Scoop.it - Comics and Cartoons for RSCON3

Scoop.it cartoon created with www.writecomics.com

My first curation of comics and cartoons for my webinar at the Reform Symposium at the end of July via Scoop.it has been a painless and relatively easy affair. I decided to create this topic to make it easy to give any potential attendees a list of internet resources all under one roof.

My special dedicated Scoop.it site is called Comics and Cartoons. I am very proud to be one of the many Reform Symposium presenters.

An Original Deadline
I now need to get cracking on the actual presentation itself!! I didn't realise that there were so many resources available on this particular theme of comics and cartoons in education. How on earth can I make my presentation truly original?? This is a question that will be dominating my thoughts over the coming days. I always perform quite well under pressure and I like to work within deadlines, so I am confident that everything will be ok!!

Eye-catching Scoop.its!
Scoop.it caught my eye when I came across Nik Peachey's curation of Learning Technology recently. That encouraged me to look into it and I then discovered a whole range of other educators who have begun curating all sorts of different topics. I wrote about this discovery in my previous post Janet's Top Scoop.its.

I have recently found a very interesting collection of posts which deal specifically with Web Content and Digital Curation.

Tara Benwell has created a Scoop.it to promote her new book, "The Proper Order of Things". I think this is a truly excellent idea!

You can get more information from the Scoop.it blog home page and from this informative presentation below.

Scoop.it everywhere

View more presentations from Scoop.it

More Ideas?

Janet's Top Scoop.its!

Scoop.it! has recently caught my eye on Twitter. It's a news aggregating tool where you can pick and choose your favourite resources on a theme (from blogs, Twitter, videos etc), and then a newspaper is generated for you. You become the "curator" of your favourite topic. It's a very clever idea, and the results are quite stunning. Have a look at this Scoop.it! video below and see if you fancy becoming a curator?



Scoop.it looks professional and easy to organise. I am thinking of setting one up soon and will post it here when it's done.

Did you know that "curation tools" are set to become the next big thing??? I certainly didn't know that! Read this article by Mashable in which 4 of the top curating tools are analysed. If you have always wanted to be a curator of your favourite topic or hobby, what are you waiting for??? Get curating with Scoop.it!! Come to think of it. What am I waiting for?

Janet's Top Scoop.its!
Here are my top picks of the moment. You can also suggest topics and links on people's Scoop. its! so that is a great tool for sharing information and for building up a nice repertoire of lesson ideas.

Nik Peachey is the curator of Tools for Learners - a great collection of web based tools.

Brad Patterson has put together a fantastic collection of PLN interviews, and Dave Dodgson is the creator and curator of the PLN Interviews...who's next?

Patrick Jackson is the curator of a fabulous selection of posts - Pre-Primary and Primary ELT which are perfect for Primary school teachers of English. I will definitely be showing this one to my 2 groups of Primary school teachers at the Lake School of English in Oxford.

Mike Harrison has done an awesome job of curating all the posts referring to IATEFL Brighton 2011 conference. It is great to have everything all under one roof. Now I can easily read the top posts about the conference.

Sharon Hartle curates a very useful collection of posts suitably called Inspiration for tired teachers. You will have a huge bank of ideas and resources to jazz up your teaching skills.

Shaun Wilden is the curator of #ELTChat - this is a fab collection of the weekly ELTChat topics that are discussed on Twitter every Wednesday.

Sue Lyons-Jones has a Dogme ELT collection of super articles if you are keen to find out more about how to teach "unplugged".

I am sure you will find some real gems amongst these specially chosen Scoop.its.

Happy reading!

PS See if you can spot some of my posts in the Scoop.its!!

Below is a vertical version of my new comic created with Pixton. I'm not sure which style I prefer so have included both styles :-)

La Strada.......

...that is not 'a road' is getting worse. Thunder, lightning, torrential downpours has turned it into a quagmire. August 2008, we first started making noises that we were not happy. Our dream of turning our small holding into a Biker's B&B "Far From the Madding Crowd", started to hit serious problems. Only truly hardy bikers would ever contemplate travelling down "La Strada".....

Video of "La Strada Brutale" to follow soon, only if I have the courage to publish it. You might have to watch this space. It does exist, and 3 copies have been made and sent to the Comune.

A Bold Biker
Ian was one such brave and non-plussed biker. Had he known the true condition of our road, he would never have attempted to ride down it at midnight one dark and scary night. He hit the road, but undeterred, he carried on until he saw the flickering lights of our abode, shining like a beacon in the distance.

He stayed for 4 nights and the experience was truly magical. Many fairy lights on the balcony, many talks long into the night later, Ian proved to be a fantastic guest of Moto-Abruzzo. I tried to be the 'Hostess with the Mostess' and I was in my element!!


Back to 'La Strada'......

Ringing up the Lord Mayor of Civitaquana on his mobile phone is not something I relish, but I have had no choice. My livelihood has been at stake and so has K's. I don't want to damage our car by constantly driving it up and down 'La Strada', so I have had to take up working virtually, which I hasten to add, has been a dream come true.

This is a fantastic area of experience for me and one which I am really enjoying immensely. In fact my dream was to work from home, all because of "La Strada".

Giulietta
I love the name GIULIETTA. It's my sister's name. Nobody in England can spell it correctly or pronounce it correctly. I think it's a beautiful name. Giulietta Masina won great acclaim for her portrayal in La Strada. My father named my sister after the actress Giulietta Masina. A fabulous circle of events, don't you think?

An ever evolving theme: Life is a CIRCLE.

Facts about Giulietta Masina here. Not many people know that she was known as the female Charles Chaplin and that she was married for half a century to Federico Fellini, one of Italy's most outstanding film directors.

Romeo and Giulietta
In a way, I'm glad my father didn't have his way. He had planned to call his future son ROMEO. Can you imagine how my possible brother's life would have panned out in school before the days of Romeo Beckham?? Yes, he might have been teased remorselessly. On the other hand, what an intriguing life he might have had! Maybe that is why I have a fascination with the story of Romeo and Juliet? To have had a brother and sister named Romeo and Giulietta might have been seriously cool.

Confession: A part of me does regret not having a brother. I wonder if my life might have turned out differently?? Having two wonderful sisters is amazing, but having a brother might have been quite cool. I will never know.

OBI, RSS and QR Codes!

Image found on wikipedia here

There is a connection between these groups of letters, and one of them is an odd word out! Can you guess what it is? Well, the connection is that they have all been on my mind recently and the odd word out in a way is "OBI" as it is a name of a DIY shop in Pescara. The other two are acronyms linked to the Internet.

NB
At the end of my post I have added a little comic test to review what these three groups of letters mean.

OBI and QR Codes
It all started in OBI, a local garden centre when I picked up one of their magazines and to my surprise, I noted that QR codes were on practically each page. I felt pleased that I recognised these as QR Codes! Only a few short months ago, I would not really have recognised them or indeed known the name or what the function of them was. Below is an example. Do you recognise it? They are now becoming ubiquitous, and I think they are definitely here to stay.If you would like to learn more about QR codes, you can read an excellent and comprehensive article written by Nicky Hockly from The Consultants-E. It's called Mobile learning - 9: A Dummies Guide to QR codes.

Below is a fantastic QR Code cartoon created by The Daring Librarian on Flickr.



You can read this excellent blog post by Gwyneth Anne Bronwynne Jones, aka The Daring Librarian, called Hot QR Codes in the Classroom, written in December 2010.

If you are interested in this area of technology, you can attend a free webinar on QR Codes On Saturday 30th July at the Reform Symposium presented by ShamblesGuru (Chris Smith). It promises to be very useful and extremely interesting!



RSS or Really Simple Feed syndication

RSS? Well I have been discussing Really Simple Syndication with a group of online learners recently. Only a few short years ago, I didn't have a clue to what RSS refered to, but now I do!! I use my RSS feed on my blog sidebar to gather all the latest updates on my favourite blogs and links. It's time-saving and very convenient.

The Circle of Knowledge
So the circle is complete. I was in OBI, I saw the QR codes and I felt chuffed that I recognised them and had an idea of what they were. So like a few years ago when RSS was a new and alien concept for me, I don't have any real experience of how to actually use QR codes actively yet.
QR codes are relatively new for me now, but I would like to know much more about them as they seem to be everywhere. Maybe in the future, they will be commonplace for me like RSS feeds are now, and I will be using them effortlessly? Watch this space!

Comic Testing Items
In preparation for my talk at RSCON3 on using comics and cartoons, I have just created a little test for you using cartoons as a prompt. These questions will check if you have read this post including all the links carefully :-)

writecomics.com

Toondo.com

Super Hero Squad Comics

Abruzzo Diary of a Country Lady - Part 2: Voltaire & Wild Gardens

This view from home formed the basis of my recent "unplugged" lesson here.

A growing squadron of toads in pots, chickens crowing ever more heartily and fluffy kittens up olive trees is all part and parcel of the country jetset lifestyle. All slugs and snails have miraculously disappeared since I last wrote on this topic in Part 1, and I guess it's all due to these lovely creatures below, one of whom is seen squatting comfortably in my prized pots.



An image-edited photo of mum Samantha and kitten in the garden.

Wild Nature versus The Internet
The pull of nature or the pull of the Internet? These are things I have been thinking of recently. It's difficult to manage the two together as I can't be in two places at once. The more work I take on online, the less time I can devote to trying to keep the vegetable plot in order and tame the weeds that threaten to engulf the plot. This leads me to the next paragraph, where the eminent French gentleman below has a lot to answer for...


Il Faut Cultiver Votre Jardin
Voltaire famously wote these words in his mordant satire called Candide. I read this for my French degree and it made me realise that yes, it's true. A wild garden reveals a lot about the owners. You really have to "cultivate your garden" in the most basic sense of the words.

As I write the strimmer is whirring away in the distance. K valiantly and single-handedly trying to keep the ever growing jungle in check. The state of the garden is a constant topic of household conversation. Voltaire's words keep ringing in my ears. Why do these simple words have so much resonance after 32 years since I last read Candide??

"You have to cultivate your garden". If you don't cultivate your garden, it will become unruly and unmanageable. If it becomes wild and untameable, it will dominate your thoughts. If it dominates your thoughts, it will affect your life. If it affects your life, things will stand still. If things stand still, you are lost or doomed.

I guess that's the pretty hard-hitting message that I imagine is contained in these few simple words. So, what to do? Maybe this gentleman will have the answer?

Before I sign off to cultivate my garden, I'd just like to point out this great quote by Thoreau I found on this very interesting blog post simply called "Cultivate your garden". It's a good quote for discussion, don't you think? I'm not sure I agree with it entirely, though.

Anyone care to make a comment?

"In wildness is the preservation of the world."
You might also like to read this fantastic guest post by Eric Kane on Teaching Village blog, called "Proactive Discipline - Tend to your Garden". I love the gardening analogy!

Kittens in Olive Tree
Below is a short video of 3 of the kittens playing happily, freely and fearlessly amongst the olive tree branches high up. This video was taken this morning in the garden.