Podcasts Are Teaching Tools!

Podcasts are a great way to incorporate technology in the classroom!  I found a fantastic resource for science podcasts called Dragonfly TV.  These podcasts feature young students exploring science through their own lives and experiences.  The podcasts cover a variety of science topics and would be a great asset to a classroom!

One particular podcast I found could be easily integrated into the classroom as an introductory activity.  The podcast is about temperate rainforests.  It would be an interesting way for students to develop background knowledge on rainforests before going into an in-depth study on them. 

In addition, the podcast also features the young girls participating in an experiment.  This would be an asset when asking students to identify and develop key aspects of an effective experiment.  I particularly like how the girls analyzed and communicated the results of their experiment in a bar graph.  I know that this is something that students need to master and, therefore, this podcast could be a way to show them a great example!

The World Is At Our Fingertips!

The ePals program is "a unique collaborative environment optimized for global K-12 education" which can be used in the K-12 classrooms to integrate authentic learning experiences.  This program can be integrated in the classroom in many different subject areas and for many different reasons.  Some of these examples are as follows:

• The program provides opportunities to work closely with classrooms around the world.  When learning about another country, a class could easily contact a classroom in that part of the world to discover what their daily lives look like. 
• The program allows students to e-mail back and forth.  This is a great way getting the students to write (or type) for an authentic purpose.  Finding out about others cultures, daily lives or just their personal interests would be an engaging experience for students.
• The program provides lessons that teachers can use for different purposes.  The lessons explain all aspect of the delivery and how the ePals program is integrated.
• The program can be used to display writing pieces with others.
• The program could be used as a book talk with other students who are reading the same books.  This takes the discussion beyond the classroom walls where the student will experience authentic book talk.

These are just a few ideas of how this program could be used in the classroom.  It seems like this would be a worthy investment for districts in order to provide student with a more authentic learning environment.  The world, literally, the world, is at our fingertips!

Flickr and All That Comes With It!

Wow! I did not know how much there was out there that can be used with Flickr!  I love the idea that you can create your own books using the Bookr application.  This would be a great resource in the classroom!  I believe that in this era of such advanced technology, this could be a useful and motivational tool for students in a classroom!  Some ideas for use of this application are:

• Personal "All About Me" digital books for the beginning of the year (see example - it is not my best work, but it will do for an example of my vision!)
• Personalized digital storybooks for students who complete their writing before others: students can turn their writing into illustrated digital books that could be shared on a classroom blog
• Class storybooks for events, activities or important lessons in the classroom
• Books for use at a computer center that supplement instruction
• A class book that features each students and their strengths and goals for the year

Really, the possibilities are endless!  I find I will most likely use this type of application frequently in my classroom!

Important Notes About Flickr and Creative Commons Licenses!

After perusing through Flickr, I have learned more about the different types of licenses that can be attributed with copyrighted material.  There are some terms that I found and retrieved on Flickr: Creative Commons that helped me to understand better:

Attribution means:
You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work - and derivative works based upon it - but only if they give you credit.
Noncommercial means:
You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your work - and derivative works based upon it - but for noncommercial purposes only.
No Derivative Works means:
You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform only verbatim copies of your work, not derivative works based upon it.
Share Alike means:
You allow others to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs your work.

Any of these licenses can be combined to protect the work as the artist sees fit.  For example, there may be a attribution, no derivatives license.  This means that the artist allows others to copy, distribute, display and perform the work if given credit, but no type of changes can be made to that work.  Or, there can be an attribution, noncommercial license where the artist allows others to copy, distribute, display or perform the work by those that give the artist credit and are noncommercial.

It is essential that individuals that are using copyrighted works have an understanding of these different types of licenses as to protect themselves from legal issues.

Here is a photo I found on Flickr of Ireland....

Why Should We Use Twitter in the Classroom?

Twitter has been a growing craze in all areas of society for several years now.  Children are using this is a means of communication between friends, adults are using it as an opportunity to interact with other adults that share common interests and it continues to grow as a social networking site.  So, if this is so widely used and easily navigated, why are we not taking advantage of this in our classrooms?

Just as we build off of what students already know in math, we should be using resources in the classroom that students are already familiar with.  Jeffrey Young states in his article More on Academic Twittering: Breaking Down the Classroom Walls, we must "extend the walls of the classroom, make education relevant to all aspects of students lives rather than just what they do four-five hours a day we need to think of ways to extend the ways we form and foster learning communities".  In that way, Twitter can be used in various ways in the classroom:

1. An interactive way to build prior knowledge on a subject before learning/reading about it.  For example, the teacher could post the subject to be discussed (i.e. different types of communities) and students could respond with what they are familiar with (i.e. experiences in traveling between different communities).  Then, students could respond and expand on each others' posts.
2. An interactive reader response forum.  The following explanation was extracted from the article Can we use Twitter for educational activities, "students can use tweets to send out questions and observations to the group."
3. A public book sharing forum where students write a short summary of a book they recommend to friends.  This would assist students in summarizing only the main ideas of a story or novel.  Students could easily visit the site to determine what to read next.
4. A project management tool where students can tweet to delegate assignments and check in with each other. (Can we use Twitter for educational activities)
5. A resource for teachers to share best practices with other educators.
6. Find more uses of Twitter in the classroom: Can we use Twitter for educational activities.

Let's make students' learning experiences engaging and relevant to their lives, their needs and their knowledge!