Monthly Archives: November 2008

humour, internet, Web 2.0

Microblogging American History – Twitter responses to Obama’s win

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day-of-obama

 

In its unique way, Twitter has commented on American history being made today. Never let it be said that Twitter is unable to convey anything more than little snippets of trivia devoid of any substance. The picture built up in the Twitter stream today as Obama’s victory became clearer and clearer was nothing short of emotional. The brief, fast-flowing tweets created a moving picture of people’s reactions to the historic event.

These are only some of the comments that I’ve selected. Remember, the most recent tweets are first, so you’re reading backwards in time. Kind of cool actually. Here goes:

wow – amazing – i’ve woken up in a better world – my only slight concern… what the hell is michael moore going to make films about now?

well done america 🙂 🙂 🙂

asked Yr 2 boy my reason for making him watch news – he said because it’s the first time a “brown person” has been elected president

Obama thanked me by text message. Wow, he looked pretty busy at the time

‘nite twitter. Welcome to Obamanation. The world approves, btw…

I have always been grateful to be American and I served it with my head held high… I have never been this proud

Analysis of Obama’s speech ( http://tinyurl.com/6xlvkl )

It’s been a long time coming, as the man says ♫ http://blip.fm/~ni0i

Balancing my delight in humanity with the grimness of Fox News pro-life, white supremacist babbling http://icanhaz.com/grim

Bless Obama and the people of the US

I may be a Canadian I am blown away by the history I have just observed. Very moving

awesome speech; told my kids that (let them stay up to hear it), both lass and lad noticed

“He talked of having to housebreak the puppy, they’re gunna also have to housebreak that new democratic majority in the congress”-Tom Brokaw

Oh, the place is vibrating

I like this image of Obama leaving the stage – a single man, walking to meet his wife, going off to meet destiny. Hard to hold back tears

I bet there’s a lady in Alaska who just fired HER personal stylist

We have a White House that looks like our country. Look at that stage, kids all over America are reimagining their world.

The last time I saw this much emotion on TV was death of Elvis when I was about 5 or 6. Better this time around

God, the image of the racial, national, and generational mix hugging on the stage in Chicago is a book in itself. History, history, history

Seeing all of the kids together is so cool!!!

Okay, I don’t think I’ve ever cried at a politician’s speech before in my life. Still kind of afraid to hope. But I think I’ll try

I like the sense of marital harmony I get from B and M. They really seem a pair that likes each other, a team. And those kids are fresh air

is it my imagination or did everyone stop tweeting during that speech?

Officially crying tears of joy

“if our children live to see the next century ..what progress we will have made? Open opportunities for our kids – peace. yes we can”

I am crying. Just from my right eye. Obama is great

He’s going to close with the speech we need

v v excited about Obama winning – maybe humans do have some ability to restore balance

Sitting in family room watching Obama’s speech. Wife and daughters waving American Flags at each pause. Great night!

“Our story is singular but our destiny is shared. A new dawn of American leadership is at hand.”

I gotta remember to buy different newspapers and magazines tomorrow to put in my daughter’s memory box

Okay, seriously… “the new puppy that is coming with us to the White House?” That absolutely made me laugh with delight.

holy wow… can that man speak.

Obama takes the stage! What a night!

anyone else terrified about what Those Who Hate Obama might attempt to do once he’s president, or before? I can’t shake it from my mind…

From another student — “I feel as if I can really do anything in the world now. Like for real.”

Just got a text from one of my advisees that made me cry, “Lehmann!!! We did it! President Obama!” This election really was about hope.

goodnight, tweeps. Pray for this nation, now more than ever.

Oh hurrah! My American friends have just texted me the news!!! Good old America, good old Americans! Xxx

Wow McCain’s speech was amazing. That was the McCain that should have been showing more during the campaign

well done to the people of America (and Obama), congratulations are in order. change is a necessity and a good thing

Magnanimous concession by John McCain. Well done.

There are moments in life that are too big to grasp. This is one of those moments. In total blissful shock. Too shocked to even cry… yet

Congratulations America!

Woo hoo! Just saw that Obama has won the election! I’m crying! Tears of joy 🙂

History in the making. . was this the first presidency tweeted through? Will Obama be known for changes in technology?

wow, nyc is going crazy, so loud outside.

“Don’t deny it, Obama is all Web 2.0” – http://is.gd/6n9j

When I watched his speech at the DNC 4 years ago, I thought “He could seriously be president.” Never thought it’d be in 2008.

“This is something so much bigger than Senator Obama”

nice to see my friends cheering too… yay twitter. hi dudes. i love loving america this morning.

McCain conceded via phone

Huzzah!

I am so proud of us right now…

wow. I don’t believe it. I just don’t believe it. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

O.M.F.G. Thank you America. You have made me extremely proud. Thank YOU!

Playing “Signed, Sealed and Delivered,” with all of the American flags waving is really moving

So happy to call Obama my PRESIDENT!

Congrats to President Obama! So much for going to sleep, gotta see his speech now!

Congratulations to my US friends – looks like you just got yourself a President

Hopes and Dreams!

gotta go hug my wife!

I can’t imagine being in the room with Barack when he got the word about becoming the next president……amazing time…..

Wow! This is exciting!

Fox just called it for Obama. That’s about as done as it gets. Congratulations President Obama! Please fix our country soon!

Obama. It’s over.

ABC News declares Obama the next President of the United States

I just got chills………..

CNN just called it

CNN calls it. Obama is the 44th President of the US

called. Omg

It’s all over!!!!!!!!

 

 

Education, media, Teacher librarians, Web 2.0

Educational resources in The New York Times

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The New York Times has a ‘Teacher Connections’ section which is updated daily. Just browsing here today and saw some great stuff, so I thought I’d share.
There’s a Daily Lesson Plan and a Daily Lesson Plan archive, which has amongst its categories Civics, Global History, American History (of course), Fine Arts, Geography, Language Arts, Mathematics, Media Studies, and more.

I’ve copied one of the Fine Arts lessons into my art wiki: Art happens: investigating the modern art of Robert Rauschenberg. The overview states:

Students investigate the work of American Modernist Robert Rauschenberg by responding to his art and reading about his life and ideas. They then individually create a work of their own that pays homage to a Rauschenberg to demonstrate an understanding of his aesthetic sensibility.

The lesson is well planned, and includes objectives, resources/materials, background, activities/procedures, including homework, further questions for discussion, evaluation/assessment, vocabulary, extension activities, interdisciplinary connections, references and other information on the web. There is a feedback option at the end of the lesson.

The News Snapshot is an excellent idea for students to interact with the latest news:

Every Monday through Friday, News Snapshot features a newsworthy and provocative photo from The New York Times, along with the basic set of questions answered by journalists when relaying the news– who, what, where, when, why and how.

This section includes student handout, teacher’s page, suggested activities, and the questions.

Issues in depth is subtitled ‘Teaching with the times’ and includes curricular materials, news specials, and issues in depth. Each page provides a wealth of resources: lesson plans, Times articles, multimedia, archival materials, quizzes, crosswords, related Web sites and more. This section is designed to help students make connections between course material and issues and events in the news. There’s are wide variety of topics here, including the election, Iraq; and also material on literature, including specific books, poetry, Shakespeare, journalism, and more.

‘Science and Health’ includes topics, such as teen health, global warming, hurricanes, and more.

There’s more here – eg. crossword puzzles for the different curricular areas, ‘on this day in history’,etc., and I won’t go into detail for all of it; you’ll just have to look for yourselves. Actually, I do want to mention ‘Campus weblines’ where you can learn about how to produce a quality online newspaper from the student editors themselves. This is informative and detailed.

I recommend you give this section of The New York Times a squiz, and then dart over to Student Connections which ‘Science questions and answers’ and letters to the editor amongst other things.

But wait, there’s more! Parent Connections includes things like ‘coversation starters’ (they have thought of everything!) and a family movie guide.

I don’t know about you, but I’ll be keeping an eye on the educational section of The New York Times from now on.

animation, art, play

Flip! literacies in animation

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[youtube=http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=AYeTwfyx0nw]

Here’s a quirky and creative little flipbook animation called Kraak & Smaak: Squeeze me (source: Drawn).

Another example of the endless possibilities for creativity with technology. Literacies? The kinds of things that include storytelling, sequencing, playful possibilities, imagination, what-ifs and the like.

Education, parents, Teacher librarians, Web 2.0

Making parents our partners in 21st century learning

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If we want to shift learning and teaching into the 21st century, there are a number of people we need to take with us. Apart from teachers and school administrators, we can’t ignore parents in this move, and we really should be thinking about how we do this. The K12 Online Conference 2008: Kicking it up a notch tackles the subject of parents as partners – Parental Engagement in the 21st Century – Leveraging web 2.0 tools to engage parents in non-traditional ways – giving much food for thought, as well as practical suggestions of ways to move forward.

Lorna Constantini and Matt Montagna connect from afar online and ask how we can move forward from teachers’ and parents’ fear of the internet. They remind us that parents haven’t been brought up on the internet, so it’s natural for them to fear something that is foreign. The question is, what can we say to parents that will influence them in a positive way about their children’s online lives? I like the way Lorna and Matt have brought it back to what parents can understand – that we are all social beings, having an innate desire to connect with people and develop relationships, and that social networking is just a new form of traditional social connections.  As Matt points out,

 although online networks can be playful, they can also be powerful, enabling people to meet others with similar interests, solve problems together, create software programs together, participate in social and professional discussion with people we may not know in the physical world, etc. Our kids do this instinctively and fluently, posting content, interacting with content posted by others, learning from and teaching one another, having conversations with people all over the world – the opportunities to learn are tremendous. If we look at this new focus for young people, we should realise that they’ve moved away from what has long been the criticism of passive television viewing, and found new engagement in an interactive environment. If parents understand the positive aspects of social networking, they will realise that this shift is enormously powerful.

A major concern for parents is safety on the internet. Matt and Lorna talk about reassuring parents that young people are better at warding off potentially harmful situations than we give them credit for. They also ask a serious question, one that we need to discuss in schools: Who is guiding and mentoring our young people online now? Who is rolemodelling ethical and effective online interactions? And the answer is, apart from isolated individuals, nobody.

Schools may think they are by using filtering software, but it doesn’t encourage responsible use. All it does is encourage kids to find ways around filters, and it also blocks valuable and educational content. On the whole, parents don’t know what their kids are doing on the internet, so they are unable to provide guidance. This needs to change! Why? In every aspect of kids’ lives, parents provide key guidance that their kids need.

Here’s the best suggestion for parent PD that I’ve heard – why not get parents to set up Facebook accounts, blogs, and interact with some of the other Web 2.0 applications. This is a great way demystify their kids’ online socialising, enabling parents to shift from policing to mentoring their kids. Rather than lecture parents about the theory, we should just urge them to give it a shot.. give the example of email, which was new once, but we’re now used to it and depend on it.

And what a great idea to use new tools and platforms to reach out and connect to parents. Parents as partners is a Facebook group set up for parents – an online forum for questions and support which also models new technologies. I think modelling is the best way to teach someone. Just as important as modelling, transparency is a great way to let parents in on what their kids are up to. Have a look at the live video broadcast of kids away on an excursion, where parents can chat with their kids. Lastly, the NING network allows ongoing communication and collaboration between parents and teachers. Interestingly, the parents who were involved in the NING are the ones who were not involved in school in any other capacity – another example of the power of online tools.

We might feel isolated in our schools in advocating mindset change, and connecting with each other, either online or in person, is a powerful thing to do. But we’ll be banging our heads against the wall if we don’t find a way to effect a mindset change in all members of the school community. If we get parents on-side, they’ll be our partners in supporting students in 21st century learning. As it says on the Parents as partners blog, students achieve better when parents are involved in their child’s education.

animation, art, film

Pinscreen animation and Gogol’s “The Nose”

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p9p0x4c8Yc&hl=en&fs=1]

I’m long overdue for variety in post content, and I apologize. I feel I’ve been ranting and raving on my educational soap box for too long, but the problem is, for all my reading, I haven’t come across anything worth sharing. Until now. I’ve just discovered pinscreen animation, and I think it’s one of the most remarkable unions of technology and hands-on creativity. Mind you, it’s a form of animation from the early twentieth century, but nobody said you had to discover things in chronological time.

On the website Focus on animation techniques, Marcel Jean explains pinscreen techniques:

In the early 1930s, engraver Alexandre Alexeïeff, a Russian émigré living in France, decided to go into filmmaking. Wishing to make films with an aesthetic faithful to the line and shading of his engravings, he invented a new type of device: the pinscreen.

The pinscreen consists of a white screen pierced by hundreds of thousands of pins that can slide back and forth, each in its own hole. When lit from the side, each pin casts a shadow, and when all the pins are pushed out, there is total darkness. But when pins are pushed in, their shadows are shorter, and the black become grey. When pins are pushed all the way in, they do not cast shadows and the white screen can be seen.

If you are interested in a detailed, illustrated account of the technique and equipment, you can read about it here.

Being extremely time-consuming, this was not a popular or widespread form of animation, but its uniquely tonal quality created with shadows of various intensity created by the pins, gives it a dramatic and even poetic quality not unlike chiaroscuro.

Several pinscreen films were made, including the Alexeieff’s Night on bald mountain (1933) and En passant (1943), and Jacques Drouin’s Mindscape (1976).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUrvtpkxxoc&hl=en&fs=1]

I’m always impressed by the time and effort people will devote to creative projects.