Podcasts-Playable On Demand

I love listening to the radio on my way to work.  I love the distinctive voices and the commentary between the hosts on the show.  Recently, I have been downloading and listening to Podcasts from my computer--only makes me want to buy an i Phone even more!  If I feel I have a few minutes within my busy day, I listen to some of my favorites.  I love the idea of being able to share your thoughts and ideas on certain topics through your voice.  While I feel I do not have a good "recorded" voice, I feel that is an important aspect to a Podcast.  Since there are no graphics to match the audio (unlike television) having a "great" voice is important when creating a Podcast.  You have to draw your audience in though your voice and your material.  I use Audacity all the time in my classroom to record students reading.  They love to hear themselves or other students read books to them. It is also a great tool for having students listen to their own reading and practicing their fluency.  Many of them change their voices for different characters and love adding expression to the story.  I love the idea of creating a classroom Podcast.  Students could read their journals or share their advice on a particular topic, or even talk about what we are learning in class!  It could become a great computer station where students could listen or record to the Podcast!     

Ahola Wikis!

It seems every time I want to "Google" something, the first site that pops up is Wikipedia.  Wikis are part of the Web 2.0 phenomenon and are becoming more popular and surprisingly more reliable than ever expected.  Wikis are easily-edited, automatically interlinked sets of documents. Pages can be created and edited constantly, and allow for collaboration between multiple people.  Students are able to add links, graphics, and attachments.  They can even send you email alerts when pages have been edited.  I wish I had used wikis in college. More colleges should create Wiki pages where students can upload their notes from class and be able to collaborate more.  Students could use these wiki pages to study for test or when writing a paper.  Students could add and contribute over their college career.  Wikis can be searched and help keep students more organized when taking notes.   However, I do see how transferring a diagram or any kind of visual graphic organizers would be difficult.  Personally many of my notes consisted of diagrams, visual pictures that are hard to duplicate in wikis. Even simple things like underlining key words, using highlighter, arrows linking ideas or staring important points within your notes would be hard to create easily in a wiki. Sometimes, maybe, pen and paper is best.

What Blogs Mean To Me--As An Educator

I have mix reviews about whole idea of sharing your thoughts to the world though a blog.  While I understand why some people blog, I myself, often struggle to find time to even check my email once a day!  I feel it is important to share your thoughts with the world, but how far do you go?  I was raised to always be mindful about what you say and who you say it to--and it didn't help that my father worked for the government.  Even now, he is always telling me to watch out for what I put and share on the internet--it is never really deleted.  It also doesn't help that my job, like many others, involves be directly working within a very sensitive community--a school community.  Do I really want my student's parents knowing everything about me?  And how would parents react if they knew their students were writing on blogs even if it was not open to the public and they were responding to curriculum based questions?  Knowing all that I know about the importance of technology would I trust someone else with the online security of my future children?

As far as implementing blogs in schools, the jury is still out in my court.  Pros: students and teachers/students and students/teacher and teachers are able to have a collaborative conversation in and out of school hours. Students get to learn how to use a popular tool within the context of learning while improving their communication skills needed for life.  Cons: students will use it inappropriately--there is always one who does (even after teacher's lesson on Internet safely and anti-bulling) and what if parents and administrators don't see the benefits?  

Hopefully with my personal experience in blogging and research, I will learn how to successfully implement this into my own practices as a teacher.  I am willing to try anything once!  :)