Week 5: Podcasts

I began listening to podcasts in December of 2008, after a friend and I had a discussion about mp3 players. I was in the market for a new music player because my non-iPod was damaged. We discussed the advantages and disadvantages of the different brands and he emphasized how easy it is to download music from iTunes and to sync an iPod to your computer. During this discussion, he also mentioned that he frequently downloads podcasts. I had heard of podcasts, but never realized the wide variety of topics and degree of quality that is available for download. He told me to go home and search for a podcast on any subject and I would likely find something “cool to listen to.”

Like any good student, I took his advice. I went home and immediately searched for podcasts on SMARTBoards using iTunes and found the Teachers Connecting podcast which I discussed in Week 4. Next, I searched for podcasts that would improve my consistently fading knowledge of Spanish and found the Spanish Connection. I searched, and searched, and searched. My friend was right. There seems to be a podcast for any subject.

As for podcasts, I enjoy listening to them. I have about four that I listen to regularly. What I really love is that as soon as I open iTunes it looks for recent editions and automatically downloads them. When I attach my iPod (which I received for Christmas) it automatically adds them to it. This convenience is crucial, for if it was not so user-friendly, I am sure that I would not even bother.

Podcasting is a great way to reach a large audience to spread your message. Your audience can listen at their convenience, which means that they do not need to be chained to their computer in order to receive your message.

So, in the end, it turns out that I am in complete agreement with my friend. Podcasts are cool to listen to.

Week 5: Blog about Blogs

What Blogs Are / Are not

So I was thinking that blogs cannot soapboxes, or they shouldn’t be in my opinion. Who want to read that? Then a thought crossed my mind: Do I actually know what a soapbox is? Of course I am familiar with the expression, but I thought I should look it up before I post it for the world to see. I went to Google which directed me to Wikipedia. I read through the history of the word and was amazed, and slightly shocked, when I read the first of the three terms listed under the heading “See Also.” “Debate” didn’t bother me. Neither did “Forum.” What did was the four letter word listed first, “Blog.” Hmm…

I guess I was wrong. A blog can be your soapbox. It is clear to me now that a blog can be whatever you want it to be. Anyone can blog about anything they want. Because of this, there is certainly no “one size fits all” format. If you want people to read your blog however, I think it certainly needs to be informative, easy to access, and well thought out.

I thought I’d see what Google had to say if I searched “why blog” and I eventually came across a blog called The Ed Techie. The author has three main points about why to blog which are summarized below:

1. Exposure: Blogging exposes our thought process for others to see.

   “A blog is good means of allowing others to observe some of the less well thought out ideas and ongoing projects of an academic.”

2. It keeps us current, technologically speaking.

   “It provides a useful tool for engaging with other technologies – the array of web 2.0 technologies can be quite daunting. However, many of these relate to blogging, and so by keeping a blog one is exposed to these technologies in a meaningful context.

3. It is a place to post the ideas in your brain, without going through the formalities of publishing an article in a journal.

After reading this blog, I decided to add it to my Reader. As I was doing it I had and “Ah-Ha” moment. It is starting to become apparent to me that Web 2.0 is all about establishing connections with people with similar interests. We are no longer limited to the people we share lunch with to bounce ideas off of. The entire world is out there, ready to and willing to collaborate.

Week 4: Wiki's in Education

The first time I heard the term “wiki” was about two years ago. I’ve wasted space in my brain remembering that moment because I cannot get past how odd I thought the term was. Blog makes sense to me because it is short for web log, but wiki? I had to find out. Wikipedia states that the term is Hawaiian for “fast.” It also mentions that Wiki can be expanded to be “What I know is”, but that is a backronym.

I recall my principal returning from a conference excited about Wiki’s and that we as a staff were going to start using a PBwiki as a means to increase communication. What happened next is unfortunately what happens a lot to new technology. We were asked to log on and to participate. I am sure you can guess what happened; very few people accessed the Wiki and participated in a meaningful way and therefore it eventually disappeared.

I wish that my first experience was more successful. I give my Principal credit; she tried to introduce the staff to a new technology and tried to model its use. Unfortunately, she was learning as she went along and did not have a great Wiki to use as a model. Luckily for me, I am in a different situation. I am very impressed with the Wiki that I am using for my class, Teaching and Learning in a Networked Classroom, and I hope that I can create a Wiki that is as user friendly as this one is. I also have performed a search for Wikis and now have a better understanding of what works and what does not.

Once site in particular that I visited was titled Scientific Investigations. This Wiki was created using wetpaint and I was initially very impressed that the instructor created this Wiki for students to collaborated and create a lab report. By using the Wiki, the instructor knows exactly who contributed to the assignment and could easily monitor the changes made to the page. I think this is a very effective was to not only use a Wiki, but to solve a problem using the scientific process.

The downside of this Wiki was that there was only one experiment. All of the pages were edited during a one week period in 2008 and never revisited. A lot of the Wiki’s I looked at seemed to be abandoned as if they were used for one project or at the start of the semester and then left to fade away, similar to my first experience. I hope that I will not fall into that same trap when I create one for my class. I think the way to combat this issue is to try to use the Wiki frequently as a means on communication, not just for a singular assignment.

I have a Wiki question—what if two students are trying to edit the same page from two different locations at the same time? What happens? I feel that this is likely if I assign partners and for them to edit for homework.

Week 5: Free Choice; Using SMART Recorder

For those of you that have a SMART board in your school, the software includes a recorder that works like Jing. This will record whatever action takes place on your desktop, active window, or an area that you select. It will also record your audio if you are connected to a microphone. When you complete your recording, it saves your file as a Windows Media file.

FYI, you are allowed to download the SMART software called Notebook, even if you are not using a board. The stipulation is that you need to have one in your building.

I made this video spontaneously and it took seconds. This tool could be an option for those who are interested in making a training video or adding classroom problems and solutions to a blog, wiki, etc.

Check it out. Let me know if you have any questions or a further explanation.

Mark

ps----Sorry for the cough at the beginning. This is the "raw" or unedited version.

Week 4: Free Choice

I am not the type of person who enjoys having to make decisions. I know it sounds weird, but it is true. Trying to decide where to go out to eat with my wife can be a chore because we both respond, "I don't care. What do you feel like?" So, when I noticed that we had to blog about a topic of our choice, I naturally had a difficult time deciding on what to blog about.

After quite some time, I decided that I would blog about a resource that I uncovered that first opened my eyes to the possibilities of collaboration using Web 2.0. In January of this year I subscribed to a podcast titled Teachers Connecting Podcast using iTunes. This podcast is hosted by Ben Hazzard and Joan Badger who describe their podcast as follows:
Interactive whiteboards, cross-classroom collaboration projects, and the stories of teachers are all a focus of the Teachers Connecting Podcast. This show delivers fresh and engaging lesson ideas!

By listening to this podcast while commuting I have been exposed to many resources that Web 2.0 has to offer. The show usually begins by describing some interesting Internet sites or new technology that has been released such as episode 10 which introduced me to Google Chrome. The hosts often communicate with guests via Skype and also invite listeners to follow them on Twitter where they will often post links to the resources mentioned in their podcast.

I find that I do not always get the time to explore the web for new resources so finding out about them while driving is perfect for me. Try is out. Let me know what you think.

Week 4: Will Richardson

In Will Richardson's article, World Without Walls: Learning Well with Others, the author states that "we as educators need to reconsider our roles in students' lives, to think of ourselves as connectors first and content experts second." This line has sparked some very interesting viewpoints from my classmates, but it took me a few days to digest the meaning and impact of this statement and to formulate my thoughts of this line. The longer I considered how crazy this idea is that we as teachers are more like connectors or facilitators, than experts or instructors, it became clear to me that this idea is not new at all. Like a lot of what is "new" in education, in my opinion Richardson's idea is not new, it is just applied in a different way. Consider the image below, taken from the Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology, University of Georgia.

The caption mentions the idea that the role of the teacher is changing from the "sage on the stage" to the "guide on the side." The constructivist approach is far from new and I am sure that many educators try to emulate the "guide on the side" by preparing lessons that engage our students in activities that help them formulate their own understandings of the content rather than just simply telling them what they need to know.

I think that Richardson was making the point that now we have more access than ever to resources to help support this type of instructional method. Our students are no longer limited to the materials that we provide or the ideas that a few other students in the class develop. They have access to "experts" via their computer who could possibly provide a greater incite and knowledge base than we as instructors can provide. However, since our students are likely to encounter questionable content or may have difficulty establishing connections with the "experts", it is our job to facilitate and moderate these connections.

Week 3: Media Sharing

A few weekends ago a group of friends and I went on a camping trip to the Maine coast. We spent a lot of time at the beach which was quite cold, but yet still enjoyable. I returned from that trip to find that one of my friends had posted a bunch of images to his Facebook page. One of those images was of me reading my Web 2.O book at the beach.

Media sharing, like all technology, has advantages and disadvantages. It think it is wonderful to communicate with family and friends across the globe. I love to access YouTube and other sites for resources for the classroom. However, for every great experience with media sharing, I need to filter through heaps of the useless postings. This is the world our students live in. This is what they are used to. Somehow we need to train these students to conduct research effectively and to post respectfully. Immediate access to information is a bittersweet. The whole world is at their finger tips, and that is to very powerful as well as pretty scary.

Week 3: RSS Feeds

RSS, or Really Simple Syndication is not an oxymoron. I think Google Reader makes it that way. I had an iGoogle account previous to this class, but didn’t really use it. I thought it was cool that I could customize the background or have the weather and news headlines on my most frequently visited site, but that was not really necessary, just cool.


Now, with Google Reader and Gmail as part of my iGoogle, I find it now only much cool, it is invaluable. There is no way that I would be able to keep a constant update on my fellow classmates and their blogs or the changes to wetpaint. Reader is just an easy way keep on top of the changes that are made to sites that you find important. Really, simple, syndication. Really.

Week 3: Social Bookmarking

It seems to me that all of us are pretty “connected” these days. By "connected", I am not speaking mafia lingo; what I mean is that I assume that we all have multiple ways to access the Internet. I am confident in my assumption that this connectivity will continue to increase in the years to come.

I remember a time, not too long ago, that I would only access the Internet from one location, my desktop at school. I had dial-up at home which was way too slow, and besides, in a Web 1.0 world it really was not necessary to connect all the time. Slowly though, changes took place. I got a lap-top. Then I got an iPod. Next, my school enabled access to my email and files through the web. As time passed, it seemed that everything was becoming web-based. My dependency on the Internet continued to increase at a rapid pace to the point that I now feel naked in my classroom if I lose the connection (sorry about the visual).

Since everything (movie, music, grades, graduate courses) has become web-based, I find myself not only frequently accessing the Internet, but doing so in a huge variety of locations (this past weekend I was posting from the laundry room of a campground in upstate NY!) So what is the point? If everything is web-based, why should my favorite sites be excluded? That is the beauty of social bookmarking. Now, my bookmarks are only a few keystrokes away, whether I am at my desktop at school or at a cyber-café in Europe. This is so useful and its need so obvious, it makes me ponder, why didn’t I think of that?

I have not really explored the SOCIAL part of the bookmarking. I can clearly see the advantage of this feature, but at this point, I have zero friends according to Diigo. I am not worried though, I get a tremendous amount of sites from my “friends” on Facebook or Ning, or my “followers” on Twitter. I am sure it is only a matter of time until the sites that provide social bookmarking explode the way that MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter have. I can only imagine that ease of collaboration that social bookmarking will provide when the explosion does occur.

Week 2: Class so far...

Class So Far…

Sorry for the delayed response. You see, I was away this past weekend. My wife and I took a little vacation to the Maine coast to get away and relax at the beach. I brought my Web 2.0 book so I could complete the reading and also my laptop. I assumed that I would be able to get a WiFi connection at out campground. I assumed incorrectly. It became apparent to me just how connected we all are, and how dependent we are on that connection.

I missed my Google Reader. I was thinking of my blog while sitting on the beach reading through chapter one. I was actually surprised of my inability to connect. My techno-geek friend with his Sprint Wireless card tried as well, but again no luck.

What is my point? This class has had quite an impact on me. Just when I think I am getting to be tech savvy, I realize that I am just familiar with a fraction on the wealth of knowledge and information out there waiting to be accessed. I am eager to learn more, but I need a way to organize all of this information that I am learning so that I’ll be able to access it in the future. From what I’ve read of the week three blogs, I think I’ll be exposed to some ways to do just that!

Week 2

Thoughts on School 2.o...

I'll be honest, my first impression of this site was not overly positive. I think that it initially did not live up to my expectations. Everything I've seen, reviewed, downloaded, etc. associated with this course has been very user-friendly, visually stimulating, and appealing. When I first followed the link to School 2.0, I immediately began to critique in my mind the layout and design of the web page. I am not a web designer and I usually do not analyze web pages as a hobby, but I could not ignore the small font size, the empty space on the right side and the multi colored squares logo. It bothered me. But why?

I think in this age of instant access to information, I was a little annoyed that I could not just click away and follow link after link and page after page. Well, I could have, but it did not look interesting to me and I would not have gained anything from my efforts. On this site I actually had to read the words on each page in order to figure out what this site was really all about. As I read over my own words I cannot help but realize how pathetic this sounds; "This page actually wants me to read?" What am I thinking? The irony is, you are getting these thoughts in the exact manner that I did not want to...by actually reading the words on the page.

After going back to the home page and restarting, not once, but three times, I began to actually analyze the content of this web site. The assignment for this week was not to skim or peruse this site, but we were asked to analyze. In order to get anything useful out of this site, I needed to analyze. Cool. I am becoming so accustomed to the instant gratification acquired through the use of technology that I am not taking the time to discover, internalize, and process what I was asked to do. The bottom line, I did exactly what my students do; I skimmed for answers and ignored the details. Shame on me.

Aside from the aesthetics, the content of the page was both exciting and overwhelming. I find it exciting because I know that a lot of my students and classrooms in my district possess the tools, knowledge, and resources to become a school of the next generation, a 2.0 school. I also get overwhelmed with the notion of time, energy, effort, and resources necessary to prepare everyone in the district (students, teachers, administration, and parents) with the skills needed to achieve this transformation.

In closing, although I did not initially like the layout and appearance of this site, I can imagine that its message and resources have been and will be invaluable to schools that are planning the upgrade from school 1.0 to 2.0. I am in complete agreement with the slogan of this site, "There is no one path to the school of tomorrow." Every person in every district has a unique set of circumstances that will factor into their transformation. But as the ancient Chinese proverb states, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. I think School 2.o provides stepping stones that will make the journey a bit easier. And in the end, thinking of those little boxes in the logo as stepping stones, make the site that much more appealing to me.