One very valuable teaching colleague of mine, Mr Paul Bogush, from collaborationnation, introduced me to live blogging using coveritlive. This was a new tool to me, but it was quickly mastered, especially as Paul set up the first live blogs for us. Paul’s students were in their homes in Connecticut at night, while I had mine in the computer lab in a morning session. Despite the complexity of the situation, Paul kept perfect control by using CAPS letters when he needed to keep us all on task. Students were all chatting and typing at once so that we lost the ’sense’ and order of topics. Using an audio tool, Paul was able to talk his students through it all, while I had mine face to face. Students from each country would take it in turns to ask a question and all responded. Polls were also used. It was extremely successful as a collaborative and interactive tool and really popular amongst the students.
Other uses I have made for live blogging:-
survey students (ensures that all respond, quick to set up)
revision with my senior classes. Questions are asked, students reply, comments are then moderated so they can compare and I can test understanding and knowledge.
blogging an online conference. Allows permanent notes and participation by other global citizens who may not have registered or missed out on a place.
Another rewarding experience so far with live blogging, was recently with another colleague of mine, Lorraine Leo from Boston. She wanted to be part of that start of the Vendee Globe nonstop, around the world yacht race and asked me to help her set up a live blog. Lorraine invited some of her global friends along and at 7:30pm on the Sunday night in November we accessed the blog. An educationalist, Venny, from Taiwan, Lorraine and I were first on to the blog. We introduced ourselves and discussed the atmosphere. Even though it was in French, they were able to view the live online TV coverage. Due to our poor bandwidth, I was unable to, but soon they were typing in, what they could see. Next on the scene was Vincent, an active global teacher, from France and Hors Les Murs or Beyond the Walls ning producer. He was able to interpret for us the content of the TV coverage. Soon Lorraine was dropping screen grabs as images into the live blog and teachers from Azores, Spain and Italy joined us in the conversation. This is exactly what live blogging is and can be all about. See the live blog below, after my tips, by clicking on the play button.
Tips for using Coveritlive
ensure the live blog is set up well in advance
decide who and how many should be producers (with full moderation rights) on the blog
send out invitations to any special friends or guests
embed the code in a blog or wiki for students and others to access easily
if it is used between two or more classes, it is useful to have several producers or panelists
set up the rules before you start eg one question at a time, ensure all have responded, then move on to the next question
practice inserting images, music and video files and polls. Our huge blooper when we live blogged with Richmond Primary School, the Premier, Minister for Education and the head of Telstra was that we had difficulty uploading an image and then ended up putting a default image which was one of the Simpsons!!!
keep identities and user names secure
ensure that students keep their same user name throughout and do now switch identities.
close the live blog when completed and edit if needbe.
A much smaller group gathered this week for the Knowledge Bank Talk it Tuesdays. Discussions centred around keeping year 7 and 8s motivated. Despite trialling the latest technology, students can be happy with pen and paper tasks. Ways in which live blogging using CoverITlive was also discussed. The applications for both the classroom and general professional development were all looked at.
As we were a small group, we experimented with the new online software woices. This has potential for very interesting applications for classroom use – soundscapes, geography, bushwalks, novel plotting etc. Kate who was our host for the afternoon, shared the web application, so we were all able to listen and watch simultaneously. The chatroom was vibrant with great conversations.
Students from CT, USA…..please meet students from Hawkesdale, Australia. And so it was, that 14 students from their homes in the USA at 8:45pm logged onto the computers, whilst 12 students from Hawkesdale College continued on with their IT lesson or came in during recess time, to get to know their US counterparts.
Under the wonderful teaching authority and expertise of Mr P Bogush (@shagghill), we logged on to their class wiki, using coveritlive as our interface. Although, CT had access to a video image of Mr Bogush and access to www.yackpack.com, we were blocked out of the option, which in hindsight was better for our first time experience. Their students not having the comfort, safety and educational infrastructure of the classroom environment, were able to communicate with their teacher whilst I could remind my students of some etiquette, give prompts and walk them through any questions. My students all sat at individual desktops, so they could follow the conversation trail and add to it.
Paul had complete control of the situation and was able to moderate the comments to ensure all was okay. His discipline was superb, and he took control, by remote control very effectively, when he at several times had to command us to all STOP NOW and wait for directions. Initially, only a few students were online and the conversation flowed with me directing our student traffic verbally, but as more logged on and curiousity got the better of all concerned, questions and answers were flying in all directions. Unfortunately, this led to discord in the conversation flow as answers to questions lost their sync and meaning.
At one stage, Paul asked if I was happy with the way it was going with students directing the conversation. My response was ‘yes this is student directed education’. They need to get to know each other first with basic questions and as their acceptance of each other grows, their interactions will take on more purposeful meaning. A quick poll ensured that each country took it in turns to ask questions. Once replies came through, a prompt asked the other country for their question.
Prior to this, we had been sharing blog posts and commenting on each other’s weekly prompts. Some of the outcomes of today’s learning included
Different terminology and language
Different cultures
Various sports, school subjects studied etc
One of CT’s questions asked the subjects our students study. A typo was made by one respondent, prompting a question do we do “whaling”. However, the answer should have been “walking” as part of our student’s” Advance” program. So the correct answer “walking” was keyed online and a further question:- CT “Do you walk people Hawkesdale “no, we walk in the bush”. CT “What is the bush?” etc
Conversations flowed and student directed learning ensued. Much laughter was to be had over misunderstandings!! Advantages of www.coveritlive.com
a great live blogging platform – whose full capabilities will only be realised with further use
Allowed chat
Polling
All participants could be involved immediatel
Allowed the moderator full control over which comments should be published
Can be embedded in a wiki for easy sharing
Constraints
No audio or video
CT had yackpack for audio use and a real time video of their teacher to keep all on task.
Thank you Mr P Bogush, students of CT and their respective families, for allowing us to connect and be part of a wonderful, incredible experience.
As I am a member of www.projectsbyjen.ning.com, a recent discussion by @kimcofino re a request to list student blogs allowed me to meet Paul Bogush (@shaggyhill). He was looking for student bloggers to work with his students at Collaboration Nation. We had just set ours up, so I volunteered my year 9 and 10 group as they really enjoy blogging. After collaborating on posts, we decided to chat live. However, time zones are always a problem. They are EST and we are gmt +10. Paul felt that his students would be willing to be online at home, when our students were at school early in the morning. He suggested that we use yackpack which is embedded on his wiki. As I am not at all technical, I felt I could handle that. However, then I received an invitation to join http://coveritlive.com - a live blogging tool. That was a lot more stressful! (for me)
Today, we had a trial run, 9am our time, 7pm their time. First skype worked, (our distress line), so I could let Paul know that I was ready. We then logged onto the live blog at the given url and it worked beautifully. We were in instant chat mode, with three of his volunteer students online as well and some of my year 10 students. However, our school has yackpack blocked and despite the technicians unblocking it, there must be futher filters blocking its appearance on collaboration nation’s wiki. (That has to be rectified before Friday when we have our real session together, sharing our teenage lives, cultures, school, country etc)
My dependable colleague Jess McCulloch, (thanks a heap Jess) helped me through it (and did a trial run the previous day). After the test run, we decided to test it with my year 10class. This has given us a sounding board for the huge potential that this tool may be used for. Click here to see the results of that live blog where basic questions were asked re their ownership of various technological gadgets and online presence. Note the way the polling results come up. Arent they great and so easy!!!
What we liked:
moderation capabilites – the moderator has the power to allow, disallow or block unwanted material before it is published.
Moderator has a full panel of promt tools, but paricpants only have a text chatting window
Moderator panellist sets the questions or prompts. Students can immediately respond via text
Polling ability – with easy formatting. Students may be prompted for a yes/no answer or a comment or ???
Can share music, images and video immediately for audiences or evaluation or polling
Can be finally published, edited and shared on website
Despite some ‘crashes’ with the computers, it allowed students back in and prompted them for the poll that they have missed out on when they had to restart.
Students worked well with this technology
Possible uses (full capabilities will only be determined over time)
great live collaborative tool for powerful, media rich blog
Sharing of media for polling, evalutation, opinions etc
instant results for surveys or polls
students interacting in real time
educationalists can work collaboratively for a powerful blog post. Comments and contributions are instant
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