For this online storymaker application, you need to sign-up. It is free. Two options for you to choose from:the regular account or the kid account or the teacher account. I choose the TEACHER account to see what the application can offer for teaching.

PIC 01

As I log in as the teacher account, there are 3 items (see PIC 01) :

GETTING STARTED, ASSIGNMENTS, CLASS LIBRARY

The interesting items which the teacher can use are (1) adding students in her/his community for projects that focuses on storymaking skill. Here the teacher adds the students. (2) assignments-the teacher can create specific assignment. Assignments here not only focus on creating story but collaborating in designing the story, or commenting on the story or even predicting the story. The latter two activities are possible because there is a feature (See PIC02) in this application which allows the reader to comment on the story.

PIC 02

Okay, now let us start creating the story. STORYBIRD provides a set of amazing artsy pictures. Amazing artsy pictures which I felt is sufficient to whet the students’ imaginative appetites. You can choose from the art images or themes (See PIC03).

PIC 03

In my opinion, if a teacher is starting to introduce the application to the students, then the option of asking them to select from art images to start creating will be a better choice. Making the students excited and hooked on the application will be first thing to do. Once the students get the hang of using the tool, and for a more advance activity, then the teacher can include the option of exploring themes.

PIC 04

First, let me choose the art for my story. I pick the Fairy art set (See PIC04). Then you will be brought to this page. Click START A STORYBIRD to begin your storytelling (See PIC05).

PIC 05

Now, this page will appear (See PIC06). Your work station for creating the story. The images on both left and right are for me to choose to create the story. The basic process of creating the story will be ADD PAGE, REMOVE PAGE, and you can even rearrange the CREATED PAGES.

PIC 06

The e-storybook also includes a COVER (See PIC07) which the creator needs to add a title, and even change the author’s name. To be able to change the author’s name provides a sense of identity to the story-teller. Imagine your student coming up with their pen names. You can also change the colour for the cover. Colour palette depends on the chosen image for the cover.

PIC 07

I will choose an image to start my story. Let me start by selecting an image for my first page. All you need to do is to drag the image to the page. Before placing the image, hover the image around the page to decide where you want to put your text. BOTTOM, LEFT, RIGHT or TOP (See PIC08).

PIC 08

Of course, if the issue of writer’s block occur, there is always SAVE and CLOSE option under the MENU ICON. The draft will be saved and you can choose to continue later.

The challenge for this activity is to create a story with just that amount of pictures. Hence, it pushes the students’ creativity and imagination to create an awesome story with that “limited” resource. By the way, never underestimate your students.

Issues such as:

(1)What image is suitable to represent the flow of the story.

(2)How much description to add because [A] if the texts are too lengthy, it can be a put off to the reader or [B] if it the texts are too few, it can be turn off because the parts of the story is incomplete.

can be used as part of the class activities. The students will learn how to manage such problems when it comes to story-telling.

As I an educator from Malaysia, teachers who teach Bahasa Malaysia, and English language can use this tool for composition writing activity. It is not only for the Primary School students but I believe secondary school students can benefit as well. As for Chinese language, the STORYBIRD team is working on  it (See PIC 09).

PIC 09

Do have fun trying out STORYBIRD.

I did.

Previously created 2 stories.

By the way, here is another complete story. My third.

The Web2.0 tool is STORYBIRD.

It is an online tool to create stories.

The provided graphics are amazing. Beautifully drawn artwork.

So far I have created two stories.

My next entry will be more on how to use the tool to create.

Things which I learned from the session:-

-A good article regardless for a journal or theses, you should have these elements: COHERENCE, CLARITY, COMPLETENESS (Carmel, 2010)

-To be a good writer, discipline yourself to write everyday (of course, you can have breaks during the weekend)

-peer review is essential. let your friends / peers read cause they can see what you might not be able to see in your own article

-FIVE HOOKS for a good academic paper (regardless journal, theses or proceedings):

[A] TITLE

[B] ABSTRACT

[C] FIRST SENTENCES – Get to the POINT. What is the paper’s contribution? NUTSHELL needs to be in the first paragraph

[D] SEQUENCE OF HEADINGS

[E] LAST SENTENCES – referring to the conclusion: wraps the paper up and SHOW WHERE it going next. DO NOT REPEAT the abstract here.

-LITERATURE – in past tense

-METHODOLOGY – in past tense

-A COHERENT STRUCTURE: INTRO=Tell them what are you going to say, MAIN BODY=Say it, CONCLUSION=Tell them what you said and where are you going

-CLARITY: Need to have ONE KEY IDEA, do not ignore EDITING

- COMPLETENESS: FOUR ASPECTS TO TAKE NOTE (taken from the slides presented during Prof. Carmel Session)

All right: here are 39 tips of How to write More, Better

(You can find the list on the net, not sure who came up with the list. This is one of those list that get forwarded in email)

1. Avoid alliteration. Always.

2. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.

3. Employ the vernacular.

4. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.

5. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.

6. Remember to never split an infinitive.

7. Contractions aren’t necessary.

8. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.

9. One should never generalize.

10. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”

11. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.

12. Don’t be redundant; don’t use more words than necessary; it’s highly superfluous.

13. Be more or less specific.

14. Understatement is always best.

15. One-word sentences? Eliminate.

16. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.

17. The passive voice is to be avoided.

18. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.

19. Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.

20. Who needs rhetorical questions?

21. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

22. Don’t never use a double negation.

23. capitalize every sentence and remember always end it with point

24. Do not put statements in the negative form.

25. Verbs have to agree with their subjects.

26. Proofread carefully to see if you words out.

27. If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.

28. A writer must not shift your point of view.

29. And don’t start a sentence with a conjunction. (Remember, too, a preposition is a terrible word to end a sentence with.)

30. Don’t overuse exclamation marks!!

31. Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to the irantecedents.

32. Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.

33. If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.

34. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.

35. Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.

36. Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing.

37. Always pick on the correct idiom.

38. The adverb always follows the verb.

39. Last but not least, avoid cliches like the plague; They’re old hat; seek viable alternatives.

One more The Island of Research to wrap things up.

(Again google to search for the image cause the one which I have is hard copy, distributed during the session.)

Where am I?

Where are you?

-Image taken from http://www.effectperformance.com/sites/prestera/graphics/M4/island.jpg

The first one was on Global Educational Technology: A Luddite View by Jon Baggaley from Athabasca University, Canada

Now, I am clueless of the term LUDDITE and why-what does LUDDITE got to do with educational technology. Prof. Jon mentioned that LUDDITE refers to someone who dislikes the usage of technology. Here are links to what is LUDDITE and NEO-LUDDISM.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Luddism

An article (I google) on LUDDITE and educational technology:

http://www.ait.net/technos/tq_02/4postman.php

So since it as refer to anti-technology, what is the relationship with educational technology then. Believe me, I am trying to understand what is being presented. A different level for me, I must say.

A snapshot of selected slides from Prof. Jon presentation to help the reader see the connection with NEO LUDDITE and EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY.

The second keynote was on Beyond Dichotomies: Rethinking the World Through New Technologies by Merry Merryfield from The Ohio State University, USA

She illustrated how technology such as youtube, wiki, blog, skype helped students from different continents to have a better understanding of each other by erasing the stereotyping and assuming through providing real, on-live examples (see pictures below).

Technology, yes, does provide endless opportunities to make in-depth learning. Learning is not just confined within the pages of the written textbook which may some of the knowledge may expire with the global development engulfing the world. Therefore technology makes learning knowledge current. Of course, the instructor needs to be selective in these knowledge as there are issues in the validity and the credibility of content. It all boils down to how the instructor collect and collate and deliver these content-knowledge.

It was an interesting session on SHARED THINKING – a pedagogical innovation which focuses on (1) working as a whole group (2) the whole group as a resource for learning

To find out more, click on the link provided:

http://www.sharedthinking.info/

The next session is by Dr. Vanessa Chang from Curtin University, Australia which talks about Generation Y Learning in the 21st Century: Integration of Virtual Worlds and Cloud Computing Services

Here are some snapshots of the slides from Dr. Vanessa’s presentation; rationale of the research, preparatory analysis, lecturer and students’ perception of SecondLife and conclusion-futurework:-

Keynote speech by Prof. Asha Kanwar on Towards Sustainable OERs: A perspective from the global south

OER: Open Education Resource

Things I took note of during the keynote by Prof. Asha

- Found out the 1st gen of OER is MIT which developed OPENCOURSEWARE, 2nd gen of OER is UKOU which practiced OPENLEARN (sharing and learning), 3rd gen of OER is VUSSC which delved into COLLABORATIVE COMMUNITY

- Potential offsets for OER

- Domestication of OER has FOUR PHASES: APPROPRIATION, LOCALIZATION, INCORPORATION, CONVERSION

- Sustainability of OER depends on the it being process-oriented not product oriented.

Keynote speech by James Taylor on Sustainable Higher Education Learning Futures

Online Learning Design using LAMS by Leanne Cameron from Macquire University, Australia.

The reason why I sign up this workshop because I have heard so much about LAMS but am clueless about it.

So, here starts: It seems that it is not so learning object – form. Looks more like a LMS platform but very arranged.  Anyway, Leanne showed her sample: It started with welcome  or introductory page for the students.

As you can see, at the left side of the picture, which looks like a direction thingy, shows the student the steps which they need to take for that particular task / activity. GREEN ARROW shows the activity is not done yet. RED BOX means this is which activity you are at.

This is the CHAT functions. Looks similar to the MOODLE chat. Here, the instructor can divide the chat into groups.

This is the assessment function. From the picture above, these are the SEVEN TYPES of assessment questions. More or less similar to MOODLE.

A survey at the end of the tasks to check the level of the understanding of the students (something that MOODLE doesn’t have – but when this is integrated with MOODLE, MOODLE-LAMS can be quite a powerful LMS)

By the way, you can see the results on pie chart or bar chart. You can see two icons in a red box at the picture’s background.

After the student has finished the many activities in that task, he/she can review the selected activity by DOUBLE CLICK-ing the blue circle (see picture above).

Now you design / map the journey / process of the tasks. Just click AUTHOR (see the tabs at the top-in picture)

And it will lead to this page.

Now on to some hands-on: Designing the lesson

On the left side of the picture (above), you can see the types of function which can be added in the lesson. By the way, we didn’t try all the functions but the try out on some of the functions is pretty much a good start to understand how LAMS work.

First, dragging the NOTICEBOARD to the main box. Double-click to put in content (refer to picture below).

As you can see ( picture above) Looks similar to MOODLE. ADVANCED and INSTRUCTIONS tab is where you will click if there is a need to format the additional functions of NOTICEBOARD. E.g. INSTRUCTIONS is where you can upload file.

Second, added in Share Resources (see picture below)

By the way, if you want delete any of the dragged ACTIVITY, just drag the activity to the TRASH BIN (at the right hand corner-see picture above)

Adding content in Share Resources. It seems that if you are an existing MOODLE user, applying and understanding the functions in LAMS is not much of an issue.

Now this is what one can find in the ADVANCE TAB.

Now this is where you put questions for students to answer.

Now you need to click on the TRANSITION ICON to create the arrows which link from one activity to another activity.

Save the “design” of the lesson in which ever category / location.

Okay. When the BLUE BOX appears (see picture above), it means the lesson is saved.

You can also Preview (by clicking on the PREVIEW ICON). PREVIEW allows you to see exactly what the students will see.

One thing that is unique about LAMS is the STOP feature. (See picture below) There is this STOP SIGN between NOTICEBOARD and MINDMAP. Now STOP SIGN allows synchronous learning among the students. Let me explain a little more. The STOP SIGN is a padlock to another activity. The padlock will be unlocked once every student reaches that activity e.g. NOTICEBOARD. Hence, no student left behind.

As you can see (picture above), the STOP SIGN or better known as the GATE has several properties: Condition, Synchronise, Schedule and Permission. Choose either one depending on the nature of the lesson, the type of students, and the instructor’s expectations.

There are a LOT of resources for LAMS

Download LAMS here: http://lamsfoundation.org/downloads_home.htm

What do want to know about LAMS here: http://lamsfoundation.org/index.htm

Help and also to get templates for LAMS here for all level of education from k-12 to higher education: http://lamscommunity.org/register/?return_url=%2fdotlrn%2findex

Help for integrating LAMS and MOODLE: http://moodle.lamscommunity.org/moodle/