Digital Literacy Concept Map – Using Gliffy

For my Rip.Mix.Feed activity, I decided to remix the Digital Literacy Wiki our class developed as a concept map in a Web 2.0 tool called Gliffy.  Here is the concept map in progress.  Although Gliffy allows collaboration, the lack of a discussion tool within the tool hampers the success of this collaboration.  Gliffy does afford the ability to save the diagrams in a variety of formats as well as embed the image in a website or blog as I’ve done here.  There are also private and public settings to control sharing.  Gliffy has many abilities beyond concept mapping that make it a useful Web 2.0 tool.  So far, this has been a collaboration between Teresa D.,  Tim R. and Ken S.  If any others feel they would like to join, please leave your email address under the thread in Vista.  Any additions/comments to what is shown here so far are welcome as this is a work in progress. Here is a link to a larger version. Use this link or click on the image of the concept map below to access the hyperlinked map that makes connections throughout the weblog.

Gliffy Digital Literacy Concept Map

Gliffy Digital Literacy Concept Map

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Symbaloo Webmix on Cinemagraphs

For this week’s Rip. Mix. Feed. activity, I chose to collect a set of resources on Symbaloo, a PLE bookmarking tool.  Since I have a particular interest in cinemagraphs as a form of text, that it the theme I chose for my webmix. It currently consists of twenty bookmarks or so, but I plan to keep adding to it through the week, so if you’re interested, make sure to check it again in a few days.

You can find the webmix here (unfortunately, the embed code didn’t work).

May

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Storytelling through KerPoof

After looking through some story activity links, I fell upon Kerpoof. Looking to increase my list of creative websites, since I’m teaching art this year, this website makes the cut. It has some great features. The interface is clear and very vibrant. It is very kid friendly and has many creative activities to choose from. Teachers can create some great stories to accompany their lessons. There is also the option for teachers to subscribe for a fee, in order to have access to other tools. This is a great site to have students create their own material. Students can make drawings, animated movies, cards, and stories.

My KerPoof Story

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Diigo: Sharing Wisdom From the Cloud

For this assignment I chose to use Diigo.  It is a social bookmarking site which also offers the ability to present your collection of bookmarks into a slide show.  I have been collecting elementary-focused blog sites for some time now on Pinterest however, you have to be a member to view them. Diigo allows you to share your slide presentation with others without a membership.

Some interesting features of Diigo:

  • Sticky notes to comment on a webpage (these can be shared with an annotated link)
  • Highlighter to highlight pertinent parts of the page (also shared with a link)
  • Music – can be added to the slide show
  • Can be public or private
  • Interest groups can be created and you can invite others to collaborate with you in compiling and annotating web pages
  • Embedding capability

My WebSlide

I have chosen not to add music because in the case of a collection of blogs, it might be annoying.  Unfortunately, the embedding function is not working at this time.  Here is the link.

WebSlide

I’ve so enjoyed looking at everyone’s tools (many are the first time for me to find out about them) that I’ve decided to add a couple more that I have used is order to share the information.

BeFunky allows you to edit photos. This is one I did for ETEC511 project theorizing Smartphones. In this case the photo was mine but any photo for public use could be used.

Theorizing Smartphone toon:Joy Penner

And lastly, Wayfaring is a site that lets you tell a story using maps. You can embed audio, video, and images as well as add text. It also has the option of being collaborative or private.  I just created this for ETEC565A storytelling assignment. There is an embed option but it doesn’t seem to be working here.

My Cultural Journey

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Expand our Personal Learning Networks (PLNs)

This year, I’m getting the teachers and staff at my school ready for a 1-to-1 implementation next year. Since I cannot provide complete support all of the time, I would like to show them how to set up and make use of PLNs. At the same time, I’m trying to expand my own PLN because I don’t think any of us should feel like we are alone when we have so much support we can turn to.

As well, I was thinking about how after each MET course is over, there are many people with many great ideas who I don’t hear from again.

With these things on my mind, I decided to set up a resource where we could not only share PLNs with each other, but we could also share our own Twitter, Google+, blogs, etc… with each other so that our connections could continue.

For this activity, I’ve set up some some shared Google docs that are open to anyone who has the link. This way, our community can help grow our PLNs together. Google Docs is also easy to use, makes it easy to fix any vandalism, and gives the administrators easy control over privacy settings.

When I began this assignment, I also restarted my own use of Twitter, now that I have a better understanding of it. I’m finding it to be very useful.

Here’s the link to the documents.

 

Chris McKenzie

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A Web 2.0 Adventure!

In the creation of my Rip, Mix, Feed – Reloaded artifact, I chose the theme of digital storytelling. Although this assignment asks to document the story of how we might incorporate the use of Web 2.0 tools, I felt that creating “microcontent” (Alexander & Levine, 2008) was one of the best ways to approach this task. “Microcontent” is what Alexander and Levine refer to as small pieces of content or media, which is easily remixed for use with and on a variety of different Web 2.0 platforms. The second aspect of Web 2.0 technology that the authors suggest is essential is how each of these tools is socially aware. Instead of working discretely and in isolation, content is shared so that others are able to contribute (comments, linking, etc.), combine it with other microcontent, and to share it with others.
I decided to use a variety of different Web 2.0 resources to tell my story. I primarily used three Web 2.0 tools in the creation of this artifact; i) Diigo, ii) Kerpoof, and iii) Youtube. Using my chosen theme, I set out to see how each of the tools could be used to tell stories in a digital manner. With Diigo and Webslides, I quickly saw how social bookmarking could also allow an individual or a group tell a story through bookmarked websites. Kerpoof was an interesting and fun tool, offering a number of interactives that allows users to be creative. Finally, Youtube was the medium that allowed me to host and annotate my video. Inspired by this website: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/06/create-choose-your-own-adventure-videos.html#.UKWvv4c0WSo I set out to capture small snippets of video – showing my experimentation with each of the tools.  This idea of using a “choose your own adventure video” is an interesting way of creating content for students and with students.
By selecting the links that pop up you can see how I experimented with Kerpoof, Diigo, and the exporting of my Diigo-Digital Storytelling bookmarks to a Webslides video (available at http://slides.diigo.com/list/mrmah1234/digitalstorytelling).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YDgcIMrx5k
-Jerry

References

Alexander, B., & Levine, A. (2008). Web 2.0 storytelling: Emergence of a new genre. EDUCAUSE review, 43(6), 40–56.

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Chinese Characters: From Icon to Symbol

In oral cultures, physical records were limited to icons and other memory aids. Knots, poetic devices and mnemonics were used by story tellers and accountants to keep track of their daily needs.  (Ong, 2002) Icons eventually became symbols as rules for writing systems were established.  Of all extant systems of writing, Chinese characters most closely represent this link to picture writing. Of the thousands of characters available, only about 5000 are in use today. Many are quite complex, made up of many different pieces, radicals, which tend to be simple characters with close attachment to their iconic roots.

“Historical evidence does indicate a tendency of linguistic signs to evolve from indexical and iconic forms towards symbolic forms.” (Chandler, 2012)

The evolution from icon to symbol had impacts on how we think, communicate and live. (Ong, 2002) The Chinese character for field, or one way of writing field, is represented by a box with a plus symbol in the middle, 田. Though it is a symbol, requiring a certain amount of cultural exposure in order to decode, it is quite an accurate picture of a field. As a top down view of a section of farmland, it’s one of the more simple symbols but also a great representation of the real world object. A person, leaving a iconic message for a friend may depict a field in a very similar way, I would add some crops but I’m not a very good pictographic writer. Perhaps the reader would be confused as to if I was referring to the field, the crops or a field with crops in it. Field is perhaps as close as possible to the icon used before symbols took over written expression. 田would have been perfected over a long time before it became the standard.

Field is a radical. (Lau, 2012) It may be a word itself, used as a part of a word or as part of a character denoting vocalization or meaning. An example is found in the character for man. Man consists of field, 田, and strength, 力. The combination of these two radicals into 男 creates man, the traditional worker of the fields. Symbols allow the development of ideas in ways that icons do not. Symbols can be combined in ways that create new ideas beyond the literal meaning of icons. The Chinese language creates new words by the combination of current words. This may draw from the symbolic nature of the language and the need to keep the number of necessary symbols low.  A computer, for instance is diannao, electric brain. The combination of the two symbols brings about a wholly new idea something that cannot be communicated through icons.

An icon, by definition must be a representation of an object. (Chandler, 2012) All representations would be open for interpretation and cultural bias but a picture of a bird, will maintain it’s likeness to a bird for everyone who sees it. Some might see a raven or a seagull but the idea of bird can be transferred relatively easily. Everyone’s bird is different. Regulation of the icon, perhaps by a body of people controlling a large market, would start to transform the icon into a symbol. Business dealings, the necessity to accurately track trades and goods, have driven the development of writing systems. (Driver, 1976) The number of times a certain object would have to be recorded would influence its form. Speed would be essential. The vast economic influence of China over Asia has spread their writing system to other countries, Japan, Korea and Vietnam.

The development of the written symbol is necessary to increasing the ability for one to express depth of thought through writing. Narrative is difficult to convey with pictographs. (Bolter, 2001) Icons can serve only as a representation of a physical object, not ideas. In order to fully understand pictographic writing beyond recognition of the icons, one must have a deep understanding of the author. (Bolter, 2001)

The development of a symbolic system (writing) allowed for better governance and control. The Chinese system of script had multiple layers. The top, elite intellectuals used a more artistic form of writing not suited to speed. The pursuit was a pleasure and is often represented today as calligraphy by wet brush on pavement or works of art on walls. Clerks used a different style of writing. They had a necessity for speed. These lower status scribes did the grunt work of the imperial bureaucracy. (Senner, 1991) Their writing system, however, would end up most influential as writing became more of a necessity. Writing became less of a leisurely pursuit and more practical. The flowing, regimented system for clerical, low-class script can be seen and decoded today, hundreds of years later.

The real power embedded in Chinese characters came from the amount of characters in the system. Literacy today requires the knowledge of 2-3000 characters. The average people, peasant farmers, had not the time to become literate. They would have stuck to oral traditions and pictographic symbols when necessary. The overwhelming presence of oral traditions in Chinese, for example, proverbs, is proof of this secondary orality. (Ong, 2002) The ability for the educated elites to keep the writing system away, and thus retain their power, from the masses has only recently started to change. Since 1949, educational reforms have created opportunity for education in rural areas in an attempt to increase literacy. (Rohsenow, 2003) The standard pinyin even utilizes the alphabet to sound out the symbols accompanied by tonal indicators. The large number of proverbs in Chinese is related to the large number of illiterate peasants. Obelkevich (1987) indicates how Russia, with its vast illiterate peasantry, had the most proverbs of all European countries. These features of orality were also a key component of communist propaganda during Mao’s rise to power.

The evolution from icon to symbol represents a great shift in the ability of a culture to expand. Control of a large group of people requires standards. Those in power control the spread of ideas through standardized systems of writing. Chinese characters were solely influenced and used by those in power to keep the illiterate populations under wraps. As education became more prevalent, the characters have been simplified to ease the learning curve. The characters still have much resemblance to a history of pictographic writing.

References:

Bolter, J.D. (2001). Writing Space. Computers, Hypertext and teh Remediation of Print. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Boltz, W. G. (1994). The origin and early development of the Chinese writing system (Vol. 78). Eisenbrauns.

Chandler, D. (2012). Semiotics for Beginners. Aberystwyth University. Retrieved from http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem02.html

Driver, G. R. (1976) Semitic Writing from Pictograph to Alphabet. London: Ixford University Press.

Lau, J. (2012) List of Chinese Radicals. Yellowbridge Chinese Language Center. Retrieved from http://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/radicals.php

Obelkevich, J. (1987). Proverbs and social history. The Social History of Language, 43-72.

Ong, W.J. (2002). Orality and LIteracy: The technologizing of the Word. New York: Routledge

Rohsenow, J. S. (2003). ABC dictionary of Chinese proverbs. University of Hawaii press.

Senner, W. M. (Ed.). (1991). The origins of writing. University of Nebraska Press.

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Lino

As I had posted on the course site a few days ago that I was going to try using a bulletinboard web 2.0 tool. I opted for Lino. Here is mine of my boy Shylock. It was really fun. I can see using it for all kinds of things in classes.  It would be a great tool for  an introductory activity to help build a sense of community in an online course. You could also have students use it as a way to introduce a historical figure. Just as I created a board for   my dog Shylock it would be fun for students to research a historical figure and then create a bulletinboard for that person’s room.
It would also be a useful tool for students who are working together on a project to post links to websites, books, articles, notes, videos, etc. It is possible for others to add to a bulletinboard as long as they are members. 

Also a great place for students to organize an online agenda.  They could personalize it with their own images or favourite things but also organize upcoming assignments, exams, etc. There is something satisfying about being able to peel the stickies away once they are no longer needed.

Overall it was really easy to use and I was able to add: sticky notes, reminders linked to the built in calendar, images, video (it must be uploaded to youtube or another host to do so). You can link to it, embed, open it to public or keep it private. You can also use it with smartphones which is great.

Here is a link if you want to know more about it.

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Gliffy vs. Cmap

For this exercise, I updated a flowchart that I had originally created using Cmap for an MET course I completed this past summer.  Please click here to view my flowchart.

I have created flowcharts in the past using Visio, Vue and Cmap.  When I was an auditor, I created process documentation using Visio, and I have used Vue and Cmap to create flowcharts for other MET courses.  I was not aware of the existence of Gliffy until this exercise.   I have summarized what I consider to be the pros and cons of the application below.

Pros

  • Auto save feature
  • Easy to move individual shapes and/or the entire diagram to another location within the “page”
  • Grid system ensures that shapes and text are lined up (no more eyeballing)
  • Portability – The flowchart can be accessed from anywhere.  With Cmap and Vue, I had to download the application on my computer before I could use it.
  • Collaboration – Standard and pro packages allow multiple users
  • Ability to export as svg, Gliffy XML, JPEG or PNG file
  • Can print the flowchart
  • Easy to use
  • Lots of shapes from which to choose

Cons

  • No spell check utility
  • Cost – The free plan only permits 5 flowcharts to be created and there is no ability to collaborate.  The standard plan is $4.95/user per month and allows 200 diagrams and unlimited collaboration.  The pro plan is $9.95/user per month and permits unlimited diagrams and collaboration.

I was very impressed with how easy it was to learn how to use the application.  The process went much faster than it did when I originally created the flowchart in Cmap.  I would definitely consider using Gliffy again in the future if I needed to create a flowchart.

 

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My Collection of Resources: LC2.ca and Diigo

One of my current responsibilities in my job is to chair and write for our Learning Connections Blog.  Since one of our options for the Rip.Mix.Feed is to post a collection of resources, such as a blog, I thought it would be the perfect thing to share.  I don’t write all the articles, but I do write many of them.  We also find useful articles on the web and link to them through our site because there isn’t much point in reinventing the wheel.  It is a collection I refer to in my day-to-day work both for myself and the instructors I work with.  I hope you find it as useful as we do.

http://www.lc2.ca

We also use Diigo.  It is a bookmarking site like delicious.  Our team uses it to share with everyone any useful learning site they find.  It’s a great way to save and curate useful information.  Our learning site is open.  Check it out and see if you can find anything related to your field.  I bet you can.

http://groups.diigo.com/user/dentongirl

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