Electronic and Audio books

Over the past decade digital technologies have become embedded in popular culture. Mobile phones are widely used by young people and adults alike. Websites such as YouTube and Wikipedia are the first port of call for many people seeking information about a chosen area
of interest. TV, films and music are stored and accessed on computers, MP3 players and online. Print circulation is down and more people are using electronic books and audio books.

A great resource that illustrates change in families with reading:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/books/27reading.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1&ref=education&oref=slogin

With the personal computer being a huge factor in our secondary schools, and this resources becoming more readily available in primary schools it is important to use electronic books and audio books in the learning a teaching. With tools like Diigo where students are able to leave comments, highlight... on the page it allows for powerful, collaborative engagement.

• Glutenberg Project
• Google Book Search
• iTunes

provides great resources for electronic books and audio books to be used in the classroom. This area is only going to expand.

YouTube

Using video in education can provide a wonderful medium for discussion, creation, inquiry, digital literacies.......

I really enjoyed watching Sir Ken Robinson video:


As I was looking I also found this wonderful example of a student creating a video to share his learning about Bow Drill sets. He has had over 8000 people view his video.The comments given back are powerful.



Providing opportunities for students to share their learning with an audience a receive feedback is a wonderful motivation for learning.

This medium allows teachers to use in many ways- even if it is to share a story digitally.



Another video site I use with children is WINGCLIPS.


It allows you to watch short film clips that are related to key concepts that can link to units of work.
An Example:




Teacher TV provides some great video resources as well.

Podcasting

This is a wonderful tool to allow students to create. They can also be used to promote discussion, assist an inquiry and reflect on learning.

Podcasting is a way of delivering multimedia files, such as audio or video over the Internet for playback on mobile device, such as an MP3 player or a computer. The audio (or video) file is posted on a web site, where it can be downloaded to a computer or MP3 player using a podcast client software. A podcast will have a web address for an RSS feed. iTunes (or another client) will check the RSS feed of the podcasts you subscribe to and automatically download any new ones.

Investigating the rich podcast out there here are a few of my favourites:

Andrew Douch has created many biology podcast to assist his students:
http://biologyoracle.podomatic.com/

MIT Open Course Ware Physics lectures- videoed and podcast:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-01Physics-IFall1999/VideoLectures/detail/embed06.htm

A wonderful selection in iTunes U for k-12- and it will be evergrowing.

Some Classroom Uses for Podcasting
o English stories
o History projects- eyewitness accounts, interviews, time lining
o Science Experiments and Reports
o Sportscasts
o Reflections
o Assessment- pre/post testing
o Tutorials
o Information sharing with community
o Visual Arts- describing artwork
o LOTE-verbal activities
o Radio Program
o Tours
o Excursions
o Oral Presentation

First Things First: Tips on the Plan
Amazingly enough, this first step is the one many podcasters skip: develop a plan. Before you start recording, think about what you want to say, and organise your show accordingly. Make notes, prepare your interviews (if any), and try to improvise as little as possible. While a completely spontaneous show can sound good if you’ve got the knack, the best podcasters prepare their shows in advance and work hard to provide interesting content.
1. Have something to say. You can certainly just ramble for a half-hour, but unless you have a unique voice (or are really funny) people won’t come back. If you make a podcast just to provide the drivel that’s on your blog, don’t bother; stick to text. It’ll save you time, and it’s easier to find out what you have to say.
2. Be prepared. Make notes before you start talking; only a rare few can improvise for a half-hour or an hour. In fact, few people can really improvise for more than a few minutes. Make detailed notes, and, if you’re interviewing someone, prepare questions in advance. However, don’t let notes or questions keep you from diverging if you find something better to say.
3. Be short and simple. Too many podcasts try and fill an hour with whatever it takes to fill that time. You will be much more likely to get listeners to try out your podcasts if they are short. If listeners like the shortcasts, then they’ll stick around for the longcasts.
4. Be clear. Learn how to record, edit, and produce your podcast. Also, if you’re interviewing someone, don’t interrupt. Learn when to talk and when to let the guest speak. You can edit later.
5. Be yourself. Unless you’re a professional journalist or radio broadcaster, you won’t make people think you are. Don’t try using that “radio voice”, and don’t try to talk about things you don’t know about. Do talk about what turns you on: even if it’s a hobby, such as beekeeping, an impassioned delivery by someone who knows the subject can be interesting.
6. Be unique. The best podcasts are the ones that are unique or original. Don’t copy in style or content. Podcasting, like writing, is creative.
7. Provide detailed program notes.
8. Add or sound effects to punctuate your show. Make sure the music you use has creative commons.
To sum up, creating a good podcast is like creating any type of quality content, be it music, words or audio. With a fair amount of intention, originality and creativity, you can share your thoughts with others through podcasts. But only the good survive; so if you want to reach an audience, do your best to make sure that people come back for more.
There are thousands of podcasts available today, but it’s easy to pass most of them up because they don’t stand out - figure out your angle, and run with it!
Remember to listen and use podcasts to enhance your learning and teaching!

Custom Search Engines

Google allows user to create their own search engines. With Google Custom Search you can create a customized search experience for your own website.


* Include one or more websites, or specific webpages
* Host the search box and results on your own website
* Customize the look and feel of the results to match your site

This is a great way to help young children concentrate on searching for key information and not get side tracked or overwhelmed with a large number of irrelevant sites.

Link to basic guide.

Rollyo is another custom search engine, that teachers can use to help with inquiry. It gives you the tools to create your own personal search engines - with no programming required. The potential for using this tool with children is that they can be focused on research and guided by reputable sites.

I liked to way your seachrolls are listed under the search engine box. It could be a powerful resource for schools to develop.

Wikis

A wiki is a collaborative website which can be directly edited by anyone with access to it. There are many wikis available on the net and many offer free services to educators. It is a collaborative authoring tool that allows visitors to easily add, remove, or otherwise edit and change some available content. Wikis can be public or private.



They can be used for:

• Brainstorming problems.
• Providing community support.
• Sharing information with staff, students and the broader education community.
• Compiling histories, tutorials, policies, interests and hobbies.

Wikipedia , http://en.wikipedia.org/ . Largest most well known wiki site.


A great educational wiki.

Social Bookmarking

In essence, social bookmarking lets you maintain a personal collection of links online, similar to the bookmarks or favorites in your browser, but they are also accessible to others on your own personal archive page. The real meat of the services, however, is "tagging". When you save a link to your collection, you tag it with one or more keywords to describe it. Multiple people can use the same words, so you can search for everything tagged with "distance education" or "RSS" and get the collected archive of everything that anyone using the service has found using that tag.

A delicious site I created on digital citizenship.

Using delicious in education

View more presentations from Gabriela Grosseck.

RSS feeds

Undeniably RSS is one of the best things that has happened to the web after email. Not only has it made browsing a lot more productive, convenient, fun … , but it has also introduced a number of new ways to interact with content that we could never have imagined before.

How can educational institutions are use RSS feeds in their daily routines:

1. Share Resources
Educators are using social bookmarking websites to share quality websites that relate to their area of expertise with colleagues and students.

2. Class Blogs
Helping students learn writing and reporting skills while understanding how to use technology. Many educational bloggers use RSS as a means to syndicate blog posts.

3. School Schedule Sports Schedule
RSS feeds can be used to communicate events scheduled on or off campus to prospective and existing students. Subscribes of a schools calendar feed receive notification as new items are added to the calendar.

4. Podcast Lectures
Podcasts can be used as study guides or even as class preview for students contemplating their course selections or choice of professors.

5. Monitor Research
Students involved in cutting edge research projects can use RSS to monitor news and search engines for specific keywords by creating search feeds. Any time a mention of the keyword phrase occurs in a news piece the item will appear in the search feed.

6. Professional Development
RSS can be used for remote education. Teachers can lose less class time while still staying current on the latest techniques, trends and information in their field of expertise.

7. Search Feeds
Students writing papers or working on research papers on specific topics can create search feeds, so that each time that topic is mentioned they receive notification in their custom search feed..

8. School News
Schools big or small can use RSS to communicate school news with their population, announcing staff changes, new courses or any other news that is relevant and of interest to the student population.

RSS is well suited for the world education. Technology and communication for years have helped advance the educational field for years. RSS feeds and Podcasting is a natural fit for educators, and its obvious when we look at how teachers, students and professors are using it to further education.

Nings

A great introduction to Nings.

One great Ning is Classroom 2.0. It is the social network for those interested in Web 2.0 and Social Media in education. Teachers participate in the great discussions , receive event notifications, and to find and connect with colleagues.

Social Networking

A great social networking site is Twitter. Twitter is a micro blogging platform which allows you to publish short messages of less than 140 characters through different mediums like IM, cellphones and the web.

It has a social element as well, as it allows users to befriend and monitor each other’s messages or updates. So what you have here is a publishing tool that can be either public and private.

Twitter in Education

View more presentations from David Hopkins.

Another great document- 7 things you should know about Twitter

Another useful social bookmarking site is Yammer. Yammer is a real-time communication platform for groups.

Even though Facebook was another social networking site-I choose not to include it as I feel there are better options out there for educators to use and I have had some bad experiences within schools settings and have opted to choose other options.

Flickr

What is Flickr? On online photo sharing site. a simple explanation:



How can Flickr be used in the classroom:
* use it in the design of lessons that promote and build visual literacy skills in students.
* use single photographs as writing prompts (either creative or interpretive writing) to using multiple image sets in digital storytelling projects.
* Student users can also contribute to the development of online stories about images, where contributors write storylines in the comment area of each
photograph in a process know as Flicktion.
*photographs can be geotagged, a process that links Flickr imagery with the geographical location of the source of the photo, permitting a visual, geographical study of a particular location or place.
* create virtual field trips and as a source of imagery to improve student presentations.
* use for evaluation and peer feedback by using the comment field.
Anywhere visual images are required, such as presentation, etc.
* Single image analysis
* Visual documentation of student artwork and other school products
* Creation of digital visual portfolios, using the photoset function of Flickr
* Social software applications: how to tag, how to make comments
* Delivery of school/classroom visual information via RSS
* The use of third party Flickr applications to produce classroom products:
a. Motivational posters
b. Magazine Covers
c. Movie Posters
d. Flickr slideshow
e. Mosaic Makers

A great site that educators are sharing their thoughts- Flickr in the Classroom.

Tom's new dog on Flickr:

Online Libraries

Library Thing is a social book site for storing and sharing personal library catalogs and book lists and having opportunity to discuss and share thoughts on books. The potential to set up groups for discussion can allow opportunities for class to discuss books online.

A simple introduction:



Another great site from primary schools is Shelfari. Shelfari is the premier social network for people who love books. Create a virtual shelf to show off your books, see what your friends are reading and discover new books

Children's review on it:

Image Generators

My avatar creation on Doppel Me


A great word generator to create fancy headings for your work! Spell with Flickr

Jelly Muffin Generator


I also like the enormous possibilities in Big Huge Labs- from motivational posters, mosaics, magazines covers, billboards.... Children can concentrate on the concepts and let the tools create cool items.

Examples: Billboard


Mosaic Maker: Cool Pop Art!!

Virtual Worlds

A virtual world is an interactive computer simulation which lets its participants see, hear, use and even modify the simulated objects in a computer-created world. Participants in a successful virtual world have a deep sense of presence in that world. Our children are experiencing computer simulation everywhere- in the games they are playing, to movies, computer sites... There is enormous possibilities to use this stimulation to enhance learning. Virtual world educational environments may not replace real classrooms, but they are becoming integral to the future of education. Educational virtual worlds combine kids' learning activities, imagination, creativity, collaboration, communication and they are a whole lot of fun!

A wonderful virtual world that I use with children is Quest Atlantis. Quest Atlantis (QA) is an international learning and teaching project that uses a 3D multi-user environment to immerse children, ages 9-16, in educational tasks. QA combines strategies used in the commercial gaming environment with lessons from educational research on learning and motivation.
A preview:

iGoogle

iGoogle allows users to personalise their web page so they can have features that they want as easy access. With life's rapidly increasing time demands, it is ideal having everything needed in the one place. There are many gadget that can be added to suit individual needs like maps, notes, weather, news feeds,games, quotes, calendars...... the list is endless.

A powerful feature that I use constantly is the RSS feeds. This allows users to become very efficient at scanning web pages for key terms and information. I have my Google reader as a gadget. This is a powerful tool to use with students as they engage with projects.

Google Books

This was a easy site to navigate and find information. It works just like web search: where a find a book whose content contains a match for your search terms, then by clicking on a book result, you'll are able to see everything from a few short excerpts to the entire book, depending on permissions of the publishers. You also have the opportunity to buy the book if you are interested. Google books also has a search feature within each book that will find selected text. There can be many applications in the classroom if their is a text that supports the inquiry. There is also opportunity to embed books into other sites.

Google Maps

Google Maps' has enormous potentials for educators within the classroom context, from history to geography, social studies, mathematics, english and even economics. Teachers and students can use Google Maps to learn about specific locations and see what they look like from an aerial view; compare their home streets and neighborhoods and study satellite images superimposed on the maps. It provides detailed, highly visual information that allows many opportunities for developing visual literacy and numeracy .

An wonderful feature in Google Maps is the editable features. Teachers and students can create personalized, annotated, customized maps. It also opportunities to add descriptions or instructions. Whether there is an excursion or a need to document a journey, teachers and students can personalise maps by embedding photos, videos, and descriptive text. Teachers and students can also publish, share, and invite others to collaborate on their project. Students and teachers can also embed maps into other sites.


View Brisbane in a larger map

Google Docs

A number of online word processing, spreadsheets and presentations applications have emerged in recent years. They allow a more collaborative approach, where several people can contribute to the same document, edit from anywhere and it is stored in 'cloud' space. In an educational setting it opens up the classroom to allow collaboration and connectedness beyond classroom walls and times.

Google Doc features are:
• Upload from and save to your desktop
• Edit anytime, from anywhere
• allows opportunities to select who can access your documents
• Share changes in real time
• Files are stored securely online
• It's free!




Great article on 7 things you should know about Google Docs.

Useful tips and shortcuts to use with Google Docs

WHY WEB 2.0?

Web 2.0 is seen as the "new web" as it provides many tools that have changed how we interact with each other. Web 2.o has allowed opportunities for all to create and respond on the web without knowing HTML codes. Web 2.0 tools are social in nature and promote self expression. The advent of Web 2.0 encourages COMMUNICATION, COLLABORATION, CREATIVITY, CONNECTNESS and HIGH PRODUCTIVITY.

A video that illustrates how Web 2.0 has shifted our lives.


The shift to Web 2.0 has had a profound impact on our lives, therefore education must engage their 21st century learners by using these tools in learning and teaching. It also provides a paradigm shift in learning as they encourage more that information delivery- they involve engaging learners where the online environment they participate in provides a stage, purpose and audience for their learning. It also is a powerful medium for reflection and feedback.

Transforming Learning through ICLT

As an education officer I aim to use this blog as a place to reflect on current ICLT issue, develop a bank of tools and resources to assist teachers in the classroom and as a communication tool to build a personal learning network.

In the 21st century classroom students have access to rich information and global communication where teachers support, facilitate,encourage, and collaborate with their students. All imply an effort to connect learners to the world they are learning about. Part of our job description requires us to be learners ourselves. Life-long learners. That’s why we need convenient and unfettered access to new and emerging technologies, as well as opportunities to gain and develop skills not only to operate these tools, but also to shape and even invent networks of learnng. This blog can be one way........

Vision for K-12 Learning

A great video to use with teachers to discuss 21st Century Learning.