Robin’s Technology Tips

This blog has moved.  My new address is:  www.robinstechtips.com.  Hope to see ya’ll in my new space.

In my recent blog readings, I have come across the prevailing thought that the importance of blogging is not just to make your voice heard, but it is the ongoing conversation that happens after a blog/piece of writing has put out there and others comment back to extend the conversation.  It is not just the writing workshop process happening in the classroom, but it is taking it to the world.   When you have to clarify and defend what you say, you improve your ability to write with a clear focus on your audience and purpose in expressing yourself. 

Students who blog have a great opportunity to see their writing read by others and even get feedback on their thoughts and insights from “real-world” people and not just their teacher.   How powerful is it to know that anyone in the world can read what you wrote and make comments.  Remember – Comments can be moderated so that the not so helpful ones are not made public.  

What are some examples of student created blogs?  Here is a list taken from Will Richardson’s Book  Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for the Classroom.

• learn how to blog – nothing better than a hands on experience for learning
• class writing assignments/ ongoing portfolio of writings - blogs would keep all the writing organized and students can look back over time and see how their writing has changed over the year.  This could also be a showcase of their best work.
• express opinions or insights about class topics – Blogging is not just for LA classes, students can give insight on:
  • history topics
  • pieces of music
  • what makes learning a new language hard
  • how science and math can be found in everyday life
  • write editorial pieces about current events
  • discuss class activities

Any other ideas? 

Let’s start  with the difference between a blog and your TeacherWeb page.  A blog allows for users to comment and keeps all posts stored in chronological order.  Blogs are also searchable and can be “tagged” with keywords for easy access to previous information.  For instance, in a few months from now you think, “Oh yeah – Robin emailed us something about blogs.”  You can come to this blog and search using the word “blog” and this post will come up.  Users can also subscribe to your blog and get notified every time something new is posted without you having to send out the info.

 In education blogs are great at :

• easy publishing
• self-expression
• personality
• forces writer to think about the audience
• peer feedback
• chronology
• community of learners

Examples of use in education:

• Teacher’s Web Page
• Learning Journals – reflect on one’s own learning
• Create historical diaries – each day’s post equals day in character’s life
• Create fictional diaries – choose a character from the book and write a diary from that person’s point of view – respond to events in the book
• Publish Book – a chapter a day
• Collaborate with different classrooms
• Role Plays – Students are assigned various roles and post blogs from their view point.

So where do you begin?  Start by reading some blogs.   Technorati is a blog search engine that tracks millions of blogs on all sorts of topics.  Check out your favorite websites, see if any of them have links to blogs.   Comment on the blog and see what happens.  Being part of this community is to not only read or consume the information, but to also add back to the knowledge base of other reader’s.  You are more than welcome to comment back on this blog at any time!

Next, subscribe to a few blogs to begin being a member of the blogging community.  Blogs can be subscribed to through a number of free online readers, and sometimes you can get notification through email.  If you are interested in setting up a reader, let me know and we will get you started.   Here are some suggested educational blogs to subscribe to:

You are now well on your way to becoming a blogger yourself.  Setting up your own blog is easier than ever and is completely free!  If you are ready for this step, let me know and I can come get you started.  I currently recommend edublogs as it is free, easily customizable, made for educators and contains no ads.

Happy blogging!

Further Reading:

• http://www.edutopia.org/blogging-history – article about a class blog project
• Recent article that shows writing improves with blogging: “Learning with Weblogs” by Helen S. Du, Christian Wagner at City University in Hong Kong.

I have been trying to send out various podcasts in hopes of inspiring you to become listeners of what is happening online.  Ridgeview will be launching it’s own podcast forum in the next few weeks (look for it before Spring Break).

 In getting away for a few moments from education I thought this week I’d show you how the presidential candidates are using this new technology by making their speeches and stances on issues available through the internet and podcasts. You can subscribe to these so you can be up to date on all the latest in the political arena. As always, be careful when looking for resources to check out the spin that might be there and see who is hosting the files.

If you would like to learn how to subscribe to podcasts or blogs of any sort, please email me and we can maybe set up a class (before or after school) to teach you how to do this. There are some great education ones, current events, technology, sports, basically anything you can think of!

Campaigns and Candidates

• Presidential Candidates Audio and Video Resource
• Candidate netcasts

Specific Candidate Audio/Video Resources:

• Obama  – http://www.digg.com/podcasts/U_S_Senator_Barack_Obama_Podcast_2
• Clinton – http://clinton.senate.gov/news/statements/index.cfm
• McCain  – http://instapundit.com/archives2/012988.php
• Huckabee  – http://instapundit.com/archives2/010016.php

To find more, just type in the candidates name and podcasts into Google.  Remember – please don’t send students to do this as they aren’t great yet in discerning good info from bad.

Disclaimer: By sending these out I am in no way endorsing any candidate, just trying to show you what the possibilities are in finding resources on line for your personal and professional development.

To become more familiar with what podcasts are and what they can offer us as educators, I thought I would send out links to good podcasts for teachers to listen to from time to time. These podcasts can be subscribed to so you are notified when new shows are broadcasted. They can be listened to on your computer, or downloaded for listening on your ipod (or other mp3 player).

Podcast of the Week:

New Teacher Hotline – http://www.newteacherhotline.com/

This podcast is about teaching and is presented by the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence. Recent shows include interviews with New York’s Teacher of the Year, “I’m your Son’s Tormentor,” and “God, Please Let Him be Absent.” They are all about 24 minutes long, but by listening to part of a broadcast, you can get a feel for what works about podcasts and the info that cna be presented.

If you need help in setting up a subscription to this or need computer updates to listen to the file, please let me know!