#8 Podcasts in the classroom

Here is a Youtube video on podcasts that I found. I think it would be a great way of introducing Podcasts to a staff.

#7 podcasting sites

Here are some useful websites I found for educators with more ideas.

1. Podcasting in the Classroom http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~nshelley/ is a great introductory website for teachers, full of lessons ideas for teachers and tips for the students.

2. Educational Podcasting Resources http://www.stager.org/podcasting.html contains podcasting information and related sites from Gary Stager with topics such as "What is Podcasting?" to "How Do You Create Podcasts?"

3. Podcasting 101 for K–12 Librarians by Esther Kreider Eash http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/apr06/Eash.shtml discusses just what a podcast is, reasons to use podcasts in school libraries, how to create a podcast and suggests websites and software.

4.NASA Podcasts http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcasting/ contains podcasts on the solar system, the universe, earth, shuttle, station and human research and so much more.
http://vocaroo.com/?media=vgJo0Uvu3eVvEneBe

5. http://www.podomatic.com poscasting site with links to podcasts from around the world

6. http://www.Vocaroo.com a voice recording service newly developing

Podcasting #6

Please listen to my podcast as I discuss ideas from the textbook and applications in the classroom.

#5 podcasting

I don't know which I like better Podomatic or Vocaroo? I think Vocaroo would be easy for students to handle and you don't need to sign up for an account. However, I'm not sure if you can do editing or be able to save all you podcasts with Vocaroo. This is something to experiment with.

#4 Trying out new podcasting technique

Boy that was easy!

Podcast #3

It was a success!
I just signed up for PodOmatic and recorded right off my webcam. The first post I made a mistake and posted the website. The second post I embeded the podcast. More on Podcasting later!
Val

postcast test #2

this is a podcast test #1

http://valeriespencerbarron.podomatic.com/entry/2011-02-21T10_19_20-08_00

Social Bookmarking #3 Diigo

Now that I have been playing with Diigo for a while, I am starting to like it. Whenever I go to a different computer in my house I can still find all my bookmarks. I have also learned how to find other people's bookmarks with similar tags such as mine. I am still working on making groups or lists. At the moment, it just looks like a list of bookmarks without any order.
From reading a recommended sites about Diigo at http://wiki.classroom20.com/Social+Bookmarking and reading Richarson's book I have learned a few applications for the classroom.
-you can create accounts for your school's departments or grade levels and teachers can all contribute to the databases of web resources
-you can collaborate on projects with other schools
-you can network with other teachers from around the world
-it gives the students live links to select instead of typing in the exact URL
-it let's students choose from a variety of acceptable trusted websites
-students can access the bookmarks outside of school for projects and research
-you can highlight or add sticky notes for your students
-the teacher can leave feedback on a student blog post and he/she can leave notes for the teacher
Richardson suggested setting up a "Best Practices" tag to share with parents and the school community.

The only problem I see right now is when students leave notes and comments for the teacher. Will the educator have time to read and check all the notes. Would it be safe to have students contacting people from around the world? Who is responsible for their activities at home on the Internet?
Just some thoughts.

Here is a link to my Diigo account:
http://www.diigo.com/user/snowdays

Social Bookmarking #2 Let's get it started!

I decided not to sign up for Delicious, because I tried that once and found it overwhelming, plus I can't find the username and password. Instead, I signed up for Diigo. I figured since the instructions were in the book it would be quite helpful.It was very easy to sign up! I picked an simple username and password that I could share with my students. I like the fact that it is primarily safe to use in schools and teachers can set privacy settings to classmates only. Unfortunately, it appears that there will be some educational ads. I would prefer no advertisements, but I will have to see what they're like.
Anyway, I now have an account. I had a little difficulty in putting Diigo on the toolbar. The instructions in Richardson's book are different now. There was a little symbol of a yellow star with a green arrow on it ...and that is where you add items to the tool bar.I also started to put some of my favourites in Diigo. Here are the problems here: While on the site I have to copy and paste the site into Diigo. After the set up, I can't click the back button to go back to that site again. With just adding to favourites you click add and then it is done, plus you page is still there. Maybe I am doing something wrong??
As of now, I have added several sites to Diigo. I haven't figured out how to share them or see others?? That is my next challenge. How will I share this social bookmark with you?? I don't think there is a link? How will I use this in the classroom? The adventure begins!

Social Bookmarking #1

I have been reading up on social bookmarking in Will Richardson's book. I really didn't think there was anything special about social bookmarking, but now I can see some of the benefits. I am not the most organized person out there and when I see a page on the internet I simpy select favourites and then add. No one had told me any other way to do it. Now, I have hundreds of favourites and sometimes I can't find them. Like just before I did this blog, I couldn't find the site under my favourites. Maybe my mind is just not working right....or there's that organizational problem again!
According to Richardson there are over 10 billion pages of we information up right now and there are millions being added each year. (p.89).With social bookmarking you can keep you favourites organized and share them with others. You can find these bookmarks any time you are on the internet and not just from your home computer. I like the idea of putting tags and annotations to help keep them together.
Richardson says that it "creates your own community of researchers that is gathering information for you."(p.89). I am looking forward to sharing and seeing other bookmarks for the social bookmarking.

video sharing #5

Video sharing post
In chapter 8 Richardson focuses much of his discussion on podcasting, but I am more interested in his ideas on video production. I was rather surprised with a statement that Richardson said “elementary school kids seem to love podcasting.”(p.121). I have never heard the kids talk about podcasting. I have only seen it done once with the older students in our school. Maybe it’s more common wherever he is from. Any way, Youtube is the definitely the best way to get your video out to the world. Richardson points out that it is the first thing blocked in schools. I understand why. I have been on YouTube many times and some videos are not fit to watch. I never let my students do searches on YouTube for that reason. Instead, I do my own search for appropriate videos that go with the curriculum and always preview them before hand. What they see at home is not my problem, but in school I want to make it suitable for students. At the same time, children need to be taught how to deal with, as Richardson said, “less than salient content”. (p.121). I am pretty sure that parents don’t know what they are watching.
Let me go back to my thoughts on video production. Richardson talks about the great online services that are free, there is unlimited usage and you can even record right from your computer. He suggests trying Movie Maker or iMovie where you can record audio voiceovers right into your movie. That looks like something you would have to play with. I’m sure the students would be able to figure that out pretty quick. When it comes to video editing that is something I know nothing about. I will have to have a look at JayCut.com and see how that works. Another place to investigate is Teacher Tube. I have gone to this site before looking for good videos to use in class. I guess it is a safer version of YouTube.
Screencasting looks like an interesting tool to use to explain something to students. Richardson suggests students could annotate their work in voice as they show it on screen. There are many other uses, but this seems to be podcasting again.
I thought would try Ustream.tv to see how it works so here we go!

#4 Video sharing

Yeah, a success! I put the embedding code right into the Html editor and it worked! In the next post I will explain the uses of video in the classroom!

#3 Video sharing-third time lucky?

Video Sharing #2

Let's try setting up the video AGAIN!I have just tried uploading the video from my laptop. It didn't say how long it would take?? It's taking a while. I can continue to edit during the upload! It seems to autosave throughout....good thing.Gee..it's been about 15 minutes now! I hope it doesn't take 35 minutes like when I was uploading onto Youtube. There really is no way to tell how long it will take....I could be here for hours. In my next post I think I will try embedding it from Youtube? O.K. now it's been 30 minutes! I'll let it go another 10 minutes then I will have to stop the uploading:{ ...o.k. time's up...it's taking too long. I am going to cancel the upload.

Video Sharing getting started

There are many types of video sharing sites on the internet, but I chose to use Youtube. I selected Youtube because I had to set up an account last year for one of my courses. I remember the first time I set it up....boy, was I nervous! This time, I still had to check to see what my user name and password were, but once you have done something the second time is a piece of cake. Last night I set up my video camera and video taped my daughter demonstrating how to make a homemade volcano. It took a few minutes to get all the materials together, set up the lighting and figure out what my daughter would say. There is quite a bit of preparation and thought put into this! Anyway, the video turned out pretty good and then I uploaded it. That took over 35 minutes. I was afraid to leave the computer. Now I have to figure out how to inbed the video. **** I just tried to upload the video from my computer and the internet stopped working to protect my computer! I am going to post this now before I lose it and set up another post with the video!!! Good thing the blog was saved!