A Letter to My EDM 310 Students

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Corsican Restaurant in Paris

 
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Posted by Picasa

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Podcast Suggestions

I have several suggestions for your podcasts.
1. Practice. The groups that practiced last year had better podcasts.
2. Introduce yourself. Don't just say your name. Add a sentence or two including the fact that you area student in the College of Education at the University of South Alabama. Identify your major and explain why you are interested in the topic for your podcast.
3. Explain everything. Many of your listeners may not be familiar with programs, techniques or technologies that you use daily. Yes, there are many who have never heard of Facebook!
4. Be conversational. Don't take turns reading presentations.
5. If you disagree with a member of your team, say so (politely) and explain why.
6. Don't be afraid to ask questions, even if you do not know the answers. Speculations (especially about the future) are quite appropriate.
7. You may use notes.
8. If your team is interviewing someone, one member must assume the responsibility of introducing the guest. Include, in the introduction, enough about the person so that listeners will have an appreciation of their position and experiences.
9. One member of your team will moderate (begin the session, identify the topic, get the self introductions underway, and wrap up the podcast when it is clear that you have reached an appropriate end to the conversation. Thank your listeners.
10. If you mention a web site, a book, a magazine article, or anything a listener might want to refer to, bring that citation with you on podcast day. If it is a URL, check to make sure it works. All of these "citations" will be included in the blog post that will accompany your podcast.
11. Relax. Have fun. The whole world may be listening!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Incorrect gMail

My first gMail to you today had a link not to the Podcast Sign Up Sheet but rather to the Class Roster. Helen Ramsay caught my mistake and emailed me immediately. (Thanks Helen!). I have now sent you a corrected gMail which has a link to the Podcast Sign Up Sheet. The Podcast Sign Up Sheet should now be in your Google Document.

Instructions for Signing Up for Podcast Topics

Instructions:
Form a team of 2, 3 or 4 students in your class (or in another of my classes IF all of you can attend one of the recording times) Review the Podcast Topics found in the immediately preceding post. Select the ones that interest you. You have been sent an email to your gMail account with a link to the "Podcast Sign Up Sheet". You can also go to your Google Documents and you will find the Podcast Sign Up Sheet there with your Documents. It is there now since I used a different technique for publishing the spreadsheet. Instead of making it available to the world, I invited you to be a collaborator through your gMail address, This automatically places the spreadsheet in you Google Documents. In two cases (both M6) I only had USA mail accounts so those two students will have to use the link in their email and may encounter other issues.

When you have the "Podcast Sign Up Sheet" in front of you, sign up for the topic you want. Only one person from the team should sign up. List all of the team participants on the sign up sheet. The person signing up for his/her team should send me an email listing your team members AND the topic. This will protect the sign up sheet from being improperly changed.

If a topic has been taken already you will have to select another topic EXCEPT topics 30, 31 and 32. Topic 30 can be repeated with different people. Add the name of the person to a NEW row in the Topic column. Topics 31 and 32 require my approval and may be repeated if topics or suggestions are different.

Your email time to me and sign up status will determine the topic which you will have.

If you have not selected a topic by Sunday midnight I will assign you to a team and a topic.

If you have questions, email me.

Podcast Topics

Podcast Topics
EDM 310 – Dr. Strange

Each student will participate in the production of a 15 minute (approximate) Podcast with two or three other students. These Podcasts will be conversations among the participants covering one of the following topics:

1. My experiences with Blogging and how it could be useful to me as a teacher
2. Interesting Blogs I have located and reviewed from International Schools
3. Interesting Blogs I have located and reviewed from schools in the United States
4. A review of some of the educational support materials for Elementary Teachers found on iTunes
5. A review of some of the educational support materials for High School teachers found on iTunes
6. Pick of the Day: Source Materials for Elementary Teachers on the web
7. Pick of the Day: Source Materials for High School Teachers on the world wide web
8. Can Facebook be used as an educational tool? A discussion.
9. Can YouTube be used as an educational tube? A discussion.
10. Examining the Strange thesis that students now are listener/watchers and not reader/writers. How accurate is that claim? Can include an interview with Dr. Strange if desired.
11. Strange also argues that teachers must teach students to contribute to the development of materials that are listened to and watched. How realistic is that in the schools in which I will teach? Can include an interview with Dr. Strange if desired.
12. Alabama has begun a program to provide distant learning to high school students called ACCESS. How does it work? How useful is it likely to be?
13. Dr. Strange says he is against “burp back education.” How can it be eliminated in my classes when I begin to teach?
14. Pick of the Day: Useful internet sites for Elementary Teachers.
15. Pick of the Day: Useful internet sites for High School Teachers.
16. My classes at South: How is technology used in them?
17. My classes in the College of Education. How is technology used in them?
18. What I learned from “Shift Happens” and how it affects me as a teacher.
19. What I learned from “The Last Lecture of Randy Pausch.”
20. Can podcasts be useful in the classes that I will teach?
21. Can or is teachertube (http://www.teachertube.com) useful to teachers. Give examples.
22. Interview Dean Richard Hayes on a mutually agreed upon topic relating to education and/or educational technology (TT11 only).
23. Interview Dr. Philip Feldman (early technology adopter) about educational technology. Can include snippets of a 1988 interview of him about educational technology. Can focus on past, present or future. (TT 9 only).
24. Interview Dr. Charles Guest (Chair of Professional Studies Department) on mutually agreed upon topic. TT 2 only.
25. Our crystal ball: Speculations on the “future classroom.” Interview Dr. Strange before (or during) presentation. Emphasis should be on your ideas, however.
26. Interview of Mr. C of Nolo, MO –NOTE: planning and testing of chat audio and video capabilities (with assistance of Dr. Strange) will be required.
27. Interview Dr. Eddie Shaw about how he sees technology being introduced into the USA Department of Leadership and Teacher Education.
28. Interview with Gary Dauphin (Apple Representative) TT 9 only NOTE: planning and testing of chat audio and video capabilities (with assistance of Dr. Strange).
29. Interview with other Apple Representative - TT 9 only NOTE: planning and testing of chat audio and video capabilities (with assistance of Dr. Strange).
30. Interview with a faculty member not on this list that agrees to be interviewed during class time in the first week of March.
31. Other topics that I approve.
32. Other suggestions for your podcast that I approve.
33. Wikipedia. What are the positives and negatives of Wikipedia? Can Wikipedia be useful to students and educators? How and under what circumstances?

Monday, February 9, 2009

Wikimetro - The Changing Face of Advertising

Miranda Hill (TT9) just emailed me to inquire about an email she received from Wikimetro.org. Others of you may have received a similar email.

From what I can gather, wikimetro.org is an intermediary for advertising on blogs. Wikimetro searches for blogs in cities over 40,000 in size and invites blog owners to participate in their advertising efforts. They also try and sell ads to local businesses , collect the advertising fees, maintain a wiki for that metro area, process credit cards for the advertising fee and deduct the 3% charged by Visa or MasterCard, keep 5% for their efforts and pass along about 92% to the blog owner IF the blog owner adds an ad to their blog for 30 days without interruption with a link to the advertiser's web site that works.

Wikimetro apparently believes that local advertising is moving from newspapers to electronic sources. That is the central belief behind Google and I think they are both correct. Who will make the advertising money as and when that happens is still to be seen. Wikimetro is hoping to move quickly and become the advertiser of choice for local communities. Their wiki will supply (they hope) enough local information to make them useful to advertisers. Since wikis depend on a wide populace to produce content, content is no longer a cost item (like reporters are today). So this is a direct attack on newspapers. If you read the Mobile Press Register you will know that it is getting smaller and smaller. The advertising is way down. Some of this is because of the economy. Much of it is because they are losing readers to electronic media. They have responded by trying to establish an electronic"version" of newspapers in Alabama (AL.com) but no one really knows how the commercial advertising market will evolve. Wikimetro.org is an experiment to find the future to local commercial advertising.

I have no objection to your participating in this effort, but not from your class blog. Start another blog for that purpose if you wish. Google also has a plan to pay you for ads on your blog. Explore that as well if you are interested. You might even make some money.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Are You Doing Your Blogs On Time?

As I explained in class, in the past I have not been as insistent that students not get behind in their blog posts as I am being this semester. You are adults and it should not be necessary for me to be so pushy, but it seems that some students need to be told to "run some extra laps." So how am I doing in my new approach? Here are the statistics at the end of the time for the International and Domestic blog posts:
Number of Students With Incomplete or Missing Posts
Every post is missing or incomplete - 1 student in TT9
Missing post on ALEX - 1 student in M6
Missing post on ACCESS - 1 student in M6 and 2 students in T9 TOTAL 3
Missing post on Shift Happens - 1 in M6 (actually had a post but it appears to me that the student never watched the video), 2 students in TT9 and 1 student in TT 11 TOTAL 4
Missing 1 or more 2 posts on Domestic School Blogs - 1 in M6, 3 in TT 9, 4 in TT 11 and 1 in TT 2 TOTAL 9
Missing 1 or more International Blog posts - 3 in M6, 7 in TT 9, 4 in TT 11 and 2 in TT 2 TOTAL 16 If you had trouble in finding international classrooms using blogs, see the suggestions in a previous post on this blog.

In addition, 2 blogs have far too many spelling and grammatical errors.

Conclusions: TT 2 is doing better that the other classes but TT 11 is not far behind. Keep up with your posts! Check the spelling (easy to do). Correct your grammar. The whole world is watching!

And congratulations to many of you with excellent blog posts and to those of you who are ahead in your posts. Read what your fellow students are saying. Are you doing as well (or better) than they are?

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

More Project 6 Links

I have put a link to Classroom 2.0 in the Syllabus, Handouts and Links area on the right. Classroom 2.0 describes itself as the social network for those interested in ... collaborative technologies in education."

Don't Get Behind in Posts to Your Blog!

Having trouble finding international blogs? Jonas Cockson in M6 recommends a web site called Supporting Blogs. It is also listed in the Syllabus, Handouts and Links Section on the right as Blogs and Wikis. Look for the link List of Bloggers on the Supporting Blogs site.

Thank you Jonas!

Monday, February 2, 2009

New Requirement - But It Will Help With Project 6

Read the comment of Mr. Chamberlain in the previous post.
His suggestion is an excellent one. So...
1. Go to each of the four blogs you have written about for last week (2 domestic, 2 international).
2. If you can email the teacher. If not, add a comment to the most recent post.
3. In your email briefly tell the teacher why you visited the site, the URL for the EDM310 Class blog, the URL for your class blog, your email address. Also make any comments about the blog that you wish to make.
4. AND ask if would be possible to enter into a conversation with the teacher, other teachers at the school, or students about technology and how it can and should be used to further good educational practices. This may provide you with an excellent resource person for Project 6.

As Mr. C says in his comment, this "will also allow [your students]to meet people that may become a part of their personal learning network (PLN)....[I]n my opinion the most important lesson you can teach your students is that the internet is full of wonderful educators that would love to help ... with any education or technology issues."

A Small World!

Mr. Wm Chamberlain of Noel, MO posted this comment to a post (only a picture) that I am about to remove from the blog.

"I found your class by backtracking a comment by Jessica White, a student in your class. I want to brag to you about her because she wrote me such a nice comment.

Please encourage your students to visit other teachers' blogs and to write comments on them. Not only will this drive traffic to their blogs, it will also allow them to meet people that may become a part of their personal learning network (PLN). Honestly, in my opinion the most important lesson you can teach your students is that the internet is full of wonderful educators that would love to help your students with any education or technology issues.

Mr. C
Wm Chamberlain
5th Grade Teacher
Noel Elementary School
Noel, Missouri"

His class blog is called Mr. C's Class Blog. Not only did Jessica locate it, so did Keith Grace who is in the M6 Class and several other students.

Thanks to Jessica for leaving a comment on Mr. C's blog and to Mr. C for tracing her down and leaving me a comment on the Class Blog. He also left a nice comment on Jessica's blog.

Take a look at his blog. Note the many ways he can be contacted. Be on the lookout for similar contact methods provided by other bloggers. How many can you add to your blog?