Day 171 - The Story of Storyboard That - Quentin Inglis - BHS Sophomore

This post first appeared on Quentin's Blog

Click HERE to see this storyboard on StoryboardThat.com

The Broadcast

I had the honor of co-facilitating Help Desk Live episode 32 with my partner Shiv Shukla. In this episode, we interviewed Aaron Sherman the creator ofStoryboard That, a web-based tool in which you create custom storyboards that can be used for many purposes such as education, product development, and much more.

Aaron told us how he started Storyboard That and how he got to where he is today. His story is explained in the interview that you can watch for yourself below.

To summarize, Aaron worked at Vistaprint until 2012 when he broke off and began making a program that uses storyboards to organize your thoughts in a simple and concise format. The original Storyboard That was a Windows application used by businesses. The original version did not meet his expectations and he realized he had failed, so he tried again but this time he developed Storyboard That into a web based tool and it was soon discovered by educators thanks to the many blog posts by education blogger Richard Byrne. Storyboard That is now a widely recognized educational tool used by teachers and students of many content areas and grade levels.

Looking Back

He gave Shiv and I some very good advice, “Always take the job you’re most interested in. Research shows you’ll make far more money 3 years later if you take a job that you like then if you take a job that you don’t like that pays more money in a short term. Doing what you love no matter what it is, there is nothing better in life.” This line really gave me some insight on what starting a business is like and how important it is to be passionate about what you’re doing. Starting a business is hard, and this tells me that you need to be passionate about your product or it won’t go anywhere. I learned so much about entrepreneurship and how business works and I highly encourage all of you to watch this episode.

I learned a lot from this interview. I need to sit still and not move around in my chair. I need to ask more questions and voice my opinion, and I need to be more involved in the conversation. To prepare for this interview Ms. Scheffer had assigned Shiv and I to think of three questions to ask him. I had found this very difficult and in retrospect I should have done more research into his backstory and more research into the application itself.

To summarize, Storyboard That is a great tool for educational use and Aaron and his team did a wonderful job in making it into what it is today. I highly recommend that all of you use this tool because it is fun and simple to use and really can help you in the classroom.

Day 13 - Student Review of iOS 9 - Donny Boermeester - BHS Senior

The video below was created by Burlington High School Help Desk senior Donny Boermeester.

Day 112 - Unlimited - Michael Seleman - BHS Senior

This post first appeared on the BHS Collab's Blog
The essay below was the winner of the 2015 Final Thoughts writing competition.

Unlimited
by Michael Seleman

I’ve always been the son, the student, and the brother. Three primary and definitive roles, accompanied by many more, have determined my being through a long list of social guidelines and expectations. All that I was, I was relative to others, i.e. parents, siblings, other students. Report cards, academic awards, and extracurricular achievements gave me the validation needed to fuel my complacency. The person I was beyond these primary roles, mattered not, because this was all I needed to be, or so I was told, and “success” always seemed so readily accessible.

That is, until I dared to commit likely the most drastic act of teenage rebellion humanly possibly; I grew out my hair.

For most of my life I’ve been neatly groomed, per my parents’ request. Never was I permitted to set foot out of the house without my hair, a lofty centimeter in length, combed “presentably.” And for a while, I was perfectly content with this; I’m sure I looked quite spiffy with my conservative haircut, one that proved immutable even in the face of the most powerful gusts of wind Mother Nature might throw my way.

But suddenly, and rather inexplicably, I felt restricted, contained within the metric boundary of my hair. I wasn’t one to express myself through a risqué hairdo, but it irked me that I had never satisfied my curiosity to experiment. Cutting my hair seemed to be inhibiting something more than just hair growth.

Months passed, and having now refused three appointments at Ray’s Barber Shop, my hair had grown to an unprecedented length. Though they dared not force my hand, my parents and friends alike were adamant that a haircut was long overdue. Yet every time I stole a glance at my bedroom mirror, I was surprisingly pleased. The miniature Afro (Egyptian genes at work) was here to stay.

But why bother maintaining something so trivial? Admittedly, it wasn’t the hair that captivated me as I looked briefly into the mirror. It was the man, barely recognizable, that stared back at me. His physical appearance hadn’t notably changed (a haircut, or lack thereof, only goes so far). But for once, he didn’t seem the poster-boy student, son, or brother that he had previously been. For once, he seemed something more, an entity in himself, something dynamic and thus undefined. And he stood with a self-assurance uncharacteristic of the young man who had previously fulfilled these roles. The significance of so trivial a change in my appearance was by no means correlated to its scale.

In growing out my hair, I had exercised my autonomy ever so slightly, thereby altering my self-perception in a manner that I wouldn’t understand immediately. I had seen previously through eyes not my own, through those of my community, my parents, etc. But now, I looked with my own eyes as an individual in the truest sense of the word, one that need not be classified as one thing or another to find purpose. I was, rather, I am my own.

I no longer define myself as solely the son, the student, the brother. Who I am, who every human being is, is more than a list of positions, relations, and achievements. Accordingly, the individual, dynamic in nature, has the capacity to distinguish himself, and often strives to do so through the pursuit of a passion, ironically with its own roles or titles. It is when the individual allows these roles to define his essence that they become limiting factors of his identity, rather than those which empower him to thrive in the relationships and opportunities allowed him daily. I want to study biochemistry, maybe even pursue a career in medicine, but I don’t want my concentration or any title that I may achieve to limit my perception of myself. I am unlimited, and that affords with it a passion that no titular pursuit can ever bring.

Day 83 - Engaging Learners Beyond the Screen with Osmo - TJ Horgan - BHS Senior

This post originally appeared on TJ Horgan’s help desk blog

Osmo, a unique gaming accessory for the iPad, was created by Tangible Play, Inc. in 2014, and that is exactly what Osmo is. Osmo uses groundbreaking reflective artificial intelligence technology and is the epitome of tangible play, as it introduces kinesthetic learning opportunities for developing minds and closes the gap between the digital and physical worlds. A kinetic learner myself, I was immediately drawn to the presentation of this tool. In essence, the Osmo is a simple reflector that is placed on the iPad’s front camera, which projects the surface directly in front of the iPad to the camera. However, the impressive craftsmanship is exemplified by the seamless integration of tangible images projected and displayed to the iPad’s screen. The Osmo started kit comes with a base and reflector, Tangram and Words games pieces and three apps: Tangram, Newton, and Words. To access the the apps, users will launch Safari and navigate to www.playosmo.com/start.

WORDS

The first app, Words, engages learners by asking them to guess an on-screen hidden word by lining up the letter game pieces. Students can play alone, or teachers can encourage healthy competition by allowing students to race against their classmates to practice word recognition and spelling. Teachers can elect to use the existing library of images, or create their own image libraries. Words is an example of how well Osmo recognizes minuscule differences in paper so quickly. Osmo can recognize a letter as soon as it is placed within about 8 inches of the iPad. Though my experimenting with incorrect placements came at the frustration of my second grade Osmo partner, Mrs. Scheffer’s eight-year-old daughter, I soon became impressed with how advanced, but, at the same time, simple, the letter recognition is. Osmo can distinguish the specific letter and color of the mini-card instantaneously, and, not only is it impressive, but it is useful, for developmental spelling and word association skills.

TANGRAM

BHS Help Desk student Kristin Johnson teaches a lesson with Tangram

 Tangram, appropriate for ages 4+, is the most tangible of Osmo’s three creations, as the user is tasked with matching plastic puzzle pieces to a design displayed on the iPad’s screen. There are three levels of the game; easy, medium, and hard which allow teachers to customize the level of play for his or her students. Mrs. Scheffer’s daughter became bored with Tangram relatively quickly, as she soared through each level with no problems. Ideally, students over the age of seven would not be using this app too heavily.

NEWTON

Newton is the most challenging tool that is packaged with Osmo, as it incorporates advanced spatial relation skills into an ultimate, clear-cut, goal and achievement. Virtual pellets are dropped from the top of the screen, and the user’s mission is to draw a series of obstacles that reroute these pellets to a series of targets. The obstacles, however, are drawn with an actual pen on actual paper. Osmo registers the lines drawn on your blank canvas and adds them to the on-screen course. With added targets and added pellets, the challenges get more difficult, but are definitely attainable. This is the one tool on Osmo that I saw Mrs. Scheffer’s daughter’s interest genuinely pique.

Overall, Osmo is a well-developed tool that can improve the spatial relations, spelling, and problem-solving skills and abilities of elementary school-aged students. Osmo could fairly easily fit into a math or English curriculum. The Osmo kit retails for $79.99, which is an affordable price for a school district if they are looking to continue to innovate in the classroom with technologically engaging devices. Gathering from my conversation with Mrs. Scheffer, she believes that the Osmo would be a beneficial addition to a “center” in an elementary classroom, giving students an opportunity to rotate through an individualized or collaborative learning station.

Day 66 - I Am Not A Barbie Girl - BHS Senior Kristin Johnson

This post first appeared on Kristin's Help Desk Blog

Almost every little girl growing up was given a Barbie doll, whether it was a princess, an everyday, or a career doll,  society has influenced girls to strive to fit the model of a Barbie Doll. On November 14, Buzzfeed, a blog covering current topics in entertainment, technology, and “life” in general, released an article on a book published by Mattel called “Barbie: I can be a computer engineer”.  Thinking this book would be written in order to encourage young girls to become interested in a technology field, I was very disappointed to find that Barbie had no insight on what to do. The book starts out with Barbie and her sister Skipper sitting in the kitchen. Barbie is furiously typing away creating a game that allows a user to use a cute little robotic puppy to complete tasks. First of all, Barbie had to create a game that had a puppy in it because if it was anything else, it would not be girly. Secondly, Barbie is not actually writing the program that will make the game run, she is simply designing it, she will “need Steven and Brian’s help to turn it into a real game!” Upon showing Skipper the game, a virus appears crashing Barbie’s computer. But have no fear, Barbie has her flash drive on her necklace because she has to accessorize. Barbie goes to plug-in the flash drive to Skipper’s computer, transferring the virus to that computer as well. If Barbie knew anything about computers, she’d know that when she plugged in the flash drive to her computer , it would transfer onto the flash drive.

Skipper’s computer then crashes and she looses her work. Barbie promises that she will get both computers fixed when she goes to school. But before Barbie left, Skipper hits Barbie with a pillow, starting a pillow fight. Stereotype much? Having a pillow fight is clearly the right move in this situation. Barbie tells Skipper that she’ll bring their laptops to school so that she can fix them. Barbie is sitting after class and her two friends, who happen to be males, begin talking to her. Barbie explains her situation prompting Stephan to reply with “It will go faster if Brian and I help”. The amount of sexism behind that reply is unbearable. Barbie, as a woman, clearly can not fix the laptops herself.

The moment that Barbie hands over the laptops, Brian and Stephan instantly fix them as if it was as simple as pressing a key. Boys to the rescue!The following morning Barbie gives her sister her laptop and believes that it was her that fixed both laptops and not the boys. Following the return of the Skipper’s laptop, Barbie presents her cute puppy program to her teacher, who just so happens to be a woman. Barbie’s teacher is blown away by her work and gives her an A+ and even extra credit. Congrats Barbie, you’re clearly a computer engineer. Couldn’t write a program or fix two laptops but you drew a cute puppy and wore a cute top when you presented the game. So sure Barbie, you can be a “computer engineer”.

This coming January, I will have the honor to attend one of the most prestigious education conferences in the country. Along with my three other female classmates and my teacher we will be attending Educon in Philadelphia. Our conversation will be: Closing the Gender Gap in Innovation: Engaging Girls in STEM.

This is an amazing opportunity. Not only will it benefit me because it shows I am passionate about pursuing a technology related career, but I hope to inspire other girls to get involved in technology. There are not enough women in the field of technology. It is male dominated and in the 21st century it should not be that way.

As a girl in the technology field, I do realize that it is not always the easiest thing to be a part of. But that did not stop me. Over the past four years I have taken programming classes, been apart of the Burlington High School’s Help Desk, attended various technology conferences and even got the opportunity to tour the Google office located in Cambridge. Being a girl does not mean that I have to be just a house wife, I can be whatever I want. To all you girls out there that are interested in the technology field, do not be afraid to pursue your dream. Just because Barbie is not a computer engineer does not mean you can’t.

Day 45 - Devils' Playlist Spotlight Artist: Eric Leva - BHS Junior - Timmy Sullivan

This post first appeared on The Devils Playlist Blog

The Devils’ Playlist is excited to initiate our new monthly feature, TDP Spotlight Artist, with the work of Eric Leva. Once a month, we will feature an artist or band who we believe deserves the spotlight for incredible sound, music innovation, outstanding lyrical content, or just overall coolness. Each month we will dedicate a page to our featured artist to discuss their background in music and share their featured work. We are very excited to introduce this new feature with Eric’s music.

Singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Eric Leva says that he draws inspiration from open conversations he has over coffee with friends. The Burlington native, who currently lives and performs in New York City, uses the personal connections in his own life in order to better relate to a larger listening audience. Currently our Featured Artist is writing new music and assisting others in their musical endeavors. Members of the marching band are honored to have him return to BHS as the Assistant Marching Band Director. Eric also returns to Burlington as the Music Director for the Burlington Educational Summer Theatre, teaching kids the values and fundamentals of dancing, acting, and singing.

From childhood, Leva has been working on his artistry, teaching himself piano at seven; exploring art, music, and poetry at Burlington High; and then going on to study classical piano at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. And while Eric’s music is rooted in classical, his work has crossed over into different genres, such as indie pop, indie rock, and electro. He believes keeping a broad musical palette positively influences his music and is healthy for musicians.

Leva really found himself exploring his talents in high school. He relates, “the music department at BHS offers a lot of creative variety. In just one hallway, I was able to pursue marching band, concert band, jazz band, music theory, select singers, musicals, spring sing, and vocal labs.” A passion for music was furthered by the friends he made in the music department, as well as the subject depth his teachers explored in class. Eric credits the English Department at BHS with providing him creative license to express himself. He specifically cites Poetry Out Loud and the BHS Poetry Club as two big influences. “I was not a good poet,” he recalls, “but I was surrounded by likeminded people who were all interested in self-expression through written and spoken word.” Leva also concludes that his time at school gave him, “a running start in drawing the connection between words and music.” After graduating from BHS, he continued his musical career at Berklee College of Music. It was there that he truly fell in love wit songwriting. During his third semester at Berklee, Eric declared a major in songwriting.

Leva’s advice to aspiring artists is to be patient. He believes artists should put everything they have into their work and learn absolutely everything about it. Additionally, Leva hopes to connect with people on an intimate level and leave an impact on his listeners.

Listen to Eric’s single, None of The Above, here on soundcloud!

https://soundcloud.com/ericleva/noneoftheabove

Listen to Eric’s new single, Renovation, here on soundcloud!

https://soundcloud.com/ericleva/renovation

Listen to Eric’s single, I Should Know, here on soundcloud!

https://soundcloud.com/ericleva/ishouldknow

Listen to more of Eric’s music here: https://soundcloud.com/ericleva

Follow Eric on Twitter! : @ericleva https://twitter.com/ericleva

Follow Eric’s Blog: ericleva.tumblr.com http://ericleva.tumblr.com

Visit him online at: http://ericlevamusic.com

Day 42 - My Pits The Pits (Video) - BHS Freshman - Justin Varghese

The video below was produced, filmed and edited by Justin Varghese, a BHS freshman. It has received over 1,000 views since it was posted a week ago.  Please watch it and help our amazing marching band's phenomenal drum line win some new equipment in Zildjian's My Pits The Pits Video Contest! The contest ends tomorrow (October 31) at midnight!

 

Day 179 - Digital citizenship: How to be a good digital citizen at BHS, Victor Ramirez, BHS Freshman

The presentation below was made using Flowboard

View on Flowboard - Presentation software for iPad

Day 174 - Stories Live Winner - Rosemary Nabukeera, Burlington High School Senior

Check out the video below of Rosemary Nabukeera (Class of 2014) presenting the story that earned her first place in this year’s MassMouth story telling competition, for which she won a $1000 prize. Just in time for World Cup!

Day 161 - inClass: A Senior’s Perspective on Staying Organized - Nick Merlino, BHS Senior

This post originally appeared on the BHS Help Desk Blog

With this intuitive and easy to use productivity tool, organizing your schedule is a breeze no matter how convoluted it is. inClass will let you organize all of your courses, to do lists, work, and extracurricular activities. It can even give you a notification reminder when something is due. The best part is, with this app, you don’t have to carry around those heavy notebooks or agendas.

I DEFINITELY suggest using this app, as I use it for organizing everything in my life. Specifically, I use inClass to organize my homework assignments and everything related to school, sports, and my involvement in clubs and volunteer work. I also use it to keep track of things going on in my personal life including events with my family and friends. It basically functions as my to-do list. It’s really important to note that inClass is used by a large majority of students at BHS (freshmen through senior). It’s free, easy to learn, and functional. I’m graduating in June and when I head to UMass Amherst in the fall, it’s possible I’ll continue to use inClass as a college student. Personally, I’d recommend showing incoming freshmen this agenda app during their summer iPad orientation. Even though everyone is focused on the summer, it will be a new school year before you know it. Summer definitely goes by way to quick.

The image below is of an example screenshot of the schedule tab, where users can see what is due each day of the month.

The schedule tab lets the user see what is due for each individual day and what events are coming up based off of color-coded tasks. Each color represents a user created “class.”

The screenshot below is an example of assignments and tests that have been entered into the agenda. To add an event on this screen simply press the ‘+’ and enter the information requested.

The note taking ability with inClass is extremely adaptive. You can take video notes, background recording notes, audio notes, text notes, and even photo notes! You can even share your notes on multiple devices using the StudyRoom feature!

The StudyRoom feature also allows for sharing notes to your friends who are in the same “classroom”. You can also email each individual note, share them on Facebook (an example of using social media for educational purposes), and export your notes via iTunes File Sharing or back them up, which you can later open in inClass if, say, you’re changing devices, and you’ll still get all of your notes, tasks and classes.
There’s also a professors tab where you can input the contact information for each class’s instructor, where you can keep your teacher’s blog address, email address, name, number, etc. Especially in Burlington, where teachers use a variety of different methods of communications, this is extremely helpful. Some teachers have a blog, others have a website, and some only use email.

In-App purchases are available as well

• Remove adds – $0.99
• Drawing tool – $0.99

My App Review

Check out this instructional video on how to use inClass.

Day 152 - Career Portfolio Overview, Nick Merlino, BHS Senior

1) What have you learned as a result of the career project?

• Throughout the career portfolio process, I have learned to boil down my goals and skills into what is crucial for my future. Using this new knowledge, I have created an attractive digital footprint that I hope will draw future opportunities and employers. It was also helpful to link all of my digital profiles together so they can be found easily. I have also learned that I do not know everything about what my future holds but I should focus on my goal of going into the field of computer science as a career and prioritize what is important in my life. Also I have learned that my previous presentation skills were dreadful and Mrs. Scheffer is extremely capable at creating presentations that are attractive.

2) How has the carer project contributed to your digital footprint?

• Now I have four more online accounts that link everything together and present me in a professional manner. Before, I had an activities list that had EVERY SINGLE thing I have done, which was just a large list basically with many dates next to it. We distinguished which ones were most important and then removed the non-essentials and turned them into a brand new digital footprint that appears professional. After the program, I went from a single activities list to having a:
  • Resume
  • Linked.In
  • About.Me
  • Re.vu

3) Why is the career portfolio project important?

• It is important, as before I simply had a list of MANY activities I have done, but now I have a complete and well done resume that I am proud of. The whole process was interesting and engaging because it was not a random project that had no use but it directly influences my future and it made me look at what I have truly done over my 18 years. As I’m going to college next year, I will be looking to create new online and professional connections as well as present myself in this professional manner in order to make myself available for career advancement.

4) How has the career portfolio given you a competitive advantage?

• I hope that this career portfolio will give me an advantage as other students don’t have this opportunity to learn how to present themselves in this manner. The program was basically a large advantage to me compared to others students throughout the world as they most likely do not have a professional instructor that has expertise in creating these digital sites. They, like I had before, only have themselves and websites to guide them in what is a “good” resume. Not only do I have a well put together professional resume now, but also other online profiles which will be extremely important in my future.

Day 150 - Open Educational Resources for Students and Teachers - Danny Piotti, BHS Junior

This post originally appeared on the BHS Help Desk Blog

One of the advantages and most exciting aspects of 21st century teaching and learning is the influx of free, high-quality online resources for students and teachers. These resources help promote self-directed, lifelong learning and when a student has their own device, as we do here in Burlington, learning can occur anytime and anyplace. At the same time, this can be a disadvantage because it can be difficult to determine which of the thousands of resources out there are the best. In this post, I’ve taken the guess-work out of the process for both students and teachers and will highlight Khan Academy, CK-12, and Open Educational Resources.

Khan Academy: A Student Perspective

Khan Academy is a top educational application that provides students with free eeducational lessons on a wide variety of subjects. There are currently thousands of Khan Academy educational videos  via the organization’s YouTube Channel as well as practice problems and quizzes available to students. Khan Academy offers resources in: math, science, economics and finance, humanities, test prep, partner content, computer programming, talks and interviews, and coach and classroom resources. All of the categories are also loaded with subcategories for more specific courses. Within each subcategory there are lectures, problems and explanations for virtually anything you may need help with.

My Khan Academy Experience

I have used Khan Academy in the past for situations when I missed a lecture and wanted to catch up. Because of the resources provided by this open education resource, my grades have never suffered. My favorite feature about the iPad appis the SAT prep section. What’s awesome about the SAT prep is that it provides a free, full length SAT test and also contains explanations for any type of math problem found on the SAT. Another cool feature about Khan Academy is that you don’t have to have an internet connection if you download the videos onto your iPad beforehand. Khan Academy also remembers the videos you have previously watched if you have an account which is helpful because it saves you time from searching twice. Overall, I have never had a bad experience on Khan Academy and I have found it to be a very reliable source.

Click Here for Full Review

CK-12 & OER: A Teacher Perspective: 

CK-12 competes head to head with Khan Academy in terms of quality and quantity. It is more math and science based, but it also contains other subjects such as English. There is also an SAT prep section similar to Khan Academy. Under the math and science sections there are many sub-categories containing many different courses. After clicking on a specific subject you will find yourself overwhelmed with pretty much any topic covered in that subject. After clicking on a topic you will find readings, videos, activities, and assessments. There is also a section that contains content that other teachers can add which is nice, but I recommend using these after going through everything else.

OER Commons allows teachers to browse educational resources by content type, subject area and grade level. Resources include activities and labs, case studies, games, assessments, audio lectures, full courses, and more. Teachers can not only use OER resources, they can create and share OER resources using the OER Open Author tool. This tools provides teachers with the freedom to build their own course content by combining text, pictures, sound, files and video. Materials, including all media, can be download as PDFs. Teachers can also join OER groups based on content area and grade level. 

Looking for more? 

If you are still looking for more learning resources, please visit Open Culture. Open Culture is an online database composed of resources including audio books, online courses, movies, languages, k-12 resources, and eBooks. The site also offers certificate courses and MOOCs. This is a very rich database that can be a very helpful to students and teachers alike.

Day 148 - Restore Democracy (Video), TJ Horgan, BHS Junior

The video below won First Prize in the League of Women's Voters "Dear Future Governor" Contest.
 

Day 139 - Setting Up A Signature In Google Drive - John Vallerand, BHS Senior

This post originally appeared on the Burlington High School Help Desk Blog

As part of Tuesday’s tech tip I have put together a Google Drive signature tutorial. This tutorial covers the step by step process of how to set up a signature in your mail account. The advantages of having an automatic signature in Gmail are:

• Allows you to look professional
• Gives people a better feel for who you are
• You can link your blog address in the signature
• You can link your Twitter
• Avoid having to type a closing at the end of every email

Students who will be graduating soon should seriously consider adding a professional signature to their Gmail account. When students are in college and are communicating with their professors and/or potential employers, it conveys a highly professional image.

Day 115 - Vine for the Classroom - Jason Landry, BHS Senior

This post originally appeared on the BHS Help Desk Blog 

Vine for the Classroom:
As I pointed out in my previous post covering Instagram in the classroom, there are many creative ways teachers can use various social media tools to motivate and engage their students. Today’s post covers the tool Vine. Vine is Twitter’s micro-video social network and is known primarily as an entertainment app, but there are also ways to integrate VIne into an educational setting. For example, one way to use Vine in the classroom is if you are in a science class and you are working on a lab, you can record 6 seconds of your procedure to share with the rest of your class and your teacher.  Another way to use Vine in the classroom is for teachers to record themselves saying important facts or information given in the classroom. Teachers can then share Vines with their students through email, Twitter, or Facebook so they can refer back to them when needed.

Creative Vining:Many teachers encourage their students to be creative.  In my English class, for example, I recently had to act out a scene in MacBeth. My class had been told to use creativity and think of an innovative way to act out a scene we had been assigned. After practicing and coming up with how we were going to act this scene out, we then presented our skit to the whole class. Instead of acting the scene out in front of the class, we could have used Vine , and simply recorded the scene and shared it with our classmates and teacher. Not only would this have been a faster way to present, it also would have challenged us to think creatively about our topic and communicate a message in only six seconds.

More Ideas on Using Vine in the Classroom: 

In the article, 20 Ways To Use Twitter’s Vine in Education, by educators Mercer Hall and Patricia Russac, 10 applications and 10 project ideas using Vine are listed. Below is the complete list of their ideas:

Applications:

1. Pair with information on a class website or blog
2. Announce homework to students and parents
3. Model how students should execute a task
4. Market a school’s upcoming events to followers
5. “Tease” new units for kids and families
6. Record student reactions to texts
7. Think-pair-share in a virtual field
8. Grab “preview” or “exit interview” understandings
9. Offer parent testimonials for admissions
10. Build advisory or homeroom unity

Projects:

1. Design mini-book trailers
2. Film solutions to math problems
3. Identify symbols and silent metaphors
4. Recreate drawing or painting methods
5. Document science labs
6. Capture instructions for computer tools
7. Create “real-life” Vokis
8. Animate stop-motion characters
9. Recite famous quotations
10. Impersonate historical figures

Looking for even more creative ways to use tools like Vine and Instagram in the classroom? Find inspiration and real-life examples of teachers from a variety of content areas who are using Vine and Instagram in their classrooms compliments ofEdutopia’s Five-Minute Film Festival.  And if you are not sure if you should use Vine or Instagram, you can compare the two by using this comprehensive comparison chart by Tech Crunch. In terms of real-life applications of Vine, if you teach business, economics, marketing, entrepreneurship or any type of course that covers social media and human relations, consider showing your students how companies such as Urban Outfitters, Dove, Taco Bell, Lowe’s and General Electrichave integrated Vine into their marketing strategy.

So what are your ideas for using Vine in the classroom? We’d love to hear from you! Check out the Vine I made highlighting the BHS Help Desk:

*Remember that Vine should only be used with students age 13 and up. 

Day 61 - Instagram In The Classroom - Jason Landry, BHS Senior

This post originally appeared on the BHS Held Desk Blog

Click on the link to go to Jason’ blog

Editor’s Note: At Burlington High School we are fortunate to have a school administration that understands the educational value of social media tools including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. In our most recent post, Senior Help Desk Blogger Jason Landry highlights specifically how teachers can use Instagram in the classroom in a variety of creative ways. 

Using Instagram As A Teaching Tool:

Many teachers are looking for new ways to engage students in the classroom. Since so many students use Instagram, incorporating this simple photo app is a great way to instantly hook your students.

For example, one of my English teachers created a classroom Instagram account that she used to help us review vocabulary. We also used Instagram to complete creative homework assignments. My teacher would post a picture and tag a student. The student then had to comment and explain what vocabulary word coincided with the picture. This was a much more interesting way to do homework versus a standard worksheet or even a digital flashcard tool. The best part about this, from a student perspective, is that I could do my homework from my smartphone.

Another way to incorporate Instagram into the classroom for an art or photography teacher is to take pictures of interesting designs, patterns, or even your students’ artwork.  Also, some teachers may want to nominate students of the month (or week) and post their pictures and a brief description of the students’ achievements. Parents would enjoy seeing how their children are connecting with their teacher using social media.

Extragram Credit:

As an extra credit opportunity if your students go on a vacation or participate in an extracurricular activity they can photograph these events and post them for you and their classmates to view. At the end of the semester or year, Instagram photos will serve as an archive of the work and experiences you and your students created.

Instagram for Contests:

Instagram can also be used for fun contests among students and staff. For example, here at BHS, we are using a combination of Instagram and Twtpoll to determine who in fact has the most fashion sense when it comes to socks. If you are interested in seeing this week’s contestants, you can check them out (and vote for your favorite) by clicking here.

Websites for more ways to use Instagram in the classroom:

10 Ways to use Instagram in the classroom
An Introduction to Instagram in the classroomIf famous historical events took place in the age of Instagram [20 pictures]

pic: http://fluency21.com/blog/2013/11/05/how-to-use-instagram-in-the-classroom/

Using Instagram in the classroom is a very helpful way to keep the interests of the students. Many students lose interest with lectures some call them “boring”. To be the teacher that isn’t boring try incorporating technology into your class work!