Testing Notaland.com

I’m thinking of using Notaland.com in my Year 11 History class this semester. It lets you put together scrap-book like pages, where you can add videos from YouTube or pictures from Flickr and lots of other things. You can also leave comment on people’s pages.

My thoughts are that my students could create a page for each week of the semester to summarise what they have learnt. They can find relevant videos etc and I can comment on their pages each week, as well as get them to comment on their classmates pages. A different and much more interactive way of ‘taking notes’ and keeping summaries that might help with end of term assessment.

This is a page I put together for tomorrow’s lesson as a way of presenting to them and showing them to application. I’m not known for my graphic design skills

Let me know what you think of the ideas and if you’ve used this application before. Thanks!

P.S – Hmm, it seems that the embedding code is not working for the moment so here is a screen shot of what my page looks like – and here is the link to the actual page: http://notaland.com/jessmcculloch/26192

Using Ning to Keep in Touch

To keep parents informed of what we are doing while here in Nanjing, I set up the Gariwerd Program ning site. Originally we used it before we left as a place where the kids could get to know each other (they are from 5 different schools) and to ask questions of the staff. The ning was set to private at that stage as it was not being used to share anything other than information that was relevant only to those kids that were preparing for the trip.

Now, though, we are in China and have plenty to share and so I have made the ning public. I made sure there were no surnames used and the kids haven’t listed what schools they are from. I’ve uploaded many videos from our first week here in China to the videos page of the ning. Parents have been watching them and one or two have made comments. We’ve even had a mum and a grandma join the ning to follow the kids along their journey.

Each day here at school we have a access to a computer room. Now that we are settling in to more of a routine after a furious few days of rushing around and getting very tired, the kids will be blogging on the ning site as well. There were a few reasons I didn’t set the kids up with their own individual blogs external to the ning -

parents and other classes would then have to go to several different sites to see what different kids were up to – blogging on the ning site keeps it all in one place
I wasn’t sure what blogging sites were going to be blocked in China and I new that nings weren’t blocked
I wanted to have a place where the kids could connect and read each others blog posts easily. The ning will make a great and easy to access resource for other classes and for the kids while they are here and after they have returned home
It is more collaborative than single blogs, and I really wanted to make sure all the kids voices were heard – and seen!

I know the parents have appreciated being able to see what the kids are doing and once we get them blogging regularly, they will enjoy what the kids are writing too. 6 weeks is a long time to be away, and China is a long way away, so anything that keeps us in touch with home is a good thing – with bonus audio and visual elements!

So, please check out our ning. Follow us on our journey here in China. Check out our videos and see and hear what we are up to. It’s such a pity that video does not pick up smells and we can’t add them to the ning! Well, maybe it’s not…

International Language Learning Projects

I wanted to find some collaborative projects that involved language learning. I’ve really enjoyed being part of Voices of The World by Sharon Tonner which involves classes around the world completing a different task each month that involves recording their voices and presenting it in different ways. For one of our tasks – a counting task – I got my Grade 2 class to say the numbers in English and Chinese. you can see the result of that here (ours is the second one down – Hawkesdale College).

Anyway, having been inspired by this project and wanting to create one (or three) that actually involves students presenting in two languages, I’ve come up with the following projects:

The International Lunch Box Project – For students in Prep (K) – 3. Presenting what they have for lunch at school, sharing pictures and maybe a short video or audio in the language they are taught in and the language they are learning.

Little Language Experts – For students in Years 4-6 (and 7). These particular classes of mine are looking at greetings and introductions and the aim is for them to teach other classes some beginning Chinese. The idea is for other classes to make up short (and simple!) language lessons for other schools to introduce the language they are learning. The aim is for students to understand that other students learn languages as well and why different languages are taught in different places.

Ours Schools – For students in Years 8-10. My aim with this project is to have students discuss what the differences and similarities are between their school lives. I think it’s really important for my particular group of Year 8 students (some of whom seem to have an aversion to anything Asian just because it’s Asian) to see that just because people are in a different country, doesn’t mean you don’t have anything in common with them.

Each of these projects will be run through a wiki I have set up for each one. you can visit each one to find out more about the project and how to get involved. I’m still adding a few details to them (esp the Little Language Experts one!) but if I wait until everything is perfect before writing about them, then it might be a while before anyone hears about them!

As part of the projects classes will need to add photos and comments to the wiki and maybe to some student blogs as well. Hopefully there can be live link ups with Skype, but that will depend on time zone differences.

One thing I do stress for each project is that they will change and evolve depending on who gets involved and what they want to contribute. It’s all open for discussion and negotiation, but I will provide a definite structure at the same time – as contradictory as that may sound!

So, if you are interested in being involved, please visit the wiki for the project that suits you, and let me know what you think. Also, pass on the link to this post to anyone else you think might be interested. Looking forward to it!