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.