Google Plus Collections - Good Place for Research???

I have been having a play with Google Plus Collections.
I have been making a test collection called "Interesting Design" just to see what it was all about and if it would be of any use to me and my design students.
After playing for a while now, I like it as a place to collect related items, but I decided to make a decision on wether or not to use it next year based on what my Y11 students think.

 I posted a poll in our class community to get a feel for what they thought after looking at my example collection. Today, we also had a chat about it.
They liked that it is so multi media - you can post links to sites, videos, images etc all about a related theme and they liked that others can see your research and you can see theirs.

What would improve Collections would be if we could have a collaborative collection where the class could input into the same place.
Maybe this will come in the future.

So... roll on next year and we can give it a go in reality during a project. Too late for seniors this year.. only 4 weeks to go!!

Using Google Plus to Save my Sanity ....

I have 30 students in my senior Design and Visual Commnication classes, which makes me happy that my Level 1, 2 and 3 courses can attract the numbers. These students come to me in 2 classes - one is a mixed Level 1 and 2 class and the other is a mixed Level 2 and 3 class. This sounds all good until you break it down further.

In my Level 1 and 2 class, I have a mix of level 1 students. Most are on the course from the start of the term. I have one student who trialed the online module for me last year, so he is starting the course this year further through than the rest.  I also have a student who has just started on the course, so he is behind everyone else. With the Level 2 students in the class too, that means there are 4 different things going on. I felt like I needed roller skates today!!
In my Level 2 and 3 class, I have a number of Level 3 student who are new to the subject and some who have come through Level 1 and 2. So that mix is in there with the Level 2 students too.
I am not daft, and with a limited number of students to fight over for senior courses, I am not demanding separate classes for each level and I am delighted with the 30 students who have chosen my subject. This is the reality, no problem, but I worry that my students are not getting the best of me at the moment. When we are more into using the new online course structure that I am setting up, this problem will be more. Until then, I seem to be turning into Mrs Grumpy at the start of the lesson.

I made a decision today that my Google Plus communities that I had set up to work collaboratively with the students will be their first stop as soon as they get in the class room.
I am going to put on there the instructions for each lesson, personalised / grouped, with links and examples included.
There is one ready for tomorrow for the level 3 students, which includes a link to the sample site so they know where they should be up to and a check list. How can two of them be so far behind so early in the course??  Seriously!!

If they get used to going here straight away, then they are getting more comfortable with the use of the community so going there to do group work will be more normal for them.

I will then not "go hulk" as one of my Level 1 students told me today :D

I always do examples of whatever I am asking them to do, so posting them here for them all to see together can only be a good thing as I am being open for opinion on my own work as well as expecting them to do it.

Using Google Plus Communities for Analysis Work

I have set up Google Plus Communities for all of my groups this year in a bid to address where I see the main weakness of the DVC course. We always seem to have trouble with the notes and analysis, both of the work of others and the work produced in the lesson.
This week, Level 1 and Level 2 groups have been using the communities quite a lot more.

Level 1

We are at the stage where they need to start producing layout ideas for their posters to show the work of an architect. Part of what they are assessed on is their understanding of and use design elements such as proportion, layout, white space, size, visual impact..etc ( Achievement standard here )
Their understanding of the architects work is covered in the preparation work and they are taught the skills needed to use appropriate techniques to produce the presentation
( in this case, we use Adobe Illustrator ).

I set up a google drawing with some set elements on it for them to manipulate.

Their instructions were as follows :-

Make a copy of the Google drawing shown here.
You have the following elements to layout on your page :-
1 picture needs to be bigger than the others
3 smaller pictures
The title
Some text (there are 2 blocks included here, you can split it up more if you want)

Move, rearrange, resize, change the font.....
Link your layout onto the Google Plus community for everyone to see and critique.

Link to the original here



The students had about 20 minutes to get a copy of the drawing,  work on their first layout idea and get the Google drawing linked in the Level 1 Google Plus community.
We then had a chat about the comments that they were going to make on each others work. Making a positive comment was easy, except just saying that part of the layout was "nice" was frowned upon and changed to reasons why they liked something.
We chose to call the second comment "helpful critique". With this one, they had to say how part of the layout could be improved, but in a supportive way.
As usual, no one really wanted to be first to start the comments, so I went first. I will only do that for this first time though. They need to fly solo.
I was pleased overall with the comments that were coming in about each others' work. They seemed to be looking at the work and using the things we had been discussing.

Check out the community on the link here, and see what they have been saying.

Level 2

The task for the level 2 group was to collect images that related to the Art Deco elements in the given grid. I chose to get them to do this on PicMonkey, as they are all familiar with this and could concentrate on the content.
They need to understand what makes Art Deco what it is in terms of the main elements that are key to the design era.
Being able to see each others collages as they were posted helped with their understanding, as other people use different images to illustrate the same word.

Part of what they have to do in order to gain a higher level of understanding in this project, is to compare Art Deco to another design era. Link to the achievement standard here.

I have posted up a Google slide show with 2 images of similar objects, and they have to choose which one is Art Deco from the two.

Here are their instructions....

~COMPARE~
Make a copy of the this Google slide....
On each slide, indicate which one you think is the Art Deco design out of the two.
Share your copy of the slide back here so we can all see your answers.~




They made a start on this today, so when they create their Compare and Contrast diagram between Art Deco and Art Nouveau, they will have a deeper understanding of what characteristics are key to Art Deco.

Check out the community on the link here, and see what they have been posting.

Things I am happy about during this process :-

• The students acceptance of posting in this way and for everyone to see it.
• It doesn't take too long, so it doesn't have to be the "only" thing that happens in a lesson.
• The ability for the students to learn from what the rest of the class post.
• The simple way that it all works together and they can just "post" without worrying too much 
• ( although one student will insist on posting publicly and forgetting to put it in the community )
• The students can look at what is here and use it to help them when they have to do analysis in their own project work.
• My Level 2 group is spread across 2 classes, so they can see what the others are doing and vice versa.

Staff Online Support using Google Plus

This is my second year as one of the Manaiakalani facilitators at school. I have come to realise over this time that the staff are WAY more difficult to help than the students. It is pretty obvious when a student is needing your help, even when they don't really tell you, but the staff are a whole different thing.
Communication last year was a mixture of emails, filling in a spreadsheet for bookings and verbal (the latter happening the most often in corridors).
I have started a "How To" site this year, with the most often asked things making their way onto there. I recently branched into making a screencast for this site for the first time, which will be ok as it is not me having to listen to a recording of my own voice!!!
Verbal communication / questions / step by steps have been a lot more popular this year, with staff not being so shy to ask for help ( no one is judging!! ).
So, over this long weekend, I joined a Doctor Who community on Google Plus, and a lot of fun it is! This got me to thinking about a community set up to support staff, where they can ask questions and help others with what they already know. I get round to a LOT of classrooms doing this job and I realise that this is not available to other staff due to lack of time, so sharing seems to be just on a departmental level. We have been doing slam sessions in morning staff briefings with different staff members, but these are not recorded.

I set up the community over the long weekend, and have it set to invite only. I have currently invited all the staff that are on Google Plus, so the next job is to email all staff to let them know, so that those who have not yet started their plus account know what is happening.
I am finding the categories interesting and I have started one so far about internet safety. The sharing has started already as the first post in there is information from another staff member.