Web 2.0 tools

I plan to incorporate both blogs and podcasts into my computer classes this year. The first one is blogs. I think the students will enjoy creating and commenting to blogs. I plan to have students blog about photos they will taking as well as different events that occur throughout the school year. I also plan to keep a blog as a form of communication with parents.

The second tool I like is podcasting. Part of our classes intention is to create a video podcast of the schools daily announcements. This video podcast would also be available to parents so they can keep up to date on the schools events.

Both of these tools will introduce students to new ways to communicate with large audiences. They will cover many of the NETS-S and METS in Michigan. The experiences will engage the students in their learning and hopefully their parents as well.

21st Century and New Literacies

The challenges that educators will face include getting the support and equipment necessary to promote the literacy. Also, being able to connect to the world and not be censored by filters that will block everything. The next step is then to shift the focus of teaching away from preparing for the test to lifelong learning. Much of this is caught up in politics. No Child Left Behind has really hindered technological advancement in schools. In fact the students tend to be teaching educators more about technology. Educators need to make a stand and teach the students what they need now and in the future. The following video sheds light on that idea.

First Ever Podcast

Well I have created and published my first ever podcast. A huge thank you to my son Nathan who helped me with the podcast by discussing a book he has read. We enjoyed making the podcast. I had some technical difficulties, but worked through them. We created the podcast using GarageBand and I had to post the podcast to my iWeb site. Click on Calvin and Hobbes.

While looking at the resources on podcasts, I found many that I have since subscribed to via iTunes. I plan to have my 8th grade students do some podcasting this year, but I think it will be in the form of a video podcast. Our thought is part of my 8th grade computer class curriculum will be to do the schools daily announcements as a videocast. All of the teachers in the middle school will subscribe to this videocast daily. This experience will cover many of the NETS, but especially creativity and innovation, communication and collaboration, and technology operations and concepts.
I would also, like to do some podcasting with the sixth grade students, but have not come up with an idea at this time. Maybe I will stick with the concept my son and I did and have it be a book talk activity.

Photo Sharing

What a great site Flickr is. I have done some posting of photos to the web through iPhoto for family and friends to access. I chose to add these photos of Shea Stadium and Yankee Stadium to this posting since in about 3 weeks I will be at both of these stadiums with my two older sons. I found it easy to search the creative commons for these photos. There were many to choose from. The uploading into the blog took a little more time to figure out the easiest path. Now that I know the procedure, the next time it will be easier.
I can see my students using Flickr in their Keynote presentations. This will give them access to many photos to spice up their projects. The tagging concept will make it easy to search for photos. I also might use this as a place for students to upload photos that they take and edit in iPhoto. This will allow friends and family to see the photos. The students can access the photos anytime and anywhere. Also, future classes could use the photos as part of their projects. I can see this technology addressing many of the NETS-S as students will research, collaborate, it is innovative and they are using technology operations and concepts. I really think the students will enjoy working with the photos and then take pride in showing friends and family the things they can do with the photos now that they are online.

Social Bookmarking

I like the idea of being able to access my bookmarks from any computer. So many times I have bookmarked a site at home or at school and then not been able to access it from the computer I want at the time. The concept of the tags will help to cut down on the time to search for related sites.

A way that I might possibly be able to use social bookmarks is as a resource for research topics. Students will be learning how to use Keynote. After each student determines there topic I can bookmark sites that are related to their topic. The students can then access my social bookmark as a resource to direct them to related sites. This project and use of social bookmarking will help with covering the second and third NETS-S.

RSS feeds

I just added the CNN student news RSS feed to my blog. The feed can be found at http://rss.cnn.com/rss/cnn_cnnstudentnews.rss. I chose to add this feed so that I can be kept up to date on happenings in the show that we will be watching daily with our middle school students in the advisory period. Also, students who visit my blog can read more information about the show and possibly comment on the show.

I like the use of Bloglines as a collection point for the latest articles, news and blog updates. I only have to go to one site to get all the updates and I can have access from any computer, not just my own. What a time saver and I am sure that as I research lessons and educational information I will add more feeds. I also like the folder option that allows you to organize the feeds. I can subscribe to personal feeds, educational feeds and feeds that have to do with hobbies or even coaching.

I could use RSS feeds in my class with students doing research for a keynote project. Students can subscribe to feeds about a topic. This will give the students a site to collect any new information that may be published about their topic. Also, students would learn that now instead of them having to go get the research they can set up their Bloglines account so the information comes to them. This activity will address NETS-S #3 on Research and Information Fluency. What a shift in the research process. Instead of the students going out and finding the information, the information now comes to them and they just have to sift through it all.

Wiki Wiki

Creating the site in PBWiki was as the Hawaiians say "wiki wiki". The registering and set-up is really quick and easy. The next step is to use it functionally. My thought for use of my wiki is not so much student related as it is staff related. We are adding an advisory period to our day. The students in each grade are separated onto to teams of teachers. These teams are responsible for creating the advisory curriculum. I thought what a great collaboration tool for our team to use to generate an archive of the curriculum as we go through this school year. I think by having the teachers on my team use the wiki in this manner, they will be come comfortable with it and then maybe discover ways that they could use it in their subjects. Our teams consist of a teacher from each major discipline (math, science, social studies and English), a special education teacher, and what we call non-core subjects like computers and swimming. As I explored the different wiki sites and resources I was amazed at all the different uses of the wikis. I found a Star Wars wiki. What an interesting concept for the true fans to be able to join together and create a site that talks about all the behind the scenes hidden messages and the history of characters, planets and spaceships. As a former math teacher I liked the idea of a wiki for the students to generate the study guide for a unit test or final exam. Like blogging limitless possibilities.
My PBWiki page is the following: http://advisory7.pbwiki.com/7th-Grade-Advisory-Hour

Keep checking back there from time to time to check the progress. Especially after the school year starts.