Podcasting for Education

Podcasts are a way to record and deliver information and multimedia to a large audience almost instantly.  It can also be a much more interesting way to receive information as opposed to receiving it through an email, or by some other multimedia means.  In addition, podcasting can be a great way to bring education to a whole new level by sparking students' interests in various subject areas and technologies that they may not have ever cared about before.

I think podcasting would be great to use in the classroom to distribute homework and weekly/nightly agendas.  In the middle and high school grades, teachers are constantly looking for ways to increase a student's interest and participation in and out of the classroom.  By using a technology that they already love, this might be all that is needed to get them tuned into your classroom.  Teachers are constantly telling students to put away their ipods and cell phones.  Now, with podcasts, teachers can gladly tell students to take out their ipods to send and receive educational podcasts.  

Just imagine, all of the ways that you could use podcasting to improve the academic achievements in your classroom.  For a science class, students could subscribe to receive National Geographic articles and other articles via their ipod, which would be great for research assignments and to really spark their interest in that particular subject.  So, in reality students could receive internet information at home, without having to own personal computer.

Now, think about how many students who live in a home where both parents work.  Many of times, the students will come home to an empty house, and often times will have no help for completing their homework.  In addition, a lot of times parents do not have the knowledge or ability to help their children with their homework either because they do not remember the material, or because they never learned it themselves.  So, now imagine that child being able to access math tutorials via his/her podcast to help him/her with that math homework without a parent's help.  Many times a child is reluctant to attempt their homework assignment because they are unsure how to begin or they do not understand the assignment.  With educational tutorials sent via podcasting, that would no longer be a problem.     

So as you can see, podcasting can bring education and educational media to a whole new level, and quite possibly could be what sparks the initial desire for educational achievement in today's youth.  So sign up today for a podcasting program like itunes, and you might just be podcasting tomorrow! 

Learning in Hand:

http://www.learninginhand.c...

Apple's Podcasting in Education:

http://bit.ly/rhiSw

How to create your own podcast:

http://bit.ly/19DV0E

Article on Podcasts:

http://net.educause.edu/ir/...

Why is podcasting relevant to Education?

http://bit.ly/pTjNC

RSS Feeds: So that's what that little orange symbol means!

All this time, I never knew what the little orange symbol meant.  I never really knew it had any meaning at all.  I always thought that it was just an icon for the website.  Little did I know that it was a major link to a whole another world... a way to subscribe to a site!  RSS stands for "Real Simple Syndication."  RSS feeds make it possible for a blog reader to "subscribe" to a blog.  This way, readers can continuously receive updates and new blogs to read without having to continuously visit the bloggers site.  All of this is possible through software called an "aggregator."  The aggregator is a feed collector that regularly checks for new information from your selected sites about every hour.  What makes this real simple syndication simple is that the information comes to you, instead of you having to go to it.  Wow!  What a great concept.  We, as Americans, are constantly looking for ways to make technology better, faster, and more technologically advanced, and it looks like we have done it.  Instead of searching for the information, we now have it coming to us, which is great, but how are we going to use it? Better yet, how can we use it for education?

RSS feeds can be very useful for in the educational realm, for both teachers and students.  One really great way for teachers to use RSS feeds is for grading purposes.  For example, if you assign your students to write blogs as an assignment, it might be really time consuming to visit each blog website to grade all of them.  However, if you subscribed to the RSS feed, then the blogs would automatically come to you.  Voila, grading made easy!  Now all you would have to do is go to one site to grade all of your students blogs.  

Another great way to use RSS feeds would be to subscribe to a "thought for the day."  This is a great way to receive daily prompt ideas for writing.  This can make writing a little more fun, and increase the anticipation of not knowing what you are going to be writing about until you check your site.  In addition, the students can't blame you if they are not crazy about the prompt, i.e., "I didn't make up the prompt, lol!"  

Lastly, RSS feeds can be useful when having students conducting research for various assignments.  It can be especially useful in group assignments.  It is a great way for the students to share their research findings.

So, as you can see RSS feeds can make your life much simpler for both teaching and learning.  So, the next time you see that fancy little orange sign, go ahead, click on it.  You'll start to receive updates without having to go back to that site, and you'll start to make your internet life a breeze!

How can I use RSS feeds in education?

http://www.flairandsquare.c...

RSS:  A quick start guide for educators:

http://bit.ly/4E9Zh4

RSS Specifications:

http://bit.ly/id1ue

RSS feeds for teachers:

http://bit.ly/OlPGd

RSS feeds in the classroom:

http://bit.ly/12Td8U

Twitter...What are you doing now?

Twitter is a social network that allows you to receive updates on what someone is doing throughout their day from all over the world in a 140 characters or less.  When I first heard that you could "follow" someone on twitter, I just thought it meant to watch for their postings.  I now know that you can sign up to "follow" someone which simply means that you will receive any update or link that they post throughout the day.  With twitter, breaking news and updates can be spread across the nation almost instantly, reaching millions of tweeters.  Just think of when the news of Michael Jackson's death occurred.  Millions of tweets went out about peoples feelings and thoughts on the matter.  In addition, facts and breaking news were also added.  Like a wildfire, twitter allows news and information to spread rapidly over a large area within minutes.    

Twitter is especially popular when dealing with fans of celebrities.  People can sign up to follow their favorite celebrity and know almost instantly where they are or what they are doing at that very exact moment.  Wow, this brings stalking to a whole new level! :) 

So, twitter is obviously popular among celebrity groupies, but what about education?  Is twitter useful for educational purposes?  Absolutely!    Twitter can be used to help students keep in touch with their instructors on a daily basis, and it can also help students and educators alike share and receive valuable information to make the learning process a more successful one!  The following is a link to a website that contains a list of some top 10 uses for Twitter in the classroom put together by Steve Wheeler:

http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2009/01/teaching-with-twitter.html  

Steve Wheeler is a part of the Faculty of Education at the University of Plymouth.  He is responsible for, in his own words, "conveying the University's e-learning research network and co-ordinating technology mediated learning for the Faculty of Education."    One of his ideas for using Twitter in the classroom is to have students read their assigned articles and then attempt to post of summary about the article on Twitter in a 140 characters or less.  This is good because it really makes them concentrate on what is the most valid information needed in their summary, and it forces them to delete unnecessary information.  This is just one of the many educational uses for twitter.  Another great use for Twitter in education would be to post updates of the class, and to allow students to collaborate on h.w. and group projects.  Steve Wheeler even suggests having a class meeting on the site!   

So, whether you are interested in using twitter for educational purposes,  keeping in contact with friends, or you just feel like stalking a celebrity, sign up today, and tell us (in a 140 words or less), what you are doing right now!  

Twitter used as a teaching tool at the college level:

http://www.citytowninfo.com/career-and-education-news/articles/twitter-used-as-a-teaching-tool-at-colleges-09060302

Twitter Transforms Teaching

http://brainbasedbiz.blogspot.com/2009/07/twitter-tips-for-teaching-and-learning.html

Teaching With Twitter

http://chronicle.com/media/video/v54/i25/twitter/

7 Things You Should Know About Teaching

http://www.educause.edu/ELI/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutTwitt/161801

What was that site again?

What was that site again...I can't remember the URL...OK, so I found the site, but what was my user name and password??  Sound familiar?  Well these are things that many people encounter on a daily basis when using web 2.0 technologies.  Due to our ever-changing world of technology, and the increase of the use of this technology, it can be hard to keep track of all of the different websites that you want to frequently access.  One might say, "Well, that is easy, all you have to do is bookmark them or save them to your favorites."  This solution is true, however, what happens when you are not on your own personal computer?  How can you access these bookmarks when you are on a different computer?  In the past, this used to be impossible, but now this is no longer impossible.  We owe it all to social bookmarking!  So, you may ask what exactly is social bookmarking? Social bookmarking is a way to access your bookmarks from any computer, no matter where you are at.  One of the most popular social bookmarking web services is Del.icio.us.  Del.icio.us allows you to save, store, and share your most popular and favorite bookmarks to be accessed from any computer, using any browser. What a God-sent!  

When I first found out about Del.icio.us, it was like my prayers had been answered.  It was so hard to remember all of the bookmarks that I frequently accessed.  It was fine at home because I had them all saved, but when I went to work at school, I did not have access to them because I was on a different computer.  Now, because of social bookmarking services, I no longer have to try and remember them all.  I can just simply visit Del.icio.us, and boom, there they all are!  

But, you may ask, why is it called social bookmarking?  Well, that is because I can share my favorite bookmarks with others, and I can add other user's bookmarks to mine as well.  In addition, you can "tag" certain keywords to organize and to make searching for your bookmarks that much easier.  What a great idea!  Talk about taking teacher collaboration to a whole new level!  This coming school year I will be teaching L. Arts.  If myself and the other L. Art's teachers collaborated and signed up for each other's bookmarks, then we would have a plethora of excellent, easily accessible resources that we may not have known ever existed otherwise!  

I not only think that social bookmarking would be great for teachers, but I also think that it could be very beneficial to have your students sign up for it as well.  Just think if you assigned group research projects on different states.  Each group could collaborate and post their bookmarks for all of the group to see and utilize.  In addition, they could access their school bookmarks from their home computers.  They would no longer have to memorize the school's website, or go through several different clicks on the computer to get there.  It would simply involve just one visit to Del.icio.us or any other social bookmarking service. 

What a great concept!  Amazing, this idea started out merely as a blog.  A man by the name of Schachter developed a link in one of his blogs to help him access his bookmarks from any computer.  Well, this idea led to him starting Del.icio.us in Sept. of 2003.  As you can imagine, Amazon.com, Yahoo, and Union Square Ventures got wind of the situation, and decided to get involved.  They invested approximately 2 million dollars in this venture.  By December of 2005, he was bought out for an amount somewhere between 15 and 30 million.  Wow!  Talk about a good day!  Why didn't I think of that?!  

The Clever Sheep:  Social Bookmarking in the Classroom

http://thecleversheep.blogspot.com/2008/01/social-bookmarking-in-classroom.html

Del.icio.us:  What is it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delicious_(website)

Integrating Technology into the Classroom: Social Bookmarking 101

http://www.wtvi.com/teks/07_08_articles/socialbookmarking101.html

Why include social bookmarking?

http://designing.flexiblelearning.net.au/gallery/activities/social_bookmarking.htm

7 Things You Should Know About Social Bookmarking 

http://www.educause.edu/ELI/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutSocia/156804

Educational Uses For Blogging

A blog, formerly known as a "web log," can be a very beneficial tool in the educational realm, according to the article, "7 Things You Should Know About Blogging."  Blogs can be used to motivate learners in many ways.  Some of those ways include getting learners to participate in open discussions, to express their own opinions, and to sum up previous lessons learned as a means of review.  In addition, educators can use blogs to promote detailed discussions in their particular field of study or discipline.  According to Stephen Downes of New Brunswick, Canada, blogs have been used for educational purposes to support teaching and learning since the beginning of 2005.  Moreover, universities such as the University of Calgary, uses blogs to create educational learning communities.  These educational learning communities allow for students to receive commentary from their peers and their instructors, which allows for much needed discussion and educational feedback.  

When using a blog for teaching and learning, you must first specify the guidelines and educational purpose of these blogs.  Furthermore, according to James Farmer, If you do not set guidelines for your posts, then your blogs will most likely not achieve their desired outcome for the educational use intended.    The possibilities of the topics that blogs can address are endless.  Due to the fact that a blog is basically an online journal, they often times address many topics ranging from politics to entertainment and everywhere in between.  These blogs are beneficial because they are categorized chronologically from the most recent to the oldest.  So, older posts can always be located for references.  Another major benefit to blogging according to Bill Ferriter, the author of "Learning with Blogs and Wikis," is that blogs can promote continuous professional development amongst teachers.  By viewing commentary, different viewpoints, and links added by other instructors to these blogs, collaboration and further professional development can be constantly occurring.  However, according to the ELI discovery tool's, "Guide to Blogging," there are a few downsides to blogging as well.  One of the major downsides to blogging is that blogs can always be edited or revised, so it is difficult to keep the information properly archived and documented.   

When used properly, blogs can be a great form of open discussion, a field for artistic verbal expression, and can offer much support for teaching and learning.  So, whether you are teacher or a student, sign up for your own personal blog today, and see the new heights that blogging can potentially bring to your educational experiences!  

Sign up for your own blog today at:

https://www.blogger.com/start

Check out these links that address the many ways to use blogging in education-

Educational uses for blogging:

http://bit.ly/2bwt2q

"Blogs in Education"

http://bit.ly/12dWpD

Learning with Blogs and Wikis:

http://bit.ly/FsV6H

A Guide To Blogging: an ELI discovery tool:

http://www.educause.edu/eli...

7 Things You Should Know About Blogging:

http://www.educause.edu/ELI/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutBlogs/156809