What did you do in school?

Posted on the K12 Online Conference site is a video presentation by Darren Kuropatwa entitled "What did you do in school today, yesterday, and 3 years ago?" If you get a chance to watch it, you certainly should. The conference talks about how students these days all have high tech "toys" but they aren't necessarily using them to record their daily learnings and educational work. Nearly all students these days have cell phones, digital cameras, and MP3 players, but most of these technological tools are used for idle and frivilous play and are banned from school settings.

This conference does an excellent job of suggesting WHY these tools should be considered educational gadgets for students to use as well as HOW to faciliate them in the classroom. Mr. Kuropatwa suggests ways in which students can use their "gadgets" to archive all aspects of their high school careers. We as teachers need to understand that these tools do not necessarily need to be "banned" from the educational setting, but instead should be used to promote learning and critical thinking. Instead of just handing these toys to kids and letting them figure out what to do with them, we should be teaching them proper ways to access and use information via these tools.

The conference really is quite interesting, and it ties together all of the topics we have talked about in our class discussions. It has great ideas for classrooms of all ages.

My Podcast Creations

In case you missed it, I added a link on the right side of my blog to my "Podomatic" podcast site. I linked my podcasts to a site for several reasons. (1) It's easy for parents to access the site by giving them the URL. (2) It helps me keep all of the podcasts organized. (3) Podomatic offers a direct recording feature to record your podcasts instead of recoding it in something like Audacity, saving it to your computer, and then uploading the mp3 file. I plan to use the Podomatic site daily in my classroom.

The first podcast (the one listed in Podomatic) is a student of mine explaining what our podcast will entail. Basically, I'm going to use it as a daily review for parents to find out what we did in class that day. In first grade, it's common for students to say "nothing" when asked what they did in school. By using podcasts, my students are excited to teach their parents how to log on and listen to a student telling what we did. Please disregard all of the "forest themed" comments! My classroom is set up like a forest complete with tents, Moose-matical terms, Literacy Lake, Phonics Fir, etc. So, our "Flashback Frenzy" is also themed around those features. The podcast you'll hear was brought to you by Rex the Racoon! Feel free to listen by clicking on "My Podcasts" underneath my picture or click here if it's easier!

My Podcast Subscriptions

Okay, well I think I've gone a little podcast crazy here in the last couple of days. Using both itunes and Internet searches, I've found quite a few podcasts that I'm now subscribing to. Of the 12 I'm following in my RSS aggregator, about half of them are school/classroom use and the other half are my own personal interests. I think I can safely say after this week.....I'm addicted! Below are my three favorite subscriptions with a description of what they are and how I may use them in the classroom (if applicable)

• Storynory Podcast This podcast is for anyone who loves children's stories. Each podcast provides the listeners with a new story for their listening pleasure. This would be a great podcast for assessing and/or building student comprehension. In first grade, it's often hard to assess whether the students are not comprehending a story because they really can't read the words or if they are truly not comprehending what they are reading. This podcast would be great because the stories are read to them. I could easily make a short quiz about each story for a student to complete after listening. OR....this podcast also provides the words to the story. I could print out the words beforehand, have the student read the story, answer the questions, and then listen to the story to HEAR exactly what they misinterpretted when reading. The possibilies are truly endless, and the site does a great job of using all types of story genres.
• WillowWeb This podcast is created for kids by kids. It's from a school in Nebraska called Willowdale. The kids (from all grade levels) take turns broadcasting what they are learning about, but they do it in a fun and innovative way. It's great to listen to because the kids actually TEACH what they have learned via the "radio show." So, I could easily use it in my classroom for the students to learn interesting facts as well as learning how to speak when making our own podcasts. It's even great for me because I can get ideas on what to put in a podcast with my own students. Check it out!
• Get Lost This is for anyone who loves the ABC show "LOST." It's not the feed to the actual show podcast. Instead it's a podcast for episode discussions, theories, and hidden meanings behind the ever-thickening plot of the island and its crash survivors. If you're a show watcher...you know what I'm talking about.
• Jon and Kate Plus Eight is also a must, but it's more of a vodcast.

Is Teaching Marketing to Kids?

I was catching up on my RSS subscriptions today, and I came across a blog by Clarence Fisher from Remote Access entitled "Is Teaching Marketing to Kids?" At first, I didn't quite understand what Fisher was getting at, but then I realized he was using technology related analogies to decipher what our teaching really entails. In the post, Fisher questions his fellow readers about how they are reaching their students' wants and needs. In a sense, teaching is like marketing.....the good kind of marketing. Great marketing is when a company can "recommend things that you might like based on your history with them, are helpful and there when you need them, back up a product with service and stay out of the way when you don't need them, and know that if they are doing a good enough job creating a product or a service that is high quality and useful, you will come back."So, Fisher questions...Isn't that what we do with our students? Are we sitting down and analyzing our students' wants and needs? Do we customize instruction to meet their personal experiences?

In my opinion, the answer should be YES. After all, isn't that what we call differentiated instruction? Without authentic, personal attachments to the content, students get lost in the material. And, as Fisher compares...."we might just be spamming the kids with useless information that they will delete as 'junk' later." (Just as we do with spam emails) In a sense, teaching is exactly like marketing. However, it's the type of marketing everyone is looking for....personalized, reliable, and efficient.

Are you marketing for your kids? If so, how do you "market" in your classroom?
Comments please....

TV? Who Watches That?

I recently read a blog from Clarence Fisher at Remote Access.
It was entitled "TV? Who Watches That?" The blog goes on to depict that very question. He describes in the blog how more often than not kids are choosing to "go online" over sitting in front of the television. He even goes on to compare the TV to what the radio has become....something on in the background while doing something else. It may be that the kids have the TV on in the background while they are online, but rarely do kids sit down to watch a scheduled program. The Internet has become the new "leisure activity."

Fisher also commented on the fact that MOST students in his class use social networking and for those that do, Facebook is the network of choice. The students said they use Facebook for photo sharing and keeping up to date with their friends. It's easy to see what is going on in all of their friends' lives without needing to speak to directly to them every day. The students also agreed that Facebook has a more user-friendly, safer feel than MySpace. (At least it was encouraging to know they are thinking about safety.) They came to the conclusion that Facebook is the "NEW" myspace; however, they also agreed that something "newer" would probably be along in due time. They couldn't wait to see what would come up next.

With these thoughts in mind, my mind started racing with questions. If this is the truth about TV, then what effects might it have to our society? Check out my concerns below:

1. What will happen to the television media market as well as people looking for jobs in this field? (This was also a concern listed in Fisher's blog.)

2. Will the Internet have the same effect on other leisure activities such as playing sports?

3. If more students are using social networking, how will we teach our students about safety when using it?

4. Is it possible for the Internet (where anyone can author information) to be censored or rated? (Television shows & movies provide ratings for viewers and also allow parents to block channels.)

5. Will radios and TVs eventually become obsolete when new inventions like the Internet are created?

Feel free to comment.....

Flickr, Delicious, and Other Creations

Just in case you missed it, I put links to my personal flickr and delicious sites on the toolbar of the main screen here on my blog. The links appear under the title "My Online Creations" located right under my picture and about me. Please follow the links from there to view my pictures and favorite bookmarked sites.

FLICKR: http://www.flickr.com/photos/laser2411
My thoughts are flickr are a bit negative. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of uploading my pictures to the Internet for safe keeping. Not only can I relax about never losing the backed-up photos, but it's also extraordinarily easy for my friends to view my pictures. I've used photo sharing sites before such as snapfish and shutterfly; however, I had never tried flickr so I thought I would give it a try. It was very simple to use for uploading photos and organizing them into sets for groups to view. I also like how I can choose to set each individual picture as Public or Private. Now, onto the downfalls.... I'm a very organized person. I like to have everything saved in individual folders with labels and so on. With Flickr, a "basic" user is only allowed to create 3 sets of albums. If you want more, you must pay a fee for a flickr membership. The sites I had been using like Snapfish and Shutterfly do not cost anything to post. Plus, these sites have various options for ordering prints and other photo creations. Flickr's main purpose is to back up your files and share them with friends. The only difference with Snapfish or Shutterfly is that you must select "who" you want to share your photos with and send them a message with a link to your photos. I believe these friends must also have (or create a new) account to view the pictures.

DELICIOUS: http://delicious.com/laser2411
This social bookmarking tool is absolutely amazing. I love the fact that I can bookmark any sites that I want, provide them with tags, and be able to access them from any computer.....not to mention the fact that I can share/view bookmarks with my friends. Being a teacher, this is an excellent way to get the students on the sites you find. Websites I find on my computer can easily be accessed in the computer lab for my students. Right now, I have 20 bookmarks, and I'm currently working on finding more. I've tagged them all so when I need a specific site, it's easy to find. It's truly a great Web 2.0 tool!!

Please Note: If you check the discussion board, I've posted my thoughts on our class chat from Monday, November 10th. (I had parent-teacher conferences during the regular class time.)

Why We Aren't Integrating Technology In Schools

I found a blog post online titled the "Five Reasons Why We Aren't Integrating Technology In Schools." You can find it at: http://www.needleworkspictures.com/ocr/blog/. I thought this was a rather interesting post because the person who posted it had just recently listened to a couple of conferences on the K-12 online conference website. He goes on to say that he's not a pessimist, but people need to realize that if we dont' fix these 5 problems, technology will never make it into school curriculums effectively. His 5 problems were:
1. Technology is expensive
2. Technology use isn't tested (no standardized tests are assessing student tech. knowledge)
3. Technology lessons often aren't well planned
4. Technology is broken or unavailable
5. Fear of losing control
After reading this blog (and posting a comment directly to this blogger), I can't help but agree with the ideas. These problems with technology are apparent, and school districts need answers to these before they can start developing curriculum to include technology. Educators today are worried about bringing adults into the 2.o web-world, but maybe these problems are what we should be thinking about now. We all know that a digital divide exists right now between parents and their children, but can't we also admit that a digital divide will begin to exist between the children themselves?? For example, students from a more affluent school district are going to have greater use of technology than students from a "not-so-well-off" school district.

Any suggestions on how to solve these problems?

Parental Engagment in the 21st Century

Recently I listed to a podcast through the K-12 online conference site. It was entitled Parental Engagement in the 21st Century. If you follow the link below, it takes you directly to the audio.

Parental Engagement in the 21st Century - Leveraging web 2.0 tools to engage parents in non-traditional ways by Lorna Costantini and Matt Montagne

The conference is in reference to parents and how they are currently living in a 1.0 world. You really can't blame them though because they grew up in that world. The point is...their lack of knowledge opens the door for their children to get into trouble using the new tools. Parents did not grow up online nor do they understand the social networking of it all. They need to be "trained" on how to use the tools and educate their children on the dangers of them. Digital networking is common to the children of today. Many of the children are even "writing" more out of school than they are in school settings.

So the question is....How can we as parents and teachers support are children in using these tools effectively and encourage the educational aspects of online activities? The online conference provides parents and teachers with answers to this question. It provides ideas for parents to use in the home and teachers to use at school. Parents and teachers can learn the educational value of social networking and other 2.0 tools. Not only does the information in this conference help close the gap between the "digital divide" of children and adults, but it also helps adults understand the educational value of these tools as well as safety precautions for using them in home and/or school settings.

I would encourage any parent and teacher to listen to this conference to fully understand the Internet "tools" of today and how to use them effectively.

Wikipedia

Okay, well I'm going to be honest about my experience with adding to a wiki. To start, I flat out had no idea how I was supposed to find the articles on wikipedia to contribute to. I searched on wikipedia trying to find relevant topics and I also read other classmates' postings on how they contributed to wikipedia. I was still confused. Then, apparently, I realized that it was much easier than I was making it out to be. Really all I had to do was find something I felt I could add information to and click the edit button. I guess I'm just a person who is always looking for the "catch" in things. I never imagined it could be as simple as clicking "edit" and typing my comments. Obviously, I was wrong!

In the end, I contributed to wikipedia by adding my comments to a section related to teaching and pedogogy. I truly feel that in today's teaching world the most essential part of teaching is understanding the pedogogy of the students. As we all well know, students learn in a variety of ways and each students has his/her own strengths and weaknesses. It's crutial for a teacher to understand the makeup (pedogogy) of his/her classroom and differentiated instruction accordingly. Basically, those are the comments I made on wikipedia. It was unbelievably simple; however, I will say the concept in general can be tricky for students to understand. Since anyone can post information, the information may not be entirely factual. Students need to be aware of this before considering the information significant.

My Throughts on RSS

RSS aggregators are an amazing feature for bringing the information of the world to you. Instead of going out and searching for new information, an RSS aggregator can bring you all of the information you desire on a routine basis. After creating an RSS aggregator through Google Reader, I began subscribing to my favorite websites. One of the best features I found with Google Reader was option to subscribe to “subscription bundles.” If you are a person interested in sports (like myself), Google Reader has a subscription bundle featuring updates from 8 different sports websites. It was absolutely AMAZING at how I could instantly see any and all new information that had recently been posted to these websites. Instead of individually searching each URL, the Google Reader instantly sent new information posted on ANY of these sites to me. Not only is it convenient, but it’s honestly pure genius. Tools like RSS aggregators are allowing people to fully envision the full power and real intent of the Internet. Information that I find essential is coming to me at a rate far faster than I can even keep up.

With that in mind, it brings up the only downside I’ve found to the RSS tools. For a person who may not be as tech savvy, the aggregators can be a bit overwhelming. I would suggest new users to only subscribe to a few URLs at first. When I first started, I instantly subscribed to 23 websites. Trust me, it was way too overwhelming. I simply couldn’t keep up with the information or manage to categorize it in any form. However, after getting rid of some of the subscriptions and only focusing on 10 sites, I learned how to manage the information and classify the URLS into categories. I now have my links in 4 categories (Technology, Sports, Fun, and Other). Now that I have a handle on how the aggregator works, I am efficiently receiving the latest information on all of my interests. I don’t know what I would do without it now.

Below are links to some of the most interesting bits of information I found:

http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Edit_Wikipedia (A How-To on editing Wikipedia)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jll5baCAaQU (Obama’s HISTORICAL acceptance speech)

http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/11/twitter-survive.html (Internet Effects on the Election)

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3683034&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines (Why the BCS stinks!)