Tech Tips & Timely Tidbits

My school recently moved to Moodle to have a place for teachers to post their lesson plans/assignment and a way of communicating between the different committees we have established this year. Since I am responsible for training the teachers, I thought it wise to take a course in Moodle!

One of our assignments was to Google the benefits of eLearning and share our findings with the class. Of course, I have to be different and I was curious to see what members of my PLN thought benefits of eLearning were in relation to their experiences. So, I used Twitter to pole my network and asked:

“I’m taking an online course & we’re to gather 3 benefits of eLearning. We’re to use Google, but I figure asking you guys is more practical. Benefits from your own classroom experiences or participation in global projects are what I’m really looking for…any words of wisdom?” These are the responses I received. I was hoping for more, but these were great.

Thank you to all who responded to my request. I appreciate your taking the time. If anyone has any additional benefits to share, please feel free. Your responses don’t have to pertain specifically to the K12 education. Just tell what you believe the benefits to eLearning have been for you!

The Periodic Table of Videos - Thanks to Cali Lewis over at GeekBrief.TV for sharing this cool site. What makes this periodic table great is that there are short videos describing each element and/or showing an experiment using the element.

National Geographic: Wildlife Filmmaker - “Make a custom nature film with animal clips, sounds, and more. Then share your masterpiece with friends.”

ThinkQuest: Math Movies: Math for Everyone - “Have you ever wondered how mathematics is actually applied in everyday life? Do you like games and movies? Are you looking for ideas for your science project? … Are you a teacher looking for lesson plans and fresh teaching idea? Welcome to Math Movies.”

Tony Vincent over at the Learning in Hand blog posted the following: “How to Cheat” - he provides examples of YouTube videos that show students methods on how to cheat. As Tony says, we don’t want our kids to see these videos, but they are out there nonetheless. As teachers, we need to be familiar with them, too, so we can prevent the use of them in our classrooms.

Another great post by Tony Vincents is “Video Podcasts Free Up Class Time” - “… video podcasts to remove lecture from class. Viewing podcasts made by teachers is given as homework so teachers and students can focus on hands-on activities and direct problem solving during class time. For students without Internet, they can copy episodes to a flash drive. Those without computers can take home DVDs to play on their televisions.”

BibMe - a free online bibliography maker in MLA, APA, Chicago, or Turabian formats.

Great TeacherTube video brought to my attention by Vicki Davis via Twitter a while back with teachers who tell how they are going to use Web 2.0 tools in the classroom: Today

I’ve taken some time off from the Odds & Ends posts, as well as with reading my RSS feeds. Hey, I deserve some time off for summer vacation, too! However, I’m ready to get back to sharing. Here are some articles and blog posts I’ve found interesting:

Washington Post - “Travelers’ Laptops May Be Detained At Border” - “Big Brother Is Watching”. Just another reason to ensure our students are reading 1984, and discussing the implications of these types of policies to the average citizen. “No, Mr. Smith, I don’t have to give you a reason why I’m taking your laptop/cellphone/iPod. Nor do I have to give it back anytime soon or at all. Just another way we’re stomping all over your civil liberties keeping America safe from terrorists.”

Endgadget - “Local public school students get assigned Zunes” - Students in Missouri are getting Zunes to assist them with their learning. It will be interesting to see the results of the study.

NYT.com - “Holding Back Young Students: Is Program a Gift or a Stigma?” - Thoughts anyone? Getting students up to grade level is important, but at what cost? What concerned me is this statement: “The special classes, which are limited to 15 students and follow a pared-down curriculum of reading, writing and arithmetic, are called the Gift of Time and come with extras like tutoring and field trips to a local farm.” Eliminating arts (again!) as a sacrifice to “the basics” - what student would look forward to that every day?

Washington Post - “The Odd World of E-School Teachers” - an interesting article about virtual schools and teachers who teach them. I’m all for providing opportunities for students to learn at their own pace and environment, but what is the cost to their education? If all of the “classes” are via computers, you’ve lost that face to face interaction that, for me, seem vital to connecting with your students. Maybe they do some Skype type interaction?

Steve Dembo - Teach42 blog - “Aaahhh, the joys of being a teacher” - Just for fun, take a look at these examples of student answers on tests. Boy, I wish I was as creative as these kids when I was in school - who am I kidding, I wish I was this creative now!

Today’s assignment is all about podcasts.

I’ve been downloading from iTunes (podcasts, music, audiobooks, etc.) long before I ever purchased an iPod. I’ll have to take some time and explore the podcatchers linked in “Thing #3″ in that infamous “free-time” we’re all supposed to have! Of course, I already subscribe to so many podcasts that I don’t have time to listen to/watch them all.

Most of the podcasts I find are found accidentally or were recommended to me by someone who knows my quirky tastes. I’ll be searching iTunes for a person (say an author to see if there are any interviews he/she’s given) or a topic (say technology) and come across other shows that I’ll subscribe to on a lark. If they’re good, I’ll keep them, if not, I unsubscribe. There are a bunch in there now waiting for me to give them a listen.

I’ve written a post before on my favorite podcasts, but here are a couple that I’ve discovered recently and/or didn’t include the first time around.

Nancy J. Keane’s Booktalks Quick and Simple - great short book commercials to pique students’ interest.

Old Time Radio - If you’re interested in listening to old time radio thrillers, comedy, suspense, mysteries, drama, adventure, science fiction, etc. search in iTunes for Old Time Radio and you can find a bunch of old radio broadcasts. When I was younger, I used to listen to them from an AM radio station on my boom box. My favorites were Burns and Allen, Abbott & Costello, and The Shadow! No, I’m not old enough to have listened to them when they originally aired, but that didn’t stop me from finding them fascinating as a teenager. The commercials were (are) sometimes even more interesting than the radio shows!

And of course, don’t forget to check out iTunes U to find educational podcasts from prominent colleges and universities. The University of Southern Florida’s Lit2Go: Audio Files for K-12 is a wonderful resource for free audiobooks. Great for struggling readers - they can listen to the audio and read along with the text. They even have a selection of audio in Spanish.

Thing #2’s assignment is all about RSS feeds: learn about them, subscribe to a feed reader, and add feeds to your reader. After completing those steps, we’re asked to reflect on what we like about RSS/readers and how we might use them in our work and personal life. And, how can libraries use RSS technology?

I’ve been using an RSS reader for quite some time now. I originally used Google Reader (as I love all things Google), but switched to Bloglines earlier this year as some of my feeds weren’t updating properly on Google; however, I’m now having the same problem with Bloglines. <sigh> I guess no service can be perfect all of the time.

One thing I learned quickly, but was just an extension of my need to be organized, was to use folders to group my feeds. Here is a screen shot of my current groupings:

There are certain folders that I make a point of reading daily (SC Blogs, Favorites, and Library Profession) and as many of the others as I can each day. I’ve given up thinking I could keep it cleaned out, especially since I keep adding more feeds than I delete. For most of them I will simply scan the titles and/or scroll through them without truly reading the posts. As you can see, there are quite a few that I’ve marked keepers that I have some form of follow up I want to do: mention them on my blog, comment on, check out the resource(s) mentioned, etc.

I try not to stress over reading all of the posts and will quite frequently mark all as read. I figure that the folks I make a point of reading are reading the same ones as me and they’ll write or share anything important! Both professionally and personally, I’ve found RSS to be a great way to keep up with all of my interests. Of course, it can be a great time saver AND a great time waster.

As for using RSS in libraries, I’d be interested to read how others are utilizing them. I’m leery of getting to excited about using them since most Web 2.0 tools are currently blocked by my school district.