There’s nothing wrong with a little so long as admiration supersedes it. That’s the case with both of these RILS project reviews…
MARIE LAWLOR – SCHOOLOGY, THE FACEBOOK FOR INSTRUCTORS:
The first I noticed about Marie’s project was the natural quality of her voice and on-screen presence, creating a very relaxing and pleasant viewing experience. That’s why I took a screenshot that best shows what I mean. Her lesson plan is equally impressive. Access Marie’s RILS project via her blog or Educator Studio.
Marie’s plan involves Schoology as a source teachers and their students can access, enabling them to make the most of Brighton Memorial Library. schoology, to which I also posted my project, was a good choice of ET’s for Marie’s plan, allowing her to post shelving plans, maps, etc. in a well-organized and accessible form.
I posed two questions to Marie. First, I suggested, if she hadn’t already already considered, that upon successful implementation of her plan that her project would serve other libraries, and that she eventually might create a second and more “generic” plan to that purpose.
Secondly, i asked whether she knew of any way a non-teacher like myself could access all of Schoology’s resources, which the site restricts to active teachers. Though certified to teach in Florida, I’ve decided against it, as I prefer creating content teachers will use, rather than directly teaching. I think this restriction is a major flaw in Schoology’s design. those working in all manner of professionals can offer valuable projects and plans to instructors. As I commented to Marie, the site should simply screen such projects before publishing them, as opposed to forbidding non-teachers from providing valuable projects in their own time and without monetary compensation.
Project One: Thumbs up!
BIBI BENNETT: THE ART OF TELLING A STORY
Bibi’s lesson plan grabbed my attention as fast as Grabber grabbed this screenshot of students in the action of enjoying their natural curiosity and creativity. They’re doing so using Storybird, the ET Bibi embedded into her lesson plan. See for yourself via Bibi’s blog or via Educator Studio. As I mentioned in my comments to Bibi, those who designed No Child Left Behind tests they themselves couldn’t pass desire nothing more than a generation of consumers devoid or imagination and creativity, neutralized by media, and converted into what I call info peasants.
The reason Bibi’s project had such an emotion effect on me results from my being a writer as well as a multimedia designer. With exceptions, I’ve noticed a significant shift in young people, whereby they rarely exit their role as spectators. Bibi gives teachers and their students a road that curves around negative results of technology’s acceleration and, in line with media literacy, has them using the media, rather than the opposite and all-too-common opposite scenario.
Bibi also did an excellent job of showing specific social functions offered by Storybird and, more importantly, why the social tools increased students’ enthusiasm in using that platform.
The only creative criticism I offered regarded entailed a few bumpy audio moments in her narration. I suggested that in the future, Bibi use a simple and free audio editor, specifically Audacity though many other free programs will do the job.
As with my first review, I considered this lesson plan as one that should be shared with colleagues and wrote the same in the comments I posted to Bibi’s blog.
Bibi’s blog title says it all: str8tothecore. I’m liking Bibi. I know she’s much like my favorite teacher, who gave me my love for reading and writing.
Review Two: Two thumbs up for Bibi and a certain other finger to No Child Left Behind.