Blogging Internationally

With the newly-discovered decision of my sister moving to England, I have recently thought about this topic...blogging internationally. I think there are many great benefits to introducing this kind of communication in any classroom. In my seventh grade English class, we read stories about many different cultures. Using a blog, students could pose questions about everyday cultural differences/similarities, school differences/similarities and they could learn new words and definitions.

I have not tried this with students, but I think it would work best if the blog was set up with a specific class. I think my class would have a more positive experience if they acquired a continual connection. Besides making connections, the other benefit is that students could respond on their own time. Yet another benefit…time difference would not need to be an issue.

Are there concerns? Well…I have not thought about how I would evaluate their experience or which standards and benchmarks this would address. I would also have to find out whose permission I would need. Finally, I would need to think about how to address unforeseen problems if there were inappropriate responses on either end.

Overall, I think this is definitely a topic worth exploring.

Podcasting and Vodcasting in the Classroom

Before taking this course, I was unaware of the terms podcasting and vodcasting. Now it seems the terms are everywhere. Last week, I registered for a professional development course on vodcasting, podcasing, and blogging in the classroom. The course was very inspirational and informative. It helped me make connections with this course and observe ways other teachers are implementing the same technology.

The course consisted of a live-feed of two teachers that showed ways to use podcasting and vodcasting in the classroom. They gave information on equipment needed, software needed, and step-by-step procedures on how to incorporate this technology into any classroom.

The teachers also gave a different idea of how to plan for their classes using this technology. They teach high school science and actually videotape their lectures and put them on the web for their students to access. Students are required to watch their lectures as homework and use their class time to do labs and get more one-on-one time with their teachers.

Even though I will not be using the technology in the way they presented it, I am going to try another suggestion of theirs…using Moodle in the classroom. Moodle is a free discussion forum for teachers and students to discuss focus questions. I will try this with my students when we start our novel study on The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton.

Blogging mis-step

I find I am disappointed in myself. I tried something and it didn't work, and so I gave up. In retrospect, I realize it was just too soon and I should have waited a little longer and tried again. I know for a fact had I tried it today it would have been successful. Oh, what is it you ask? Well, blogging of course.

Four years ago I was offered a free subscription to a an online homework site. The site included a calendar, homework posting, and a blog. Only at the time, I didn't recognize it as a blog. I dove right in anyway and set up a discussion, distributed the information to students and parents, and then waited. I forgot to consider the technology resources of my families. At the time only about 10% of my families even had a computer, let alone internet access. Well, I waited and waited with zero participation my first year.

Fast forward 4 years--I let go of my free lifetime subscription because I was not making adequate use of it and now almost 70% of my families have a computer with nearly 40% of those having internet access. I am teaching 3 after-school tech classes each week and the students beg for more. So, I am ready to start over again, but this time I know to have patience. And the next time a new idea hits me upside the head, I will hang on to it until the time is right.

Educational value of Podcasting

Once again, I find myself learning something new. I am an avid iPod user. I have playlists for everything including work out mixes and just relaxin'! I am on iTunes all of the time but have never really paid attention to Podcasts. Upon further investigation, there are podcasts available for just about every subject that you can imagine. I happened upon a podcast that my daughter now loves, The Crazy Dave's Kid Show.
So, the question remains however what are the educational implications of podcasting. Podcasting, if produced by the students, offers an opportunity to develop verbal communication/public speaking skills. Students are in a position to choose a topic and dependent upon the format, expound upon it. This could be used as a means of differentiating instruction for those students that have difficulty with written expression, perhaps even as an alternative form of assessment.
Some of the creative ways, I thought of using podcasts were:

• As rainy day activities-students would have the option of downloading activities such as classroom treasure hunts
• Reteach/Remediation or Enrichment-Podcasts could be be used as means to reteach certain skills and subject areas. They could be provided also for those students that want to explore a topic more
• Substitute Teacher-For those days that I know I would be absent. Directions could be left for the substitute and activities could be podcast for the students as well.

Your thoughts???

Podcasts vs. Blogging at School

Reflecting on the discussions from last week and this week, I definitely see the benefits of using podcasts over blogging in class with my 7th grade English students.

Personally, I would use the podcasts as “springboards” for conversations or a starting point for projects. I would be able to control which appropriate podcasts my students were viewing and I would also be able to choose which podcasts were educational and useful.

On the other hand, blogging would be more difficult to assess and control….especially if students posted outside of school. It would be very time consuming to make sure all of my students were being appropriate and posting educational links and comments. In addition, not all of my students have technology at home and our school only has one computer lab.

TeacherTube and CommonCraft

I love CommonCraft. With our readings on "Digital Natives" and the difficulty of "Digital Immigrants" to fully integrate, CommonCraft has come up with a series of videos that describe "Native" concepts in "Immigrant" language.

For a look at some of these, breeze on over to TeacherTube and check them out...
http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=0caf60d28b852556d52f Podcasting
http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=0caf60d28b852556d52f RSS
http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=367ab9eed5af82966a48 Blogging
(See my previous post for the link to Wiki's).

I have continued doing some research on ways to help my staff understand these concepts and came across another wonderful resource--How to articles by GlenCoe (http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/howtoarticles?o=0&type=0&perpage=10&start=10).
These are the direct links to specific articles:
http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/howtoarticles/blog-basics

http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/howtoarticles/podcasting-basics
http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/howtoarticles/beyond-podcasting-basics

http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/howtoarticles/wiki-basics

Now, I just have to get the staff to actually read their email and follow the links. Mmm.