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.

First integrated study unit complete

Zack's first complete integrated study unit, Holes, finished on February 1st. From my perspective as a homeschool mom and an educated lifelong learner, this study unit exceeded my expectations as to what it could/should be. It successfully integrated science and social studies into language arts using a Newberry winning novel as a starting point.

The underpinning of the unit is the Newberry winning novel Holes by Lois Sachar. Readings are assigned four chapters at a time. There are almost daily assignments testing comprehension. Initially, he was required to give written answers, but as the pace picked up, he answered multiple choice questions. There were intensives on deserts, Texas, and juvenile dilinquency.

The deserts intensive looked at deserts in general and offered two mini-intensives: desert plants and desertification.

The Texas intensive looked at Texas in general and had students compare this state to home state/province. This was an ideal assignment from the perspective of an Ontario homeschool mom because Zach was able to greatly expand his knowledge of Ontario (geography, history, economy) and meet Ontario Curriculum requirements. As this mini-intensive ended, we had a good laugh listening to weather reports of an enormous snow storm forming over Texas and moving north east to our fair city. For the first time, Texas was a real place, and Zack followed the satellite weather images with interest.

The juvenile intensive looked at the concept of juvenile delinquency in general, the juvenile justice system, and the experience of juvenile detention.

Dodging amended assignments

I thought I was losing it, but because I have printed out assignments, I can see that the content of some assignments changes, apparently without notification.  For example, we thought we were finished the desert plant project until we reread the instructions and found we needed to talk about plant adaptions so we worked on plant adaptions (a topic we knew very little about) and then as Zack was wrapping up the assignment, he reread the instructions and adaptions was gone...sigh.  He has now been working on a timeline for juvenile delinquency when I noticed that there is no requirement for a timeline in the instructions I downloaded a few weeks ago, but when he looked online, there is an additional sentence on a timeline added to the instructions, which does not appear in the previous version. 

I can't figure out is if there is some kind of system in place advising of updates to assignments.  Whenever the teacher posts a grade for an assignment, he receives notification in his email, but he is not receiving notification of amended assignments.  I suspect that assignments are amended following an inquiry from a student (perhaps a mom!).  Perhaps there is something else that I'm missing.  In any case, the student instructions do not give information on this, at least not that I've noticed.  The teacher has never given Zack any specific instruction and he never received the promised tour from a student so we operate on trial and error, our own combined strengths, and intuition. 

The attention to detail just isn't in the assignment posts nor the day-to-day administration.  They appear sometimes to be cut and pastes because there are different fonts and formats.  They do not appear to have been proofread.  Some assignments are very straightforward and Zack proceeds on his own, but sometimes he doesn't have a clue what he's supposed to be doing. 

Unpredictably amended assignments would not be a reason for us not to continue with Wilostar.  It is just an inconvenience for us.  But in the interests of promoting Education 2.0 and this intrepid virtual expression of Homeschooling 2.0, it raises for me questions about the mindsets and training of those at the front line of this virtual world.  I don't have a sense that an individual action (i.e., amending an assignment) is subject to any anaylsis (i.e., what is the effect of this action? when I change this, what happens?; is the effect different at various times or constant? how do my students know an assignment has changed?; in general, how do my students manage assignments? digitally? on paper? when do they tacle assignments? in advance? on the day of? what impact does not seeing an assignment amendment have on a student's ability to undertake the assignment? final mark?)  I am not sure that pioneers in this brave new world can afford to be on automatic pilot.

Is that Shangri la up ahead in the virtual wilo worlds?

The New Technologies will take on an even great role in our learning in a few days. With a dearth of organized learning and activities for homeschoolers in the Toronto area, and Zacharie's demonstrated passion for the virtual worlds of Roblox, World of Warcraft, and Minecraft, WiloStar3D appears made to order.

Zacharie has been accepted into grade 7 at the WiloStar3D Academy and he will shortly begin his first study unit with other 12 year olds from the Eastern United States.

Of course, this is the honeymoon phase (for which I am so fondly reknowned) so I am basking in the warm bright glow of the WiloStar while dustings of snow accumulate barely on the leafless trees I see from my windows. (Image is a snip from Avatar Storytellers, WiloStar3d.)

Zacharie has three pressing concerns:

1. what he will tell his friends (apparently it is embarassing to go to a virtual school)
   
2. what mods he'll be able to make to his avatar (beyond dress code, he's wondering if he'll be able to script himself)
   
3. how he will have private conversations with classmates (is 100% sure that the school monitors each online conversation (thinks that Roblox has real people reading all conversations) and fears that he'll miss opportunities for goofy comments that kids like to make at recess and that this will be another wedge in the great ball of sadness he carries as a result of his (fortunate) de facto exclusion from mainstream public schooling)