The following is a brief description of a new method of using Web 2.0 resources to create projects that are browser based and can be accessed through a TINY html page hosted on a Moodle site. Moodle was not used to create these projects, but I felt Moodlers might enjoy seeing how these new tools can be used in a "moodle-like" spirit. I'd enjoy hearing any feedback.
This year I decided to see if I couldn't try a fresh, new approach with my 9th grade ancient world cultures and religions classes.
I did quite a bit of reading on the new research on brain development and learning theory. I tried to think of a way to combine the best ideas I found with my interest in technology and the internet.
What I came up with was what I now call M4 Projects--Multi Media Mind Mapping.
Students established Google accounts and used several apps provided by Google: Google Notebooks for research and Google Docs for writing their narratives. I require that students do their research in collaborative teams working inpairs or trios on the same topic. I also have them make the teacher a "sharer" of their research folders and docs so that I can follow along, make suggestions, and get the lazy ones motivated!
I began with what I liked and didn't like about PowerPoint. PowerPoint is great for the sharing of mostly visual information. It is lousy as a way to explore and explain concepts and ideas. In addition, PowerPoint files are HUGE and very cumbersome to email or share on the web. If you add audio to them they become impossible. I was looking for a way to make projects more portable and easily shareable. Even using Moodle's presentation tools is problemmatic once the file sizes get large. The burden on servers and resulting hang time as students wait for access is discouraging.
The solution I found was to "diaggregate" my PowerPoint files. I exported each slide as a JPEG and uploaded these files to Picasa Web Albums. Then, using code provided by Picasa, I embedded a slide show into my HTML page. These are streaming Flash files that add nothing to the html file size. A very nifty trick.
Teachers and students who don't have access to PowerPoint at home or school should know that there are FREE alternatives like OpenOffice and NeoOffice available for PC's and Macs. In fact, any graphics creation program can create suitable JPEGs for this project.
I discovered all the interesting new ways teachers and researchers have been using concept maps or mind mapping. If you have used Inspiration as a learning tool, you have some idea of what I am talking about. But new, online tools have gone many steps beyond what Inspiration can do.
Mindomo is the tool I have been using with my students and we think it's great, even though we are just novices right now. Mind maps enable kids to get a perspective on their research and ideas and help them to see interesting and unobvious connections between ideas and facts. Visually outlining ideas forces students to think more explicitly about organization schemes and logical categories--both vital aspects of higher order thinking. These are the skills that PowerPoint can't reach very well. Combining mind maps with the visual resources of PowerPoint is a potent combination, offering students the best of both worlds.
I wanted to personalize the students' connection with their projects. So, I came up with the idea of having the students personally narrate their reports and recording these and making them available with the PowerPoints and Mindmaps.
Audio files are notoriously huge. Figuring out a simple way of handling this component was a major challenge. We used Audacity for recording and exported our files as MP3 files. Each minute of recording was about 1MB. Uploading and downloading files that large could be a major deal breaker. Then I discovered twango! It works like Picasa Web Albums, only for all kinds of files, including audio files. Students upload their MP3 files to twango and get a code to embed on their HTML pages. Result: nearly zero MBs added to the HTML page and great, streaming audio!
Then I was faced with the issue of how to give students access to their projects. I wanted to use Moodle. But I didn't want to make 70 kids Teachers of a course. So I came up with a neat work around. I set up a dummy email account with G-Mail. Then I created a generic student name and password that all students could use to access the course as "teachers" with editing privileges. I set up the Moodle course with a Topic cell for each student and created a Directory for each. Then I taught students how to upload files to their directory. Result: every student can post their own files! No work for me.
Hence, M4 Projects--Multi Media Mind Mapping. The first results of the students efforts are available for viewing on Moodle in a new course I set up for them called--what else?--M4 Projects. As you glance at these student projects, remember three things:
1) Many students were learning about Hinduism for the first time;
2) the technology was almost entirely new to them;
3) their "production values" need refining--but I didn't want to emphasize that with everything else that was so new at the same time. We will work on that part later.
You can find the M4 Projects course here:
http://online.laurelschool.org/course/view.php?id=65
You can register as a Guest without a name/password.
To view these projects to their best effect, follow these procedures:
- scroll down the opening page until you get to the list of student names
- open the M4 Projects folder for a student
- expand the pop-up screen to full page
- open "My Mindmap" as a new tab in your browser-->you can toggle back and forth between the presentation and the map this way
- Click on the arrow to open the presentation
- click on the presentation Pause button to toggle to advance when YOU click-->otherwise the automatic click goes too fast
- click on the audio player on the bottom of the page to listen to the student's narrative-->these are not yet optimized to accompany the presentation, but we are working on that!
You might be interested to know two amazing facts about these projects:
1) the M4 Project web page you are opening and viewing is TINY--just 4 KB! I emailed an entire project to you as an attachment! Wonder how that is done? Ask!
2) The entire project was created using all FREE applications available for both Macs and PCs on line. It didn't cost a cent--other than the electricity to run the computers--to create these M4 Projects. Students can download all the software used to create this program or use it through their browser AT HOME. Pretty amazing, huh?
David Huston
History Department
Laurel School
Shaker Hts OH