Changing Technology and the Classroom

A fellow classmate's blog http://stephenwa.blogspot.com/2007/09/we-need-revolution.html was talking about http://www.aect.org/default.asp and the need for change in the education system, especially concerning the use of technology.

George Mason University is addressing some advances in technology that will affect students and faculty. To read more go to http://itu.gmu.edu/techservices/technology_changes_css.html

One interesting part is the use of podcasting. It appears that the faculty had requested a way to record and broadcast lectures. In my ID class Dr. D has been using podcasts for the last several chapters instead of us sitting in the classroom to hear her lecture on the chapters. I enjoyed being able to listen to the podcasts on the chapters at my own pace.

To hear my two podcasts about blogging go to http://levendusky.podbean.com/

Photo at http://www.taken.org/techconf/images/tech_conf_logo_2005.jpg

Second Podcast Finished

Go check out my second podcast about blogging. This episode discusses what students might want to have on their blog and some of the tools bloggers use to create the look they are going for. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment either here or at podbean.
http://levendusky.podbean.com/

Go check out a few more of my students' blogs.
http://jenniferhcomputersii.blogspot.com/
http://austinkcomputerstudent.blogspot.com/
http://gretan33.blogspot.com/
http://laynem.blogspot.com/

One of the themes for this podcast was what did the students like about blogs and what did they want to see in a blog. I hoped this would inspire some dialog between students. They do get a lot of good ideas from each other that I could never come up with.

Photo at http://business.missouri.edu/457/204.jpg

Showing off my Podcast

Yesterday I showed off my Podcast to my co-workers. I got many comments, the most often was "it so cute". I am not sure if that was the reaction I was going for but it is nice to hear that it sounded OK from someone other than my husband. Several people are looking towards my second podcast. I really think that I might use these in my class next semester when we start the blog unit again.

First Podcast about Blogging in the Classroom

Go check out my first podcast at http://levendusky.podbean.com/
It is all about what responsibilities my students have when they blog for our class projects as well as their responsibility when commenting on other students' blogs. I used several resources to create the guidelines for this project. Click the link to hear the podcast that gave me the most inspiration.

Go check out some of my students' blogs. Also, check out the comments that other students said about their postings.
http://danielleccomputerstudent.blogspot.com/
http://abbyccomputerstudent.blogspot.com/
http://asmir13.blogspot.com/

Podcast Development

Working on a podcast for Emerging Tech class--what an adventure--not that creating a podcast is hard but it does take editing time. I am trying to create the podcast at a high enough level that I will want to use it my classroom. Since my class is already past the intro stage I will have to wait until next semester to try it out in a real time classroom.

Overall my students seem to be enjoying commenting on fellow classmates' blogs more than writing their own blogs. I have been trying to make their required postings about the content we are studying in class to make the blog time tie in with our educational goals for the class, however, the students really rather it be like their MySpace page where they can write what ever they are thinking. So this will be an area that I will be reviewing before I do this project again with my next semester's classes.

Willow School's Podcast

After listening to the great podcast by Willow School's 5th grade class at http://www.mpsomaha.org/willow/radio/shows/Willowcast25.html I looked around on their schools home page and discovered several of their teachers use blogs. One teacher from the fifth grade has not updated her blog since May of 07. Another third grade teacher has not updated her blog since Nov of 06 and started it in Aug of 05. That made me start thinking about the possibility of how hard it is to find time to keep my class blog, I am starting, up to date. It also made me realize how behind the times I might be if the third grade class started using blogs in 05. I was looking around early today to see if I could find a podcast on blogging in the classroom and have not had very good luck yet so if any one runs into a podcast about setting up blogs in a classroom that we have not already listen to for our class, please let me know.

One podcast I did find talked about the general ups and downs of on-line learning from the point of view of several college students. You can find this 4 minute blog at http://edcommunity.apple.com/ali/story.php?itemID=1004 you will need to scroll down the page to see the play button.

Later in my search I found this http://secretaffiliatemarketing.com/2007/05/16/how-to-set-up-wordpress-and-blogger-blogs-with-adsense/ it's a YouTube video about setting a blogger account up in under two minutes.

Next finding http://connect.educause.edu/blog/mpasiewicz/aninterviewwithglend/15467 is a 17 minute interview with Cal State's Director of Academic Technology Research. The last two minutes she talks about blogging.

When I have more time I plan on going back to http://connect.educause.edu/term_view/blogging to listen to more podcasts about blogging.