Final Thoughts, Final Tools

Over the summer I had the opportunity to go to Missouri’s Distance Learning conference where Wesley Fryer presented several sessions about Web 2.0 tools; he specifically introduced me to two ideas that can easily enhance classrooms: Voice Threads, a site designed to help educators publish pictures and videos while incorporating sound and a story in five frames—a group on Flicr. After watching a video on Voice Thread, people can leave their voice comments on it which makes the experience completely interactive and engages students to do well because of the potential audience. A story in five frames is just what it sounds like—a group of five pictures that tell a story from beginning to end. The interesting thing about both of these is the capabilities they have to bring a new dimension to student learning.

In yearbook, a concept I truly struggle with is getting students to see the importance of the shot—understanding that the pictures they take need to do more than be clear—they actually need to say something. The story in five frames can truly help them to find a story in pictutres. Fryer talked about making his first voice thread after creating a story in five pictures. The five pictures were his youngest daughter's hair cut, and the voice thread shows those picturs and the three year old narrates them.

Voice Thread takes home movies to a new level. Educators can utlize voice thread in several ways. One way is to post a picture of a concept or idea a class has been learning, and then having the class comment on the item, and publishing that so that parents, communitiy members, and others can comment on the concept and on the students' perspectives. Voice thread allows students pictures to be posted as drawings instead of their actual pictures to promote safety and secure Internet experiences. In the Spring, when the freshmen class reads To Kill a Mockingbird, I plan on using Voice Thread to track their ideas of the book, and of the characters as we go along. Also, instead of completing a powerpoint, students could complete a Voice Thread.

Techno Literacy

There are several things that educators can do to ensure that citizens are wholly literate in the 21st centruy, but perhaps the easiest and most productive step would be to stay open to continuing to develop their own literacy. Although I find technology to be a fun and rewarding pasttime, I recognize that no all teachers feel that way. In fact, I work with teachers who still refuse to use email, although most school communication is conducted online these days.

Because of dynamics like these, a gap exists between what teachers and students can do. I think this gap is the reason that our school blocks Facebook and MySpace instead of teaching that there is a time, a place, and a function to utilize social networking and during the middle of a lecture isn't a prime one. I also maintain that we could and should be using these technologies to more effectively connect students with their learning.

By sticking our heads in the sand and enforcing the status quo, we are truly missing out on learning experiences and teaching such important topics as netiquette. The students I have in ninth grade this year have always had the Internet at their fingertips yet are probably the least apt to find quality sources becuase they are out on the World Wide Web on their own, without any guidance.

Issues like cyberbullying and Internet stalking are ones that I never had to think of as a child, yet I expect students to know how to deal with these issues today. Students need opportunities to learn how to use technology in as many different ways as possible. In my school, however, we are putting more and more hinderances on when and how students can use technology instead of educating them about how to do so in practical and effective ways.

Podcasts, Podcasts, Everywhere

Podcasts are an easy way to add a human touch to an online course or an online document. Once I got over the fact that I had to hear my own voice in order to complete the assignment, I just dove in and recorded something I’ve wanted on video for a while—the welcome message to my online AP course. After doing that, I recorded podcast welcomes for all of my online courses. It was easy, and it allows students to hear me. I can imagine all sorts of ways to use podcasts in the classroom.

Online learning often allows for few multiple intelligences to be met. Posting podcasts makes an online lesson more accessible for the auditory learners. Virtually anyone can make and utilize podcasts because so often microphones and speakers are internal parts of monitors and laptops these days. Of course, podcasts can also enhance seated classes. At my public school, I could easily record directions for any class for students to access if they need a reminder or they were absent. I could also record class sessions, so parents could hear what we are learning about in English I. My classes could also listen to podcasts to enhance their understanding or knowledge about a particular subject. It seems that the list of possible ways to use podcast go on and on.

NETS-S 1 & 2

A New Way of Doing

As a yearbook teacher I'm constantly searching for the easiest way of making processes as streamlined as possible. One of the questions that plagues me is how to organize pictures the most effectively. Flickr may be my answer. At four pictures uploaded, I've used 2% of my space for the month, but I could have each student set up an account, and surely wouldn't exceed that space for each month. I could also pay for an account and have unlimited storage, but I wouldn't be able to manage who uploaded what, so there would be no accountability for the students. We could also spend a lot time talking about posting pictures and how that practice needs to be as private as possible if students are in the pictures. This would meet the NETS-S 1,2, and 5.

I enjoyed the process of uploading pictures with Flicr, but it seemed a bit slow. I do like that there is editing software available through the site as well, which could also aid in a better yearbook. I did have to refresh the page a few times for the editing software to load, but once it did, it was fairly intuitive.

The whole idea of photo sharing proves how much people are willing to share and post on the Internet. The whole world can see pictures of children and families, comment on them, and sometimes send them to others. This is a freeing and terrifying thought. More and more people are learning how to abuse the freedom of the Internet, and it's scary to think of how quickly pictures can fall into the wrong hands. Flickr offers the privacy options, but I wonder sometimes if people are able to decide whether or not something should be private or public.

Simple Beauty

In memory of Anee Khudaverdian...,
originally uploaded by Isabelle Lafrance.

This picture caught my attention becuase of the color or maybe becuase the leaf looks alive in a bed of crunchy, dead nature. It's perfect.

Book Marks' Dinner Party

I’ve used delicious for a few years; I first heard about from my friend Heidi who was working on her doctoral research when she was staying at my house. I was in the midst of beginning my To Kill a Mockingbird unit which involved a lot of searching online for information to work into my classes. “Why don’t you just use delicious?” Heidi asked as she watched me struggle to manage all of my favorites into some kind of order. The rest is history.

What I didn’t think about then, that I do now, is that social bookmarking is a collaborative tool. Often we assume that we know how to manage information, but honestly, it something that the Library of Congress fights over. Delicious does offer suggestions at what to tag a specific site, but I am well aware that I can ignore their suggestion. I enjoy seeing how many people have tagged a site before adding it to my own collection.

In my Applied Communications course, when we do research essays, I encourage students to find Internet information from the social bookmarking page. The ability to draw from others’ experiences with a specific topic can be invaluable. This assignment would meet NETS-3—collecting and organizing information.

Really Super Subscriptions

RSS feeds make keeping up to date simple and easy. Instead of using Bloglines for this, I chose to use Google Reader since I already have a Google account that I check often.

Once a week, blogger posts "Blogs of Note," and when I find one I like, I can easily subscribe to it using the RSS feed and Google Reader. Before I tried to keep a list, or add them to my favorites, but I would of course forget about them. Now when I log into my Google account, I can check the RSS feeds with no problem.

In my freshmen English class, students are often talking about books, and there are several blogs that update about specific books and authors. We could easily use the feeds to stay up-to-date on those sites. If I were to make an assignment to create a blog, I could subscribe to each blog and to its subsequent comments to keep tabs on the class. This kind of assignment would meet NETS-S 2--a and b.

What I Know About Wikis Is

The experience of creating a wiki was not nearly as daunting as learning about all of the sites where one can create a wiki and why one may choose to do so. Simply put, the Internet sometimes overwhelms me to the point of crippling me. After looking at each of the wiki sites, the PB site seemed the most user friendly by far (of course, it could also be because I looked at it first).

My wiki site Owlbook would be useful for my yearbook class. The page I created could be used to keep track of good ideas we have for headlines for our theme. One of yearbook's biggest jobs at first is to design a yearbook theme, and I could easily see a page devoted to brain stroming about that as well. The class could also keep track of photography tips and yearbook pages ideas as well. This easily meets the second ISTE NETS standard of community and collaboration. Students need opportunities to share knowledge with one another and communicate about that knowledge.

http://owlbook.pbwiki.com/

A Note About Blogs

I've looked at both Blogger and Wordpress to begin a blog. I've not been a big fan of Wordpress. Blogger is a lot more intuitive for me, and I appreciate the straightforward approach it offers to uploading pictures and videos.

I have made blogs using Blogger's templates as well as using templates provided online. There are several places to download templates to personalize blog formats, and I've found that Wordpress offers more opportunities for people to personalize their blogs, but those people need to have a fairly large working knowledge of HTML, which I don't. I know I can learn, but it is a bit easier for me to choose a template I like and upload it. There are several developers who are creating templates for blogs for a price, and people seem willing to pay for something to help their blog stand out. If someone has a working knowledge of Photoshop and banners, they can create their own template using Blogger's backgrounds and their own banner.

As an English teacher, I think that the use of blogs seems quite easy to introduce and utilize. In the past, I've asked that students blog about books and ideas for essays. There are problems that come with blogging, though. Just last week in the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) newsletter I receive, there was an article that warned teachers and school districts to be careful about using blogs. The article focused on teachers who blog and endanger their jobs, but every teacher can foresee problems that could come about because of blogging. It's imperative that, if students use blogs in the K-12 arena, teachers protect their identities as well as their locations and other personal information.

This year, I could use a classroom blog to keep track of ideas of our yearbook as well as important strategies for creating a yearbook. I wouldn't upload pictures, but I could share photography tips with students and ask them to post their interview notes. This approach would make it much easier to sift through all of that information than the paper method we use now. Using a blog in yearbook class to keep up with issues in class and to use as a reference tool would meet the second NETS-S: Communication and Collaboration. Acquiring and gathering information in order for students to learn from one another can be quite transformative. Blogs are a wonderful tool, and I can and should make good use of them in my classrooms.