Podcasts#2

I enjoyed listening to the different options of podcasts for educators. But, even more than that, I enjoyed seeing what students had created. At first, I wondered if this tool would be useful for me because my students are so young. But, then I explored several classes that were 5th graders, including my former coworkers in Darien. They had their students record personal memoirs as a way to share their writing on their teacher's blog.

I like the idea of taking a podcast with you on an iPod or mp3 player so I can listen to it in the car or on the train. I like the idea of listening to books on CD/ ipod, so this would be very similar to that. I think the idea of podcasts with power point presentations is very helpful when you are using a computer instead of the mp3 player. On a computer, students might have a harder time just listening to the podcast because we live in such a visual world. But, if a student is visually impaired, what a great way to have them participate in lessons!

Is there a way to get past the ads that are at the beginning of the podcasts when listening to these with students?

slide share

Here's a brief one on the revolutionary war that I could see using in the classroom. For my computer savvy students, I could see several of them wanting to try this on their own as a final presentation.

Events Leading Up To The Revolutionary War

View more presentations from Michael Doody.

This year, I have had two really struggling special education students who have been pulled out of the classroom for almost every subject. They are only in my classroom for social studies and writing. Because I have been focusing on learning technology and helping students apply it, we have been using Power Point for a lot of our research projects. It has been wonderful to see these 2 boys excel on technology. They have even helped some of the stronger writers improve their technology skills!

Thing 18: Slide Share

I started looking at the information on slideshare and I viewed the "Shift Happens" slide show. Then I remembered Dr. Richard's beginning of the year presentation (was it last year?) where is used virtual software to present from his daughter's college to the faculty. This was part of his presentation. I always wondered where he got the information from!

Now, time to explore. I typed in "historical fiction" because this is what my students are currently working on. I was amazed with the graphic that you could use on slideshare. It looks much more professional than any of the presentations that I have done with Power Point. I could see using many of these that people have already created in my classroom, but maybe I'll be ambitious and create some of my own!

Historical Fiction Kate Messner

View more presentations from tkmess.

Thing 17: online productivity

I have started exploring the different online productivity tools:

1. bubbl.us looks a little like some of the tools we use in the classroom such as Kidspiration/Inspiration except that it is online. I wonder if it is also similar to draft builder, a new special education program that we were introduced to at my school this year. I played around with the mapping without becoming a member. I would be interested in seeing what else it has to offer.

2. zoho show looks like a great way to share power point presentations I think it would be a great use for my husband's international education company. It would be good to use in my classroom if we had international, or even national pen pals. I wonder if there is a way to have schools connect through pen pals, and what the district's rules would be about communication?

3. Dabbleboard, skrbl and scriblink look very similar to what you can do with smartboards. Could it be used as a part of smart technology?

4. I LOVE the idea behind rememberthemilk.com! Right now, I have a very basic phone service with verizon. But, I have an iTouch and I love the functions on it. This summer, Verizon is supposed to have access to the iPhone, and I would like to try many of these applications when it become available. I use a calendar at school and at home, but I would like to start using a reminder system in my phone so I don't forget anything! I have already started using the birthday reminder function on Facebook. My only problem is that I worry about becoming too dependent on others services to remember things for me. I guess I'll have to practice memory tricks elsewhere!

5. I have explored librarything.com for book recommendations in the past. It was nice to revisit this and look for new book recommendations for my book group.

Thing 16: google docs

I just created my first one to share, so I will continue to try this as an option. It looks like it has a lot of potential! Right now, students often ask me to e-mail their school work home. Then, they e-mail it back and I re-save it into their classroom folder. It's a lot of extra work! Or, they bring a flash drive and do exactly the same thing. I also do a lot of group research in school, but it is hard to get everyone on the computers at the same time because lab time is limited. I think google docs could help with this, but I would have to play with it a bit more. I'm still a little confused about what the final document looks like and how others can change it around.

podcasts

While exploring US News and World report, I explored some of the podcasts. and I was reminded of others I should re-explore. For example, the International Reading Association now has a weekly podcast. One was on how to excited young male readers, a topic I am constantly exploring. I think this will be a new area to explore in technology for me! If we only had more time in the day...

Thing15 RSS revisited

I think Google reader is a great idea, but I'm not sure that I have the time to check it throughout the day. I think I should think of one or two sites that I am the most interested in and keep to those. For example, I should choose one news source that I like to check and stick with it. I guess I would compare this to Facebook except with real news. I have friends that are constantly updating their "status" or posting videos/ pictures. I'm lucky to check one a day, or to post an update once a week!

Delicious.com

You could get lost in time playing on delicious.com! I love how this is an updated version of bookmarking. I always had trouble with bookmarking sites because they were only available on one computer. Plus, you couldn't look at what others had researched. This is a great site to look for information and to narrow your search. I think it will take a lot of time up front, but after I have set up several links, it will be more useful. If I get a smart board in my classroom, I could see linking a lot of these websites to it. For now, I might try setting it up with the LCD projector in my room for some of the videos I found on history.com (If I can get the speakers to work!)

Thing 13

I liked playing around with images in wordle. I could see students really enjoying this. Maybe I could use it as a vocabulary activity, or as spelling practice where students could post synonyms and antonyms with it.

I am glad that I tried using delicious. I am noticing that I am creating several different e-mail accounts (google, yahoo...) Is this an issue? I am assuming they will prompt me with which one I need when I go back to these sites later. I think delicious is a great idea so that teachers can share their tags. However, I'm not sure I have the time right now to research the useful teaching sites and use them this year. Maybe over the summer? I winder what the uses of these websites would be if I had a smart board in my classroom where students could work directly with these functions on the big screen.

Trying to create a Wordle

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/2016115/Teach

Wikis

This one looked very interesting, especially today's picture with the ocean and the islands.

Thing 12 continued

Okay, I cut and pasted the link into my post, but I was unable to copy my specific voki. I will try again tomorrow night and add it to this post.

Thing 12

Let's see if the voki worked. I had fun playing with the different options, but I felt they were a little limited. I was also a little wary of recording my voice on the 1-800 number, so I decided to use their preprogrammed voices to start. I have a mac at home where I have been doing all of my work. I am wondering how to use microphones on the mac. Do I need a special connection/ headphones or microphones, or can I do it from the laptop? In the classroom, I would like to use students' recorded voices for fluency activities, so I will explore this a bit further with other options.


Get a Voki now!

Thing 11

Thanks to everyone for letting me post on their blogs and be a part of this journey with them. I really enjoyed reading what people have learned and checking out what they have been experimenting with. Some of the posts have energized me to finish this journey and continue exploring! How many people will still be posting after the 23 things has ended in June? I hope I will be one of those people who continues next year as well.

Thing 10: video

I looked around on youtube for videos created at my favorite beach. Here is one day from one of the residents. It doesn't show my family's house, but it does show the annual fireworks display and some of my neighbors.