Microsoft Paint and my first app

So as part of the clmooc, I've decided to build my first app (I'm using Infinite Monkeys) and I chose Microsoft Paint as my subject. Why? Because in the ICT curriculum in Canada and the US, Grade 1 is where you start using Paint. Those of us in the Educational Technology field are often playing with the latest and greatest new tools. We have a tendency to forget that not everyone is as comfortable with just the basics. And that's where you start with any learning isn't it? At the beginning? So if we're not teaching our teachers the basics of how to create on a computer, how are they going to do the same for their students?

So back to Paint. Paint is a simple program but you can do some very sophisticated drawing and editing with if you spend some time getting to know the program. There are not too many lesson plans for Paint out there only 3 million+. In the land of the internet that's not a huge number and it was already starting to give me Grade 3 lesson plans within the first 10 hits but I'm hoping to compile a list of the better ones for the app.  While there are lots of videos on how to use Paint for adults, I have yet to find a video designed for Grade 1 students on how to use Paint, which really surprised me. (So I will be making one soon I expect.) But should it surprise me? I think we're still dealing with the myth of the digital native and some resistance at the Primary levels to technology integration. And how many schools in Canada have a dedicated technology teacher? (If anyone knows, I really am interested in the answer.)

So for Grade 1, what can you do with Paint that you can integrate into the curriculum? Drawing and painting of course! Understanding colour for another. Shapes as well for math (very, very good for that!) Story writing, remixing images, fine motor control, the list goes on. While it is easy to find examples of student work in Grade 1 created with actual paint online (and the lesson plans that guided the creation), finding examples of student work created digitally in Paint is not so easy. I would love to see us create art using Paint and then transferring the idea to a paint/drawing project for instance. Perhaps have the students create a primary colour wheel/drawing in Paint and then do a similar project using paint or crayons in class? The possibilities for integration are there (the link is to a Blackboard session where a teacher is explaining how she integrated technology into her classroom for the first time.) We just have to become comfortable with the tools and use our imagination.

As to Infinite Monkey as an app tool? I'm working my way through it. As the video mentions you do need to have all of your links ready to go ahead of creating the app (and that is always a lot of work!) And it's not as intuitive as they make it out to be ( and isn't that always the case? Someone builds something and says, "It's easy!" and you're scratching your head, thinking, "Oh, I must be stupid?!") I made my first mistake on the first page when I wrote the title for the app (which automatically saves it as the url) and then realized I needed a different title (but the url remains the same even after you've changed the title.) So my advice, if you use this program, is to really think about what you want to name the resource and what it's purpose is, rather than do what I did, which is jump in with both feet (violating all of the rules of backward design! Designer, heal thyself!) I had also created a playlist for my app of YouTube videos but finding your RSS feed for You Tube is not as easy as you would think. (Hopefully my Twitter PLN will get back to me shortly.) However, I successfully attached my blog feed to the app and as many of you know, that's a big deal for me. So, as usual, one needs to play with a tool first, make mistakes and keep trying, before you can master it. Learning in action!

I'll post the link to the app when I am finished.

How I am learning to use Mozilla: By taking a sMOOC

So the past two weeks we've been concentrating on digital literacy and what it means in all its various personae. ETMOOC had proposed the following questions to answer:
 
What does it mean to be digitally literate? 
What is the difference between being digital literate and web literate?
How does digital literacy relate to participatory culture?
What digital competencies and skills do your learners demonstrate through their daily use of technology?
What digital competencies and skills are required by our emerging knowledge economy/age?
What are the differences between digital literacy and digital fluency?
What is the role of attention within the spectrum of 21st century literacies?
What are the problems inherent in defining literacy, fluency, skills, and competency today (e.g., using terms like 21st century literacies, digital fluency), and how do these affect curricular development, pedagogy, and the work of teachers and students?

I have thought about these questions, answered some and been baffled by others. What these past two weeks have done is show my areas of literacy strengths  and weaknesses. And so I have decided to do something about them. Thank goodness for my PLN as they have showed me the way! Thanks Christina Hendricks and Janet Webster for steering me in the right direction.

So as you know if you've been avidly following my blog (ha!ha!) is that I've been trying to learn how to use the various new software put out by Mozilla. First there was the tale of using Popcorn  and now I am writing about my ongoing saga with Thimble, X ray Goggles and Hackasaurus. It's not been pretty. Unlike Haiku Deck, which very nicely responded to my laments on Twitter about it not being available for PC users, I am never sure if Mozilla has heard me (even though sometimes I think they have-my mistake).

So what are my issues with Mozilla which is admittedly putting out some fantastic stuff for us to play with in this sandbox and expand our digital literacy?

I think, no, I know! that Mozilla suffers from a lack of "instruction" literacy. They are either a) so immersed in the language of code that they don't see that others are not or b) trying to convince us that it is that easy. I am not sure which one it is but either way I feel as dumb as a pack of hammers every time I go to their site (I felt the same when I started Popcorn). I had a very brief (and mercifully short) introduction to html in the distant past and I've steered clear ever since. (Is it because it reminds me of how stupid I feel in math?) Now I am going back to play with html because it is time. And right off the bat I am made to feel incompetent.

This is what I mean:

 Now this says three easy steps. I can tell you right now they are wrong. I have actually enrolled in this smooc course WomenLearningTech (courtesy of Christina and Janet) so that I can be taught how to use Mozilla XRay Goggles and all of their other lovely programs. It took Kim Wilkens 6 minutes of video time to explain this software and I was pausing and following along step by step in order to create this. Once you understand that to Activate XRay Goggles you have to put it in your bookmark bar that solved a lot of problems. But how was I supposed to know that? Is there a secret code or something? And the different colours? What do they mean? Is there a colour code? And which box to type in to change the code? The one on the left or the right? (the left) And what not to touch of the code in the box?  After the lesson with Kim I had produced my own web remix. I still don't know what the R is supposed to do. I expect that now I at least know what I am supposed to do in the site I might go and try and find out.

Perhaps Mozilla expects us to mess around with the program and find out by playing with it? That's great for some, especially if it works. But it doesn't work for me and that means it won't work for others. How does this approach promote digital literacy? Wake up Mozilla! If you really want people to use your products cure your "instruction" literacy problem so I can cure my"digital" literacy problems.

And Mozilla? I really hope you're listening this time.

You say "condition", I say "continuum."

So #etmchat today was interesting. I am still having problems getting past literacy being a "condition" rather than a "continuum" and it really boils down to semantics, which means.....we're both right? You see, getting down to it linguistically condition has multiple meanings. Doug Belshaw likes #2 on the list of dictionary definitions while I use the word in all it's multiple meanings including 5 b) which is obsolete [and when did that happen?] Now continuum  really does explain exactly how I think of literacy. And perhaps it is because I have a degree that straddles both science and the arts it suits me to think of us being on a sliding scale of literacy, both in the traditional sense of literacy as defined by Doug Belshaw in his blog and the newer, ever expanding digital literacies as discussed over the past few days. And since I seem to disagree with Doug on the use of the word "condition" I also disagree with his definition of "skill" as he has chosen to define it. Not because it is wrong, but because of his choice, again, of  which aspect of the definition to use in defining what a skill is. For me, the acquisition and use of language skills (in all its multiple formats) is the bedrock of literacy. All flows from this. 

Finally, I am taking issue with the idea that we are literate for a purpose. We are literate because we acquire language through social interaction. How many of us actually remember learning how to read or to speak? I don't. I just remember getting in trouble for writing my own sentences and for reading too much in Grade 1. (I didn't like Mrs. Lynch's sentences. She called my mum. I did not get in trouble. I love my mother.) I watched my nephew teach himself to read a few years ago and I will concede it was for a purpose. He wanted to read what and when he wanted to read. There was no "awareness, that you are, indeed, literate" on the part of my nephew. It was a need. So is a 'need' a purpose? So as the old Gershwin song says "you say 'tomato' and I say 'tomato.'

Who is Digital Literacy for?

So I am stuck in last week's storytelling mode because I am still working with Popcorn Maker. While you can turn the sound off on the video you've downloaded, you can't seem to be able to replace the sound track with another track ( I was thinking of replacing the sound track on Twitter vs. Zombies to yodeling just for fun. It changes the impact of the video that's for sure! If you want to try this go to Soundcloud, find your favourite track, open Popcorn Maker and turn the sound off on the video you are using as the base for your new mash up.) I was looking at the popup feature which does have a sound aspect but I am not sure how that would work when trying to replace an entire soundtrack plus you have the popup bubble on your screen. Am I just asking too much from the program? Any other Popcorn Makers out there having the same issue?

This leads into the subject of digital literacy. I have yet to see the discussion by Doug Belshaw and I will probably miss part of tonight's discussion with Howard Rheingold. Real life interfering with digital life! But what is digital literacy, really? Does it mean that I can swim in the digital pond? There are times I think I may be just dog paddling and not able to complete a lap. And yet, I am supposed to be competent in the area of technology (or at least my degree says so!) So if I am feeling a tad overwhelmed at times, how must it be for those who have little to no experience with technology?

I found my dad a few weeks ago, attempting to email someone back and he had placed his message in the bcc line. My dad is an intelligent man, well read and fluent in a verbal argument. But he does not write. (He's a lefty and there were a few too many cracks on the knuckles when he was trying to write left handed so he just doesn't do it with his right hand or his left hand.) But he will type occasionally. But he doesn't use email. And email today is so ubiquitous that programmers really don't think about new users too much anymore. And you have to know where to get help to use help on a page. And he did not.

So how easy is digital literacy? It demands so much more of us than traditional literacy because we not only have to engage with people and print in real time, we now have to write and maintain a written presence, have some sort of oral presence and perhaps a pictorial presence online. We need to be willing to fling ourselves off the digital cliff so to speak, to dive into the deep waters of new programs and ways of communicating. And how many of us are committed to being a perpetual student? And what about access to digital literacy? Is this literacy only for the connected few with high speed internet? So literacy for the elite? How many more divisions are we going to put between those who are struggling with basic literacy and those of us who have the time, energy, money and education to swim in this pond?

So as usual no answers, but a whole pile of questions!