Digital literacy development during first integrated study unit

The first integrated study unit advanced Zack's digital literacy skills. I'm amazed at how many sequences he can hold in mind when manipulating images and text or moving files around (c.f., long division) and how quickly he works (c.f., putting away laundry). What's more, while the sequences are physical (e.g., press CTRL-V, click on another tab), the processes are largely invisible and conceptual, yet he proceeds assuredly.

The desertification project asked for a PowerPoint presentation so we used open source Impress from OpenOffice (a free and open productivity suite similar to Microsoft Works).
Zack navigated easily the standard features of this programme (e.g., inserting slides, text boxes, fonts, transitions). For slide backgrounds, he lightened up images in Paint.Net. He created collages using Picasa Collage Maker (a fun free app from Google). Impress developed a lag that I have yet to work out.

The main challenge really was to try to explain to him what exactly a slide presentation is. He's never sat through slide presentations so hasn't experienced the agony of the boring misconceived, poorly executed show. It was harder to for him to grasp the necessity of condensing information to the essential to support an oral presentation. There is lots to still learn in this area, but considering that many adults have a great deal of difficulty communicating, it is a real bonus to be starting at 11 years old.


When the assignment was complete, Zack could not send it using Wilostar3d, so I told him about SlideShare, and he made an account, uploaded it, and sent the link to his teacher. We were then able to embed the slideshow into this blog. He is learning more about the cloud.

Zack also tackled the Wilostar knowledge tower presentation for Ontario compared to Texas on his own. The Wilostar online guide for using knowledge tower says it will be updated in September. I don't know if they missed September 2010 or if they're holding out for 2011. If Zack did not have extensive (for his age) experience in virtual environments (Roblox, WOW, Minecraft) it would have been very difficult. He demonstrated an intensity when in the knowledge tower atrium and put extra effort into building a multi-story display. For him, this project was all about the medium and he really didn't care much about the content, except for humerous comments he managed to imbed (e.g., "See, we don't live in igloos").

He figured out how to input content into display screens in two ways: by entering a limited amount of text while in the app or by inserting a link. To create links for the content he had already made on his local computer, Zack used Vista's Snipping Tool to create jpeg files, which he uploaded to a Picasa Web Album (a free service from Google accessible through your Google account), which automatically assigns links to each file and album. To format his content in a visually appealing way before using the Snipping Tool, he used the recently discovered Impress, Picasa Collage Maker (a fun free app from Google), GIMP (an open source sophisticated image manipulation similar to Photoshop), and Paint.Net (an open source image and photo-editing software which is an infintely better version of Window's Paint).

He is just where I want him to be right now.