Collaborative searching - Learning with jigsaw

photo © 2008 Liza | more info (via: Wylio)

The issue
A common problem with student assignments is the lack of acknowledgement of image sources used within their documents. I wanted to engage the students "who know all about search" at age 13. This was a successful lesson that begins to address those problems.


Objectives

• Familiarisation with Creative Commons, and recognition of the need for attribution
• Introduce a range of search tools for finding CC images
• Foster collaborative learning

How do you engage 13 year old boys who know all about search? I decided to use a jigsaw activity to expose students to a range of search tools not previously encountered.
After viewing and discussing the video about Creative Commons, students numbered off from 1 to 4 around the room. Each student then had the task of  investigating  one of the following search tools according to the number they had been given. They were tasked with the expectation that they would be able to teach someone else about that tool, along with the advantages and disadvantages of using it.

1. Compfight
2. Flickr CC Advanced
3. Wikimedia Commons
4. Morguefile

After about 5 minutes of individual endeavour, each number 1(2,3,4) gathered with his group to share the information they had found. This way any student who missed basic points, learnt from the others and expertise was developed.
The number 1s then paired with a 2, and the 3s with a 4. Each had to teach the other student about the search tool they had used. Then the 1s met with 3s and 2s with 4s, where they now had to explain both the tools they had seen.
This enabled me to help those students less confident and provide some guiding questions to those who needed further assistance; individual attention for those most needing it. Students were well engaged and willingly shared their learning. Movement around the classroom also helps boys' concentration in a 50 min period.
Have you used this jigsaw method? I'll certainly be using it again.
The Jigsaw classroom

Analysing a lesson - Theory of Knowledge

This week I was asked to present some sessions for Year 12 IB classes taking Theory of Knowledge. The teachers needed students to be reminded of how to find a range of sources and generate ideas for their orals and essays. This presentation, given twice, worked very well with one large group and was less successful with a smaller second group. That set me thinking about the success or otherwise of lessons in different circumstances we encounter which are so dependent on a variety of factors.

• student expectations, background knowledge and learning styles
• staff expectations
• my own delivery methods
• time of day
• ambient temperature and a dozen other variables.

Revise, update and improve is a common motto for me but in the meantime several students and staff have followed through with further queries.

TOK Year12 Current Issues

View more presentations from Carmel Galvin.

Enhancing the iPad's Safari

Those of us lucky enough to have an iPad are able to wax lyrical about its functionality and the endless possibilities it affords to enhance learning. Sometimes we would do well to remember and share some basic adjustments that need to be made to improve some of the built in tools.

Safari Bookmarks Tool Bar

The bookmarks bar in Safari is not turned on when the iPad is first unpacked.
Turn it on in Settings, then add your favorite time saving tools in the form of bookmarklets. These are shortcuts to apps or to tools that perform a function you use regularly, such as bookmarking, sharing, posting, tagging, even shortening links.
Basically, one bookmarks a page and then edits the new bookmark by pasting in the javascript provided by the application or tool. Quite a fiddly process, but well worth the effort for ongoing convenience and efficiency.

The first one I found was in the app GoodReader.

Once this shortcut is installed on the Bookmarks bar, tapping on it saves the current page, document, picture, whatever is open in your Safari at the time, directly into GoodReader. This has proved to be an invaluable tool for staff and students at my school. We had posted many curriculum documents on our intranet that students needed for offline reading and annotation. With this quick method of downloading documents to individual iPads, GoodReader has become a mainstay in our suite of tools.
Students have their documents organised into subject folders along with some textbooks for which we have been able to obtain copyright permission.
We have:

• satisfied students
• reduced paper consumption
• enhanced library role in providing subject gateways for downloads
• the ability for staff to provide last minute documents to classes without photocopying

Diigo The Web Highlighter for iPad Safari is another of these bookmarklets. It provides the options to highlight, bookmark, add a sticky note or go to your Diigo library. The other tool provided by Diigo that resides on my Bookmarks Bar is the Find on Page utility, the equivalent of CTRL-F.

I have several more shortcuts added thanks to the comprehensive instructions and Javascript provided by Chris Bray here at Bookmarklets for the iPad  He has blogged about the process here.

The keyboard - When typing on the iPad's built in keyboard, it often creates unwanted capitals in an email address or any other word. It can be turned off by tapping the SHIFT key 3 times. If you have any other useful tips or tricks you have identified that are not listed in the latest manual, I would be delighted to have you share them.