Blogs and Wikis and Podcasts oh my

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Blogs and Wikis and Podcasts (oh my!)

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Information Age

• Large amounts of information available
• Need to teach students how to use it
• Many new technologies being developed
• Technological barriers to entry not high

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Shifts in Classroom Practices

• Open source content
• Asynchronous learning
• Collaborative learning
• Teaching through conversations
• Active reading and writing
• The world as audience

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New Role for Teachers

• Connectors
• connect students with content and primary sources
• Content Creators
• Collaborators
• with both teachers and students
• Coaches
• model skills, motivate excellence

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Dont be afraid!

• Start slowly
• Use the technology on your own
• Adapt to classroom use
• Start small
• Let students help with ideas
• Take the technology and make it your own!

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Blogs

• Easy to create
• Audience for students ideas
• Interactive and reflective
• Creates community
• Opportunity for mentoring relationships
• Not just a journal!

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What do I do with a blog?

• Class portal
• Syllabus, rules, handouts, assignments, etc
• Keep in touch with parents
• Example http//central.hcrhs.k12.nj.us/journ1

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What do I do with a blog?

• Online filing cabinet
• Paperless class
• Online portfolio
• Timestamps on entries
• Students cant misplace work
• Reflection on progress
• Searchable
• Transparency

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What do I do with a blog?

• Collaborative space
• Students collaborate with each other
• Students collaborate with mentors
• Example Secret Life of Bees class
  bloghttp//central.hcrhs.k12.nj.us/bees/

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What do I do with a blog?

• School website
• Lewis Elementary Schoolhttp//lewiselementary.org
  /
• Mabry Onlinehttp//mabryonline.org/
• Internal communication among faculty

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Blogging Across the Curriculum

• Infuse writing into all disciplines
• Science
• Foreign language
• Math
• http//apcalc.blogspot.com
• Phys Ed

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Becoming a Blogger

• Find blogs to read
• Bloglines www.bloglines.com/topblogs
• Edublogs Award site www.incsub.org/awards/
• Start your own blog
• Annotate links
• Draw on personal feelings and reflections

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Blog with students

• Post assignments and links
• Assign blogs to read
• Have students respond to posts
• Give each student a blog
• Discuss safety and limits
• Use RSS feeds
• Use rubric for grading

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Blog software

• Local server, free server, or pay for hosting
• Blogger
• Manila
• WordPress
• Movable Type
• TypePad

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What the heck is a Wiki?

• A wiki is a website where anyone can edit
  anything at anytime
• From Hawaiian wiki wiki which means quick
• Can be open to all or password protected
• Each page has edit page and page history links

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Popular Wikis

• Wikipedia
• Wikitravel
• Wiktionary
• Wikinews
• Star Trek wiki
• City of Calgary
• http//calgary.wikia.com/index.php/Main_Page

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Wikis in the Classroom

• Online textbook or resource
• California Open Source Textbook Project
• South African high school curriculum
• Wikibooks
• http//en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page

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Why use a wiki?

• Democratic process of knowledge creation
• collaboration
• negotiation
• Learn to evaluate information
• Critical reading
• Editing skills

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Educational Wikis

• High School Online Collaborative Writing
• http//schools.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
• Holocaust Wiki Project
• www.ahistoryteacher.com/holocaust/tiki-index.php
• Planet Math
• http//planetmath.org/

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Podcasting

• Subscription model
• RSS, Feedburner
• Students can write in different media
• Audiocast
• Videocast
• Screencast

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Where to Find Podcasts

• iTunes
• www.apple.com/itunes
• iPodder
• www.ipodder.org
• Podcast Alley
• http//podcastalley.com
• Education Podcast Network
• http//epnweb.org

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Student Podcasts

• Radio Willow Web
• www.mpsomaha.org/willow/radio
• Mr. Mayos class
• http//mrmayo.typepad.com/podcasts
• Bob Sprankles Room 208
• http//bobsprankle.com/blog
• Lincoln Southwest High School
• http//lsw.lps.org/dhersh/podcast.html
• Madrid Young Learners
• http//mylcpodcasts.blogspot.com

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Podcasting Across the Curriculum

• Social Studies
• Science
• Music
• Foreign Language
• Classroom archive
• Guided tours - campus or artwork
• Assemblies
• Orientations
• Weekly or monthly messages

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What you need to podcast

• Audio
• Audacity
• Skype
• Script
• Export as MP3
• Upload to server
• School server
• Ourmedia.org
• Blog software

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What you need to podcast

• Use RSS to syndicate
• Feedburner
• Feed For All
• Register in directories
• iTunes
• Podcast Alley
• Podcast Central
• Podcast.net

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Screencasting

• Capture computer screen
• Add narration
• Myscreencast.com
• http//myscreencast.com/forums/

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Screencasting Ideas for Teachers

• Use a Tablet PC
• Capture ink annotations or written solutions
• Training videos
• Narrated PowerPoint tour
• Video collection of student work

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Screencasting Ideas for Students

• Annotate work by voice while showing it on screen
• Create internet tours
• Read stories or poems with accompanying visuals

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RSS

• Content comes to the reader
• Keep track of students posts
• Use keywords to find new entries
• Topic of interest
• School name
• Teaches student to sift through large amounts of
  information

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Find an Aggregator

• Aggregators collect and organize RSS feeds
• Bloglines
• http//bloglines.com/
• Wikipedia
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_aggregator

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Finding Feeds

• Technorati.com
• Feedster.com
• Daypop.com
• Weblogs Compendium
• www.lights.com/weblogs/searching.html
• RSS Compendium
• http//allrss.com/rssfeeds.html

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Questions?

• Tracy Newman
• Senior Educational Technology Analyst
• Johnson County Community College
• tnewman_at_jccc.edu
• 913-469-8500 x4670
• Look for PowerPoint slides here
• http//web.jccc.net/c2c/sidlit/sidlit_archives.htm