Back In Business

Whew! It has been a hectic beginning to the school year. Funny that I say that 8 weeks in. However, we have implemented a new version of Blackboard, and moved to a new student management system and gradebook. All that = lots of questions to be answered. + we lost a tech assistant, so I have been wearing 2 hats!

This year, I am hoping to get my teachers on board with Web 2.0 resources. Since our kiddos are already using many outside of school, it seems logical to use them in school as well. I have just created a page at Classroom 2.0 http://www.classroom20.com/profile/hersheybar11 and am excited to get new ideas, and resources from my new friends there.

I am also planning podcast lessons with some classrooms and am excited to share the free tools at www.ePals.com with my teachers. The key is to start slowly and let the fires spread! Hopefully we will be blogging, podcasting and weilding wikis by Christmas!

Collaborative Tools - Haysville Style!

Wow! What a fun two days I had working with staff members from Haysville! Thank goodness they were easy going and didn't mind going off on web tangents with me! We explored and created blogs and wikis, and published podcasts too. Because we were minus a very important fire wire, we weren't able to create vodcasts, but we did create slideshow style vodcasts! It was great to create and post to our blogs and wikis.

In addition to all this creative work going on, we explored a couple of fun sites:
www.quizlet.com a great site created by a teen for other kids to collaborate on studying for tests. Our favorite feature was Scatter, a game for study with embeddable html code. It is great that we can include the game right into our blogs, wikis or Bb courses.

We also took a look at www.visuwords.com which is a visual thesaurus. Very handy for students and staff alike. Finally, we looked at a great bunch of resources put together by Lynn Williams at Briarcrest Christian School http://www.briarcrest.com/images/3970/Whats%20the%20scoop%20on%20telecollaboration.doc. I was fortunate enough to attend her session What's the Scoop on Telecollaboration? at the Laptop Institute last week. Great stuff, Lynn!

Lisa provided us with a few treats as well:
http://www.scratch.mit.edu/ a great little tool created by the folks at MIT where students can create their own online games.
E-coach http://my-ecoach.com/project.php?id=9846, offers the coolest web 2.0 tools available.
And, www.senteacher.org which is a resource site for teachers of special needs students, but we found lots of stuff there that would be great for all students.
Thanks Lisa, for alerting us to these super sites!

Podcasting 101

Podcasting used to be only for the "elite" Mac users. Now us plain old folks can create exciting, enthralling audio files to post to the internet as well. And the best part??? We can do it for FREE! I have listed a bunch of resources you need to look at/download to get you started with Podcasting!
Go here to download the software to create a podcast.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
I like the Audacity 1.3.3 Beta version. After you download and install the software, you will also need to download the LAME encoder, which will allow you to publish your audio files in an .mp3 format. You can find the LAME download at the sourceforge site as well.
Once you have installed the software, you might want to check out some sample podcasts at these sites:
http://www.podcast.net/show/76392
http://www.podcast.net/show/59723
http://www.mpsomaha.org/willow/radio/listen.html
http://www.podcast.net/show/57266
http://www.podcast.net/show/77410
http://www.cbsd.org/millcreek/jaffe/podcast/index.html
http://web.splashcast.net/go/so/1/p/SDQC7498LC

To jazz up your podcasts, you can add some music or sound effects. For free audio files to add to your podcasts, check out these sites:http://freekidsmusic.com/music-ab.html
http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/free-music-resources.html
http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/pir/PIRsfx.shtml
http://www.freeplaymusic.com/http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/pir/PIRsfx.shtml
http://www.soundjunction.org
http://www.rainbowplanet.com/downloads.html
http://www.a1freesoundeffects.com/noflash.htm
Please remember to teach your kiddos about copyright rules when adding music to Podcasts.

Once you have created your Podcast, in order to add it to your blog, wiki or Blackboard site, you need to upload it to the web. For a free space to to this, create an account at Splash Cast. www.splashcastmedia.com
You can also upload pictures, videos and documents here to. Great place for web storage.

Ok, get started, and happy Podcasting!!!

Check out more examples here

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom

Wikis in Plain English

Not-so-twiki Wikis

A wiki is a web application that allows users to add content, as on an Internet forum, but also allows anyone to edit the content. Wiki also refers to the collaborative software used to create such a website.





Why wiki?


There are many ways to incorporate wikis into your curriculum! You can create a wiki for a book study, have students collaborate to create a class study guide, defend a position on a topic, etc.


Here are some sample wikis to check out:


http://g105.pbwiki.com/ Password: g105wiki
http://browniewiki.pbwiki.com/
http://madamekerr.pbwiki.com/
http://findmeinf3.pbwiki.com/ password: mhsgovt
http://mhsstuco.pbwiki.com/ password: maizestuco


http://terrythetennisball.wikispaces.com/


http://usd266charactered.pbwiki.com/ password: character

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
Ok, now that you have looked at a few, how do you get started?


Start here: http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/. This is a great tutorial to get you started.


Here are a few places to go to create your wiki:





http://www.pbwiki.com/


http://www.wikispaces.com/


http://www.wetpaint.com/

Blogs- what are they?

The term blog is short for weblog which is an online journal or diary. There are thousands of blogs on the web, covering all topics imaginable. I have 3 different blogs, 2 of which I use for classes that I teach, and the third was created for the presentation that I gave at the Laptop Institute last week in Memphis, Tennesse.

How do I use a blog in my classroom?

You can use a blog for many purposes. Most educators would probably think of using a blog to to keep students and their parents informed about what is going on in the classroom. But there are many educational purposes outside of basic communication. Check out the example blogs listed to see some of the many ways they are being used.

http://eaglegeo-sci-g-17.blogspot.com/
http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=59644

ttp://delzerblog.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1337

http://hetherington0607.learnerblogs.org/

http://msnelson.blogspot.com/

Many blogs are free to create. Below are some to check out.

http://www.blogger.com/
http://wordpress.com/

http://edublogs.org/
http://www.blogeasy.com/

http://www.xanga.com/

http://www.myspace.com/

Once you choose a host, it is easy to sign up. I find the most difficult part is what to call my url. I don't have much creativity there. If you can make it past the url, then simply start posting!

Oh, but wait!!!

What about blogging rules and safety? Check out these links for some ideas to incorporate as you venture into the world of blogging.

EdTech article on blogging rules by David Warlick

Blogging rules by BudtheTeacher

Blogging contract found at Blogmeister.com

Classroom blogging rules worth considering from thinklab blog

Blogging safety by Kathy Schrock

This week I am in Haysville, KS doing a workshop called Collaborative Tools for Enrichment. I am excited to show the teachers there what I have learned from attending all the fabulous sessions at the Laptop Institute at Lausanne Collegiate School in Memphis. My hope is that teaches will become more familiar with Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis, and podcasts. It is an exciting time in education, especially from my perspective, to watch "shift happen"!