I already use online video in my classroom. Sometimes it is easy to access and use. I use the tutorials from Prentice Hall in my algebra class. I use the videos to re-teach difficult concepts. When I taught world history, I used United Streaming Videos, although some of them are poor quality. All those videos are easy to access, although our tech department wants us to download them and then show them because we use too much bandwith if we show them directly from the site.
When I taught English, I tried to use videos from the internet but with limited success. Some things I could link to one week would be blocked the next. Trying to get Oprah's interview with Elie Wiesel was a challenge. I know YouTube is blocked at school. I usually don't try to look for videos to use at school because so much is blocked and, as I've said before, MHS has been told to reduce the amount of bandwith used. If I preview videos at school, I try to do it after 3:30 when most of the other schools in the district have dismissed.
I'll be looking more carefully at online videos to use in class, now that I know how easy it is to download them. I thought using Zamzar was easy and the second time I used it, the email to me came almost immediately.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Thing 20
I think my students would enjoy podcasting. I think they would enjoy professionally made podcasts more than the ones I would make. I think they would enjoy podcasts made by classmates. And I think they would enjoy video podcasts more than audio podcasts. I think that long podcasts would lose their interests. Here are some of the podcasts I think they would enjoy.
Grammar Girl, Princeton Review vocabulary, and the Discovery Channel videos.
It takes me a long time to do any kind of recording. I have used Audacity to record exams and I anlways make mistakes and have to re-record parts. I have tried to put audio to power points for math instruction for students who are absent and suspended so they don't fall behind but it takes me so long that I couldn't do it very often. I imagine the more I do it, the better I'd be. I think podcasting will be one of those summer-time things for me. I will have a lot of time to play around with it and try to get better at it.
What I'm finding while doing completing each stage of 23 Things is that I am enjoying many of the things I have learned more personally than professionally. I am in South Carolina right now and my step-daughter and I are sharing pictures on Flickr. In the same way, the podcasts I am interested in usually don't have anything to do with my job. And I am teaching resource room algebra, not my first or second choice of teaching assignments. So, I am drawn to English/language arts-related podcasts and I really can't use these this year in my teaching. Two podcasts that interested me are The Onion News and This American Life.
Grammar Girl, Princeton Review vocabulary, and the Discovery Channel videos.
It takes me a long time to do any kind of recording. I have used Audacity to record exams and I anlways make mistakes and have to re-record parts. I have tried to put audio to power points for math instruction for students who are absent and suspended so they don't fall behind but it takes me so long that I couldn't do it very often. I imagine the more I do it, the better I'd be. I think podcasting will be one of those summer-time things for me. I will have a lot of time to play around with it and try to get better at it.
What I'm finding while doing completing each stage of 23 Things is that I am enjoying many of the things I have learned more personally than professionally. I am in South Carolina right now and my step-daughter and I are sharing pictures on Flickr. In the same way, the podcasts I am interested in usually don't have anything to do with my job. And I am teaching resource room algebra, not my first or second choice of teaching assignments. So, I am drawn to English/language arts-related podcasts and I really can't use these this year in my teaching. Two podcasts that interested me are The Onion News and This American Life.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Thing 19
Podcasts I listened to:
1. This American Life #377 Scenes from a Recession
2. Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips
3. Princeton Review Vocabulary Minute
4. Ecogeeks: Untamed Science Video Podcast
5. Trigonometry and Geometry Papapodcasts
6. Shrink Rap Radio
7. Big Ideas
8. Awesome Vocabulary
9. The Sound of Young America
10. New Yorker: Fiction
I thoroughly enjoyed Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips, Princeton Review Vocabulary Minute, and Ecogeeks: Untamed Science Video. Grammar Girl has a web site that you can visit that corresponds with the podcast. The podcasts can be used as one more way to teach grammar which can be pretty boring. I listened to 2 podcasts and thought both were entertainting. Princeton Review Vocabulary Minute is amusing but also informative. The podcast is set to music. A word is stated and then a little song is sung containing many other words with the same meaning. I thought it would be a good way to prepare for the ACT/MME. The Ecogeeks video was amazing, although I'm not sure I would have descended to the deep ocean in a homemade submarine like the people in the video did.
I think the audio podcasts would be good for my students as long as they weren't too long. The Big Ideas podcasts are lectures and each is about 45 minutes long. I teach mostly freshmen and those podcasts were too long and too serious for them. And, if you use one method too much it gets boring so I think it would be best to use podcasts as supplements to other teaching methods.
I do have a question about how kids would access a podcast. Would kids be reluctant to download a podcast to their MP3 players? I think podcasts could be downloaded onto iTunes and kids could listen on their computers without having the podcast on their iPods, if they have a computer. I think I'd have to teach kids how to do that. I could make a link to the podcasts on my teacher page on the MHS website. Some kids don't have MP3 players but that wouldn't be an issue for me because I have a few I got in a mini grant that I could use. I'm a little nervous about kids taking them home, though, because getting them back might be hard and I'd never be able to replace them.
1. This American Life #377 Scenes from a Recession
2. Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips
3. Princeton Review Vocabulary Minute
4. Ecogeeks: Untamed Science Video Podcast
5. Trigonometry and Geometry Papapodcasts
6. Shrink Rap Radio
7. Big Ideas
8. Awesome Vocabulary
9. The Sound of Young America
10. New Yorker: Fiction
I thoroughly enjoyed Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips, Princeton Review Vocabulary Minute, and Ecogeeks: Untamed Science Video. Grammar Girl has a web site that you can visit that corresponds with the podcast. The podcasts can be used as one more way to teach grammar which can be pretty boring. I listened to 2 podcasts and thought both were entertainting. Princeton Review Vocabulary Minute is amusing but also informative. The podcast is set to music. A word is stated and then a little song is sung containing many other words with the same meaning. I thought it would be a good way to prepare for the ACT/MME. The Ecogeeks video was amazing, although I'm not sure I would have descended to the deep ocean in a homemade submarine like the people in the video did.
I think the audio podcasts would be good for my students as long as they weren't too long. The Big Ideas podcasts are lectures and each is about 45 minutes long. I teach mostly freshmen and those podcasts were too long and too serious for them. And, if you use one method too much it gets boring so I think it would be best to use podcasts as supplements to other teaching methods.
I do have a question about how kids would access a podcast. Would kids be reluctant to download a podcast to their MP3 players? I think podcasts could be downloaded onto iTunes and kids could listen on their computers without having the podcast on their iPods, if they have a computer. I think I'd have to teach kids how to do that. I could make a link to the podcasts on my teacher page on the MHS website. Some kids don't have MP3 players but that wouldn't be an issue for me because I have a few I got in a mini grant that I could use. I'm a little nervous about kids taking them home, though, because getting them back might be hard and I'd never be able to replace them.
Thing 17
Since my husband and I are taking "23 Things" together and we work in the same school, we created a Wiki together. We called it monroehighschool. Maybe this will be too much "togetherness." We'll see.
The thought behind this was that we could use this Wiki as a communication method with MHS students. It could be a way to let kids know what is going on at school. We thought we could have a general MHS page and create a page for each class. It would be a way for students to see what's going on in school and also be able to make comments. We would have to screen comments to make sure they are school appropriate. Monroe High School is so big that it's hard to get the word out about what we offer. And because of the size it's hard to know students' opinions. We thought it would be a way to tell about the serious stuff and the fun stuff that happens at our school.
This wiki is different than a blog because it is more collaborative. There isn't just one author who publishes information. There could be problems with students writing inappropriate things about other people or using inappropriate language but the Wiki can be set up to make sure that inappropriate comments aren't published. One problem we may have is that I believe Wikispaces are blocked by our Tech department and would not be available for students or teachers to use during school hours. Another problem would be the time it would take to manage the Wiki.
I think Wikis are a good tool for when students have to do group projects. Students can contribute to information and they don't even need to be in the same building. Again, there may be a problem at MHS with Wikis being blocked and that would mean students would have to access a Wiki at home or a public library.
The thought behind this was that we could use this Wiki as a communication method with MHS students. It could be a way to let kids know what is going on at school. We thought we could have a general MHS page and create a page for each class. It would be a way for students to see what's going on in school and also be able to make comments. We would have to screen comments to make sure they are school appropriate. Monroe High School is so big that it's hard to get the word out about what we offer. And because of the size it's hard to know students' opinions. We thought it would be a way to tell about the serious stuff and the fun stuff that happens at our school.
This wiki is different than a blog because it is more collaborative. There isn't just one author who publishes information. There could be problems with students writing inappropriate things about other people or using inappropriate language but the Wiki can be set up to make sure that inappropriate comments aren't published. One problem we may have is that I believe Wikispaces are blocked by our Tech department and would not be available for students or teachers to use during school hours. Another problem would be the time it would take to manage the Wiki.
I think Wikis are a good tool for when students have to do group projects. Students can contribute to information and they don't even need to be in the same building. Again, there may be a problem at MHS with Wikis being blocked and that would mean students would have to access a Wiki at home or a public library.
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