Songhai Concepts

Media Literacy/Digital Archiving Instructor

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Congratulations to the Phillies USA/Canada Baseball Champs














Phillies 4 Rays 3

I came across this article an hour before the Phillies beat the Rays.
























H Songhai
10/29/08

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Friday, October 24, 2008

Jooce - Power To The People

A few weeks ago I was scrolling through my twitter network when I read a tweet from Beth Lloyd asking if anyone had ever used jooce. I had never heard of jooce but the name was different, the spelling was new, so I gave it a try, and wow, it's pretty amazing. Here are a few paragraphs from the jooce FAQ page.
















Jooce is free, quick and it takes less than a minute to register for an account.
With an account you get a public and a private desktop with unlimited storage space! Below are a few screenshots from my public desktop.



I've been searching for a tool like jooce for a long time - an online space where students and teachers can upload and swap files and not overload the school's server. The classroom possibilities are enormous. Check it out.

H Songhai
10/30/08

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Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Learning With Google Maps















Today, in Media Literacy class, we turned this bizarre incident into a teachable moment - with a little help from Google Maps. If you are from the Philadelphia area you are probably aware that yesterday, an unidentified man held up traffic near 9th and Roosevelt Boulevard causing major problems for motorist all around the area. The man said he was armed and had explosives. As a result of his actions, both lanes of the boulevard were closed - northbound and southbound for over 2 and 1/2 hours.

I happened to be on the boulevard yesterday around the time of the incident and had to choose an alternate route home. I know the area pretty well so it wasn't difficult for me to find an alternate route. The incident got me to thinking about just how well my high school students know their city and whether they could accurately use a map to get from the boulevard to 5th and Olney avenue.

Some of the students nailed the exercise and some were way off track. The students were also asked to post their alternate route on their blog and to use the PrintScreen key to take a map snapshot of the region. The activity worked pretty well and most of the students seemed to get a kick out of using Google Maps.


Geography and map reading always intrigued me when I was in elementary school, but it seems to have been all but forgotten in most high schools today. As many high school students prepare to get their driver's license and learner's permit, it is critical that they know how to read maps and how to give accurate directions. Google Maps is an excellent tool for traveling the country and the world right from your desktop.

Below are two student blog posts from today's activity.









































H Songhai
10/14/08

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Monday, October 06, 2008

Tools You Can Use