Weekly Tech Tips - Podcasting

Weekly Tech Tip:

Related Links:

• Tools shown in this video:

Vocaroo

Audiopal.com

Gabcast

Podbean.com/

• Original "Ask a Ninja" clips that were remixed in this tech tip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEmss2...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lVSub...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khS4zl...

• Superhero clips created with: Xtranormal

• Other useful sites about podcasting:

Find more podcasting tools in the Digital Backpack

How I create and publish podcasts » Moving at the Speed of Creativity

AudioBoo - Create podcasts from your iPhone or iPod Touch

The Education Podcast Network | A Landmark Project

Teacher Magazine: Classroom Podcasting 101

Teach Digital: Curriculum by Wes Fryer wiki / podcasting

Link Stew:

• Fantastic talk by S. Craig Watkins on cellphones & social media and youth culture.
  

• Digital Media and Learning Conference 2010 Introduction and Opening Keynote from UCHRI Video on Vimeo.

• Student Suing School Over Sexting Scandal- TYT
  

• Alan Levin - Tulane Tech Day 2009 Keynote: Being There in the Real Time Web
• Boston Globe Tailors Print Edition For Three Remaining Subscribers - The Onion
• LuminAR - I could see myself using one of these. When can I buy one?
  
• 3D Hologram Meetings? Unbelievable Real Telepresence - Simply Amazing! (I wonder how long before Dr. Marzano is hired to sell this technology to schools. Actually, on this one I can see Michael Horn and Clayton Christensen weighing in as a well.)
  
• Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address - I realize this is five years old but given the time of year it is I thought it was fitting. I am fascinated by how he describes how taking a calligraphy course most likely is the reason we have so many font and typestyle options available on computers today.
  
• VideoLectures - exchange ideas & share knowledge
• Ignite | Ignite Show Video
• Tools and Tips for Creating Relevant, Authentic & Dynamic WebQuests
• Ex-teacher learns the hard way: Watch what you put online
• We Might All Be Watching Online Videos by 2015 [STATS]
• Web 2.0's Top 1,000 List! - not sure who made this list but there are plenty of tools in here I have never heard of and many I am surprised were not included.
• 70 Web 2.0 Tools in 70 Minutes
• Full 3rd Circuit Weighs Student Web Speech

Blog Carnival:

• Professional Development & Social Networking by Joe Bower on For the Love of Learning
• Death of an Awards Ceremony by Chris Wejr on The Wejr Board
• Do We See the Beauty in Every Student? by Shelly Terrell on Teacher Reboot Camp
• Question of the Day: Term Limits by Shelly Blake-Plock on TeachPaperless
• Higher Education's Big Lie by Anne Larson on Inside Higher Ed
• Embrace Standardized Testing by Paul Bogush on Blogush
• How COPPA Fails Parents, Educators, Youth by danah boyd on DMLcentral
• Is the Higher Education Bubble Going to Burst? by Alison Leithner on Change.org
• Disintermediation: The disruption to come for Education 2.0 by gsiemens on elearnspace
• Reversing the Curriculum by Ira Socol on SpeEdChange
• Why write when content is free? By Doug Johnson on The Blue Skunk
  

Does technology integration necessarily mean more technology in the classroom?

Lately when I work with teachers I have been hearing a lot of them say that they would integrate technology in their classes more if they had access to it. These same teachers admit that it is difficult for them to invest too much time and energy in learning how to integrate technology in their classrooms when access is limited. Whether this is true or not (often on random walk-throughs I see only 2 out of 5 labs in use) it has had me thinking today. What is the ultimate goal a district hopes to achieve by hiring a technology integration specialist?

When I started working as a tech integration specialist three years ago I largely got the job because I needed work and I had an unusually high interest in technology. At that time I did not really think much about this question and I know the district I worked for didn't either. In later conversations it was clear that they knew they had to do something with technology and teacher professional development but were unsure what that was or what it should look like. I think a lot of school districts adding a technology integration specialist position to their schools have been in the same boat. In part this is a "chicken or egg" and a "forest from the trees" type of issue. I was told, "We don't know enough about what we don't know to know what we need you to do for us." I have had three years working with all kinds of teachers, studying policy, interacting with a network of great minds, and integrating technology in all kinds of educational settings to reflect on this question.

What I have currently come to believe is that technology integration is not about using technology in your classroom, it is about adjusting to the world shaped by technological changes. You don't have to use a lot of technology in your classroom to be a great teacher but what you do absolutely has to be relevant. If this calls for using more or different technology in your classroom then so be it. Part of that relevance is knowing enough about the social and economic impact new technologies are having on both your own profession and the world you want to teach your students about. From a curricular perspective this means keeping abreast of how social media is influencing the news, how the read/write/web and remix culture are changing the nature of communication, and knowing how to access and assess information wherever you find it. From a pedagogical perspective this means no longer doing things in your classroom that students could do with a simple internet search. Ultimately this leads us to more constructivist classrooms where students are engaged in meaningful projects and where a great deal of a teacher's job is assessment, feedback, and environment design.

I fear that the reason a lot of school districts decide to hire a technology integration specialist is in response to declining enrollment. They see the exponential rise in online learning and think, "We need to do something to combat this." I fear they look at online schools and see technology as the disruptive force. I have this concern because I often hear people from different school districts I meet across the state make statements like, "We are getting into the online learning business to try to retain students," or "We are investing more in technology so we don't loose more students to online schools." This is an apple and oranges issue. The fact is, just as moving the newspaper online won't save the newspaper industry, just moving what we do online or just placing more technology in the classroom won't solve this problem. The answer to this problem is not always more technology but a re-purposing of our schools, a shift from a delivery model to a support model of learning. If you need to integrate more technology in your classroom to help support student learning then I am here to help you but I am also here to help you understand what impact technologies you don't use have on your classroom too.

New Additions to the Digital Backpack (continued)

I had too many new tools in my Delicious feed tagged Digital Backpack to add them all yesterday so, as promised, here is the remaining tools from that list:

- Free website hosting with no ads and 1500 MB storage.
- Free web hosting service with WYSIWYG editor. 110 MB limit.
- Free web hosting service with WYSIWYG editor.
- Create a free Flash-based website.
- a wizard for creating and managing customized Google maps of address lists
- Online mindmapping tool
- Add multiple destinations to your hyperlinks.

- Share lists of Twitter Users (allows users to follow all with one click)

- Sync your Twitter and Delicious accounts.

- See who is retweeting your tweets

- Search for who is tweeting links (good tool to see who is tweeting out links to your blog or website)

- Fantastic safe search engine for kids.

- Convert any website into a PDF file

- real-time text collaboration (Etherpad replacement)

- Generates videos of your Google Searches to tell a story.

- Embed a forum on any web page.
- real-time search engine

• I think I am going to have to create a whole new backpack for third party Twitter apps pretty soon.

New Additions to the Digital Backpack

Its that time again, gotta clean out my stack of new tools and add them to the backpack. I'll add a few more tomorrow.

- Let Google Suggest Twitter Followers For You
- Search Google and WolframAlpha in the same place - Embed a Google Streetview on any website.
- Simultaneously send a group message via email, mobile text, and voice call. - Takes screenshots of any website.
- Make panoramic images from your own photos online.
- Wherigo is a toolset for creating and playing GPS-enabled adventures in the real world.
- real-time text collaboration (Etherpad replacement)
- convert text to speech
- convert text to speech (spoken by a cartoon avatar)
vozMe - convert text to speech
- convert text to speech
- Combination online whiteboard and chat room. Moderator can also conduct a web tour.
- Online forum discussion site. Has potential for backchanneling.
- helps you embrace the backchannel and connect with your audience in realtime.
- lets you create conversations on the fly, in meetings, watching TV, during class, on the train, anywhere and anytime.
- Create embeddable chat rooms for live blogging or backchannel discussions.
- Free instant chat room service, also provides chat rooms for personal web sites, blogs, forums, online community sites





Twitter Tools:

With t.imo.im, you can instant message easily and securely with other Twitter users.
- Real fun visualization of your Twitter followers. See yourself lead a parade.
- Start a Twitter Campaign
-Twitter Directory
- Schedule Twitter, Email, or SMS messages to be sent at later dates.
- Create your own Twitter backchannel discussions
- Hold online course meetings using Twitter and Facebook