North Slob (my new band)

I am fascinated by a fellow participant's post that included instructions for students to create an album cover for a fictitious band.  Walking through the steps on my own, this is my creation.

"Alternative Rock band North Slob is back on top with their signature sound.  The laid-back vocals and earthy tones ease listeners into this collection of stress-free sound."

It would be interesting to put together instructions that included vocabulary words, ideas about digital citizenship, or something else to bring an educational element to the activity for students.  The activity itself gives some wonderful creative license to students that is fun and entertaining.  Having a collection of their work could be displayed for the entire school to view.

F5F for Cycle #4

I have not had the chance to choose my #F5F each Friday, but after the Cycle #4 Twitter chat it was clear I needed to put one together.  Taking the opportunity to explore another resource (emaze), I assembled this presentation.  Click HERE to view it.

The conversation included ideas about light as a system, tides as a system, play (and how important it is to learning) as a system.  This got me thinking about the student brain.

Cycle #3 - Level Up - Game Design

For Cycle #3:

Let’s dive deeper into the ways in which we analyze, deconstruct and change complex systems. What are the variables in our every day and cosmic equation? How can we tackle complex local and global issues, which may be quick to identify but hard to solve? By using a different lens to analyze a situation, can we create discussion and empower action?

I also like the idea of using this with students, especially if they write their own questions.  I love that videos can be embedded - that creates a whole new level of quiz question!  I could have roving reporters (like Jeopardy) that make quick videos around the school for quiz questions!

We are a GAFE school and I wanted to utilize something that would be easily accessible by all.  Richard Byrne had written a post about Flippity some time ago - I took this opportunity to try it out.  I thought that this could be a neat opener for a staff meeting at the beginning of the year (I would choose different questions) - something light and fun to get us going as a team.

Click HERE to play the game.

#donowmanifesto

The #donowmanifesto for this week:

Here is this week's Do Now prompt!
Can artist manifestos create social change?http://blogs.kqed.org/education/2015/07/08/artist-manifestos-social-change/
This week's Make Cycle theme is centered around games and game design. As game designers, we are also artists. Almost all game companies have a vision or mission when creating a new game. Making a profit is obviously important for any company - but there are other political or social goals that may be embedded within their efforts. How could a manifesto create this change? 
Create your own manifesto that expresses your views and beliefs on this topic. 
Share using the #clmooc  and #DoNowManifesto  tags.

... brings me to Symbolic Frame from B&? - creating... inspire hope...

I love the challenges that get me thinking, that have me diving further into my brain to connect thoughts and ideas!  In a graduate course, we are talking about how the naming of a class can affect attitudes towards what happens there and who attends.  Would you rather be in the "remedial reading" class or the "creative reading" class?  The symbolic frame created by just a few words is powerful.  With this in mind, I created my own manifesto:

It stems from my love of chaos theory:

cha·os the·o·ry
noun
the branch of mathematics that deals with complex systems whose behavior is highly sensitive to slight changes in conditions, so that small alterations can give rise to strikingly great consequences.
I believe it is important to know that from chaos, amazing things can rise.
I believe that each of us, no matter how small, can have big effects on the world (think butterfly effect).
I believe that sometimes we need to just jump into the deep end of the pool and start swimming for change.

And includes quotes from Friedrich Nietzsche, Alan Watts, and Deepak Chopra.

I believe that the only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.  As we initiate change in our education spaces, I wish to challenge staff and students to think about their own manifestos.  I would like the Makerspace Faciliatators to brainstorm one specifically for that environment as well.

#silentsunday

One of my favorite challenges throughout this process is the #silentsunday one.  It's very simple and very compelling all at the same time.  Post one image from the week with no commentary.  It's fascinating how many people respond to this challenge and post an image.  Also fascinating is how many are compelled to include commentary!

My #silentsunday images for the first 2 cycles:

I would love to have a similar challenge to students.  Perhaps to staff as well.  A weekly theme would be provided based on curriculum or school activity (peace, kindness, the number 3) and everyone would be challenged to add an image to a main collection.  No commentary allowed with the posting.  The discussions that happen for each image "story starter" have the potential to be interesting.

Continuing the reMEDIAtion

Next, I participated in the #donowdance challenge:

Here is the second Do Now post for CLMOOC 2015.
What's your favorite dance move? If you don't have one, you can make one! Capture your moves and share. If you can't capture it through video, describe what your dance would be or looks like. ‪#‎donowdance‬ ‪#‎clmooc‬

To continue my reMEDIAtion, I wanted to explore using video.  Again, utilizing my phone and the default apps, I decided to use a video from my daughter's dance recital.  After a few edits and filters, this is the final result.

In reflection, this is great for me to remember that my students need time to just mess around with tech sometimes before starting a big project.  They can find plenty of bells & whistles on their own, personalize a quick product, and be ready to tackle something larger.  It's worth the time and effort to just let them play it out sometimes.

Finally, just for fun, I made my reMEDIATEd contribution to the #cowremix challenge.  A picture of a cow was posted for the CLMOOC community and we were challenged to remix it.  My remix looks deceptively simple.  However, it was a lot of work as I researched photo editing apps for the iPad, downloaded and tried several.  The final result is a combination of more than one app being utilized for the final result (referred to as app smashing).

So what did I get out of all of this?  A reminder that:

• It's OK to let students play with the tools before starting an activity.
• Look to use the default tools available as the paid "fancy" versions may not be needed.
• Personalizing something is powerful and can make a student feel ownership to the product, the idea, the learning.
• A little humor can go a long way.
• Find activities that require some grit, some perseverance on the student's part.  Let them dig into it and be creative along the way.
• An activity that provides a type of prompt (like the cow picture) can give a student a safe place to start.  Creating from scratch can be intimidating.

Cycle #2 - Remediation

The instructions for this cycle included the following from the CLMOOC website:

For this Make Cycle, we invite you to consider how the media we compose within (like print, sound, still and moving image, or objects) influence how we communicate and interpret.  In this Make Cycle, we will mediate and re-mediate and reflect on how the affordances of different media impact our choices, processes, and meanings.

I wanted to reMEDIAte in a manner that is accessible for students, so I grabbed my phone.  We had just gone to the fireworks in Portsmouth, NH - we took our 2 teenagers staying with us through an international Peace program, so I was viewing the fireworks display through very patriotic eyes.  I'm sure there is a great poem in there.  I also have an idea for a video, but those ideas are for another day.  Here are my photos reMEDIAted on my phone.

Original photo on left. Edited one on right reminds me of a deep sea creature!

Original photo on left. Edited one on right.

Mashup of several edited photos.

I was surprised at how many options the default photo editor had on my phone.  It was fun to make changes to the original photos and create something that was very personal.  This could be a very approachable activity for students.  They could alter photos to fit the mood of a short story, for example.