Podcast Example

I created a podcast as an example of how a teacher could use the tool in a reading lesson. This is especially helpful for students who need practice with their oral reading fluency. Hearing how they read can give both the reader and the teacher a better understanding of their reading skills. It can be used in a whole class to do a Reader’s Theater so that students can have a “home-made” audio version of popular books to listen to at a reading station.

Click on the "Podcast Example" title to download the podcast.

Using Flickr in Writing

I found this image on Creative Commons under the “Attribution” license. Since part of my job is training teachers on using technology, I immediately thought of a 3rd grade teacher in my school, that does a cross-curricular unit on animal shelters. She normally uses a local pet shelter website to find pictures of animals. It occurred to me that she could use Flickr to integrate web 2.0 into her unit as well. This year, she had her students use a shelter animal's picture to write a descriptive poem. By using Flickr images, she could have students post their poems as annotations on the images. Instead of printing the poems, she would be able to share the links and the students would have an authentic audience for their work.

Image Source: Kargo, Marcin. (2010, February 28). Dog #2. KM.’s Photostream. Retrieved June 27, 2011., from http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4061/4394902678_87df3046f3.jpg

Texting Lingo in Language Arts

i luv Romeo & Juliet cuz u get to c how in luv the 2 caractrz r :p

You might think you just read a text message but you’d be wrong. This is a reader’s reaction to reading the Shakespeare classic, Romeo and Juliet in an English class at a Vancouver high school.

The article discusses the reasons that students are lower-casing what should be capitalized and leaving out vowels lft and rght. Many students say they know the proper grammar and spelling, but are lazy and find it easier to write as they text. There’s also the fact that teenagers are spending an enormous amount of their time on their cell phones. Texting has become their chosen form of communication and therefore, they practice it a lot. And of course everyone knows that when you practice something continually, it becomes second nature to you. Anyone else have an issue with this?

While I understand that it is easier to type im instead of I’m (especially if you are just using your thumbs) I can’t accept it. I always tell my students that they must consider their audience. If you are writing to your friend, that’s a casual conversation and therefore text lingo is acceptable (and most likely preferred.) School essays and projects though, are more formal methods of communicating, so the rules of grammar and punctuation should apply. Knowing the difference is key. I agree with the simple rule Mike Kleiner states in the article, that in professional communication, you want to look smarter than your competition.

Preparing students for their futures means teaching them proper rules for communicating on a professional level. We should not allow students to abbreviate and emoticon their schoolwork, nor will their future bosses. A friend of mine works for a federal government training interns and has commented on how the inferior quality of their writing skills. Too much texting perhaps?

So I say, save the text talk for the cell phones. If you’re writing an essay for school, there is no LOLing allowed!

Wikis in the Classroom

I’d seen Vickie Davis’ Flat Classroom Wiki last year when taking another class called, “Trends in Technology” and was very much impressed with it. It was a video class, so I watched a segment where Davis and her collaborating teacher, Julie Lindsey, in Bangladesh were interviewed regarding how the project evolved. I found the student interviews to be the most inspiring. Students were interacting with each other from across the world just as if they were sitting in the same classroom. The implications of this type of collaboration are amazing. If these young people can find common ground despite their differences, then there may be hope for the leaders of different countries to seek common ground. I was also a bit jealous that their districts allowed such dialogue whereas mine does not. While safety is an issue, it shouldn’t stop the progress that this type of project can create.

The group wiki has been challenging in several ways. Getting started was the first hurdle but that was quickly remedied. Deciding on the topic was relatively easy but it still required a few emails. As we are in the thick of getting the elements together on the page, I’ve yet to realize how the mutual editing will proceed but I think that once that gets rolling it won’t be difficult. It might be a little confusing though!

I’ve always had a fondness for Wikipedia and don’t feel it should be avoided when researching. I guess what’s changed is my knowledge of how it can be used by students to teach them good online research skills. While it is time-consuming to fact-check, I think many adults could learn a lesson like this as well. Keep an open mind and check out the references are good skills for anyone to use when researching.

I know my media specialist doesn’t like Wikipedia and tells the students not to use it, as do many teachers in my school. I am planning on creating a workshop next year on using Wikipedia in the classroom. I think getting to the teachers first might be a harder sell than the kids, but in the end everyone will have a better idea of how to use the site properly.

SB Plan for SB

I will be using social bookmarking with my colleagues to spread the word that integrating technology can be easy and fun to do. I hope to create a tidal wave of excitement in my district so that teachers can feel they too want to “ride the wave” rather than “go out with the tide!”

Here’s what I plan to do. During the course of this class and continuing over the summer, I will add to my delicious bookmarks as I scour the Internet for good resources. I would like to tag accurately so that access will be quick and easy. During all my workshops next year, I will show the teachers my delicious account and highly recommend they begin one for themselves.

I’ve used PortaPortal before and have quite a few resources on that site. I’m going to try to bring them over or link to them. Not wanting to overwhelm teachers with all this technology, I think I will start off showing them just a few links pertaining to their workshop. For example, if I’m running a SMART Board workshop, I will focus only on those blogs and feeds.

Pageflakes Pagecast

Here is the link to my Pagecast. I designed it for my in-service workshops and professional development sessions. I'd like to expand it when I have a chance and find other resources for using technology in the classroom. A few of these resources are also on my iGoogle page and my Facebook. Again, I'm a little confused by the replication of the material, but I suppose all these tools are useful for slightly different purposes and I'm discovering the pros and cons of each one as I go along in the class.

Learning with RSS I Guess

Reading may be fundamental, but reading RSS feeds is even more so! The issue I am having with the whole concept of RSS feeds is that they require so much reading. Don't get me wrong, I love to read and find the library to be one of my favorite places on earth. However, I don't like to feel overwhelmed by reading material. It's as if I went to my library got out 3 or 4 major novels and only gave myself two weeks to finish them all. With every RSS link that I click on, I feel the twinge of guilt knowing that I will never have time to read them all. So how am I going to reconcile my aversion to RSS feeds when I know they can help me in teaching? I don't have an answer to that yet, but for starters I am going to try to schedule RSS time (every day? twice a week?) to devote to digesting all the new media coming my way.

I also feel like I am replicating my learning by subscribing to RSS feeds that I also have friended on Facebook, follow on Twitter, placed on my iGoogle page, and receive periodic emails so the same information is brought to me several different ways. So why not just receive the info in one format? I honestly don't see the need for all this duplication. Maybe I'm missing something but RSS doesn't do anything that the other venues can also accomplish.

Les Paul Google Doodle

The Google Doodle in honor of Les Paul is amazing! Check out my version of Ode to Joy.

Huzzah! Comment

Here is the link to my comments on Huzzah!

Here is what I said, "I am taking a class on collaborative webtools and your blog is excellent. I think your guidelines are great tips for young and old alike. Great work everyone!"

Huzzah! Blog

I saw the student blog Huzzah!, actually it’s a class blog, on the Edublogs site last year. I was impressed that students were blogging in such a detailed manner. The class blog is from a group of Grade 6 (10 and 11 year olds) students in the “beautiful Comox Valley on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.” Each student in the class has their own separate blog on the site and the links to their blogs are easy to find by first name. There are pictures and videos of the students in many of the posts and anyone is free to comment. What I especially liked is that there is a page titled, “Commenting Guidelines” which offers advice and tips written by the bloggers themselves! I love that they these elementary school students are not only blogging themselves, but also advocating responsibility use within the blog itself! This blog is not a standalone project for these students. They are using the blog as an ongoing method of communication and collaboration. It’s really exactly what I would imagine educational blogs should become in a student’s schoolday. Their teacher, Mrs. Wyatt has her own blog which is full of additional information for the students to help them with their blogging skills.

The Read/Write Web & Me

I decided to focus on the way I will be delving into the blogosphere, rather than focusing on my students. Ultimately, I would prefer to include them, but my administration stands in the way. For various reasons, they have decided that allowing students to blog in an authentic manner would be rife with issues of safety and security. Collaboration is a no-no in our district. Unless you count collaborating with a classroom down the hall or in another district school. They have purchased (for a pretty hefty price) a package where students and teachers can blog, create wikis and websites that are self-contained and closed to the outside world. No one wants to use it.

I'm optimistic that between the ammunition I will gather from this class, and the changes to the NJ Core Curriculum Standards I might have a chance of actually using blogs for their intended purpose. Only time will tell!