Pod, Vods, Videos and Web 2.0
We were asked to explore iTunes and visit videos sites such as YouTube.
Internally, I remain skeptical about the necessity for everyone to blog about everything. Particularly when people are exploring and their depth of understanding is evolving. My fear is that the confident with pollute the ether with misconception and superficial trite whilst the truly knowledgeable may hold back given all the rubbish currently freely available on the web. Maybe this blog post is the case in point. Even worse had I turned on the webcam and chose to share the message by way of a vodcast.
I've experimented with Vodcasting in the classroom and found it a great way to aid learning. Students have created such works as Newtons First Law - Recut, Prelim Chemistry Metals and Year 10 meets the Flip. Unfortunately these were hosted on TeacherTube and whilst my account still survives the video footage was lost by them during an upgrade (a lesson for us all there).
YouTube is fantastic for class for that 3-4 minute grab that might be used to engage, consolidate, pace or simply wind down a lesson. I really like the screened resources recommended by NeoK12. I keep some of the videos that I like collated in a group strangely enough called YouTube Videos I Like, with 128 videos favourited in my YouTube account. My students will all tell you that I like playing Gregorian Chants whilst they complete practicals.
Despite my earlier comments, I like the way Greg Whitby the Executive Director of Schools of the Parramatta Catholic Education uses YouTube. See below an example from Greg's site.
Prof Stephen Heppell is an informed and revolutionary educator. The work put up by my students on TeacherTube was strewn with misconception. There is also the wealth of information being made available as opencourseware. I particularly like the free nnline course materials made available at MIT OpenCourseWare and the professional development potential of Teachers.TV a rich source of education video resources, lesson plans, inspiration and ideas to use in classroom.
We need to ensure that our students are armed with the skills to discern whether the information presented is from a credible source and likely to be correct, but that will be the subject of a later post.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Flickr and Creative Commons (Module 4)
Flickr shows great potential for use in the classroom. One high potential idea is to have students load up photographs as they complete all mandatory practicals. The idea being that the photograph would aid their recall as they revise for the HSC.
See a shot from my Flickr account below. It's a tad blurry as a student took the shot.
One of my favorite bloggers is Alvin Trusty. Alvin is an Assistant Professor in the College of Education and the Director of the Educational Technology Program at the University of Findlay. See his professional bio here. He has shared a number of quality presentations on a range of contemporary EdTech issues, his PowerPoints have been skilfully compiled and are generally first rate.
Presenter's Guide to Copyright from Alvin Trusty on Vimeo.
Module 4 done.
See a shot from my Flickr account below. It's a tad blurry as a student took the shot.
One of my favorite bloggers is Alvin Trusty. Alvin is an Assistant Professor in the College of Education and the Director of the Educational Technology Program at the University of Findlay. See his professional bio here. He has shared a number of quality presentations on a range of contemporary EdTech issues, his PowerPoints have been skilfully compiled and are generally first rate.
Presenter's Guide to Copyright from Alvin Trusty on Vimeo.
Module 4 done.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Google docs (Module 3)
Google docs is a wonderful tool for use within and outside the classroom.
I have used it several different ways:
- collaborative documents when working on a project,
- forms to survey a class and collate the data,
- folders to share documents with a conference audience.
There is also the capability to spreadsheet, create presentations and draw. A truly powerful tool. I enjoyed writing this post as I took the opportunity to visit the docs area of my two active Google profiles and seeing the information stored there brought back some fond memories.
Along similar lines, I also have a Windows Live Sky Drive, but more on that in a later post.
I have used it several different ways:
- collaborative documents when working on a project,
- forms to survey a class and collate the data,
- folders to share documents with a conference audience.
There is also the capability to spreadsheet, create presentations and draw. A truly powerful tool. I enjoyed writing this post as I took the opportunity to visit the docs area of my two active Google profiles and seeing the information stored there brought back some fond memories.
Along similar lines, I also have a Windows Live Sky Drive, but more on that in a later post.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Off and Blogging
Module 2 of Web 2.0 for CEO Sydney Teachers
I've resisted suggestions that I should start a blog for some years. My last employer was St Joseph's College and I was fortunate enough to have shared an all things digital passion with Judy O'Connell. Joeys was a great place to work, well resourced and an executive that supported and encouraged experimentation. Judy's pretty out there with her thinking and that was great for me as I was energised and no doubt tried many things that I otherwise might not have done.
This year I moved to St Aloysius' College and have found myself in another supportive environment. Much to my surprise, I started blogging in a subtle and indirect way. Frustrated at having lost a number of "gems" in the past, I started an Edmodo group entitled ICT Ramblings. A number of colleagues have joined the group and we use it as an informal place to lob in ideas. So despite my protestations, I have been blogging in a fashion through that group.
I am an avid reader and periodically conduct literature reviews in whatever has taken my fancy at the time. Immersion in a well written academic work provides a wonderful opportunity for reflection upon your teaching and classroom practices. Edubloggers provide insight and stimulus in another way. The people that I particularly like are on my Edna and Blogs Pageflake, some others that have appealed for whatever reason have been bookmarked here.
I've resisted suggestions that I should start a blog for some years. My last employer was St Joseph's College and I was fortunate enough to have shared an all things digital passion with Judy O'Connell. Joeys was a great place to work, well resourced and an executive that supported and encouraged experimentation. Judy's pretty out there with her thinking and that was great for me as I was energised and no doubt tried many things that I otherwise might not have done.
This year I moved to St Aloysius' College and have found myself in another supportive environment. Much to my surprise, I started blogging in a subtle and indirect way. Frustrated at having lost a number of "gems" in the past, I started an Edmodo group entitled ICT Ramblings. A number of colleagues have joined the group and we use it as an informal place to lob in ideas. So despite my protestations, I have been blogging in a fashion through that group.
I am an avid reader and periodically conduct literature reviews in whatever has taken my fancy at the time. Immersion in a well written academic work provides a wonderful opportunity for reflection upon your teaching and classroom practices. Edubloggers provide insight and stimulus in another way. The people that I particularly like are on my Edna and Blogs Pageflake, some others that have appealed for whatever reason have been bookmarked here.
Adopting a Structured Approach to Web2.0
I'm extremely grateful to the Inner West Region of the Catholic Education Office (CEO) for granting me access to their course entitled Web 2.0 for CEO Sydney Teachers.
The course is presented in 10-modules that demonstrate the power of Web 2.0 online tools for the classroom. For me I hope to consolidate my knowledge of appropriate Web 2.0 technologies for contemporary learning. In my classes we have already experimented with tools like wikis, blogs, and Google docs. Services like YouTube, Flickr, and Delicious and the like. Students have podcasted and vodcasted.
The questions that I hope to explore extend to for what purpose have I had the students undertake these tasks, have they been done well and have the students benefited from these endeavours.
Module 1 Web 2.0 and personalising your Web space is now complete. I've benefited already in a number of ways:
a) the New Tools Workshop is a great site that compiles an extensive list of Web2.0 tools. I found the site to nicely compliment the resources list at Jane Hart's Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies and Michelle Dodd's Access Ability Programs,
b) password management is not a strength, but I now have a scaffold that will be the basis of a password protected vault in a newly created OneNote page,
c) having re-tried iGoogle, I remain content with my Pageflake that has been evolving over several years. There are three public flakes based around general news and web page tools, Web2.0 and Educational Technology and finally Science news feeds.
The course is presented in 10-modules that demonstrate the power of Web 2.0 online tools for the classroom. For me I hope to consolidate my knowledge of appropriate Web 2.0 technologies for contemporary learning. In my classes we have already experimented with tools like wikis, blogs, and Google docs. Services like YouTube, Flickr, and Delicious and the like. Students have podcasted and vodcasted.
The questions that I hope to explore extend to for what purpose have I had the students undertake these tasks, have they been done well and have the students benefited from these endeavours.
Module 1 Web 2.0 and personalising your Web space is now complete. I've benefited already in a number of ways:
a) the New Tools Workshop is a great site that compiles an extensive list of Web2.0 tools. I found the site to nicely compliment the resources list at Jane Hart's Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies and Michelle Dodd's Access Ability Programs,
b) password management is not a strength, but I now have a scaffold that will be the basis of a password protected vault in a newly created OneNote page,
c) having re-tried iGoogle, I remain content with my Pageflake that has been evolving over several years. There are three public flakes based around general news and web page tools, Web2.0 and Educational Technology and finally Science news feeds.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
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