We covered many different programs in our two-day class. It might be hard to remember where to find everything. Use the following list to jog your memory.
Online resources
Class notes - Google Documents
Class wiki - Wikispaces
Videos to embed - YouTube
Forms & Quizzes - Google Documents (forms)
Publishing podcasts - Upload file to your wiki, use Minus
Create/Edit/Write Blog - Blogger
Edit pictures, create headers - Fotoflexer, Google + (on your Google Account)
Maps - Google Maps
Learning videos - Khan Academy, Ted Ed
Social media - Google + (on your Google Account)
Screencasting - Jing
Fun blog templates - Cutest Blog on the Block
Fun word pictures - Wordle, Tagxedo
Free downloadable software
Sound recording - Audacity.com
Maps - Google Earth
Screencasting - PowerPoint (from Microsoft office)
Friday, June 29, 2012
Project Requirements
(*Requirements is a strong word. We want you to do these general things, but if there is something else you want to do, just let us know!)
Your blog will be your "home" project--you will link or post all your other projects to it so we can see them. At the end of the last day of class, you will just email me a link to your blog with your projects.
Your blog will be your "home" project--you will link or post all your other projects to it so we can see them. At the end of the last day of class, you will just email me a link to your blog with your projects.
- create three wiki pages (introduction, nutrition, form)
- fill out five classmates’ forms
- embed your podcast onto one of your wiki pages
- create a podcast with intro/outro music
- create your blog
- modify the settings and layout
- create a photographic header
- post with links to wiki
- post with video
- post with pictures
- Two posts exploring/explaining classroom use of two of the tools we discussed
- Google Maps
- Khan Academy
- Ted-Ed
- Google Docs/Google Drive
- FlatWorldKnowledge
- Creative Commons
- Blogs
- Wikis
- Podcasts
- Screencasts
- create and link your own TED-Ed video (optional)
New Media 2012 Class Recordings
There are the recordings from the June 2012 class of New Media in the Classroom.
- Part 1
- Google Docs
- What are wikis?
- Part 2
- Royalty free photos
- Creative Commons
- Wiki practice
- Part 3
- Open Education Resources (OER)
- Podcasting
- Part 4
- Practice working on podcasts and publish to wiki or minus.com
- Part 5 (recording lost due to machine crash)
- Blogs
- Part 6
- Image editing
- Part 7
- Social media
- Khan Academy
- Ted-Ed
- Flipped classroom
- Part 8
- Screencast with PowerPoint
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
The Organic Spread of Classroom Tech
Converge magazine advocated a technology strategy that I also heartily endorse. Let technology initiatives start as small experiments and then let teachers clamor for the things that they see working, rather than trying to anticipate the way they will use technology. Here is how they put it.
The first time the district made interactive whiteboards and document cameras available in the grant program, staff members expected to purchase between 10 and 20 devices. But only five educators applied.
"What it really came down to was people didn't know what they were or what they were capable of," said JoAnn DePue, director of technology, data and assessment.
But as other teachers saw what the five educators were doing in the classroom with the tools, they got interested too. The next time the grant option came up for the devices, all the teachers in one elementary school applied.The reported a similar experience with the spread of podcasting.
Teachers weren't sure they had time to create podcasts, so technology staff showed a few students how to do it. Within the first year, half of the elementary school students produced at least one podcast that was tied to the curriculum. The next year, almost every student had at least one digital piece online.The problem for most teachers is that they just don't have the time to figure out new things. But once they see how something new can make class better or easier, they are happy to spend the time to get up to speed.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Education Wiki Platforms
Although in class we used Wikispaces, there are other popular wiki platforms. Along with Wikispaces, PBWorks and Wikis in Education's WetPaint are free for K-12 educators. (Pro tip: Don't go to "wetpaint.com", though. That is decidedly NOT a K-12 website. Just warnin' you.)
Creating a Form (Quiz, Survey) in Google Docs
Google Docs, in addition to creating documents and spreadsheets, allows you to create "forms" that can then be embedded in other programs, such as Blogger or Wikispaces. A form can be a survey, quiz, or poll. It is simply a way to gather information. Because of the nature of the form, it is not very secure. Your students won't be stopped from voting more than once, putting someone else's name in, or other mischievous actions.
From your Google Docs homepage, click the "Create New" and select "Form". Create the survey/quiz/poll as desired. To add another question, there is a button in the left top corner of the page with a green plus sign "Add item".
When you are done with your form, you will need to get the "embed" code to place the form into your blog or wiki. Click the button titled "More Actions" and select "Embed". You will need to copy the code in the box by highlighting it and right clicking and selecting "copy".
If you would like to place this form in a blog, simply go to a new post and paste the embed code. If you would like to place the form in a wiki, you must add the code as the "Other HTML" widget. Just paste the embed code in the box that comes up when you select the correct widget.
If you want to edit your form after you've embedded it, but before people have started taking it, you must go back to the Google Docs form page and click the "Form" tab on the blue strip near the top of the page. You will have to go back through the embed steps and replace the revised in your blog or wiki.
From your Google Docs homepage, click the "Create New" and select "Form". Create the survey/quiz/poll as desired. To add another question, there is a button in the left top corner of the page with a green plus sign "Add item".
When you are done with your form, you will need to get the "embed" code to place the form into your blog or wiki. Click the button titled "More Actions" and select "Embed". You will need to copy the code in the box by highlighting it and right clicking and selecting "copy".
If you would like to place this form in a blog, simply go to a new post and paste the embed code. If you would like to place the form in a wiki, you must add the code as the "Other HTML" widget. Just paste the embed code in the box that comes up when you select the correct widget.
If you want to edit your form after you've embedded it, but before people have started taking it, you must go back to the Google Docs form page and click the "Form" tab on the blue strip near the top of the page. You will have to go back through the embed steps and replace the revised in your blog or wiki.
New Media 2011 Class Recordings
These aren't a substitute for class, but perhaps they can help you remember the procedures that we did in class. There is a search function in the video that sort of works if you are trying to find when we talked about a specific thing. Hover your mouse over the video while it is playing and the search field will appear on the left side of the screen.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Podcasting with Audacity and Min.us
Once you have created your podcast in Audacity (complete with intro and outro music from a place like Free Music Archive), you must save it as mp3 file.
First, you must download the right encoder (lame_enc.dll) if you haven't already done so. Select the edit menu, go to preferences, select libraries. On the libraries popup menu, click on the "download" button next to "LAME MP3 Library".
Once the encoder is downloaded, select from the file menu "Export". Name the file, and select "mp3" as your file type. You will be warned about the reduction in the file size; click "OK". Fill out as much or as little of the metadata song information as you want, and then click "OK".
Once you have your mp3 file saved, open a browser window to min.us. Click "select" and find your mp3 file and click "open". Voila! You are done. Be sure to write down the unique address in the address bar before you leave the min.us site.
First, you must download the right encoder (lame_enc.dll) if you haven't already done so. Select the edit menu, go to preferences, select libraries. On the libraries popup menu, click on the "download" button next to "LAME MP3 Library".
Once the encoder is downloaded, select from the file menu "Export". Name the file, and select "mp3" as your file type. You will be warned about the reduction in the file size; click "OK". Fill out as much or as little of the metadata song information as you want, and then click "OK".
Once you have your mp3 file saved, open a browser window to min.us. Click "select" and find your mp3 file and click "open". Voila! You are done. Be sure to write down the unique address in the address bar before you leave the min.us site.
Project Requirements*
(*Requirements is a strong word. We want you to do these general things, but if there is something else you want to do, just let us know!)
Your blog will be your "home" project--you will link or post all your other projects to it so we can see them. At the end of the last day of class, you will just email me a link to your blog with your projects.
Your blog will be your "home" project--you will link or post all your other projects to it so we can see them. At the end of the last day of class, you will just email me a link to your blog with your projects.
- Create a blog
- Modify the blog layout
- Modify the blog settings
- On your blog, post a picture, a video, and link to other websites
- Create podcast with intro and outro music
- Link to your podcast
- Create and link to your wiki pages (personal page, vacation page (with external link and picture), form/survey page)
- Anything else that catches your fancy
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Technophobia 2011 Class Recordings
While not a replacement for the pure joy of being in class with us, hopefully these recording will be helpful if you want to remember something that we did together in class.
- Day 1 Part 1 (Word)
- Day 1 Part 2 (More Word)
- Day 1 Part 3 (PowerPoint)
- Day 1 Part 4 (Excel)
- Day 2 Part 5 ()
- Day 2 Part 6 ()
- Day 2 Part 7 ()
- Day 2 Part 8 ()
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Podcasting Tip
This article gives a great example of using podcasts to extend the learning time for your students:
Instead of lecturing during class, he creates screencasts, which include narration and digital recordings of the PowerPoint presentations on his computer screen. His students watch the screencasts — also called vodcasts — at home and work on assignments at Michigan Center High School.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
NY Times on Learning
Interesting piece in the NY Times today about learning and study habits. Here's a taste of the biggest example in the story:
...psychologists have discovered that some of the most hallowed advice on study habits is flat wrong. For instance, many study skills courses insist that students find a specific place, a study room or a quiet corner of the library, to take their work. The research finds just the opposite. In one classic 1978 experiment, psychologists found that college students who studied a list of 40 vocabulary words in two different rooms — one windowless and cluttered, the other modern, with a view on a courtyard — did far better on a test than students who studied the words twice, in the same room. Later studies have confirmed the finding, for a variety of topics.One other thing they mentioned in the article was about learning styles. They linked to an abstract that made the following conclusion.
Our review of the literature disclosed ample evidence that children and adults will, if asked, express preferences about how they prefer information to be presented to them. There is also plentiful evidence arguing that people differ in the degree to which they have some fairly specific aptitudes for different kinds of thinking and for processing different types of information. However, we found virtually no evidence for the interaction pattern mentioned above, which was judged to be a precondition for validating the educational applications of learning styles. Although the literature on learning styles is enormous, very few studies have even used an experimental methodology capable of testing the validity of learning styles applied to education. Moreover, of those that did use an appropriate method, several found results that flatly contradict the popular meshing hypothesis.
We conclude therefore, that at present, there is no adequate evidence base to justify incorporating learning-styles assessments into general educational practice.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Overview of awesome stuff
We didn't have time to work with all the amazing education programs out there, but you can do it on your own time. Check some of these links out, play around, and see what you can do!
- Glogster: "Posters" with links for your wiki or blog (online)
- Google Earth: Amazing satellite views of the entire world (downloadable)
- Voice Thread: Narrate or comment on slide shows (online)
- Prezi: A new way to do a presentation, quite different than PowerPoint (online and downloadable)
- Khan Academy: Video podcasts of many, many subjects (online)
- Lynda: (Some free, most not) Excellent tutorials on many of the most common computer programs (online)
- Google reader: A quick way to browse your favorite websites and blogs
Image Editing
Photographs and images are powerful tools to use in blogs and wikis (not to mention classroom presentations). Often, however, you want to edit the image--to make it prettier, smaller, larger, different.
In the last several years, free photo editing software is available both online and for download. (You can also use non-free image editing software, which is usually more powerful, such as Photoshop and Illustrator.) Here are some of the more popular free programs:
In the last several years, free photo editing software is available both online and for download. (You can also use non-free image editing software, which is usually more powerful, such as Photoshop and Illustrator.) Here are some of the more popular free programs:
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