My First Podcast: A reading from Looking for Alaska

Check out my first podcast...a reading from Looking for Alaska by John Green

http://libraryhab.podOmatic.com/entry/2009-07-09T12_24_22-07_00

My Voicethread - Jillian's Story

Richardson Ch. 7 - Flickr

Ooohh....another toy to play with!! I love taking digital pictures and I think this tool could be so interesting! As I'm thinking about this, I want to come up with better ways to incorporate this into a journalism class that I'm teaching. I'm also thinking about our science teacher who received a grant for GPS/GIS tools. He is always plotting longitude and latitude points and this could make the application more real for his students as well.

Sometimes I think I have to know all the 'ins and outs' of a program before I can possibly teach it. I'm trying to change that mindset. I'd like to experiment with being more of a "facilitator" of the students' learning by introducing some of these Web 2.0 tools and then letting them teach each other. Then, as Micki has stated in other classes, I worry that the students will be "catastrophically naughty" in some way...what do you guys think?

Richardson Ch. 6 - The Social Web

Duh...the social web...It's getting clearer and clearer all the time.

I hate to admit it but, until I read this chapter, I didn't get the "social" part of diigo or del.icio.us. When I signed up for that diigo account a few weeks ago, my thought was, "Great! Finally a way to organize all these bookmarks and be able to make notes to myself about each of them." I didn't get the whole idea of tapping into what everyone else is looking at and collaborating with others on finding the best information that is out there.

I can see so many personal applications for these social bookmarking programs. As I read this book, I keep coming up with ideas that I need to bring up to my administrator. As part of this blog, does anyone have advice on how to be a leader in getting some of these Web 2.0 tools to be used in the school more?

Richardson Ch. 5 - RSS

I don't know why, but it seems like I've been resisting RSS for awhile. We've talked about it in other classes and I understood the basic premise, but I just didn't seem interested. While Richardson is clearly excited about it, I'm still having a hard time getting started with it. I think I'm stalling because I'm not sure which sites to subscribe to and I question whether I'll keep up with it. Still, Richardson seems to think "everyone will be doing it" soon...

I do like the idea of the personal learning network and this is obviously a great way to do this. I also think I need to be subscribing to sites that will perhaps help me with my poster session research. And I can always 'unsubscribe', right? Anyone have similar feelings of being resistant to RSS?

I agree that students who learn to navigate all the available information out there and who have the skills to critically evaluate information will be the successful students of the future. Time to get on board, I guess!

One thing I thought that was interesting was the idea of the superintendent subscribing to RSS for any time the school district is published about. While exploring Facebook, I found a lot of interesting things said about our school (some great, some not-so-great). It would be interesting to see what a person would do with all the information they could gather.

Evaluating School Blogs

I explore two interesting, yet very different, teacher blogs. One is by a junior high classroom in Manitoba, Canada (http://mr-fisher.edublogs.org/) I really like the "About" section of this blog, which states, "This blog is our classroom portal. It is the space for a combined grade 7 / 8 class at Joseph H. Kerr School in Snow Lake, MB. We are a class that works hard to connect with other learners around the globe. We blog, we shoot videos, we podcast, we use wikis to help us plan and to connect ourselves with what we are learning. We think globally."

What a powerful message about technology and globalization. It's obvious, at least from the student bloggers, that they are engaged in their learning. This website didn't have a great introduction or description of itself but it was easy to navigate and see the various assignments the students worked on and their interaction with the teacher. It's meant to be shared between teacher and classmates, but its application is a great example of what can be done in any classroom.

The second classroom blog was 'A Chat With Mary' (http://achatwithmary.blogspot.com/). This site was more of a resource center for other teachers. It has a wealth of information within it to help integrate technology into any classroom. One of my favorite links from this blog is to 'Mary's Portal for Teachers'. While it isn't the most attractive site, it has almost every imaginable topic and application a teacher could want/need. I didn't see a lot of interaction with this site, but I do think it is a great resource for others.

Evaluating Educator Blogs

I compared Will Richardson's 'weblogg-ed' (http://weblogg-ed.com/) with Jeff Utecht's 'the thinking stick' (http://www.thethinkingstick.com/)

Following Kathy Schrock's evaluation of blogs, I found that both blogs include bios on the authors, other works, information about their professional affiliations, etc. As for the purpose of the site, Weblogg-ed is a little more specific about its intentions, but both are pretty clear. The credentials of the authors are mostly stated by the authors themselves, but both can easily be corroborated with a little more research. The nature of the discussions with other bloggers lends credibility to the authors.

There is a feeling of expertise, especially in Richardson's blog, but it’s clear that the intentions of the blog are to be more of a forum of opinions. Both authors are challenged, which makes for a better discussion.

Overall, I enjoyed Richardson's blog more. I found so many useful items in there that I have saved for future use. His blogs are more detailed and I really enjoyed the conversations he had with other bloggers. One of my favorites is "The Future of My Kids' Work" (http://weblogg-ed.com/2009/the-future-of-my-kids-work/). This reminded me a lot of the "Cognitive Backpack" article we read in Information Literacy and I noted it as a possible use for looking at the Iowa Core Curriculum and the teacher librarian's role.

Richardson Chapter 2

Weblogs: Pedagogy & Practice

One of the ideas that stood out from this chapter was the idea of "community building" -- the connections and sharing of ideas around common interests. I knew that was what blogging was all about, but as I reflect on its use in the school system, I think it's important to keep that goal in mind when planning classes and assignments that require blogs.

It isn't true blogging to simply post assignments or to ask a student to journal about his/her feelings or activities. True blogging happens when connections are made and thinking is expanded.

One of the first applications I considered for a potential blog was using the tool for my journalism class. My initial thought was to have a place where students could post ideas for stories/yearbook pages, upload photos, etc. While this is probably an efficient way to do these things, I later expanded my idea to include a place for peer editing/review -- where the teacher, other students, even parents could challenge the journalism students to think more deeply about the subjects they are writing about.

I also like the idea of creating an entire portfolio for a student's school career. As technology continues to grow, it would be important that the previous work could be incorporated into new technology applications.

Very interesting chapter!