Blogging and RSS (Required Reading #3)

Will Richardson is a blogging pioneer. He writes in "Blogging and RSS" that blogging is engaging for students who are otherwise not inclined to participate in school activities. Blogs a fluid, meaning they are constantly updated (hopefully), and there is room for comments and interactions between bloggers (students, teachers, and possibly parents or readers from around the world!). Blogs encourage students to write for an audience, pay attention to voice and grammar, as well as collaborate with other people. Teachers are using blogs as a home for homework assignments, student reflections, audioblogs, and also digital dropboxes for files.

The most influential change in blogging seems to be RSS (Real Simple Syndication). It's a way for readers of blogs to keep up with new updates from numerous blogs. Instead of going to 15 blogs and looking for new posts, the new posts automatically come to you. Google Reader is a good aggregator for adding your favorite blogs. To use this featured app from Google, sign in with your username, click Reader at the top of the screen and start "subscribing" to all of the feeds you enjoy following. As soon as new posts are added, Google Reader will let you know. So there you go--all of the new blog posts you want to read, all in one place. This is an awesome feature for teacher who want to keep up with their students' posts and not have to go to each site to look for updates.

The School of the Future (Required Reading #2)

I loved David Warlick's article, "Future Fiction." He gives the reader a vision of what a 21st century school could look like. My favorite part was the idea that the media center was set up as a place for knowledge construction, not just accessing information. I would love to see our media center set up with more workspaces for planning projects and collaborating using multimedia. Maybe in 2004 (when the article was written) the idea of students using tablets and key codes to access textbooks and turn in assignments was foreign and unfathomable, but in 2010 it may not be too far away. With microchips, iPads, iPhones, and new touch screen computers, it is extremely likely that students can learn and teachers can effectively teach using technology.

Practicing Embedding Vokis

Well, it took me nearly two hours to figure out how to embed a Voki in my google sites page, so I want to be sure I can easily add it to a blog. To add it to the google site, I couldn't just copy the code from the Voki site (and there are about 10 different embedding code options!). I ended up going to YouTube, copying an embed code for a video, pasting it into Notepad, and replacing the YouTube http:// address with the http:// address from the Voki code. It worked! However, it opens just fine in Fire Fox--no luck with Internet Explorer. I guess there is a plug-in missing or it blocks it for some reason.

So this time I am trying to add it here. The first time I tried to embed it, I used the suggested code. No luck. The suggested My Space code did work, and I used my "html knowledge" to center it! By the way, my voice recording on my laptop was really fuzzy, so I just typed it in and had the girl read it (kind of funny). If it works for you in Internet Explorer, let me know! And if you know how to fix that, let me know!


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YouTube in the Classroom (Required Reading #1)

YouTube is taking videos on the web by storm, but what is its place in the classroom? Well, not only can children watch videos, they can contribute. This site gives them the opportunity to be heard. Although there are some sticky issues that can arise when looking at using YouTube in the classroom, it can be a powerful motivator for students.

"YouTube Comes to the Classroom," by Anna Adams and Helen Mowers notes that there are numerous classroom connections that can be made using YouTube. They searched for “WW2” and found a 94-year-old veteran relating his firsthand experiences of the battlefield.

Teachers can provide a safer environment for students to view videos by embedding them in a blog or website or converting them into a stand alone videos using sites likes Zamzar. Since our school is not purchasing a site license for United Streaming this year, I am going to try to find some clips to use in my kindergarten classroom (and convert them since YouTube is blocked in our system). I am still not comfortable letting my students upload videos of themselves.

Blogging in Kindergarten

Hmmm... I'm trying to decide how I want to use blogging next year with my class. I see it as an easy way to keep parents informed about things going on in the classroom, but I want the children to be involved as well. I was searching for some good ideas and ran across Mrs. Knee's Kinderkids Blog. I am obsessed with all of the unique slide shows and vodcasts she has posted such as the Clustr Maps showing the locations of all blog visitors, Animoto picture shows, One True Media, Flickr shows, Picture Trails, and Rock You slides. She also has some really cool ideas about collaborating on world-wide projects which makes blogging more interactive.

I still wondering how she added the children's blogs (on the right side) with their own Voki introductions and current projects. When does she have time to let the students create all of the pictures and recordings? And when does she compile all of the various slide shows and upload all of the files??

Final Project Proposal

Cassie, Lindsey, and I are going to create a three hour professional development session on using technology with language arts in the K-6 classroom. We are going to focus on integrating technology using Voice Thread, Youblisher, and blogging (site to be decided). Each of us will become an expert on one application, create a sample of how to use it in the classroom, and use PowerPoint to support each application.

Our final will include an outline of our day's schedule, a PowerPoint presentation, a sample product for each application, and a proposed task for the teachers to practice creating.

This is our WebQuest for first graders to explore animal biomes and their adaptations. We used Google Sites as our web site creator; this was not as easy to use as other Google apps. When inserting documents, they must be added as an attachment at the bottom of the page. Only URLs can be linked directly on the page. On the Introduction page, we made a Voki to explain the WebQuest, however, the embed codes were not working correctly. Finally, I used a YouTube embed code and added the site link. It works on Firefox but not on Internet Explorer... For visual interest, we added Picnik image for the Task section and a Glog for the Process section.

Photo by Igor GOLUBENKOV

On April 20, an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana exploded, killing 11 people. More than 200,000 gallons of oil are leaking into the ocean every day. So far, BP oil executives have not been able to successfully cap leak. The spill is affecting the animals and the land on the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. The oil-polluted waters are already affecting area wildlife. More and more oil-soaked birds are being seen. Dolphins and other ocean animals have started to wash up on area beaches. With hurricane season approaching, there is a chance that the oil will become swept into the current and carried up the Atlantic Ocean and possibly over to western Europe.

Although the rig is owned an operated by BP, they can not be held responsible for all of the problems happening. Ending BP as a corporation will not change what has already happened, neither will blaming our president. BP is truly concerned and willing to pay for all damages incurred. All off-shore drilling rigs have the possibility of exploding. When Congress passed the law allowing off-shore drilling, there were obvious risks involved. Now more and more people are blaming BP instead of realizing that our government knew that this was a possibility. Everyone is equally frustrated, and hopefully this will further the research for new biofuels. I hope that the patents on alternative fuel engines and high MPG engines will be released so that we can begin to become less dependent on oil.

Web 2.0 Application Presentation: Voice Thread

For part of our midterm grade, we had to partner up and present a Web 2.0 app. Cassie, Lindsey, and I chose Voice Thread. We will share various examples for grade levels, demonstrate how to upload a ppt file to VT, name it, and do a sample recording. We will show everyone how to browse for the created VT, register, and record responses. We will also play the class VT.

A VoiceThread is an online media album that can hold essentially any type of media (images, documents and videos) and allows people to make comments in 5 different ways - using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video (with a webcam) - and share them with anyone they wish. A VoiceThread allows group conversations to be collected and shared in one place, from anywhere in the world. The possibilities for educators are endless!!!

These are some step-by-step directions for creating identities, setting up a class, and commenting on slides.