Author: Peter Pappas

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21st C Social Studies at edcampOCSS – Portland Ore

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Calling all educators interested in Social Studies, History, Geography, Government, and Economics who live in the NW. Plus Humanities, Librarians, Technology and Administrators. K-12 plus college level. Here’s a great reason to head to Portland and connect with other educators!

I’ve been involved with Portland’s successful edcampPDX and I’m pleased to be a co-chair of this social studies themed edcampOCSS sponsored by The Oregon Council for the Social Studies.

Join us in Portland Oregon on May 17, 2014.
(8:30 AM – 2:15 PM,  then we’ll go somewhere for beers)

Valley Catholic Middle School,
4420 SW St. Mary’s Drive,
Beaverton, OR 97007 Map
We’ll begin with coffee in the middle school cafeteria. Look for signs to guide you.
The campus can be accessed from Murray Blvd or Farmington. There are signs on campus that indicate the buildings. The main parking lot is on the east side of the building.

This is a free event.
Sign up to attend here
Suggest sessions here

Door prizes from Simple K12 include 5 FREE 1-year, full access individual memberships to SimpleK12’s Teacher Learning Community (each valued at $357). Plus every attendee gets a free copy SimpleK12’s most popular premium eBook resources, “57 Inspirational Quotes.”

Simple K12 Logo

Door prizes from Herff Jones include a one year classroom license to StrataLogica and classroom sets of atlases.

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Big thank you to ORVSD for sponsoring a free lunch for the first 75 who sign up.

ORVSD

Here’s some of sessions that have already been suggested. More 

  • Teaching with Documents (4-16)
  • Literacy strategies in social studies (3-8)
  • Getting to Know iBooks Author (all grades)
  • Teaching US History from OR perspective (4-12)
  • Discussion techniques for students  (all grades)
  • Teaching with Social Media (6-12)
  • Intro to Project Based Learning in the k-5 classroom (K-5)
  • Population Connections/Geography/Sustainability in a World of 7 Billion (6-12)
  • Using Prior Historical Knowledge to progressively spiral the disciplinary literacy skills necessary to prepare students for college and/or career. (5-12)
  • Using Google tools (Earth, Docs, Sheets, etc…) to study geography and explore history in different places. (6-212)
  • Why’d She Do It? Hacking Motivation (K-12)

On the Twitters? Use hashtag #edcampOCSS. Follow @ocss14

On the Facebook Follow Oregon Council for the Social Studies | Follow event edcampOCSS

What are the goals of edcampOCSS?

  • Networking: Connect educators in the Portland / Oregon / SW Washington area
  • Instructional Practices: Learn new curriculum ideas, best practices, and/or tech integration ideas from other educators
  • Personalized: You customize your own PD by suggesting, facilitating and attending sessions about topics that interest you!
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A Satiric Lesson in Media Literacy

This Is a Generic Brand Video

First the backstory. Start with a clever essay satirizing the clichéd corporate message ad - This is a Generic Brand Video by Kendra Eash published in McSweeneys. It begins:

We think first
Of vague words that are synonyms for progress
And pair them with footage of a high-speed train.

Science
Is doing lots of stuff
That may or may not have anything to do with us.

See how this guy in a lab coat holds up a beaker?
That means we do research.
Here’s a picture of DNA. More

Next, a stock video footage company – Dissolve uses some of its clips to turn Eash’s piece into a meaningless montage of grandiloquent pablum.

Here’s the lesson:

  1. Ask students to read the full text version of Eash’s original, focusing on word choice, imagery and intent. What is Eash’s “video” selling? You might ask them sketch a rough storyboard to illustrate the text.
  2. Show the video with the sound off and let students list its visual details. Have someone read Eash’s piece while watching the video without sound. (Does the timing matter?)
  3. Discuss the artistic choices made by the video’s creators to illustrate the piece? How does the music and narrator’s voice impact the message?
  4. Compare the impact and effectiveness of text, audio and visual.

Care to extend the lesson?


Use YouTube to find political ads from current or past elections. How to they exemplify the themes raised by Eash?

Dissolve has a gallery of all the video clips used in the video. (Hover over them to activate.) Ask student to select the clips that they feel have the greatest visual impact. Ask them to explain how they might use these clips to tell a story. 

Show students this actual corporate video and ask them decide if it uses themes noted by Eash. How does the Suncor video compare to the Dissolve satire? Hat tip to Jeff Beer. More of his recommend corporate videos here. Students could re-edit corporate videos to “sell” their own message.

BTW – you’ve been exploring Common Core:

Reading Standards for Literature, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas, Standard 7, Grade 7. Compare and contrast a written story, drama, or poem to its audio, filmed, staged, or multimedia version, analyzing the effects of techniques unique to each medium (for example, lighting, sound, color, or camera focus and angles in a film).

Reading Standards for Informational Text, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas, Standard 7, Grades 11–12. Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using different mediums (for example, print or digital text, video, multimedia) to present a particular topic or idea.

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Join PDX Educators at edcampPDX April 12

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Calling all teachers, instructional technologists, IT directors, principals, admins and teacher librarians who live in the NW:  edcampPDX – Saturday, April 12, 2014 More info
Meriwether Lewis Elementary School | 4401 SE Evergreen, Portland, OR 97206 | Map

What is edcampPDX?
An edcamp is a unconference-style day of professional development organized and given by the local participants. Sign up to attend here!

What should I bring?
Bring a friend and a device (either a laptop or mobile device) with wireless internet access to view the website, see the sessions, take notes and view online resources discussed throughout the day.

Kids are welcome at EdCampPDX! Please bring them and their perspective. Make sure to add them to the list so they’ll get a lunch. Don’t worry, we’ll put them to work!

Do you tweet?
 Yes! Twitter updates about #edcampPDX. Follow @EdCampPDX on Twitter.

What does it cost?
The day is FREE!!!

edcamptweet

What are the goals of edcampPDX?

  • Networking: Connect educators in the Portland / Oregon area
  • Instructional Practices: Learn new curriculum ideas, best practices,
  • and/or tech integration ideas from other educators
  • Personalized: You customize your own PD by suggesting, facilitating and attending sessions about topics that interest you!

edcamppdx-app

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Free: How To Get Started with iBooks Author

Quick Start: iBooks Author

Isn’t it time you created an iBook using iBooks Author? It’s a free Mac program that creates multi-touch interactive eBooks that can be viewed on an iPad or Mac desktop running the Mavericks OS. It’s easy to publish your iBook on iTunes or (if it’s offered for free) share it as an iBook file via network or drive.

I’ve been teaching iBooks Author workshops and found that in just a few hours most people can master the basics of iBA - navigating the app, adding widgets and styling their iBook.

I’ve captured the essence of my workshop in this free 20 page iBook. Quick Start: iBooks Author free at iTunes 

Sections include:

  • An interactive tour of the program’s main window.
  • Widget sampler with examples and settings for all native iBooks Author widgets.
  • Tips and tricks for designing your iBook and managing your work flow.
  • Links to my free library of online resources.

Link to more of my posts tagged iBooks Author

See all my iBooks at iTunes

iBA tips

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iPDX14 Session Preview: Getting Started with iBooks Author

Getting started with iBooks AuthorI’ll be teaching “Getting Started with iBooks Author” a two hour workshop at the integratEd / #iPDX14 conference in Portland OR.  (Feb 27 – 10:30-12:30) Here’s your chance to see how easy it is for students and teachers to create multi-touch iBooks using iBA. We’ll demonstrate the key steps in designing an iBook that can be published to iTunes or shared as iBooks files. To effectively participate you will need to bring:

  1. A Mac loaded with iBooks Author. If you are running Mavericks, you will be able to preview your iBook on you Mac. If you are not running Mavericks, you may wish to bring an iPad and connector to preview you work.
  2. Content you’d like to work with (text files, images jpg or png, Keynote decks, video m4v, audio m4a).
  3. You’ll learn efficient workflow strategies for creating and sharing your own multi-touch iBook. You’ll leave with a demonstration iBook and the confidence to keep going.

Quick Start: iBooks Author

I’ve created a 20-page guide that will give you a quick start to creating your own interactive iBook using iBooks Author. If you’re attending #iPDX14, download it in advance and we’ll flip my workshop. Free at iTunes Sections include:

  • An interactive tour of the program’s main window.
  • Widget sampler with examples and settings for all native iBooks Author widgets
  • Tips and tricks for designing your iBook and managing your work flow.

My blog posts tagged iBooks Author

Looking for inspiration? Download one of my iBooks at iTunes 

Here’s a few useful links for content:
Library of free interactive widgets at Bookry
Creative Commons Image Search
Internet Archive Search for videos, audio and images.

For more iBooks Author how to tips – see my free guide on Scoop it Publishing with iBooks Author.