Creation Activity ~ Twitter

A few months ago, I thought of the Twitter tool as a teen fad. Searching for a credible Twitter use, I joked that teachers could “tweet” students their homework, overlooking that fact that millions of users were already using Twitter to inform, to learn, and to connect. With his Blackberry at hand throughout the 2008 Presidential campaign, Barack Obama showed the world that Twitter might have a greater use.

Often thought of as a “stripped-down” version of a blog, Twitter shares many of the same advantages of blogging. Ideally, in an educational setting, Twitter might be utilized to keep parents informed of classroom and field trip activities; it might be used to promote, as well as to provide news and information. Students who travel throughout the school year may be able to “tweet” their class to their journeys. Less preferable are trivial tweets or those containing TMI (too much information). Will Twitter eventually impact the way we think? At the very least, with a limitation of 140 characters, Twitter encourages us to focus on the “Big Idea”.

My Twitter username: DetroitWilliams

More Twitter thoughts. . .

We are pioneers, searching the best uses of each new technology. Perhaps even the Twitter founders have failed to realize the full potential of this tool. One could build a professional learning community by following selective tweeters. While many corporations and individuals using the technology for promotion there are also tweeters that provide tweets of educational value. The “What are you doing?” question, as wonderfully simple as it is, obscures Twitter’s usefulness. Imagine how quickly Twitter could move from the current social network to a more professional learning network simply by asking a different question.

Creation Activity ~ Podcasts

As a society we have come to expect technologically advanced, on-demand products; the field of education is not exempt from change and innovation. With low cost, ease-of-entry, podcasts ride on the existing infrastructure of the web. The ability to create or access a podcast repeatedly, at any hour, fits a 21st century lifestyle. Podcasts may be played on an increasingly large number of devices: computers, laptops, netbooks, iPods, to name a few. Although these devices have not saturated all households, the price of technology tends to decrease and such technologies are becoming increasingly available. For example, flip video cameras and webcams may be purchased for well under $150.00, many laptops come with webcams installed, and editing programs such as Windows Movie Maker and Audacity are available for free.

Is Podcasting merely another toy or can it advance learning? Again, let’s refer to Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy and note that creativity is a higher level thinking skill; podcasts may engage students in ways that handouts and worksheets cannot. Podcasts address many educational problems today including: student absenteeism, slower learners, and bored learners. They are great for classroom review, further study by slower learners, and a supplement to note-taking. Recently, with concerns over the H1N1 virus schools are encouraging students to take an extended period of time to recover at home and are encouraging teachers to place as much educational classroom content as possible on the web; podcasting may offer one solution.

The November 2nd entry (below) contains a discussion about getting started in podcasting. The blog entry also contains a link to download “The Benefits of Podcasting” podcast.

Creation Activity ~ RSS Feeds

My collection of favorites seems to have mirrored the exponential growth of the Internet; I easily have over 100 websites and blogs which I look at intermittently. Organizing favorites into folders is suddenly a feeble approach to the wave of internet publishing. Browsing through favorites at one’s leisure is a “hit and miss” approach to gathering information and one which often leads to expired links and outdated information.

“The new killer app for educators” should be greatly appreciated for I, too, have needed to set up feeds from my favorite websites for some time now (Richardson, 2009).

For this assignment, I utilized Google’s FeedBurner and placed a subscription “chicklet” on my this blog site as well. You may subscribe from both this blog or the following link:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/WilliamsWeblog

You might be interested in the October 27th blog entry titled "RSS Feeds and Information Overload".

Creation Activity ~ Wikis

Getting Started

I'm getting started on my first Wiki. So far I've been able to create a WikiSpaces.com account, and begin using the Editor. As you can see from the screen snapshot above, the Editor toolbar is similar to other blogging tools and word processing icons. If you have ever uploaded files, that process will also be familiar. The "Manage Wiki" button allows additional options such as changing the theme and the logo; the first few steps of the wiki walk do not appear too difficult.

Wikis in Education

While educators value technology, concern over student safety has shifted the educational use of technology so that it is far removed from actual business practice. As is America’s educational tradition, students often spend much of their time quietly working alone on projects and worksheets. Control issues or learning new tools are other reasons that blogs or other collaborative technologies are seldom utilized by K – 12 educators. Richardson thinks that we need to teach wiki skills to our students because that empowering process “can help our students become better learners” (Richardson, p. 58, 2009).

Wikis certainly provide opportunities for educators wishing to start small. An educator might begin by creating an “in-house” wiki for a small group or classroom. Those involved may acquire improved collaboration, negotiation, reading, writing, and thinking skills. On a larger scale, teachers may have their students collaborate with others outside of the school environment or contribute new information to the world’s body of knowledge. As educators we have much to do if we are to create an educational environment that mirrors the world of work.

The following is the URL to my WikiSpaces page:

http://wiki-walk.wikispaces.com/

References:

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.

Creation Activity ~ Blogs

A web log, also known as a blog, is another example of a powerful Web 2.0 teaching and learning tool. I’ve been reading blogs for the past several years and have discovered that there are blogs that fill virtually every niche. The ability to publish effortlessly, at little or no cost, has certainly contributed to recent interest in creating blogs. Blog readers are often treated to topical postings which frequently include multimedia, comments, and links to similar sites.

Although I have not used blogs with my students, I see several benefits to using them. First, students should be aware of the potential world-wide audience when blogging. Ideally, students integrate a high degree of excellence into their web work, and hopefully, this excellence transfers into their daily lives. Second, blogs are authentic projects which give students both a voice and recognition. Blogs may also serve to promote critical thinking, collaboration, and reflection. While I am skeptical of my own ability to manage the large amount of blog content, I look forward to having my students blog within this school year.

Creation Activity ~ Social Bookmarking

I created a del.icio.us account this spring while taking graduate classes. Although the account was easy enough to set up, I felt that I initially included too many all-purpose tags. Tags such as “technology”, “education”, and “internet” are simply not as useful to the reader as specific tags such as “IPod” or “Wi-Fi”. For readability, I also began to capitalize the first letter of each word in a tag consisting of several words ex: “CyberSafety”.

This summer, during our frequent family travels, I was conducting research and often found myself utilizing whatever computers were available. The Delicious website proved to be a particularly useful Web 2.0 tool which permitted the necessary “portability” of my growing collection of bookmarks. In addition, I frequently found myself following users’ tags and reading in areas of interest. By nature of this folksonomy, I easily connected with individuals who had similar interests. Viewing “Fresh Bookmarks” also served as a type of personal professional development as the latest technology trends appear on this hotlist.

In addition to my own learning, I intend to incorporate Delicious.com into my own classroom use. During the course of a year, I’ll mention numerous websites that students will wish to visit; how convenient to have them available and in one spot. In any class there are always a few students who complete their work quickly and are looking for something else to do; Delicious can solve that problem as well. Since I have recently changed classrooms, I am building a delicious site for my students as well.

The following is the link for my professional delicious site:

http://delicious.com/tags/mrwilliams232

and one for my students:
http://delicious.com/tags/mrwilliams213

Getting Started in Podcasting

The Benefits of Podcasting - Download Link

"How to" Video