Friday, December 14, 2012

I attended a wonderful African Storybook Project workshop

This is a  reflection  on the initial, most-enjoyable workshop presented by the African Storybook project  in Johannesburg last month.
If you had been walking past the Boardroom in the offices of Saide (South African Distance Education) in Johannesburg on Saturday 10 November 2012 you would have heard loud hoots of laughter. If you had tiptoed to the door and peeped inside to see what was happening you might have seen a group of adults sitting totally engrossed in a very unusual form of storytelling.


Jemma Khan demonstrating the art of Kamisihibai 
South African performance artist Jemma Khan was presenting some of her stories based on the unique style of Japanese storytelling known as the art of Kamisihibai. In the YouTube video below Jemma explains some of the features of this unusual form of storytelling. 


At the end of the story you would have heard the group calling, “More! More!” and certainly you would have smiled as another story was whipped out and related with deep emotion and humour.

Later on as you walked past the boardroom again you would have heard loud guffaws of laughter. This time when you peeped on you would have seen the words of a story up on a screen and the audience acting out the story with great enjoyment with Nicholas Welch, a young South African comedian and his two colleagues, Jefferson Tshabalala and Jeremiah Mntonga calling out the next form of action. 


Nic and Co getting the workshop participants involved
You might even have heard an event being related from the point of view of two cows who had been silently observing an incident as they chewed the cud (Nic and co once again).


Two cows commenting on an incident they had observed
related in Shona by Nicholas Welch and Jeremiah Mntonga
You would have certainly been highly entertained by Jefferson Tshabalala in his performance of the Xhosa weatherman.  In fact, at this stage you would have sat down and joined the fun.


Jefferson Tshabalala's enthusiastic weather report
It was a day to remember.  If a school day was like this day then an enormous amount of learning would take place. This was the initial workshop of the African Storybook Project which is due to be launched in early 2013.Those of us at the workshop were exposed to so many exciting methods of reading and writing stories. We heard how an author extracted stories from children in a holiday club for refugees. We played fun storytelling games where we received pieces of a puzzle, had to find the rest of the picture, quickly create a group story and relate it to the whole group. We discussed so many aspects of reading and writing. This was a day when reading and writing came alive. 


Find the missing pieces and create a story
You'll be hearing a lot more about the African storybook project in 2013 when it is officially launched by Saide. The project is  funded by Comic Relief in Britain for a four year period and the initial pilot will involve three countries namely South Africa, Kenya and Uganda. The end result will be a lovely website of African stories  for younger students in many African languages and in many different.formats which will contribute to the improvement of reading and writing for young African children. We will elaborate on this initial workshop and the project itself in future blog posts. 

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

How to create a live Hangout on Air

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I have been quite fascinated by the concept of a Google Hangout plus the concept of Google+ Hangouts On Air, which lets you broadcast to an unlimited audience.  I have experienced both and this is a real hit from Google. (I can’t say that I fully understand it all perfectly) yet I must admit! In this post I want to talk more about the live Hangout on Air and show how to create one.

What exactly is a Google Hangout on Air?

A normal Hangout can only have ten viewers but Hangouts On Air allow you to publicly broadcast your Hangouts on YouTube and your Google+ stream for anyone to watch. This is amazing – it’s like having your own live video show on the web!

When broadcasting, your video will stream live on your YouTube account as well as on your Google+ stream. This means you can share your YouTube URL with anyone who wants to watch your broadcast live or they can watch in your Google+ stream.

So what is the process then for a hangout on Air?

Here is a brief summary:
1. Create your hangout or schedule your hangout and invite people.
If you invite more than 25 people they won’t get a personal invite but
the invitation will rather just occur in your stream.
Also note that this is the time you have to decide whether it will be a Hangout on air. Check the button that enables Hangouts on Air.

2. Prepare your YouTube channel.This might only be necessary the first time you use a Google+ hangout

3. Edit Your Hangout When Complete
After your Hangout On Air, you can edit the video in your YouTube account(connected to your Google+ account). Simply go to your Video Manager page and click on the Video Editor link on top of the page.
4. Share Your Recorded HangoutOnce you’re happy with your video, you can then share it just like any other YouTube video.
A Slideshare on how to create a live Hangout on Air

Please take a look at this SlideShare entitled, ‘How to create a Google+ Hangout on Air' and which has more detail on how to create a Hangout on Air.




Extra reading
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/google-hangouts-on-air-guide/
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/youtube-live-streaming/
http://www.youtube.com/live/all
http://sproutsocial.com/insights/2012/05/how-to-hangouts-on-air/


Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Get the hang of a Google+ hangout (plus webinar recording)


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What is a Google hangout?
Google+ is Google's new social networking tool. I have only just discovered its amazing potential since attending the Google Teacher Academy in New York in October. Google has put a lot of funding into developing Google+ and they are committed to making it work well for education, so it will just get better and better I am sure. Once you have created a circle of friends in Google+ you can choose to hang out with them on Google+. This allows you to video chat, IM chat, watch YouTube videos together, and more.

Summary of benefits
Google Hangouts are part of Google+, Google's new free social networking tool. On a Hangout 10 people (possible 15 on Google Apps) can:
*video chat
*IM (instant message) chat
*watch YouTube videos together
*collaborate on a Google Doc
*use a whiteboard collaboratively
*add effects for fun
*record the Hangout directly on YouTube
*live stream for more viewers
*A minimum of two people
*and more…

A Slideshare showing the steps
This slideshare was used in the SchoolNet webinar of the same name and shows the steps in creating a hangout.



Webinar recording:
Last week SchoolNet had a webinar whih was presented by me (Fiona Beal) on 'Get the hang of a Google Hangout'. Here is the recording
http://meet78641452.adobeconnect.com/p6kgz1ndmhz/ (22 mins)

Ideas for using a hangout in the the classroom
• Read a story
• Bring in an expert/guest speaker/author|
• Share from a Slideshare
• Homework tutoring
• Professional Development meeting
• Work on a project together
• Virtual penpals
• Global classroom discussions
• Career Day wit panelists
• Attend other hangouts (Google has a whole library of hangouts)
• Extended discussion on a class topic
• Subject-related hangouts
• Conduct workshops and seminars

Additional reading and viewing
a) A tutorial 
Please note that Google updates its products continually so some features in this video might look different.


b) Further Reading
*How to use Google Hangouts 
*How to Use Google+ Hangouts for Teaching
*How to create a Google event

Monday, December 3, 2012

How to send a message and share a circle using Google+

Google circles are a feature of Google+ and they can be very useful for keeping in contact with a group of people. For example I have a circle called Google PD clan.

How I send a message to the Google PD clan
Whenever I want to send something to that group this is what I would do:

1. In my Google+ stream I would write a message.


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2. Decide which circle or person I am going to send it to, select them and press ‘Share’ (in this case to a circle called  Google PD clan).

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How would I share the whole circle with the Google PD clan?
If one creates a specific circle for a specific purpose (such as my 'Google PD clan' circle),  I could actually share my my whole circle with the group members.  To do this I would choose the option to 'share a circle'.  The group members would then receive the shared circle option/invite but would have to accept it and name it.  


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Why not try sharing a circle?

How to create a new circle in Google+

Google+ works on the concept of circles each with the level of privacy that you decide on. This post shows you how to create a circle after you have completed your profile in Google+.

1. Make sure you have joined Google+ (on the top left of your Gmail account) and have filled in your profile.After doing that go to your Google+ page and go down the left side till you get to Circles. Click on ‘Create a circle’.


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2. Give your circle a name i.e. My technology friends


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3. Now choose how you are going to find people for your circle. Click on ‘Add a new person’


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4. A number of selections will come up in which case you click on the picture you recognise.


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5. However if you don’t know the person which is possible in our case rather use the email address and only one person will show up. Click on the name and add that person.

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Why not create a circle following the steps above? (Choose a few folk that you know have gmail addresses.)  Then send a message to that circle. To reinforce your learning about circles, here is a video that explains it really well.


Further reading
How to create circles in Google+