Notes:

Although ICT is not required in the exhibition, the YIS Grade 5 teachers and students have decided that they will be writing their reflections and documenting their learning process using Posterous blogs. You can find how to register for Posterous here. Each student has been assigned a school email address so that they can register for online tools such as Posterous. Some students have also registered for Animoto using a Classroom Code that the teacher obtained for the class. Both of these online services strictly prohibits students 13 and younger from registering unless the school provides a ‘dummy’ or alias email address that the school maintains. Apply for Animoto Classroom Code here. The teacher and the ICT Facilitator has supervised both Posterous and Animoto registration so that students use their school email address to register and understand that YIS does not tolerate negative behavior with email and online services.

Posterous – Blogging platform that students can use school email to send a blog post with photos, audio or video files to their website. The subject of the email becomes the title of the post and the body of the email becomes the description or ‘blog post.’
Animoto – Animoto allows educators to apply for a Classroom Code and All-Access Pass for free. This has allowed students to create a video out of their photos, video, and audio recordings without the hassle and time it takes to add transitions and make slideshows. Animoto videos can be downloaded and dropped into iMovie for further editing.

The role of the ICT Facilitator for YIS Grade 5 Exhibition is to:
- Be present in weekly grade level planning meetings (Every Wednesday from 2pm-3pm)
- Block times to work with students using the Grade 5 shared schedule (Times TBD)
- Work with mentors and mentor groups if requested
- Work with teachers and students on strategies to save work (ie. File sizes, Server, USB Memory Stick, Computer)
- Work with IT Team to ensure that printer issues are resolved in a timely manner
- Work with Grade 5 teachers and students on final presentation day to help organize and facilitate event

From the Exhibition Guidelines Handbook 2008:

Role of ICT in PYP Exhibition

“I am curious to hear from folks on what you tend to use for Blogging in your school, and how you manage the privacy aspects and other issues related to sharing in a open public environment, or if you close this to a private environment how you like this? Also what tools you use, blogger, wordpress, edublogs, moodles blog option.”

I responded with this:

At Yokohama International School we use a multiple of blogging platforms.

As for myself, I use Blogger, Wordpress, Edublogs, as well as Twitter and Posterous. I mostly use Edublogs and Twitter to get discussion points out to educators and to the network I have.

Because my blog feeds into Twitter and my Twitter feeds into my Facebook status or Wall updates, I have a wonderful community of readers and receive immediate feedback from other educators (colleagues and from other schools), family, and friends.

As for students, the Middle School Curriculum Coordinator went to EARCOS Learning 2.0 in September 2008 and when he returned, having asked all questions regarding digital portfolios and blogs, he decided to roll out blogs via his English classes he teaches. He’s extended this effort to the rest of the English Department and now all Middle School students have an Edublogs account. The most important thing he learned was he needed to teach students how to self-publish and learned that he needed to support and encourage teachers/schools/parents/students to not be afraid to be open about their communication.

As for privacy settings – all Grades 5-12 students are given email accounts set up in FirstClass. Once the Curriculum Coordinator signed up to be an Edublogs Supporter, he then used their school email accounts to set up Edublogs accounts for Grades 6-7. As for the Grade 8 students, the Curriculum Coordinator allowed them to use their own email addresses & allowed them to choose their own domain (ie. thispart.edublogs.org)

I support and work with PreK-12 teachers. Lately, I’ve been inviting colleagues and other teachers to this blog as guest writers. This has been a slow start but it started with my strong feeling of wanting to bring my colleagues together to make them feel like they could depend on each other regarding using technology in the classroom. Also it was to show them that I’m learning with them and they are learning together. More and more teachers are getting their own blogs, using Edublogs in particular, that I can invite them as writers to this blog. The website has also been a one-stop place for all the blogs at school.

The Modern Languages Department have been so responsive in using blogs in their classroom. We use Edublogs, Posterous, and Voicethread as blogging platforms. The one thing that is stressed is try not to put their full name with their address or other personal info and/or photo on their blogs. Other than that, the teacher sets the assignment and the students put their assignment and comment on each others’ blogs.

I am all for the public environment since that’s the real world. But it’s really important to scaffold/support the students so you don’t set them up to fail in the ‘real world’ you’re creating with using blogs in the classroom. It’s important for teachers to set goals in their assignments using blogs and/or any technology in the classroom so that students know why exactly their putting their work online for all to see.

I feel strongly that a student must learn how to self-publish and communicate to a wide audience to be effective people. We have no idea what studies or work these students will choose, the best we could do as educators is teach how they could help themselves if they need help in their studies and life.

Christine @ Yokohama International School
PreK-12 e-Learning and Instructional Support
http://cu08.info/resume

Note: All photos taken and voices recorded with an iPhone.

国際英研センターが行うSpring Campで参加した生徒は湘南国際村で３泊４日の合宿を過し、その時の写真と体験が以下のビデオで見れます。

Dedicated to my students who produced the work and the Eiken Assistants who helped me in the classroom every day. Thanks S1, I enjoyed every moment of the week.

Notes on the production: Photos taken with a cell phone and arranged with Animoto. Soundtrack was chosen because this song was played every day for the students during their music class.