Click here to listen
It’s Saturday, November 17, 2007 and welcome to Episode 12 of Tech Talk 4 Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. Before I begin this week I would to answer a couple of questions I received about last weeks podcast on PowerPoint Producer. I forgot to mention that you do need to use the Internet Explorer browser to view the content created by Producer. Roughly 80 percent of Internet users use Internet Explorer as their main browser but there is a significant percentage that use other browsers. I have not tried using Mozilla Firefox with the Internet Explorer plug-in to view Producer content but I suspect that combination would work. If someone out there has the IE plug-in installed in Firefox I would be interested in knowing if PowerPoint Producer files do work with Firefox. Just wanted to clear that up if anyone was having trouble viewing some of the links I provided in last weeks show notes.
This week I am beginning to think about Thanksgiving dinner and thus the inspiration for the title of this podcast of Social Bookmarking, It’s Mmm, Mmm Delicious! We are expecting between 20 and 30 family members at our house for Thanksgiving dinner so I will be cooking three turkeys in preparation of the feast. OK, so what is the tie in with delicious theme? del.icio.us is an Internet website owned by Yahoo that is used for social bookmarking purposes. I have used this site regularly over the past couple of years and I find it very valuable as a teacher.
Think of del.icio.us just as you would your favorites list in Internet Explorer or your bookmark lists in other browsers. There is one major difference. del.icio.us bookmarks are saved on the Internet and thus are available to you anywhere in the world where you have an Internet connection. They can travel with you. You just go to your account on the del.icio.us website and voila there are your bookmarks. Cool! This is so helpful to me as a teacher because I do a lot of workshops and therefore I am not always setting in front of my computer. In the old days (three or four years ago) if I needed to look up something I bookmarked on my computer when outside my office I was out of luck, but not with del.icio.us. Now if I need to check a link when away from my desk I just go to my del.icio.us bookmarks on the Internet and there is my bookmark list.
The second major advantage to del.icio.us is that I can share my bookmarks with anyone that knows my del.icio.us account address. My del.icio.us account address is provided in the show notes for this episode.
Tom Grissom’s del.icio.us bookmarks:
http://del.icio.us/gtgrissom
By sharing my bookmarks others can take advantage of material that I have collected over the years and it is all freely available on the Internet.
The third advantage is that when I add a link in del.icio.us I can see if any other del.icio.us users have previously linked to the content that I am interested in. For example if others have linked to the same material I can click on the section in my bookmark listings that says saved by 21 other people (this is usually highlighted in pink) When clicked this brings up a list of other del.icio.us users that have also bookmarked the same content. If I would like I can click on their username to see their bookmarks. Sometimes you will get lucky and find someone that has similar interests to you and you can learn a lot from their bookmarks. This can save you hours and hours of searching on the Internet because other del.icio.us users has already vetted material for you. The key is finding an expert that has similar interests as you. As with anything on the Internet be careful when exploring because some other del.icio.us users may not share the same tastes as you.
The fourth big advantage of social bookmarking is something called tags or tagging. When you bookmark something in del.icio.us you are given the opportunity to write some notes about the link you wish to bookmark and you can also assign a tag to the entry which is like a keyword to categorize your links by. For example when I find something of interest for my edu2022 class I tag it with the keyword edu2022, when my student visit my del.icio.us links I tell them to select the edu2022 tag on the right side of the screen and they will only see the content that I have tagged as relevant for this class. I am sure you will find many uses for del.icio.us Please send me an email to techtalk@eiu.edu with a story about how you use del.icio.us and I will pass it along to our listeners.
Tom’s Technology Pick of the Week
del.icio.us website
http://del.icio.us/
My Technology Pick of the week this week is the del.icio.us website. User accounts are free if you would like to give it a try. As I have mentioned before the only downside is yet another userid and password to remember. The social part of bookmarking is finding other users that share similar interests and you can add them to your network if you like. You can also be notified when others update their links. You can even have a fan club. Right now under my del.icio.us account I have two fellow del.icio.us users that are listed as my fans. Cool, Thank You! I am not sure who they are but it does give you a good feeling knowing that you have helped out others enough that they would add themselves to your del.icio.us network as a fan.
Show notes for this episode and previous episodes are available on the web at techtalk4techers.blogspot.com that’s techtalk the number 4 teachers.blogspot.com If you have a comment or suggestion for a future show or a suggestion for a Technology Pick of the Week then please email me at techtalk@eiu.edu. That wraps it up for Episode 12 of TechTalk4Teachers so until next time this is Tom Grissom, keep on learning.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Friday, November 9, 2007
tt4t_011 PowerPoint Producer a useful tool for teachers and students
Click here to Listen
It’s Friday, November 9, 2007 and welcome to Episode 11 of Tech Talk 4 Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. This week I would like to introduce you to a program that has been around for a number of years but I am surprised by how few teachers know about it. PowerPoint Producer 2003 is a free program available from Microsoft.
PowerPoint Producer has been around since Office XP in 2002 and PowerPoint Producer works with Microsoft Office 2003. Producer basically allows users to create virtual PowerPoint presentation that can be uploaded and delivered via your website. When you begin a Producer project you are given a wizard that allows you to select the type of format you would like to produce. If you have a video camera that will connect to your computer you can create a PowerPoint presentation with a talking head video of you in the upper left corner of the screen and the PowerPoint slide showing in the main portion of the screen. If you simply want to annotate the PowerPoint slides all you need is a microphone.
I have used this program in the past to create self-standing presentations to be used in learning centers. An individual student or small group of students can go to the learning station and watch and listen to the presentation created with PowerPoint Producer. If you wish you can upload the producer project folder and all associated files to the Internet so that anyone can view the presentation using a browser. You do not have to upload the files created to the Internet because this program creates a self-contained folder that can be burned to a CD or copied to a local computer for local access.
The other way that I have used PowerPoint Producer is for student presentations. Students use Producer to develop a virtual PowerPoint presentation that I and other students can view at a time of our choosing. This gives students the chance to practice PowerPoint presentations but not take up class time. Sometimes you do not want to give up class time for students to present, if you have 20 students and each one gives a 10 minute presentation that is 200 minutes of class time, over three hours! Students do need time to present in front of groups but I have found that students are just as motivated in giving virtual presentations. The other benefit is that they can upload the presentations to the Internet and share with anyone. This is a good motivator for students and I have found that the quality of work goes up if the students know ahead of time that the work will be posted to the Internet.
Links are provided in the show notes for the PowerPoint Producer 2003 download site and additional information about this program.
Download PowerPoint Producer 2003
PowerPoint Producer Tutorials and Examples (from McMurry University)
Tom’s Technology Pick of the Week
Voice Thread
http://www.voicethread.com
My Technology Pick of the week this week is a new Web 2.0 tool called Voice Thread. A link to the Voice Thread website is provided in the show notes. Voice Thread is a service that allows users to narrate pictures and share with others. It is a lot like a blog but instead of commenting about a blog post in writing you create a voice recording associated with a picture. The real power comes when multiple people make vocal comments on a particular picture and thus a single picture can have multiple perspectives. This is an excellent story telling tool. Be sure to check out Voice Thread because I think it can have many uses in the classroom no matter what subject area or grade level you teach. They have some excellent demos at the website for you to get acquainted with this new tool.
Show notes for this episode and previous episodes are available on the web at techtalk4techers.blogspot.com that’s techtalk the number 4 teachers.blogspot.com If you have a comment or suggestion for a future show or a suggestion for a Technology Pick of the Week then please email me at techtalk@eiu.edu. That wraps it up for Episode 11 of TechTalk4Teachers so until next time this is Tom Grissom, keep on learning.
It’s Friday, November 9, 2007 and welcome to Episode 11 of Tech Talk 4 Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. This week I would like to introduce you to a program that has been around for a number of years but I am surprised by how few teachers know about it. PowerPoint Producer 2003 is a free program available from Microsoft.
PowerPoint Producer has been around since Office XP in 2002 and PowerPoint Producer works with Microsoft Office 2003. Producer basically allows users to create virtual PowerPoint presentation that can be uploaded and delivered via your website. When you begin a Producer project you are given a wizard that allows you to select the type of format you would like to produce. If you have a video camera that will connect to your computer you can create a PowerPoint presentation with a talking head video of you in the upper left corner of the screen and the PowerPoint slide showing in the main portion of the screen. If you simply want to annotate the PowerPoint slides all you need is a microphone.
I have used this program in the past to create self-standing presentations to be used in learning centers. An individual student or small group of students can go to the learning station and watch and listen to the presentation created with PowerPoint Producer. If you wish you can upload the producer project folder and all associated files to the Internet so that anyone can view the presentation using a browser. You do not have to upload the files created to the Internet because this program creates a self-contained folder that can be burned to a CD or copied to a local computer for local access.
The other way that I have used PowerPoint Producer is for student presentations. Students use Producer to develop a virtual PowerPoint presentation that I and other students can view at a time of our choosing. This gives students the chance to practice PowerPoint presentations but not take up class time. Sometimes you do not want to give up class time for students to present, if you have 20 students and each one gives a 10 minute presentation that is 200 minutes of class time, over three hours! Students do need time to present in front of groups but I have found that students are just as motivated in giving virtual presentations. The other benefit is that they can upload the presentations to the Internet and share with anyone. This is a good motivator for students and I have found that the quality of work goes up if the students know ahead of time that the work will be posted to the Internet.
Links are provided in the show notes for the PowerPoint Producer 2003 download site and additional information about this program.
Download PowerPoint Producer 2003
PowerPoint Producer Tutorials and Examples (from McMurry University)
Tom’s Technology Pick of the Week
Voice Thread
http://www.voicethread.com
My Technology Pick of the week this week is a new Web 2.0 tool called Voice Thread. A link to the Voice Thread website is provided in the show notes. Voice Thread is a service that allows users to narrate pictures and share with others. It is a lot like a blog but instead of commenting about a blog post in writing you create a voice recording associated with a picture. The real power comes when multiple people make vocal comments on a particular picture and thus a single picture can have multiple perspectives. This is an excellent story telling tool. Be sure to check out Voice Thread because I think it can have many uses in the classroom no matter what subject area or grade level you teach. They have some excellent demos at the website for you to get acquainted with this new tool.
Show notes for this episode and previous episodes are available on the web at techtalk4techers.blogspot.com that’s techtalk the number 4 teachers.blogspot.com If you have a comment or suggestion for a future show or a suggestion for a Technology Pick of the Week then please email me at techtalk@eiu.edu. That wraps it up for Episode 11 of TechTalk4Teachers so until next time this is Tom Grissom, keep on learning.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
tt4t_010 The Long Tail
Click here to listen
(or right click to download to your computer or portable MP3 player)
It’s Saturday, November 3, 2007 and welcome to Episode 10 of TechTalk4Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. This episode marks a small milestone for this show as this is the 10th episode of TechTalk4Teachers. Hurray, we made it to double digits! According to Rob Walch of podcast411 one out of five podcast do not make it past the 10th episode. I made myself a promise to give this show a semester and re-evaluate at the end of the semester. If you find value from these shows please let me know. As with most podcasters we are truly interested in what our listeners think and love to hear from others.
In a previous episode I discussed podfading and how podfading has entered the vocabulary of podcasters. It is easy to get excited about educational technologies when they are in the novelty stage. It is much tougher to cut through the hype and utilize the technologies in a sound pedagogical manner to the benefit of teachers and students. Another thing that I have noticed about many of the successful longer lasting podcasts is that they evolved over time to fill a niche. This is a consequence of taking advantage of what has become known as the “long tail” that podcasting and other Web 2.0 technologies can target to be successful. The long tail is a statistical term that refers to the end areas of a power curve distribution where a small number of the population is represented. In professional markets broadcasters target the middle of the curve where most of the population is represented. The corporate media typically does not concern itself with the small numbers of the long tail and thus provides an opportunity for podcasters to serve this audience.
Successful podcasts, at least the ones that are well known, must also actively market their product so that podcasting directories pick up their coverage. This is something I have yet to do. Finding time to do a weekly podcast is challenging enough, throwing in time to market a podcast is beyond the resources most podcasters have. There is also a certain distaste that many feel regarding marketing efforts and many educators are uncomfortable with shameless self-promotion. That being said I do need to investigate further the requirements to be listed in iTunes and other directories. From what I currently understand all that is required for registering with iTunes is an iTunes account that requires a credit card. Why do you need to give out credit card information if all you want to do is register your podcast? This requirement can be a showstopper for many that do not want to give out credit card information over the Internet. If anyone has recently registered their podcast with iTunes please let me know the process you used and if you were satisfied with the results. You can email me at techtalk@eiu.edu
I have also been reading several articles and listening to other podcasts about the misnomer of the word podcast. Listener statistics indicate that approximately 70 to 80 percent of all podcasts are listened to using a computer and not the branded MP3 players as the name implies. Are you listening to this podcast using your computer or your MP3 player? Adam Curry, the podfather himself, has reconsidered the definition of podcasting and has stated that while RSS feeds and subscriptions were in the original technical description of podcasting this has not turned out to be the reality for the majority of consumers of podcasts. While the iPod has captured the lions share of the publicity there is increasing competition which is a good thing. The evolution continues and while educators are sorting out effective uses of the technology the past has some important lessons to learn from. The podcast directories need to be much better and easier to contribute to. The MP3 players also need to be less expensive. More high-quality podcast choices are needed in niche markets such as education. This will all come with time as the technologies mature.
Tom’s Technology Pick of the Week
My Technology pick of the week this week is a successful podcast series that now has over 100 shows to their credit. The show was formerly known as Podcasts for Teachers but has recently changed the showname to The Teachers Podcast. The shows host Dr. Kathy King and Mark Gura are from Fordham University in New York and were early adopters of podcasting. Their format is similar to a NPR radio show covering educational technology developments and often have guest interviews with educators in the know about educational technologies. I encourage you to give them a listen as they are entertaining and informative. A link is provided in the show notes for both the old show and new show locations.
http://www.podcastforteachers.org/
http://www.teacherspodcast.org/
That about wraps it up for this episode of TechTalk4Teachers, until next time this is Tom Grissom, keep on learning.
(or right click to download to your computer or portable MP3 player)
It’s Saturday, November 3, 2007 and welcome to Episode 10 of TechTalk4Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. This episode marks a small milestone for this show as this is the 10th episode of TechTalk4Teachers. Hurray, we made it to double digits! According to Rob Walch of podcast411 one out of five podcast do not make it past the 10th episode. I made myself a promise to give this show a semester and re-evaluate at the end of the semester. If you find value from these shows please let me know. As with most podcasters we are truly interested in what our listeners think and love to hear from others.
In a previous episode I discussed podfading and how podfading has entered the vocabulary of podcasters. It is easy to get excited about educational technologies when they are in the novelty stage. It is much tougher to cut through the hype and utilize the technologies in a sound pedagogical manner to the benefit of teachers and students. Another thing that I have noticed about many of the successful longer lasting podcasts is that they evolved over time to fill a niche. This is a consequence of taking advantage of what has become known as the “long tail” that podcasting and other Web 2.0 technologies can target to be successful. The long tail is a statistical term that refers to the end areas of a power curve distribution where a small number of the population is represented. In professional markets broadcasters target the middle of the curve where most of the population is represented. The corporate media typically does not concern itself with the small numbers of the long tail and thus provides an opportunity for podcasters to serve this audience.
Successful podcasts, at least the ones that are well known, must also actively market their product so that podcasting directories pick up their coverage. This is something I have yet to do. Finding time to do a weekly podcast is challenging enough, throwing in time to market a podcast is beyond the resources most podcasters have. There is also a certain distaste that many feel regarding marketing efforts and many educators are uncomfortable with shameless self-promotion. That being said I do need to investigate further the requirements to be listed in iTunes and other directories. From what I currently understand all that is required for registering with iTunes is an iTunes account that requires a credit card. Why do you need to give out credit card information if all you want to do is register your podcast? This requirement can be a showstopper for many that do not want to give out credit card information over the Internet. If anyone has recently registered their podcast with iTunes please let me know the process you used and if you were satisfied with the results. You can email me at techtalk@eiu.edu
I have also been reading several articles and listening to other podcasts about the misnomer of the word podcast. Listener statistics indicate that approximately 70 to 80 percent of all podcasts are listened to using a computer and not the branded MP3 players as the name implies. Are you listening to this podcast using your computer or your MP3 player? Adam Curry, the podfather himself, has reconsidered the definition of podcasting and has stated that while RSS feeds and subscriptions were in the original technical description of podcasting this has not turned out to be the reality for the majority of consumers of podcasts. While the iPod has captured the lions share of the publicity there is increasing competition which is a good thing. The evolution continues and while educators are sorting out effective uses of the technology the past has some important lessons to learn from. The podcast directories need to be much better and easier to contribute to. The MP3 players also need to be less expensive. More high-quality podcast choices are needed in niche markets such as education. This will all come with time as the technologies mature.
Tom’s Technology Pick of the Week
My Technology pick of the week this week is a successful podcast series that now has over 100 shows to their credit. The show was formerly known as Podcasts for Teachers but has recently changed the showname to The Teachers Podcast. The shows host Dr. Kathy King and Mark Gura are from Fordham University in New York and were early adopters of podcasting. Their format is similar to a NPR radio show covering educational technology developments and often have guest interviews with educators in the know about educational technologies. I encourage you to give them a listen as they are entertaining and informative. A link is provided in the show notes for both the old show and new show locations.
http://www.podcastforteachers.org/
http://www.teacherspodcast.org/
That about wraps it up for this episode of TechTalk4Teachers, until next time this is Tom Grissom, keep on learning.
Friday, October 26, 2007
tt4t_009 Podcasting with 3rd Graders
Click here to listen
(or right click to download to your computer or portable MP3 player)
It’s Friday, October 26, 2007 and welcome to Episode 9 of Tech Talk 4 Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. The podcast this week is a short overview of a recent collaborative project that I am right in the middle of that involves several parties. I am working with an Assistant Professor of education, two 3rd grade teachers, and several preservice teachers, and a local 3rd grade class on a special project named Project WOW. Project WOW has been in existence for several years at Eastern Illinois University and is a collaborative partnership between our college of education and a local elementary school. Previous years have focused on the creation of webpages but this year the group is venturing into a podcasting project. The 3rd graders are assigned an Illinois Hero and they are to do research on the selected individual and then create a podcast featuring that hero. We had our first recording last week and the Instructional Technology Center Lab was buzzing with excited children making their first podcast recordings!
Things went very well although having nearly 50 children working in two labs was a challenge logistically. As you can imagine recording multiple groups in the same room did present some interesting sound engineering challenges. Overall I was pleased with the quality of the recordings and the use of the directional microphones did help eliminate much of the background noise. The preservice teachers did great working with the groups of 3rd graders. We used the Audacity sound recording software loaded on four year old Gateway computers with the Windows XP operating system. The recording went very well and the 3rd graders did a wonderful job. We have a couple of more sessions planned in the near future so as I said we are still in the middle of this project. In a future show I would like to arrange an interview with the coordinator for this project if she is willing to appear on this show as a guest to share her wisdom and experiences with this technology rich project.
Tom’s Technology Pick of the Week
The Copyright Site
http://thecopyrightsite.org/
My Technology Pick of the week this week is a website that provides an overview of copyright issues that teachers face regarding the production of media projects in the classroom. The website is called the Copyright Site and a link is provided in the show notes. One of the things that I have noticed is that students, especially elementary students, do not give copyright issues a second thought. This is quite natural in that young students have no experience with such an abstract concept. As teachers we need to do our best to model projects that respect the intellectual property rights of others and thus introduce this to our students at an early age. Modeling best practices at an early age reinforces the concept that you cannot just use any source of media without giving the owner proper credit and observing copyrights. Because computers have made media creation so easy obeying copyright laws is increasingly becoming a problem area for educators to address with their students. This topic definitely deserves a dedicated show of its own and in the coming weeks I will be gathering resources related to copyright and other Intellectual Property Right resources that teachers need to be aware of when producing multimedia classroom projects.
Show notes for this episode and previous episodes are available on the web at techtalk4techers.blogspot.com that’s techtalk the number 4 teachers.blogspot.com If you have a comment or suggestion for a future show or a suggestion for a Technology Pick of the Week then please email me at techtalk@eiu.edu. That wraps it up for Episode 9 of TechTalk4Teachers so until next time this is Tom Grissom, keep on learning.
(or right click to download to your computer or portable MP3 player)
It’s Friday, October 26, 2007 and welcome to Episode 9 of Tech Talk 4 Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. The podcast this week is a short overview of a recent collaborative project that I am right in the middle of that involves several parties. I am working with an Assistant Professor of education, two 3rd grade teachers, and several preservice teachers, and a local 3rd grade class on a special project named Project WOW. Project WOW has been in existence for several years at Eastern Illinois University and is a collaborative partnership between our college of education and a local elementary school. Previous years have focused on the creation of webpages but this year the group is venturing into a podcasting project. The 3rd graders are assigned an Illinois Hero and they are to do research on the selected individual and then create a podcast featuring that hero. We had our first recording last week and the Instructional Technology Center Lab was buzzing with excited children making their first podcast recordings!
Things went very well although having nearly 50 children working in two labs was a challenge logistically. As you can imagine recording multiple groups in the same room did present some interesting sound engineering challenges. Overall I was pleased with the quality of the recordings and the use of the directional microphones did help eliminate much of the background noise. The preservice teachers did great working with the groups of 3rd graders. We used the Audacity sound recording software loaded on four year old Gateway computers with the Windows XP operating system. The recording went very well and the 3rd graders did a wonderful job. We have a couple of more sessions planned in the near future so as I said we are still in the middle of this project. In a future show I would like to arrange an interview with the coordinator for this project if she is willing to appear on this show as a guest to share her wisdom and experiences with this technology rich project.
Tom’s Technology Pick of the Week
The Copyright Site
http://thecopyrightsite.org/
My Technology Pick of the week this week is a website that provides an overview of copyright issues that teachers face regarding the production of media projects in the classroom. The website is called the Copyright Site and a link is provided in the show notes. One of the things that I have noticed is that students, especially elementary students, do not give copyright issues a second thought. This is quite natural in that young students have no experience with such an abstract concept. As teachers we need to do our best to model projects that respect the intellectual property rights of others and thus introduce this to our students at an early age. Modeling best practices at an early age reinforces the concept that you cannot just use any source of media without giving the owner proper credit and observing copyrights. Because computers have made media creation so easy obeying copyright laws is increasingly becoming a problem area for educators to address with their students. This topic definitely deserves a dedicated show of its own and in the coming weeks I will be gathering resources related to copyright and other Intellectual Property Right resources that teachers need to be aware of when producing multimedia classroom projects.
Show notes for this episode and previous episodes are available on the web at techtalk4techers.blogspot.com that’s techtalk the number 4 teachers.blogspot.com If you have a comment or suggestion for a future show or a suggestion for a Technology Pick of the Week then please email me at techtalk@eiu.edu. That wraps it up for Episode 9 of TechTalk4Teachers so until next time this is Tom Grissom, keep on learning.
Friday, October 19, 2007
tt4t_008 Join the K12 Online Conference - Episode 8
Click here to listen
(or right click to download to your computer or portable MP3 player)
It’s Friday, October 19, 2007 and welcome to Episode 8 of Tech Talk 4 Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. This week I would like to bring your attention to an online conference that is currently in progress. The name of the conference is the K12 Online Conference and as the name implies it is 100% online with over forty sessions posted for viewing. This is the second year for this conference and it offers educators a different approach to receiving and participating in professional development activities. The conference features both synchronous and asynchronous activities and is accesed via a computer with an Internet connection. The synchronous activities, as the name implies, requires you to participate at a given time but one of the nice features of this conference is that many of the activities are asynchronous - meaning that you can participate at a time that is convenient for you. This conference highlights Web 2.0 tools and is basically an interactive blog that allows participants to download audio and video files on demand. The Keynotes are prerecorded and this year featured keynoters are David Warlick a noted technologist, former school teacher and blogging evangelist, Clarence Fisher of Snow Lake, Manitoba, Canada is a teacher with 13 years experience and Alan Levine from Scottsdale, Arizona and Vice President and CTO of the New Media Consortium. The three keynotes are available at the conference website k12onlineconference.org and can be listened to or watched at your computer or if you choose downloaded and played back on a portable media device. The three keynotes are definitely worth a listen and links are provided in my show notes to the keynotes. Most of the presentations available at this online conference are by real-world practicing teachers and offer great practical examples of integrating technology into the curriculum.
This conference is ongoing through the month of October and continues throughout next week. A schedule of events is provided in the show notes. If you are interested in participating live. Click here for the K12 Online Conference Schedule
The online conference format can work in a variety of ways. For some presentations you simple go to the session listing on the web and listen or watch prerecorded content. You then have the option to post a comment on the blog for the selected session. Some of the sessions feature asynchronous chat, some offer synchronous chat - that is immediate and more interactive, Other formats include Skype-like synchronous audio and sometimes video participation via webcams. It is up to you if you want to leave a comment about a particular session, if you choose you may simply listen or watch the sessions without commenting.
The benefits to this type of online conference format include reduced cost, did I mention that the K12 online conference is FREE! No travel expenses are required, no registration fees, no lost work time due to travel, and you can participate at a time that is convenient for you. What a deal! Some conference content can also be downloaded and accessed on demand, information about the sessions from last years conference are also archived on the website.
Another benefit to the conference is that there is not a limit to the number of people participating in a session since it is virtual. Have you ever gone to a conference only to find that it was hosted in a small room and the session gets so filled quickly that you have to select an alternative session to the one you wanted? The great thing about cyberspace is that there are no limits on physical space. You get access to the movers and shakers of the field. If you so choose you may continue correspondence with presenters and participants after the conference is over since many also have blogs, wikis, and/or podcasts.
Tom’s Technology Pick of the Week
Gcast
http://www.gcast.com/
My Technology Pick of the week this week is a website/service called Gcast. Gcast allows you to easily create podcasts by recording your voice using a phone. This make it incredible easy to record a podcast. All that is needed is a free account and Gcast handles all the behind the scenes technology. Gcast also allows you to upload prerecorded MP3 files and provides a mixer for you to mix podsafe music into your podcast. A link is available in the show notes so be sure to try this one out as it is very easy to use. There tagline is
“So easy your grandma could do it -- it's fun and FREE!“
Links to the K12 Online Conference, Gcast and other resources featured in this podcast are available in the show notes for Episode 8 available at techtalk4techers.blogspot.com that’s techtalk the number 4 teachers.blogspot.com IF you have a comment or suggestion for a future show or a suggestion for Technology Pick of the Week then please email me at techtalk@eiu.edu. Well that wraps it up for Episode 8 so until next time this is Tom Grissom, keep on learning.
(or right click to download to your computer or portable MP3 player)
It’s Friday, October 19, 2007 and welcome to Episode 8 of Tech Talk 4 Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. This week I would like to bring your attention to an online conference that is currently in progress. The name of the conference is the K12 Online Conference and as the name implies it is 100% online with over forty sessions posted for viewing. This is the second year for this conference and it offers educators a different approach to receiving and participating in professional development activities. The conference features both synchronous and asynchronous activities and is accesed via a computer with an Internet connection. The synchronous activities, as the name implies, requires you to participate at a given time but one of the nice features of this conference is that many of the activities are asynchronous - meaning that you can participate at a time that is convenient for you. This conference highlights Web 2.0 tools and is basically an interactive blog that allows participants to download audio and video files on demand. The Keynotes are prerecorded and this year featured keynoters are David Warlick a noted technologist, former school teacher and blogging evangelist, Clarence Fisher of Snow Lake, Manitoba, Canada is a teacher with 13 years experience and Alan Levine from Scottsdale, Arizona and Vice President and CTO of the New Media Consortium. The three keynotes are available at the conference website k12onlineconference.org and can be listened to or watched at your computer or if you choose downloaded and played back on a portable media device. The three keynotes are definitely worth a listen and links are provided in my show notes to the keynotes. Most of the presentations available at this online conference are by real-world practicing teachers and offer great practical examples of integrating technology into the curriculum.
This conference is ongoing through the month of October and continues throughout next week. A schedule of events is provided in the show notes. If you are interested in participating live. Click here for the K12 Online Conference Schedule
The online conference format can work in a variety of ways. For some presentations you simple go to the session listing on the web and listen or watch prerecorded content. You then have the option to post a comment on the blog for the selected session. Some of the sessions feature asynchronous chat, some offer synchronous chat - that is immediate and more interactive, Other formats include Skype-like synchronous audio and sometimes video participation via webcams. It is up to you if you want to leave a comment about a particular session, if you choose you may simply listen or watch the sessions without commenting.
The benefits to this type of online conference format include reduced cost, did I mention that the K12 online conference is FREE! No travel expenses are required, no registration fees, no lost work time due to travel, and you can participate at a time that is convenient for you. What a deal! Some conference content can also be downloaded and accessed on demand, information about the sessions from last years conference are also archived on the website.
Another benefit to the conference is that there is not a limit to the number of people participating in a session since it is virtual. Have you ever gone to a conference only to find that it was hosted in a small room and the session gets so filled quickly that you have to select an alternative session to the one you wanted? The great thing about cyberspace is that there are no limits on physical space. You get access to the movers and shakers of the field. If you so choose you may continue correspondence with presenters and participants after the conference is over since many also have blogs, wikis, and/or podcasts.
Tom’s Technology Pick of the Week
Gcast
http://www.gcast.com/
My Technology Pick of the week this week is a website/service called Gcast. Gcast allows you to easily create podcasts by recording your voice using a phone. This make it incredible easy to record a podcast. All that is needed is a free account and Gcast handles all the behind the scenes technology. Gcast also allows you to upload prerecorded MP3 files and provides a mixer for you to mix podsafe music into your podcast. A link is available in the show notes so be sure to try this one out as it is very easy to use. There tagline is
“So easy your grandma could do it -- it's fun and FREE!“
Links to the K12 Online Conference, Gcast and other resources featured in this podcast are available in the show notes for Episode 8 available at techtalk4techers.blogspot.com that’s techtalk the number 4 teachers.blogspot.com IF you have a comment or suggestion for a future show or a suggestion for Technology Pick of the Week then please email me at techtalk@eiu.edu. Well that wraps it up for Episode 8 so until next time this is Tom Grissom, keep on learning.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
tt4t_007 From Podcasts to Podfading: Revoultion and Evolution - Episode 7
Click here to listen
It’s Saturday, October 13, 2007 and welcome to Episode 7 of Tech Talk 4 Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. It can be overwhelming trying to keep up with the rapid pace of new technologies that can help teachers in the classroom. Most teachers I know want to keep current on new trends and technologies but time is always a factor in learning new things, especially for busy educators. I have been having several conversations with faculty at both the K-12 and higher education levels about what tools they should be using. I get asked a lot about what technology tool they should be learning more about. Of course that depends upon the individual situation and what educational goals the teacher hopes to accomplish. My advice, select a tool of interest and begin to learn about that tool, do not wait for the perfect technology to come along because that will be long wait. Let your instructional objectives determine the tool of choice. Too often it is the other way around and that gives educational technology a bad reputation and rightly so. Educators often get caught up in the hype of a new gadget that suddenly becomes the answer to everyones prayers. The new gadget gets praise from the high priests of the technology kingdom and futurists prognosticate that the gadget changes everything and that a new revolution is born. Some educators believe if they hold out long enough the latest technology fad will go away and I am sad to say that in many cases they are correct. Will the podcasting craze subcumb to this fate?
Podcasting didn’t even become a word until 2004 and it took less than a year for another word to be added to the lexicon of tech terminology, that word is podfading. Podfading is a word used to describe a podcaster that is very enthusiastic about podcasting in the beginning but over time the enthusiasm fades as the novelty wears off. The podcasters’ podcasts become fewer and farther between episodes and possibly even dies. Only two years ago podcasting became the word of the year in 2005 as chosen by the New Oxford American Dictionary. As is the case with many technologies the enthusiasm wanes as time goes by.
Podfading Takes Its Toll (Wired Magazine)
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/02/70171
Those of us that have the blessing or curse of measuring our educational experience in decades are aware of this phenomena. As each new “tech toy” enters the fray many jump on the bandwagon. How do we go from toy to tool? I submit that we are enduring an evolution rather than revolution and should realize that this is a marathon and not a sprint. The problem is when you are rallying the troops for change to address the needs of 21st Century learners participating in a revolution is much more desirable and exciting than participating in an evolution. Yet progress takes time. A revolution has a sense of urgency to it. Educators should feel a sense of urgency as change is all around us and change we must to remain relevant for todays students. We must also give considerable thought to the implementation of new technologies in the classroom and not just have some knee-jerk reaction to whatever technology is in vogue at the moment.
When a new technology comes along ask yourself:
Does this new technology have an educational purpose?
Is it a toy or a tool?
Does this new technology offer something better than what I am currently doing?
Does this new technology make me more efficient and effective as a teacher?
Does this new technology help students learn more efficiently and effectively?
What is the price/reward ratio of using this technology?
Can this new technology be implemented on a wide-scale economically feasible for schools?
As I have said many times before technology allows teachers to do different things, not just to do things differently. For the most part when a new innovation comes along we adapt it to do something we are already doing. It takes time to find new effective ways to use the technology. What is the difference between accessing a sound file from a webpage verses listening to it on a MP3 player. Is not the end educational result the same? Before the web came along audio content was delivered to the masses via CD’s and before that cassette tapes. The technology has been evolving for years, the revolution lies in the way content can now be distributed and the fact that everyone can be an author if they so choose. Digitizing content allows for mass distribution with little or no cost and offers the possibility of democratizing content. In addition this distribution is immediate and on demand, dare I say just-in-time?
Do I think podcasts are going to go away? Absolutely not, but I would also suggest that podcasting is an evolution and it will take some time to find more effective ways to utilize podcasts in the classroom.
Tom’s Technology Pick of the Week
Sesame Street Podcasts
My Technology Pick of the week this week is for the younger crowd and is a new podcast from Sesame Street. For an entertaining read go to the link in my show notes about how Sesame Street is providing free podcasts to viewers. Currently the podcasts are in video form where they are re-purposing old content to new media. Here is the kicker, this website was announced September 17th of this year and by September 28th Sesame Street announced in a press release stating they were now #1 in the iTunes ranking of video podcasts! That is simply amazing, ten days from zero podcasts on iTunes to being ranked #1. That is the power of new distribution methods.
It is amusing to be reading about RSS feeds and explanations about what a podcast is from this website. My only suggestion is to have Big Bird and Cookie Monster explain RSS feeds to me. We can now say that podcasting has gone from Sesame Street to Main Street.
http://www.sesameworkshop.org/podcasts/
http://www.sesameworkshop.org/aboutus/inside_press.php?contentId=18672767
Links to the Sesame Street podcasting website, the news release, and other resources discussed in Episode 7 are provided in the show notes available at techtalk4techers.blogspot.com that’s techtalk the number 4 teachers.blogspot.com
That wraps it up for this week until next time this is Tom Grissom , keep on learning.
It’s Saturday, October 13, 2007 and welcome to Episode 7 of Tech Talk 4 Teachers, I’m Tom Grissom. It can be overwhelming trying to keep up with the rapid pace of new technologies that can help teachers in the classroom. Most teachers I know want to keep current on new trends and technologies but time is always a factor in learning new things, especially for busy educators. I have been having several conversations with faculty at both the K-12 and higher education levels about what tools they should be using. I get asked a lot about what technology tool they should be learning more about. Of course that depends upon the individual situation and what educational goals the teacher hopes to accomplish. My advice, select a tool of interest and begin to learn about that tool, do not wait for the perfect technology to come along because that will be long wait. Let your instructional objectives determine the tool of choice. Too often it is the other way around and that gives educational technology a bad reputation and rightly so. Educators often get caught up in the hype of a new gadget that suddenly becomes the answer to everyones prayers. The new gadget gets praise from the high priests of the technology kingdom and futurists prognosticate that the gadget changes everything and that a new revolution is born. Some educators believe if they hold out long enough the latest technology fad will go away and I am sad to say that in many cases they are correct. Will the podcasting craze subcumb to this fate?
Podcasting didn’t even become a word until 2004 and it took less than a year for another word to be added to the lexicon of tech terminology, that word is podfading. Podfading is a word used to describe a podcaster that is very enthusiastic about podcasting in the beginning but over time the enthusiasm fades as the novelty wears off. The podcasters’ podcasts become fewer and farther between episodes and possibly even dies. Only two years ago podcasting became the word of the year in 2005 as chosen by the New Oxford American Dictionary. As is the case with many technologies the enthusiasm wanes as time goes by.
Podfading Takes Its Toll (Wired Magazine)
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/02/70171
Those of us that have the blessing or curse of measuring our educational experience in decades are aware of this phenomena. As each new “tech toy” enters the fray many jump on the bandwagon. How do we go from toy to tool? I submit that we are enduring an evolution rather than revolution and should realize that this is a marathon and not a sprint. The problem is when you are rallying the troops for change to address the needs of 21st Century learners participating in a revolution is much more desirable and exciting than participating in an evolution. Yet progress takes time. A revolution has a sense of urgency to it. Educators should feel a sense of urgency as change is all around us and change we must to remain relevant for todays students. We must also give considerable thought to the implementation of new technologies in the classroom and not just have some knee-jerk reaction to whatever technology is in vogue at the moment.
When a new technology comes along ask yourself:
Does this new technology have an educational purpose?
Is it a toy or a tool?
Does this new technology offer something better than what I am currently doing?
Does this new technology make me more efficient and effective as a teacher?
Does this new technology help students learn more efficiently and effectively?
What is the price/reward ratio of using this technology?
Can this new technology be implemented on a wide-scale economically feasible for schools?
As I have said many times before technology allows teachers to do different things, not just to do things differently. For the most part when a new innovation comes along we adapt it to do something we are already doing. It takes time to find new effective ways to use the technology. What is the difference between accessing a sound file from a webpage verses listening to it on a MP3 player. Is not the end educational result the same? Before the web came along audio content was delivered to the masses via CD’s and before that cassette tapes. The technology has been evolving for years, the revolution lies in the way content can now be distributed and the fact that everyone can be an author if they so choose. Digitizing content allows for mass distribution with little or no cost and offers the possibility of democratizing content. In addition this distribution is immediate and on demand, dare I say just-in-time?
Do I think podcasts are going to go away? Absolutely not, but I would also suggest that podcasting is an evolution and it will take some time to find more effective ways to utilize podcasts in the classroom.
Tom’s Technology Pick of the Week
Sesame Street Podcasts
My Technology Pick of the week this week is for the younger crowd and is a new podcast from Sesame Street. For an entertaining read go to the link in my show notes about how Sesame Street is providing free podcasts to viewers. Currently the podcasts are in video form where they are re-purposing old content to new media. Here is the kicker, this website was announced September 17th of this year and by September 28th Sesame Street announced in a press release stating they were now #1 in the iTunes ranking of video podcasts! That is simply amazing, ten days from zero podcasts on iTunes to being ranked #1. That is the power of new distribution methods.
It is amusing to be reading about RSS feeds and explanations about what a podcast is from this website. My only suggestion is to have Big Bird and Cookie Monster explain RSS feeds to me. We can now say that podcasting has gone from Sesame Street to Main Street.
http://www.sesameworkshop.org/podcasts/
http://www.sesameworkshop.org/aboutus/inside_press.php?contentId=18672767
Links to the Sesame Street podcasting website, the news release, and other resources discussed in Episode 7 are provided in the show notes available at techtalk4techers.blogspot.com that’s techtalk the number 4 teachers.blogspot.com
That wraps it up for this week until next time this is Tom Grissom , keep on learning.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
tt4t_006 School 2.0 – Teacher Tools for the net generation - Episode 6
Click here to listen
It’s Saturday October 6, 2007 and welcome to Episode 6 of Tech Talk 4 Teachers. It is the end of another very busy week and yesterday’s Regional Office of Education Fall Classic Professional Development Conference was a huge success. Thanks goes out to all the ROE 11 folks that organized the conference and congratulations on another well attended conference! I want to thank everyone that attended my sessions on School 2.0 yesterday and offer a bit of a follow-up. As promised a link is provided in the show notes to my PowerPoint as it was presented. (School 2.0 PowerPoint)The technologies discussed yesterday now enable the continuation of the conversation and can offer more detail to the topics discussed for those interested. One of the negatives of a face-to-face conference format is that you typically only have 50 minutes to present your material and you are then finished. Limiting a School 2.0 conversation to 50 minutes is really an impossible task so I tried to give an overall view of the technologies and where I think we are headed with the adoption of these technologies in schools. I also tried to break yesterdays’ presentation into about a 50/50 mix of lecture and question time for discussion. The Student Response Systems used during the presentation gave the group immediate feedback about the audience response to the questions about blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other Web 2.0 technologies.
If you are interested in participating and leaving a comment in this blog you may click on the Comments feature located at the bottom of this post and leave a comment. As I mentioned yesterday the comments feature on this blog is moderated by me and therefore when you leave a comment it must be approved by me before it is posted for the world to see. That is the educator in me wanting to ensure that no inappropriate comments with profanity or something else inappropriate gets posted. Blogger also requires you to type in random letters when you post your comments to ensure that blogs do not get spammed by bot-like programs that generate automated messages. This is all for the protection of the blog owner to protect the integrity of the blog. This is not meant to deter you from commenting so please contribute so that we can all learn together. As I mentioned yesterday this is an excellent informal way to continue professional development activities. If you have a resource you would like to share or a question or comment you may also email me at techtalk@eiu.edu
Tom’s Technology Pick of the Week
It’s time for Tom’s Technology Pick of the Week this week I would like to highlight a couple of educational podcasts at the K-12 level that demonstrate the possibilities of the power of an audio delivered format.
The first site I would like to share is Radio Willow Web and is produced by Elementary students. Here is a description from their website“ Radio WillowWeb is a podcast for kids and by kids from the students at Willowdale Elementary School in Omaha, Nebraska. Each new show is called a Willowcast. Each Willowcast can be heard on WillowWeb as an mp3 digital audio file.”
http://www.mpsomaha.org/willow/radio/
The second example I would like to share is a blog/podcast combination from 8th grade American History teacher Eric Langhorst of Missouri and offers an example of how teachers can incorporate this technology into the classroom experience.
http://speakingofhistory.blogspot.com/
Links are provided in the Show Notes for Episode 6 of Tech Talk 4 Teachers and can be found at techtalk4teachers.blogspot.com Be sure to check them out for ideas on how you can use this type of technology in your classroom.
That wraps it up for another episode for this week so until next time this is Tom Grissom, keep on learning.
It’s Saturday October 6, 2007 and welcome to Episode 6 of Tech Talk 4 Teachers. It is the end of another very busy week and yesterday’s Regional Office of Education Fall Classic Professional Development Conference was a huge success. Thanks goes out to all the ROE 11 folks that organized the conference and congratulations on another well attended conference! I want to thank everyone that attended my sessions on School 2.0 yesterday and offer a bit of a follow-up. As promised a link is provided in the show notes to my PowerPoint as it was presented. (School 2.0 PowerPoint)The technologies discussed yesterday now enable the continuation of the conversation and can offer more detail to the topics discussed for those interested. One of the negatives of a face-to-face conference format is that you typically only have 50 minutes to present your material and you are then finished. Limiting a School 2.0 conversation to 50 minutes is really an impossible task so I tried to give an overall view of the technologies and where I think we are headed with the adoption of these technologies in schools. I also tried to break yesterdays’ presentation into about a 50/50 mix of lecture and question time for discussion. The Student Response Systems used during the presentation gave the group immediate feedback about the audience response to the questions about blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other Web 2.0 technologies.
If you are interested in participating and leaving a comment in this blog you may click on the Comments feature located at the bottom of this post and leave a comment. As I mentioned yesterday the comments feature on this blog is moderated by me and therefore when you leave a comment it must be approved by me before it is posted for the world to see. That is the educator in me wanting to ensure that no inappropriate comments with profanity or something else inappropriate gets posted. Blogger also requires you to type in random letters when you post your comments to ensure that blogs do not get spammed by bot-like programs that generate automated messages. This is all for the protection of the blog owner to protect the integrity of the blog. This is not meant to deter you from commenting so please contribute so that we can all learn together. As I mentioned yesterday this is an excellent informal way to continue professional development activities. If you have a resource you would like to share or a question or comment you may also email me at techtalk@eiu.edu
Tom’s Technology Pick of the Week
It’s time for Tom’s Technology Pick of the Week this week I would like to highlight a couple of educational podcasts at the K-12 level that demonstrate the possibilities of the power of an audio delivered format.
The first site I would like to share is Radio Willow Web and is produced by Elementary students. Here is a description from their website“ Radio WillowWeb is a podcast for kids and by kids from the students at Willowdale Elementary School in Omaha, Nebraska. Each new show is called a Willowcast. Each Willowcast can be heard on WillowWeb as an mp3 digital audio file.”
http://www.mpsomaha.org/willow/radio/
The second example I would like to share is a blog/podcast combination from 8th grade American History teacher Eric Langhorst of Missouri and offers an example of how teachers can incorporate this technology into the classroom experience.
http://speakingofhistory.blogspot.com/
Links are provided in the Show Notes for Episode 6 of Tech Talk 4 Teachers and can be found at techtalk4teachers.blogspot.com Be sure to check them out for ideas on how you can use this type of technology in your classroom.
That wraps it up for another episode for this week so until next time this is Tom Grissom, keep on learning.
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