The Casting of the Pods

            Podcasts are a very interesting tool that can be used in both classroom instruction and teacher education.  Sites such as gereration.prx.org are sites dedicated to youth driven or youth oriented radio shows and podcasts.  These sites allow teachers and students alike to listen to podcasts about educational topics and ideas for classroom activities.  These sorts of sites can be introduced during classroom instruction and give students the unique opportunity to not only learn from students and teachers all around the world, but also to post and share their own classroom experience with other classes around the world.  These sorts of sites also generally contain useful casts that can be viewed as homework assignments or by teachers for ideas on activities.

            When searching through podcasts I found it was more common to run across sites featuring podcasts that catered mostly towards informing and educating teachers on new teaching methods and ways to incorporate other materials into their lessons.  Wiley.com features a wide array of topics to choose from ranging from reading to accounting and gives lists of resources as well as podcasts on how to use and incorporate some of these resources.  Goodreads.com is partnered with programs like Audible and promote the use of books in classroom instruction as well as access to podcasts about reading.  Cisco.com pushes a lot of its own educational tools and supplies numerous podcasts about a variety of subjects although the casts I listened to on this site were definitely directed towards teachers as the level of vocabulary being used was quite high.  Podcasts are a great tool in a teacher’s arsenal in both classroom instruction and as a way of expanding one’s knowledge about teaching.

Resources:

http://generation.prx.org/?gclid=CILu7LbHq6wCFeoZQgodYF_jDg

http://www.goodreads.com/

http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/hmpgs/index.html

Technology Innovations in the Contemporary Classroom

            The term “technological innovation” is a somewhat relative term.  At one point in history the wheel was a completely revolutionary piece of technology, but these days any four year old will have a pretty firm grasp on the basic concepts of the wheel.  Thirty years ago the idea of using a computer in the classroom would have seemed farfetched at best but even now many teachers are pushing to get each of their students individual laptops.  Technology is ever changing and technology trends in the classrooms have come to resemble fads.

            The most recent of these fads is the I-Fad in which apple devices and software such as the I-Pad, I-Phone and I-Touch are becoming more and more popular by demand.  This trend stems from the overwhelming popularity of these devices outside the classroom, and rather than fighting the massive tide of I-Devices many educators are seeking to implement the use of these devices into the classroom and Apple is more than happy to oblige by developing and featuring applications that cater specifically to learning.  “I-Pad isn’t just the best device of its kind – it’s a whole new kind of device.  And it’s poised to change the learning landscape (Apple, 2011).”  Instructors like Amy Todd use I-Pad educational applications to, “make it easier to differentiate instruction for students, selecting sets of apps that would be beneficial to their individual learning styles, wants, & needs  (Todd, 2011).”

            The use of online websites can also play a role in helping to differentiate lessons.  While some websites and applications like Google Earth can help bring subjects like geography to life for students, others can address the needs of special needs and extended learners alike.  In my own host classroom we have a student who is a very high achiever in math and is way beyond everything we are covering in math so far.  So to differentiate my host teacher has set this student up on an online math program that teaches and challenges her in more advanced mathematical subjects like division while the main group instruction focuses on addition and basic number patterns.

            Another technological innovation that has found its way into the classroom is the use of cameras.  Document cameras, video cameras, digital cameras, there seems to be a camera for every occasion.  While cameras may not necessarily be a new piece of technology, we are seeing more and more of them in classroom activities.  In the digital age it has become much easier to upload, edit, and use pictures in a variety of ways.  Deborah Duncan teaches at Neshoba Central High School in Philadelphia lists a variety of ways she’s seen digital cameras used in her school.  These ideas range from miniature year books, to journalism projects, to special education differentiations in which students are able to create books or picture sequences to show their thought processes.  I remember reading a story a few weeks back about a camera being developed which has no focal point when it takes a picture.  This may not seem like that big of a breakthrough, but this is something I’m going to be looking forward to both in my personal life and for its incorporation into classroom activities.

            Technology is everywhere and even more abundant than the tech is new and inspiring ideas on how to use it in an educational environment.  As technology moves away from traditional computers and towards tablets, more ideas will surface about how to use these as educational tools.  Cameras have been around for ages, but new innovations and ideas are always surfacing on how to use these tools to help students express themselves and enhance their learning.  And as always the internet remains a vast, ever-expanding sea of knowledge waiting to be tapped into.  The opportunities to use tech are growing by the day and we should do our best as educators to take advantage of these marvelous opportunities.

Resources:

Todd, Amy.  2011. Retrieved from:  http://ipadeducators.ning.com/profiles/blogs/these-are-a-few-of-my-favorite-apps

Duncan, Deborah. 2011. Retrieved from:  http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~toh/image/DigitalCameraUses.htm

Apple. 2011. Retrieved from:  http://www.apple.com/education/ipad/

Afton's Educational Link List

http://delicious.com/stacks/view/OVRj3d

Boolean Operators

Name:  Afton Grossardt

Search Keys	Purpose of limiter	What did you find when you tried it? How many hits? Was this limiter effective?
AND	Used to modify a search when you’re looking for an article that contains more than one specific item or term in certain databases.	Articles containing the words American and man, usually as a focal point / 63,727 hits / Yes
OR	Used to modify a search when you’re looking for articles that contain one specific item or term or another specific item or term in certain databases.	Articles that contained either the words American or man / 2,270,685 hits / Yes
NOT	Used to exclude articles that contain specific items from you search in certain databases.	Articles that contained the word American but not man / 1,709,425 / Yes
“                    “	Searches articles that contain the words as one phrase.	Articles that contained and focused on the exact phrase “American man” / 767 / Yes
*	Expands a search to include all versions of the root word.	Articles that contained the word American and variations of the root word “man” / 294,319 / Yes
- (minus)	Akin to using the “not” limiter.  Only searches sites that contain one word and are not related to another.	Articles containing the words American and man, usually as a focal point / 63,727 hits / Confused on this one
+ (plus)	Akin to using the “and” limiter.  Only searches articles that contain a word in relation to a second word.	Articles containing the words American and man, usually as a focal point / 63,727 hits / Yes
?	Used as a single character “wildcard” for finding alternate spellings to a word, e.g. Wom?n could search “Woman” and “Women.”	Articles containing the word American and the words man, men, min, etc. / 68,026 hits / Yes
Brackets ( )	Modifies the order of your search, specifying the database must search the terms in the brackets first before proceeding to the next part of the search.	Articles containing American and man but not the word African / 55,041 hits / Yes
Near	Finds articles that contains specified words or terms within 10 words of one another.	Articles that contained the word American within 10 words of the word man / 1,314 / Yes
Before	Proximity term that searches for articles containing words in a certain order, e.g., social before security	Articles that contained the word American before the word man / 4496 hits / Yes
After	Proximity term that searchers for articles containing words in a certain order, e.g., security after social	Articles that contained the word American after the word man / 10,842 / Yes

Voicethread: Innovative, Creative, and Easy to Use

                Voicethread focuses on taking one of the most traditionally social aspects of teaching (story telling) and combines this with current technologies in order to create a unique and interesting way for people to share stories and information.  I found that using Voicethread was an enjoyable experience thanks largely to the relatively easy to use interface and the level of personalization a person can use when creating a Voicethread.  These aspects of the program are the two biggest reasons why this program could be successful in the classroom. 

Using drawn pictures or photographs a teacher can introduce the idea of a storyboard in one session of class then use Voicethread as a means of both demonstrating a storyboard and giving students the opportunity to create their own story.  The interface is fairly easy to teach, taking a step by step approach to adding pictures, voice, and text to thread.  Each of these steps can be broken down and easily taught in the classroom and demonstrated using the teacher’s own Voicethread.

This program gives students a unique way to write and publish their own stories with a few ways to differentiate depending on a student’s strengths and weaknesses.  Students who are stronger in writing can focus on detailed text descriptions of their story, while students who may struggle with writing can focus more on their voice work.  This also gives those students an opportunity to work on their weaknesses in the writing process without letting their shortcomings overshadow the project.  Most importantly Voicethread allows students a creative way to publish and share their hard work with their family, their school, and the world.