Question for EDU 538

What's your favorite food?

My Video Podcast

This was more fun than I thought it would be! I decided to read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" for two reasons. The first is that I believe that reading is important, especially for a future English teacher! And second I was really in the Christmas spirit and had just decorated my tree (as you can see in the background!) so I wanted to show it off!! I was a little confused at first because I never used a webcam and had just gotten one that day. Setting up the webcam was more difficult than I thought it would be because everytime I tried to set the volume on the microphone, my computer shut down! Still don't know why, but eventually I got it to work! And then I had problems getting podomatic to create my videocast,(and again I still don't know why), so I used Windows Movie Maker and uploaded my video into podomatic when I was done which was fairly easy. I also had to drag my Christmas tree from the living room into the dining room so that it would be in the video! But after all the confusion and dragging, I am really happy with the video. I know the lighting is a little dark, but that's ok, just pretend it's a dark and snowy winter night when you're watching! I hope you all enjoy!

Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips

The podcast that I listened to this week was Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips on Itunes. This podcast caught my attention because it is all about using proper grammar in the English language. Because I am going to be teaching English, I thought it would be good for me to brush up on my grammar skills. I also think that this podcast would be a great tool for my future students because the podcasts are relatively short but give a lot of helpful information on how to use words correctly. The narrator of this podcast also suggested that listeners check out a blog titled sentencesleuth by Bonnie Trenga which I did, and I LOVE IT!!! It is helpful, funny and full of information on the proper uses of grammar! I added both the blog and the podcast to my RSS and added a link to sentencesleuth on my blog list so now everything is connected! If you are planning to teach English or currently teach English, I highly recommend both the blog and the podcast as useful tools both inside and outside of the classroom!

My Podcast

In trying to decide what kind of podcast that I would like to create, I thought about something that would be helpful to my students. I'm not yet a teacher, but I thought that poetry would be one area of English that is sometimes tricky for students to understand. I decided to podcast a recording of a poem called "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas because it is one of my favorite poems. Simply reading a poem is one way to interpret it, but hearing one read aloud is sometimes better because you can hear the way that it is supposed to be read and that can lead to a better understanding of the poem itself. I thought that in class we could discuss the different methods and forms of poetry and then the students could go home and listen to the podcast of a poem read aloud. This I think is a good way to get students to think about the poem in a different way and would give us a good starting point for discussion in class. I think podcasting is going to be a very useful tool in the classroom and look forward to using it in the future.

Delicious and Shutterfly

For the assignment this week, I decided to add new bookmarks to my existing Delicious account. I love my delicious account because throughout the course of the day, I am jumping on and off of several different computers and it helps that all of my favorite websites are all in one spot. It's a huge timesaver! For the photosharing part of the assignment, I decided to try out Shutterfly. It was extremely easy to use with regards to downloading photos from my computer and also in sharing them via email. I sent my little photo album to my family to check out! I also liked that they offer you 50 free prints! Anything free is great in my book!

Wikipedia contribution

I contributed to the Wikipedia page about edublogs by adding to the *See also* category. I posted a link to the International Edubloggers Website because (1)it actually wasn't already on there and (2) I thought it would be a helpful addition for educators to be able to find other edubloggers from around the world in order to exchange ideas on a global level!

Web 2.0 in K-12 Education

http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2008/10/moving-toward-web-20-in-k-12-education/

Christine Says:
November 3rd, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Steve Hargadon gives many reasons why incorporating technology in the classroom is not only helpful, but will eventually be necessary. He says that “Web 2.0 will be a significant part of the future of learning.” I would have to agree with this statement because of all the advancements in computers and the internet that have created a new type of student that lives in a digital world. He says that not only are students part of an “audience” in the classroom and on the web, part are also participants and contributors to the wealth of information in the public domain. It allows for creativity to flow more independently and gives the students the ability to not only interact with each other, but with others around the world, on topics that they are passionate about or have an interest in. The web has become a way to communicate openly and is not as one-sided as it used to be, with students having access to more open software and applications than ever before. With advancements in the creation of blogs and web pages like myspace and facebook, anyone can create a personal portfolio online and can publish it to the World Wide Web. In the past, one would have had to have extensive knowledge of HTML and web page design in order to do these things.
The structure of the educational system is also changing because most of the students are more technologically savvy than their teachers. In order to create a better learning environment, I feel that it is the responsibility of the teachers to keep up with technology in order to produce students that can not only function successfully in a digital world, but so that the teachers themselves can continue to expand their knowledge of new and innovative ways of teaching. Hargadon lists many reasons why Web 2.0 in the classroom is a good idea. They are engagement, authenticity, participation, openness and access to information, collaboration, creativity, passionate interest and personal expression, discussion, asynchronous contribution, proactivity, and finally critical thinking. In his experience, he feels that all of these ideas not only promote productive individuals, but also promote self-awareness and motivation within the learning environment. Although I am not yet a teacher myself, I would have to agree with his list of reasons why Web 2.0 in the classroom is an important tool. As a future English teacher, I hope to be able to engage my students in creative, collaborative and authentic ways. I think that by using the web and allowing my students the freedom to explore ideas and opinions other than those discussed inside my classroom will allow them to become more open and more critical thinkers. I want my students to be able to express themselves freely, and for some shy students, that may be quite hard to do in a class with 30 others. The web (blogging and webpages) allows these students to open up without fear of rejection because they could ultimately do these things anonymously. I think that Web 2.0 is not something to be feared, but is something that we as educators need to see as an opportunity to enhance the educational experience for not only our students but for ourselves as well.