In my search for Web 2.0 tools that I could realistically use in my current classroom, I am reminded of a powerful tool that is often forgotten. Podcasts can be created just on just about any recordable device- from a specialized voice recorder, to a computer, to a cellular telephone; and they can be posted to, and taken from, the internet through enumerable sites and with many differing production programs. One thing is common though, Podcasts are a wonderful and versatile education tool.
"Creating podcasts gives your students fun ways to show their understanding of course material." (Cassinelli, 2007)
The real power of audio podcasts comes not only from their publication for a potentially global audience via the Internet, but also from the ability listeners have to time and place shift when they enjoy podcasts. Using portable digital music players (including but not limited to an iPod), anyone can listen to a podcast in their car, at the gym, or while multi-tasking during some other activity. (Fryer, n.d.)
A summary of reasons to use podcasting in the classroom, as suggested by Wesley Fryer:
1. Podcasting is cheap
2. Podcasting invites a global audience
3. Audio podcasting encourages no-frills communication
4. Podcasting is digital storytelling
5. Podcasting provides a window into the classroom
6. Podcasting involves few privacy concerns
7. Podcasting can educate about copyright
8. Podcasting can be inneractive
9. Podcasting can be creative
10. Podcasting can be fun
(Fryer, n.d.)
I would add:
11. How to create a podcast is not difficult to teach, nor to learn. Therefore, students of all ages can partake in the initial recording without becoming stressed in mechanics.
12. Podcasting promotes both reading fluency and presentation voice-- to standards to master in public education.
In thinking of ways that podcasts can be integrated into the standard K12 classroom, I offer up the following suggestions to enhance your lessons:
-When teaching the influence of radio and how officials such as F.D.R. spoke to large populations at once, you can compare and contrast that period of history to today's use of social media streaming.
-Students can study and then re-create their own historical radio broadcasts of news, politics...etc.
-In the ELA drama unit, students can act out radio plays complete with sound-effects and dramatic voice.
-Students can compose and perform their own radio plays.
-Students can record themselves reading their notes aloud or retelling the story in their own words. Then they can listen back to it as a study mechanism.
-For those times when there is so many relatable topics to teach, but so little time-- students could create podcast lectures on the various topics and share them. All students would ultimately be teaching each other all parts of the content without boring lectures heard without depth of knowledge applied.
...etc... the possibilities are endless!...
Then, after the students have been completely engaged in their learning by creating- podcasting allows for them to find meaning through sharing and receiving comments on their work! Student collaboration could turn to critique as the podcasts are published. It takes a great deal of money, time, effort, and endless trials for a book to be published into what we see at the store. I find it hard to motivate my students to be good writers with such an extensive wait for a reward. However, if their work can be reviewed adn applauded by the masses quickly, then their motivation would sustain. MyPodcast.com allows for anyone to post their podcast to their own domain, and be able to control the comments if, by chance, any were inappropriate. I see myself creating a MyPodcast account for my classroom, then having my students load their work to it. They would review each other's projects, ask questions, thoughtfully respond, add to, and ultimately be fully engaged in creating their own learning; and all on one comprehensive domain!
Since podcasts can be put on ipods or the like, anyone can learn anywhere! Imagine the football team studying for their test while they are running drills.
To edit your podcast, check out the following free site: http://audacity.sourceforge.net (Windows)/ Garage Band (MAC).
Just for laughs, I can't help but include a humouous- yet strangely correct- way of defining podcasting.
References
Cassinelli, C. (2007, July 3). Integrating podcasting into your classroom. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExkMeQfuLGc
DigitalFilmmaker. (2006, February 24). Ask a ninja: Special delivery 1 "what is podcasting?". Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEmss2lg-ug
Fryer, W. Tools for the TEKS: Integrating technology in the classroom. Classroom audio podcasting. Retrieved from http://www.wtvi.com/TEKS/05_06_articles/classroom-audio-podcasting.html
Saturday, October 17, 2009
BP9_2009103_Web 2.0_blogs
If you look around my bookshelves in my home, you will find many spiral and hardback books compressed with handwritten feelings and ponderings; reflections and memories. Every time I move I find more of these such books... and I usually will open one or two- flip through the pages to reminisce, then it goes back on the shelf to collect more dust. A less personal level of my written thoughts can be found in boxes squeezed between textbooks; also never shared. This month, however, I have embarked on a new journey in my exploration in technology... yes, I have become a blogger.. and, even more 'risky,' follower of other Bloggers! And I like it!
Now that I have been working with this blog for a few weeks, and in the midst of constant research and study of Web 2.0 tools, I have great support and appreciation for the use of blogs in education... even that of the K12 public school learning environment!
The following video was created and produced by Sophomores in a public high school. It is very clear that their educational learning experience is positively transformed through blogging. May this be a persuasive tool for the adoption of blogging in classroom instruction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfJETK3am1M
Top 10 Reasons to Use a Blog in the Classroom (with my personal notes inserted):
1. Literacy (Give students a reason to want to read. It is often a struggle to get youth to sit and read a book for even 15 minutes... but they might sit and read blogs for hours.)
2. Engaged Audience (Blogs are typically about things that actually matter for and relate to real life situations; therefore, the student is more apt to apply what they read and stay focused.)
3. Interactive (Blogs facilitate discussion with peers and professors without having to raise your hand, wait on someone to stop talking, or be cut off by the bell ending the period. Instead a student can respond as they think of it. Blogs also require the skills of comprehension, analyzing, and composition... all that are very vital standards in classroom learning.)
4. Addresses multiple intelligences/ learning types (We all know that students learn differently, but this does not mean that they can not all learn the same things. One may be more receptive to a video, while the other may understand printed text better. Blogs allow for all types of media, intelligences, and knowledge levels to be addressed.)
5. Promotes ESL participation (Not only do ESL students need to carry on conversation, they need to also be able to communicate their conversation through text. The later being the more difficult venture for ESL students. Blogs can do both. Furthermore, ESL students (like foreign language learners) can communicate abroad with no cost or travel.)
6. Electronic Agenda (The biggest problem I see in my current 6th grade classroom is a messy backpack/ notebook/ locker. Having a dashboard type of to do list makes for an organized community. I do suggest teaching students a great deal about tags and searching in advance.)
7. Distance Learning (In my particular area, the flu has caused innumerable student absences; which has proven to be a detriment to keeping students caught up. Blogs also remove the walls of the classroom to facilitate learning beyond. Students can comment from anywhere internet is available and bring the classroom to themselves.)
8. Learner Communities (This point is huge! The possiblities for a blog to be a learning community are endless in exponent and in number. A couple of possibilities suggested by Michael Wesch, would be for the teacher to post a topic question and have all students comment to the blog to answer it. Another would be for the teacher to provide the key words (possibly vocabulary) to know and then for the students to post their research... thus creating a comprehensive study guide. Instead of the teacher being the sole communicator of knowledge, the students actually begin to teach, inspire, and even analyze each other's learning. Students will pay more attention to their peer's comments any day over their teacher's! (2008))
9. Technology in the Classroom (It can not be said enough for how important it is for schools and educators to implement technology into their classroom.
10. Environmentally Conscious (no paper, no textbooks)
"[When blogging,] students are more careful about their writing." (Barry Wicksman, 2007 in an interview with CNN found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRyh4UeP-IY)
I agree with Wicksman to an extent, but would pose the great need for students to be educated on and responsible for netiquette well before any posting begins. Blogs that are read open for critique do carry more accountability. Students, regardless of age, are more conscious of their grammatical mistakes when they know that others will be reading it. It is also true, however, that youth have a hard time separating and understanding audiences. Often in formal papers that I receive, students have written in text language and slang. It is important for students to learn to write appropriately to various audiences. (Which could make for a wonder prelude unit.)
My one fear about bringing blogging into K12 education, was the security of the students. Therefore, I searched and researched for Web 2.0 tools that included secure blogs. There were many, however the one I feel most comfortable to adopt is Edublogs Campus. They understand the need for privacy and a secured network as they address in the following statement:
Administrators of Edublogs Campus can control access levels to every single blog, and decide if they want individual bloggers to be able to change their settings or not. For example, the vast majority of blogs can be private, but several can be kept open for parents, visitors or prospective students. (Edublogs Campus, http://edublogs.org/campus/features/)
Edublogs also make grading a cinch! You no longer have to worry with the stress of giving all group members the same grade when only a few of them completed the work. With this program, student activity can be assessed, charted, and even printed with ease!
I am planning ahead for the time when I will be able to fully implement blogs into my classroom. The ideas for lessons are swarming my brain even as I type this. I only wish my K12 educational institution would have had so much potential!
References
CNN World Reports. (2007, May 16). Blogging in education. [YouTube Video].Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRyh4UeP-IY
Edublogs Campus. (2009) Features. Retrieved from http://edublogs.org/campus/features/
Media Production Group, IST. (2008, July 10). A portal to media literacy [YouTube Video]. [With Michael Wesch]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4yApagnr0s
George. (Producer). (2008, January 31). Top 10 reasons to us a blog in the classroom. [YouTube Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfJETK3am1M
Now that I have been working with this blog for a few weeks, and in the midst of constant research and study of Web 2.0 tools, I have great support and appreciation for the use of blogs in education... even that of the K12 public school learning environment!
The following video was created and produced by Sophomores in a public high school. It is very clear that their educational learning experience is positively transformed through blogging. May this be a persuasive tool for the adoption of blogging in classroom instruction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfJETK3am1M
Top 10 Reasons to Use a Blog in the Classroom (with my personal notes inserted):
1. Literacy (Give students a reason to want to read. It is often a struggle to get youth to sit and read a book for even 15 minutes... but they might sit and read blogs for hours.)
2. Engaged Audience (Blogs are typically about things that actually matter for and relate to real life situations; therefore, the student is more apt to apply what they read and stay focused.)
3. Interactive (Blogs facilitate discussion with peers and professors without having to raise your hand, wait on someone to stop talking, or be cut off by the bell ending the period. Instead a student can respond as they think of it. Blogs also require the skills of comprehension, analyzing, and composition... all that are very vital standards in classroom learning.)
4. Addresses multiple intelligences/ learning types (We all know that students learn differently, but this does not mean that they can not all learn the same things. One may be more receptive to a video, while the other may understand printed text better. Blogs allow for all types of media, intelligences, and knowledge levels to be addressed.)
5. Promotes ESL participation (Not only do ESL students need to carry on conversation, they need to also be able to communicate their conversation through text. The later being the more difficult venture for ESL students. Blogs can do both. Furthermore, ESL students (like foreign language learners) can communicate abroad with no cost or travel.)
6. Electronic Agenda (The biggest problem I see in my current 6th grade classroom is a messy backpack/ notebook/ locker. Having a dashboard type of to do list makes for an organized community. I do suggest teaching students a great deal about tags and searching in advance.)
7. Distance Learning (In my particular area, the flu has caused innumerable student absences; which has proven to be a detriment to keeping students caught up. Blogs also remove the walls of the classroom to facilitate learning beyond. Students can comment from anywhere internet is available and bring the classroom to themselves.)
8. Learner Communities (This point is huge! The possiblities for a blog to be a learning community are endless in exponent and in number. A couple of possibilities suggested by Michael Wesch, would be for the teacher to post a topic question and have all students comment to the blog to answer it. Another would be for the teacher to provide the key words (possibly vocabulary) to know and then for the students to post their research... thus creating a comprehensive study guide. Instead of the teacher being the sole communicator of knowledge, the students actually begin to teach, inspire, and even analyze each other's learning. Students will pay more attention to their peer's comments any day over their teacher's! (2008))
9. Technology in the Classroom (It can not be said enough for how important it is for schools and educators to implement technology into their classroom.
10. Environmentally Conscious (no paper, no textbooks)
"[When blogging,] students are more careful about their writing." (Barry Wicksman, 2007 in an interview with CNN found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRyh4UeP-IY)
I agree with Wicksman to an extent, but would pose the great need for students to be educated on and responsible for netiquette well before any posting begins. Blogs that are read open for critique do carry more accountability. Students, regardless of age, are more conscious of their grammatical mistakes when they know that others will be reading it. It is also true, however, that youth have a hard time separating and understanding audiences. Often in formal papers that I receive, students have written in text language and slang. It is important for students to learn to write appropriately to various audiences. (Which could make for a wonder prelude unit.)
My one fear about bringing blogging into K12 education, was the security of the students. Therefore, I searched and researched for Web 2.0 tools that included secure blogs. There were many, however the one I feel most comfortable to adopt is Edublogs Campus. They understand the need for privacy and a secured network as they address in the following statement:
Administrators of Edublogs Campus can control access levels to every single blog, and decide if they want individual bloggers to be able to change their settings or not. For example, the vast majority of blogs can be private, but several can be kept open for parents, visitors or prospective students. (Edublogs Campus, http://edublogs.org/campus/features/)
Edublogs also make grading a cinch! You no longer have to worry with the stress of giving all group members the same grade when only a few of them completed the work. With this program, student activity can be assessed, charted, and even printed with ease!
I am planning ahead for the time when I will be able to fully implement blogs into my classroom. The ideas for lessons are swarming my brain even as I type this. I only wish my K12 educational institution would have had so much potential!
References
CNN World Reports. (2007, May 16). Blogging in education. [YouTube Video].Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRyh4UeP-IY
Edublogs Campus. (2009) Features. Retrieved from http://edublogs.org/campus/features/
Media Production Group, IST. (2008, July 10). A portal to media literacy [YouTube Video]. [With Michael Wesch]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4yApagnr0s
George. (Producer). (2008, January 31). Top 10 reasons to us a blog in the classroom. [YouTube Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfJETK3am1M
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
BP7_20091011_Flickr
Flickr offers many wonderful avenues for social networking through photography. In researching how Flickr could be used in my 6th grade English/ Language Arts classroom, I found a wonderful lesson posted on the professional blog of teacher, Becky Spies.
As writing is the emphasis of middle school language education, it is an important element for students to develop a personal style of writing. Poetry education is one of them many avenues that we teach personalizing your writing though. Spies' idea is for students to take pictures with a digital camera and choose ones that they could write about. Then she has them post their arts to Flickr and add text within the picture that reflects the poem. My personal extension to the assignment would be for students to take pictures that tell a story or relate to a central topic. Then when posting text with them, make them be the lines of their poem. Finally, students would turn their album into a slideshow of poetic expression.
Another idea would be for the class as a whole to create a Flickr group and collaborate for one large slideshow representing topic given from the teacher. Students would create Flickr accounts then the teacher would invite them to join the group. The teacher would give the central topic, such as "a day in the life of a 6th grader", and students would each submit 1 picture with a brief caption. Then the slideshow would be reviewed and discussed as a group in the classroom. Out of that discussion, the class would write 1 collaborative poem based on all of the feelings and images expressed.
After 6 years in middle school education, I can see that Flickr would be of positive use to the arts and language classroom. Students would ultimately see that poems (like other writings) build from one line to the next, that in order to compose a lengthy and/ or comprehensive piece, you go at it one step at a time with constant revision, and most importantly that writing can be fun and doesn't have to be difficult!
References
Spies, B. (2007, January 30) Lesson plan using Flickr. Retrieved from http://edtp504spiesb.blogspot.com/2007/01/lesson-plan-using-flickrcom.html
As writing is the emphasis of middle school language education, it is an important element for students to develop a personal style of writing. Poetry education is one of them many avenues that we teach personalizing your writing though. Spies' idea is for students to take pictures with a digital camera and choose ones that they could write about. Then she has them post their arts to Flickr and add text within the picture that reflects the poem. My personal extension to the assignment would be for students to take pictures that tell a story or relate to a central topic. Then when posting text with them, make them be the lines of their poem. Finally, students would turn their album into a slideshow of poetic expression.
Another idea would be for the class as a whole to create a Flickr group and collaborate for one large slideshow representing topic given from the teacher. Students would create Flickr accounts then the teacher would invite them to join the group. The teacher would give the central topic, such as "a day in the life of a 6th grader", and students would each submit 1 picture with a brief caption. Then the slideshow would be reviewed and discussed as a group in the classroom. Out of that discussion, the class would write 1 collaborative poem based on all of the feelings and images expressed.
After 6 years in middle school education, I can see that Flickr would be of positive use to the arts and language classroom. Students would ultimately see that poems (like other writings) build from one line to the next, that in order to compose a lengthy and/ or comprehensive piece, you go at it one step at a time with constant revision, and most importantly that writing can be fun and doesn't have to be difficult!
References
Spies, B. (2007, January 30) Lesson plan using Flickr. Retrieved from http://edtp504spiesb.blogspot.com/2007/01/lesson-plan-using-flickrcom.html
YouTube presentations on Media Literacy
Oh the richness that YouTube offers:
This videos are real eye-openers to the world we are preparing our students for.... we, as the vast field of education, need to wake up and embrace the possibilities of media literacy promotion in our schools and classrooms on a daily basis. Who knows?! School might even become fun and interesting for students!
This videos are real eye-openers to the world we are preparing our students for.... we, as the vast field of education, need to wake up and embrace the possibilities of media literacy promotion in our schools and classrooms on a daily basis. Who knows?! School might even become fun and interesting for students!
BP6_2009102_Web 2.0_Ning
Andreessen, M. and Gina Blanchini. (2004) Ning. www.ning.com
Holcombe, A. [owner of photo] (2009) Ning in Education, retrieved October 11, 2009 from http://education.ning.com/
My school has just started the implementation of teacher websites where students can go for information and find homework...etc. However, with my higher level of technology awareness, I am feeling the need to create a Ning network specified just for my classes. I appreciate many features that Ning offers for educators, but one of my favorites is how students join the network and then can respond to questions, videos, articles, or anything that was posted by the administrator of the site.
I imagine a high school Language course where the content progresses with each grade level. The seniors or AP class (experts in the content) could be the administrators- the ones researching and creating the content; while the lower class(es) could learn from and respond to the content. The teacher would then move from educator to facilitator of education.... the title that the standards-based school model would support. The teacher would then monitor (and grade) all of the student activity and direct learning through forum questions.
Some might argue, 'why not just use Facebook?' My thought is that Facebook has a purely social context in which it is typically used. I find that all too often students do not understand how to interact formally in an environment that they only know as informal. I also do not want the liability that comes in knowing the personal lives of students, which is typically shared on Facebook. Furthermore, Ning can be a fully secured environment controlled by the administrator. No one could join and see & participate in discussion without being approved as a member.
For these reasons and beyond, I see Ning to be a powerful and professional social tool to create a more secure link between schools, homes, and the world that surrounds us all.
BP5_2009102_Web 2.0_EastTestMaker
Every teacher knows that over half of the time spent testing is spent creating it and grading it! Valuable time that could be used more wisely through re-teaching missed concepts and moving on info future lessons. This time constraint that I mention is of great concern to me personally. After testing 100+ students, it may take days to get back their results. By that time, the students have put aside the tested content and moved forward... oftentimes moving forward without the mastery that they need. Dreamingly we teachers in this predicament think to ourselves, If only I could give a high-level questioning test AND have it graded over night?!; And thus, EasyTestMaker is created!
I don't mean to sound like a commercial, but I do want educators to notice the great value and ease that the program can add to their classroom learning environments. By giving students immediate feedback, teachers can re-teach content more efficiently. Furthermore, the program allows for varied tests to be created based on the same content. This is helpful for student's who are absent test day or who are needing to recover a low test grade (as standards-based instruction now requires).
The downfall to this program is that in order for it to be graded electronically, it must be taken by the students on the computer; which, in many k-12 classrooms including mine, is not the norm. However, the option to transfer your created tests to Word (the common word processor of public schools) is appealing.
As for my classroom, I plan to create my grammar and vocabulary exams within this program, print and administer them to students within the units of study, then combine them using the exam creator tool. Therefore, I will have all of my tests, pretests, and exams created, loaded, and ready to go. I further plan to use the program to help vary my assessments in an effort to prevent memorization of questions and promote student mastery.
This is an example of the way the screen would look in creating a multiple choice test:
s
I don't mean to sound like a commercial, but I do want educators to notice the great value and ease that the program can add to their classroom learning environments. By giving students immediate feedback, teachers can re-teach content more efficiently. Furthermore, the program allows for varied tests to be created based on the same content. This is helpful for student's who are absent test day or who are needing to recover a low test grade (as standards-based instruction now requires).
The downfall to this program is that in order for it to be graded electronically, it must be taken by the students on the computer; which, in many k-12 classrooms including mine, is not the norm. However, the option to transfer your created tests to Word (the common word processor of public schools) is appealing.
As for my classroom, I plan to create my grammar and vocabulary exams within this program, print and administer them to students within the units of study, then combine them using the exam creator tool. Therefore, I will have all of my tests, pretests, and exams created, loaded, and ready to go. I further plan to use the program to help vary my assessments in an effort to prevent memorization of questions and promote student mastery.
This is an example of the way the screen would look in creating a multiple choice test:
s(EasyTestMaker, 2009)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
