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Create comic strips like a Pro

Less than 2 minutes is all it took me to make the above comic strip. The learning curve using stripgenerator.com is low. The options are seemingly endless. The ability for teachers to use this in their classroom at a low age is high. There is a “like” factor for kids. Why not explore it for yourself. I have listed some of the abilities with this all-in-one website below.

Strip Generator allows for different types of:

frames
characters (plus you can build your own)
items (like tvs, hats, books, toys, instruments and so much more)
text (and text bubbles)

Everything can:

be rotated
be re-sized
be arranged front to back
blurred
have its opacity changed

When you finish you can tag, print, share on Facebook and Twitter, embed on your website or blog, or even join with other strips you have made to create a booklet. The website is very intuitive. I can see many uses for it in education and give it 5 out of 5 stars as a resource.

Finally! They are charging cyber-bully teens

14 May

Washington State has set a precedent by charging 11 and 12-year-old kids for cyber bullying.

This is fantastic. All too often I have heard about kids making others upset writing on Facebook walls, harassing, creating fake profiles, showing and creating unsuitable content on computers, tablets and smartphones. This isn’t just the boys. It’s the girls too! And it isn’t just the older ones. Students are starting as young as grade 2.

This is definitely an issue that is occurring in schools, but they can’t take full responsibility for the problems. People, young and old, educators, parents and children need to do something about this problem.

My recommendation is that it doesn’t stop there. If all countries adopted laws that are not toothless, students will think twice about being inappropriate online. Coming from the top-down takes out the grey area for schools. A lot of the harassment is taking place at night-time, on weekends, and in the summer time, which is outside of the educational domain. Is it still suitable for schools to be managing these situations?

We are charting relatively new territory. However, there is already substantial proof that cyber-bullying is effecting students detrimentally.

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) researcher Marilyn Campbell said many child victims of cyber and internet abuse felt they had no place to hide.

She said cyber bullies were posting personal information about the victim on the internet while letting all their peers know the web address via email.

Dr Campbell said the victim had no method of direct retaliation and could not even strike back physically. She said that there is a feeling that everybody in the peer group knows what’s going on, whereas in face-to-face bullying it’s at least more contained with only a small audience.

More than 13 per cent of students already had fallen victim to cyber-bullying by year eight of school and 25 per cent knew someone who had. More than half of kids thought the phenomenon was on the rise, the study showed.

While traditional bullying often had long-term damaging consequences for its victims, it was possible to surmise that cyber bullying could have even worse consequences, Campbell said.

What if countries and states are not taking control where you live? What can you do? This video has a few strategies, including parenting, education and involvement.

Good ePortfolio example

10 May

Hello students, educators, professionals, prospective employees and possibly even prospective employers. I am sure that you are aware that you need to consider your online presence. You need to worry about what you post on Facebook and tailor your comments professionally on blogs and websites because you know that once you post something it is always out there.

Future schools, employers, colleagues and acquaintances will all possibly be able to see what you created. It’s best that you take a proactive approach to the internet and create your professional existence.

That said, I came across an excellent ePortfolio just now through LinkedIn (I would consider this site a professional’s Facebook). The portfolio created by Eric Forsyth had these elements that you might consider for yourself, especially if you are an educator, but you could adapt them accordingly:

Home
Contact Information
Education
Employment History
Promotion Timeline
Teaching Timeline
Scholarship Timeline
Service Timeline
Teaching and Advising
Publications
Presentations
Research Studies
Authorship Samples
Service
Grants
Recognition
Affiliation
References
Family
Outdoor Pursuits
Just Out Riding

It makes me feel like I need to do more substantial things in my life. You might think so too. I look at Dr. Forsyth’s efolio and compare it to my rendition. Noting differences, he is missing artistry and my idea of good resources and videos.

You too, can and should update or create your very own ePorfolio if you haven’t done so already. You could do that here at WordPress.com, start one on Google Sites or try eFolios or just do a Google Search for Online Portfolios and decide which website suits you best. It’s best to start early and keep it up, because you would be surprised how many things you can add to it if you are diligent enough.

To see Eric Forsyth’s portfolio click here

2 Comments

Posted by Dr. Thomas Johnson | ict-design.org on May 10, 2011 in Technology

Tags: Electronic portfolio, Employment, Facebook, Google, Google Sites, LinkedIn

Do you use Facebook, Gmail AND Hotmail?

08 May

I bet you do. I bet you also use them similarly to how I use them. These days I use Facebook for daily communication, Gmail for important stuff and Hotmail or Yahoo for junk mail. Why is that?

Facebook has come out on top as the daily most used website. It’s due to feeds from friends, ease of use, and non-clunkiness. This is the place to be if you enjoy knowing what many of your friends are doing, most of the time. Because of this, you probably will write quick emails to them to comment about their activities.

Hotmail and Yahoo, however, may have been one of the first email clients you started using. You were probably not thinking too much about the silliness of your “handle” when you created the account. Therefore, you don’t share this information with people you want to think of you professionally. The account is still active and since you need a certain area to send email confirmations to this is your likely choice. Also, you remember the email password.

And then comes Gmail. It hasn’t been around as long as the former two and if you were born around the time I was (1976) or even sooner you started to think about how people are viewing you online. You needed to apply to a college, or job, or start a company and to do so you didn’t want somebody emailing you at fluffy123@hotmail.com or cheezeslick69@yahoo.com. It just didn’t cut it. You probably went out and tried to get a variation of your name – figure that, and now you have the third or fourth email account that you consider professional.

It could be the Outlook/Yahoo/Facebook combo, or the Webmail/Hotmail/LinkedIn combo, but when all is said and done, I bet you have something along these lines.

Whatever happened to the days before email? “Page me.” “Call me on my home (rotary) phone” I hardly remember them. Do you?