Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot

Et tu, Brute? Ancient Rome comes to Google Earth

Read Write Web has some exciting information about a new mashup between Google Earth and theUniversity of Virginia's Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH).

Google Earth will feature a new layer, 'Ancient Rome 3D,' which is based on the IATH's 'Rome Reborn' model and which displays a 3D model of the city as it existed in 320 AD.

Overall, the Rome Reborn project recreated detailed models of over 6,700 buildings and monuments in the city, including some, like the Coliseum, which also feature highly detailed interiors. The new layer also adds a lot of new placemarks with historical information geared towards students.

Google For Educators announced a curriculum competition in conjunction with the release of the new Ancient Rome layer. Educators who create the most interesting curricula based around the Ancient Rome 3D layer will receive new Mac laptops, classroom projectors, and a digital camera.

Related Resources

• Juicy Geography
• National Geographic Society > My Wonderful World
• Geography 2.0: Google Maps Mash Up Mania
• Yahoo! Map Mixer

ILC 2008: Meet Pixton

Last week I attended the Innovative Learning Conference (ILC) in San Jose, California. Despite what seemed like a very light turnout, it turned out to be a great conference experience. The educators attending ILC were engaging and it gave me a chance to meet up with some of my social networking pals in real life. I also had the opportunity to see some really good presentations.

Like most conferences there was an exhibition hall with lots of vendors touting their goods and services as the latest and greatest learning tool. All the usual ed tech suspects, with their big marketing machines, were there in force.

But what really intrigued me the most was a couple from Vancouver, B.C who have created a mind blowing, game changing and all around awesome web-based comic strip generation tool called Pixton. 

What is Pixton?

Simply stated, Pixton is a social community where anyone can easily create, share, remix and publish their comic strip stories with people around the globe. If you find a great comic in French, you can instantly translate it into English. Or German. Or even Greek. Pretty cool, eh?

There are three versions: Pixtion for Fun (public), Pixton for Schools (education) and Pixton Storyboard (private).

Pixton for Schools provides students with an active and fun learning experience. It's also a good way for teachers to tap into the multiple learning styles of their students. Teachers can also create accounts for students without requiring them to have an email address. Pixton is also an amazing digital tool for students to create digital storytelling projects.

In terms of the educational value of comics, the Pixton team emphasizes the following:

• Pathway to Literacy: Instantly capture students' attention and motivate them to learn, using a familiar medium they understand.

• Collaboration: Foster peer-to-peer interaction between students. Or between students and teachers.

• Visual Learning: Reinforce your lesson through the associative power of words and images.

In terms of teaching, Pixton for Schools has a Lesson Bank where educators can share their lessons with other teachers. Teachers can also create their own private, safe and secure virtual learning environment (VLE) right on Pixton!

Beyond the classroom, Pixton would be a great way to quickly and easily build professional development, training, tutorials or other pre or in-service materials. You can learn more about the how you can use Pixton in an educational setting or the educational value of comics by downloading the free Pixton for Schools information packet (pdf).

The Pixton tool set is very intuitive, easy-to-use, and really fun. If you browse the public gallery, you'll see all the creative ways people are using Pixton and your mind will quickly overflow with ideas.

And there are lots of ways for you to share what you create with others outside the Pixton community. You can embed your Pixton comic in a wiki (like PBwiki), blog, or share a link via email, Twitter or IM. And soon you'll be able to print out your comic too.

Clive and Daina Goodinson have created powerful and fun learning tool that is bound to be a popular and powerful learning tool for the digital and traditional classroom. All in all, Pixton is an exciting edition to the social web.

Following in the footsteps of Flickr, YouTube and Twitter, Pixton is poised to join the short list of cutting-edge, top-tier and truly innovative social web tools. The really exciting thing is that Clive and Daina are just getting started.

I can't wait to see what else they have planned for Pixton and beyond.

Related Resources

• Pixton
• Pixton on Twitter
• Pixton on Facebook
• Pixton Safety Tips
• Pixton > Gregory Corso

Microsoft to Fund Video Game Research

On Tuesday, Microsoft announced that they would invest $1.5 million dollars in educational video game research. The investment is part of a larger, NYU led initiative to "to find scientific evidence that supports the use of games as a learning tool."

The games that are developed will be prototyped in several NYC schools. And while the games will be developed for use on the Xbox console, Microsoft is taking an open approach and has extended an invitation to other video game console makers to participate in the study.

Microsoft also announced a partnership with PBS to distribute digital content to the 12 million subscribers to Xbox Live. Also worth noting is that game maker Knowledge Adventure is bringing its Math Blaster game to Wii's WiiWare channel and the Xbox 360's Live Arcade. They are also working on designs for an iPhone version of the game. Given the mobile nature of today's kids, this seems like a great idea.

At the University of Michigan, a research team is looking into the potential that digital games have for teaching students concepts and skills. As part of their study, they have designed a web-based board game for teaching undergraduate students about Information Literacy Concepts and Skills. They chose a game for the task for many research-based reasons, but also because:

"Games can be with the student when an information expert cannot be. Games can be in the dorm room, at the coffee house, and anywhere else that the Internet can be accessed. Games are a way to bring information expertise to the users where they are already working."

All of this comes on the heels of a report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project that found that, when it comes to video games, "playing is universal, with almost all teens playing games and at least half playing games on a given day."

Even more importantly, and defying stereotypes, the Pew Study found that  "game playing is also social, with most teens playing games with others at least some of the time."

Related Resources

• Japanese Schools Embrace Nintendo DS
• International Journal of Computer Game Research
• Stewart Butterfield on Games & Learning
• 2009 Game Developers Conference

ILC 2008: Special Discount Offer

The Innovative Learning Conference (ILC) is an interactive three-day conference and exposition produced in partnership with CUE and FETC for the K-12 education community.

ILC 2008, is being held in the heart of Silicon Valley, will offer “hands-on” workshops, concurrent sessions, meetings and exhibitions.  I'm excited to be covering ILC 2008 as part of the education blogger and press corps.

I'm pleased to announce that now through Oct. 6, Barking Robot readers are eligible to receive an exclusive discount of $40 off of conference registration fees. To claim the discount, simply use the special promotional code ORG40 during registration.

See you there!

Related Resources

• CUE
• Upcoming > ILC 2008
• Flickr > Groups > ILC 2008

Mashup Edu: Research on K-12 New Media Literacy

I am pleased to announce that the book chapter that I co-authored with Dr. Mercedes Fisher, "Pedagogical Mashup: Gen Y, Social Media, and Digital Learning Styles," has officially been accepted for publication in the Handbook of Research on New Media Literacy at the K-12 Level: Issues and Challenges, to be published by IGI Global later this year.

Dr. Fisher and I wish to thank the co-editor of the book, Professor Subramaniam at the National Institute of Education at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, for his hard work and direction during the writing and peer-review process.

In addition, we appreciate all the members of the peer-review committee for their feedback, suggestions and collaboration on this chapter. It's been a wonderful experience to work with members of the international education technology/media community.

We've saved the links for all the resources and references cited in the book chapter over on the social bookmarking tool delicious, which you can find here: http://del.icio.us/mashup.edu

Related Publications by Mercedes Fisher & Derek E. Baird

• Making mLearning Work: Gen Y, Learning & Mobile Technologies
• Social Software & Online Learning Design
• Social Media & Digital Learning Styles

sixThings: Quality Standards for Publishers

Earlier this week sixThings, the oldest and largest standards alignment company in the country, announced that it will give its state learning standards database to any publisher that exclusively uses sixThing's alignment services.

When I was working at Yahoo! I had the pleasure of working with Amy James, the founder of sixThings, on integrating her standards database into the Yahoo! For Teachers service. Amy knows standards inside and out.

What sold our team on sixThings is that, unlike her competitors, Amy's team of former teachers does the correlations and alignments by hand. There are other companies that do alignments electronically, merging and mashing up databases of standards, but they are not as accurate and not as valuable to classroom teachers.

You can learn more about this program by contacting sixThings.

Amy is also the author of the Success Series of books designed to help parents can learn about the latest teaching methods and how best to assess their child's academic progress. The activities show how to take effective steps to strengthen their child's weaknesses, supplement their education, and help them prepare for standardized tests.

Related Resources

• Amy James on KE TV
• sixThings
• Amy James > Success Series Books

Note: I am currently working as a consultant to Knowledge Essentials, a sister company of sixThings.

Google Docs, Education & Student Privacy

Online writing tools like Google Docs, Adobe Buzzword & Zoho are amazing free tools that are used by many educators. But who owns your online documents? Are there any laws or issues that you need to be aware of before using these tools in your classroom?

According to a post on the Open Sky Media Blog, "while your personal computer may not care about your tastes in fiction, the web service you choose to write and/or host your documents just might."

For example, did you know that the Google Docs TOS state that "“you give Google a worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through the Service." Moreover, Google Docs further stipulate that "students must be 13 or over to use Google Docs."

Why?

Because Google, like every other corporation that is providing an online service to students, must comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The law outlines how and what types of personal information may be collected and when and how to seek verifiable consent (written permission) from a parent or guardian. The law, despite it's quirks, is designed to protect the privacy of minors.

To be clear, Google is doing exactly what they are required by law to do. As tween site Imbee found out, failure to comply with COPPA can cost a company millions of dollars in legal bills and fines. If you do decide to use Google Docs in your classroom, be sure to obtain written permission from your students parent or guardian. Failure to do so could put your school and career in jeopardy.

To be clear, I'm not trying to knock Google Docs. It's a great product. My intent is to make sure that educators are aware of the issues. It's important that you, as the teacher, know all the associated issues and legal requirements associated with using this tool before using it in your classroom.

Related Resources

• Imbee.com Settles COPPA Violation
• Google Docs in Elementary Schools
• Collaborative Writing via Skype & Google Docs
• Making Across the Country Feel Like Across the Classroom

1:1 Computing: Theory into Practice

CNET News' Ina Fried traveled to Campinas, Brazil, to explore the Bradesco Foundation school, home to one of Latin America's largest one-to-one computing projects.

Related Resources

• 10 Things to do with a Laptop
• Believe in your Students
• Laptop Learning Community

Study Looks at the Psychology of Facebook

Ever wonder what motivates people to throw zombies, vampires and drinks at you on Facebook? What message does your profile picture convey about you? Why are some Facebook apps like Scrabulous an uber hit, while other (perhaps even more useful) applications remain unloved and gathering virtual dust? And all that "poke" business? What's that about?

Led by Dr. BJ Fogg, researchers at the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford are taking a look at the popular social networking site and will soon publish their research in a new book titled, The Psychology of Facebook.

Here's the abstract:

Edited by Dr. BJ Fogg and colleagues at Stanford University, this volume gathers the best insights into Facebook's remarkable methods.

This new book explains how Facebook's psychological strategies are changing the Internet, our social lives, and world politics.

To date, most research on social networking, especially in terms of teen and tween users, has been centered around online safety and sexual predators (a la "Dateline NBC"). Thankfully, cooler heads and more research are beginning to put those concerns into perspective.

As social networking moves more and more mainstream, and Boomer parents catch up with their Gen Y kids online, it's important that we take a deeper look at the underlying psychology and persuasive nature of social networking environments like Facebook.

Related Resources

• Captology Notebook > Psychology of Facebook
• Facebook News Flash: Quit Super Poking Me!
• BBC NEWS > Learning What Makes Facebook Tick
• USTREAM > Psychology of Facebook
• Facebook Group > Psychology of Facebook

Free Education 2.0 Conference

The Knowledge Bank online conference out of Australia this year is focused on Web 2.0 in education: what it is, how it’s being used today and its potential to radically change education. Steve Hargadon will be giving the keynote address on why "Web 2.0 Is the Future of Education."

You can learn more about the conference by clicking here.

Related Resources

• Social Media, Web 2.0 & Online Course Design
• Mobile Learning: The Next Wave
• MashupEDU: A New Digital Pedagogy

Why School Administrators Should Blog

"One way of rebuilding trust is to use blogs to reopen, reconnect and be transparent again. Community building is built through commenting feature. Parents can start dialoguing with you. They don't have to leave their job to come to the school building, they can come and communicate meaningfully without leaving their house." (via MGuhlin.net)

--Dr. Scott McLeod, Dangerously Irrelevant

HP Launches 7,000 Mini Laptops in Fresno Schools

Last week at the 2008 National Educational Computing Conference (NECC), HP announced that they would be deploying 7,000 of their HP Mini Note laptops in the Fresno Unified School District.

This is part of a growing trend, kicked off with the introduction of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative, of personal computer companies providing more students with access to computers and the vast array of resources on the web.

In addition to providing students with affordable technology, the program also includes free online professional development courses to help educators learn how to effectively integrate technology into their curriculum.

This is a smart move by HP. So many vendor's throw technology at teachers without any support or professional development resources or handouts. When I was working on the Yahoo! Teachers project we made a conscious effort to provide relevant, easy-to-follow and just in time professional development materials for educators and they really appreciated that we went the extra step to provide those materials.

Related Resources

• HP K-12 Technology for Teaching Grants
• eSchool News > HP unveils Student Laptops
• Maine Laptop Initiative
• Dell TechKnow
• NECC 2008: Social Media & Education

DOE Study: 71% of Districts to Expand eLearning Programs

The results of a joint survey conducted by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and U.S. Department of Education (DOE) were released earlier this month and provide more insight into the totally wired world of Gen Y students'.

The survey, "Technology-Based Distance Education Courses for Public Elementary and Secondary School Students: 2004-05, provides policymakers, researchers, and educators with data about web-based education courses in public elementary and secondary schools nationwide.

The data for this report was compared to data gathered in the 2002-2003 report and used as a baseline against the 2004-2005 findings. You can read the full report by clicking here.

Among the key findings:

• 37% of public school districts and 10 % of all public schools nationwide had students enrolled in technology-based distance education courses during 2004-2005;

• 26% of school districts that existed in both 2002-2003 and 2004-2005 had students enrolled in technology-based distance education in both school years;

• The number of enrollments in technology-based distance education courses increased from an estimated 317,070 enrollments in 2002-2003 to 506,950 in 2004-2005; 61% of technology-based distance education enrollments at the high school level;

• 71% of districts with students enrolled in technology-based distance education courses in 2004-2005 planned to expand their distance education courses in the future.

The success of any distance learning program is contingent on the ability of the instructors to utilize a blended approach of face-to-face with social technologies in order to foster social support, provide technical support, and design courses which allow students to explore and develop their intrinsic learning goals.

As online learning continues to expand and new instructors deepen their understanding of the online learning environment they will be able to focus on students learning and supporting their needs in this environment.

In the end, successful web-based learning comes when instructors and designers recognize first the importance of cultivating relationships, and then carefully balance the symbiotic relationship between social technologies, community, and constructivist learning as a means to provide avenues of opportunity for students to achieve their full potential.

Related Resources

• Report on Technology, Learning & Gen Y
• Fisher & Baird: Social Media & Online Course Design
• Education, Innovation & The Future of Learning
• MashUp Edu: A New Digital Pedagogy

Nintendo DS & Learning: A "No Brainer"

In a pilot program aimed at increasing English language skills, teachers in Japan are integrating the wildly popular Nintendo DS into the curriculum. According to Motoko Okubo, a teacher at the Tokyo Jr. High, the use of the hand held device is primarily focused "on vocabulary, penmanship and audio comprehension."

The students are enthusiastic about being able to use the device in school and say that it has been a great motivator to work on developing their English language skills. Other schools in Japan are integrating the Nintendo DS in their math and Japanese curriculum.

Related Resources

• Reuters > Japanese Students Schooled With Nintendo DS
• Learning 3.0: Mobile, Mobile, Mobile
• Barking Robot > Mobile

NECC 2008: Social Media & Education Session

There was a great back channel conversation during the Social Networks and Education panel a couple days ago here at NECC 2008 in San Antonio, Texas.

It was a lively discussion and there were lots of tips, suggestions and other good ideas shared among the group. Here's a copy of the transcript (pdf).

Enjoy!

Related Resources

• Report on Technology, Learning & Gen Y
• NECC Online Community
• Summize + NECC 2008
• eSchool News: Online Safety Myths