, add a new wrinkle or challenge, and this year, it was to have the kids work in teams (four to five per table) using some older but still viable Dell D600 laptops I salvaged over the summer. We started the lesson with a few of the interactives in "Trees are Terrific" (above) then worked our way into a conversation based on the Powerpoint (also above, which is oriented to second grade, so I remove some content to make it more first-grader friendly). Conversations rule the beginning of the lesson as students share prior knowledge about leaves (some are essentially experts at this age) and we discuss photosynthesis. Eyes are wide when I explain that leaves are only green because they are filled with chlorophyll, which, once depleted, allows the "true" color of the leaf to shine through. (There are many great life analogies here…) Once we demonstrate use of the microscopes, which most kids remember because we use them every year, we send the students to their tables to get to work. Students use the microscope to examine leaf samples gathered from my yard. (If we had more class time, I’d have the students get their own samples, but 42 minutes just isn’t enough.) Students identify leaf components and document them using the "snapshot" feature of the Qx5 microscopes. They also completed this brief worksheet (with a partner). What I observed / inferred / connected: This perennial favorite lesson, which we usually do in pairs, worked beautifully as a group lesson. Kids shared the samples, microscope, laptop and other resources easily and without complaint. Kids have an insatiable curiosity that makes lessons like these invaluable and so much fun. I learn something from them every time. The energy in the room is incredible. Some might consider it chaotic; to me it is purposeful and exciting. The classes always end with students having made a huge mess of the room but invariably they are smiling and chatting and exclaiming as they leave. In the future, I will get a greater variety of leaves (more than just from my yard) and I will shorten the discussion part of the lesson to give kids more time with the microscopes. What students can do at home: Find and explore leaf samples at home. Have them identify the parts, compare and contrast samples, count the "points, " etc. Check out "Trees are Terrific" because there are MANY parts we didn’t get to because of time limitations. [slickr-flickr type="slideshow" tag="LWIL1102a" id="29304822@N00" flickr_link="on" link="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kjarrett/sets/72157631648412574/with/8126400230/" attribution="Photos by Mr. Jarrett"]Second, Third and Fourth Grade What we learned / did / explored together: My erstwhile colleague and fellow STEM teacher Dave Zirkle provided the inspiration for this week’s lesson. I made some modifications to suit our students (and my timeframe) and it worked beautifully. Basically, students, working in teams of two or three, were given ten strips of paper and asked to design a structure strong enough to support at least one ream of paper. I started by pointing out the Walt Disney quote on the wall of my classroom (stenciled by Monica De La Torre): "It’s kind of fun to do the impossible." I asked students if they thought it they could design a structure strong enough to hold an entire ream of paper using just ten 1″ strips of paper. They scoffed. NONE thought it could be done! When I told them that many students did so, and one team even came up with a design that held 12 reams of paper, they were flabbergasted. It was the perfect follow up to last week’s Card Tower engineering challenge. We leapt into a discussion of the Engineering Design Process and what that meant for their task today. We would end up glossing over the "plan" phase (due to lack of time) but the day was all about imagination, creation and improvement. I let the students figure things out for themselves at first, withholding the crucial information about the power of cylindrical structures, waiting to see if they figured it out on their own. Once they had that information, everyone was able to be successful and some were even MORE successful than I’d ever imagined possible. Once the designs were complete, we photographed and tested each design, and while some failed after only two or three reams were added, MANY went significantly higher; several designs held all 12 reams of paper I had available in my room for the test (more than that would have been unsafe to stack that high anyway). What I observed / inferred / connected: Students really, really enjoyed this lesson, as they did last week with the Card Tower Challenge. They learned the value of experimentation, failure, teamwork and collaboration. I was very surprised to note the students in every class who were the first to "get" that cylinders were the best solution for their models. I was especially pleased to note that in several instances, it was a student or students who weren’t usually successful in my class, making it clear that the hands-on aspects of the Engineering is Elementary lessons are going to have a POWERFUL impact on our learning this year. After seeing some of the struggles kids had in groups last week, we worked in pairs or triads and things were much better. Ideas flowed more smoothly, people took turns more easily, and things just worked better. It was fun to explain to students that real engineers use compression tests just like these - I will be showing this video (which I recently found) to prove my point: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC6AgX2N1Go&feature=fvwrel. I am sure they will see the connection! What students can do at home: You can do this lesson at home with a single sheet of paper cut into 1″ strips but you will need objects to stack on top. This can be dangerous so please work with your child. Don’t let them stack anything that will result in a structure being so large it would injure them (or anyone) if it fell. Ask your child to explain the Engineering Design Process and explore each phase with them, particularly as it relates to a problem or challenge they recently faced.  

I don’t mean to sound dated, but sometimes I use the type of software that installs on my hard drive rather than an online application. And every so often, some great software comes along that saves time and frustration and can be downloaded for free. Here’s a list of free software downloads I’ve collected that I wanted to share with readers—some I’ve used and others have been recommended. Leave a comment if you try one and like or dislike it … and why. AUDIO RECORDING AND EDITING Audacity Audacity is an audio recording and editing application with a lot of the features you find in commercial products. It works on all platforms and is probably the most popular free audio program around. BURNING CDs and DVDs ImgBurn This is supposed to work more smoothly than the software that comes with Windows for burning CDs and DVDs. It creates data backups, video DVDs and music CDs. The publisher provides a list of sites where you can download the application. They’d like a donation, so oblige if you can. DOCUMENT CREATION Open Office I keep hearing good things about Open Office. It’s the free alternative to the Microsoft Office Suite. You can create text documents, spreadsheets, presentations and databases. And it comes in many languages. PrimoPDF Primo PDF has a free and paid version. The free version is all you need to quickly convert most file types to the .pdf format. To create a .pdf, just use the print command from the source program that the file was created in. EMAIL Thunderbird Some say this email program from Mozilla is better than Outlook Express. It’s supposed to have great features and is easy to use. I’m thinking of using it on my Mac. FILE TRANSFER FileZilla I like this for uploading and downloading files to and from FTP sites. It’s open source software, yet actually has some Help documentation. It’s plain and simple and does the job through a drag-and-drop interface. Works on all platforms. GRAPHICS GIMP GIMP is one of the better, if not the best, downloadable image editing and manipulation applications around. It can do some of your Photoshop tasks and works on all platforms. For more on free editing tools, see Image and Optimization Editors in the Resources section. Picasa Picasa is the other popular image editor and its from Google. You can import photos from a digital camera, edit them, and make and share Picasa Web Albums online. ONLINE CHAT AIM Most everyone has their favorite online chatting tool. Just in case you haven’t found yours, check out AOL’s Instant Messenger, as it has lots of capabilities. In addition to text chats, I’ll often use it as the tool of choice for video chatting. You can download AIM for all platforms. By the way, their Lifestream product looks interesting too. It’s a way to broadcast and get updates with AIM buddies from all your social media. Pidgin This chat program gets rave reviews. It lets you connect to most of the other chat services, like AIM, Google Talk, IRS, MSN and Yahoo, so you don’t need to install different programs to chat with different people. It doesn’t have video or audio chat, though. But it does runs on all platforms. SCREENCASTS Jing Jing works on both Mac and PC, to capture single pictures or to record video of screen activity. You can also paste the video into an IM chat, email or Twitter. Now that could save time. CamStudio CamStudio can record all the screen actions on your computer, as well as an audio narrative, and create AVI files which can converted to a streaming Flash (SWF) format. This app only works on PCs. SECURITY AVG Anti-Virus This is a well-known and loved anti-virus software for home use only. The software is free, but registration is required. SYNCRONIZING FILES Dropbox Dropbox seems to be the file synchronization software of choice. It will automatically synchronize files between all of your computers, regardless of whether they run the Mac, Windows or Linux OS. You get 2Gb for free, after that you have to pay. VIDEO PLAYERS AND CONVERTERS FLV Player If your a multimedia maven, then you need to play FLV files. I like this better than the one that comes with Articulate for the PC. You can download the free FLV player at CNET. It’s got a simple install and works well. I had it downloaded, installed and running very quickly. Then I fainted. Handbrake Have you ever been stuck trying to get DVD video into another format? Well, Handbrake can save the day. It’s a cross-platform media converter that can pull DVD video and convert it to MPEG-4. It may not give you ultimate control over all settings, but it has a nice interface and gets the job done. VLC Media Player VLC might be the media player you’re looking for. It’s cross-platform, open source and plays most video and audio formats as well as converts files from one format to another. VOICE OVER INTERNET (VOIP) Skype Skype is the software of choice for talking to people over the Internet, using a headset and mic. It installs easily and the sound quality is good. I have some clients that prefer Skype rather than the phone, so I use it regularly and can vouch for its quality. ZIP FILES 7-Zip This is an archiving application with a very high compression rate. Free, open source and all that good stuff. Post from: The eLearning CoachGreat FREE Software Downloads Tweet This! Share this on Facebook Share this on Linkedin Buzz up! Share this on del.icio.us Stumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUpon

There must have been something in the water this weekend - seemed as if everywhere I turned I found myself talking about QR Codes. QR codes are the machine readable badges - basically overlapping barcodes - that are starting to...

This post is part of my continuing series of weekly lesson summaries. My goal is to give parents & caregivers in our school community the resources needed to extend student learning at home, and to share my professional practice with teacher colleagues around the world in the interest of improving my craft. Synopsis: we’ve accomplished a lot in the two weeks since I last posted a reflection. Students in grades 2-3-4 got their first taste of Google Apps (on National Education Week Visitation Day, no less), we had a crazy mad awesome fun digital camera scavenger hunt with Kindergarteners (also on National Education Week Visitation Day), later following that up with their own introduction to Google Docs (yes, in Kindergarten) and finally, we introduced First Graders to Voicethread, one of our favorite Web 2.0 tools. So, this update spans a two-week period. Please note: in our current "Day" rotation, Mondays are Day 5, which means my new lessons start on Tuesday (Day 1). These "days" change over the course of the year due to holidays, etc. Week(s) ending 11/23/12 What we learned / did / explored together: Our annual Kindergarten Digital Camera Scavenger Hunt is a wonderful kinesthetic activity designed to teach kids about digital cameras, test their ability to recognize simple words and locate corresponding objects, and to strengthen their teamwork / sharing skills. We’ve done it for several years (this reflection provides some backstory.) The lesson starts with me providing an overview of the cameras, safe operation (use of the wrist strap at all times), composing photos and general teamwork hints. Then we let them loose! The next week, students got to use the SMART Board to solve some jigsaw puzzles I created with their photos and enter some data into a simple Google presentation (bottom picture, above). What I observed / inferred / connected: There is something truly magical about a camera in the hands of a student. The photos are truly "at their level" and oftentimes are composed brilliantly. Other times, like the first photo above, the composition is "off" technically, but the picture still works (and is safe for publishing on the Internet.) These are just a few reasons why this is one of my favorite Kindergarten lessons. Most students at this age are already familiar with digital cameras and nearly ALL are familiar with posing for pics. I don’t know which part they enjoyed more! I have mixed feelings about incorporating technology (in general) into this lesson beyond the use of the cameras. Expecting non-readers to navigate a UI (user interface) as complex as Google Docs seems silly; what could they possibly retain? I do go out of my way to simplify the tasks, limiting the areas where data input is necessary, and the words they are spelling are provided in the photos. I could skip this part of the project, but, like I said, I have mixed feelings, so for now, it stays in. What students can do at home: Recreating this project at home is a snap. Since digital cameras have come down so much in price it’s easy to get a cheap one for kids to own and use. By all means, if you can, do it! Storage is also cheap and you will be amazed at the magic moments kids will capture. You might even discover you have a budding photographer in your midst! Our Kindergarten Symbaloo page is a terrific resource and I’m constantly adding to it. Students should feel free to explore any and all of these activities when the mood strikes! First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Voicethread is a near Web 2.0 technology that makes it easy to incorporate images, video, audio and other interactive content. In this example, students have to decide whether or not the pictured item contains a computer of any kind and if so, to circle the correct choice. It’s more whimsical than practical because my goal is not to assess their knowledge of objects but to orient them on the use of the tool, particularly, the comment and markup (pen) feature. (We’ll introduce voice comments, which are more difficult, later.) Once I showed students what to do, they were on their own. All were successful! What I observed / inferred / connected: Students were MUCH more comfortable and productive with this tool than kids in prior years. Not sure if that’s significant or not but this project was a lot easier this time than in years past. I need different photographs. Some of these were too obvious, others too obtuse for your average first grader. Voicethread works beautifully on the Chromebooks. What students can do at home: The essence of this lesson is a question, "Does this object have a computer inside, and how do you know?" It could easily be replicated at home with common household objects and spark amazing conversation - particularly if you are not opposed to exploring the item with your child (by disassembling it!) Check out the First Grade Symbaloo page for fun online activities! Second, Third and Fourth Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Students started the lesson with our standard "Do Now" - requiring them to log into their Chromebook, access Typing Pal and work their way through a few lessons as a warmup. We do this every week to ensure everyone is logged in and ready to work, so when I say "Lids Down," everyone closes their Chromebook and we can talk about what’s ahead. This week’s lesson was an introduction to Google Docs (new to everyone except some 4th grade students who have Mrs. Shenkus and Mrs. Gibson). Using the Engineering Design Process as a context, students were asked to think about the Tower Power project / experience and describe which "phase" was the most enjoyable for them and why. This is a "free write" - no prompting or planning - and accordingly it was extra challenging. Students were required to insert an image I’d shared with them and then add the requisite text.  Finally, they were asked to share the document with me. What I observed / inferred / connected: This lesson went much better than I thought it would considering I had to rely on step-by-step printed instructions (my screencasting system is currently down). Kids were easily able to create the document, insert the image, add the text and share the document. With the exception of Wednesday, November 21st, the Chromebooks were nearly flawless - and so were the students (in terms of logging in and getting to work.) We are still trying to determine what went wrong on Wednesday but many Chromebooks needed to be reset to regain connectivity. I’m confident we’ll isolate and resolve the problem quickly. I am presently trying my best to figure out gClass Folders, a tool teachers can use to organize and easily share items with students. Since I have 350+ students in three grades and 15 classes, organization is critical for me; it will also be for my colleagues as they begin to embrace Google Docs in their classrooms. So, I’ve got to be the expert! What students can do at home: We are working on having students remember their Google Docs logins; it’s going to take a while, but, ask your student regularly if they know theirs. (Note: the Google Docs login link is on the NCS Website under "Students and Parents.") We want students to be comfortable using Google Docs anywhere, anytime! Practice keyboarding with Typing Pal. Students should know their usernames and passwords by now (they are simpler than Google Docs.) Check out the grade-level Symblaoo pages for fun learning activities: Grade 2 | Grade 3 | Grade 4