Search Engines for Kids

Posted on by
3

Over the past few days I’ve been working with Grade 4 students who are either creating Top Ten Lists (and requiring more research information to justify their top ten) or are researching topics for their Non-Fiction Feature Articles in Writers Workshop.  In order to find (and evaluate – that’s next week’s focus) information on the web, we looked a few different Search Engines for Kids.

Before we even got started with Search Engines, I needed to make sure that the students  understood a little more about how search engines work. We watched the video below from the very good Common Craft Plain English series on Web Search – Strategies in Plain English

Next, I introduced four different Search Engines especially designed for Kids.  Each one offers something different from the other, so we talked about how there is never a search engine that’s perfect for every search we will ever do in our learning!

Boolify
Librarians, teachers and parents have told us how hard it is for students to understand web searching. Boolify helps students bridge that gap by visualizing the process and letting students interact with the abstract concept behind the search process in a tangible and hands-on way.

SquirrelNet
SquirrelNet is a kids only search engine that has Google SafeSearch activated. From the homepage itself, you can also access the Google directory of websites relevant for children.

Dib Dab Doo & Dilly Too!
The search engine is again based on Google Custom Search and it tries to keep the content as children friendly as possible.

Kids Click!
A web search site designed for kids by librarians – with kid-friendly results!

For the classroom teacher, I left these resources also for them to introduce to their students over the next few days.

Search Engines for Kids
- and what they search -

No Search Engine is entirely 100% safe. Custom search helps to keep out a lot of unsavory links, but it is definitely not foolproof. Most of the search engines for kids also display ads with some undesirable ones sneaking in. Parental control software in combination with these search engines can help to keep children shielded from the bad side of the web. It is a tough battle but at least with these sites, parents and teachers can worry a little less.

As with any use of technology, our lesson included strategies for what to do when the “undesirables” sneak in.  Although I “modelled” good and bad examples of what to do when faced with something “icky” (for the sake of time as I only had a 45 minute slot) – if I was to do it differently – I’d have the students work in pairs and come up with little demos of what not to do (scream at the top of your lungs) and what to do (lower your lid and raise your hand).  Kids seem to love it when I model the “what-not-to-do” examples!

Information also adapted from: Make Use Of: 10 Search Engines for Kids with Safe Browsing

Using Cooliris Express

Posted on by
Reply

Today I’ve been playing around with Cooliris Express trying to create a 3-D photo wall to embed in my blog.  The cool thing about this photowall is that it will update as pictures are added to my flickr photostream. For the photowall below, I’m using the 366 2012 set to pull photos for the Cooliris Express. I think for another wall, I will use “cooliris” as a tag for the photos I want to be picked up by the feed.

It is possible to pull content, not only from flickr, but from picassa, facebook, YouTube and Media RSS.  You can customize a few things in your 3-D photo wall such as colour, how many rows of photos (1-5) and there’s a choice of 6 themes for your photo wall.

It’s relatively simple to set up (log into Cooliris Express using your facebook or google account) and you can save your wall.  Filtering is easy too as you can name a particular set or tag of photos you want displayed on your blog.   As I write this, I’m just wondering if you can embed the 3-D wall in the sidebar – I guess you can but it would be pretty small, and I kinda like the flickr app I already have in my sidebar.

StopMotion (TimeLapse) with the iPad

Posted on by
2

My previous post Working Together, showed an app that I’ve been using to capture stop-motion on the iPad and/or iPhone.  There are quite a number of stop-motion apps out now, so I thought I’d share the ones I know about and what I think of them from a working with students practical point of view.

iMotionHD

iMotion HD (free – Export option $1.99)
(Disclaimer: My favourite)
Pros: Easy to use; Chose between time-lapse, manual, remoted, & audio (record sound or not); A slider adjusts the interval frame between shots; iPhone version & iPad version; Captures in both Portrait and Landscape; Has some useful overlay capture tools such as Onion Skin, Torch, Grid, Manual Focus; Unlimited movie size; Access to a gallery for ideas;
I think that it’s best feature is the iMotion remote app (also free).  This is especially handy for the manual setting (when you make those amazing moving character stop-motions).  Students used the remote on my iPhone while capturing with the iPad – this minimises the need to tap the iPad when you’re ready for the next manual shot of your stop-motion.  Very cool!
Cons:  Can’t turn off the loop playback on your device; Can’t add an audio (music file) unless you import into iMovie (or something similar). Can “pause” a project but once stopped can not add to it – a new movie needs to be started (so to join “projects” together you need to import them into iMovie or something similar).  Unless you purchase the export option ($1.99) you can not  get your stop-motions off your device – you can only watch them.  The export option gives you exporting to Photo Library, iTunes Sharing Folder and Email or a direct upload to YouTube -
Overall: Remote feature is very worth while especially when working with students and the need to align everything correctly when animating objects.  Really does need the export feature for versatility – I think that makes the $1.99 worth it.

O'Snap

O’Snap (on sale right now: .99 – usually $2.99)
Pros: Easy to adjust settings; Use front or back camera; Change the resolution; Grid overlay; Portrait or landscape; Can change default settings; Has a handy reminder feature so you never forget to take a photo (handy if you want to take a picture a day at a certain time); Overlay capture types include grid, onion skin, adjustable brackets, and ‘eyes’ to keep your photo sequences aligned and consistent; Include music or other audio from your device; Delay start; Projects are ongoing; add or delete images any time you like; Option to darken screen to save battery life; Can limit the amount of photos captured; Share your video project easily via Facebook, email, YouTube or save to camera roll;
Cons:  Pay (.99c) for photo import option; No iPad version; (opens as a small screen on iPad); No remote app;
Overall: At $2.99, a more expensive option – but has a few more interesting features than iMotionHD

Stop Motion Cafe

Stop Motion Cafe (free)
Pros: HD Video 720p; Can edit images (delete); Front & Back camera support; easy -+ adjust frames per second; Can export individual frames to camera roll; Continue to add frames to a project; Mute the sound or capture audio in frame;
Cons: No export to YouTube; email; Facebook – only saves video (called elaborate video) to your camera roll; Interface not as easy to follow as other apps. No iPad version;
Overall:  A little clunky with limited features – but ok for a free app if you want to have a go.

Time-Lapse HD Free

Time-Lapse HD Free
Pros: Easy, simple interface; adjustable frames per minute recording; adjustable frames per minute playback; Converts to video as soon as you stop/save; Saves to your camera roll; iPhone version & iPad version; Able to email video;
Cons:  Has ads; Frame limit (60); Need to purchase Pro Version (1.99) to get rid of ads, adjust frame limit & gain upload option to YouTube
Overall: Very easy to use, with limited options – good for a free app and to get started with.

Stop Animator

Stop Animator (free – Pro Version 0.99c)
*Note: free version not available in all stores
Pros:  It’s free;
Cons: Totally manual – no automatic features; no export features; Free version not available in the NZ store; Has ads;
Overall: Do not waste your time downloading this free version – there are better free ones out there.

 

Working Together

Posted on by
7

Last week our Elementary School had it’s annual International Day celebration.  It’s a fabulous day where we come together and celebrate our differences and similarities.  This year’s theme was One Day One World.  Our clever Art Specialists, Paz Molina & Trish Neubrand came up with a mural idea that would ensure that ALL the ES students could contribute too.

Over a week or so, the mural slowly came together.  Using the iPad app iMotionHD (free version is good but the paid version allows you to export) we set the iPad2 up each day to capture the putting together of the mural.

Since we created this stop-motion movie over a number of days, it was very important to:

  • mark out (using masking tape) the placement of the iPad (on the table)
  • mark out the placement of the table the iPad sat on, and
  • mark out the placement of the Mural

this ensured that each time we captured an art session, the differences in capture were minimal.

Using iMovie, all the exported iMotionHD captures were imported in, some still images were added, along with some catchy Creative Commons music called Spring the Swing by Papa_Zulu (found on dig.ccmixter.org) and this is what we ended up with on International Day!

Pinterest

Posted on by
5

I mentioned Pinterest in an earlier post in which I said it was really appealing to my creative/visual side.  Usually I’m busing reading my extensive Google Reader lists of “Must Reads”, “Might Reads”, “News”, “Photography”, etc etc, happily starring (really good for finding stuff you thought you read earlier!) or delicious bookmarking into stacks, the interesting articles, blog posts & sharing that I come across (gosh no wonder I have no time to write my own blog posts – hehehehe). Most of that “stuff” is writing (with a few visuals here and there) but the majority of it, is definitely for reading or in my case reading-later!

Enter Pinterest.  It’s a visual pinboard!  It lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People are using pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes! No words (unless you count the comment you can post with a pin) – all those ideas, things that make you go ahhhhh, oooooooh, you can now “pin” on a “board”.  You can follow other people’s boards and there are some pretty creative people out there!  What I love is that it’s so easy to follow people with similar interests/pursuits to you and it’s so easy to share.  Today (thanks Mel) I came across two images that explain aperture and Depth of Field SO clearly – and I would never have come across them without pinterest.  Now that’s cool!  And there’s a Pin It add-on for your browser!

Below are my “boards” so far ……… Photography (all things photography from camera equipment to techniques), Classroom (cool ideas for the classroom) Fitness (keeping healthy), Inspiration (quotes & sayings), Oh the Places We’ll Go (places I’d like to travel to), Just Gorgeous (what else can I say?), and Books worth Reading (self-explanatory).

Chrissy Hellyer (nzchrissy) on Pinterest

It’s a nice way to spend an hour or four on a Sunday – and it makes me feel inspired!  Are you pinning?

Chrome Extensions

Posted on by
4

Each week on a Friday, I get to spend 30 minutes with an amazing young man – my ES Technician – Khun Tua.  Recently we’ve been sharing our knowledge and discoveries on the iPad and the Chrome Browser.

Here’s a few things we’ve been sharing:

Chrome Extensions:
Chrome has a vast variety of extensions to make your experience with the Chrome Browser slicker, quicker and easier.  Switching between Most Visited & Chrome Apps is as easy as a click at the bottom of the page.
Chrome ExtensionsThese are the extensions that I now have installed for quicker access to the things I use the most.  Very easy to install, very easy to access.  I’m especially enjoying the pinterest extension at the moment – it’s really appealing to my creative/visual side (more to come on that later!) 

Difficulties

Posted on by
3

I’m not quite sure how many faithful readers I have left ……. but to those of that still have me in your RSS feed or those of you that stop by in the hope that I’ve updated my blog …….. I say thank you.  Thank you for checking by or for reading this post.

No parking

Image by JetSetWilly http://www.flickr.com/photos/jetsetwilly/1401229809/

Somehow, my blog has managed to end up on a “block this site” list within Thailand.  It’s been very hard to get to the bottom of why and it seems that (thanks Jeff Utecht for the brilliant explanation and many, many thanks to the always helpful Chris Craft) my BlueHost hosted website on a shared IP address has had it’s said Shared IP address blocked by the MICT in Thailand.  Try to find out why has been next to impossible so I’m guessing that it’s not my site that’s causing the blockage but probably one of the 100 sites that share the same IP Address as me.  (I have doubled checked my blog and it’s content to ensure I’m not offending anyone and I’m pretty sure I’m not!).

Enter BlueHost’s Active Chat – extremely helpful and efficient service within 2 minutes I’m chatting with someone at BlueHost explaining my dilema.  The solution:  Pay $30 per year for a dedicated IP address.  Mmmmmm, I was kinda hoping you could switch me from that server ……… obviously not.

So I’m seriously considering doing that.  It’s made me take a step back and reflect on whether I want to continue blogging on my own domain ……. in fact, it’s made me really think “do I want to continue blogging in general?”  (Given that my contribution to my own blog over the last 9 months has been abysmal to say the least!)  Turns out I do.  I’m not ready to let this blogging thing go yet.  I do have much more to share.  I do love helping people and I do like writing when I’ve got something that I feel is worth saying/sharing/explaining.

Right now, I want to make sure that the Shared IP Address is the only reason why I’m experiencing difficulty getting to the backend of my blog.  I have this nagging feeling that there’s a bit more to sort out  as I can’t even get compfight to load right now!

I’ll keep you posted ………. hopefully …………

How Do You (Digitally)Bring Parents into Your Classroom?

Posted on by
4

As we begin our second semester at ISB, I’ve been reflecting on quite a number of things. One of which is how do you bring parents into your classroom (digitally speaking)? 

One of the things I really like about my position as ES Technology & Learning Coach is the opportunity to work with a wide variety of colleagues, all of whom are in different places in their own personal technology journey as well as different grade levels of students.

Every classroom in the ES has a class blog.  They are “windows into the classroom” and used in a variety of ways.  Here’s some of the things our teachers do to bring parents into the classroom digitally:

  • Newsletter posts (no more paper)
    Some teachers create a newsletter pdf for parents to download – some write the newsletter right in a post
  • Class Magazine (using Youblisher)
    Embeds in a post and turns pages just like a magazine.  G4-5 students take turns at creating the magazine rather than the teacher.
  • All links are in one place – the class blog!
    This requires the students & their parents to visit the blog to access information
  • Homework posted on the class blog
    Sometimes the student homework is to get their parents to comment on a post! Kids love it when their parents have to do some homework too!
  • Use the email subscription widget – (Especially excellent to have ready at Back to School Night)
    This handy plugin makes it easy for parents to sign up with their email account to receive an email whenever the class blog is updated.  As the teacher, you can also see who is signed up to receive this kind of notification
  • Facebook Page (Parents can “like” the page & receive status updates)
    Some teachers have trialed the use of a class facebook page as a “snapshot in time” into the class – due to our policy of discouraging our ES students having a facebook account – only the teacher logs in and updates this page – although wouldn’t it be great if it was a student’s class job to update the class facebook page 4 times a day with what was going on – images & reflections
  • Each class has a Collection on our school flickr account
    This collection URL does not change so it’s linked on the class blog – everytime a new set goes in the collection, the link automatically shows the latest images!

    There’s some of our ideas.  What things does your school/class do to digitally bring parents into the classroom?

 

Life We Got

Posted on by
3

Ok, so I really should be updating my professional blog, travel blog AND photography blog with the zillion and one idea posts on my list – but I find myself procrastinating AGAIN and watching inspiring video links from Facebook instead!  It started with the gorgeous Amy Krouse Rosenthal and her amazing The Beckoning of Lovely (5 part video) (see previous post) and progressed to this wonderful video below.  I am missing being in the classroom with students so much and this is why!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AbC-Vt0OII&feature=colike[/youtube]

11/11/11

Posted on by
1

11/11/11. On this day, at 11pm, (US time) the film below is set to be released on YouTube.

By the way … we are truly lucky to have Amy Krouse Rosenthal visiting ISB in the new year! I am very excited to meet her! Click on her name above to access her site.

Of course, today is even more special as it is my son’s birthday – he’s 10 (wouldn’t it have been so cool if he was turning 11?).