• 3 Practical Uses for Interactive Whiteboards

April 28, 2011 – A positive assessment of the use of interactive whiteboards in the classroom.

• Dilemmas of Openness – Imposing on the Rights of Others

April 19, 2011 – Darren Draper brings up an important point about student produced media in our new age. Who owns the work, the educational institution or the student? Are students allowed to share through creative commons or are they bound by the antiquated rules of yesterday?

• Ten Essential Plugins for WordPress

April 19, 2011 – I need to install some of these when I have time.

• Great American Teach In: Speak Out On Educational Rights

April 10, 2011 – A worthy cause

• Thinking.

April 10, 2011 – Great strategy for wait time, for any grade level!

• Who Among Us is Explicitly Tasked with Helping Children Learn to Teach Themselves?

April 2, 2011 – For my library friends, whom I think are the finest facilitators of learning in schools today.

I think Heidi Hayes Jacobs was right when she said that teachers aren’t resistant to using technology, but that they just want to know how to get started. Often times, with all that teachers have to do with mandated pacing plans and timely assessments, there is little time to step outside of the comfort zone to do something different. Those who successfully do find it rewarding and renewing. Those who try and fail get frustrated at energy and time apparently wasted. This post will help teachers get started with quick, easy ways to incorporate audio and even podcasting into the daily schedule to engage students in learning through authentic creation. It’s painless and fun!

First, why use audio, especially student generated audio? There are many reasons. One that stands out for me is that students are using their voice in creative ways to share their learning with others. If we only rely on one medium to engage our students, we’re probably missing student contributions that are rich in vocabulary, composition, and creativity.

Here’s the process for capturing and sharing student audio.

Set up a Podcast on iPadio.com

iPadio is the best tool for creating a quick podcast! It’s easy to set up, has the ability to change many settings, and can be moderated. What makes it accessible to just about anyone is that podcasts can be created with just a phone call to a toll-free number! Add to that the ability to live broadcast a “radio show” and the coolness factor of this free tool just slid past 10!

1. Set up your podcast. On http://ipadio.com/, click on the heart  to sign up. It’s best to use your school email for setting this up. You will need to verify your account via email to finish your set up. Use your school phone number as one of the registered numbers, so you won’t be giving out your personal number to students.
2. Get started creating your phone cast. Here’s a quick tutorial.
3. Check out the ability to moderate and set other settings by clicking on the “My Profile” link, then the Channel Details tab.
   
4. Check out some of the tutorials on the site.
5. Set up your Phone Blog as a Podcast on iTunes and publish to other sites easily by clicking on My Profile then the Social Media tab.
6. Record your first podcast using your cellphone, and your toll free number and pin that you received in your registration email.
7. Explore some of the educational uses of iPadio:
   • Case Studies from the iPadio blog
   • Posts tagged Education in the iPadio blog

Recording Audio using the Web and a Computer

Although iPadio doesn’t let you record directly on the site using a computer, other sites not only let students record their voice, but allow them to review what they have recorded. My favorite tool for this is the Audio Dropbox from The Rich Internet Applications for Language Learning hosted by the Center for Language Education and Research at Michigan State University. There is documentation on the Audio Dropbox site on how to set this up. All you need to do is sign up for an account.

Try my Audio Dropbox below. You must have Adobe Flash player installed to use this tool.

The audio recordings are going  to my dropbox on the Audio Dropbox site, where I can review and download the ones I will upload to the iPadio podcast. Using this tool ensures that all students will have equal access to creating audio for learning.

Bells and Whistles

For those who would like to edit parts of their podcast and perhaps add music and sounds, Myna, a free, web-based audio editing application, is the perfect tool. Make sure to register for an account before using, so you can save or download your completed audio recording. Although this isn’t as easy to use as the former 2 tools, it’s easy to figure out in a very short while.

To learn more about podcasting and using audio in the classroom, please visit http://lausdpodcast.wikispaces.com

Prezi is an amazing presentation tool that makes one think differently about how to present information. It’s not linear, like PowerPoint. It’s simple, yet so hard to grasp at first. Size, zoom, and position make the story you are trying to tell come to life. I finally forced myself to use it for a presentation, so now I have down the basics.

Sign Up

Educators can take advantage of the “Edu Enjoy” licensing for free, which includes extra storage space and other amenities. Note: you must sign up with your school related email. http://prezi.com/profile/signup/edu/

Getting Started

Here are some great resources on using Prezi:

Prezi’s own “Learn” site is probably all you need. It’s filled with great tutorials that you can watch when you need them. http://prezi.com/learn/

Starting Out

After playing a little with Prezi, you might need some good quick tutorials. Here are some of my favorite:

Prezi Workflow in 15 Minutes

Some Awesome Examples

What does a great Prezi look like? I like the samples below:

The Stupidest Thing You’ve Ever Heard Of by Dean Shareski on Twitter

iTouch in the Classrom by Kern Kelly

• The Seven-Keynote MLS?

March 24, 2011

• Fantasy.

March 20, 2011

• Technology and the Whole Child

February 26, 2011 – I look at my own work environment, and I know that the focus is not here:

The true promise of technology does not lie in being able to reproduce – in shinier ways – the things schools have always done. If all we can imagine is how technology can “deliver instruction” in new ways, we will forever be limited by our own lack of vision. What technology can allow us to do is to realize the promise of many of our best ideas of progressive education. It can allow students to inquire, collaborate and connect in ways that allow us to realize the promise of Dewey’s dream. Moreover, it allows students and teachers to see themselves as real people, defined not just by the power dynamic of the classroom, but through the social networks that should and will and must cross.

 

How can we make it so? Chris Lehman says so well what is happening today in our schools. The honeymoon with shiny new things is at an end. We need to concentrate on what is important about technology: the ability to question, to learn, to collaborate, and to construct meaning in ways never before possible. That is what it has to be about.