Tom's Blog

Why I deserve an A

2008-07-31T11:03:00.000-07:00

Dr. Marcovitz,

I wanted to share with you why I deserve an A for my blog 2.0 project. I have met all of your standards for a B and I have also added an extra two blogs with links about podcasting. I have also visited everyone of my classmates' sites and reviewed some of their posts. I made at least one comment on one of their posts, except those who don't allow comments. This gave me a chance to offer feedback to my fellow classmates on things I have never heard of and things that I have played around with. I feel I have exceeded the necessary requirements for this project.

Sincerely,

Tom Dewees

Website EvaluationThis is for my Students

2008-07-29T13:11:00.000-07:00

You were to investigate websites for their credibility and accuracy. Please post a comment about the site you had to evaluate. Include at least 3-4 questions you answered, but do NOT include all of the answers you have found.

Podcasting in Education

2008-07-27T15:41:00.000-07:00

Podcasting has become a very popular form of communication and a way for people to distribute audio information for the last 5 to 6 years. This technology is being used more and more in educational settings. But what can podcasting be used for in education?

As an intermediate level teacher, I have though of some possible ways podcasting could be beneficial for my students.

1. Lectures- Teachers are becoming facilitators in today's schools more and more, but there are sometimes when a teacher will need to explain orally either directions or provide students with information about a subject orally. A podcast on my website would be beneficial for students who may be absent that day and would like to find out what was talked about in class that day. The student could simply click on the podcast from their computer at home and be caught up to date.

2. Interviews- In my class we cover a lot in our social studies curriculum. Sometimes the students will interview a person and present their interview to their classmates. Usually the interview is written out or done on video camera, but the podcast will allow students a simple way to conduct their interview and post it on our class website or on their own website.

3. Reader's Theatre- I have many of my lower readers participate in Reader's Theatre. They will work on reading aloud lines of a story or a book so they can improve their fluency and comprehension. Students like to receive positive feedback, and a good way to show students how well they did is by placing their podcasts on a website for others to hear them read aloud. This activity also helps ESL (English as a Second Language) students.

Any of the three activities listed above could be used in a telecollaborative project. The members of the other classrooms could share what they have done with others by posting the podcast on a site.

Below you will find a few sites with information about podcasting in education. You will also find my Howard County web site where you can hear an example of a podcast.

Podcastforteachers

Applepodcasting

TomDeweespodcast

Podcasting

2008-07-27T14:53:00.000-07:00

Podcasting first began to take form around the year 2003. There has been a debate over who actually "created" podcasting. The two so-called "creators" of podcasting have given each other some credit over the years, but each one is claiming to be the "Father" of the podcast. If you would like to read more about this debate, you can click on the link at the bottom from the Boston Globe.

In a nutshell, podcasting means both the content and the method of delivery. You can create a podcast and you can podcast information. It is a method of distributing files (usually audio) over the Internet. You can playback the files on mobile phones or computers.

Podcasts are easy to create and download, and that is why so many people have gotten involved with this technology. The term was meant to rhyme with broadcasting and with Ipod, which supports this technology. You don't need Apple Computers, Itunes, or an Ipod to create a podcast. All you need is an audio recording device on your computer. You record whatever you would like to say and then you need a website platform to host your audio.

Podcasting has become popular in all walks of life because of its simplicity. A person can listen to a show or find out information without having to go through the process of dowloading information. They can simply click on the podcast and listen to it right away.

My next blog will discuss podcasting and its relevance in education. You can check out an example of a podcast I created on my school website. For more information about podcasting, please check out the link below for podcast alley.

http://www.podcastalley.com/

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2005/05/26/bickering_among_thepod_squad/

Blogging in Education

2008-07-24T06:31:00.000-07:00

Teachers are becoming more and more familiar with blogging and this is translating into its use into the classroom in some way. Depending on what grade level a teacher is working at, blogging may be very familiar with their students already. I have been teaching primarily in intermediate and elementary classrooms over the past eight years, and the majority of my students have not been blogging, but hopefully that will change this upcoming year. I plan on having the children in my homeroom blog as part of my language arts curriculum.

Why blogging in the classroom? Blogging is a way for students to use technology effectively in the classroom and has a chance to enhance a part of the curriculum. The students will be motivated to write creatively using a blog, because they get to use the computer and can share their writing pieces with their fellow classmates. Blogging also allows parents and other members of the educational community to see what is happening in your particular classroom.

Blogging can be a very integral part of a telecollaborative project because classes all over the world can interact with each other through blogging if a particular assignment is given. Students can post opinions, assignments, reviews, and other ideas that deal with the particular lesson.

Blogging is becoming more familiar in the classrooms ranging from primary to high school, because of its simplicity and because others can be involved in the discussion online even while sitting at home. Below you will find an article that lists "Five major uses for blogs in education".
http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/EducationalBlogging/40493

Blogging

2008-07-23T19:20:00.000-07:00

Blog is short for "Web log". Plain and simple a blog is a journal that is available on the Internet. They are public web pages which usually contain the opinions of the person who is the author or manages the blog. They are usually updated on a regular basis. This depends on how often the author wants to update it. It could be daily, weekly, or monthly. Their information is usually arranged in reverse chronological order.
As is with most things in life, you get what you are willing to pay for. Blogs are no different. If you are someone who really enjoys blogging and would like to be part of a certain forum, then you are probably willing to pay a monthly fee to use a site. Now for your money, you may have more bells and whistles than someone who blogs on a free site, but that's what you are paying for. Those of us who are not as familiar with blogging may want to start out on a free site like blogger.com, because it offers many options to you for free.
Blogs are used frequently throughout the world in all walks of life. From celebrities to athletes to Presidential candidates, everyone seems to be blogging! Most blogs are easy to manage. They give you a site to publish your work including your own address. Most sites will allow you to upload video and change up the structure of your site by playing with the html codes. You can also personalize your own blog so others can learn a little bit about yourself. This can anything from adding personal pictures to music to adding favorite website links. Below you will find a few varying blogs that show how universal blogging has become.

Donald Trump's Blog-http://www.trumpuniversity.com/blog/index.cfm
(Business Mogul)

Jackie Chan's Blog-http://www.jackiechan.com/message_view?cid=1137
(International Movie Star)

Gilbert Arena's Blog-http://my.nba.com/forum.jspa?forumID=400032200&start=0
(NBA Basketball Star)

Using Jing in the Classroom

2008-07-23T14:31:00.001-07:00

I'm very interested in using Jing in the classroom this year! What I envision for my classroom is Jing being a tool to help my visual learners. I myself am a visual learner, so I think the Jing Project will be especially beneficial to my students who are as well for a few reasons. First, I am going to attempt to make a blog for my students to use this year for homework assignments. While there may be more than a few students who have blogged before, I want to make sure the ones who haven't are comfortable with it. By recording a video capture of how to set up a blog on blogger.com, I will help my students feel more comfortable and confident about how to do it. Second, I think it will be beneficial to use Jing with my students in the computer lab. Most of the students at my school come from very affluent homes, so the majority have computers, but there are still those children who don't. I want to make these children feel comfortable and know how to use the technology we are working on. Jing project can easily help these particular students. Within a telecollaborative project the Jing Project could be used with people in other classrooms, other states, and other countries! Like I did below, the Jing Project can be shared with people across the internet. A teacher or student could video capture their work or project and embed the video onto their blog for others to see. Below you will find a review blog about the pros and cons of the Jing Project.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/the-jing-project-the-3-legged-dog-of-screen-captures-and-screencasting/

Myspace and education

2008-07-23T12:46:00.000-07:00

There are some people who believe that Myspace and other social networking sites can be used effectively in the realms of education. One social networking site that has been specifically designed for educational networking is called Elgg. The idea behind sites like Myspace and Elgg is that students can learn more by interacting with their classmates and contemporaries better through these sites, because they can post blogs, videos, bulletins, have chats, and use other interactive pieces to express their ideas and learn from others. Myspace or any other social networking site could be used in a telecollaborative project. The sites allow their users to post blogs, videos, surveys, pics, and other interesting things that may be important for someone to view who is involved in the project. The sites allow students to display their creativenees as well, but Myspace is not as control friendly for a teacher as a school or subject created blog. The teacher can monitor each student's site, but he/she cannot control what each student is putting on their page. This could create a lot of headaches. The link for Elgg is attached as well as an article from "Wired" about the use of Myspace in school.
http://elgg.net/
http://www.wired.com/culture/education/news/2007/04/myspaceforschool

One of the major negatives I have found about Myspace and students is cyber bullying. Ten to fifteen years ago children may have been bullied by others, but it usually occurred in physical interactions. Now children have to worry about being bullied by other children through emails and through social networking sites like Myspace. Attached is a video about a young lady who committed suicide as a result of being bullied through Myspace. Please check out her story.

Jing

2008-07-21T12:51:00.000-07:00

The creators of Jing do not categorize it as either a product or a beta. They classify it as a "project" because it is still under development. Jing allows you to capture still shots or video off of your desktop very easily. The purpose of this is so you can share it with others via chat, email, forums or blogs. The content is hosted on Screencast.com.
Currently Jing is free, but things may change somewhere down the road if the company decides there is a real need for the tool. Besides being free the other great part about Jing is that it is compatible for both Macs and PC's, so everyone can give it a try.
I am not that familiar with Jing, but I have been trying to play around with it the last week or so. It seems useful in the classroom with my students because it can be used to create a tutorial for students to see how things work. I tried Jing out and created a tutorial on how to develop your very own Myspace page. It's at the bottom. Check it out!!

Here is the site to download Jing
http://www.jingproject.com/?CMP=KgoogleJhomeTM

The following is an article on the Jing project from Business Wire

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2007_Nov_28/ai_n27457000

Myspace

2008-07-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

Myspace is a social networking site that was developed in 2003. The purpose of creating Myspace was to better what "Friendster" had started the previous year. They wanted to develop a site where people could contact and interact with friends all over the world. The difference between Myspace and simple email is you can create your own page and personalize it however you want.
Myspace operates on revenue which is generated only on advertising. Anyone can create a Myspace account, as long as you have a valid email address and are at least 14 years old. Myspace collects data about its users to determine what advertisements to post. Myspace is typically used by young adults. This would range roughly from 17 to 25, but it is certainly not limited to these ages. Many other companies or examples of web 2.0 were launched using myspace. The biggest of these was Youtube.
On your Myspace page you can fill in blurbs about yourself titled "About me" and "Who I'd like to meet". In these sections you can also imbed html codes that will change the background of your page. You can create a background for pretty much anything: sports, music, movies, etc. There is also a section on your page where you can create your own blogs. Videos can be posted on your page using the codes the same way you would change your background. Music can also be included on your page. Once an account has been created you can add an artist's song so that it will come up every time someone goes on your page.
The real purpose of Myspace was to interact with others socially. People have developed pages to keep in touch with old friends or to meet new people. People can search on Myspace for your name or email address to see if you have an account. They cannot be a 'friend' of yours unless you let them, which is a good security feature. Once people are 'friends' they can post comments about you or send you emails.
Myspace is probably the most popular of the social networking sites. Facebook seems to be Myspace's only real competition in this area. To check out more about Myspace please click on the site's link below or check out the page I created. Please check out my next blog about the Jing Project. I will give a tutorial on how to setup a Myspace page.

Below you will find two sites for Barack Obama. One site is his "official" site, but the other is a site that was created by a supporter. Just like with evaluating websites, you must evaluate myspace as well.
http://www.myspace.com

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=398429336

Fake Obama

Real Obama