PixelPipe: Cross-Post Media to Multiple Places from One Text Message

I enjoy being about to post pictures, videos, and text directly from my cell phone to public and private spaces on the Internet. What I love about this is the fact that students do not have to bring their cell phones into the classroom in order to collect and store data. A few of my favorite places to post cell phone media include Flickr, my Blogger Blog, Photobucket, my gmail, YouTube, Twitter, and Drop.io. While I normally have to send separate messages if I want to post one piece of media or text to all of these sites, using PixelPipe I can now send one message and have it post to many different places on the Internet. PixelPipe allows you to create a free account, where you receive a mobile address. You (the teacher) can give out the mobile address to all your students, while you maintain control of the settings and passwords in the account! Next you can set up your PixelPipe account to post to as many web resources as you would like (including email). It is very easy to set up and get started. Everything sent to PixelPipe is automatically backed-up in the private PixelPipe account (along with times and links to the websites where the media was posted).

While playing with PixelPipe I immediately thought of iReporting and how students could document their local news reporting in multiple places (just as real reporters do). Not only is PixelPipe a great way to report the news, but also a free and easy way to back up data collections in multiple places.

Students Become iReporters at Inauguration!

News organizations are eager for those perfect inauguration pictures and videos! There are many opportunities for students to snap a few pictures (or take some video) and possible get them published through a popular news organization. A great opportunity for students to take advantage of their cell phones and turn them into data collecting tools for journalism!

I just read a great post from Andy Carvin, about the students at Worcester Academy in Massachusetts who are documenting their inaugural experiences via their own cell phones. They have a mobile Flickr account, a YouTube account, a Twitter account and a blog where they are sending their pictures, videos, and text messages about their inaugural experiences. What could be more authentic social studies, data collection, and data analysis than this!!???

Here are a few places that inauguration student goers can send their media and participate as iReporters...

1) CBS News (CBS EyeMobile)
Send to: eye@cbseyemobile.com

2) CNN iReport
Send to: iReport@cnn.com

3) The New York Times
Send to: pix@nyt.com with your full name and the location where the picture was taken

4) PBS Newshour Speak Out Podcast for Student Reactions
Call in: to the Gabcast number and record your reaction to the Inauguration (call Lizzy Berryman, Director of the Teacher Center, at 703.998.2182 to get the Gabcast number and pin).

5) NPR Inauguration Report
Send Videos: Upload your video to your own YouTube account and tag it either inaug09 or dctrip09.
Send Pictures: Using your Flickr account, upload pictures and tag them inaug09 or dctrip09.
Send Text: Send a text message to 66937. Begin the message with the phrase #inaug09 or #dctrip09. You can include a ZIP code or one of the location tags

6) Photobucket Obama Album
Send Videos and Pictures to your Photobucket account. Then post to the collective album here.

Radio Show #3: Cell Phone Cameras for Curriculum-Based Learning

Transcript from Chat:
Liz Kolb:Welcome to Cell Phones in Learning...Today's topic: Taking advantage of camera phones to connect with content learning
Liz Kolb:http://mguhlin.blogspot.com/2008/10/mobile-citizenship-commenthoist.html
Peggy_G:Great to hear you Liz. Squeezing this in before the ISTE webinar.
Liz Kolb:http://Flagr.com
Liz Kolb:http://photobucket.com
Peggy_G:Photobucket is one of the widgets that works on Wetpaint wikis
Liz Kolb:http://lastspotted.com
Peggy_G:probably ads :-(
Peggy_G:what great suggestions for LastSpotted-can't wait to share them! :-)
Meccanized:wouldn;t it be easy to cheat with picture-hpone assignments? what with the bluetooth and picture messaging
Liz Kolb:iReport@cnn.com
Liz Kolb:politics@cbseyemobile.com
Liz Kolb:http://www.allvoices.com/
Peggy_G:excellent response about ways to redefine the assignments to make them more open-ended to encourage conversation
Liz Kolb:http://Jumblr.tv
Peggy_G:Oh I love the addition of Geek of Week for Mobile :-)
Peggy_G:what a fun, motivating vocabulary activity with jumblr.tv!
Liz Kolb:http://Dial2do.com
Peggy_G:how great to have an alternative to JOTT that is free :-)
Meccanized:wait....u can listen to ur text? wth?
Peggy_G:that is incredibly exciting! I can't wait to explore it! so many features!!
Peggy_G:Definitely do a blog post about that!!
Peggy_G:Love your 30 minute show Liz! Just perfect and allows plenty of time to give examples. Thanks!
Liz Kolb:Thanks for joining me! DId I miss any resources?
Peggy_G:Nothing you can't continue with next week.
Peggy_G:Off to the ISTE webinar on blogging :-) Thanks!
Liz Kolb:@meccanized...YES you listen to text with your cell phone
Liz Kolb:Thanks Peggy!
Peggy_G:see you next week!


Next Broadcast will be in 2 weeks on Wed. November 5th between 2-3:30 (TBA). Topic will be: Creating Professional Development for Teachers Interested in Integrating Cell Phones in their Curriculum.

Inspiration: Mobile Photo Storytelling

Mobile post sent by elikeren using Utterz. Replies. mp3

I have been a bit obsessed with CNN's iReporters. While browsing the site, I noticed that they are creating photo "themes" and asking for story submissions. Here is an example called Flower Power, where they ask citizens to take a photo of a "flower" and tell a story from the photo. This caused me to think about students, mobiles, and storytelling. Students could use their photo enabled cell phones (hard to find a cell phone without the ability to capture photographs) in order to take an image, and text message (or narrate via audio) a story about their image. All the images could be collected into a particular site, such as a blog, so they can be displayed, comments could be added, or stories could be extended. For example, a math teacher studying geometry, could ask students to take images of geometric shapes they find in the real world and text message or audio message a short story about the shape, how they stumbled upon the shape, or any other relevant fact. I made an example above using Utterz to post from my cell phone. Although Flickr would also be a great option, since there are lots of slide shows that couple with a Flickr images.

My Mobile iReporting and Research Experience!

I have posted a few times about citizen journalism or iReporting. Citizen Journalism is when everyday people report on current news or happenings. I decided to become a CNN iReporter earlier this week. On Wednesday, spur of the moment, I decided to drive 2 hours to Grand Rapids Michigan and attend the Barack Obama campaign rally. I'm glad I did since John Edwards showed up, and the atmosphere was electric. Almost like a rock concert. I had seen John McCain a few months before, but it was not the same feeling. Being a former social studies teacher, I enjoy seeing and hearing all of the candidates. While I was waiting in line with some other Ann Arborites at the rally, I remembered that I could use my mobile phone to report to CNN about news and events from the rally. So I took a quick picture of us standing in line. Inside the venue, I took a short video of the "wave" happening in the crowd before Obama arrived. I sent them both to ireport@cnn.com with a short message about the rally. I later found my reports on CNN's ireporter space with my message! Pretty neat! How many people can say they report for CNN!

About an hour before Obama was expected to arrive, a rumor began to sprinkle through the arena that "Edwards" might be coming. Using another favorite mobile reference resource, I called ChaCaha and asked "is John Edwards going to endorse Obama in Michigan tonight." Less than a minute later I received a text message from ChaCha with a link to the CNN mobile article about said "Edwards to Endorse Obama in Grand Rapids"! I sent my cell phone around the aisle---glad I got it back :-), and people began hooting with excitement as the phone with the ChaCha message flew through the row.

Cell Phones hold so much potential for citizen journalism and research/reference information.

iReporters...21st Century Journalism!

Election season is upon us and many promanent news organizations are asking everyday citizens to become journalist with their cell phones. CNN is asking for iReporters from every state as voting occurs in the primaries. The ways it works is simple, just shoot a video or take a picture of some citizens in action at the polls, then send it along with a short message to ireport@cnn.com. Seniors in high school could create their own iReports as they vote for the first time, while younger students could create iReports of "exit" or "entrance" polls...or simply report on their observations at a voting location (such as a low voter turnout or a lot of excitement for a certain candidate). While I have previously written posts on the new mobile journalism phenomenon, news organizations such as CNN or ABC asking citizens to become journalist and publish their work globally is an exciting "entrance" into the authentic world of news journalism for many students. I have stated before (and am sure that I will again) there are many great resources on the web which allow students to create their own iReport or mobile journalist websites where they can post directly from their cell phones as news occurs.

One example would be creating a blog with blogger, and then using go@blogger.com to post pictures directly to the blog. They can use Eyespot to post videos directly to their blog (they can sign up for an account and in their settings designate that each video sent from their cell phones should instantly show up on their blog). Students can use Gabcast to post audio podcasts directly to their blog (again once they sign up for an account, they can create a new channel that will post podcasts instantly from their cell phone to their blogger blog). They never actually need to go on the Internet to create a multi-media iReport blog. Students can create iReport blogs around specific content themes such as "insects" for science, "2008 election" for social studies, or "local authors" for English.