Collaborative Digital Storytelling with Storybird
I’ve just got back from a Smartboard trainers gathering up in Leeds. It’s always great to get together and share new stuff that we’ve found with everyone else, and learn new things too. Vicki from Shoofly demonstrated Storybird, a website she’d found, and I just had to share it here.
Storybird provides a very user-friendly way of combining images and text to tell a story, and then share that story with other people. You choose images from a huge bank of ready-drawn pictures which also help to provide inspiration for story ideas.
You can also have several users all working on the same Storybird story, which would be a great classroom activity
When you have created a Storybird you can send it to others (via weblink) or use the embed code to embed it into a blog / wiki etc. For example, here’s a ready produced Storybird (not made by me) embedded into a blog page:
Emilie and her Dreams on Storybird
You can also read the stories produced by other people, if you want a little inspiration. It’s a really cute little website and it would be an excellent way of making Big Books to use in the classroom on your IWB.
Go check it out http://storybird.com, and thanks again Vicki for sharing the link.
Update – Thanks to @valleseco for sharing this great wiki of MFL Storybirds created by @wizenedcrone.
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Smart Measurement
Jim Dornberg (@jdornberg) has put together a wiki of links to useful interactive resources for the teaching of measurement.
There are some very cool links which would be useful for supporting primary school maths sessions. The links are mainly flash-based, so are not restricted to just Smartboards – you could use these on any brand of interactive whiteboard.
Visit the wiki here: http://smartmeasurement.wikispaces.com/
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Flickr Poet – turn poems into pictures
Here’s a great little link I got from the PetaPixel photography blog this morning.
Flickr Poet is a quick way of turning a poem, sentence or chunk of random text into a sequence of Flickr photographs. FlickrPoet is part of Stories In Flight, an ongoing exploration of storytelling in the age of the Internet.
It would be nice if you could specify creative commons images perhaps and also produce a permalink (or a gallery) so you could share your creations. But if you are using IWB software you could use the camera tool to capture your creation and put it into your notebook file (or the good old Print Screen and Art Program like I did to create the image above)
Go try it out now : http://www.storiesinflight.com/flickrpoet/
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TEDxOrenda @Bett 2010
Based on the success of previous teacher-led TeachMeet events at the past 2 BETT shows, and by kind arrangement with EMAP this event is part of a ‘three day teacher residency’ of evening events at the BETT Show 2010. This is an unprecedented opportunity for educationalists to be inspired by and contribute to discussions, debates and presentations featuring speakers and topics chosen by other educationalists.
One of these events is Teachmeet. Another will be TEDxOrenda.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized. (Subject to certain rules and regulations.)
TEDxOrenda will take place in the APEX HALL at OLYMPIA, LONDON on WEDNESDAY 13th JANUARY from 6pm as part of the THREE DAY TEACHER RESIDENCY AT BETT 2010. A range of specially chosen inspirational speakers will tell their stories, all of which have some relevance to education today. The speakers include: Bill Thompson, Pat Kane, Mamading Ceesay, Alfie Dennen and James Proud.
You can find out more about TEDxOrenda here. A full list of speakers can be found there.
Entry is FREE and tickets can be obtained from the TEDxOrenda eventbrite site. The first batch of tickets are available from 9am Monday 21st December. It would be well worth registering with BETT as well just to make it simpler to get in.
I’m really looking forward to the event – and I hope as many of you can make it as possible. It should be a really interesting event!
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The Known Universe
Via @DerrenBrown on Twitter. This amazing animation of the known universe would be awesome full-screen on your IWB.
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Happy Holidays
The christmas holidays came a day early to some parts of the UK today with a huge dump of snow overnight meaning a lot of schools closed for the day. I know readers from other countries will probably laugh at our measly 6 inches of snow (Hello Canada!) but we’re just not cut out for it over here.
So as another year draws to an end, I’d like to thank you all for your support over the last year. Thanks for reading the blog -and thanks for those of you who have taken the time to comment. In particular those who were not selling viagra 
Your thoughts are much appreciated.
This week marks the 10th anniversary of my departure from the classroom to embark on a new career of teacher-training. It’s been a real eye-opener to experience the wide array of different schools – primary, secondary, special and independent. It’s also scary to think about how the world of ICT in schools has changed since my NOF ICT Training days in Jan 00. While spreadsheets, wordprocessing and powerpoint is still in use – I’d never have envisaged tools such as Etherpad or Wallwisher. And the iPhone would have blown my mind had I compared it to the brick of a mobile phone I was carrying around at the time!
I’m really excited about 2010 as it marks my first overseas conference. I can’t wait for March and the Teacher2teacher conference in Alberta. I’m hoping there’s not too much snow over there by then! I’ve written my 4 Smartboard presentations, and will be sharing them on this blog once they’re done. Before then I have the ASE conference and the BETT exhibition (plus Teachmeet / TEDx and AmpEd)
I wish all of you an amazing Christmas and an excellent 2010.
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The Edublog Awards 2009
As we reach the end of the year, we enter the annual awards season. I was really excited this week to find out that the Whiteboard Blog has been nominated for an Edublog award. The Edublog awards highlight some of the very best blogs out there that cater for the educational community so I am proud and honoured to have been nominated in the category of Best Educational Tech Support Blog.
There are some excellent sites nominated in that category, and I know it’s a tough choice. I’m just glad of a nomination. Go along and look at the sites, and vote for your favourite. Do take the time to check the other categories too.
To those of you who put in a nomination for this blog, thank you very much. And if you feel that it’s worthy of your vote, then another big thank you to you too!
I’ve really enjoyed running this blog over the last two years (I just realised the blog has just gone past it’s second anniversary last week) and I hope to continue to provide helpful and useful ideas for a long time yet… as long as you keep reading and visiting!
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ASE Conference 2010
If you are a Science teacher, then you need to know about the ASE Conference which takes place every January. This year’s event is in Nottingham on the 7-9 January. There is a wealth of workshops and talks that are well worth attending.
If you do go – you might want to pop along to a talk I am giving on the Friday (link) on using Blogs and Wikis in your Science teaching. Its in Pope C19 11.30 – 12.30 and it would be great to see you there!
Official blurb:
Bamboozled by Blogs? Wondering about Wikis? This session will attempt to demystify these buzzwords. It will demonstrate how they can be used to support teaching and learning in your classroom and give practical examples of how science teachers are already using them. The session will show you how you can get your own blog and wiki for free and have it up and running within minutes.
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Dodging Bullets in Presentations
Just wanted to share a great little presentation that was mentioned on Twitter the other day. I didn’t write this, but I do think it’s great!
I may not be totally here yet, but a lot of my newer presentations are trying to have fewer words and many more pictures.
Try and do the same with your IWB materials as well. A really good image can make such a difference.
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About Me
Danny Nicholson : Educator, Science teacher, ICT Consultant, PGCE lecturer, Author and Web2.0 / SMART Masters/ Interactive Whiteboard Trainer. Contact me for any training requests. 
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