EVO Digitalstorytelling4kids 2013 - SMOOC Feedback

When you fully immerse yourself into a project and time flies, you know that you are in the 'flow'.  The thing to do is to take each day and try to live it as if you know that it will have to end by nightfall.  Enjoy every moment, try everything out, be happy, have fun, make mistakes, learn from them, observe others, praise their efforts, enjoy their contributions, share as much as possible, live your life free!

I guess YOLO sums it all up. You Only Live Once, so make the most of it!

Joining in a SMOOC  (Small Open Online Course) was an exciting feeling, and I enjoyed every moment of it, especially all the interaction with the enthusiastic participants and moderators.  Attending the weekly webinars was also fun and helped to create a sense of belonging to the group.

Such times are meant to be treasured, and so writing my feedback thoughts here about the EVO Digitalstorytelling4kids session will capture those special moments. A million thanks goes to each and every one of the fabulous moderators and my fellow coursemates.  We encouraged each other, collaborated and shared many experiences, tools and incredible stories. I was very impressed by the amount of energy and passion for the subject that was palpable, even though everythinig was conducted online.

 The Digitalstorytelling portfolio of work is an excellent compilation of many wonderful ideas and creative storytelling from over 200 participants from around the globe.The portfolio is currently being exported to Blogger, due to the imminent closure of Posterous. More digitalstorytelling resources and links can be found in this very comprehensive Livebinders.

The action-packed 5-week schedule can be viewed here.

I learned about Edmodo for the first time, and was able to see how it works as an educational platform for learning and teaching online.  I would certainly like to have a go at using it with a group of students in the future.

Brainy Box
Below is a nice site called Brainy Box which sums up my feeling after this session, which has spurred me on to experiment with some interesting tools which can be used for all manners of student projects.  Marisa Constantinides one of the inspirational moderators, wrote a post explaining some of the excellent activities that could be generated by a six-sided cube with images in this post here.

Below I would like to share some of my favourite creations from the course, which inspired me to try out and review so many nice tools and resources.

Stay e-safe with an avatar was a very interesting blog post, as it offered 10 tools to explore to create an avatar, which is especially important for young learners.
  

Build Your Wild Self 

 This is a very simple tool to create a wild-looking persona and can be used in an educational way, to learn about different animals.

    . 

Mini Mizer

 

 Fodey

I created a short synopsis of Week 4 of the session by using fodey.com below:

Animoto

This tool was the perfect setting for a Valentine message I sent to the moderators and my fellow participants:

Make your own slideshow at Animoto.

Captain Scholastic

Experimenting again with Captain Scholastic Underpants was a lot of fun!

ToonDo book

Please click on the book to enlarge it in full screen. 

The Princess by JanetBianchini | Make your own at www.toondoo.com

I have embedded it again below in a different format.  Which one do you prefer?  I couldn't decide which one was better.  I like them both!

The Princess by JanetBianchini | Make your own at www.toondoo.com

Voicethread

Part of the tasks in Week 4 was to create a collaborative story in groups, using Voicethread, and this was hugely enjoyable. I would like to thank all the teachers who contributed to my story, either by text or by voice. It was very exciting to see the twists and turns of events...  I also loved contributing to several of my colleagues' stories, and their stories were very imaginative.

You can get students to imagine what happened inbetween the beginning and the end of the story.

Here is a link to a lovely feedback blogpost called Reflections, Hopes and Experiences by Faten Romdhani.  She has included her fabulous collaborative Voicethread story, which I enjoyed contributing  to very much.

 HeartfeltThanks

Finally, the cartoon I created with ToonDoo to add to the Linoit feedback wall, sums up my feelings perfectly!



My previous posts on this session can be viewed by clicking the titles below.

Reaching for the Stars in EVO Week 3.

Photopeach Comics and Cartoons.

Shelly Terrell's American TESOL webinar on Comic Tools and Lesson Ideas is an excellent showcase of resources and tips on how to use comics and cartoons. I really recommend you view it, as you will learn a lot!!
Many thanks to Shelly for mentioning me in her presentation.  I feel very honoured :-))