Podcasts in the Classroom!

There are countless ways to integrate podcasts into the classroom; for example student-produced podcasts for publishing, podcasts for connecting classrooms, and using podcasts as a form of information about a subject area. Podcasts are audio and or visual files, which are shared through the Internet.

Student-produced podcasts are a form of publishing classroom work with peers, family, and beyond the classroom walls. During the publishing process, students are brainstorming ideas, assigning roles, writing a script, and rehearsing their writing. Before they can produce something onto a podcast they need to check their timings, practice their lines, and edit their work to make sure they are publishing their best work. The last step is to upload their podcasts and they will receive feedback from other students and listeners on the web.

Connecting classrooms through literature circles or online science logs can create a connection among classrooms. Similar to pen pals, classrooms can share their experiments and thoughts about projects they are working on in their school and reach out and share with their digital pen pal. This is a common form of communication that students need exposure to as these forms of communication become increasingly important in our world.

Students can research topics online and use credible podcasts as sources for information. Podcasts can increase the diversity in their research sources and give students a wider pool for collecting information. Education Podcast Network (EPN) has made available academic podcasts can be used in the classroom, from primary grades through college. Beyond research in the classroom, podcasts can be used for digital storytelling during the writing process. Students will be motivated to write when there is a place for their work to be seen and heard. If the teacher is the only audience, the motivation will not be as great as when others outside the classroom can view their work.

http://fcit.usf.edu/podcasts/

http://epnweb.org/

Innovative Tech in the Classroom.

Twitter in the classroom is not something I would have thought to try but I found many useful ideas on Sonja Cole’s article, 25 ways to Teach with Twitter. The majority of suggestions were collaboration tools for connecting teachers with ideas and lesson plans for successful classrooms. Teachers need to use technology and the amazing communication that can be accomplished to broaden our thinking. Our students are taught to think outside the box and we encourage them to search out new ideas through research and we need to follow our own advice! Twitter is limited in word length but it is quick and simple to use. A sample question could ask ‘Does anyone have a great smart board lesson for 2nd graders?’. The answers may be diverse and can include input from a wide range of viewers or could be narrowed down into an educational tribe. The tribes help organize the people into groups based on interest.

Interactive whiteboards are an incredible education tool. The ability to create a presentation, save it and use it for a future class session makes traditional whiteboards obsolete. Digital story telling, working on math problems in whole class discussion, and having access to interactive Internet sites for enhancing lesson presentations are many of the ways that interactive whiteboards can be used in the classroom. With Promethean Boards, students can use the ‘clickers’ to answer formative assessment questions during a lesson and these devices can motivate students to participate who may have been too shy or anxious to commit to an answer in front of their peers. Overall all of the different kinds of interactive whiteboards can be used in the classroom to enhance the daily school day.

Pearson Education had a presentation of new innovative technology that is available for classrooms. Their goal is to provide digital and online education globally. ‘Pearson is revolutionizing schools with an: array of digital and online tools that include research-based content, personalized intervention, assessment for learning, data management and professional development solutions to set every child on an individual learning path to success in school’ (Pearson website). One of the example curriculum to purchase was 7-8th grade Biology were online experiments, dissections, and class blogs could allow students to share their observations.

Cole, Sonja. 25 ways to Teach with Twitter. 2011. Retrieved from:
http://www.techlearning.com/article/25-ways-to-teach-with-twitter-by-sonja-cole/46075

Florida Diagnostic and Learning Resources Center. U.S. Department of Education Grant PT3. 2010. Retrieved from:
http://rmtc.fsdb.k12.fl.us/tutorials/whiteboards.html

Pearson Education. 2010. Retrieved from:
http://www.pearsoned.com/california/pearson-technology-for-california.pdf

Tasty, yum....Delicious!!

http://delicious.com/stacks/jessica_smith

Kathy Hocker Scientific Illustrations by Room 220

First Tech Lesson EVER!

It was the first time for my host classroom to visit the computer lab this school year (aside from the MAPS testing done three weeks ago). The students were really excited to spend time on the computers. I did a brief group meeting in the classroom and we went over how to ask for help and the objectives of learning Voice Thread.

We walked down to the lab and students turned on the computers. I had written the log in and password, [student: student] on the board. A few students did not know how to turn on the Mac desktops. The hard part was signing on to Voice Thread. The log in was jess_smith@hotmail.com and none of the students knew how to make an @ or _ symbol. Kathy and I had to help every kid sign in and it took almost 10 minutes!

The kids weren’t able to edit and add their comments on the Kathy Hocker voice thread but they did listen to my tutorial on how to make the comments. They looked at the Kathy Hocker voice thread and picked out their images that they will be making a comment on. They will be making those comments tomorrow, 10-28 (Friday during Reading). In hindsight, I would have presented this lesson as a mini lesson in small groups of 3-6 students. It would have been easier to differentiate the lesson for small groups and answer their questions as they came up.

Problem solving was mostly worked out when kids asked a teacher how to solve an issue with the program. There needs to be more scaffolding and I should have done this in small groups. I wrote the directions on the white board and used all the spelling for the different log ins and passwords. Next time I will ask IT how to sign in on all the computers from one desktop and save the Voice Thread on each computer. It will take more time but would eliminate the time of signing on. The students can work on signing onto the computer with their personal log ins before learning how to sign in to Voice Thread.

The kids were not able to record their comments but working with the program made them excited to use Voice Thread. It was good to see how the motivation of technology can get the students excited to work on literacy and art projects. I will add more reflection on how tomorrow goes with the individual students using voice thread during Reading.

STEP 1 DESIRED RESULTS

GLE(s)/Standards:

·      JSD Tech Standard A: Use technological tools for learning, communications, and productivity;

·      JSD Tech Standard D: Use communications technology to exchange ideas and information;

Objectives:

·      Turn on computer and log on using (student: student)

·      Introduction to Voice Thread:

o   What is it, how does it work, what will the students be using it for?

Students will know and be able to:

·      Open Voice Thread and log on to class site

·      Listen to class tutorial and learn how to record their comments on the microphone.

STEP 2 ASSESSMENTS

Evidence:

·      Students will record a short 10-30 second voice comment on their scientific illustrations (from Kathy Hocker sketchbooks)

Assessments:

·      Check for student’s understanding of computer use

o   Turning on

o   Logging on with (student: student)

o   Keyboard/Mouse use

STEP 3 LEARNING PLAN

Learning Opportunities and Differentiations:

·      *  Computer Lab – Turn computers on and sign in to student-student ·     *   Introduce Voice Thread and objectives of lesson      ·      * Objective: Learn how to record their voice onto an image of their sketchbook ·      [5-8 minutes] ·      * Sign onto ‘Room 220’ ·      * Password 123 ·      [4-5 minutes] ·      * Using SmartBoard ·      1. Open Voice Thread ·      2. Click on MyVoice ·      3. Click on ‘Room 220 Adventures’ ·      [7-9 minutes] ·      4. Listen with headphones ·      Ask for questions/comments?? ·      [If time…show kids the DIPAC voicethread] ·      Open DIPAC voicethread for an example of what they will be doing on the Kathy Hocker voicethread ·      Ask for questions/comments ·      Open Room 220 Scientific Illustration voicethread. ·      Kids practice with headphones recording their voice/comments on their image. ·      Show students how to save their comment. ·      Close Voice Thread ·      Log out and turn off computers

·      * Write student-student on whiteboard        * Use SmartBoard to model for students where to click – use this throughout the lesson plan.         * Student objective: Learn to use a Voice Thread and practice using a microphone to record your explanation for your scientific illustration.          * Practice hand sign for taking headphones on and off. [Teacher sign is miming head phones on/off ears]         * If the Voice Thread does not allow more than one user to make comments at the same time, kids are explore the 5 voice threads I added to ‘MyVoice’ while they wait for their turn to record.

Boolean Search - 2nd grade and Math games

Search Keys	Purpose	What did you find?
AND	2,170,000	I was surprised that ‘and’ found less than ‘not/or’. I don’t understand why that is true? However the first three sites were all free and two I had seen at Gastineau School as game sites that the RALLY staff let kids play.
OR	2,270,00	There are countless websites for math and educational programs for 2nd graders. Many are free and assessable. They are marketed for parents. According to their brief write up under the website address.
NOT	WINNER 6,260,000 – SO MANY SITES!!!	Interesting but standards came up on the first page of available links. Mostly state standards; for example Virginia.
“                    “	417,000	By far the least amount of sites!
*	3,340,000	More games – almost the same 12 or more that popped up for the ‘and’ search.
- (minus)	6,050,000	I put a minus in front of the 2nd grade part and the search engine still returned over 6million sites. I think more of the sites were math related and not grade level specific.
+ (plus)	2,030,000 hits	The same selection as the ‘and’ search
Others I used
Link  www.abcya.com/fourth_grade_computers.htm	4,480	A lot of teacher classroom websites came up…I think that the site is used in their classroom as a link for kids to play.
Title	1,350,000	Much the same.
Notes	www.abcya.com/fourth_grade_computers.htm	This site came up for all of the searches…not always in the first page but at some point it was an available link.
		There are a lot of ways to increase the odds of success on internet searches. This was a very helpful exercise because I have never been introduce to Boolean searchers before – despite all the times I have used the internet!

Voice Thread - and how cool it is!

I really enjoyed using Voice Thread. I found it to be user friendly and the quick tutorials broke down the procedure into a manageable sequence. When I uploaded pictures, I thought that I needed to have the pictures in order when they were in IPhoto. I wasted a lot of time putting those pictures in order because the Voice Thread software was much easier to drag and move the pictures around in. Right now I am wondering if more than one person can be working on the same voice thread, at the same time. I plan on exploring this aspect of the software with the help of Rosie, Elisabeth and Bonnie. This question needs to be answered before I teach my first tech lesson.

I am going to teach Voice Thread to my 2nd graders this Thursday. I have uploaded 22 pictures that I took of their Kathy Hocker sketchbooks(she is the October Artist in Residence). The plan is to have them explore with Voice Thread using the classroom account I created. I will be showing them to use the software by having them watch on the Smart Board (I will be modeling and having them follow along on their computers). Once they are on the program, I will have them watch two different examples that I created. One of them explains what Voice Thread is and the second on is an example voice thread that I put together of the kids. I will show them how I clicked on the microphone and recorded my words for the images.

Once they have explored on Voice Thread and have watched the images from Kathy Hocker, they are going to record their own voices for each of their own images. If they can do it at the same time, that would be awesome. However I am going to explore that this Wednesday and if they can not, kids can do it one at a time. Those students who are waiting can click on a list of voice threads that I will have loaded on ‘My Voice’. They are grade appropriate and should give them ideas for how to use the program.