10/24: Podcasting

In class last week we learned about podcasting. Podcasting is a form of technology to record sounds and post the recordings onto the internet. Podcasting can be used in all subject areas and grade levels, you just have to get creative. In our class, everyone recorded group presentations onto a podcast to use at a later time. If you would like to hear an example of a podcast, you can hear the one our class made tonight. Podcasting could also be used in history classes to record a radio piece from a certain time period. Lastly, I think podcasting could be useful to record class lectures and presentations for absent students or students who need to return to the material as a form of review. When I attended the technology conference at MSU one presenter showed us how she used podcasting in her foriegn language classes. She would record herself saying certain phrases or words and the kids could repeat her. Also, if the students in the foriegn languag class wanted to go back and here the pronounciations, they could go online and hear the podcast any time they wanted. I am very excited to learn even more about podcasting and hopefully use it in my future classroom to enhance my students learning.

10/10: Adding Images

Photo Attribution:

Original image: "Erickson Hall"
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/211/521366682_a6d488c52e_m.jpg
by: Joe Freidhoff

Released under an Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Today in class we learned about adding images while being respectful to copyright laws. Creative Commons is a great place to start. Creative Commons is a copyright program, which allows a user to reserve some of their rights, but with allowance to share and collaborate with others. With "copyright," all rights are reserved. With Creative Commons, some rights are reserved, and the creator can chose which rights they wish to reserve, and which they wish to share or give away. In class today we also learned how to do "map mashing". Using the Google Maps applications I created my own map on Google. You can also post your maps created on Google Maps with Google Earth, which is a map of the earth used with satellite imagery. I believe that the use of maps would be very useful in a social studies classroom, when students are finding their way through a city using roads and familiar landmarks. Google Earth would also allow a class to take a trip across the world without even leaving the classroom! However there may be some challenges faced by students and teachers when it comes to thinking about adding images more critically. For example, students may forget to copy an image without the correct Creative Commons and may run into implications with copyright laws. It is the teacher's responsibility to monitor students and guide them through these processes, or provide the students with the needed tools to complete these processes on their own.

9/19: Personalizing the Internet

Today in class we learned about personalizing the internet. This is a method of finding information you want, and knowing how to search specific information. We learned about the difference between directories and search engines, each of which have advantages and disadvantages. Directories have fewer pages than search engines, and are mostly easier for students to use when looking up information. Directories will retrieve information that is relevant and the search does not require exact key words. A search engine can retrieve LOTS of pages to one single search, however the relevancy fluctuates depending on the quality of your method of search on the topic. With my google account I was able to add "Google Alerts" to my e-mail account. Google Alerts are a way of searching a topic and having those searches sent directly to your e-mail. This way, if a new article, etc. is added to the internet under your special search topic, these articles will be sent directly to your e-mail daily, weekly, or monthly depending on your personal preference. With my google account I also added the "Google Reader" feature which allows me to read and organize specific websites I like, which I have subscribed to through the RSS feeds and share these items with other users. For example I subscribed to all of my CEP 416 classmates' blogs and I have shared some of those blogs publicly with an aggregator on our course wiki. Personalizing the internet is an interesting tool I will be able to use with my future students on research projects and finding information online.