Get your students thinking critically and interpreting datasets with TuvaLabs – have you tried using it?

Have you seen this Data Literacy Skills site called TuvaLabs https://www.tuvalabs.com? It really is worth exploring. I thought I would give it a quick review in this blogpost.  

TuvaLabs is a site that contains all kinds of data from 'reliable' sources, and the goal at TuvaLabs is to help students develop their data literacy skills, enable them to be critical thinkers and persistent problem solvers, and empower them to become active members in their own communities and global citizens of the world.

As I opened TavaLabs Beta, knowing nothing about it, it looked quite interesting ‘Data Literacy skills for a brighter future. Empower your students to think critically about data, ask meaningful questions and communicate their observations and questions.’ Isn't that something we need and want for our students?

Navigating the site 
One of the co-founders of the site is Harshil Parikh and I must say that after I joined and enrolled a class he has been excellent with follow up emails and offers of help with getting started. The design is kept very simple – the menu bar only has three options (Find resources, Explore datasets, Ask) and one has to scroll down and pick up other little bits of information.

What is on the site?
The site contains interesting data sets with some ways of interpreting them using graphs, activities, and a place to ask questions

a) Types of activities: Challenge and project
b) Grades: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12
c) Topics: Community, social, energy, entertainment, global

Hashil sends data update emails constantly informing us of new data sets. The following are screenshots of  lead-ins of new data sets:

An alarming recent data set

Tuvalabs recently added a dataset which had some alarming statistics ‘The Dark side of Chocolate’ noting the sad use of child labour in this industry. 

Contributors to the site

a) Dataset contributors

b) A community of teachers who share activities, lessons and projects they've created for exploring, analysing, and visualizing datasets around topics they are covering in the classroom. These resources can fit into the classroom at any level, from 15 minute sessions all the way up to month long projects.

Finding resources on the site
There is a well set out, simple diagram showing the process with finding resources and a link to an introductory video. Users can:

a) Choose datasets related to one's curriculum topics or catering to student interests

b) Find an activity or create one's own around the dataset and assign it to one's class

c) Evaluate one's students' work and provide feedback on their datablogs

• At my last count there were 71 datasets in four subjects - Science, Social Studies, Global Studies, Health. All are attractively set out with an appealing draw card image.
• There were 86 activities created by teachers – some public and some private. (I recognise some names. Some have written quite a few activities.)

The resources are beautifully set out visually. I took a look at the one that says ‘The rise of mobile phones in South Africa’ On the page that opens out there is a short introduction and three headings – Raw data (in this case provided by the World Bank), Activities (none yet) and New Activity (for someone to add) With the raw data there are nine options for creating different types of graphs. One has to sign in for anything further.

Joining up

I joined up. You have to join a class. I joined a Grade 8 class for Science and will let them explore this term. (Once you are in the site you are taken to some resources for 8th Grade Science. ) I immediately received an informative email from Hashil.  

Opinion

I rather like this site. Interpreting data is a very important skill in this day and age. I’ll definitely pursue it with a class. I also like the idea of teacher-contributed activities and data sets from relevant sources. Those are not easy to find.  Communities of Practice provide great opportunities for learning.

A quick, free way to run meetings

Submitted by Fiona Beal
Today I came across this meeting site which said. “Meet Face to Face Online, hang out with co-workers and teams, run as many meetings as you want, no software or signups needed. Best of all, it's free”. This sounded great – almost like a free group Skype but maybe with video? The site is called ‘meetings.io’ and the address is http://meetings.io/

 

Step 1: To start off you click on ‘Get a meeting room’.
 

Step 2: This takes you to a meeting room number that you can enter at any time.

 

Step 3: You now enter the meeting room with your name.

Step 4: You are asked a question about your bandwidth.

 

Step 5: It asks if you want to allow meetings.io to access your cameras and microphone

 

I didn’t go any further than that, but this looks good! I think I’ll try it out on some colleagues later.Another look at the site shows amazing features.  This site looks well worth exploring.

Application for schools:

1. Groups could use this to discuss and plan group projects at home.

2. If you are in a collaborative global project this site could be used for discussions.

3. Teachers could have a quick meeting from home when time for a meeting doesn't fit into the school day.

Use Tweetchat for Twitter discussions

Submitted by Fiona Beal

It all started when Philemon Kotsokoane tweeted me (on Twitter) saying “... I'd like to follow last night's chat on tweetchat.com How do I access all the chat & remove smart pausing message?#edchatsa” 

Up to that point I had only been using a free programme called Tweetdeck for Twitter chats. I wrote a blogpost on how to use Tweetdeck last month  http://schoolnetsa.blogspot.com/2012/03/why-not-install-and-use-tweetdeck-for.html  The reason I enjoy using Tweetdeck is because you can have a whole host of hashtags open and can follow where you wish. But I have to admit - this can be distracting at times.

After liaising with Philemon who said he had Tweetdeck installed but felt he would prefer to use Tweetchat,  I decided to explore Tweetchat. I discovered that Tweetchat doesn’t need to be installed as it is completely web-based. It also allows you to focus completely on the hashtag you are interested in. So, this is how it works:

Instructions

1. Open Tweetchat (http://tweetchat.com)

2. Sign in with your Twittter account (so It is important to join Twitter first). 

3. Choose the hashtag you wish to follow and type it in on the top (to the left of ‘Go’). This spot is almost hidden. I am using the #edchatsa for this since this chat is something I enjoy participating in every week. 

4. Immediately the current conversation in that hashtag opens. 

5. From there it is just ‘Go’ and enjoy the ride!

Why not install and use Tweetdeck for Twitter group chats?

Last Monday night from 8:30pm – 9:30pm one of our social media in education activitists in South Africa, Arthur Preston, Head at Elkanah House Primary School in Cape Town, introduced a Twitter chat for South African teachers on the #edchatsa hashtag. It was a wonderfully stimulating chat with many teachers from around the country participating. Teachers only got to know about it via Twitter and had a great chat about the topic, “If there was one piece of technology that could change South African education what would it be?”  You can log in to Arthur Prestons's blog http://headthoughts.co.za/edchatsa/ to vote for the topic for this coming Monday night. Here is the list of topics:

To be able to participate properly in this type of Twitter chat one needs to use an application like Tweetdeck where you can see a number of columns of Twitter at the same time. So this post is about Tweetdeck. It is a fantastic application to use. Here is a view of my Tweetdeck interface. This illustrates the columns.

Getting started

Search for Tweetdeck on the Internet and download the free application to your desktop (http://www.tweetdeck.com/). It will ask you to set up a Tweetdeck account. One can use the same username and password as one’s Twitter account to simplify matters. Once installed, Tweetdeck looks like you see above arranged in columns. You can now add as many columns as you like.

The columns

The columns work like this.
a) On the very left is your Home section where you receive the tweets of all the people you are following. This is the same as your timeline in Twitter.

b) Next to that you will get your Mentions column where you are notified if anyone retweets one of your tweets or sends you a message.

c)  Next is your Inbox which shows the tweets or direct messages you have just sent to others. In fact this default column (Inbox) could be called the Direct Messages column since it records the direct messages that you send or receive. These do not show up in your All Friends/Home column because they are to or from you personally.

d) After that you can add your favourite # columns. I have #edchatsa, #edtechconf,  #SAipaded,  #ict4champions and #sateachers. That reminds me to mention that your Tweetdeck interface shows five columns but at the top is a little icon – it's a horizontal scrollbar - where you move across to the next lot of columns. I guess you can have as many columns as you like, with five displaying at a time.

To add a column click on the Add column button and write in your choice of # hashtag.

You can move the columns around

To move a column just check on the little wheel on the top right of each column and a box comes up giving you the arrows to move the column left or right.

For the purposes of the #edchatsa on a Monday night I have moved my #edchatsa column right next to my Mentions columns so that I can write easily and receive any @fibeal messages.

How to create and send a message

To create a message click on the little blue pen icon on the top of the interface.

This will open the box to write and send your messages. When the writing box opens write your message making sure it doesn’t exceed 140 characters, and press Tweet.

How to send a direct message to someone

Hover your mouse over the avatar of the person and the word More will appear on the top right.  click on More and it will take you to another icon with a little dropdown arrow. Click on that and a box will open that says “Send a direct message”.

How to reply or retweet

Hover your mouse over the avatar of the person and a bar comes up containing an arrow, a group of arrows a star and the word more. The single arrow is for Reply and the group of arrows is for Retweet. 

So, why not give Tweetdeck a try?

A lovely South African site with free downloadable worksheets in several subjects

Isn’t it great when right here, in South Africa, you come across a site with lovely, free, downloadable worksheets in : Mathematics, English, Science, Environment, Health, Nutrition, Hygiene, Arts, Crafts and Colouring.


This site is called the e-learning classroom  and it can be located at:
http://e-classroom.co.za/

When you explore the site you find so many excellent worksheets and other classroom aids.

Take a look. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed!

Website review - The Teaching Library

Today I would like to point you to a fascinating reading website: http://www.teachinglibrary.co.uk/.

This is a site where teachers can find books to read to their class as well as some free lesson ideas on the books listed on the site. Each book has a list of activities spanning a few subjects. I came across this site through Technology Tidbits.

This post is actually going to be taken verbatim out of the teaching library website so that you can see its potential. It is taken from the page: http://www.teachinglibrary.co.uk/book/the-true-story-of-the-three-little-pigs/ (The books are linked to Amazon.com). What fascinated me about this page is the idea of telling a story from a different character’s point of view

The true story of the three little pigs

Author: Jon Scieszka

BUY THIS BOOK

Book Description…

"You may think you know the story of the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf – but only one person knows the real story, and that person is A. T. Wolf. His tale starts with a birthday cake for his dear old granny, a bad head cold and a bad reputation. The rest (as they say) is history.

Teaching Ideas…

Literacy

• Write another well know story from a different character’s point of view… Could you write Peter Pan from Captain Hook’s point of view… or the Three Billy Goat’s Gruff from the Troll’s point of view
• Alexander T. Wolf became know as the Big Bad Wolf. Can you write a story which explains how he got this nickname? Did he do something big and bad, or was somebody trying to get him into trouble?
• Write the recipe that the wolf used for his granny’s birthday cake.
• Write the newspaper article which reports on the Wolf’s activities that day.
• The wolf complains about being ‘framed’. Can you explain what this means? Could you write a story about another bad character who was ‘framed’ and didn’t really do the bad things that they are well known for?
• Compare this version of the story with this cartoon video:

The Big Bad Wolf - A silly Symphony made by the Walt Disney Studio

Science

• Explore the types of food that different animals eat. This could lead on to discussions about food chains and habitats.
• Think about different materials. Which would be the best to build a house with? Could you design an experiment which tests the strength / ‘huff and puff’ (wind) resistance of different materials?
• Why might the wolf have a sneezing cold? Explore how he can keep himself fit and healthy in future.

Life Orientation

• The pigs are very rude to Alexander. Can you think of reasons why this might be? How should they have behaved?
• The wolf gets very angry at the end of the story. What strategies could he have used to control his anger?"

Some of the other books...

http://www.teachinglibrary.co.uk/book/charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory/ (Raold Dahl)

http://www.teachinglibrary.co.uk/book/the-twits/  (Raold Dahl)

http://www.teachinglibrary.co.uk/book/double-act/ (Jacqueline Wilson)

http://www.teachinglibrary.co.uk/book/owl-babies/ (Martin Waddell)

If you are a Language teacher I think you will enjoy looking around this site.